Those Who Live in the Shadows

Chapter 12

I watched Camelia sleep for a bit. She seemed so peaceful, just enjoying her dreams... I smiled. She didn't look as courageous as she actually was. She was like any normal girl of her age, young, a future full of options ahead of her... Except the ordinary girls hadn't gone through what she had. She was so strong... More than some Nightmares I knew. Painful events sometimes change someone for the best, like Camelia did.

I had discovered many new faces of her personality during the week that had passed after the burglars' trespass and began to like her a lot. I enjoyed being with her.

I had helped her with school, without any incident. I had observed humans during that time, and kept an eye on any sign that could warn me of Ally's presence, but she didn't show up. I guess she thought I had died.

So one week passed slowly, but quickly at the same time. I couldn't reject the fact that I had become attached to Camelia. She was so... irresistible. I can't really explain why I liked her, it just felt right. Maybe it was the way her eyes smile when she laughs, or the cheerful tone she uses to tease me, or the beautiful shadows that darkened her face when the loss of her sight was painful, or when she acts courageous like she isn't afraid of what the future might have in store for her...

I smiled sadly. If she knew what I had kept hidden from her, would she act like that around me? If she learned that I knew since a long time why she could sense me?

I sighed. A strange emotion clutched my heart. Sadness, perhaps.

Camelia was stuck in a never ending dream, created by an unknown powerful Nightmare. The Nightmare had taken so much of her energy, it had made her nightmare real, obscuring her eyes forever. She had been terrified of losing her sight, and she lost it. A dark veil was now floating over her eyes, stopping her from seeing.

She was still in her nightmare today. That's why she could sense me. She was in the same realm as I was: the dreamy world of Nightmares. But at the same time, Camelia was living in the human world. She didn't belong here with me. She belonged with her fellow human people.

I didn't want to lose her. My only friend in a so long time. I didn't want her to reject me: I was the same race as the one who made her life a living hell. So I kept it a secret.

But it hurt, hiding the truth away from her. I should be saying the truth and reveal everything, but I couldn't. Because I knew, after observing so much humans, that she would associate me to the Nightmare who made her blind. And that it would end by her hating me.

There was also a chance that Camelia would still accept me after I revealed it, but I didn't want to take the chance. If she still wanted to be my friend, I knew that I would have to answer the question that I didn't want to answer: "Can you stop this nightmare?" The answer would be... painful, for both of us.

My gaze drifted to her room window. I will have to go feed this night. I glanced one last time at Camelia before going outside, in shadow form. "If only we could stay like this forever..." I whispered.

The Nightmare and his human friend.

***

I laid down on the roof of my last victim, now back at full energy. I looked at the night's dark sky. Grey clouds passed over the moon and the stars like a mirage. I was remembered of what Camelia said to me one day.

"Des, do you ever look up at the sky sometimes?" she had asked me dreamily.

"Yes, it is something I enjoy doing. But I prefer night skies, to be honest," I had replied.

"Well, I can't. And probably will never be able to watch the clouds and the sun again." She sighed. I had wanted to comfort her, but I didn't know how.

"Next time you glance at the sky, look for me too, okay?" she had continued. "Then show it to me in a dream. Or nightmare, whatever."

"I will."

"Remember this, Desire," she had announced very seriously. "You don't realize what you have until it is taken away from you. Enjoy what you have while it's there."

And I had showed her many skies in her dreams, but the one this night was particularly... Special. The atmosphere made me think of a dream. So peaceful yet magical.

If I got there in time, I could show my friend this sky in this night's dream. So I made my way back to Camelia's house. When I went in my friend's room, she wasn't in her bed. I figured she had been to the bathroom, so I waited for a bit, sitting on the floor. I wasn't in a hurry, and Camelia had strictly forbidden me to go in the washroom while she was there.

Then I noticed something strange. A dark spot on the carpet, beside her bed. I went beside it and touched it. Its odor was very familiar. No doubt possible. I knew this substance. It was Nightmare blood.

I jerked up and quickly teared off the sheets of Camelia's bed. A "A" was written in human's red blood on the bed sheets. NOOO! I ran to the bathroom and slammed open the door. No Camelia.

I let out a scream of rage. I had been so stupid! How could I even think that Ally would leave me alone?! And now Camelia was the victim. As I went through the mirror to where Ally and my friend were, Camelia's voice echoed in my mind.

"You don't realize what you have until it is taken away from you."