Dune stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at his girlfriend. She tossed her snow-white hair over her shoulder, laughing brightly.
"Dune, silly," she giggled, "I'm not possessed. Don't speak," she said quickly, holding up a hand to stop the words Dune had been about to utter. "Don't speak," once more, softly. "I need to tell you this..."
The brittle grin faded away, to be replaced by a wistful, gentle smile, an expression Dune knew well; it was one frequently worn by Daydream.
"I'm not possessed," she repeated, in a voice calmer, sweeter than her previous one. "I have merely... had my thoughts put in order. Rearranged, so that they don't clutter up my mind anymore."
Daydream paused, gazing off into the distance with a half-smile. There was a queer light in her blue-grey eyes, a light which both disturbed and intrigued Dune.
"I have seen the proper way of things," Daydream said slowly. "Life, and all that... it is clearer now. I feel so... free." With the final word, she turned a big smile, full of dazzlingly white teeth, onto Dune. He closed his eyes, flinching.
"Dune, my dearest love," Daydream murmured, stepping closer to the dark-haired young man, "let me help you put your thoughts in order. Just a little pruning, that's all it is - you trim back hedges, why not trim one's mind?"
She put her hand to his face, stroking his cheek with a long, elegant finger - Dune noted, opening his eyes, that her nails had grown into long, dangerous claws since she had gone away on this 'spiritual journey'.
"I don't like the sound of 'trimming my mind'," Dune growled, gently pushing her hand away from his face. Daydream made no move to return it, as though she hadn't noticed.
"But it's so much lighter!" she giggled - back to the brittle, sharp happiness. Dune sighed. "I love you, Daydream," he said firmly. "But I do not love this creature that you have become."
He shook his head, and turned to walk away, when a low growl from behind him froze him in his steps. It was the kind of growl that Early Man had learned to fear, the kind of growl that vibrated in one's bones - it shook Dune to realize that it came from his one-time lover.
"Day--" was as far as he got, turning back to face her, before the girl flew at him, grabbed his face in her long hands, and pulled him close to her.
"You are mine!" she hissed into his ear. Dune struggled to escape, but her grip was far stronger than it used to be...
"Let me go-argh!" he mumbled. Daydream lifted his face to her own, kissing him daintily on the lips. "You're mine," she repeated, this time calmer.
"I love you very much, Dune," she told him softly, lowering her mouth to his neck. She sank her sharp fangs into the flesh of his throat, and Dune gasped, blood running freely down onto his shoulder, staining his white t-shirt dark red.
Feeling a strange numbness taking hold of him, spreading out from the wound in his neck, Dune slipped down to the ground. Only Daydream's arms around him prevented him from injuring himself on the hard flagstones.
"I love you," she moaned, helping Dune into a more comfortable position on the ground. "I just want to help you, I want to free you, take you with me to the Light..."
Dune closed his eyes, exhaling in one shuddering, cold breath. Daydream leaned over him, and kissed him once more on the mouth, blood - his own, he knew vaguely - tainting his lips.
"We'll be together in the Light soon, my love," Daydream crooned, stroking Dune's midnight blue hair. "Soon, soon... so soon..."
Dune's thoughts faded into a blood-stained blur, swirled around into nothingness, white and red, blinding oblivion and starlit screams...