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AWAKEN: Chapter 23
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2024-10-29 19:42:56I guess I could praise myself for not overreacting when my best friend’s doctor father told me that my Greek god maybe-boyfriend, and the guy I’m apparently meant to be marrying, had just woken up from a coma, which his brother had unintentionally put him in while he was trying to weaken him so that he could kill him to gain control of an alternate realm called the Dreamlands. Yup, I think I reacted really well.
I think I managed to thank Doc for calling, but I’m not completely sure as I was functioning on autopilot. My mind swam with questions that would probably never be answered. How is this even possible? Why now? What did it all mean? I contemplated calling Ally and asking for her thoughts on the matter but I had plagued the woman enough for one day and Morpheus would still be awake tomorrow. Instead, I grabbed my journal and wrote in big, elaborate writing “Morpheus woke up today”. I had the feeling I may want to remember the date for years
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His lips were soft on mine, gentle pressure which seemed to warm me to the tips of my toes. I felt my arms wrap around his neck as my eyes closed in bliss and he pulled me close to him. Morpheus. The thought pierced my mind like an arrow, striking my consciousness. It wasn’t Morpheus who I was kissing. No, it was Ricky and I shouldn’t be enjoying his kiss as much as I was. I slowly pulled back, reluctant to end the kiss although I knew that I had to. I felt as if I was cheating on Morpheus, even if we weren’t really together and our relationship was sort of up in the air due to his being awake. I had planned on visiting him in hospital earlier in the day, but when Ricky arrived the plan flew out the window – along with my brain apparently. I registered the confusion displayed on Ricky’s face as I broke contact with him. “I’m sorry, Cal. I shouldn’t have... I don’t know why I did that.” he said, slightly dazed. He seemed even more awkwa
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 25
The neurology ward was a welcomed sight, even though my stomach was tied in anxious knots about meeting “John Doe”. I entertained the thought that the man who had woken up may not even be Morpheus, even though there was so much proof which said otherwise. I twisted the silver bracelet on my wrist as I walked toward the nurses’ station, a nervous gesture which I didn’t even realise I was doing.“Good morning Callie, I didn’t realise you were coming in today.” the greying nurse behind the desk smiled at me.I smiled back at her, or at least I tried to, as I put on the apron which signified me as being a volunteer.“Yeah, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.” I admitted.I listen to the woman babble on about the new interns who were going to be coming in and how she hoped that there were some cute male interns who she could try set her daughter up with. Apparently, trying to intervene in your child&rsquo
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 26
I barely saw Morpheus over the next few weeks, having been bombarded with schoolwork and working at the restaurant, but when I did see him I didn’t get to talk to him much. The second time I worked in the ward after he woke up, I realized that he was being watched by the staff, as if he were some sort of terrorist or international criminal on the run. I half expected him to be handcuffed to the bed when I returned, but instead I found him channel surfing and complaining about how pointless and repetitive television had become. I smiled at him as I entered but didn’t dare speak to him for more than a few minutes since a security guard had been posted by the entrance to the ward. The nurses tried to tell me that it was a new hospital procedure, but since none of the other wards were being watched like a hawk, I was forced to wonder what the guard’s true purpose was.We discovered that Morpheus had become just another dreamer without any control or abilit
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 27
“Welcome to the Darklands, my dear.” The voice echoed in the large room coldly, as if its owner was devoid of all emotion. The room was dark, lit with only a single candle which sputtered on a desk as if it was about to die. The desk itself stood in - what I could only presume - the centre of the room and looked as if it belonged to an elite royal family in its antique finery. I found my eyes darting around the room, searching for the source of the cold voice which had greeted me. “I trust that Dareios has behaved himself? He didn’t try to kill you this time, did he?” I saw the shadow of a figure move slightly on the opposite end of the room and it occurred to me that Icelus may look so hideous that he preferred to stick to the shadows. He was probably gruesomely disfigured, or had horns, rotting teeth, burn scars or something equally atrocious. “No. Not this time.” I he
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 28
Ally picked me up early on the Black Friday, as we had planned the night before. We were going to visit Morpheus and meet the rest of the Sykes family, the farmers who he was staying with. Ally’s car is seriously beyond description, although it is almost as if femininity exploded in it. Every inch of it – inside and out - was covered with flowers, hearts or sequins, and the steering wheel was dotted with butterflies, and yet somehow it suited her.“Welcome to Elizabeth.” she beamed as I climbed in, patting the dashboard lovingly before she pulled off.I remembered that she had crashed a car just a few months ago and suddenly got a bit nervous, although I wasn’t her fiancé and I wasn’t about to break her heart. I found my eyes losing focus as the crops we sped past became a blur. I must have dosed off because one moment I was watching the crops and then next we were pulling into a gravel driveway while Kayla sang horridly.
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I barely slept, my mind running away with me at odd tangents and composing situations within my head that seemed to lead either toward Morpheus or toward Ricky. Both had their pros and cons, but if I had to be honest with myself I was swaying towards Ricky big time. Morpheus in reality seemed different on so many levels. It was as if he wasn’t in control of anything anymore and I realised that it was what drew me to him in the first place. He was always in control of his emotions, composed beyond words – until he woke up that is. Now he sat at the edge of his seat as if I would pull out a knife and stab him through the chest a few times, but I don’t think Icelus would thank me for taking away his fun.When I eventually fell asleep I found myself sitting on a bench next to Dareios – just my luck.“Good evening, my sweet. Missed me already?” he chuckled, putting an arm around me. I tried to pull myself away but it
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 30
“Hey Nik, what’s new?”I lay on my stomach on my bed with my arms resting on its edge, my laptop on the floor with the screen and camera pointed up at me so that I didn’t have to strain my neck. I took a bite of a carrot while I waited for my brother to connect up his ‘broken’ camera.“Hey Cal. Finals, sister of mine, finals are what is new.”His voice sounded as if he was speaking from inside a tunnel – the joys of cross-Atlantic communication.“Ooh, ouch!” I sympathised, nibbling my carrot some more.Nik’s face flickered onto the screen, eyebrow raised in question.“What? I’m on diet.”I knew I sounded defensive but I was rather embarrassed to be on diet in the first place. Greek girls don’t diet without a man being behind it all.“I didn’t say a thing.” Nik threw his hands up in the air as if blocking an imaginar
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 31
By the end of the day, everyone had heard that I had lost my virginity to Ricky and no matter how much I denied it wasn’t believed by anyone who didn’t know me personally. In fact, some of those people who did know me personally even thought that it was true. Matt, the guy who sat behind me in maths winked at me as he walked past and then drew me a picture of a bed, writing the words ‘wanna jump in it with me?’ underneath. I threw the paper back at him but I don’t think it got my point across as he stared at me the whole way through the lesson.I should have never crossed the cheerleader. The realisation came as I walked home from school that afternoon and the freshman girls who usually walked along with me asked me how Ricky was in bed and if I screwed him before or after he asked Marie out. The whole school obviously believed the lie and it just made me want to shove Marie’s pompoms down her throat. I basically ran the whole way
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“Remind me why I let you drive?” Nik asked me with a queasy look on his face as he climbed out of the car and shut the door firmly behind him.“I’m not that bad!” I retorted, locking the car and heading toward the restaurant’s front doors.My brother snorted in disbelief and shook his head in wonder, still looking slightly green. The restaurant was rather full, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Most of the patrons were teenage girls who had heard that a plethora of hot guys could be found inside the Aphrodite’s Haven. As we walked in the girls at the nearest table turned our way and chatted excitedly in hushed voices. I wasn’t deaf and knew immediately that they were drooling over my poor brother, even in his green state of affairs.“Am I glad to see you guys here!” Ricky muttered to us as we headed to the bar which he manned. “This place is a nightmare!”
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A noise across the hall drew our attention to the two figures who stumbled in, one aiding the other to walk across the marble flooring. I clutched Morpheus’ hand and drew him closer to me, realising who the intruders were. Lyssia glared at me but fact that she was clinging to her brother for support seemed to sap all of the threat from her gaze. Warrick didn’t even meet my gaze – in fact he almost appeared worried. Perhaps he was more scared of Hypnos than I had thought.The sound of the giant oak doors opening reverberated through the empty hallway, instantly directing our attention to Hypnos who motioned for Morpheus. I glanced briefly at Morpheus before we stepped passed his father into the darkened room.“Lyssia and Warrick, you will join us.” Hypnos ordered, a frozen edge to his voice.The siblings did as they were told, ashen faced and slightly trembling. Immediately I became suspicious.The room had been lit with thous
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 54
In all the movies I’ve ever seen about war, the actors and actresses always look so dangerously glamorous, dressed in their metal armour which glints in the sunlight as they ride on white horses and cut off the enemies’ heads with a quick flick of the wrist. I suppose that was the reason why I was so taken aback when we gathered together at the base of the Citadel’s steps and was forced to really experience it all. I had never realised that fear had a scent until that moment. Even though I knew I couldn’t die, I was terrified for the novices which had been yanked from the inner sanctuary and were now being controlled by Zara – mindless clones that had no control of their own bodies. Those who had worked their way out of the novice ranks and were trusted enough to control their own minds wore their facial expressions like masks, barely covering the bubbling mixture of exhilaration and fear which simmered just below the surface of their composure.
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“Why are you doing this?” I asked trying to look as innocently bewildered as I could possibly manage, hoping to lull my captor into a false sense of security before I attacked.I had been trained to fight nightmares, after all. I guess my only downfall would be that my captor knew all the moves I could possibly throw at him. Warrick smiled sweetly at me as he tied the knots around my wrists.“Do you really need to ask? I’m the only surviving son of Icelus and therefore heir to the entire of the Dreamlands. The only thing standing between me and my destiny is Morpheus.”The voice of reason was small behind the madness of greed and I struggled to gather my thoughts. My gaze wandered over to where Ricky sat beside me, his eyes staring ahead blankly as if he were in a daze. There was no way on this earth we could work together to escape... he was just too far gone. I was all on my own there.“Don’t even think about it
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Daniel Peterson smiled at me over the glass of brandy he swished around, letting the amber liquid slide up the sides of the glass until it nearly spilled over.“How are you?” he asked, a casual air about him.I smiled stiffly, trying to swallow my nerves as he watched my every move as if I were on display at some famous museum.“I’m well, thank you.” I relied as civilly as I could muster, my gaze unconsciously darting to where my friends stood on the opposite side of the room.Wasn’t this man meant to be in prison? I mean, a few months behind bars isn’t nearly enough for what he had done to Kayla. I knew Ricky had said that he got a light sentence but that was just ridiculous!“Ah, I see Kayla and Robert are here. And Violet and her punk boyfriend played really well tonight. Please commend them for me.”As if I would. I nodded and began to tear myself away from him, hoping to put as much
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 51
“So, there’s this competition happening at some club tomorrow night where bands get to battle it out for the ultimate prize and Josh and I were thinking of signing the band up.” Vi announced, lying on my bed and throwing my stress ball at the ceiling.I dipped the brush into my favourite blue nail polish and slowly stroke the thick liquid onto my fingernail.“Sounds like a good plan.”“One problem – there’s already a band with our name signed up and we can’t duplicate names.”I looked at my friend who was about to put a hole in my ceiling with that blasted stress ball, confusion written all over my face.“Are you seriously telling me that another band has called themselves ‘Bleeding Roadkill’?” I said, my voice severely tainted with astonishment – hell, it was bad enough that they called themselves that horrid name.“Yeah! Can you believe it?&rdqu
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 50
“Do you have to hang around like this?” I glared at Warrick as he sat at the table closest to the bar, sipping his refill coffee and reading the paper as I worked my shift at the restaurant.He glanced at me quickly, setting the cup down on the table.“Morpheus said guard you, so here I am. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him.” he muttered over the top of the paper.Arrogant ass.“Oh I will.” I muttered under my breath, wiping a spot from the counter furiously.I had been treated like a prisoner for three days and already I was sick of it. It even made me think of regretting my killing the beast nightmare... but then I remember what he was about to do and suddenly it seemed worth it. Even if I was chained to Warrick’s side for the rest of my life it would be worth it.“Woah there kiddo, what did the counter ever do to you?” my brother asked, snatching the cloth from my gras
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 49
It hurt.“Oh gods, this is it. This is how I die.” I thought to myself as my body fell to the ground.I couldn’t feel anything apart from the pain which sliced through me with the strength of all of the weapons housed in the Citadel. Lyssia’s laughter rung in my ears as she stood over my body, her head thrown back in mirth. The crowd seemed to have taken a few steps backward, although they clearly couldn’t pull themselves away from the spectacle the nightmare had brought with her.“I guessss Morpheusss’ love wasssn’t undying.” she hissed, turning her back and walking away from me, leaving me to death as she tracked down her next victim – the second man in chains.His wife started sobbing again, clutching his hand with all her might as if it would save him. He turned deathly pale once again, his eyes darting to where I lay. I guess I must have been quite a sight, covered in blood and dying, becaus
In The Arms of Morpheus Chapter 48
I turned and smiled at Zara, trying as hard as I could not to portray that I was not quite myself. My hands shook slightly but she didn’t seem to notice as she came to my side.“Morpheus came home.” she grinned, her dark eyes sparkling.“I worry about that, Zara. He’s still vulnerable.” I admitted, forcing my face to express my fear.She laughed at me and took my slightly trembling hand in hers, looping it through the crook in her arm and urging me silently to walk with her.“How is Cassia?” I asked, knowing full well that what the child had done could have resulted in her execution by Icelus.Zara’s entire body tensed and she looked away.“She is well.”I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the woman was lying. Something terrible had happened - I was sure of it. I felt the blood drain from my face and I stopped in my tracks, forcing Zara to halt as well.&ldqu
