A faint breath was heard from the girl taking a nap in the sunlight. Her head rested against her arm on top of the tabletop, her package of red bean bun still untouched.
A distressed visage passed her soft features; those long, black, wavy hair of hers fell with a sway from the gentle breeze. Her wine-coloured eyes were unseen, shut tight, with only frowning brows and occasional trembling of her lashes. He could see the shadows of her eyes shifting behind her lids.
Malum observed the change in her expression.
"What could she be dreaming about?"
Sitting close beside her as he slouched, chin cradled in his hand upon the table's edge, his hair swaying forward as he moved. Somehow his words soften, seen through his stern eyes, a flicker of something unknown even to himself.
Without Ene's knowledge, he had altered her memories of today's event. She didn't remember that Jana had already left after they had eaten their lunch, nor the fact that she had fallen asleep against the table as he brought her to the Spirit Realm. Much easier for him to hide her there himself, as the time differs, much slower, than the Human Realm.
It could have been her 10th dreamloop by now. He wondered if she was conscious about it. He wanted to test whether he could replicate the same amount of despair even in her dreamlike state. At the very least, he wouldn't affect the reality too much, as per his ratified accord.
However, he can only set the perimeter of the dream from the initial description of him raising his hand to the spreading of the dark fog. What had happened next, he had no way of knowing. It all depends on her own interpretation and narrative progression. What she sees and experiences is what she chooses to believe.
The cursed marks crawl under her skin again, as she grunts softly from the pain. Which means, she had made another righteous act, just as he would expect. Yet, those muffled grunts from the pain felt out of sorts.
Reaching out his hand, he brushes softly against her skin, warming to the touch and soothing her pain, her features relaxing and her breathing becoming gentle once more. His touch lingers, featherlight for a while before retracting it to himself, curled fingers once again under his chiselled jaw.
"I'm only helping you this time because..."
His words trailed as he came to a silence. There was no continuance on his part as to him, the notion crept into his thoughts.
Was it because I stayed with this Rohi the longest? I've never stayed this long with any of my vessels. How... intriguing.
His own thoughts burrowed deep within him.
Ene hasn't awakened, not that he minded. He preferred them to be like that; it reminded him of how she had acted years ago, before the truth was out. Now, she only had hostility for him, as he felt the excitement toward it along with something more profound, a subtle sinking. So only in that moment can he stay beside her without her glaring all the time.
As his gaze continued to trace her innocent slumbering look, it suddenly occurred to him.
"It's the first time I truly looked at you... Ene."
An ever-so-gentle smile settled on his lips, yet still his stare was unwavering. He closes his eyes for a while, waiting for her, reciting his prayer whilst accompanying that girl as she continues her repeated demise in the dreamworld.
"May death be upon you, be it day and night, black and white, and death and life. For death comes for you... not tonight."
***
Drops of blood dripped, but from her left eye as she covered it with her now drenched hand. Her body aches, and she slumped down against the ground. Body trembling, partially vanishing against the distorted grounding, surreal, with a floating, drifting sensation as her consciousness overlapped with the verity.
"Malum... let me out..."
What Malum hadn't anticipated was that she had already come to realize the place was not real, somewhat dreamlike, yet also a hellish nightmare, as she retained her memories long ago after coming to terms with whatever realm she was in now.
After her first death in the dreamworld, Ene jolted, gasping for air. That sensation of being squashed, her bones breaking, and her skull crushed with jagged cracking and sharp snapping, smushed as the same sensation from being pressured and bursting, reminded how he killed her before Ezrael.
"Ene? Are you okay?"
An instant shift felt as she returned once again to the same table in the cafeteria. Beside her, Malum was sitting straight on his seat with widened eyes, unmoving. A hand reached out to her, but there was no warmth felt as she turned to the so-called Jana.
Jana's face was distorting, her eyes rounded to an uncannily unnatural state, the very same ringed, red, glowing eyes she had seen throughout her childhood. Jana was sneering from ear to ear. Inching herself as her body stretched long toward her, meeting her own rosy irises.
Ene struggled to break free as Jana's hand gripped hers painfully, digging her contorting nails into her flesh as it bled. Fear surged into her whilst Jana's mouth widened, hollowed black upon realizing she was conscious.
"You saw it, didn't you? You know!"
She screamed in a high-pitched voice as a ringing filled her ear. Ene could swear she felt liquid trailing down her ear; she must have become partially deaf, as she couldn't hear anything for a moment. The world felt as if it were spinning and darkening. Bleary-eyed, turning to see the 'peoples' and Malum himself, turning their bodies to her, twisted.
Those large, unblinking eyes were haunting, and her stomach churned as their lips crooked into an unsettling spectral grin. By her blinks, they were closing in on her every single time, as if wanting to devour her. Ene closes her eyes shut tight, awaiting whatever it is that will happen to her.
With much of her heart raging against her rib cage, shallow breathing, and weariness that continues to consume her. She was tired. How long had it been? She had forgotten as they continued to torment and haunt her.
Unshed tears lingered in the corners of her eyes that had been threatening to fall, and finally ran down her cheeks. Yet, their colours are not that of clear and salty, but rusty red, much too similar to those beings she had never wanted to associate with: the ghosts, the spirits, maybe even demons.
As truth already laid out to her, she knew she was no longer a human, perhaps she is, but at the same time she's not: a half-spirit, half-human, much the same as the beings in front of her.
Ene hardened herself to meet those demons' hungry gaze.
"Hellene. Hellene. You thought he would always protect you? He was merely using you. That demon has not a speck of affection, especially for you."
Jana snickered, her free hand reaching to Ene's shoulder, and those morbidly long nails embedded themselves in her flesh as she groaned in pain. The demon's unblinking, wide eyes curled into a sly squint, tilting her head much to her own amusement.
"We heard you, we heard you, greedy, selfish desires, especially for him. We're always watching, we are all around. We're in your heart, your mind."
Ene's gaze flickered as her eyes finally adjusted to seeing those repulsive figures. Baring her teeth, yet she was in denial, fuming.
"No, I don't have such desires!"
They began to sneer unnervingly, undoubtedly sinister, echoing all around. Jana leaned and fixed her stretched, bloodied eyes on Ene's. A question that made her rigid in place. A scheme so wild that she forgot all about her attempt to escape, it spoke to her as whispers, filling her head, filling her mind.
"Do you want our help? We will help you. You want him. We'll help you."
A conspiratorially low whisper heard even by her wavering heart.
"He'll. Be. Yours."
For some reason, they didn't feel as haunting anymore. They were looking at her, yet they now felt no threat whatsoever.
She felt like... she belongs there, with them.