Chapter 188: Chapter 190

Chapter 5 – The Nightmare

“Your nightmares follow you like a shadow, forever. “Aleksandar Hemon

Neron

Sinister hissing reverberated off the thick air. The crimson mlasma billowed with the harsh wind flaying my skin. Ominous silence dominated, my harsh breathing barely agitating the stillness. My hands clamped my neck as I struggled to breathe, gasping for a small remnant of oxygen. I made the mistake of looking at the red sky for a sign of hope, but all I found was a curse. The sun didn’t shine its purifying light, for an eclipse stood in its place. An irremovable eclipse.

How long has it been since I last had a nightmare? The years felt like eons, yet I’m plunged into a familiar trepidation I’ve long forgotten about.

Dread’s spidery legs crawled up my arms as I hobbled under the hellish atmosphere. I needed to find an escape. The longer I remained, the more disorienting my vision became. My breathing grew loud in my ears and the red blurred like a splotch of watery paint. But there was a danger hidden beyond the red haze. I felt it sinking into my skin, seizing my bones in a violent grip.

Leave. Leave! I must leave!

Suddenly, my energy was zapped. I fell to my knees, continuously gasping for breath.

The hissing grew louder. The ground moved beneath my legs. My heart–wait, the ground is moving?!

One dumb decision after another. When I looked down, the haze momentarily faded to reveal snakes. Nausea crept its way into my stomach at the sickening sight of the surplus of black, scaly bodies bumping and grinding against one another with reckless abandon. The earth rumbled, but the snakes paid no mind. One snake stood out from the rest, noticing me with its beady, red eyes. It slithered up my thighs, careening its head up to get a better view. Its forked tongue flicked out twice before returning to the herd.

I hated snakes with a burning passion. I had Osiris to thank for that. This nightmare was making it worse!

‘You don’t have a clue why you’re here, right, Alpha?” A deep, callous voice growled in my ear. The earth quaked again, the aftershock running through my body. A portentous shadow loomed over me, swallowing my body whole. When I whipped my head around, I nearly collapsed on my back in fear of the gargantuan serpent glaring down at me with eyes the color of the deepest fraction of blood. “Alas, I wanted to make my arrival unannounced, but oh well, I cannot help it”

“Who are you?” I demanded; my voice broken in wheezes. “Why are you showing me this?!”

“I’m not the one showing you this vision, stupid dog.” The viper hissed, lowering its colossal head toward me, his nose nearly brushing against mine. “Why would I show you the future when your power conjures up the future itself?”

“P–power? F–future?” The haze cleared to reveal nothing but absolute devastation that stretched for milles. Corpses of innocent men, women, children, and animals littered the earth. The snakes slithered to and from holes of the bodies. Adrenaline was dead. Panic rushed through my body. “N–no… you lie! This is not the future!”

“Not yet.” The serpent’s evil boomed with every chuckle it made. My skin crawled. “But it will be the future once I t

ake this plane as my own.”

“The future is not for certain.”

“That rule doesn’t apply to gods, little puppy.” Its laughter boomed through the world when it caught sight of the confusion on my face. “Ah, I forgot your feeble minds cannot comprehend the presence of a god. But it won’t matter once you surrender your life to me.”

“Like hell, I will!” I snarled, pushing my body off the snake–infested ground. The glant serpent cocked its head before shaking it in disappointment, rising back to full height.

“olves are as stubborn as the wretched goddess who created them. This will change your mind. Look behind you.”

With a thunderous snap echoing across the air, I looked behind me to see a scene so horrific I thought my heart would rocket out of my chest. Thick snakes suspended Kiya in the air by her neck, entrapped by the coils of snakes and cobras slithering around her body from her shoulders to her feet. Her breathing hollowed out to almost nothing as the reptiles” bodies tightened around her chest. I could hear her ribs snapping. Her russet eyes lost their light, now a deathly pale brown compared to the brilliance I loved so much.

“N–N–Neron…” She whimpered as dribbles of blood slid clown the ends of her lips. “P–please…”

My heart didn’t leap; it exploded. My panic–turned–adrenaline fought against my fatigue as I tried to run toward Kiya, but the mini serpents were smart creatures. They sensed my fear. In their amusement, many shot up from the ground, colled around my limbs, and threw me on the ground on my back. Their barbaric strength held me to the earth as they forced me to listen to Kiya’s screams of terror.

“NO!” I screamed, struggling against my binds. “Let her go! RELEASE HER!”

“I’m not done.” King cobra laughed; the thunderous roar heard once again. Dropped on either side of Kiya like rag dolls were Phoebe and Violetta in identical states; their bodies ensnared by the devilish serpents, tightening around their fair flesh, leaving deep purple bruising. “Recognize them?”

“What do you want with them?!”

“They took something precious to me. Do not believe I haven’t forgotten about your involvement, dog.” It snarled. “It is only fair for them to die first, is it not?”

I heard the girls whimper and choke. This beast was going to kill them in front of me! I looked into Kiya’s eyes to see her silent pleas swimming in the sea of pallid brown.

And I saw the glimmer of an… apology.

I’m sorry for involving you,” she mouthed

“A life for a life.” The serpent towered over me, his gigantic, forked tongue lapping on the sweat dripping down my temple. “Taking what belonged to me signed their deaths. Once I get my fangs onto all who were responsible for my loss, I will exact my revenge, even if I must destroy heaven and hell, myself!”

“And it’ll start with the moon’s avatar.”

The snakes tightened and twisted with a sickening crack silencing Kiya’s screams.

Chapter 5–The Nightmare

The loudest scream I’ve ever mustered tore through my throat when I shot up from the bed. Sweat clung onto me like a second skin, entrapping me in unbearable heat. The world was in a muddled fog of black instead of red, but it didn’t make the horrors any less real. The panic that bound itself to me crumbled my defenses, pummeling my chest and lungs while I struggled to calm down. But I couldn’t calm down. My head pounded. in the only thought buzzing like an angry hornet.

Is Kiya okay?!

Gasping, I grabbed my phone and sent her a flurry of text messages, begging for her to wake up. I needed at sign that she’s alive. A sign that she wasn’t dead with a broken neck. A sign to ease my biggest fear. Onyx’s overwhelming presence flooded my own, sending a thick heat to my fingers. He’s telling me to stop. I growled and fought against my wolf, dropping my phone in my lap, thrashing on the bed, and gripping at my head.

“Neron, listen to me!” Onyx shouted, pouring his warmth into mine. “Listen to your charismatic and troublesome wolf! You’re safe and Kiya is safe, I promise!”

“No! I need to know, Onyx! I need proof!”

“She IS safe! Anthony would’ve let us know if something happened! I promise you our sweet angel is alright. She’s okay.”

She is…?

She is.

I finally stopped, catching my breath. I picked up my cell and held it to my chest. My heart was an uncontrollable drum hammering against my chest, but it lessened when the world cleared up. I was in my bedroom. The air conditioner hummed at the window, the ceiling was dark, and around me were familiar items that made my bedroom mine. My breathing leveled out as the panic left me, my lungs sucking in the precious oxygen my nightmare deprived me of.

I’m safe. I got out.

“Goddess…” I cried, covering my face with my hands. The aftereffects of the nightmare shook me to my core. It was too damn real. I still hear Kiya’s scream before her death. Onyx did his best to soothe me, but I was terrified. “Are you sure she’s safe?”

“I’m sure. Plus, it’s two in the morning, so you can’t expect her to answer your texts now.”

Right. I forgot how late it was. After getting my bearings, I pushed my body off the bed and just sat on the edge of the mattress for a minute, trying to make sense of what I just dreamt. A nightmare, no more, no less. I refused to believe it would come true. It couldn’t.

Not like the other dreams I had.

No matter how insignificant my dreams were, I’ve noticed a link that I couldn’t ignore. They all came true. One dream I had a couple of weeks back involved Adonis hurting his leg while playing with friends. I thought nothing of it, painting it off as the worries of an uncle.

But it happened exactly the way I had dreamt.

Another instance was when one of my members had a pregnancy complication and his mate, one of my warriors, confided in me about his worries about his wife and unborn child. Their born healthy, but it didn’t help when I had dreamt of the same complication my warrior told me about.

My dreams foretold the coming future, even the dreams I had of Kiya when Osiris was alive. That big ass snake, somehow, knew too! A cold sweat tumbled down my spine, landing in a powerful thud on my lower back. What if this nightmare is part of the collection of these… prophetic dreams?

Kiya fucking died in the nightmare. I wasn’t afraid of a lot of things but losing Kiya tied to losing my family.

I needed some water.

The pack house was quiet, with the slumbering wolves nestling in their bedrooms. Thank Goddess that my room was soundproof, or else explaining why I was screaming in the middle of the night would’ve been. awkward. I crept down the stairs, making a beeline toward the kitchen. Grabbing a mug from the cupboard, I filled it up with cold water.

I never want to have a nightmare like that again. Despite the gentle cool, the nightmare lingered like cigarette smoke. Heaving out a heavy sigh, I dragged my tired body to the common room to relax before heading back to bed until a familiar scent wafted up to my nose.

What was she doing up so late?

Opening the door, I spotted Nuria sitting on the couch cushions with her legs to her chest, head rested on her knees as she faced the window. Moonlight flickered through the window, delineating my sister’s form in a gentle, silver halo. Her back tensed up as her soft sigh echoed through the room.

Couldn’t sleep?” She asked. I walked to the couch and took the seat beside her, resting my mue on the table.

“No.” I answered, rubbing my elbows. “You?”

“No.” She whispered, sniffling. Nuria turned her head to reveal puffy eyes, wiping her tears with her hands. “I… I had a really bad nightmare.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” Nuria shook her head, tightening her arms around her legs. “I don’t want to think about it again. You should go back to sleep; I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not about to leave my sister alone in the common room.” I reiterated, resting my back against the

couch cushions. “At least let me be of some company. I had a nightmare, too.”

eves filling with

Nuria lifted her head, concern. “This night is kicking us both in the ass, huh?”

“Looks like it.” I chuckled, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to me. She rested her head on my shoulder, sighing in content. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it? It’ll make you feel better.”

“Hmm…” Nuria hummed, her eyes fluttering close. “I don’t know where to start. It was fucking terrifying. The realism was… it was like I was physically there, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Chapter 5–The Nightmare

I blinked. That sounded too similar to how I felt after I woke up from mine. There’s no way Nuria and I could’ve had the same nightmare, right? My curiosity was eating me alive, but I didn’t want to push my sister to tell me a dream that spooked the shit out of her. So, I did what a good brother should do and just allowed her to rest comfortably in silence until she was ready to talk.

I needed this comfort as well.

Suddenly, the scent of rose hit my nose. Nuria’s nostrils flared, deeply sniffing the powerful aroma. We lifted our heads to see Mom standing at the doorway with concern on her face and a large, aged photo album in her hands. My sister and I spared each other glances before facing our mother.

“Mom?” Nuria asked. “Is something the matter?”

“There is something I need to tell you two.”

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