Twisted Paradise

Chapter 27

Lily was barefoot, in a picturesque and serene meadow. Standing amidst the soft dandelions, the cyan sky overhead and the grass tickling the soles of her feet. 

Then the clouds darkened, gathering together in bunches of sooty fluff. Rumbling sounded, seemingly shaking the earth on which she stood. There were cracks on the ground. She looked up and flinched at the sudden mist of darkness. A shadow took shape of a man, a man of her greatest nightmares and a skeletal claw reached out towards her. 

Lily ran. 

She ran and ran, stifling the scream building up in her throat. There would be no one to save her, she instinctively knew. It would be a waste of her energy. 

So she ran until her legs cramped, lungs gave out. She ran until breathing felt like taking in bundled thorns, blood dripping though her windpipe. She ran over sharp blades of grass, over pieces of molten lava, over prickly little scattered stones. Her feet burned and torn. Worn and bloodied. 

She ran straight into the eternal abyss. And she fell. The wind swoosh past her as she closed her eyes. Breathed through her mouth, let the poisonous miasma enter her veins and coat her internal organs. She let it taint and corrupt with a smile on her lips. 

A set of arms embraced her then. Stopping her full descent. They held her close and gentle. 

Like she was what dreams were made of. 

This person smelled of lavender. And in their arms, she found peace. 

Lily's eyes snapped open, sitting upright in a hurry, and a gasp escaped into the otherwise silent room. It took some time for her breathing to stabilise. She looked down at her feet, rough and calloused as they were, no trace of blood or burns. 

Closing her eyes, she flopped back into her silk sheets. 

A nightmare. 

Been a while since she had those. She turned over to the side, checking her phone. The last bit though... 

She had never been at peace before. She did not wake up screaming like the last times. All thanks to the man she should be wary of but wasn't. 

Resolving to not let this matter eat her away, she got up and readied herself for the day. Selene was like already up, early bird that she was. She walked into the dining room and saw the ice blonde finishing up her breakfast. 

"You're awake early," Selene remarked. "Did you have a nightmare?" 

Nothing got past that girl, huh? 

Lily shrugged. "It wasn't so bad. I didn't wake up convinced the world was out to get me so... Improvement?" 

"It has been a while since you had bad dreams, Lilithe. What brought this one?"

"How should I know? I'm so close to finishing my revenge, maybe just nerves?"

"What about your mafia man?"

"Blaise," Lily reminded. "What about him?" 

"Will you include him in your plans?"

She chuckled in surprise. "Why would I? Why would he even want to be involved in something so messy?" 

Selene blinked. Like she was not sure Lily honestly asked her a question with a very obvious answer. "For one, he kicked out Santano for you. Not to mention, and this is the more important bit, he's very much in love with you."

Lily paused from taking a bite of her sandwich. "You've said that before but it's not true."

"Why not? I also said you only had a few brain cells left and that's proving true." 

Lily spluttered. "Is my intellect the only think you can think to insult?" 

"Maybe I would not get a chance to if you stopped acting like an idiot. What makes you deny the possibility, no the fact, of him being in love with you? Think of all that a man in his position could have done to you so far from the moment he found you out. Think of all he did for you instead." 

Blaise Roosevelt? In love with her? 

The idea did not spark a wave of panic like it did the last time. She did not feel the horrible urge to block and ghost the man. 

She thought of those molten mahogany eyes, intense as they seared into the planes of her skin. No, she did not want to run away. She wanted to step closer instead. 

How problematic. 

"It doesn't matter," she said in a valiant declaration. "His feelings change nothing since I have one for him."

There was a flash of skepticism in Selene's cold blue eyes. "At this stage, I'm not sure he cares. He quite possibly just wants to be by your side." 

Now she was confused. Blaise did not strike her as the needlessly selfless type. "Why?" 

"Because, Lilithe," Selene reiterated slowly, like she was talking to a five-year old. "He is in love with you. Even the most self-serving person will rearrange their priorities if they encounter this... Disease." 

Lily scrunched up her nose. Not liking the way she was being talked to. "Since when are you so well-versed in love?" 

Selene did her poor imitation of a shrug before standing up and placing her place on the sink. "Reading love stories as a hobby with do that to a person." 

A humorous smile quirked up her lips. "Didn't you once tell me it was all fictional? So I shouldn't put much stock into it?" 

The ice blue eyes focused on her with a sharpness. "But as I'm discovering first-hand, fiction has always been inspired by reality."