Rise of the Dragon Queen

Roselyn squirmed in her bed agitatedly, tears filling her eyes, cold sweat dripping down her face trapped in the same frightening nightmare she had for the umpteenth time.

The poor girl felt like she was in imminent danger, unable to wake up and suffocated by her own tears. Screams of fear mixed with sobs of desperation filled the room.

Her mom reached Rose's room hastily, just to stare at the familiar scene of her daughter struggling to sleep a peaceful night.

Her mother caressed Roselyn's cheek and whispered: "again?"

If she could do something to soften up the pain she would do it, but there was nothing she could do beside shaking her and trying to wake her up from the hell she was immersed in.

Roselyn finally woke up opening her eyes widely, when she realized the dream wasn't real she took a breath of relief.

The sight of her mother cheered her and she slowly calmed down by focusing on the surrounding of her room. Roselyn nodded to her mother, resigned. Meanwhile, her father reached the room as well.

Roselyn felt guilty for waking her adoptive parents every day, preventing them from a peaceful night, yet she couldn't avoid it.

Roselyn had been imprisoned in that vicious circle for several years, she even secretly visited hundreds of hospitals and doctors to check if something in her was wrong but they couldn't find anything.

However, her parents' solution to the problem was moving from city to city, preventing her to build significant connections with people, consequently making her feel even more lonely than she already felt.

Her dreams -or rather nightmares- represented a group of people, they all wore a blue cloak that covered their bodies fully, revealing exclusively their eyes in a mysterious yet scary way. They were reaching her in a slow march with crimson glowering eyes as they whispered her name over and over.

This time the nightmare was different, usually the group of people would disappear in the darkness of the night, before getting too near to Roselyn. This time the nightmare was different, it lasted longer, longer enough to allow the group of people to reach her. For the first time she was able to see them better, to stare at them straight in their scaring threatening red orbits. Even if she wanted to scream at the top of the lungs because those men were deadly monstrous to look at. Her legs weren't able to move, nor her voice to grew from the mouth and just like a broken stereo and unable to follow the commands her brain sent her she reimained frozeen from fear.

She remembered studying the freezing symptoms at school. She found it very interesting how the body would involuntary freeze, immobilize, grew numb from any kind of emotions and feelings. Just like if your exited from your body and you stared at yourself from outside. Unable to escape from such a potential danger.

Little did she knew that she would be able to experience that even in her dreams.

As the group of people reached her, her gaze fell on the boy standing at the center, his hoodie slightly turned down allowing Roselyn to take a sight of who was hiding behind the coat. She spotted a chin and a very definited jawline but before her mind could process that sight and link it to the familiar face Roselyn was bonded to she woke up.

Roselyn let out an angry scream as she punched her pillow to realize her repressed anger, that whole situation was driving her crazy. The length of her sleeping was decreasing night by night to the point that she was trying to keep herself awake as much as possible just to stop her from having those dreams.

"We need to move." Her mom said looking at her dad.

"Barcelona maybe?" Her father suggested while a few wrinkles appeared between his brows.

"No! Why? It's just a dre.." Roselyn murmured with all the strength left in her body.

She didn't want to move again, moving didn't stop her dreams to find her so what was the whole point of doing so?

Tears fell down her face, but she ignored them, she massaged her forehead since that destabilizing nightmare provoked her terrible headaches.

Roselyn was confused, and even if she hated having nightmares, she couldn't indulge in the idea of moving again. There was something weird about her, that concern led her to cry herself to sleep every night until she finally accepted the fact that she was probably insane.

Suddenly, a strong loud noise made the three of them jolt.

The door slammed open and when it crashed against the wall, it broke for the strong impact. An ancient man appeared, he was very short with golden curly hair. He walked into the house, a gust of wind followed him making everything fall abruptly on the floor. It seemed like a storm broke into their house. Roselyn's parents screamed in fear and rushed to hug her.

His frizzy gold hair was giving his appearance a comical look, but his gaze was serious. He looked around the room as if he was looking for someone in particular. When his gaze fell on Roselyn, he pointed at her.

Roselyn's eyes widened in fear. Was she still dreaming?

That dream was so different from the other dreams she had.

Her parents seemed, rather than surprised, scared and concerned.

They knew that time would have came before or later. Their constant moving to other countries couldn't keep Roselyn away from her destiny anymore.

It was time for her to finally follow her path.

"Good morning, Enchantress. Nice to meet you." The old man with the appearance of a gnome smiled lightly, staring at Roselyn.

'Enchantress? That isn't my name. I'm still probably having nightmares again, I should wake up.' Roselyn thought and quickly tried to close her eyes and force herself to fall asleep.

Her relatives went to hold her hands sobbing loudly, whispering things to each other.

It felt too real to be a dream.

She was shaking in fear mentally praying to fall asleep.

"You just need to wake up Rose," she told to herself. Maybe by clenching her fists, she could finally wake up.

The old man laughed, making fun of her "Oh, Rose. It's not a dream. Your parents didn't tell you? So I guess I have to do all the dirty work." He gazed at her parents with a reproachful, judgmental stare.

Roselyn ignored him again as she kept clenching her first and closing her eyes, trying her best to wake up from that awful nightmare. Despite her best efforts, once again, her effort was completely in vain.

She squeezed her eyes and kept focusing her energies, which usually worked. She would wake up in a few seconds, but that time it seemed impossible.

Her rational mind couldn't accept or even consider the chance that meeting may be real.

The more she focused on waking up by clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes, the more that havoc and storm aggravated drastically.

Furnishings trembled energetically, causing the objects to fall on the floor noisily. The wind blew so powerfully that both her parents struggled to crawl onto the bedsheet. Roselyn's parents screamed in terror. She was the one causing all that, and they knew.

"Enchantress stop!" The short man yelled at her.

"Rose, stop! Please stop!" Her mom, Anne, cried out, making Roselyn open her eyes immediately. Anne rarely cried, she just had cried on two occasions, when Roselyn found out she was adopted and when her father, Roselyn's grandfather, died.

"I'm so sorry," Anne kept crying, holding Roselyn's hand tightly and kissing her palm apologetically.

"I'm sorry for not having told you before, I was trying to protect you, love. I've done all this to keep you safe." She murmured in a low voice. Roselyn glanced up to her mom nervously.

"It's not a dream" Roselyn's dad finally spoke but his voice broke as soon as words left his mouth. She's never heard him sounding that miserable before.

"What are you both talking about.." Roselyn murmured. She couldn't understand what was happening. What did they keep from her all this time? They swore they would have been fully honest with her when they confessed she was adopted.

The wind slowly stopped, leaving the room in destruction. All her childhood toys were in pieces on the floor. Insects and leaves were thrown by the wind everywhere.

"You will see your parents soon. I promise." The man said, his mouth curved into a plastic smile and just like that he teleported himself and Roselyn away.