As he started to drag me away, I felt my body freeze. That night when Altan didn’t stick around to protect me, I realized I had no one. But then Kaye came here to bring me back.
I was shocked.
I didn’t care what compelled him to come here; his dedication to doing the right thing twisted my heart.
I should be doing the right thing too.
“My happiness is not in finding a happy ending,” I suddenly stopped and murmured, making Rune lower his head to watch my face. “My happy ending is to go back to the real world and punish those who have wronged me.”
With that, I suddenly landed a punch on Rune’s face. He barely moved but looked offended. However, my knuckles hurt.
“How dare you!” My mother, who was kind and sweet, lunged at me to slap me. I had let my other mother hurt my feelings, so I wouldn’t let this one abuse me.
I grabbed her hand and kicked her in the stomach, causing Rune to let out a growl.
“That’s it. Take them away! I will tear them both apart!” Rune yelled, and his body began to emit darkness.
Finally, he was revealing his true self. This place was not a dream nor heaven; it was a nightmare.
“Come on!” Kaye shook me as I watched and turned my neck back to see Rune’s neck growing, his head becoming one of those creepy things with wide eyes and an even wider smile.
His people began snickering and stepped out of the way. His neck wiggled and moved in quick motions. It suddenly lunged at me, but Kaye picked me up and tossed me to the side, saving me.
The others were now just standing in a circle to make sure we couldn’t leave.
“You cannot escape me,” Rune said with a maniacal grin.
His head seemed like a wrecking ball, coming at us. Every time it tried to attack, Kaye would save me.
He was quick and strong, able to lift me as if I were a feather.
“Ughhh! Hiding behind your stepbrother?” Rune stretched his neck up to the sky, his voice booming from above. “So it was all true about you. You’re just a pathetic loser. If I were there that night, I would have done the same and even worse to you than what those alphas did. And after I was done with you, I would have made sure to discard your body and kill you.”
His words made the crowd laugh, sending tremors of fear through me.
“Don’t let him get to your head!” Kaye yelled, holding my hand and preparing to dodge the next attack.
“Aww, poor Helanie. Or maybe you wanted that to happen. You wanted someone to attack you and feel nice and good.”
It was definitely not a dream world; it had become my nightmare when I raised my head and saw a flashback of that night.
I could no longer move or defend myself.
Maximus:
I was deeply concerned for my brother. I kept pacing around, wondering if I had made a mistake by letting him go after her. What if he was mistaken about the way out of the dream prison? I kept blaming myself for trying to do good for her. If I hadn’t hired her, my brother would be here with me today. My eyes landed on Helanie’s neck, and I groaned.
Helanie was fast asleep, her breaths slow and steady, but I couldn’t stop staring at the pendant around her neck. It caught the faintest glimmer of light, an unusual symbol etched into the metal that I had never seen before. What on earth was it? I moved in closer, careful not to trip and land on top of her, my heart racing as I tried to get a better look. The design appeared old, almost ancient, as if she couldn’t have purchased it from a local store. Slowly, I pulled out my phone, snapping a picture of it. The screen’s glow illuminated the pendant’s peculiar details, sending a shiver through me. I needed to find out what this thing was.
“What are you thinking?” my wolf snapped me out of it and asked, but I avoided him, shoving my phone back into my pants pocket. I had been at odds with my wolf for a long time-maybe ever since he had awakened and disappointed me. He felt like a curse, someone who didn’t care about my feelings. He would do what he wanted and get me in trouble.
“Really? When did I do that?” Xim was clueless, and sometimes I felt like I was being too harsh on him. I wanted to accuse him, to blame him. But he was as much a victim as I was.
“Sorry, I-did it again,” I sighed, apologizing for mistreating him once more.
“It’s alright. I can sense your anxiety,” he murmured.
I couldn’t stop pacing. The room felt too small, the walls pressing in on me with every step. Shadows pooled in the corners, stretching out with the flicker of the dim lamp, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the pounding in my chest. I had messed up. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, a cold knot of regret twisting tighter with each breath.
“I should have stopped him, or it should have been me going in there,” I muttered, unsure of where it was. Kaye was responsible for learning about herbs and cursed plants. The air felt thick, as if I were suffocating under the weight of it all.
“He wouldn’t have stopped. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about,” Xim tried to console me, but I shook my head once again.
“I can’t shake off this feeling. If he knew what he was talking about, why is it taking him so long?” I anxiously ran my hands through my hair when I heard someone arrive in the garage.
I hastily rushed out of the room to check on whoever had arrived. My mouth dried up and closed when I saw Norman enter the garage with a book in his hands.
“Here, I only found this. Emmet gave it to me,” he said, placing the book on the table and waiting for me to get closer. I nodded, lowering my head and sneakily closing the door behind the sleeping beauty, and then strode toward the table. I didn’t think he would return so soon.
“Where is Kaye? Ask him to come here. I need to know something from him,” Norman demanded, hunching over the table with his hands on either side of the open book. I took my time, steadily reaching him. All the while coming up with excuses in my head. Norman would not be happy to find out I let Kaye do the crazy thing. He gave me one job-one job and I didn’t do it.
“Umm, he left,” I shrugged, while he steadily turned his head and raised it, his body still hunched over and towering over the book. His eyes hinted at giving me a second chance for my response. I could either take my words back or keep lying to him.
“Huh? What are you talking about? How could he leave? He was talking about all the potential and doing the right things-where did he go?” Of course, knowing Norman, I should have realized he would not be easy to persuade. He was asking all sorts of questions, and I was quickly making up lies in my head. But my throat keep drying up and I had to clear it everytime I started speaking.
“Ehm! He couldn’t sit around waiting for you to come up with something. He decided to look into the details of the rose himself.” Wow! I was getting good at lying. This wouldn’t be the first time I had deceived my brothers. I always did this to my father and everyone else. But today, I felt guilty. It wasn’t just about my life; it was about my brother’s.
“Maximus! What are you hiding?” Just when I thought I had him fooled, he slammed the book shut and straightened his back, facing me. Norman had taken care of me since I was a child, so obviously he could see right through me.
“Nothing-I’m just worried. What if Kaye couldn’t find anything, or your research didn’t turn out well, or Kaye couldn’t bring her back-” I shut up when I realized I was talking too much.
“Maximus, what have you two done?” He pushed me aside, not even letting me stop him, and ran toward the room. I knew there was nothing I could do anymore. He burst into the room while I stayed back. I was too scared to see his reaction.
After a few seconds, he came out, looking furious and breathing heavily.
“Why? Why wouldn’t you two listen to me?” he yelled, coming at me.
“He told me he knew what he was doing.” I instantly backed down from the fury of my brother. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him; I respected him immensely. He had always been there for me and had done so much for me. I didn’t want to see the disappointment in his eyes.
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