Page 8 (1/2)

Cli out of bed, she quietly ht Sonata" h her, the fa a frown onto her lips

Car his guitar A sliver of light filtered in fro his somber expression in the darkness She called his nas almost as if he hadn’t heard her She took a step toward hi, deep sigh "I had a drea over to hiers stilled, the , but Haven barely noticed She couldn’t focus on anything but the green eyes boring into her Once so alive with passion, she saw nothing but deep sadness uitar aside andfor her to join him She climbed into his lap and he wrapped his arhtood dream"

"What was it about?"

"You," he said quietly "You --so it in a museum and raved about how talented you were It was like you were the next fucking Picasso, tesoro"

She laughed "I don’t even kno to paint, Carmine"

"You could learn," he said "Would you want to?"

"Maybe, but I don’t kno good I’d be"

"Oh, you’d be good," he said confidently "You shouldn’t doubt yourself You can do anything you set your mind to"

"Except for play the piano," she said playfully "Or the guitar"

He chuckled "Yeah, for the sake of everyone’s ears, we ought to leave music to me, but the rest is all you You can probably do all of that, you know Draw, paint, sculpt shit into weird shapes and tell people it’s so like That takes talent"

She smiled "And you think I have that kind of talent?"

"Of course," he said "There’s gonna be no stopping you once you get started"

"Thank you," she whispered, a swell of eh her at his words "It means a lot that you believe inthe top of her head "You knoe never finished our conversation from the other day"

"Which one?"

"The one about your freedo closer to him "What else is there to say?"

"I wanna hear what it really means to you"

They spent the next hour sitting together in front of thein the dark library, digging into each other’s minds They didn’t talk about the torture they had endured or the hurt they still felt, instead focusing on the things thatto knohat kind of things she would do if she woke up tomorroith a clean slate What would she do, if someday, she could start over, brand new?

She talked of friends and a family, a house full of books and half a dozen pets The American Dream, complete with two-point-five kids and a freshly painted white picket fence, weekend barbecues with neighbors and summer vacations to Disneyland

It felt like everything else faded away that longa back seat as they considered an alternate future, one Haven had alanted but never believed she could have A future away fros

Freedom

"I just want people to see me," she said "I want to walk into a room and have them know I’m there It doesn’t matter where it is, really I’m just don’t want to be invisible any her war into his touch

"I see you, hubird," he whispered, a twinkle in his eyes

"I know you do"

"You wanna knohat else I see?"

"What?" she asked

He nodded toward the"Snow"

Haven glanced over, spotting the thick white flakes fluttering down from the sky Before she could comment, Carmine jumped up and yanked her to her feet "Cohed as he pulled her into the bedroo outside"