14

Izabelle woke up panting, gasping for air with her hand around her dainty neck.

She had had a dream. A rather vivid dream. The kind where you could see each colour and feel like you are physically there.

After being fed some awful tasting herbs, Belle had started sweating and gotten a temperature higher than anything she had endured before.

She had tossed and turned for hours. Water and a strip of cloth on her forehead did nothing except turning the temperature of her head in a matter of seconds. Comfort seemed to be in another universe all together and the anger and frustration she had been feeling had left her body more tired than it had ever been in her seventeen years life.

Sleep was hard to come by and when it did she woke up uneasy in a matter of minutes.  The only long sleep she got resulted in a vivid nightmare.

She was standing in front of a mirror. It was huge and had a abstract frame with jewels of red and blue encrusted in the golden metal. Other details or the mirror were blurry but she rememebered some floral patrerns. She looked down to her feet and noticed a wooden floor. Even in her dream she realized the place was not something she was familiar with.  A small part of her thought of the Manor and its people and suddenly the mirror lit up magically and she was sucked in.

She saw Toby. He stood in front of her disappearing and reappearing again and again. Her dream self chased after him when he took off not realizing what was happening. Then she saw Becka. She was much like Toby. It felt like her fragile self could disappear any second.

She looked around the room as if searching for Toby and the vision blurred into an office with no windows. Everything was a mess. Feathers were scattered along with the paper and table was broken into two from the center. Her eyes widened and the dream self shifted to the corner in a second. In front of the table something inhuman materialized.

He had claw like hands bleeding red. His skin was a pale blue  and looked as if he could be passed for a dead person. It was scally too, like a reptiles. Alas! he was not dead and he started chasing after her in a mad haze. His tall limbs seems to have advantage over her short ones as they went from one lobby to another.  Suddenly she was trapped. Cornered in a room that appeared magically and the monster was at the door.

His face was a blur. Her eyes couldn't move from his menacing posture. Step by step he came forth. She looked around to find anything to help her escape. The door to the room was gone. 

The only thing she found was a rose in her hand and a portrait of a blurred face hanging on the wall on her side along with a discarded coat.

She closed her eyes and screamed out loud hoping someone would hear her and help and suddenly breath came down on her throat.

"Miss, Miss, are you all right?"  Were the first words Izabelle heard as she tried to catch her breath. The maid was someone unfamiliar and from what Belle could see, she had waist length dark coloured hair. She helped Belle sit up straight and then proceeded to pour her some water.

"Who are you?" Izabelle asked bewildered. She was back in the Manor in her assigned room.  She sighed in relief and drank the whole glass of water without stopping to take a breath.

"Where's Becka?" She questioned realizing the old maid who was always present to serve her wasn't here even though she had screamed out loud.

"Becka is off duty today. Even us maids need rest. How do you feel now?" The young maid hustled around to pour her some more water.

"Just one word.  Horrible. My throat hurts. My body is tired beyond anything I could ever have imagined. My mind is tired and I feel like a pig. Can you draw me a bath?" Izabelle asked and started to feel sleepy again. The sweat on her body made her feel awful and was the only thing that kept her awake. She was only a minute away from trying to fall back into an uneasy sleep but she decided that it would be better if she had a bath before it to sleep better.

"Give me a couple of minutes. Till then rest. You need it. " The maid said and started to head out. The cool air was already starting to relieve her from the horrid nightmare and she couldn't even remember in detail anymore. Dreams were weird, vivid one second and forgotten the next. The only thing she remembered was it consisted of the very red rose that brought her here and a beast that could make any dream a nightmare.

In the aftermath of the dream, Belle forgot to notice one thing. The maid never gave her a name and her parting words were more menacing than caring. If only she had known then that Becka never sent any maid to serve her.

*