Finally, the train had arrived at the station at Burgas. The handsome doctor swiftly moved among the people that filled the station, grabbing his luggage and then quickly getting a carriage to get to the ship.
He hoped to get the ones that were leaving early during the day, which were mostly merchant ships. Even if they made a few stops, they were his best bet to get on time to his destination. Also, he compromised with Mr. Archer to keep writing to him while he traveled.
He expected to be out in the sea for a few weeks, depending on several things, like wind, weather conditions, and tides, it would be about a month to get there.
Every second closer to this one destination was one second closer to help his pretty girl, the one he couldn't even tell yet about his plans, and he was growing so excited about it that he didn't see any problems in accommodation on the ship, or whatever option, for uncomfortable that it was.
The Black Sea was the first par
Annabelle's worst nightmare was standing right in front of her, and still, she could not see his eyes. The snake in his staff moved back and forth towards her, flicked her metallic tongue to her, and Belle couldn't move.The Man From Hell, of the legends of Onerea, had crossed to her dimension, and she wasn't sure if it was real or a hallucination. The scream still didn't find a way out of her mouth or any word for that matter.The door suddenly open behind her, she quickly turned to see who was there, and Anna, one of the helpers, was standing there, frozen."I'm very sorry Miss. I didn't mean to scare you."Abbie turned again to see in front of her, was the monster still there, and Anna couldn't see it? But no, he was gone."I- It's ok, Anna, thanks for coming," was the only thing Abbie could say.The house helper came inside the room and waited for Annabelle to sit in her bed, then put in front of her the small bed table with
All the way into the storm, the rain hit the deck and all the sailors in it. It was night already. They had been sailing for a few hours and were about to enter the Bosphorus strait.Captain Nankov yelled commands while his men fast-walk around, pulling the sails, securing the mast, holding the rudder to keep the course while fighting the heavy winds. The tall waves that menaced their safety and rocked the ship side to side.Back belowdecks, Domi stood awake. The captain commanded him to stay in the rooms, as it was safer.He was not a sailor and was more dangerous if he tried to help without the required experience.If he stood in the consultation room, it was as dangerous and prone to accidents as what happened to the previous medical doctor that worked on the ship.He couldn't sleep either. It would surely put him in danger, especially with the way the ship was moving, and in case of an emergency, in which his help was required, they would
Raquel's warning had deeply worried Belle. How would she know who of all the people or beings she was going to see were Fae or not? For now, the place looked beautiful.It had the air of what she imagined so many times when she was a kid, reading and reading in her tower without a dragon, either in London or Exeter.She could not imagine that after the fog, there could be a place like that."Oh, excuse us, ladies."Two women of undefined age were coming through the invisible floating trail. They were almost behind Raquel and Annabelle, who hadn't moved from the entrance and were not letting them go through."Sorry!" Raquel said, moving to the left and pulling Belle with her.The other two walked by them and kept on their way, and that reminded Raquel and Belle to keep going towards the event, so they resumed walking."They are shifters. One is a Werewolf, and the other one is a dragon," Raquel said with an unsurprised tone. "I'v
Raquel walked to the front of the group, still happily giggling and having fun with the game. She started calling Belle to the front, as there was no doubt that the only person that had ever seen her in the group was standing in front of them already and calling her to go as well.what could she do? Next time she'll ask how dangerous the games are. Was it all in Onerea about facing fears? Because Belle had just recently discovered that she was not happy in the middle of large amounts of people, especially if they're looking and pointing at her.She felt naked and defenseless and had still to walk the walk and go to the front.Cami was there, ready with a piece of fabric destined to be the blindfold of Belle. Even if she was so nervous, would she dare ask her?"Hello, girl. Why are you so worried?" Cami whispered to her."Uh... Well, I'm not exactly magickal... or expert on weapons... and don't want to be cut in half by one of the very f
Belle immediately reacted at Cami's suspicions and jumped to deny that her interest in her story was anything related to Dominik."Oh, no, no. It's nothing related to Domi," Belle interrupted before Cami could say something that would make her blush even more, while Cami just smirked at the girl."Then why do you want me to tell you such things?" Cami asked her."Well... I might be more curious than appropriate. I do apologize for that," Belle told her."Oh, well. If you say so. Victor and I have no problem in any aspect of our relationship, and yes, there are ways in which you can learn to control when you want to wake up and when you want to stay in the dream, especially since here you're usually fully conscious that you're dreaming, or what would be called or considered, lucid dreaming.In this state of mind, and since Victor and I are mates, our connection is in different levels more tangible than other people you could meet in a dr
Cami and Victor had left already, and Belle was uncomfortably standing on Domi's right and a step behind him. In front of them, a confused Myron and a giggling Raquel talked with Dominik, who seemed to be a little worked up."So, your best idea was to bring her here? Through the invisible bridge, to a place where the food could leave her trapped in the Dreamland, for the rest of her probably short life, since she wouldn't be able to feed herself?""Domi Cat, I told her not to eat Fae food. I even told her which was theirs, and besides her first scare, she seemed to be enjoying herself, especially when your friends came in.""Raq, I'm glad that you found her, and she didn't have to roam around the place on her own while I managed to get here, but still, I find the event really dangerous for someone who isn't from here!""I still don't understand what happened. Most people come to the city alone for the first few times, and they mess it up a little, but the
The next morning came to Onerea. Belle woke up in a place she didn't remember, hugged by another lady that it took her a few minutes to recognize as Raquel.She seemed to be happily dreaming, with a big smile on her face and softly mumbling something.Belle removed her arm and slowly tried to get out of bed, forgetting that she was near the edge of it. Belle's attempt to turn her body and take it from under Raq's arm ended up in her falling to the floor.The loud thud seemed to wake up the gentlemen of the house, who both were sleeping in the room that used to be Dominik's, the door right in front of R and Myron's.He convinced Myron that he would take care of whatever had happened, so he could continue sleeping. The other one, more asleep than awake anyway just turned and continued lightly snoring.Dominik, on the other hand, seemed to have slept with an eye open all night long, making sure his pretty girl slept well.Nothing would happen t
Annabelle stood speechless on the table for a second. Dominik didn't dare to turn and see her, but he could feel her face was redder than a tomato.He was uncertain about how she was going to react and waited in that awkward silence. Nobody talked after Raquel let Myron know that she didn't remember. Nobody ate or moved. They just stood there, uncomfortably, until Myron talked again."I'm really sorry, guys. I thought she remembered. I thought she was ok with it. There's nothing wrong with it, Belle-"She had embarrassed herself, and now she didn't know how to fix it... what to do? She wasn't even sure... she couldn't remember, even if she tried. The only thing she wanted was to leave the house.Still not looking at anybody, she pushed her chair out and got up. Kept her eyes locked on the table and talked."I am truly sorry for whatever inconvenience I have caused you. I think I need to leave now. If you excuse me."Belle fast-walked t
It all came down to this moment. Annabelle had been unconscious for almost an hour when Dominik and her family arrived at the clinic, and he quickly met with the parents to get their consent for the intervention, that now was a matter of saving her life or not.“Your daughter seems to have been born with a small hole in her heart. If you try with the stethoscope, you can hear the peculiar sound it makes, very characteristic to the illness. As she grew older, the small hole got bigger, and at the point that we are, if it grows any more, it will be fatal. Besides that, her body is weakening by the minute, so the surgery is a very urgent matter now. We need to operate swiftly and carefully.”He explained the parents, and they, as the last chance, agreed, knowing that if they didn’t accept, their daughter would die any minute, if not that da
“Oh it’s true… For some reason, I thought I told you before. My name is Annabelle Archer, pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dominik Stoev,” she said, giggling and still trying to swing to the edge. “I believe, though, that we should still try to get to the edge. Do you mind if we leave the presentations for later and get out of the mirror?” Dom couldn’t believe it… And wasn’t sure if the present news was good or not. He was on the ship and less than a day away to possibly save the girl’s life. Fear was, at least for the moment, transforming into great, big hopes, and Dom was shining bright, excited and with renewed strength. “Know what? Yes, let’s try your plan, suddenly I have a feeling that it will work.” His smile
“Captain Nankov, I found him!” Lazar yelled from one side of the ship’s deck, near the stern.In front of him was Dominik, sleeping like a log, in a half-sitting position.“I don’t know how he does it. The last few days, he sleeps wherever he falls, and not even an hour later he’s walking around again… Come on guys, I think this is the good one, let’s take him back to the cabin!”“Do you think this time he’ll sleep for longer?” Lazar asked, looking at the man deeply breathing, and now frowning.“I believe so. And I hope, because we’re soon to arrive at our destination, and what he said he had to do, will need him to be awake and ready. He’s saving a girl’s life yo
The Man From Hell finally appeared near Belle. He was standing right next to her body, intently looking at her, while Dom looked at him as if saying “I’ll kill you if you do anything to her,” and, as if he knew, the Man looked up and smiled widely, showing all of his needle-like teeth. “Calm down a little, my dear, it is still good that we can see him. I tell you again, he is not what people think he is…” Onia reassured Dom, who took a seat and watched, compass still in hand. “I’ll just feel better when she’s out of that place.” “I believe that she will be very soon. Although, remember, he might be protecting her from something else, so when she’s out there, make sure that her condition hasn’t worsened.” Onia’s words hit Dom hard. He really wanted to go look for her
Belle knew that the intentions of the Wishmaster couldn’ have been for her to die trying. If anything it was part of her test.Finally it was looking like a trial, and she kind of regretted not taking her weapons with her, but maybe she was not supposed to kill the creature that was now moving fast towards her.Then, she felt something grabbing her and pulling her strongly, just in time to get her out of the water.Her body slammed against the floor as the force used to take her out of the pool was that much, and right after she fell, she saw the white-rainbowy scales of the large, round monster that closed its mouth with a loud snap up in the air and fell back to the water.“I have to say, I am impressed,” the Wishmaster said, and the smile on his face
“Possibilities and fears don’t make life. Life is made of choices,” suddenly Annabelle said.“True… Partially.”As the very, very big, white fish swam slightly closer, a white mist could be seen swimming, or maybe, more like floating, around the young woman, that could easily go unnoticed. It had not been noticed by Annabelle herself, since it was not exactly physical, but…Could a shadow be white?“But you can’t tell me, that I have known you for so long that you don’t want to take what has been offered to you. Make your family happy, and be happy yourself,” the voice said once more, and then, Belle noticed something very interesting…That thing that
Belle closed her eyes. It was not the first time that she heard the voice in her head telling her all the things that could go wrong.But now, she didn’t care much about what could happen, mistakes were made and trouble happened as part of life. Her new life in Onerea had taught her that, and, maybe her physical heart was getting weaker, but her will and character were getting stronger.An image started showing up in front of her eyes.“Do you remember, dear, when we were kids, and you met the son of our governess? I remember you liking the boy, and that boy liked you too. It took a lot from you to forget about that, even if you were just a kid.”Annabelle sat in one of the chairs of the library, where she was taught every day by her governess, a
Belle was sleeping. Her breathing was deep and calm. Her chest raised often enough, and not even the disturbances around her, people talking or even accidentally moving her, thinking that she was awake, had changed that.It was many, many hours already too, that she had been asleep. More than twelve. Almost a day, actually, of continuous sleeping, and she didn’t seem to be close to waking up. A few days before, her father received a telegram from Dr. Stoev, letting him know that, if everything went well, he’d be arriving in a week and a half to two weeks, from the day he sent the note, that was about three, four days before.Being too optimistic, in a week the doctor, specialized in his daughter’s disease, would arrive…But was it possible that she resisted for that long?
Belle felt herself falling, and falling, for quite a while. Around her, growling could be heard, but nothing could be seen. The pitch black space that surrounded her made her unsure about the speed in which she precipitated, and where she was precipitating into.“Remember what I said,” he told her, and she remembered indeed.“Eyes wide open, be ready for whatever it is,”she said to herself. “Weapons,” she remembered, checking the different places where she got the holsters, back then at the store.Happy to see that everything was in place, she wondered if that was a mirror.“He said it would be a trial… and to remember what I believe in… cryptic crazy guy… I like him haha.”