Nexion

Chapter 1: A Vision Within A Dream

 Chapter 1: A Vision Within A Dream 

Those gleaming green eyes were so genuine, like no other. His chivalrous smile was so humble. I could never stop admiring how he ever-so-lovingly held the woman beside him in his arms. She was the most graceful woman I had ever seen, even though I had never seen her face-to-face. She had the purity of an angel, bringing happiness instantly at the sight of her kind grey eyes. I spent all my free time looking at these two people in the tattered photograph I had. It was the only memory I had of them, along with the few occasional dreams in which they appeared. All my dreams will never come to life because I know they are no longer here in this world. They were my parents and they are both dead.

I stared at the reflection of me and my father behind me in the vanity of my room. The exquisite necklace that my father had just given me hung delicately in between my collar bone. The luxe blue sapphire was set on a dark gold metallic setting with vines that intricately wrapped the corners of the tantalizing gem. I absent-mindedly touched the pendant while admiring it but the next second, I was no longer standing in my room with my father. I was falling...

I was falling from a cliff, but I wasn’t the only one. My brother, Fabian, was falling too and we never seemed to stop. The sound of my brother’s terrified screams rang in my ears as I realised that we were both going to die the second we reached the bottom. The cliff edge which we just fell from got smaller and smaller with every second that we were falling, but I managed to spot three people standing at the edge looking down at us. My vision was too blurry for me to recognise any of the three people, so I closed my eyes and awaited my death. My brother’s scream became muffled and all of a sudden, I opened my eyes, only to return to the comfort of my own room and my father standing behind me with a rather worried expression on his face. 

“Fallen!! Get down here this instant!!” A screechy voice sounded from the kitchen below, putting an end to the flashback of a dream I had the night before. More like a nightmare. I’ve dreamt of my parents a couple of times before, but this dream just freaked me out. A vision within a dream of me and my brother falling to our deaths that was definitely not the kind that I would want to have every night.

I grabbed my backpack and reluctantly started making my way down to the kitchen. She stood right at the staircase landing, waiting for me impatiently with her arms crossed and feet tapping the floor, with an obvious, annoyed expression plastered on her face. What had I done this time?

I stared expressionlessly at the unsightly fully caked face of my foster mother, Elizabeth. She had her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and looked as disgusting as ever in her scanty and revealing clothing.

“I thought I told you to clean up the kitchen last night?” She questioned with her eyebrow raised.

“I was too tired and I had too much homework to do. Why can’t you just do it?” My adamant response seemed to get on her nerves. Usually I would just nod my head and do what she said, but today I made up my mind. I was too tired of her bossing me around all the time and it was time I started giving her a taste of her own medicine.

“You listen and you listen well, young lady. You live under my roof, you obey my rules. And when I ask you to do something, you do it.” She said through her clenched teeth, grabbing hold of my left wrist tightly and exerting more than enough force to make me wince in pain. That was definitely going to leave a bruise. Her face was only inches away from mine right now and she looked right into my eyes with her dull brown ones.

“Keep your filthy hands off my sister, you witch!” Fabian shouted from the top of the stairs. Elizabeth’s grip on my wrist immediately loosened upon hearing my younger brother’s voice. He rushed down the stairs and pulled me away from her.