The Dreamer

Chapter 27

Another month passed and we've been trying to learn as much as possible about the Key of Time and the powers hanging as charms on the necklace. I learned how to better control all of them and discovered that I can't use the other powers without wearing the necklace. Thankfully, I was born with the ice power. A bonus for being the dreamer I guess. I also practiced using more of the arrows and found out more about what each individual one does.

On our break days, Zeke and I have gone out a few times and we've done a few more stories that go with my drawings. My book is almost full so I made a note to myself to buy a new one. Trying to keep Zeke out of my room has become a nightly routine of competition. Some nights I'd win, most of the time he does. Its become more of a game now.

As I lay in bed, I fell asleep quickly. I start to have a nightmare. I'm in darkness at first but an image suddenly pops up like a large screen in front of me. It's Jacomus, the sorcerer or wizard who cursed Zeke. He looks like he came right out of the painting in the ceiling. I hear him laughing and it sends chills down my spine. It feels horrid and evil. Fear settles in my gut when I see his grin. I can't help but feel something familiar about him though.

I watch as different horrible scenes unfold in front of me. He's torturing people, slaughtering them, stealing everything from them. Panic wraps itself around me, slowly suffocating me. How can he do this? How can one person cause this much suffering in the world? The answer? They can't because he's not human. He's the very definition of evil. Darkness surrounds him like air surrounds us. He breathes it. He lives for it. He is it.

As the images come and go in front of me, tears slide down my cheeks as I see the fear and terror on his victims faces right before tragedy and suffering hits them. I can't take it anymore. I turn away as I listen to their everlasting screams, sending, even more, chills and fears my way.

"Impressive, isn't it?" My head shot up at the sound of the voice. It was deep and a little raspy. The voice echoes in what is now darkness. I spun around to pinpoint where it's coming from, but it seems to come from everywhere. "What do you want?" He clicks his tongue at me and suddenly appears before me. He's wearing modern looking clothes. Just a white button-up shirt with a black blazer and slacks. He looks professional. I estimate his age to be around fifty or so if based on looks, but I already know he's much older than that. "Don't you know me?"

"Of course I do. You cursed Zeke and made thousands suffer." He laughs and another chill shot down my spine. "Correct." He starts circling me with his hands behind his back. When I look at his clothes again, I suddenly realize something. "You're still alive." It wasn't a question. Without a doubt, he's still alive. Why would he be here otherwise?

"Indeed." He continues to circle me like a shark and I try to hide my fear with a brave face. "Other than your little stories, what else do you know about me?" My brows came together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." He stops in front of me with his hands behind his back still. "I don't need to know anything else." He clicks his tongue at me, shaking his head in disbelief. "So you don't know." I slowly back away, confused about what's happening. "Guess I need to break the news."

"What news?" He sighs and he looks at me with a sense of pleasure gleaming in his eyes. "You're adopted in your family." I froze. I stop breathing altogether. Adopted? I'm...adopted? No, that's not right. "No, I'm not."

"Do you truly believe that?" I can't think straight. My mind is clouded with confusion and shock. "You're wrong, you have to be wrong." He grins at me and it was easy to see razor-sharp teeth on him. "Think about it. I mean truly think about it." And I did, but it didn't make any sense. They treated me like their own. "Even if it's true, how do you know?"

"I have my ways." He turns and just as he's about to take a step forward, he suddenly morphs into smoke. I spun around to find him again. "Why are you here?" He appears right next to me. "You mean in your mind, your dreams, your thoughts?" Then he disappears again. Panicked, I take a step back and bump into a wall. I jump and spin around to see Jacomus standing there instead. "How are you doing that?"

"Same way you can create ice out of nothing." He disappears into smoke again. "Magic." I jump, turning around again. "I'm a sorcerer after all."

"Stop it! Why are you doing this to people!" He laughs and it echoes off of the darkness. I hate it. The sound of his laugh just sounds so unnatural, inhuman. He spun around to face the same direction I am and held out an arm. "Look at it all!" The images pop up again in front of us like a slideshow in a movie theater. I start shaking in terror. Even my breaths were coming out shaky. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"No, it's horrible. Absolutely horrible." I step away from him, my eyes brimming with tears. "You're horrible." He blinks at me and his grin darkens. Everything about him just darkens. He seems to grow taller, towering over me like a great Dane over a Chihuahua. "Now that's no way to talk to your own blood, is it?"

"What?" My voice was barely audible. I almost missed it myself, but he didn't. I feel nausea suddenly overwhelm me and I start gasping. No, this can't be happening. "You're lying."

"Am I now?" He kneels down beside me, lifting my chin up to meet my eyes. "Then how do explain your powers, huh? Where'd you get them?" I couldn't answer. My whole body shook. "Still not convinced?" He rose, forcing me to my feet as well. "How about now?" More images appeared, but they aren't of pain. No, it's a family history. Different scenes with different people play in front of me.

The first showed Jacomus standing next to a boy who looks similar to him. I watch as the story continues. The boy grew up and had a son of his own. This happens on repeat. The boy grows up, has a son, then that boy grows up and has a son of his own too. "They're all sons."

"That's how it's been. None of them had my gifts. Not until you were born." The images suddenly speed up one after the other until it just stops. The scene plays like a video. "I was right there when you were born. I could feel your power even before you were born." I watch as a man picks the crying baby up and he coos at it. I see the familiar face of me on the baby. I remember all of the baby photos that my parents showed me quite a few times.

The man turns around and hands me to someone else. Jacomus. He actually held me. He looks down at me with a scrutinizing look. "But you were a girl." I watch as he frowns at me and quickly turns me away, giving me back to my "parents" to hold instead. I swallow the lump forming in my throat. "So you turned me away just because I'm a girl?"

"Women are typically weak. I needed a boy. A man to stand by my side." His voice was full of pride at the idea. "We would rule together with an iron fist." I watch as my father looks down at me with a blank stare. He was just cooing at me. He frowns as well. He hands me to the woman who's laying in the hospital bed next to them and she actually smiles down at me with pure adoration. I look at her as she held me close. I can see how I resemble her, despite our difference of eye color. Her bright green eyes are soft as she looks at me and her smile is full of kindness. I can see her love for me already and I almost smile. She softly spoke to me and I can hear an echoing giggle erupt from baby me. "Did any of you want me?"

I hate how my voice cracked. I'm happy with how I grew up. I'm happy with my parents and Mia. But the idea that my own flesh and blood didn't want me hurts. I feel betrayed even though I only met them once in my life and I don't remember them.

"Your mother did. When I told your father to get rid of you, she fought. She fought with all of her being and when you were gone, so was she." The scene unfolds in front of me right after he said it. Jacomus stood behind my supposed father as they both watch the doctors take me away. They watched as my mother kicked and screamed and demanded them to bring me back, but they didn't listen. I turn away when I've seen enough and her screams echo in my ears. My own father didn't want me. All he wanted was to make Jacomus proud.

"And I see I've made a mistake. You are very strong indeed. Not only did I turn you away because you are a girl, but because of the prophecy." He once again disappears and I start to wonder if he was doing it to be dramatic. "You've heard it," he states, "and I couldn't risk it coming true."

"But it did."

"Indeed. Not only are you helping this boy. You're also in love with him. You're betraying your own family name for this beast!" The image of Zeke suddenly appear, but it's not the Zeke I know. It's past Zeke. He's standing over dead bodies, similar to the painting on the ceiling in the library. It's that look in his eyes again. It sends chills down my spine and Jacomus laughs again. "Chilling isn't it. To see who your supposed 'love' really is. This is who you betrayed your family for?!"

My hands clenched into fists and I spun around to face him. "I didn't betray my family! They're still at home with my sister! You and the man who was supposed to be my father betrayed me first. You lost me that day you gave me up!" Now it was my turn to release my anger on him. "As for Zeke, he's not a beast or a monster! He is a trapped human being! Everything there," I yell, pointing to the large image of him, "is in the past! That is not him!" My voice echoes in the dark and my anger is a raging fire in me. I became so angry, I start crying. "I may be related to you by blood, but that's all! You are not my family!" He smirks at me and he disappears again, but he reappears just as quick right in front of me. He violently grabs my chin in his hand in a tight grip and stares at me with a sharp grin. "The thing about evil Eira," he pauses and whispers the last part in my ear, "it runs in the blood."