Oh, To Be The Lady's - [A Lady Dimitrescu/Female Reader-Insert Story]

Chapter Sixty Three: To Be Sleepwalking

SUMMARY: Prompt by the lovely @MadHatter6660: Could you do one where the maiden has a horrible nightmare. The kind where even when you wake up, it take quite a while to tell that you're awake and not still in the dream. Bonus points for it the maiden ends up sleepwalking and attracts the daughter's attention along with Alcina's.

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A/N: Hi guys, happy Saturday! 🥰 I hope you all enjoy chapter 63 and thank you from the bottom of my heart for you love and support, it means the world to me! 😭💖 

Just a little announcement/reminder: I mentioned before that my "update day" is going to change to Mondays starting next week (March 4th) because I had a job change and that's my full day off again! Thank you and please don't be discouraged when you don't see an update from me next Saturday! Anyways, please enjoy the chapter! 😊

TRIGGER WARNING: sleepwalking, anxiety, panic attack, nightmares

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You're walking in your dream.

Part of you, at least, knows it's a dream. Your strides are way too long, the darkness around you oppressive and shrinking in a way you couldn't truly experience during wakefulness. Walking along the dark path, you aren't sure where you are, the edges blurry and out-of-focus in a way that only dreams can truly be.

The other part of you, however, the part influenced more by natural fight or flight instincts, is sending off alarm bells that have your breath panting.

You think you're walking along the castle halls, but it doesn't feel right. Things keep changing around you, morphing in-and-out of place and focus. One second, you're in the kitchen, the next second, the courtyard, the next, in your and Alcina's bedchambers.

All the while, you're alone.

The castle — your home — seems almost unfamiliar. The paths loop back around on themselves, the walls warping and tilting until you're dizzy. Blearily, you squint, your head feeling woozy, your heart racing as fear starts to take hold. Walking faster, you wrench the door to the library open, startling back when instead of the familiar bookshelves lining the walls, you're met with the wintery snow of the courtyard in the midst of a blizzard.

Dragging your feet through the white powder takes so much energy, you aren't sure it's worth it. You want to sleep, you want to fall to your knees and face plant into the ground and give up. The air around you isn't cold, however the atmosphere makes it seem and you feel almost disconnected, the tall spikes of the castle walls around you oppressive and shrinking.

You barely catch sight of Alcina's wide hat as she rounds a corner ahead.

Immediately, you start toward her. You don't know why you're just seeing her now, why her heels make no tracks in the soft, powdery snow gathering around your legs but you couldn't care less.

"M—M'Lady—" You call out. Your voice sounds wrong, enclosed, like you're talking into a vacuum. You try again, louder. "Alcina!"

She makes no indication that she's heard you. Your heart beating wildly, the thump of your pulse in your throat is the only thing you can hear as you pant, you heave yourself upward and forward, until the snow's gone. Like it was never there, you track your wife through the doors that should lead into the dining room but instead you step into the hallway outside of your bedchambers. The gold decoration adorning the walls glisten, bright enough for their gleam to jab at your eyes, and you stumble forward. The hallway is long, stretching on and on, shrinking in on you as you follow behind your Lady.