The Ghost Of Me
I woke the next morning with a killer hangover, but opening my eyes to Dimitri made things a whole lot better. I was still in my dress, except now it was wrinkled and the tiny straps were completely off my shoulders. I clutched my temples and rolled onto my back groaning. I felt Dimitri stir next to me, waking up.
"Here," He said with a tired voice, shutting off his alarm clock. Today was Monday, therefore we had training and I had school. I just now realized that Dimitri might have a problem with getting out of bed this early too. He handed me an aspirin and a glass of water. I gladly took it and sat up.
"Thanks,"
"Rose, why were you drunk last night? You should know better, especially when no Guardians are there. Anything could happen. If Strigoi were to attack, which we know now is completely possible, then you need to be focused and hands on." He lectured me with one of his great zen lessons.
"Someone spiked the punch, Comrade. It's not like I had much of a choice." I waved it off quickly. He sighed and closed his eyes, half wanting to strangle me and the other half trying not to look at my cleavage, which at the moment was greatly exposed.
"Go get ready for training." He released me a few minutes later without a single loving gesture. I threw back the covers and deliberately slammed the door on the way out.
Back in my dorm, I quickly changed into sweats and a tank top. Then, I thought about the dream. It was pretty foggy, and I could only remember bits and pieces, but I was able to make something out of it. The prince was there, like always, but the girl was different. She had dark brown hair and eyes and almond colored skin. Her body was slim and short. Now that I think about it, she looked kind of like me.
Not to mention the knife.
He was gripping the knife hard. "Come, my darling. Don't be like that." The girl darted back cautiously, eying the knife. The weapon that could end her life. He took a step forward with her every step back. Her breath hitched.
"What are doing with that?" She asked, her voice shaky.
And for the first time, I realized that the princes' eyes were red.
~LofD~
With a sinking feeling, I felt my dream shift and found myself standing in a garden at the court wearing a clingy, short red dress with a low neck and black lace. A silver necklace with a rose pendant hung from my neck. I growled under my breath. Adrian! He stepped out from the cover of the trees with his hands held out apologetically.
"Little Dhampir," he began, "What a nice surprise it is to see you here."
"What a surprise it is to see me in my own dream?" I asked him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Why won't he just leave me to sleep and dream in peace? He chuckled; making me irritated seemed to make him happy. He walked up to me and held my hand which I immediately snatched away from him.
"Aw, don't be like that." he said, I groaned, which only seemed to widen his flirtatious smirk.
"Stupid dream-stalker." I grumbled under my breath. I was perfectly happy with my previous dream...well, not really. Adrian chucked, almost as if he had heard what I was thinking.
"Am I making you angry? I'm sorry, that was never my intention little Dhampir, I wouldn't want to end up on your hit list." He said, his eyes sparkling playfully. I walked up to him and placed my hand on his chest, our bodies were almost touching and I heard the intake of air as his breathing hitched.
"Well Adrian," I purred, running my hand down his chest, "sorry, but your already on the list." I finished, my voice abruptly becoming teasingly hard. Then, I patted his chest once and took a step back.
"Now, Adrian. I have a question for you." His eyes were hard as he took a step back from me, swallowing.
"Yes?"
"Your a spirit user and you can dream walk. Could you also manipulate dreams? Like change them to make them what you want?"
"That's an odd question..."
"I know, but just answer it!" I insisted.
"I'm not all that experienced with dream walking, but there's still a lot about Spirit that we don't know. I suppose that could be another variation of the magic. Why do you want to know?" He explained.
I nodded slowly, mentally agreeing with him. "No reason, just...well, thank you."
"Rose, your waking-"
My eyes shot open. I was laying on my bed in my training clothes and shoes. Oh god, I fell asleep. I can't believe I fell asleep just minutes after I woke up. Even when I'm up early I'm late. I rushed out the door, unable to have the time to think about the dreams.
I ran into the gym and quickly threw my bag into the corner, ready for training. "Hey comrade," I said in an innocent voice, "What will we be doing today?"
"Laps." was his only reply. I groaned and started stretching and warming up. He sprawled against the wall with a western novel. I grumbled under my breath the whole time I stretched, letting him know how much I hated laps. "Grumbling about it or arguing with me is not going to get you out of it." Dimitri said without looking up from his book.
"You're next on my hit list Comrade." I said irritably.
"Should I be scared?" he asked, his lips curved into an alluring half smile and he looked up from his book and met my eyes. I slammed the door behind me as I started running my laps, channeling my desire for him into pushing myself harder.
As I re-entered the gym, Dimitri looked up from his book, surprised. He double checked the stopwatch next to him and his face lit up with a grin. "What?" I asked, breathless and doubled over, gasping for breath.
"You beat your old record by miles! If you ran like this every day, you would never be late for anything. Well done Rose." He gave me a rare smile full of warmth and my stomach flipped over. "Come on, we still have time to spar." He started to lift himself up from the ground.
"Since I broke a record today, shouldn't I get the rest of the day off?" I asked him deviously, running a hand down the front if his chest, playing on the fierce passion that was always present between the two of us. I looked into his eyes and tried hard not to laugh at the internal struggle going on inside him. I knew very well that he was thinking about the dress I wore last night. I watched as something inside him broke and desire took over. He mentally shook himself.
"Fine Roza, go. Get out of here now." He managed to bark out the command, still breathing heavily. I gladly skipped across the gym with my bag and paused at the door. I looked back and winked at him, laughing at the way he stood and shook his head with a growing smile on his face.
But of course, the fun ended there. When I walked into my dorm room after dinner, chills went up my spine. The room was at least 20 degrees colder then when I left it just 30 minutes ago. Not only that, but my room was clean - like, cleaner then clean. My bed was made and my desk was no longer cluttered. All my clothes were hanging up in the proper places and the bathroom sparkled.
I went to the thermostat to try to turn up the heat, but I only got an error button, and when tried to dial the number for the academy's dorm maintenance, my phone died. Another cold blast of air hit my back and I shuddered, stumbling forward.
Everything was silent. The air conditioning wasn't on, no water drops from the leak in my sink, no birds were chirping from outside my window.
In fact, a second later, my window slammed shut. My heart pounded and my hands grew with sweat.
It was as if I was being haunted.
"Can I tell you a story?"
~LofD~
Adelina's POV
"Can I tell you a story?"
Part of me didn't know why I even wanted to tell her. I suppose my life before had been some sort of secret…something I didn't want anyone knowing. But then again I wasn't sure. It's not like I'd ever had anyone to tell in the first place.
The girl's, Rosemarie's, shock was noticeable when she whipped around shaking. She looked undeniably like me, but I guess that was because she was me. In a way anyways. I had chosen her body not long ago. It was the body I wished I had back in 1867, when I was alive.
Her eyes stopped wondering over my body - her body - and got stuck on the knife. I'd never been able to remove that. It didn't hurt or anything, it was just there - a forever reminder of my past.
"Are-are-you-you-I-" She stumbled on her words. "I thought I could only see ghost outside of wards." She finally said after taking a hard breath. I nodded. I knew what it was like to be Shadow-Kissed. Anna had told me.
"But I died here, on this land you see. It was here were I died. Can I tell you a story?" I repeated.
She hesitated. "What kind of story?"
"Romance. Tragedy. Death." I replied quickly.
"That sounds kind of like my story. A little bit."
I smiled wryly. "Well, as you can see, we have a lot in common."
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-Elisabeth
