Starlight Souls ✦

00:09

She felt her hands being tied up with ropes, her frame sitting on the ground as she witnessed hundreds of thousands of books placed in piles at a distance from her. It looked like the mouth of a cave as she sat inside, staring at the world outside. Beyond the books, were woods so dense anyone would easily get lost in them and never be found again. But she couldn't see the woods properly, for the books were blocking them.

Several people were standing, surrounding the books from a distance. It was nighttime, and the moon was barely visible. From behind the books, the view of the night of the blue moon was still somewhat visible.

One of the people who stood surrounding the mountain of books—all of them were dressed in particular-looking armour—emerged from the shadows while holding a torch lit with fire. When she realised what he was planning on doing, she screamed on top of her lungs, so loud that her throat might have gone silent for the next few days, but she didn't care. She screamed so loudly that her scream echoed through the whole forest. She cried while screaming, begging the man to stop what he was doing. She cried like a little child, but all of her screaming and tears were of no use; all of it had gone to waste.

The man threw the torch on the pile of books, a smile lighting up his face. The rest of the men cheered, celebrating as if they had won a war, which she thought they actually did, looking at their reactions. There was a sense of accomplishment on all of their faces.

At that moment, her whole body went numb. All the sobs got stuck in her throat as she watched the horrors of her worst nightmare unfold. She stared—which was the only thing she was capable of at the moment—as one of the books caught fire, then another one, then another one, then another one, then another one, then another one, and soon the whole pile of books was set on fire.

She tried to get up so she could save as many books as possible; it would be a great achievement for her if she managed to save even a page, but she couldn't. She was tied up, forced to watch as all of those books went up in flame, something that couldn't be reversed.

She screamed again in an attempt to do what her mind wasn't even capable of processing. She couldn't think straight. All she could do was cry. Seeing all of those books burn down to ashes made her mind numb. She didn't know what she was doing anymore, where she was, or who she was. All she knew was that those books, that contained so much knowledge she would burn down a whole town for, were being turned into ashes, and she couldn't even do anything. She was helpless, and the mere thought and realisation of how helpless she was made her lose her mind once again.

Talita sat up straight on her bed, gasping for air. Her eyes were wide open, as if she had just seen a ghost. Looking at her surroundings, she realised that she was in her room, in the comfort of her dormitory. The curtain beside her blew as the cold wind from the outside flew in her room through the open window.

It was a dream.

She placed her hand over her heart, trying to calm herself down and control her breathing. When she touched her forehead to sweep back a stand of hair that was getting in front of her face, that was when she realised how her forehead was drenched with cold sweat.

Candace opened the door in a state of panic, 'What happened?!'

'What?' Talita was confused as to why Candace would come into her room in the middle of the night.

'I heard you scream, so I thought something bad might have happened and rushed here.' Candace replied, 'Now, what really happened?'

'I'm sorry.' Talita sighed, 'It was just a really bad dream.'

Candace arched one of her eyebrows. 'Are you sure it was a nightmare? I'm asking that because I have never heard you scream while having a bad dream before.'

Talita shook her head. 'I can assure you it was just a nightmare.'

'Fine, then.' Candace added, 'Do you want me to be here with you or will you be fine on your own?'

'I think I'll be fine.' Talita replied.

'I'll be going to bed then.' Candace said, 'Good night.'

'Good Night.' Candace closed the door behind her as she left, leaving Talita in her own dark state of mind.

Talita went back to sleep, but there was no more sleep in her eyes. She kept tossing and turning the whole night, feeling as if someone's eyes were on her, the scenes from her dream replaying in her mind. She sat up on her bed again, scanning her whole dimly lit room, not because she suspected that someone might be there, but to make sure that no one was there, staring at her.

Just when she was about to go back to sleep, she saw two eyes on the feet of her bed staring straight through her soul. She was about to scream for help until the curtain blew past her, emitting the light outside onto the creature staring at her. It was Zyria.