Dream

Twenty years later.

Dresses in different colours, jewellery shining in the fire lights. The sounds of laughter, speaking, and the clinking of shoes on the marble floor. The smell of perfumes… Lucette's red eyes darted into the spacious ballroom through a small gap in the door, smiling as if she were with them.

"What are you doing here?" a high-pitched voice from the back startled her.

"Miranda, you scared me," Lucette said, patting her chest.

"I'm surprised you know how to be scared! What if someone caught you eavesdropping instead of working and told his majesty about it, won't you get punished?" Miranda said, dragging Lucette with her.

Upon noticing the young woman's silence. "Lucette are you listening?" Miranda shook her arm.

Lucette pursed her lips. "I wasn't slaking, I finished all the work appointed to me," she murmured, walking with Miranda towards the kitchen.

"It's torturing seeing a royal party just a few steps away and you cannot even take a glance," she said as she stopped following Miranda who got into the kitchen.

She did nothing wrong! She wanted to have a look at the party. Wearing an expensive dress and pieces of jewellery and enjoying being a noble lady.

'I want to take part too! If I take a dress from the guest room and go to the party, Will I be caught?'

Lucette sighed. 'It will be a nice dream for sure.'

She put her hand on her cheek and smiled at her childish thought. She remembered her conversation with her deceased mother thirteen years ago.

...

"Mommy, what does 'dream' mean?" the six-year-old Lucette asked, tucking her mother's robe.

"Mmm, a dream is what you want to do in the future," her mother explained while stitching her blouse.

Lucette pouted and was in deep thought. Her mother smiled. "Dreams are wonderful, you can be whatever you want."

Lucette looked at her mother and said, "So, can I be a princess who lives in a beautiful palace and eats a lot of candies?" swaying her short legs while sitting in the bed facing her mother

Anna laughed and nodded. "Yes, you can."

...

"Lucette! What are you daydreaming about? Help the others put the food in the trays," Miranda nudged her arm.

Lucette woke up from her trance, nodded and did her job while pouting like a child. Miranda did not choose her to serve the guests because of her clumsiness. Miranda told her she would ogle on the guests instead of serving them.

Lucette grimaced. The thought of the fun those noblemen had, just because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, brought envy to her heart.

Today, the first party was held in the palace. They said that since the death of the queen and her child twenty years ago; the palace celebrated no events. Even after the war stopped five years ago.

Twenty years ago, the werewolves attacked the queen, resulting in her death and her child. Afterwards, a bloody war occurred between the vampires and the werewolves for years. Many people lost their lives, houses or their territories. One of them was her mother who lost her husband and house and came to look for a job in the palace. If not for knowing Miranda, she could not be near the palace, especially with a kid.

Although the two races signed the peace treaty, but after what?

The vampires respected and appreciated the king for working hard and making the kingdom prosperous once again. But wasn't he the one singing to start the war? The situation was like someone hurting another and then treating him. The injury would heal, but the scar would never mend.

Lucette finished helping the other maids and tiptoed away when Miranda was not paying attention.

"Where are you going?" Miranda said as she crossed her hands over her chest.

"Miranda, you are looking beautiful today."

Miranda wore a dark red long robe with a white collar that hugged her skinny and tall body. The colour of the dress matched with her white skin. Although her face was full of wrinkles, she looked like a beautiful old lady. Just looking at her big brown eyes, she would be mesmerised.

"Thank you for the compliment, but you will not fool me with your honeyed words. Did you forget how you got punished last time? So be obedient and continue your work," Miranda said, glaring at her.

Lucette stomped her feet. 'Miranda could have ignored her.' She sent an angry look at Miranda but upon remembering how she got whipped by that woman, Lucette pursed her lips.

"Work, it's always about work! What's wrong with dreaming a little? Isn't it free?" she murmured while walking back to the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's free but everyone should dream depending on what they have, don't hope for anything big! Or the outcome will disappoint you," Miranda responded. She was over fifty years old, she also had dreams when she was a child, but look at her right now! She didn't want Lucette to be sad or depressed.

Lucette didn't retort, though she disagreed with what Miranda said.

What's the matter of having big dreams? She could be whoever, a wealthy noble lady, a woman with power, living a carefree life with no worry… she could have them all.

If she had faith, then someday her dreams would come true. She smiled at the thought.

But soon the smile vanished, as a cold voice echoed in her head.

'You want to be a princess, then? Ok, I will fulfil your wish. Miranda took this homeless child and showed her the basic work in the palace. Princess! So hilarious.'

How that woman laughed, still imprinted in her brain. Lucette fisted her hand. She tried to forget the memory, but sometimes the voice haunted her. That was the first time encountered that woman, the source of her misery in her fourteen years of living in the palace.

.....

Inside the great hall stood King Arius in a black tuxedo with crimson-coloured thread over the neckline. His handsome face didn't change over the past twenty years. He stood chatting with two officials, and while talking he noticed the signal of his left-hand man.

"Excuse me, I have something urgent to do. It is nice talking to you," Arius said, walking straight to the balcony.

"Bad news?" he said to the anxious blond-haired man waiting for him. 

"An hour ago, the law enforcement in the capital was informed that the unit in the fifth region found a dead civilian vampire," he said, fidgeting his hands.

King Arius listened carefully. "The culprit?" he said.

"Werewolves."