It was night, but the sky was littered with stars.  Beneath them was the lake where they first met.  Alyssa's smile captured Gabriel's gaze, and he, too, smiled.  The feeling he felt could only be described as a bubblnig sensation in his heart; it was neither hot nor cold, neither hard nor soft.  It was just right.  It was perfect.  He closed his wings around her, and they shared the kiss he could now only dream of.

And that was when his dream had been penetrated by something foul.  In his bed, Gabriel felt discomfort.  In his dream, he opened his mouth to descrine his feelings in those three words, but the sound would not come.  And then, he felt Alyssa being pulled away.  Terror overcame both of them, but the sound of her screams and his shouts did not come.  The dream was silent.  And then bloodied hands arrested Alyssa from Gabriel's grasp, and they pulled her down into the lake below.  Gabriel tried to follow, only to find  a thick layer of ice blocking his path.  He hit it with a hard thud, and watched with terror in his eyes as she was dragged deeper down.

He tried to break the ice, but he could not do it.  And then a sound came; the only sound to exist in the dream world.  It was the beat of a heart, getting slower, and slower, and slower still...

His ultimate nightmare had come; the nightmare where he could not save his wife from the clutches of death.