Eternal

I fell to the ground and the dry earth crunched under my weight, as I waited there on my hands and knees staring out into the unknown.

The lightning struck once more and I swear that I could see a figure walking purposefully towards me, I wanted to get up and meet them face to face, but I couldn’t seem to will my body to listen.

The figure came closer until their shoes were only inches away from my hands, but their face was still shrouded in mystery by the long hood attached to their cape. I mean who even wears a cape these days.

I stared into the abysmal darkness where their face should be when a wrinkled hand began to reach for me. I tried to crawl backwards to get away, but It seemed as though the dirt had become quick sand and the more I struggled to move the harder it was for me to get away.

I decided that I need to show strength to this unknown foe, as I changed my mask and ensured that I was portraying one of defiance and not a single ounce of fear. Their hood suddenly fell back and I was left to stare up into a pair of eyes that were the exact same shade of green as my own. They belonged to a woman who must have been in her early fifties, with only a hint of wrinkles surrounding the outside of her eyes. She looked as though she must have laughed often and I wondered how that must feel, to actually laugh genuinely.

I tried to take the rest of her in but her eyes kept drawing me back to them and then I noticed that she had the exact same ebony hair as myself as well, the difference between ours was that she wore hers in a simple plait. There were so many similarities between us, that if I did not know better, I would have thought that we were actually related.

She knelt down fluidly, without a hint of struggle with the action and captured my hand within hers, she then proceeded to stand up and pulled me up along with her.

She cupped my cheek with her free hand and lightly grazed my face with the pad of her thumb. “Salve, Nipotina.”

I tried to pull away from her touch, but her friendly tone completely threw me off.

“What did you just say?” I asked as I continued to stare back into the eyes that are so similar yet completely different from my own. Hers held warmth, and I honestly believed that mine had never held that in my seventeen years on this earth.

“Perdonami, my name is Mihaela, I had hoped that you would be familiar with my native tongue, but it is fine I can speak yours just fine.”

“Who are you? I don’t understand what is going on.” I practically screamed this at her, as a pain shot its way through my skull and I fell back down to my knees clutching my head in my hands.

“You truly don’t know me dear; I am your Nonna or Great grandmother if you’d prefer.”

I shook my head in denial, as the pain spread down from skull, into my spine.

She laid her hand upon the top of my head and the pain subsided completely, she helped me back to my feet and looked at me with pity in her eyes.

“I don’t even have a nan, so how can you be my great grandmother, this doesn’t make any sense. I get that I must be dreaming for me to react the way I did just, but why would I conjure up an image of you?”

Her eyes filled with sadness, and a sheen of tears glazed over them.

“You are correct Nipotina, this is a dream but I am not of your creation. I have been searching for you for the past year, but something was keeping me away. Until tonight, I had no idea where you were, but now that I have finally reached you, you m

ust come to me. You have no idea what lies in wait for you, I have so many answers to questions that you haven’t even thought of yet, please Principessa come to me.”

I wanted to ask her what she was talking about and how I was supposed to find her, but she started to float backwards away from me until she drifted away and I was left standing by myself.

I stared out into the direction that she came from, urging for her to reappear when the agonizing pain returned and snatched the breath from my very lungs. I fell to a heap and curled my body into a ball as the pain ricocheted through me and left me howling out like a banshee.

Chapter Nine

Lawson

I finally drifted off when I was awoken to the sound of Unya’s screams, I sat up in a hurry and leaned over her and was surprised to see that she was still asleep. I honestly believed that someone had snuck into my room while we slept and tried to kill her, what could she possibly be seeing in her dreams to cause a reaction like this.

My head was screaming at me to leave her be, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself as I pulled her into my arms, so her head was resting upon my chest with one arm curving around her lower back and my free hand stroking her hair, in a gesture I hoped would soothe and comfort her.

Her screams began to die down and she seemed to snuggle even further into my side, I bit back a smile that was threatening to surface and continuously told myself that I felt nothing but pity for this strange and bewildering female. But even if that was the case my traitorous body kept reminding me of the shocks of electricity that zapped through me every time that our skin came into contact with one another.

I must have dozed back off again, but when I re-awoke, we were still in the exact same position, except from the fact that she had an arm draped across my stomach and one of her legs was twined with one of mine. Her hair had fallen into her face and I carefully brushed it out of the way, I found myself staring at her and spotted the exact moment her eyes opened and connected with mine.

I swear I saw a ghost of a smile form on her lips, before realisation dawned in her eyes and she noticed how we were now laying.

“Umm Lawson, how did this happen?” She asked, clearly confused by the situation.

“You must have had a bad dream in the night or something because you started to scream. I wasn’t sure what to do so I tried to comfort you, you stayed asleep and settled down after a little while,” I replied beginning to feel very uncomfortable. I carefully slid free of our embrace and climbed out of bed, I noticed that her eyes grew wider and realised that I only had a pair of boxers on. I knew that her eyes must have found the scars that gathered on my chest and quickly excused myself.