Rêveuse

1

   002. The Preface

"Nikolina." A quiet voice whispered.

"Nikolina, wake up." The voice became louder, more urgent.

"Nikolina wake up already!" The voice said demandingly with a soft push towards the sleeping girl, the grip on her shoulder alerting her senses.

Nikolina's head span as she quickly sat up from the bed, her senses screamed at her, eyes desperately trying to focus on anything, her breath shallow as she gasped in shock.

Her mother never woke her up!

Alina Petrov expected the best, and the best meant that Nikolina was promptly dressed and presentable by six on the dot. Nikolina's mother was never one to wake her children up in the morning, and if she did, it was never good.

The panicked girl pulled back her bedsheets and with a practised swiftness swung her body out of the bed. Her mind reeled with the countless mistakes she could have made to make her mother wake her up, let alone lay a hand on her shoulder. With her still laboured breath and shaky limbs the girl recoiled as the same hands grabbed at her, holding her shoulders.

The hands were soft and delicate, they felt safe, nothing like her mother's that made you fall into a false sense of security, that made your body quiver in anticipation and fear.

The soft touch weighed on the girls shoulder, the warmth it provided was comforting making the girl's muscles relax and deflate. The same weight shifted to her cheek gently cupping her jaw as the girls ears rang slightly, fading in and out of hearing the muffled words spoken by the person.

Her head lay in the hands of the stranger gently cradling her in their soft hands, the girl now knew that this could not be her mother for she felt no pain.

The girls skin lay unbruised and her ears did not feel the wrath of the serpent woman's words. This could not be her mother she thought as the hands that held her were soft and loving, a quality that Alina Petrov was incapable of having.

Her head lolled forward and her vision was met with the concerned gaze of another. With furrowed eyebrows the girl dragged her eyes over the woman's frame; blonde hair in a relaxed updo, hazel eyes filled with concern and motherly worry on the woman's face.

" ---Nik----olina---are---you---okay?"

The woman's words were met with silence.

A moment had passed.

And another.

And one more.

Before,

"Aunt Jenna?" She raised her eyebrows in mock disbelief, she could only watch as the woman nodded her head and rambled on about how the girl had scared her due to her panicked and frozen state.