If You Feel Better

Chapter 15

"Aya!"

The voice echoed in Aya's ears, but only darkness showed itself to her. She turned around in all directions, searching desperately for the familiar voice ringing throughout the void she stood in.

"Aya!" it continued to call out.

"Mother!" Aya called back, still dizzily spinning, getting nowhere, seeing nothing.

"Aya!" The voice reverberated louder, feeling closer. Suddenly, her mother appeared in front of her, skin melting off her bones, flames engulfing her entire being. Aya watched in helpless horror as her mother stood looking down at her own hands, terror in her eyes as she saw her skeleton reveal itself before her, her skin turning to liquid and falling into a sludgy soup at her feet. She gave an ear-piercing screech to the black sky in pure pain, finally completely burning to ash and falling to the floor in a dark, gray crumble.

Aya shrieked, practically deafening herself. "Mother!"

Aya shot up with a jolt, breathing heavily and sweating through her nightgown. She looked around her, panicked, seeing not the dark emptiness she had just witnessed, but the bedroom deep underground she had fallen asleep in.

Realizing that none of it was real, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself, rubbing the image out her eyes with her palms.

"Have a nightmare?" Bakura tiredly asked.

His voice startled Aya a bit, having completely forgotten that he was asleep next to her. Unfortunately for her, his presence next to her had become somewhat normal. He held her close to him at night, every night, against his bare chest as they slept. And this night had been no different.

Bakura enjoyed having a beautiful woman up against him in nothing but a nightdress, thinking about all of the things that he wanted to do – that they were going to do – once their marriage was official.

At first, Aya fought against it. She would try to push away from him, kick him, pry herself out of his unwanted embrace, but it always proved for naught. Bakura was just too strong for her. She eventually stopped trying. It was getting her nowhere and her failed resistance only achieved to amuse him. There was nothing he liked more than vulnerable prey.

"Yes," Aya responded coldly, hugging her knees to her chest. She had been having recurring nightmares about her mother's death ever since the incident had occurred.

Bakura rested a hand behind his head, sleepily keeping his eyes closed. "The nightmares will stop," he told her. "It may take a while, but they'll eventually stop."

Annoyed at his disrespectful assumption, Aya countered "How would you know?"

Wearily giving into the absence of sleep, he said "I saw my family and villagers murdered in front of my eyes, remember? I used to have nightmares too."

Aya rolled her eyes, turning her head away from him. "Something tells me you didn't sleep next to your family's murderer every night."

"No, but I'm sleeping next to their murderer's granddaughter."

Aya scoffed. "As if that's even remotely the same. You're the one who thought it, planned it, and executed it. And I'm forced to lay here next to you every night."

"Oh, come now, Princess," he chuckled, sitting up and wrapping his bare, muscular arms around Aya from behind. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, nuzzling her smooth skin and deeply inhaling her infatuating scent. "Being next to me can't be all that bad. You can't say I haven't taken care of you all this time."

She shoved his arms away, not wanting to be touched by such a foul being. "I'm not yours to take care of," she stated, scooching the few inches she could away from him. "I'm your prisoner."