Walden BACC

Tess awoke to the opaque darkness of her coffin, and the last threads of the dream unraveled.

There was a knock on the door. Tess tried to hold on to the dream a moment longer, but she might as well have been trying to grasp water between her fingers.

It slipped away, no matter how hard she tried.

The joy and hope of that impossible reunion with Hayden faded along with it, replaced by the unbearable pain of her loss.

A bitter smile crossed Tess's lips: of course, none of the events from the dream could've been possible: there was only a very brief window between life and death when a mortal could become immortal - and Hayden had been dead for over thirty minutes before they stopped trying to resuscitate her. By then, it had already been too late.

Nor would her wife have been in any state to have a tender reunion right after rising as a newborn vampire - a terrifying, agonizing process that warped her body into that of an undead, bloodthirsty predator. After the pain, came the hunger - mindless and all-consuming.

Tess could not, in good conscience, have condemned Hayden to that. Even if the opportunity had been there.

And yet...it had been such a lovely dream.

"Tess? I just changed Annabel, would you like to feed her?"

"...Tess?"

"Could you do it, please, Vernoraxia? I...can't. I just can't. Not right now."

"All right. No problem."

"Thank you."

"She still doesn't want to come out of her room?"

"Nope. I'm starting to get really worried, El. It's like she's...shutting down, or something."

"She's grieving."

"I know, but this baby needs her mother."

"How is she? The baby, I mean?"

"Surprisingly normal, considering. Although it's early days yet, and we still don't know why Hayden died."

"I'm afraid to leave them alone..."

"You don't think she'd...do something, do you?"

"No...I mean...No. I don't think so, not on purpose. But I can tell she's uncomfortable around Annabel, and I don't know if she's been, um, feeding regularly..."

"I wish I could help more, but I have to commute from Mistvale, plus my hands are full at home and at work..."

"I guess...Mary and I will just have to try to be here as much as possible, maybe ask Evelyn for help too. Someone should be around at all times."

"You know that's not a long-term solution."

"Yeah, I do. Right now though, I don't have a long-term solution. We're functioning on a day-to-day basis."

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Sorry for the bait and switch! :P It was @esotheria-sims who gave me the idea by wondering whether Tess could save Hayden by turning her. Well, she couldn't, but I couldn't resist doing a "what-if" dream scenario.