The following nights after meeting the black haired figure were restless. No matter what she did or drank, she got nightmares every single night. She dremt of fields unknown, searching for any sign of civilization. All she found were medieval looking villages filled with corpses no matter in which direction she had went. The corpses were completely dry, as if their inner fluids were no longer there. Sometimes she was the blond child with the bluest eyes, Arminius, transform into a tall figure dressed in white cloak with hood hiding his face. By his right leg there was the white wolf which had helped her in few tight situations. However, there were no dreams of her inner mind, where the figure in black had visited her in.
And then there were dreams that scared her the most. Dreams, where she saw herself from a different person's perspective. She was drenched in blood from head to toes. Her eyes were crimson red, as she licked the blood of her fingers, showing vampire fangs. In those dreams she was a vampire seemingly in blood-lust, however, the crimson eyes were not crazed, indicating that she knew exactly what she was doing and was content. However, it weren't the scenes in front of her eyes or blood that scared her. Rain was scared to become the person she saw in her dreams.
Everyone saw that the dark rings under Rain's eyes became more imminent with each passing day, making even students that hates her worry about her well-being. The teachers told her to return to her dorm and rest, however, she remained in the classroom and took notes on the lessons. When her uncle and master asked what she saw in her dreams made her freeze up and eyes bulge out in fear. Kaien even bought sleeping pills for her, but they didn't help and neither did any of the concoctions he made.
Even the vampire's worried about her, even though they appeared not to care, but the glances at girl from time to time showed that they were worried, as well. However, there were many who didn't care in the first place. It was only a small group of vampires that looked at her more than once, and even smaller that took their time to ask if she was alright. But being the way Rain was did not stop the Day class students from being loud and pushing past her to be closer to the Night class students.
They say that time heals all wounds, however, the saying didn't seem to apply to Rain and her nightmarish dreams. They scared her the hundredth time the same way as the first time. She had even started having symptoms of sleep deprivation. Her blood pressure was sky-rocketing, she had become quite moody and her swordplay became a lot worse, not even speaking about the yawning every other minute, which irked the people around her.
Behind Rain's back, Kaien Cross, Toga Yagari and Kuran Kaname tried to find Arminius in the school's territory, however, luck wasn't on their side, since the being didn't appear in front of them. Yagari had even taken up to search the woods, however, when it didn't work, he went to search outside of the school's premises. The three of them searched Arminius in hopes to get some answers from him. Who is Rain in the reality? Who were the people after her and her family? How to help Rain in her plight? However, even though Arminius didn't appear in front of anyone, the roses still came, which made the group know that the being knew about Rain's condition, yet did nothing to help her. Though one of the rose notes said: "Trust yourself."
To top up the misery of Rain, her grades dropped from good to average and history dropped from average to poor. In addition, the dance party was coming up and the class president was nagging her about raising her grades, so that their class wouldn't become the 'servants' during the party. Being sleep deprived, Rain snapped at the girl to leave her alone, eyes glaring daggers at her. Rain's class' president was Hiyaku Amane, a tall girl with dark blond hair and brown eyes. She was quite a pretty thing, though it ended there, in Rain's opinion. Hiyaku was an obsessed fangirl of Akatsuki Kain from the Night class and wasn't used to her wishes not being fulfilled. In other words, she was a spoiled brat, though Rain knew better that to say it in her face.
Hiyaku Amane seemed more offended than surprised at Rain's snapping. She wanted to say something nasty back, but was forced to stop by a tall man with jet-black hair, dressed in brown coat, cowboy hat and an eye-patch covering his right eye, coming from around the corner.
"Seems like I'll have to teach the Day class students some ethics." He said, stepping behind Rain, who was happy at his perfect timing. "Rain, come with me. The chairman wants to see you."
Ignoring the class president, Rain followed her master to her uncle's office.
"So, what was that about? It's not like you to snap at Day class students during the day." Yagari asked for the sake of small talk with his pupil.
"She was nagging me. As if I don't know myself that my grades are dropping." She seethed, remembering Hiyaku's face.
"You need to learn to keep your calm no matter the situation. It is a thing everyone must learn if they want more promising future." The vampire hunter admonished her, after which he knocked on the chairman's office doors, opening them afterwards. What surprised her was that Kaname was also there.
"Ah, Rain, I would like you to drink this cup and go to sleep. This is a very strong draft that repels any kind of dreams. It might let you have a dreamless sleep." Kaien explained, gesturing to a cup on his table, which Rain hadn't noticed because she was too busy looking at the vampire.
"What's in it?" The girl asked, turning her attention to her uncle.
"You don't want to know." The man replied.
Rain went to the table, took the cup and put it by her lips to drink it, however, just before the liquid touched her lips, she lowered the cup to ask: "What if it doesn't help?"
"Then we will continue to look for a way to help you rest peacefully. Don't worry, if we see any signs of you having a nightmare, we will wake you up." Kaien reassured her. Hearing those words, Rain relaxed and took a sip of the drink, only to grimace and the taste. It was sour and bitter at the same time, and the sip left a coppery aftertaste in her mouth. The coppery aftertaste seemed familiar to her, yet she couldn't pinpoint what gave such taste. Rain lowered the cup to look at the liquid. It was rust color and gave off a strange smell.
"Drink it all up." Her master told her, so she twitched her nose at the smell, as if she wanted to sneeze, and drank the draft in one go, so that the unpleasant job was done and over with. However, once the cup was empty, she went to the water pitcher in the room and poured herself the cup full of water, and quickly drank it. She wanted the aftertaste gone from her mouth.
"You can sleep here, in the office, where I'll be able to keep a better eye on you." Kaien said, gesturing to the coach which now had a pillow and a blanket neatly folded blanket on it.
"Let's leave them be, Kuran." The vampire hunter said and indicated with his head to the pureblood for him to leave the room first.
"I hope you get some rest, Rain." Kaname said with a serene smile on his lips, after which he did what the vampire hunter wanted.
Only once her and her uncle were in the room, Rain got comfortable on the coach and closed her eyes, praying that the horrid dreams would leave her alone. Even though the girl was both mentally and psychically tired, she didn't fall right asleep as her head hit the pillow. Rain didn't know what scared her more: the dreams, Arminius or the unknown.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Rain finally did fall asleep. Luckily, it wasn't a nightmare, or, at least, it didn't feel like one. She was back in the nothingness, where she was alone in the darkness, not seeing or feeling anything. She tried to change the scenery with her thoughts, like she had been able to do before, however, it didn't change even when she tried even harder.
"It's won't work unless I give you the reigns." Said a voice right by her left ear. That voice was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, however, it didn't belong to the person in the black cloak. The voice belonged to a male with a slight baritone. Rain froze up in her spot, fear slowly creeping on her.
"Now, now… don't get scared all of a sudden. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here for is a little chat, that is all." The man said and then clicked his fingers. The scene changed to a canyon with a beautiful sunset. By the edge of the cliff there was a table with two chairs by it. However, Rain couldn't take in the scenery, since she was more concerned with the man behind her, so she turned to look at him.
To Rain's surprise, the man wasn't covering himself head to toe with a cloak – he didn't have anything obscuring her from seeing him. The voice belonged to man in his late twenties, or early thirties with shoulder length black hair. He had silver eyes with a cat-like slit for the pupil, though his left eye was covered by a bandage. He was dressed in an open black button-up shirt, black denim pants and shoes.
The man smiled charmingly at Rain and gestured to the table. "Shall we take a seat?"
Rain looked warily at the man but went to take a seat, all while keeping an eye on him. The black haired man carelessly did the same and smiled at the wary girl.
"Tea? Coffee? Not that we can get thirsty here." He asked nonchalantly.
"Who are you?" Rain decided to ask the million dollar question.
"It doesn't matter now, while you don't have your memories. All you need to know is that, when your memories return to you, you shall have all of your questions answered. After all, all of it is in your head, hiding in some corner." The man replied cheerfully, dismissing the question from further appearance, which irked her.
"What did you mean by 'giving me the reigns'? Isn't this in my mind?"
"Ah, actually it is a bit tricky. You see, when you enter this state of your mind on your own, you can change the scenery to whatever you want it to be. The nifty part is that, when you are pulled in here by someone else, the person decides the whole scenery, unless the person lets you change it. However, if the reigns are given to another, he can't get them back, unless the other person lets you." The man explained in a happily careless tone, all while smiling at Rain.
"Are you the one giving me nightmares?" Rain asked.
"No, I'm not. What are they about?" The man asked, causing Rain to freeze up, as the memories assaulted her.
"Too scary to speak of them?" He asked in a knowingly serene tone entering his baritone. The girl only nodded her head.
"If you were to let me, I could 'enter' your mind and see them for myself." The black-haired man offered. Rain looked at him with fearful eyes and shook her head. She didn't want any stranger enter her mind. Scratch that. Rain didn't even want to be her mind at all. All she wanted was a peaceful sleep.
"But do you want them to stop?" The man asked in a suave voice, slowly leaning towards the girl. Slowly Rain gave in by nodding her head, making a smirk appear on the man's lips.
"What can you give me as a price?" The man purred, being leaned halfway the table towards Rain.
"W-What do you mean?" She asked.
"Nothing comes for free, my dear. Not in Heaven, not in Hell, not even in your own mind. So, what will you give me as a price for the deal? It should be the same value as your wish, however, I feel generous so I'll give you a discount." The smirk or the suave tone of his voice didn't leave the man. Rain blinked once, blinked twice being a bit stupefied at the man's words. She didn't know what to give the man as a price, or even the value of her wish. Seeing the girl's reaction, the man sighed and leaned back to his chair.
"I have to go now. Think about what can you give me for me to rid your dreams of nightmares. I will see you in a couple of nights, so be ready to give me your answer." The man said and disappeared into nothingness. With him the canyon and sunset disappeared as well, leaving nothing but blackness in its place. However, the darkness didn't last long as the already familiar setting took its place. That is, seeing herself with red eyes, licking blood off her fingers. However, this time the setting continued on from the times when Rain usually woke up. The red-eyed version of herself turned to look at her and a smile appeared on her lips.
"Why, hello there, youngling." She said as she approached Rain. "What are you doing here, in this God-forsaken place?"
Rain didn't answer, not knowing what to answer, if the question was meant for her. Rain heard a child's voice whimper as a response, letting Rain know that the woman couldn't see her.
"Are you afraid?" The bloodied woman asked, smile widening. Rain didn't see the child's answer, but the bloody version of her's words let know the answer.
"Good, you are not dumb and know when to feel fear. Now, tell me, do you want to live or die and maybe meet your parents?" Rain looked at her in surprise. Why would she spare a child, while killing everyone else? It didn't make sense to her.
"Live…" The child whispered so quietly, the Rain almost didn't hear it.
"Can you repeat that? I didn't hear you." The woman said, however, Rain understood that she was pretending not to have heard it, though she couldn't place the reason why.
"Live…" The child said louder.
"I could barely hear it. Say it like you mean it." The darker version of Rain told the child.
"I… I want to live!" The child finally said her wish loudly, causing the bloody wan smile a gentle smile, surprising Rain. With such a smile, she didn't seem even half as threatening as before.
"And what is your name, youngling?"
"Milla…" The child answered, hesitating a bit.
"I see.. Shall we make a pact? I will take care of you and you, in turn, will do everything I tell you to do." The woman offered, stretching one of her bloody hands towards Rain, or the child to be precise. For a while there were no movement to be seen or sound to be heard, till finally a small, pale hand stretched and took the offered hand.
"What do I call you?" Milla asked.
"Hmmm…" The woman said deep in thought. After half a minute of silence, she answered: "You can call me Telma."
A/N: Finally, I was able to concentrate enough to write this chapter and then rewrite it to my laptop, to update it. As you can see, there are some new OC's, whose identities you will find out later...
SPOILER ALERT!
There will be quite a lot of OC's and they would be all jumping at her to speak with her, to tell her the truth, if it weren't for a promise to someone not to do that.
SPOILER END!
Anyway, I'm still searching for a name for this story, as well as a Beta reader.
