chapterone                                  

Scarlet

***

The disjointed marionettes surrounded her, chanting a strange incantation, drawing eerie symbols with their crimson blood. She flailed her arms in wild frenzy; her piercing screams filled the dark void. Then, the grotesque landscape disappeared in a swirling grey mist.

The nightmare was over, the dream was past.

Cold, glassy beads of sweat laced her delicate brow. A tall, dark shadow emerged, moving stealthily towards her. She shrank back in disgust and terror. The sound of his heavy footsteps resonated throughout the desolate wasteland. His eyes of tarnished gold met hers in a fearful stare. Yejin’s flower-like body flinched slightly.

He held a rose in his hand; its purity was tainted with the vermillion blood flowing like a river from his bare wrist. A flint dagger lay at his feet.

“I love you…”

He cried, burning with the fire of passion. She met his gaze with a resolute stare.

“I will never accept you, Kris!”

“Why!”

Kris demanded, grabbing her frail wrist forcefully.

“Stop this!” Yejin pleaded tearfully.

“Stop torturing me! I can’t love to order!”

He smirked and said in a hollow voice, “We will see. I’ll be waiting in your dreams…”

He touched her small face gently. She cringed back. Hurt and pain flickered across Kris’s face. He disappeared into the night…

***

Once again, night descended upon the land of dreams, the land between Slumber and Consciousness, the land in which she was trapped. She sighed. The Nightmares would soon arrive. He sent them in an attempt to make her accept him. He had torn her away from all she had. Her slander fingers balled up into fists.

She hated Kris, hated him with a vengeance.

Soon, blurry phantoms appeared before her. The eleven messengers before her had snow-white wings, with charred tips. The nightmare begun.

This time, the dreamscape was a huge mirror, with jagged cracks marring its glassy surface. The mirror was tinged with fresh blood. Somehow, she felt a mysterious attraction towards the object. Gingerly, Yejin inched even closer to it. Slowly, she extended her hand towards the mirror…When she touched it; a pale ghostly face peered back at her.

It was Kris.

However, his face now looked ethereal and angelic, possessing a peaceful, yet unnerving aura.

“I know you’ll never love me…” He began. “I’m so sorry…it was the beast inside of me, I was obsessed.”

Yejin was stunned by the words that flowed like blood.

“I knew it was impossible…” He whispered.

“I was wrong.” Kris said. He reached out and grasped a shard of glass from the mirror.

“I’ll atone for it now.”

He held the glass shard in his bare hand. His body quivered slightly. With one swift sharp movement, he plunged the shard into his heart. With the dark red blood that flowed freely from his chest, he wrote ‘sorry’ on the surface of the mirror. She gasped.

“In the land between Slumber and Reality, I will always love you…”

His voice faltered, and he slept the eternal sleep of death.

A black rose slowly formed on his hand. Slowly, it turned the colour of blood, the transformed into a hue of pure white. The image disappeared.

The dream was past, the nightmare over.

***