A/N: Hiya people! How are you all? Enjoying ze summer jam yet?

And so it seems that I've decided to pen down a Nightworld Fic. This is my firs t Nightworld Fic, of course. I've had this crazy idea ever since I heard that wretched song. I'd love your suggestions and ideas, of course. You don't have to read all the Nightworld series to understand this Fic. Just the basics.

TRANSLATION OF THE TITLE: "Rosa Obscura" means "dark rose" in Latin. :)

FULL SUMMARY: Rae Wyman's just about to graduate from High School. Everything is going exactly the way it should. He's stressed but he's having fun too. But then these strange dreams start haunting him. What do they mean? Why do they feel like memories of the past? Can it be possible that he really was once Prince Charming and that his Cinderella turned evil and killed him? More importantly, why does this nagging feeling tells him that somehow the history is being repeated?

So, here goes…

Chapter one: Remembering

The drip of water somewhere continued to fall. As each drop fell, he heard it in his head. It pounded in his head as if the sound was being amplified every minute. The cold stone-flagged floor beneath him was incredibly hard. As each minute passed, the shackles around is wrists and ankles seemed to tighten, and his breath came out more and more ragged, more pained. He was all alone, and it hurt. It hurt so much.

Warmth had left his body. He was still as a statue from some square, crouched in this horrible position for years, it seemed. The time passed slowly, and with it, his sanity also declined. The wounds on his body burned, both internally and externally. The uneven rhythm of his heart beat had slowed down, and he knew that death was near. The stench of blood, earth and urine choked him. His face was stiff with the dried trails of tears he'd shed earlier when he'd found out. He knew his clothing was shredded into ribbons, because he could feel the hard wall and ground under his burnt skin. Every breath he drew was dry and short.

Her face flashed into his mind for a millionth time. That sweet, lovely face, oh lord, how he'd been crazy for her. But that face had turned savage with time. It had betrayed him. It had sent him to his death, hadn't it? It had reduced him to nothingness, into this miserable animal-like state. He felt the hunger rise in him as he saw her every time, but it was now empty, only a shadow of what he used to feel. It seemed as if he was falling, falling into an abyss and never emerging. Her atrocious deeds flipped through his mind like a movie and he crumbled, bled. His chest ached with it and ultimately he lost the will to live. Someone had warned him that this would happen, but he'd ignored it. It was his own idiocy that shamed him now. He'd been blind, helpless in her cage, always yearning more but receiving nothing. He'd pushed himself to the very limit, but it had killed him. It had separated him from his friends, his family, from everything good he knew in life.

A sudden, sharp sound cut through the silence of his death hole, and his head lifted slowly. He cringed away from the blaze of white light that flowed into the room as the door swung open with a rusty creak. Squinting, his tired eyes only sought her face, and there was a hitch in his breathing as he saw the familiar petite figure in the doorway. Hurt slashed at his already bleeding soul, and he writhed in agony.

"Lila…" a moan escaped his parched throat.

He heard her saunter in the room, her high heels making sharp sounds on the stone. Her hair was a reddish halo around her slender face. It still frustrated him that he could not see her properly, even for the last time. Her bright azure eyes were burning with a strong emotion he didn't know of. Automatically, he looked away, trying to breathe properly. She crouched down beside his head, her pale hand reaching out to stroke him as it had done countless times before. He winced as it touched his bruised skin, but was unable to resist it. God, he wanted that hand to comfort him, that hand which had torn him to a million little pieces by a mere gesture. He really was insane.

"Such a waste." That beautiful, mesmeric voice told him. The moment that hand touched his forehead, a piercing shockwave sliced through him. His eyes widened, and he uttered a small cry. The effect was dizzyingly sweet, and for a moment, he saw a pinkish haze fill his gaze. Even when the effect receded, his body was tingling. He'd never known why that happened when she touched him, but he liked it.

He opened his mouth to say something, but she placed a hand over it.

"I came to talk to you," she said. "About us."

He closed his eyes slowly. It was never going to work. He'd seen what she truly was, and no matter how he felt about her, he knew that they didn't fit together. She was stubborn, a fighter, an ice princess. He thrived on the company of his friends, she worked alone. She was never going to…

He felt her hand slid across his cheekbone and he opened his eyes, trying to pour hate into them. But with no success. She was the only light in his world. He could not turn away from her no matter how hard he tried. Instead, he wondered why she'd done this to him.

She'd known his weakest point and had used it against him. And had won.

"Good-bye, my dear one. I'll miss you." The croon of her voice made him shiver, and he cringed away from her, pasted himself flat against the wall. He knew that tone. He wasn't afraid, but he couldn't believe that she would do it. Her voice was deadly. For once, he saw what she saw when she looked at him.

Inferior, vermin. Something worse than a diseased pet dog.

No. She couldn't.

He wondered why she looked so stunningly beautiful even though her face had on a twisted, ugly expression. Her burgundy had framed her pale face, and those azurite eyes narrowed. Silver appeared at the edges of the blue eyes. She looked so inhuman. Because she wasn't a human at all. Maybe that was why she hated him so much-because he knew what she was. Lila Rhett was a creature of night, a hunter. He was her prey.

"No." His voice was just a croak due to the long disuse. She was the person he knew. Not some kind of a monster.

"You were my warrior," Lila said icily, withdrawing her hand so quickly that it was a blur. "My poor, fallen warrior. Too bad they chose you. You see, we aren't allowed to mingle and play with dirty, impure creatures like you, vermin. We're supposed to have our fun. But you proved too intelligent for that." Her voice had no pity. She spat her words in his face.

"Lila, I-"

"No, don't say it. It means nothing to me."

Her sentence repeated in his mind, and a little hope that had tried to repair his already shattered soul was killed. He meant nothing.

"Lila, Please-"

And she was in front of him suddenly, her face level with his. If only his hands were free, he could wipe away those stray strands on her lovely face.

He was lost. He was reduced into nothing. He meant nothing to her.

"Lila-"

She lifted her hand and brought it down hard across his cheek. Her skin contracted with his with a loud smack. His face was slammed into the wall behind him due to the unearthly force. He felt the sharp, sting of her slap and muffled a moan.

"Don't ever say my name on your filthy tongue!" she screeched. He kept his face pressed against the rough stone, trying to focus. His mind spun, his stomach churned with nausea. He knew that by hitting him, she'd taken half of his face off. Fresh blood trickle down to his neck, and her eyes widened maddeningly. There was a hitch in her breathing.

The door in behind her opened again, and another figure appeared. This time, it was of a tall, young man whose name he did not know. All he knew that Lila clung to him like an octopus. Green eyes flashed were his face was.

"Still playing?" the smooth, baritone voice asked silkily.

"Almost finished," Lila said in a tone he'd never heard her use before. He fought back a shiver that ran in his body and forced himself to look up at the man who'd taken away Lila as if picking a flower. "I wanted to make some things clear."

"Well, don't be late. You're going to meet my parents in half an hour. Yours are arriving tomorrow, right?" But she'd said her parents were dead, that she was an orphaned child. She'd lied about everything.

"Okay," she said. The man left, and her fake, slinky posture crumbled. She faced him, still chained to the wall. "Don't think I like him. I only liked you, which was my mistake. It was something like fate. But fate changes. I know he's going to end up like you, sweetheart. You two are very similar."

"You never liked me," he whispered. "It was me who ran after you all over the place like a pet dog."

She showed him her teeth. "True, as always. You want to know something? Something I've never confessed to you?"

He didn't reply, only stared at her warily.

"I had a great time with you." Her eyes were somehow warming, feeling with tears. His chest hurt again. He wanted to wipe them away, to huddle her close against him and chase all her sadness away. Idiot. "I'm going to let you go, Anthony. I can't bear this anymore."

She scuttled close to him again, this time embracing him. He stiffened, caught off guard. "I'm going to let you go," she breathed.

And then he saw a flash of silver and a searing, agonizing pain in his chest. She twisted the knife deeper, laughing with glee. He yelled in pain, as a fountain of crimson blood poured out of his wound-

"I could've killed you the other way," she said, her face smeared with red. "But I like this mess."

Blackness swirled around him and he heard himself cry out her name-

Something hard came hurling out of no where had hit Rae Wyman's head hard. He cried out, panicking, and rolled over. His legs were bound, he couldn't move himself. A dull pain throbbed in his head where the boot had hit him, and he rubbed it gingerly, cursing.

"Oy," came a voice from the second twin bed across the room.

With the fragments still in his sleepy mind, Rae twisted. He rolled over again, kicking his legs out…and with a thud, found himself rolled up inside the bed sheets like a roll on the carpeted floor. "You were moaning again."

"Ow," he groaned. "Couldn't you find better ways to wake me up, you dumbass?"

Rae's roommate, Luther Lyndon, grinned. He was sprawled upon his army sheets with a heavy text book in his hand. He shot his friend a crooked grin and said very innocently, "Tried everything. Even putting the Neil's wormies inside your bed."

"What?" Rae exclaimed, struggling to find a way out of the sheets which were trying to strangle him. He got to his feet and clambered over his bed, searching for any worms that might've been smeared under him.

"And another way to set you free," his friend said casually, leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on the book. "We have…half an hour before breakfast. You realize what today is?"

What today was…oh, shit.

Exam Alert.

Rae was already on his knees, searching through the cluttered pile of notes he'd made. Chemistry was his least favorite subject, and he hadn't even…studied. Now that he came to think of it, he'd spent the last night partying with Jolene Martin and her cousin Waye. Luther had reminded him time and again, but he'd lied that he'd do it during the night. You could study so perfectly all through the night, in such a silence…

Only that he'd fallen asleep in a zombie siesta and hadn't woken up. Instead of straining his poor eyes over the complex chemicals, he'd strained his mind by having a nightmare he'd had ever since he'd turned eighteen six months ago. When he woke up, he usually found himself on the floor, tangled up in his sheets like a shawarma and an upturned night-table, crashed water jug and cluttered pages everywhere. Seriously, high school was a nightmare, especially when you were about to graduate in a matter of months. So, Luther had found a solution to avoid such destruction. Whenever Rae started to twist unnaturally in his dreams, his friend chucked one of his army boots at him. By the look of both the army boots near his bed, it was evident that Luther had tried to wake up Rae before.

"You gonna make it, ace?" Luther drawled from his bed. He carefully turned a page. "Since you're the only guy who actually cares about exams."

"What about you?" Rae shot back. "You're the one who had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the base-ball practice."

Luther raised his sunstone eyes from the book. For the first time, Rae realized that his best friend actually had dark circles under his eyes. He really had been studying. "Two reasons. One, girls go crazy over a studious, genius jock. Two, I want to get inside the Holborn College even if it's the last thing I do."

Luther came from a poor family, and he survived on scholar-ships. His family was in France somewhere, were his English mother and French father worked. It had been Luther's dream to educate himself in England.

Rae, on the other hand, had no parents or relatives alive on this planet anymore. He'd been orphaned at the age of eight, lost his Uncle and Aunt in an air crash, who unfortunately had been the only relatives he'd known. So a couple had taken him in, paying for his education. When he'd turned eighteen, Rae had moved out to share the flat with Luther because it was closer to both the school and college too. Actually, three guys and three girls shared the small flat together. So they paid the bills together, lived like family.

"Well, good luck," Rae retorted in response to Luther's retort. He'd fished out the books he'd been looking for, and tossed them upon his bed. Then, scratching his side, he walked into the bathroom. Quickly, he refreshed himself and showered. The water was warm, comforting. Retreating into bliss provided by a morning shower, he was reminded of the nightmare he'd had before Luther had woken him up.

Again, he saw the cold stone floor, the terrible stench of death and decay. Again, he saw the blurred face of a girl whom he-

Rae shook himself, startled by his own stance. He knew that if started to think about the dream again, he'd probably stay in the shower until the Chemistry exam was over. Jaime would have a heart-attack and Feli would die of shock. Not to mention that Luther and Drew would pound him to death.

As he got out, he grabbed a fluffy white towel to wind around himself. The mirror behind him reflected him perfectly, a tall, lean lad with tumbling dark blonde hair. When he turned to face himself in the steamed up mirror, his blurred face came into view. He rubbed away the steam on its surface. Under his naturally well formed eyebrows, piercing Ceylon sapphire-colored eyes came into view, under darker, thick lashes. A straight nose, high, perfectly shaped cheekbones and a well shaped jaw made up his face. Rae gave his still bleary reflection a half-smile, ruffled his hair and started to brush his teeth.

By the time he emerged outside, Luther had already finished three more stacks of notes. Rae joined him and they worked until they were dizzy and puffy-eyed. The kitchen was stuffed with people when Rae finally emerged outside. Feli Anderson stood at the stove, frying what looked like pancakes. Jaime Winston and Drew Uriah-who looked comfortable in an oxford shirt, slouched at the counter, discussing something that looked serious. Small Iris Kilian paced the den with frowns that could actually win over any Broadway director.

"'Lo." Feli said without turning as Rae slid in a seat. Feli had graduated a year or so ago, and now was a sophomore at some Law college. It was pretty weird that most of the people living in the flat wanted to go for Business or Law only. Drew attended a business college and was planning to move out next month. The rest of them were all in the same year, and attended Fortismere School. Sometimes, living on Fortis Green Road helped.

"Hey humans," Rae said cheerfully. Drew turned an amazed look at him.

"You partied with those Martin couz all night," he exclaimed. "You still up for ze exam? You got drunk, man!"

"Yup," Rae smiled back. He knew he shouldn't but it was in his nature. He never tensed for more than an hour. That was why he was called the 'Loopie' of the class.

"Rae, I can't understand any of it," moaned Jaime and shoved the book under his nose. Rae turned to explain it to her, but she kept talking frantically. "I'm so, like, stressed out; I don't know what I'll do…"

"Hit everyone who came in her range if she didn't pass," Drew intoned. "Anyways, good luck, Loopie, Mary Allen and Cookie. I'm off."

"Wait!" Feli turned. "You're taking a bus?"

"Uh-huh," Drew retorted from the hall. "Why, should I take the car?"

"No. It's my turn," Feli said smugly. Rae had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like something. Feli and Drew usually argued over various topics, hurled furniture at each other and then hugged and made up. They'd been best buddies since fifth grade, and as far as Rae knew, Drew had never abandoned his precious Chevy in charge of Feli before even if the two were ballistics.

They heard the door slam as Drew went, and Feli dropped the pancakes she'd made onto a plate on the counter, grabbed the keys and her bag, and followed her friend outside.

"…so, got it?" Rae asked Jaime. She nodded and yawned widely, covering her mouth.

"If I pass, I'll send you to the moon," She promised wearily, rubbing her eyes.

"Send him to Uranus, more like," Luther wadded into the room, squinting at the wall clock. "I've heard the aliens there resemble him more than any human does." He shot a wary look over his shoulder. Rae hit his head with the bottle of syrup. "Is Iris trying to burn the carpet?"

"Really?" Jaime asked, helping herself to the golden pancakes Feli had left on the counter table where they all sat. "Is she that suicidal? Because she'd catch fire too. Hey, maybe the exam might get cancelled that way." She added hopefully.

"I heard that," Iris yelled from the den. "I'm leaving now. I can't wait any longer."

Luther shoved a piece of a pancake inside his mouth, and directly poured the syrup in. He washed it down with a glass of cranberry juice.

"You guys eat like furnaces consume fuel," Jaime commented, wide-eyed. "She's right. Let's go." She swung her bag over her shoulder and slid off the stool. Luther signed and got up too, glancing at the clock.

"Go on. I'll catch you up," Rae told them. "I need a few minutes."

"Sure, lazy bones," Iris said, appearing suddenly in the kitchen. She was small, with thick silky ropes of blond hair and jade-green eyes. Like every time she entered the room, Rae felt himself going goofy. He knew he would give anything to please her, to make her notice him. Apart from her temper, she was a really nice person, a girl of his dreams. Apparently, no one knew that yet.

Rae heard the door close again. He wandered into the cozy little den and looked out of the window, thinking again. He felt weird today, as if…

He didn't know. Telling himself that he really was worried, he finally locked up the flat and started towards the High School, feeling dread roll into the pit of his stomach like heavy stones. He should have…

Studied…

Startled, he shook himself. What was wrong with him today?

Trying to ignore the feeling, he continued to walk towards the school. Some people rushed pass him, some just walked by. Everything had suddenly slowed down, and Rae felt greatly uneasy. It felt as if he was an astral projection or life on this planet was strange. Sometimes it picked up speed, the other time it slowed down to a speed where you just couldn't bear it any more. But for Rae, it had always been the same speed, the same emotions running through his veins over and over again, the same routine. In a simpler sense, he felt Deja-vu most of the time, as if he'd lived like this before. But today, surprisingly enough, he felt different. His eyes scanned over the same hall, the same classes, the same crowd. But it all felt...wrong. Some one was...watching him. Intensely.

"Yo, thinker!"

Starting, Rae turned to find Luther making his way through the crowd. He looked to the breaking point already. Rae almost pitied him-but as the side of his head still ached dully, reminding of the boot flight that morning, Rae felt that pity dissolving into nothingness.

"Almost time." Luther said, and passed him. "Hey, give this to Jaime, will ya?"

He threw a book at him. Rae caught it, turning to see its cover curiously. Hey, wasn't this the book she'd been looking for last night?

"And say thanks to her for her loan!" Luther yelled over his shoulder and disappeared around a , clever, Rae thought. A clever way to squirm out of your early grave. Maybe he should've done this too. It was tiresome to unzip your bag and take out your own bloody text book. Rae absently promised himself that as soon as he graduated, he'd chuck his entire bag in the Grand Bonfire his friends were planning. Yeah, that might actually save some fuel. Ben Ashton did it last year and told the younger students that it had given him a rare kind of ecstasy.

As the bell finally rang, Rae cast a last look behind him and trooped into the Examination Cell.

This is it for now. Do tell me what you think of it. I know the start was somewhat bumpy and it's a wee bit confusing but I swear this will get interesting. So...

Review please.:)

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