For one month the dreams kept coming. The voice, the shots, the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over.
Shazia Ramazan, 13, who was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot her friend Malala Yousufzai, returned home last week after a month in a hospital, where she had to relearn how to use her left arm and hand.
Memories of the Taliban bullets that ripped into her remain, but she is welcoming the future.
Taliban attack still haunts Malala's wounded friends
"For a long time it seemed fear was in my heart. I couldn't stop it," she said.
"But now I am not afraid," she added, self-consciously rubbing her left hand where a bullet pierced straight through just below the thumb.
Now Shazia and her friend Kainat Riaz, who was also shot, return to school for the first time since the Oct 8 attack when a Taliban gunman opened fire on Malala outside the Khushal School for Girls, wounding Shazia and Kainat in the frenzy of bullets.
The Taliban targeted Malala because of her outspoken and relentless objection to the group's regressive interpretation of Islam that keeps women at home and bars girls from school.
Malala is still undergoing treatment and unable to come back. But among her friends in her hometown of Mingora in the idyllic Swat Valley, she is a hero.
{{/usCountry}}Malala is still undergoing treatment and unable to come back. But among her friends in her hometown of Mingora in the idyllic Swat Valley, she is a hero.
{{/usCountry}}UK docs say Malala can make smooth recovery
"Malala was very brave and she was always friendly with everyone. We are proud of her," said the 16-year-old Kainat, wrapped in a large purple shawl and sitting on a traditional rope bed.