"How do I know this place?" She inquired, still looking around. "It seems so recognizable. Like I’ve been here before."

"You have." Raven answered. "Many times. We would come here often. This is where I first met you and knew I wanted you for myself." He looked around the smoke filled bar and the people inside. He took out his package of cigarettes, lighting one up quickly. "The place looks a lot different now, but the feeling inside it is still the same. We would meet here repeatedly for months before I changed you. This is the first night I’ve come back since you were taken."

Gabrielle remembered the first time she had saw Raven. She had come in with her friends one night after work and saw him alone in the corner. He looked moody and hard to approach, so she stayed at the bar, often looking over at Raven. Watching him in the darkness as if he were fading away into his own dark sanctuary. For weeks after work she had gone to the same bar, sat on the same stool and watched the table. Finally one night, he approached her and asked to buy her a drink. Every night after that they would meet at the same time, sit at the same table and drink the same thing. He was like a drug that consumed her. She needed more and more of him with every passing day. Something about him made her beg to be with him till every last breath she had. And she got her wish, for it was that last day he turned her into what she was. Turned her into the magnificent creature that Edge and Christian stole from him.

Raven dug his cigarette butt into the ashtray with his fingers, exhaling the last breath of smoke. "We don’t have much more time," he told her bringing her out of her daze. "Soon I’ll disappear."

Gabrielle couldn’t understand, or at least she didn’t want to. She wanted to stay there with Raven forever, and never have another worry again. But she could tell by the look on his face that he was telling the truth. "What?…" she stammered. "Where are you going? Why are you going to leave me again?"

Raven placed his hand on her chin, tilting it up to face him. "I’m not leaving you, I’ll always be where you are. But you have to find that out for yourself. And until you do, we cannot be together."

Gabrielle looked around again, grasping at any small sense of hope that was felt. Slowly the images of the people around her began to fade away. Gabrielle grew worried, clutching at Raven for answers. "What’s happening?" she pleaded. "What’s going on?"

"It’s time" Raven told her worriedly. "It’s time for you to make your choice. When you wake up you will remember everything and you’ll be in the same situation you were in before you came to see me. It will be up to you which road you choose to take, and who you decide to stay with. But know this… This is the last chance I have to come to you. If you choose to stay with them you will forget all about me and our time together, and all you will remember is what they want you to."

Raven gradually started walking away as Gabrielle tried feverishly to hang on to any sign of him, or their past. She didn’t want to forget anything that she had just learned. She wanted to remember it all and stay in the life that Raven had created for her.

She watched sadly as Ravens image finally faded completely away, feeling an emptiness begin to incinerate inside her.

Gabrielle closed her eyes, as she began to be engulfed in a cloud of thick gray smoke. She felt different, as if she were leaving her own body. She wished she had the answers. She wished she knew what was going to happen. But she didn’t, all she had was her memories Raven shared with her… that is, till she wakes up.