Dragonborn

Chapter 15 ~ Inner Demons

She awoke early in the morning, the early rays of the sun were just beginning to crack the horizon. Allura was sound asleep, but Gavin was wide awake and staring at her, he had bags under his eyes.

"Good morning." Akila whispered hoarsely. Her dreams had been filled with nightmares.

He simply smiled and nodded.

"Did you get any sleep?" She asked.

"No." He replied. "The waves of demonic energy were to strong."

Akila bit her lower lip and tried to lessen them. The relaxing of his tense muscles meant she'd succeeded. "Did I do anything that I don't remember?"

"No." He replied simply.

She yawned; she felt even more tired than when she'd gone to bed. She tried searching inside herself to find some sort of light, but didn't feel any sort of change. The trickling feeling was ever present, which scared because she didn't want to fall any further from the light.

She got up carefully and shifted her chains so that she could look in a small mirror perched on top of the dresser. At that, she realized that she'd never really looked around her room. It was lavishly decorated, but not that big. Walking in, there was a dresser to your right, the bed was in front of you and a couch was leaned up against the right wall. There was a coffee table in front of it.

Her reflection showed red eyes and disturbingly black hair. Her skin was a silverish metal color. The dark of the room didn't bother her one bit. In fact, she could see perfectly clear and preferred it this way. One small strand of hair, she noticed, was brown. She desperately grasped it with her free hand, so that the rattling of chains didn't wake Allura. "Gavin," She breathed, "Look."

"I can't see anything." He said before lighting a candle. She gave an impatient hiss as it flared to life. When he saw what she was holding up, his eyes widened. "That wasn't there last night."

"I know." She whispered. Akila started to pace but stopped when she remembered that she had a chain on. She growled, "Can you please snuff that out?" The candle was putting her in a bad mood.

Gavin gave her a pointed look.

"I know. I know." She conceded before holding up her arm. "I think it's pretty clear that I'm not going to murder you, do you mind taking the chain off.

He obliged.

Once free, Akila rubbed her wrist. It wasn't raw, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling. "I'm going to go take a walk." She declared.

Gavin caught her wrist, "No, the illusion doesn't work while Allura is asleep."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" She whispered.

"Wait." He replied. She's tired too.

"So are you. Sleep." She commanded.

His eyes fluttered closed for a second before he meekly pleaded, "Stop..."

She didn't realize she was back to radiating intense demonic energy, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I could make you fall asleep like that." She said.

"It's alright. I probably don't need much convincing. Look, Gustav stopped by last night and said he has some theories on your current predicament. Let's go see if he's awake, maybe he can take over watching you."