A Lover Like Him (The Perfect Lover book #2) (Espresso CRK)

Chapter 29

Espresso's Pov

Why am I standing up? I wondered to myself, completely dazed. I was dreaming of creating a new type of coffee, and suddenly a blink later, I was walking... Why am I walking right now?

WHY CAN I NOT CONTROL MY BODY?!

I walked through the dark crimson and gold-laced white corridors. A feeling of nostalgia and sickness wrapped itself around my mind. This feeling wasn't mine, yet it was. 

I felt confused and at panic. I want to stop my body from doing what it was doing immediately. Meanwhile, I think this body felt irritated, sure of himself, and perhaps a tad bit crazy. Or is it the other way around?

I passed by a tall portrait and I froze. Well, my inner mind froze. My body kept moving. It hit me then that I was in Dark Enchantresses and The Cookies of Darkness castle and base. The eyes of Dark Enchantress's portrait followed me to the tall doors of the meeting room where there were voices bickering inside. One was clearly Pomegranate's, the other was.. was...

It's familiar but I can't wrap my head around it as if something was blocking me from doing so.

Anyway, now I understand why I didn't recognize the place earlier. This was the third to the latest version of the castle. Dark Ehcnatress wanted to try something new with the place but didn't like the design and got rid of it. 

I admit, I couldn't help but stalk my old house for a while after leaving the shit hole. 

Wait... WHAT AM I SAYING?!

Old home? That was barely a home! It was like a jail cell, and therefore I shouldn't be feeling... teary-eyed. Since when was I ever teary-eyed? Oh wait, that's just water leaking from the roof. Wait, when was I ever this stupid?

Wait... if there's water dripping from the roof, it meant today was the day I left the Cookies of Darkness. The gold designs, my longish hair, and translucent outfit I used to wear in battles and the leaky roof all match up.

I'm so sick of these rules, what will they do to stop me? A part of my mind whispered. 

My inner self stiffened. This dream, these voices, the aura, all felt so fucking real. It's scary. 

I'm scared.

I'm not scared.

I'm superior.

One moment I am scared, the next I'm not.

What?

I pushed open the meeting room's door casually without knocking and strolled in. 

The real part of my mind had been screeching: What the hell am I doing?! This is so foolish of me to do something! died down.

I entered the room and spotted Pomegranate sitting on the right seat beside the furthest chair. Poisonous Mushroom wasn't here as he rarely showed up here anyway. Licorice wasn't here either. When Poisonous Mushroom was younger, the guy followed him nearly everywhere for safety measurements.

Red Velvet, of course, wasn't here. Nor was Dark Choco or that 'snake', Affogato. 

I headed directly to Pomegranate. Something tugged inside of me. Someone was missing in this room. Who? 

I shrugged the feeling off as my head tipped upwards with superiority and my eyes hardened into ice.

"What do you need?" Pomegranate glared back, her voice poisonous. 

'Tell me why the fuck I'm here', I wanted to say, but the words only echoed in my head. 

"You don't know why I'm here?" I said cockily, the words tumbling out instead.

Silence filled the room unbearably. We glowered down at each other and Pomegranate looked more pissed by the second.

"Not to apologize for your behaviour from the previous battle I assume," The priestess said, crossing her arms, "If you want new books for whatever trashy research you're doing, you don't de-"

"I'm leaving. I'm fucking done with the Cookies of Darkness," I said haughtily, cutting her off.

Her whole body tensed up and she looked at me with disbelief. A rare laugh escaped her lips, sounding like she thought I'd finally gone crazy. 

"What? Perhaps I misheard you," Pomegranate said, her smile gone now, "What the fuck did you just say to me, mister smart-ass mage?"

"Oh, are you deaf now, misses bossy bitch priestess?" I said cockily, giving her a fake pout, then a curt bow, "My apologies, but I didn't think a bitch like you could become deaf. It'd be more likely for you to become mute."

"YOU-!" Pomegranate screamed, losing it.

She drew her mirror out and I easily and swiftly blew it away with a coffee bean I hadn't even noticed I prepared. She muttered a string of curses and lunged for it, but not before I sent another coffee bean at the mirror's side, avoiding the magic getting reflected at me and sending it off again. The damned mirror held its ground and did not shatter.

A feeling of nastiness spread over me and I blinked-

What just happened?

I was ambling out of the meeting room now. Once again, I was confused but quickly came up with a theory. These images/videos could be hyperrealistic dreams, and I teleport wherever. To be precise, I can't teleport whenever and wherever I want, but I did teleport at a timeline.

Pomegranate wasn't yelling behind me anymore. I strode boldly through the corridor and passed by Licorice. He frowned, jealous and annoyed at me, but said nothing as I nudged past him.

I heard Licorice yell about the dumb roof from the background before entering and slamming the large doors. A few moments later, Poisonous Mushroom ran past clumsily.

There was a smirk on my face, my heart felt like it achieved something. Except for both my dream self and real self wasn't exactly happy or proud. I banged open the front door with five coffee bean strikes. 

Highly unnecessary.

I neared the door leading to the sunny fields outside, but just as I was a few steps away, the bright view flickered into black oblivion. 

I disliked the dream dreadfully already, but I'm assuming I'll wake up soon. In the dream realm, time moves much faster than in reality. Even if there was another sequence to this, it'd be forward. And although I was an outcast, I was still accepted into the Vanilla Kingdom.

I wonder, despite the phrase: 'curiosity kills the cat', what my next dream will be.

If it was a dream at all.

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Word count: 1035

ITS OCTOBER Y'ALL! >XD

Woah, haven't done a short chapter in a while! So let me explain some stuff above if you're confused. Basically, Espresso fell asleep and was dreaming, but when he blinked, he was suddenly in a completely different world.

Depending on his next flashbacks/dreams/???, his chapters will either be as low as 1k words, or as high as 2.5k+. I wanted to split his timelines into different parts.

Anyways, hope this chapter was okay, and have a good day/night!

- Crimson

Writted: 10/01/23
Edited: _______