Scarlett’s heart broke as she continued shouting for her father. The nightmare that he’d been fighting off rushed in and covered Roger from her view. It wrapped its jaw around him and a blinding rage filled Scarlett. Not caring who saw, she threw an onslaught of power at the nightmare until it exploded before her eyes.
Lowering herself before her father, Scarlett dropped to her knees and hesitantly placed her hands on his chest. Tears glistened her eyes as her chest caved.
“No. Please no.” Scarlett harshly bit her lip and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Daddy, please come back.”
She stared at his pale still face and hoped he would move. ‘Please, don’t leave me.’
The field around Scarlett paused at her cries. The nightmare’s laid eyes on her father on the ground and let out shouts of their own before retreating to the Dark Realm. Scarlett rocked herself by her father’s mangled body and cradled him to her chest. Something clawed and tore at her heart, making a hole. It chilled, burned, and numbed her all at once.
Hands placed themselves on Scarlett’s shoulders and attempted to separate her from her father. She violently twisted and blasted those who tried as she clung onto her bloodied father. The fight stopped and the Dreamer’s surrounded Scarlett. Her moans of pain and sorrow filled all of their ears as they bowed their heads in mourning.
Roger Blackdall was truly… gone.
Twenty-Three
The king weaved his power between his fingers as he oversaw the nightmare’s returning from the battle.
Everything was going according to plan and his blood thrummed with joy. All of the pawns in his masterplan were blindly positioning themselves. They’re wrapped around his fingers, much like the tendril, he’s manipulating. Aside from the slight hiccup from one of his own, everything was intact.
His father would be proud.
He smirked and walked back inside the grand hall. Taking his place on the muck dripping thrown, his tendrils flared as he sat and surrounded him like overgrown vines.
The grand hall was roofless and the never-ending darkness of the Dark Realm provided all they needed. They could perfectly see as if it were day. The columns rose high and lined the sides of the room while black marble covered the floor.
The king’s council stood in a half-circle in front of his throne. They kept their heads bowed, each a gruesome sight. Few Nightmares were Highs while a majority were Lows. The Highs, the most sophisticated and conscious nightmares, were the King’s council. They did what he couldn’t and communicated with the nightmares for him. He didn’t have what his father had… yet.
He’d get it soon enough but in the meantime, his Highs would have to be his translators.
“Tell me.” He waved his hand for one of them to begin the report.
“Roger Blackdall has fallen, my King. And the rest have been successfully recruited.” Its gruesome voice reached the King’s ears and resulted in a pleasant hum.
“That… That is what I love to hear. It’s all going as it should?”
“Yes, it is, my love.” A soft, enticing voice filled the hall.
The king turned his head to find the love of his life striding her way towards him. Her armor shifted from that of a Dreamers to the attire of their people. Her red dress showed her slim waist with side holes and large slits on the legs to let the fabric rest between her legs as she walked. The top was low and fell off her slender shoulders. They showcased the bruises around her neck and his eyes filled with hunger at the sight of her.
He waved his hand and the nightmares scurried out of the room, grateful to be spared of being an audience. “Come to me.”
She’d stopped at the foot of his throne and reached for his outstretched hand. He guided her onto his lap and she sat him between her legs.
He pulled her close and ran his nose along the edge of her throat to under her ear and down her neck.
“What brings you here?”
She sighed in pleasure as she sunk into his arms. “It’s all set and the traps have been laid. We’ll be good to move soon.”
“Any hiccups this time?”
He felt her stiffen in his lap and he paused his trailing of her shoulders. “No, my love. I did everything as you’ve planned.”
She relaxed as he lazily ran a finger across her collar bone and lightly lifted her head. “Good, good, we wouldn’t want any more repeats, now would we?”
As he spoke, he willed his tendrils to trail up her spine and softly wrap around her throat. Perfectly filling the puzzle of her bruises. As much as it pained him to hurt her, his father taught that no mistakes should go unpunished no matter its size. He needed her to remember so she wouldn’t make the mistake again.
His love’s chest rose as she felt the touch of the tendril. She closed her eyes and put her palm on his cheek. “I’m sorry for my mistake, my King. It won’t happen again.”
He watched the way her lips moved as she spoke and heat pooled withing as desire radiated between them.
"There is now need for you to go back. Your work there is done."
She hummed and arched her back as he hurriedly covered her lips with his. She was his only and they would stay that way.
His greatest possession.
The king would celebrate the first milestone in his plan for the next few days with his love.
He’d let the Dreamers have their grieving moment. This one little mercy.
For it would be their last… because the next time he struck, there will be no one left to grieve.
Twenty-Four
Deaths in Ever Realm were final.
A Dreamer's death on Earth gave the mind a chance to continue in Ever Realm. However, if the window’s missed and the Dreamer's mind doesn’t make it through the gate on time, their death is also final.
Back on Earth, Roger’s death happened in his sleep from holding his breath and a seizure. The funeral was brutal.
Scarlett knew the truth of how her father passed and it hollowed her from the inside out as it replayed over and over again at the forefront of her mind. Their last conversation pained her as she wished it’d gone differently.
‘If only I’d caught sight of him earlier.’
‘If only I’d been faster. Stronger. Bigger.’
‘I would’ve been able to save him.’
‘But I wasn’t.’
‘I failed him.’
∞
He died protecting Ever Realm.
Cher and Jenna hadn’t been on the field since they were doing control at one of Ever Realm’s Headquarters. Their security systems had gone haywire and the cages that held the dangerously high-level Nightmares unlocked. The Dreamers on duty hadn’t stood a chance. The locked up ones managed to escape with the retreating horde. Every single one of them.
When Scarlett gathered herself with her mother and sister, they’d already been notified. Her mother’s cries were worse than her own and she’d heard them from afar. Jenna fled the moment she heard of his death. Scarlett understood her sister mourned in her own way. Jenna would lock herself up and push everyone away. Even Chad couldn’t reach her and felt the distance growing between them.
All of Ever Realm’s headquarters were abandoned as everyone grouped in one. The Ever Realm Center beside the Youth Dreamers fit all the Dreamers left. They lost many, old and young, leaving the remaining in shambles. A darkness fell over the Realm at the death of one of their leaders and all the lost loved ones. Some of the stars disappeared with their deaths.