Bright One | Empire of Blood and Swords Series

1. The Same Nightmare

-1-
-The Same Nightmare-
Odette

Growling came from the forests. I looked around to find myself in that forest where I got lost when I was 7.

I flinched when I saw a familiar man fall onto the ground from the bushes.

"Father!" I exclaimed. I went closer to him and realized he was bruised. There were claw marks everywhere on his body and he was bleeding. "Oh no. . ."

Falling boulders were the exaggerated way of saying my heartbeats were loud in my ears. Fear smelled of blood and sweat, salty and metallic. His head shot up to look at me. Something flickered on his face, but it was quickly covered with darkness. I couldn't see him, couldn't see his expression as he pushed himself up.

"Leave," he said in a voice which sounded like a command. I started to cut him off, but he grabbed my arm and forced me to look at the darkness which was his face.

"I don't have much time," he slowly stood up and winced in pain. "You have to get out of here. I did something and now the achilleas are very mad at me. They want to kill us. So now, I want you to run away. Is that clear?"

"I don't wanna leave you," I pleaded.

"You must go. Try not to die!"

I didn't understand what he meant by that. Growling came from the forests and four wolves came out. One white, one black, one grey and one brown. Behind them were other wolves. They looked at my father and the black one licked it's teeth.

"Run!" The man shouted.

My legs obliged. The moment I did, he screamed as the wolves charged at my father. Tears came pouring out of my eyes as I ran, but that didn't stop me. I took one last glance at him, who was nowhere to be seen by now. The wolves must have dragged him away.

Then, as I thought my father was killed, I heard the sound of explosion piercing through my ears. I covered my ears and screamed as I heard the wolves whimper. A few wolves flew towards me and hit the ground with a thud. I keep running and running and running...

I shot out of bed and screamed. Beads of sweat started to form on my forehead and dripped down my chin slowly. Running footsteps could be heard, it reached in front of my bedroom door and the door swung open. It was my foster mom.

Her eyes were big with surprise. Her face was grey with fatigue. In her hands she held a bat, looking around as if someone had broke into my room.

"Odette, are you okay?" She asked, her eyes full of concern...and tiredness.

"Yeah, just a nightmare," I replied dryly. I smiled lightly at her. She didn't smile back.

She walked over to my bed and sat beside me.

"The same nightmare?" She asked and I nodded. "The same nightmare for more than ten years since we adopted you. Your childhood dreams are all of demons."

"That's not true," I argued. "I've had great dreams too! I've once dreamed of this beautiful girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, she was looking down at me with a huge smile."

"Your mother," she mumbled, but I had caught it. I knew it was my mother, but I never asked for more.

The police never found out where I came from or how I got here. When I stumbled off a tiny forest and onto the road, a few teenagers found me bleeding and out cold. They called the police who immediately took me to the hospital.