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“Well, I’m here so you must have. I can’t just join anyone’s dreams, Little Viper.”
Screaming from outside pulled my attention away from the man. I knew instinctively that it was Sybil. I hurried out of the building to find her. She was standing on the narrow path when I finally found her. Her back was turned toward me as she watched the town burn to the ground. King’s Guards were throwing torches at every structure.
Except these guardsmen weren’t in Crimson Kingdom colors. They were dressed in all black. All of the guards were facing away from me so I couldn’t tell if they were familiar.
“Sybil!” I ran towards her, but my feet slid across the dirt under my feet when I stopped quickly. When she turned to me, she had a wound that was too deep on her chest for her to be up walking around or breathing. The blood had dripped all the way from her wound down her purple dress. It had bled so much there was a puddle on the ground below her.
Time slowed down as I watched her blood drip slowly. The noise filled the silence around us, echoing in my mind.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
“Sybil…” I paused. Her eyes were vacant like she wasn’t really here anymore. The vibrant blue had been replaced by a cloudy white. “What’s going on?”
“The end is almost near, Thea, and there is nothing you or anyone can do to stop it.” Her face contorted into a freakish smile before vanishing into nothing after her message was delivered.
“Little Viper!” His voice boomed so loudly behind me that I didn’t have time to wonder where she disappeared to. Before I could respond to him, though, a guardsman stabbed me through my heart with a hissing growl of disgust.
?????
The stabbing jolted me awake. Sweat covered me and soaked my bed. What in the hell was wrong with me? My dreams had never been anything but the wooden door and getting it open.
I stilled my breathing and waited for Sybil to clank around in the kitchen. There was nothing but silence. Fearing the worst, I jumped out of bed and I raced to find her. My legs were moving me quickly through my door and into the shared living space.
“Good morning,” Sybil said in greeting as she sat quietly by the fresh loaf bread, she must have made this morning. “You slept longer than normal.” Her white eyebrow lifted in suspicion when she noticed how sweaty I was. The tightness in my chest disappeared when I met her vibrant blue eyes, and not the milky white ones from my nightmare.
“I guess I was tired.” I waited for her face to contort into the hideous smile from my nightmare, but Sybil’s face remained its normal appearance.
Was I still dreaming? My eyes glanced at the darkened hallway behind me, but I didn’t see the man anywhere.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a monster.” Her worried eyes followed mine into the hallway where nothing stood. The man wasn’t here which meant this was real.
This wasn't a dream.
“Do you know much about dream stalkers?” I asked. Her eyes shifted to mine quickly and intently. Sybil’s whole demeanor shifted, and I couldn’t quite place where her anxiety arose from.
“Dream stalkers can’t join our dream while we're locked in this prison, so if you have one, I would be cautious.” Her typical friendly tone was gone and replaced with irritation.
“Well, we aren’t supposed to leave the boundary either, but I can. He says he’s a friend.” She scoffed and stood. Sybil had never been anything less than civil or content. She was clearly upset.
“Why would you invite a dream stalker into your dream? It’s completely reckless, Thea, especially given where we live and who we are.”
“That’s the thing, though. I didn’t invite him into any of my dreams. He just kind of appeared one night. Normally my dream repeats, but last night something changed, and when it did, he followed me into the next dream, regardless of whether I asked him to or not.”
“Then that is not a dream stalker,” she said. I didn’t know how to process this news. Was this man a serious threat to me or a figment of my imagination?
“What is it?” Fear coiled in my stomach.
She shrugged and turned away from me, effectively ending the conversation.
Sybil was lying to me. What was she hiding from me and who the hell was the guy in my dream if not a dream stalker?
"Tell me what you know, Sybil," I demanded with irritation that she wasn’t being forthcoming with information.
"I don't know anything, Thea. The man is probably just a figment of your imagination because you're lonely."
I didn’t push the subject any further. If she wanted to withhold information from me then I would not share information with her. This was exactly why I didn’t trust others.
“The twins will be by in a little bit to eat some food,” Sybil said with her back towards me. She was tense, but I wasn’t sure what had upset her so much. Her voice held an icy edge to it that was not something I had experienced from her before unless it was her disapproving of my violence and anger.
