Previously on Saving Grace: Grace discovers that her dreams were real.

“Paint?” How could painting possibly fix any of this? “I..I stopped painting a long time ago. I painted a float, sure, but I don’t know what you expect from me.”

Painting wasn’t going to make Piper better, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to get her out of whatever this was. Just when she thought Connor was starting to speak some sort of sense, he had returned back to being a mysterious jerk.

“It doesn’t matter what I expect from you,” he rolled his eyes at her, taking her away from the bridge, back towards the motorcycle. “Nor does it matter what I expect from you. All that matters is that you paint, Grace. Paint whatever comes to your mind, and we’ll figure it out from there.”

Paint — the thought brought her back to the day she had first met him, when he had been playing the piano, the rain against the glass casting eerie shadows over the room.

On that day, she had felt the urge to paint again stronger than ever before. She had felt the need to pick up a brush and fill a blank canvas with color, to make something new that only her mind could see, to leave her own imprint on the world, somehow. She caught him smiling at her, his head tilted to one side like a puppy watching its master.

“What are you so smug about?”

“Oh, nothing,” he patted her shoulder and tossed her a helmet, putting on his, successfully hiding his face from her for a moment when he turned his back to her. “We should head back and check up on your friend.”

Right, Piper. The poor girl was probably wondering where she was now; it must have been hours since she called out to Connor for help, even the sun was beginning to set in the sky.

Looking back at him, she put on the helmet, closing the distance between them just as he swung one leg over the bike, starting the ignition.

She paused for a moment, a strange thought entering her mind that she never would have even considered before today, before all of this.

“Can I drive?” She had no idea if she even had a license in the real world, but it didn’t matter here, right? If this were all in her head, it wouldn’t hurt to go out on a limb and have some fun. Who knew when she would have this chance again?

He didn’t seem surprised by her answer, scooting back and allowing her to swing her leg over the bike and sit down in front of him, his hands guiding hers to the handle bars, instructing her on how to drive the thing before they would set out back to the campus. The warmth of his chest against her back as he leaned forward to speak to her and his voice in her ear did not go unnoticed, her cheeks flushing when he moved his hands to her waist.

“You’re good to go, Sunshine,” he teased. Her face was warm and she resisted the urge to slap him, accidentally revving the engine before she shot forward onto the street. The wind in her face, she wondered if this was what birds felt like while flying.

“This is amazing!” She yelled just to hear her own voice, Connor chuckling against her neck.

“I know.”

It watched the happy couple ride off into the sunset like a scene plucked out of a chick flick. Waving one, gnarled hand over the water within the silver dish, the image vanished and the dark, robed figure loomed over its own reflection, snarling.

The boy was getting in the way, of course he was. He simply could not forget like his stupid brethren; no, instead he had to get in the way, cause trouble and try to fix things that did not need to be fixed.

He was making this all more difficult than it needed to be. But soon, yes, soon, he would be gone and the girl would be alone. The boy had made a mistake and that would be his own undoing.

“If it is a war you want,” the voice creaked like old wooden floorboards in an abandoned home, groaning under the weight of a trespasser. “It is war you will get.”