Nightmares

TW: Blood and gore

Victoria had fallen asleep cuddled up with her mother, but now…she couldn't feel her warmth anymore when she woke up at half past midnight. She could hear her mother humming a folksong in the kitchen and her father was no waher to be seen.

"Momma?" Victoria called out before climbing down from the bed and rushing out of the dark bedroom and into the lit sitting room which was conjoined with the kitchen.

Her mother didn't answer, but her humming became louder when Victoria stepped into the Kitchen.

"Momma–" she cut herself short when she caught sight of her parents sprawled out on the floor, covered in blood, a gaping slash on her mother's neck and a slash across her father's stomach.

Her mother's eyes were still open, staring right into her as Victoria stood there frozen in horror.

"Some goddess you are." Her mother sneered with blood dripping down from her lips. "Blessed to be a vessel of one the strongest creatures to ever exist, and yet you cannot even protect those you claim to love. You're useless."

"N–no!" Victoria yelled tears trailing down her cheeks, covering her ears. "You're not real! None of this is real!"

"You let the darkness take control of the light! You have such power and yet you can't do anything with it! You're a disgrace! Even at your last chance to make things right, you ruined it by letting a mind reader invade your thoughts, he knows of your mission."

"Momma!"

"Your mere existence led to our deaths, I wish you had never been born!"

With a scream, Victoria shot up from her bed and into a sitting position. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she panted and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. She couldn't recall the last time she had a nightmare like this one, and somehow this particular nightmare was the worst she had had ever since she was just a little girl.

It was sun rise, so that meant she was to be awake anyway. She sighed and stepped out of her comfortable bed and opened the curtains then sat on her bed again, trying to make sense of her situation and her plan to get out of it. She poured herself a cup of water from a jug as she thought.

Xander, the boy she had met last night had the ability to read minds. Even though his dark magic was low, it was somehow enough to pry into a person's thoughts rather easily. It shocked her how quickly he had done so with her, did that mean he knew of her plans to kill King Alvar? Was he telling the King of her plans at that moment?

She had to remind herself to calm down, she didn't think about her plans to end Alvar's life that night while she was with him, and she got the sense that in order for him to read her mind, she had to feel some sort of headache like she did last night. But still, she would have to know more about mind reading before getting relaxed about the issue, having a mind reader around would be incredibly dangerous, she had to be cautious and try to find ways to block him from getting into her mind.

Which meant, she had to spend the day at the library she found herself getting into yesterday when she explored the castle researching what she could about mind reading and all forms of dark magic.

Victoria had just taken her bath, cleaned her teeth and was just about dressing up in a regular gown when Mallory burst in with a tray of sweet smelling Alcazarian pastries along with breakfast.

"Oh, you're already awake!" Mallory said. "I was afraid I'd have to pry you out of bed again today. I brought you breakfast!"

She stared at Victoria for a few seconds and asked, "Are you okay, My Lady?"

"Thank you, Mal. I'm alright." Victoria took the tray from her, and because Victoria didn't eat much, Mallory joined her with the food. As they ate together, Victoria told Mallory about her conversation with Xander last night, she told her about the Demon King not really being a demon. And how Xander read her mind just before Mallory had arrived to drag Victoria away from the lake to get changed.

Mallory looked at Victoria as if she had grown an extra head on her neck. She cupped a palm over her lips as she whispered, "The Demon King isn't a demon?"

Victoria shook her head, "no." She concurred, "He's the vessel of a god."

"Just like you." Mallory pointed out.

Victoria released a sigh, "do you think the Light Priest might have known about it?"

Mallory shook her head, "I'm not sure, My Lady. The Light Priest might know all because he uses the Oracle to tell the future. But that doesn't mean the gods will have the Oracle tell him everything there is to know. Just like we didn't know the Shadow Realm would win the war."

Victoria bit into a chocolate filled bun, "What about the mind reading? I'm worrying about that as well."

Mallory shook her head, "I don't know anything about that as well, my knowledge on Dark magic has always been low. I don't have the previledge of such information as I am just a servant."

Victoria rolled her eyes, "you are not just a servant, Mal. And you know it…you're my bestfriend."

Mallory blushed heavily for some reason and shoved a piece of bread into her mouth. "Maybe the library will have something about it, it has hundreds–no, thosands of books!" She said with her mouth full.

"I was thinking so myself." Victoria got up already feeling full and walking towards the door. "I'll be back by the evening, alright?"

"Umm…" Mallory hesitated, as if she was debating saying something. "You're not in serious trouble, are you? You look so worried when I came in."

Victoria nodded, putting on her black hooded cloak over her gown. "I'm alright, just had a nightmare."

Then Victoria left, leaving Mallory there on the bed with a half eaten meal and an even worried expression.