Come Love A Stranger

Twenty two

Mariah was running in the forest, she picked the hem of her dress to make her run faster, she was being chased, and she knew that if she doesn’t run fast enough, it would be the end for her. She could see an opening ahead, maybe if she make it to the light, whatever that was chasing her would give up. She increased her pace, she was breathing heavily, she could feel her chest rising and falling, her heavy panting surrounds her, she was close, she was getting close and then she saw him.
It was Alador, he was searching around in frantic, “Alador, Alador,” she shouted at him but he couldn’t hear her, he was still searching, there was worry on his face. His hair was whiter than usual and there were an endless breeze, blowing up dried leaves around, making it hard for her to see but she could still see him as clearly as ever. His eyes were burning, they were like untamed fire as he searched around him, looking for something or rather someone. At that moment, it occurred to her, she was the one he was looking for. Realizing that, her heart lit up in hope, “Alador,” she screamed, running towards him but no matter how close she thought she was, he always seem to be far away. “Alador,” she screamed louder but he didn’t hear her, he didn’t look at her.
Tree vines shoot up from the ground, Alador stood in the middle like a demon, he was like a beast, ruining everything in his part in his quest to find her. “Alador,” she shouted, she could feel her pursuers were catching up to her and her strength was failing her, she was growing weak and it was getting hard to raise a leg, “Alador,” tears streamed down her face, she could see him but he can’t see or hear her. She could feel her hope crumbling within her, as her demise approach her, the open space she had wished to run into was as if it was running with her, getting farther away from her. “Alador,” she was panting, she looked back and saw them, they were wolves, but there weren’t like the normal wolves she knows, their fangs were longer than usual and they were running with their hind legs, they were standing like humans, their claws were long and sharp that it slashes through trees. Their eyes were burning red and their skin so dark that it almost felt like they were shadows in form of wolves and humans.
They were gaining on her and she could feel that she was losing consciousness, she looked ahead, Alador was still ahead, farther than he was before. Guess this was it, she can never make it, maybe it was time to say goodbye, there was no way she could escape the shadows not when her strength was failing. Tears trailed down her cheeks and she sobbed, her throat itching because of her screams and her voice turning fainter, “Alador,” she called for the last time and it was then he looked at her, seeing her for the first time. His eyes burned brighter as he started running towards her, tree vines shooting up from earth to shield her but before it could completely do that, one of the shadows jumped and clawed her back. The pain was so unbearable that she stopped running and fell on her knees, from behind her, the creature clawed her chest and she felt the pain straight in her heart.
“Nay!” Alador screamed, teleporting to her then, in burning anger, he turned to the creature to fight it but like shadows, they all evaporated, “Nay, come back, come back!” he yelled, setting the forest on fire that every single thing burned to ashes in seconds. He turned to her then, kneeling before her and scooping her into his arms, “nay, nay, Mariah, Mariah, stay with me, please.”
She was coughing, blood pouring out of her mouth and wounds, in time, Alador was soaked with her blood, “A-Al-Alador….”
“Sh, sh, do not say a world, I…I would protect you,” tears were trailing down his cheeks and his voice was trembling, “Mariah….Mariah…”
She looked at him with pained filled eyes, “I-I- I am sorry.”
“Nay, nay, I am sorry, I did not protect you, I…I failed, I failed….please forgive me,” he cupped her cheeks, and slowly tucked her hair from her face, “I am so sorry.”
“Don’t,” she reached to touch his face but she was so weak, “I will meet you…again and…I would…love you…just as…much…I…I promise. Just…promise me you won’t…abandon me…just…promise…”
“Mariah,” he closed his eyes and kissed her forehead, then he looked at her, “stay.” She smiled and shook her head softly and then closed her eyes, “Nay!” he screamed, his voice wrapped in agony and sounded so loud that it shook the very earth.
“No!” Mariah screamed and sat up on the bed immediately, she was panting heavily, and her body was drenched like she was poured water. Her heart was beating erratically and she couldn’t believe that what happened was a dream, it felt so real. She had never had the dream so clear like that and also, in order dreams, she knew they were dreams, it mostly feels like she was in the side watching what was happening but this one, this was different, it felt so real, like she was experiencing it, like it really happened to her. Something caught her eyes by the side and she turned immediately to be met with fiery glowing eyes, she gasped and clenched tightly on her blanket when she noticed the slivery white hair, “A-Alador?”
“You did not wake up,” he whispered, he was sitting in the rocking chair in the room near the window and he made no sign of getting up to go to her.
“What do you mean?”
“I should not have stayed,” he closed his eyes.
“I do not understand, what are you saying?”
He opened his eyes, “my presence, it made the nightmare more authentic.”
“Nightmare? That wasn’t a nightmare, Alador and you know it,” she climbed out of the bed and walked up to him, she stood before him, “I had a dream so realistic and you called it a nightmare? You sat here and watched me living through it, you didn’t even bother to wake me up. How did you know it was the nightmare I told you about, how did you know that it was authentic?”
He didn’t look away from her, “I am not what you think I am,” he whispered.
“Of course you are not human, I already mentioned that but what I don’t understand is why you would claim my dreams to be a nightmare.”
“Because that is what it is.”
“Stop telling me that!” She shouted, “stop treating me like a child and tell me what is going on. I have been having a peaceful life before I met you, and then all of a sudden everything changed, I started having unbelievable dreams and Ilayas, yes, Ilayas, he warned me to stay away from you, he told me that if I want to avoid my fate I should stop seeing you and then in the garden at the palace, he had said something like history repeating itself, what does he mean? Why do I feel like I have known you earlier than now, why is it that I catch glimpses of you with me in a way that has never happened, why do I feel like we have been so much closer than this? Answer me!”
Alador didn’t look fazed by her question and neither did he have any plan of explaining anything to her, he closed his eyes and turned his face away, “t’s nothing.”
“Don’t tell me that!” she started sobbing, “clearly it is something, why did I feel the pain of an injury I sustained in a dream? Please Alador,” she went down on her knees before him, “please, tell me everything, I want to know,” she placed her hands on his thighs, “I’m begging you.”