Project GoldCrest ✓

Chapter 16

Charlotte

Cole looked at me differently. "Charlie, she said you were being mature?"

"Yes," I told him dryly.

"You're having weird dreams and you're accepting them. How is that being mature?"

"You could always go against the opinion of a professional, Cole."

Cole smiled at me. It didn't reach his eyes, since he looked like he was deep in thought. Maybe I'd given him a new puzzle that he could help me with while he was still here stuck at home.

"Something wrong?"

"Not really. I'm just wondering, can you tell me more about your dreams?"

"I can try to describe them, but the thing is I can't recall all of them, detail by detail. I can recall only the important details. The rest of the dream usually disappears once I'm out of bed."

"Can you tell me about what you still remember then?"

"I can try." I closed my eyes and started thinking hard. The first time I witnessed them, I'd literally just turned fifteen. I'd dreamed about a young couple dancing together. I remember nothing else after that.

I decided to tell him what I knew of the first couple. "I told you that I was dreaming about four couples. It's a bit hard to explain so I'm going to explain it couple by couple. The first couple was young, maybe about our age or a year younger. They came from wealthy families. In fact, I think they were nobles. I remember seeing them dancing in a ballroom once. They were in love but they hurt each other. I don't remember how but it set a series of unfortunate events in place. The girl's mother forced her to marry another guy who was about her age. And she did."

Cole was nodding along as I spoke. "She hated him and their marriage. I think it was a long time ago, like maybe centuries ago. Before the Shakespearean era started. Anyway, since the girl had ended up marrying another guy, the love of her life ended up marrying a different woman. The woman was heartbroken and ended up doing something. I don't remember what it was but it was huge."

"Huge, as in dramatic?"

"I don't know. Could be otherworldly, or both."

"What makes you think that it could be otherworldly?"

"These are my dreams. I just have a strong feeling."

"What happened to her, the woman?"

"Nothing much, except I feel like something changed inside her from that moment. I also don't know what. But her aura, spirit or whatever, it changed. And I feel it."

"Are you sure these are just dreams?"

"It's not that past life nonsense everyone keeps shunning. I assure you. Have you heard those stories they come up with? They are very different from my dreams."

Cole didn't look fazed. In fact, it was like I hadn't spoken at all. "It's a bit sad."

I assumed he was talking about my dream. "Very. Something happened to her even after that, and I feel like she blamed her husband for it." My eyes turned the other direction.

"Poor him, I feel like she was being selfish. What about the other three couples?"

I looked at him again. "The second couple was probably in their earliest 20s. Like maybe twenty years old. A rich aristocrat and a maid. I think the guy was visiting the castle for a few months. He was a writer, and the king had asked him to write about the castle."

"This- When exactly was this?" He raised an eyebrow and smirked, at the same time.

I smiled. "It's ancient, I know. Anyway, he saw her and they immediately hit it off, but in secret. Eventually they were found out by a noble and were given warnings, but they didn't want to give what they had up. An article was written about them and everyone disapproved. They were ridiculed. So they broke up after both of them were almost fired. He left and only returned once with his fiance, after his book was published, and she ended up marrying the noble after finding out about it. Well actually I think the noble really loved her, because he didn't care that they were being ridiculed. She did something awful. Once they were married, they had a daughter and the maid's status was elevated. That's about the end of it." Once I finished talking, I started thinking. The last dream I'd had about this couple had been when the noble had recently found the maid and writer out. How come I already knew how it ended? Maybe I'm dreaming about this couple for the second time?