Was that just a beautiful dream

This reality that’s drifting apart in distance yeah

In deep darkness I only waited for you

The time that this night

- Mystery Lover – 

Anna gaze on him didn’t falter “No you don’t.” She said confidently, not a trace of fear in her voice. “You want to protect me.”

Somehow she was sure of it. His voice was dangerous and he was clearly trying to scare her with his words but she could feel his soul. Maybe her aunt was right; maybe she was like her mother. Her sixth sense was working and she was sure Taemin didn’t want to hurt her.

Anna grabbed his hand, the sweet warm sensation filling her veins again, as if blocking all the bad energies around her and Taemin widened his eyes realizing that his plan wasn’t working.

She wasn’t scared of him. On contraire, she trusted him.

“Do you also feel it?” She asked in a low voice, her fingers caressing the back of his hand “This weird sensation every time we touch? I felt it yesterday at my bedroom….when you visited me!”

All his body was tense and Taemin answered distressed “I don’t know what you are talking about. We have never met.”

Anna smiled because he was denying the obvious.

“Maybe we didn’t outside of a dream but I know we are connected somehow.”

Taemin stood up immediately and she could see how troubled he seemed with her words.

“Leave!” He ordered keeping away from her as if he was scared of her touch.

Anna didn’t say anything and stood up walking to the door. She looked back at him and Taemin swallowed nervously.

“I’ll be waiting for you.”

She said before leaving. She was sure he would come back to her, in a dream or in real life.

Anna appetite was back after her quick meeting with Taemin. She felt energized, so different from the last days. She didn’t want to think much about it and instead she ate all her food thankfull for that good feeling.

“Did you have fun today at the village?” her uncle asked watching her eat with a smile. “You seem to be in a good spirit.”

“Yes I am. I think it did me good to leave the house.” Her aunt frowned and Anna quickly swallowed her food to add “I mean, I like being here, but maybe I should go out more often.”

They already thought she was weird and she didn’t want to give them more reasons to think she was insane.

“Why don’t you eat another piece of cake?” Her aunt suggested when Anna finished hers.

“I can’t. That’s uncle’s piece!”

He chuckled noticing her eyes sparkle with the suggestion. “It’s ok sweetie you can eat mine. I’m full!” He stood up from the table and rubbed her shoulders “Sleep well. I’m going to bed since I’m so tired!” He stretched his arms and then left the dining room.

Anna grabbed his piece of cake ready to dig in when she peeked at her aunt struggling with the question she wanted to ask her.

“Yes?” Her aunt smiled cleaning with the napkin “Anything you want to know?”

“Do you know Taemin- ssi?”

“Taemin? Never heard of him? Does he live in the village? I think doctor Han had a son called Taesung or something…”

“No. He lives in the cliff house.”

Her aunt frowned “Impossible. No one lives there for years now. The house is completely abandoned and in ruins.”

“I doubt it. I was there today and…” Anna bit her lip realizing that she was revealing too much and acting once again as a fool. “I was outside the house and I think I saw a man there. Heard his name was Taemin.”

“I never saw him before. Maybe someone trying to buy the house? I hope we get some quiet good neighbors. “

Anna ate her cake not making any more observations. It was weird how she always met Taemin outside in the cliff and no one else seemed to have  ever seen him before.

The bathroom was old but it still had a huge old white bathtub in the middle of the room that made Anna feel as if she entered a fairytale.

That night she was in such a good mood that she decided to take a bubble bath.

In the past she normally took them which made her boyfriend upset because she wasted a lot of water in it. He was the kind to take a quick shower and that was it. He wasn't the kind to linger on something. For him life was too short to stop for a minute, that’s also probably the reason he died so young in a car accident.

Anna wished she could have told him what he meant to her. Yes, she didn’t love him as he deserved it, but he was her most special person for years, her best friend.  It’s only when you lose someone that you realize all the things you wanted to do and never did because you always feel like there is still time to do it after.

Anna sighed letting her body slide on the bathtub; her torso disappeared under the bubbles. She closed her eyes fixing her hair that was caught in a bun and rubbed her wet neck brushing the few strands of her black hair that escaped her bun away from her skin.

It was so relaxing and she didn’t feel like that in such a long time. Maybe it was really because of Taemin touch. It was weird but it was as if he the poison out from her veins.

Taemin…

He was indeed attractive and his body still made her tingle inside, however his eyes on her; his beautifully shaped lips were the thing that she loved the most.

Anna moved her fingers in the water, making small splash sounds until she felt the familiar weird feeling coming back to her. Someone or something was watching her and she opened her eyes immediately, startled with that strong feeling.

She moved her eyes to the door of the bathroom that was still closed.

Suddenly the water became cold and she shivered wondering what was happening.

Anna swallowed siting on the bathtub, uncovering her body. As soon as she did it she felt someone whisper on her ear.

“He is watching….” It was a sweet feminine voice and she panicked covering her s and tuning around but no one was there.

“Who is there?” She asked.

It was as if the spell was broken and the water returned to the normal temperature the feeling of being watched disappeared and she could only hear her accelerated heartbeat.

There was definitely something wrong with that house and Anna was sure of it.

Maybe it was bad spirits, maybe it had to do with the past owners of that house but something was wrong and for some strange reason she was the only one who could sense it.

Anna hugged her pillow and sat on her bed. Her bedroom door was locked and she tried to call one of her old coworkers several times that night.

They weren’t good friends but they were somehow close so she was the only person she felt like calling, as a way to “leave” that place at least for a few minutes. They managed to speak for a brief two minutes before the call turned off due to the low reception.

Anna sighed disappointed and lied down on her bed. Her head hurt a lot ever since she left the bathroom and she was still a little scared. The effect Taemin had on her wore off by now and she lied under the covers shivering with the cold.

She couldn’t fall asleep and that worried her because she wanted to see him in her dreams. Anna turned in the bed and then stood still with her tummy upwards and eyes closed.

The shadow entered through the open window.

It made him smile how she always let the window open for him as if that mattered at all when he could open it with his powers, when he could enter into the house easily.

He didn’t like it though. That house was dark, filled with dark prisoned spirits crying, screaming and begging for him to take them with him to where he belonged. No one could name it but it was a place between heaven and hell, closer to the last one than to the first one. However it was best than the hell on Earth where those spirits lived, every day, dying all over again.

The shadow preferred Anna’s bedroom. Spirits rarely entered it because it was the place with more of her objects, with more of her scent that was quickly fading in, the  light power emanating from it wearing out day by day as much as Anna’s strength and health.

That was why he visited every night. To at least, during the night, protect her from the spirits, to block them for absorbing her light, to save her energy.

Like he often did, he followed her aura and walked closer to the bed ready to touch her.

It was surprising to him how she was quickly realizing the effect his touch had on her. If only she knew the effect it also had on him. Everytime she caressed him, everytime his fingers touched her forehead he felt a little more human, his heart would start beating again, even if it was for a few seconds and he felt his blood being pumped again, running on his dormant veins.

Anna was life and he was death.

He raised his hand to her forehead and gently caressed her. She didn’t move and he smiled ready to enter her dreams like he did every night. He didn’t need to do it but he wanted to talk with her, to be around her, even if it was only inside a dream.

He blamed himself for that weakness. He shouldn’t feel attracted to her since he was there only to save her, to repent for his sins, not to love her.

However he didn’t have time to concentrate and enter her dreams because she opened her eyes.

Taemin panicked taking his hand away from her, his heartbeat that started working when he touched her slowed down until she grabbed his wrist.

Her touch made his heart jump again and she sat on the bed still holding him.

“Taemin…” She smiled with an I-knew-it kind of expression and Taemin realized in horror how she could clearly see his face now, since it was illuminated by the moonlight.

It was a trap and he fell right into it.