Chasing Starlight 💫

16. Little Nightmares

Ash:

Dream Ash shivered. Snow was seeping through her dress, and The Boy's arms were failing to bring her warmth. As for the maze and the rosebush they were nestled in, she feared it was a terrible hiding spot. She flinched at the clanking of steel in the distance. A man screamed as if it was his final breath, and—"

A plinking noise struck glass, invading Ash's dream. Present-day Ash stirred in her sleep, wondering where the noise was coming from. Another plink and the hedge-maze and The Boy slipped from her vision.

Breathing hard, Ash lurched up from her pillow. Her pajamas clung to her body, and she wiped at the cold sweat lingering on her forehead. Ready to be sick, she pulled back her curtain. Fresh air breezed through the window, but she barely felt it, because a young man was climbing over her side fence with a rock aimed at her window. It might have been night outside, but his tall strong form was obvious even when concealed under his coat. As he swung his other leg over the fence, his sharp cheekbones and nose were cast half in shadows, and the moonlight gleamed upon his hair. Even with the scowl at the edges of his mouth, he was heartstoppingly beautiful. Untouchable. His gaze snapped to hers, and she didn't know if it was the moonlight again, but his eyes shone with an iridescent silver-grey. He turned away, as if ready to bolt.

"Alründ?" she breathed, sliding the window all the way open.

He swiveled on the fence and sighed. "Ash."

"What are you doing here?"

He placed a finger to his lips, shushing her. It irritated, but then again, her mum was asleep in the next room.

Nerves zipped through her as he leaped from the fence and removed the fly wire from her window. He was so stealthy that he could have stolen her away and nobody would have known. She should have been scared. He'd never clarified his name, but she was in no doubt that he was the same boy from her dream. Eight-year-old Alründ might have worn fancy clothes and a gold circlet upon his head back then, but his disapproving glare hadn't changed one bit.

He hoisted himself up onto the brick window, leaning comfortably against the window frame, his foot resting upon the ledge. "This is the time we say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" She scrambled across her bed and grabbed his arm. "No!"

"No?"

"Why would you leave? You only just got here."

His nostrils flared slightly.

Oh great, I've annoyed him. Doesn't take much. Just like the old Alründ.

He leaned in. "It's not about leaving. It's about making you forget."

Forget?

A memory struck her. She was seven. Her father's face was blurred. She'd felt him inside her head, sifting through her thoughts, eradicating the ones that shouldn't be there. She'd yelled at him to stop, but she couldn't break the connection. Things were missing in her brain. There were too many gaps, patches of emptiness, scenes that jumped randomly from one event to another.

"You're going to erase this moment, aren't you?" she asked Alründ.

"Yes."

"Don't do it," she'd begged, reaching for his hand.

He withdrew his hand and laughed emptily. "That's normally not the way it goes."

She didn't mean to, but she sent him a harsh look. "So, let me get this straight. Other than you wanting to alter my brain, no actual event has taken place here that's worthy of erasing my memory. Right?"