A Dream Of The Past

Lyra jerked and turned in her sleep uneasily. Balls of sweat that had gathered all over her face and neck rolled down chin in buckets, soaking her nightwear and quilt. Her brows were furrowed, eyes drew tight as she wiggled on the bed uneasily. She was having a nightmare.

In her dream, she was in a deserted subway and roaming listlessly. She didn't have a good memory of where she was headed or where she was walking but she was dragging a white suitcase along with her as she walked.

Her phone was in her hand and she seemed to be having a call with someone. Everything seemed nice and dreamy. But it only took a moment to go downhill.

As she walked onto the steps of the subway pavement, a figure suddenly jumped out of nowhere, crashing into her and knocking her onto the ground heavily.

Her body smashed onto the ground and even though it was only happening in a dream, Lyra herself stirred on her bed feeling the awful sting that came with the fall.

Her phone had slid away from her due to the fall and she glanced at it, before looking up at the culprit. She expected it to be a youth like her; a young man most probably judging from his physique. But she was not prepared for what she saw instead.

Instead of a normal young man with a clean face that oozed of youthfulness, what she saw was a face she would never forget. With an angular-shaped face so perfect that they seemed to have been cut out with careful precision, a pair of neatly cut eyebrows drawn together complementing the pair of eyes that were further down.

Lyra gaped as her gaze moved from the top half of his face down to his eyes. She breathed in... Those eyes. They were red. Not just any red; they were fiery red in color as though fire was in them and they were blazing.

As she stared at them, she felt as though they were whirlpools, sucking her in and they looked as though they could see directly through her and her inner thoughts. They were so fiery that she felt as though she was being set up on fire by them and they were burning her up.

Lyra was too stunned to move or say a word. Instead, she was drunk in such beauty and in so much awe that she couldn't look away from those eyes, feeling as though she was noticing new things with every minute she spent staring at them.

Eventually, she reluctantly moved her gaze from his eyes and down to his nose and lips. She was even more in shock at the sight of what was down there.

His lips were pressed tight and there didn't seem to be anything strange about them. But the white fangs standing out from each side of his mouth stuck out like an eyesore. Lyra's hands which were on the floor shook with each passing moment.

As though the other party just came to their senses too, he jerked. It was only then she noticed he was also stunned at the sight of her. He noticed she was staring at his fangs and before Lyra knew it, he snarled at her, his fangs sticking out even more.

His tall figure came close even more and with such proximity, Lyra jumped back in terror. His fangs were so long and even though they were sparkly white, she still could not help but jerk in fright.

Seeing her reaction, the man halted in his movement. However, he didn't back off and instead, peered at her with his blazing red eyes pressed intently on her. His expression was rather calm and he seemed to be only staring out of curiosity.

However, Lyra was too terrified to notice that. Who wouldn't be? He was something she had never seen in her life. Something she could only imagine existed in books and movies.

A pair of red eyes and two long fangs that stuck out of the mouth as though they were always meant to be there. Except there was no blood dripping from his mouth as always described in books. Yet, she was still scared senseless at the sight of a living, vampire right in front of her eyes.

He moved closer to her again but this time, she was prepared and understood what he was. She lunged on her feet in fright and prepared to flee. But she had barely moved two steps when that figure appeared in front of her again.

However this time, his expression was no longer as calm as they were earlier. His red eyes were glowing even more and he lunged at her, pinning her to one of the coach buses.

Lyra trembled and she made to shout but this time, she couldn't even get a word out. She could not help but curse in her mind - how come the subway was so deserted today?

That face that scared and yet fascinated her so much moved another inch closer. She could not help but be stunned at the sight of that good-looking face again that she forgot she was being trapped by him. Normally in such proximity, other people would look a little abnormal with their faces up close. But rather, he looked even more beautiful.

Like an ancient god walking out of an oil painting.

She swallowed, unsure whether it was out of fear or nervousness. But regardless of which one it was, she knew she could not stay there any moment longer. An unknown man (if he was anything human) had jumped at her out of nowhere and kept her hostage. Her mind was running amok.

She wiggled against him and tried to free herself, finally finding her voice back. "Let me go! What do you want from me!?"

He didn't seem to hear all her words of protest however as his expression didn't even change a bit. He continued to stare at her intensely and it was beginning to creep her out. At first, she thought he was in a daze but she still couldn't free herself from his tight grasp regardless of how much she struggled.

But her movements however seemed to jerk him back to life as he reached out toward her. His hand moved so fast and nimbly that Lyra wasn't expecting it.

"Ah!" She screamed the moment she noticed his hand coming for her.

On his fingers were long dark nails she had noticed earlier. She thought he was going for her throat and wanted to rip her apart.

He seemed shocked by her sudden shout and he paused. But when she came to her senses, she saw that he seemed abnormal. His eyes recoiled in and he seemed to be about to collapse.

But right before he did, he called out for the first time in a voice so melodious and sonorous that made Lyra's breath hitch,

"Mate."

Suddenly, Lyra jerked sharply and woke up. She breathed heavily as sweat continued to roll down her body in bulk. Her face and expression were full of shock and terror as she tried to control her breathing.

She slowly sat up on her bed and drank a cup of water from the jug on her bedside table before heaving a deep sigh.

The nightmare she had felt so real and natural that she could not help but tremble even though she was just recalling it. She wiped off the sweat on her forehead with the sleeve of her nightwear as she thought of the nightmare she just had.

She wasn't unfamiliar with it and instead, she had dreamt of it so many times she could not even keep count of it. But after she had moved to another city, she hadn't dreamt of it any longer so she thought she was completely free from it.

But who knew that the same night she would return to City M, she would have that same horrific dream? She thought she had managed to shut him out of her life and dreams. But it turned out she was only fooling herself and she would never be able to escape from the terror of that night.

She squeezed the bed sheet tightly and her nails dug into her skin with her movement. It had been so long and she wasn't sure if she remembered all that happened. Her memory of all that happened that night was all fuzzy and inconsistent so she wasn't sure if she had begun to add some imagination along.

But she could not mistake it no matter what. What she saw that night, she would never forget that handsome but terrifying face.

By now, she was too afraid to go back to bed. She looked at her bedside clock which read 5am and decided it was better to get up and exercise before she left for the Sean Manor.

Anyway since she couldn't avoid coming all the way from City N to see a bunch of hypocritical faces she wanted to avoid if she could, she would face it like a champ and get ready for the fight she had to face head-on.

She knew without a doubt that no matter what the reason that her father, Richard Sean got her to return home, it definitely was not something to look forward to.