Meaningful Dream

The silence between them didn’t last long when the maid attending to Kanna suddenly sob as if she’s watching a theatrical play. The tension between Kiha and Czarina increases as time goes by, the fact that Kiha broke the hug first tells the story. But seeing her friend’s pitiful face makes her play along with her scheme.

Kiha put a beautiful smile on her face then looked at her friend, Czarina. Her long and sharp fingernails were just enough to draw blood on her plain face. She mockingly wiped the tears threatening to drip on her white beautiful face. The height difference is somehow larger than she expected when Czarina doesn’t wear heels.

“Don’t cry, Czarina. It’s nothing.” She looks down at her friend then slowly turns to the maid before the bed. She signaled her to leave immediately and so the tray she’s carrying. Kiha’s light steps annoyed Czarina that she clenched her fist under her sleeves.

“How is she?” Kiha’s low voice reverberated on the huge bedchamber. The young lady lying on the feather-like bed is beautifully unconscious. Unlike what she expected, Kanna’s breath is stable. She must have been playful because of what she said earlier.

“Fortunately, she’s breathing properly,” Czarina replied. Her arms are folded while her hair is tied in a bun. The dress she’s wearing is owned by Kiha but she treats it as if she owned everything she have.

Kiha talked to Kanna earlier just because Kiha knows Kanna loves flowers and there are so many flowers on the bed where she spent her whole week but it turns out to be the wrong idea. The reason was still unknown and there are no physicians in the Empire who know what to do. Even the royal physician sent by the Crown Prince doesn’t know the answer and just left a letter with a single name written on it.

“Raphael Mitchell.’” It was written elegantly but when Czarina tried to look at it. The paper became white as a sheet. Nothing is written on it. Kiha tried looking at the paper again then she saw the name once again.

Confused, she looks at it again. But then, a sudden knock interrupted her thoughts. The two of them looks at the door and saw the Countess coming in. Just like Kanna and Kalen’s, the Countess's hair color is strawberry blond as well. It was beautiful that it always makes the Countess looks younger.

Kalyna sits on the corner of the bed and stares at the unconscious Kanna. She closed her eyes then carefully caressed Kanna's head. Kiha who cannot watch something dramatic turned her heels and starts walking towards the door when her step-mother called her.

“Kiha, you did a good job.” She halt when she heard her stepmother, Kalyna saying the word she loves to hear the most. Her heart tightened that she feels her thought dry for a second but then she composed herself, walking without glancing at her stepmother.

Kiha’s steps are light as usual but not her heart, to think that her step-mother said those words to her, their rebellious and ungrateful child is too much for her innocent heart to take in all at once. She closed her bedchamber’s door without even noticing the obvious red cheek of hers.

She looks at the mirror and saw how swollen her father’s slap is, even though this isn’t the first time, the Count never slapped her hard like this. ‘Kanna must be super precious to him.’ is what she’s thinking when she decided to make a plan for her life.

In her dream, there are more than three people involving her death. The problem is she doesn’t remember them clearly. It’s as if her dream is beginning to fade but not the pain she felt when Rhysand slit her throat. Maybe because he did it like a hundred times inside a dream in her dream. She saw herself there, without ahead. It was as if she’s just watching from afar that she can’t do anything but feel suffocated.

Kiha opens her drawer and grabs a pen and a piece of paper then scribbles the first plan she made.

First move: Be different. Don’t make any move that will make one’s self embarrassed and stay close to Czarina as possible!

Second move: Forget about love (It will lead to my death) and distance myself to Young Master Rhysand and be nice to my family (only to Kanna).

The third move: Befriend with Lady Elaina. Do not let her be harmed by anyone and arrange her to my brother.

She furrowed her eyebrows when she read her notes aloud. It was ridiculous but somehow part of her scheme. She’s planning on living her own life and befriending Count Harrington’s daughter Elaina, who she used to bully. Elaina Viorica Harrington is a fine and beautiful young lady who always received everyone’s attention and affection. Even the distant Kalen will be mesmerized by her in no time.

Kiha’s not aware of what she’s thinking and just keep imagining what will happen if she became friends with the lady and when she already arranged her brother to her. That situation might be her reconcile way with her brother but then, Kalen’s boring and distant demeanor will bore the young lady.

“No, even if that’s the case, Kalen still needs to have a wife before inheriting the position to father. The only woman who can stay by his side is none other than the innocent and strong Elaina.” It only took her a second to make up her mind on arranging her brother to the young lady without her brother’s knowledge.

She stands on her feet, pacing back and forth. It’s hard to tell if the plan she made will be successful or not but all she needs is to let Czarina stay by her side. Czarina’s situation is different than anyone else. Ever since she opened her eyes that dawn, she knew what will happen to her if she parted with her. At first, she wants to kick her out but her mind changes, Czarina will be useful to her in no time, she's sure of it.

Kiha jumps on her fluffy bed and closes her eyes. It was still the same as usual. Every time she closes her eyes, she sees two different people at the same time. The unfamiliar woman is standing next to Czarina while the other woman is her, who’s kneeling on the cold ground in front of her friend.

The place where Kiha is kneeling is the same dungeon Ezequiel and other servants spent one or more weeks in. The only difference is that her feet and hands are chained to the point that she cannot move a thing. Even her breathing is somehow cut every now and then. Her dirty and torn clothes were the same as those who received a death sentence and she will soon receive the same sentence.

Her thin and wounded feet that used to be beautiful and untainted are now full of calluses because of the hard ground that meets her feet. She was kneeling but her two arms were spread around as the chains tied on her was tightened every single day. Her disheveled ginger hair was always pulled by the visitors in the dungeon.

“Look at this bitch, she looks pitiful!” The lady with the same eye color as her said. The other ladies pulled her hair hard enough to rip her hair off her head. The Empire was colonized by the neighboring Empire, Doren. Emperor Hezekiah fell in love with the Count’s daughter Elaina and because of that, Kiha was sentenced to death and even because she tried poisoning Grand Duke Rhysand Grimaldi.

Because of these double sins, she was tortured to death by opening the dungeon to everyone just like a museum. And every visitors are free to do what they want, even if it's kicking, punching, and so on. She became the exhibit that everyone loves to harm, even the worst criminal didn't receive torture like this but since she harmed the two Empire's most prominent noble, she was used as an exhibit for the neighboring Empire's Crown Prince coronation.

“This girl harm the Crown Princess of Deron Empire and even poisoned our Grand Duke Grimaldi, she deserves to die as miserable as possible.” Kiha’s eyes never stops drawing tears as she felt everything. Her heart is heavy that it became numb as time goes by. She stops shedding tears at the time of her execution.

Her thin and exhausted body was lifted by the royal guards and even throw her outside the prison, they put a chain on her neck and dragged her out of the dungeon-like a mad dog. The only one who treated her like a lady in the dungeon is the new knight who introduced himself as Kasis.

Kiha’s servants and knights are executed as well so she never expected someone to care for her when her own family abandoned her like a lost dog. They leave her when they heard that she will be executed and even erase her on their family tree as if she never existed in the first place.