章 20: Dreams

Duke and Allan were having dinner without Evelyn.

After the accident, Evelyn never went to have her food in the dining hall.

They thought that Evelyn was too frail because of her injury and that she can't accompany them to supper, but against their assumptions, Evelyn was healed and are already doing training with her mentors.

Still, she didn't come and eat with them, she's always in her room, isolating herself with everyone.

The Duke began to wonder and asked Allan about her sister.

"Allan...?"

"....."

The young man only looked at his father to let him continue his talk.

"Your sister..."

The Duke wasn't finished speaking when Allan put down her cutlery to focus his attention on his father.

"What about Evelyn?"

"After that incident, did you happen to see her changes?"

"Well, Father... didn't the doctor said that she lost her memories? Maybe that's why she acts like that."

"But changing no... it's like her whole personality differs from the way she is."

Allan, begin to pick up the fork and knife to finish off the rest of the meat on his plate.

"Father, how would I know about that? That bi-... I mean *cough* we never talk."

"And why is that?" The Duke asks with a raised brow.

"We never had that kind of relationship father. Maybe, because she's too girly and she's busy dressing up and bullying other people and maybe that's why we don't talk much."

-Bang!

"Allan...!" The Duke slam the wooden dining table.

"No matter what your sister did, she's still your sister!" The Dukes' voice was ringing inside the quiet room.

"But Father, as an Emsworth, I won't tolerate her preposterous acts that would sully our honor. I've been lenient with her, and only give her words of advice." Allan retorted to the Duke.

The maids that lined up inside the dining hall was quiet and tried their best to be one with the walls.

It's not new to them to see the Father and Son, exchanged heated words and the center of it all is the only Lady of the Emsworth household -- Lady Evelyn.

After the mishap of the youngest member, all the maids were in a panic. It's because when the incident happened, no one knew where their young miss was until the butler asks them to find the Lady.

They were punished for that accident, and it was also the start of them gossiping about the Lady's changes. It also started to blow up when the next-in-line heir humiliates her in front of the Kingdom's Knights.

Usually, she would throw tantrums right away with her maids if she felt slightly shame, that's also the reason why Sheila was the only maid left in her quarters.

It made them wonder how and why it happened, the Lady was only looking at them indifferently unlike the times with she shows a lot of her emotions to express her dissatisfaction.

That was also the center of inquiry in the mansion, what happened to their Lady?

***

The moon shines so brightly that the clouds give ways for it to bestow light upon the whole manor, the moonlight penetrated the glass window and gave a silhouette.

Evelyn's body was laying on the large bed, she looks tired, her eye bags are darker than the shadows made by the moonlit.

She tosses and turns around the mattress while her sweat-damp the soft sheets.

She screamed with all her might, panting, and looking frightened. Evelyn wakes up in her nightmare.

She was having trouble sleeping these past few days. Her little body can't keep up with all the exerted activities and her mental fatigue affected her small frame.

Every night, after their small excursion in the Shield Forest, to hunt for her first prey, the nightmares began.

"Haa... haa..." Evelyn was still gasping.

'This is too much…' Evelyn grip her whole body, who's trembling from the dream that she had.

*thump… *thump

Her heartbeat can be heard from her thumping chest. It was too loud that both her breath and the sound of her heart was in unison and can't differentiate the other.

She remembers her dream, like a play in a theater stage. She was in a third-person perspective but watching it play outright send shivers to her deep cores.

She saw a woman was laying her head down in a tall wooden frame with a weighted angle blade that was too rusty and looked tetanus.

Evelyn saw an impoverished body that looked too pitiful, her clothes were dirty dyed with brown like it was damp in mud, her black hair that has a tint of silver-blue at the end of every strand was unkempt. And the soulless eyes were like looking at her with regret.

The people were cheering and applauding saying that the witch will be gone, and prosperity will be back again. A few faces that were familiar with Evelyn were looking at the woman's' face indignantly.

Then a voice echoed the whole place with an order that will bring an end to the woman whose body was placed in the wooden frame.

-Thud!

The applauding sound and thundering cheer become a quiet eerie place and all eyes were on the center stage. Blood was spilled all over the place, the woman's head that was attached to its body was now rolled like some dice in a game board.

A certain voice said the words that even I can't believe…

"Evelyn is now dead! The witch that brings catastrophe to our Kingdom of Levingstone has already been punished by the heavens."

The acclamations started again, the townspeople were clapping and whistling like it was a hero's arrival.

That was how happy they are.

I step back without realizing it. My eyes were bulging out with the unexpected scene that I just witnessed!

I raised my shaking right hand to reach my gaping mouth that was stretched to an extent.

"Don't tell me... th- that's me?! Ha..." A dry laugh escaped my mouth.

I look down and saw a puddle with my reflection on it. It was still me, the thirteen-year-old Evelyn, but the woman I saw was the old version of me.

"This is crazy...!"

I looked at the stage again and my eyes just suddenly met the dead sunset eyes that were too similar to mine. I plopped down in the dirty ground; the metallic smell was blending in the air.

"That's... that's really me... ahhh!" I screamed with all my might.

And I woke up. I felt relieved that it was a dream, but it was too vivid to just brush it off as an effect of exhaustion.

At first, I thought that this was just due to tiredness and because it was my first time killing a monster. But the last few days proved me wrong, my dreams are becoming more realistic as time passes by. Dreams that aren't related to monster, vague faces of people that I felt too familiar were now appearing one by one.

"I hate this…!" My trembling small hands were still pale and my whole body was out of energy.

"I really hate this…!"