Chapter 121: Just A Dream

  Maeve was a child again. She had gone home after spending the day with Nora in the training tracks. Maeve had arrived with a ravenous hunger that would only be sated by strawberry frosted cupcakes. Her mother was in the kitchen baking a fresh batch.

  Alice Veres smiled as her daughter tackled her legs. “You're getting mud all over the floor.”

Maeve buried her small face in Alice’s apron before looking up with a wide grin, “Hi, mommy!”

  Alice stroked her cheek, “Hello to you too. How was your day?”

  “It was awesome! Nora and I rode with centaurs all day. They were all so beautiful and kind and fast. I wanna be like them when I grow up.”

  Alice kneeled and met her daughter face-to-face, “And someday you will be, I promise.”

Maeve giggled, “Then we can go riding together!”

  Alice’s smile fell, “Yes… When mommy is feeling better we’ll go out riding together, just you and me, buttercup.”

Maeve rested her head into the crook of Alice’s neck and whispered into her ear, “Promise?”

  “Promise.” Alice abruptly picked up her daughter and spun her around.

Maeve laughed in delight.

  The room’s warmth was suddenly swept away by a frigid cold. The yellow lit room was dyed an icy blue. The kitchen staff all suddenly disappeared, leaving Maeve and Alice alone with him. Lord Mora stood in the doorway, his shoulders heaving from rage.

  “Maeve, what did I tell you about spending time with that little bitch?” He stomped over.

Alice placed her daughter down and stepped in front of her. “Maeve was just having fun. There was no harm in it.”

  “Don’t make excuses for her,” he spat.

Maeve trembled behind Alice. She did not dare poke her head out to meet her father’s angry gaze.

  “She’s a child,” Alice raised her arms and blocked her husband’s path.

“Move out of the way, woman!” Lord Mora yelled.

  He slapped Alice across the face sending her careening to the floor.

“Mommy!” Maeve screamed.

    She ran towards Alice, but her father stepped in between.

“You are not going anywhere,” he sneered.

  He reached out with a large gloved hand. Maeve’s face paled in fright. She wasn’t going to be able to escape, he was going to hurt her again.

  Maeve closed her eyes tight and flinched. “This is a dream, this a dream. It’s all just a dream.”

  Lord Mora’s hand wrapped around her neck. She gulped in a breath of air before he got a chance to squeeze her windpipe shut. But, the choking grip never came. She cracked an eye open hesitantly. Her father’s face was still, his gaze unmoving. 

  Maeve glanced at her mother. Alice was on the ground, her body was frozen, practically lifeless, not even a single strand of her hair moved. 

  What was going on? This was not how her dreams were supposed to be. Her father had yet to beat her into a bloody mess. Instead, both her parents were still, as if time had frozen all around her. 

  Maeve stepped away from her father and looked around. The sunlight did not seep through the window. When had it become night? Gone were the candlelight and stove fires. Shadows reached all across the room, bathing the kitchen in a dreary darkness. 

  “You are right. This is just a dream, a nightmare really. Although, one you seem to experience over and over. A prison of your own unconscious design. How splendidly ironic.”

  Maeve slowly turned around. In a corner of the kitchen, where not a single strand of light pierced, came a smooth silk voice.

  “W-who are you?” Maeve squeaked.

“I am but a mere passerby in your nightmarish dungeon.”

  “Are you here to kill my father?”

  “No. That job is for another, whom I believe your mind has yet to conjure in this… dream. That is what you called it, yes? A dream? Not much of a dream if you ask me.”

  “Why is my father not moving?”

“You mean why is he not attacking you? Beating you? Maiming you? Trying to kill you?”

  “Yes…” Maeve swallowed.

“That little bit was me. Of course, I can let this little world of yours resume, if you’d like. Just say the word.”

  “No! I-I mean. Please, no. I don’t know what’s going on anymore. You’re different from what I normally dream... But, that’s not a bad thing. I’m tired of being hurt. I’m tired of being in pain. I just want this all to end.”

  “Oh, well, why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“What do you mean?” She sniffed.

  “This place, this nightmare of yours, is a prison cell and you are its creator, warden, and prisoner. You are tied to this place as are all the creatures your mind has created to torment you. You have made a prison without a key and you have locked yourself inside. You will never escape this place… not alone.”

  “But you can?”

  “Sweet child, I need no keys. There is no lock I cannot break, no dungeon I cannot find, no cell that can hold me. So really, the only question, the only one that truly matters, is if you wish for this nightmare to end? A new life beyond this place.”

  A faint familiar echo swept past the window.

“You can help me? You can stop my nightmares?” Maeve took a step closer towards the voice.

  “I can, for a price.”

“What is it?” Maeve took another step closer.

  “Patience, child. I will name a price, in due time.”

Maeve paused, “But, can you help me now?”

  The echo sounded louder now, but she could still not make out the noise. The window rattled. Maeve glanced outside, but there was nothing. The hair on the back of her neck stood taut. She slowly looked back at her visitor. She could not see into the darkness, but she felt as if the speaker on the other end was smiling. 

  “Of course, I can free you from this nightmare. All you have to do is say yes. Do we have a deal?” A long winding hand stretched out of the dark corner, it was wrapped in inky shadows, almost as if it was darkness itself.

  Maeve reached out her hand, “...Ye-”

  The window shattered with a brilliant screech. A large silver owl dove through the broken glass in a blast of fresh air. It flew right at Maeve and sank its claws into her shoulders.

  Maeve screamed in agony as the sharp claws drew blood. 

  “This does not concern you, trespasser.” The shadowy hand shot forward and grabbed Maeve by the hem of her shirt. The hand dragged her towards the dark corner.

  The owl hooted in anger and bit at the arm with a relentless rage. The hand released Maeve and retreated back into the darkness.

  The voice cackled, “Who do you think you are?” Two shadowy arms reached out.

  Maeve shrieked in fear and pain. The owl’s eyes flared bright, it opened its wings to their full magnificent size. The silver feathers shivered with excitement and flung forward. The owl beat its wings with a wave of sheer power, blasting itself backward, dragging Maeve with it.

  The owl tucked its wings in a barrel and shot out through the window, taking Maeve up into the night sky. Her vision blurred with blood and tears, the world grew small.

~~~

  Maeve screamed and flailed around her bed in a hysteric fit. Her body was covered in sweat and her blankets were strewn about the floor. The sun’s first rays were barely peeking through the windows. She swallowed and gasped for breath, her eyes twitched and glanced all around her room.

  It was just a dream, only a dream, she repeated in her mind over and over.

A knock rang on her bedroom door.

  “Young Mistress, are you alright?” One of her maids asked from behind the door.

Maeve cleared her throat. 

  “I-I’m fine. Don’t come in,” she managed to croak out in a raspy voice.

“...If you say so, Young Mistress. Please, let us know if you are in need of anything.”

  “Will do.” 

  Maeve let out a sigh when the maid’s footsteps faded away. Eventually, she managed to roll her way out of bed and dragged her feet towards the mirror. 

  Her eyes widened in terror, “No.”

~~~

  “Hello, Maeve, it’s good to see you,” Doctor Lucy smiled.

“Same,” Maeve plopped down on a chair across from her.

  “As much as I love our talks, I am a tad curious.”

“About what?” Maeve sighed.

  “Well, for starters, you hate our talks and much prefer I simply give you some medication and potions. The amount I gave you last time should not have run out yet and seeing as our next appointment isn’t until Monday, I am wondering what happened to make you visit my office this early in the morning.”

  Maeve clasped her hands together tightly. “I have been having these dreams.” 

“Different from your previous nightmares?”

  She shook her head, “Yes and no.”

Lucy put down her pen, “I’m going to need more than that.”

  Maeve groaned, “The dreams were the same for the most part. I’m a little kid again and I’m in my old family home. Everything’s going well for one reason or another, until my father shows up and… And...”

   “He hurts you,” Lucy said softly.

“Yes,” she swallowed. “But, that’s not what’s important.”

  “Maeve, I’ve told you before. Ignoring your past will not help you overcome your current problems.”

  “I’m not trying to ignore the past, dammit!” She sighed, “Look, do you remember I told you about my weird dream right before I left the city?”

  “You mean the one in which you died?” Lucy skimmed through her notes, “To that large snake and panther?”

“Yes, exactly! Except it wasn’t actually a snake and panther.”

  “Are you saying you were lying?” Lucy raised an eyebrow.

“No, not at all. I told you exactly what I dreamed. The only thing is it isn’t what actually happened.”

  “You lost me, Maeve.”

  She rubbed her temple, “Look, I know this will sound crazy, I feel like I might be going crazy, but I’m not. So please, just please, hear me out... When I went to Mellow Bloom a few weeks back, they were holding this special hunting competition, The Seregulus Hunt. Have you ever heard of seregulusi before?”

  “I’ve read about them in scholarly journals at the mage academy,” Lucy nodded.

“Then you know they look like a cross between a giant snake and a big cat.”

  “Yes?”

“Well, the one I found or more accurately found me, had black fur and green eyes. Just like the panther in my dream.”

  “Wow, I’m glad you managed to make it out alright. Sereguli can be incredibly dangerous,” Lucy smiled.

“I almost didn’t. The seregulus attacked me, tried eating me, like in my dream.”

  “An odd coincidence and a terrifying experience I’m sure.”

“Ugh. You don’t get it. It wasn’t just like my dream, it was my dream. Everything about it was the same.”

  “Were you suddenly turned into a little girl like in your dreams?”

  Maeve licked her lips, “No, but I was chased down by a herd of root bison like my dream. My centaur died in the stampede. I watched her get trampled to death, just like how I saw my family get trampled in my dream. Everything odd that happened in that specific dream, somehow came true in a weird way.”

  “Except the part that you died.”

“Of course not that part,” she grumbled.

  “And the dragon?”

“No dragon...”

  Lucy grabbed her hand, “Maeve, I think you experienced a terrifying event and your mind is trying to cope with it in whatever way it can. In this case, you believe you somehow saw what was going to happen and you failed to prevent it anyway.”

  “No, you don’t get it!” Maeve pulled her hand away.

  “You have to stop blaming yourself for every bad thing that’s happened to you. Believe it or not, you are not the architect of all your misfortune.”

  “But, I am my own warden and prisoner,” she whispered.

“What?” Lucy frowned.

  “Look, I know what I saw in my dream and what I saw out on that hill. I’m telling you it was the same.”

  Lucy leaned back, “Okay, let’s suppose that you are correct. That what you saw in your dream, the root-bison, the panther, the snake, the owl, all of it, was all real, then wh-”

  “The owl,” Maeve shot to her feet. 

  She had forgotten. That’s why the sound was so familiar. The owl had been there the last time something strange had occurred in her dream.

  “What happened? Did you actually see an owl?” Lucy asked.

“No, not in real life,” she shook her head.

  “I guessed as much. Owls are native to the Rupture Mountains and even then they are incredibly rare. Most people have only ever seen them in drawings.”

  “But, I saw that owl last night in my dream… What does it mean?” Maeve paced around the room.

“Some part of your mind trying to make sense of the world around you?”

  “Please, doc, work with me. Just this once, try to see things as I do,” Maeve pleaded.

  Lucy sighed, “Well, let’s see. Owls are very rare and almost no one ever sees them. They are also nocturnal. Hm, what else?”

  “The silver owl in my dreams only ever appeared in the dark,” Maeve nodded.

“Ah, I just remembered.”

  “What?”

  “I once read an old book about ancient traditions and rituals, that kind of stuff. The book mentioned something about owls being some sort of omen.”

  “What sort of omen?”

  Lucy placed a finger to her chin and narrowed her eyes, “Hmm, I’m trying to remember. Was it a good harvest? No, that’s not right. Danger? No, not that either.”

  “Please, try harder,” Maeve implored.

  Lucy snapped her fingers, “I remember now. Owls are an omen of death… How often have you seen owls in your dreams?”

  Maeve sat back down in her chair. “Death?” She muttered.

“Maeve.”

  “Hm? Oh, yeah. I’ve seen the owl twice now, both times in the dreams that were different from the usual.”

“Was it the same owl?”

  “I think so?”

Lucy tapped her fingers on her lap, “Do you feel like you are dying by any chance? Are you having suicidal thoughts?”

  Maeve bit her lip, “No... But, there is something that scares me more than death.”

“What is it?”

  Maeve unbuttoned her blouse and pulled it down below her shoulders.

“What happened?” Lucy gasped.

  Maeve’s shoulders were covered in bloody bandages.

  “Last night I dreamed that the owl dug its claws into my shoulders and when I woke up it was like this.” She removed the bandages. Her shoulders were covered in deep bloody gashes.

  “Oh, Maeve, you did this while you slept,” Lucy’s eyes welled with tears.

  “Do these look like scratch marks? Last time I checked vampires don’t have claws, let alone talons half a foot long,” Maeve frowned.

  Lucy leaned forward and took a closer look. Maeve was right, the wounds were made by an animal, that much was for sure. Was the girl lying about how she got them? Had she let herself be maimed by a monster? No, it wasn’t like Maeve to do such a thing. Was this the work of the seregulus that had attacked her? No, the wounds were too fresh.

  “What the…” Lucy furrowed her brow.

“What is happening to me? I’m scared,” Maeve trembled.

  “I’m not sure... But, we are going to get to the bottom of this. I am not going to let you go through this on your own, I promise,” Lucy gripped her hands tightly.

  Maeve sighed in relief, “Thank you.”