AFTERMATH [ 2 ] | LEGACIES

T W E N T Y - O N E

votes and comments makes me a happy author, btw :)

on that note, Side Character (book one to this) is at 98k! 2k away from 100k! you guys have no idea how mind boggling that shit is oh my goshhhhh. i love you guys :)

——·——

I ran into the room to see Alaric and Hope together again, this time with Rafael.

"Sorry, I came as soon as I can," I said when all of the eyes shifted to me.

I walked behind Rafael, placing my hands on his shoulders and squeezing them supportively, eying the massive mark on his arm that I was sure was hurting him.

"This happened to you in a nightmare? Are you sure?" Alaric asked him, examining it.

"Look, I know that it sounds crazy, but I was studying and then I fell asleep, and then I just started dreaming about..." he trailed off, looking up at me.

I rubbed my thumb up and down on his upper arm in an attempt to be endearing.

"About what?" Hope asked softly.

"Um... um... one of my old, uh, foster dads," he finally said, looking down. "He was in the library, and he had this old belt that he used to use on me."

At that moment, I wanted the bastards address. I swear, I just wanted to talk. With my fists. Lots of talking with my fists.

"Do you remember anything else?" asked Hope

"Yeah," he said, and I couldn't tell if his distracted demeanor was because of how traumatizing the dream was, or because of something else. He couldn't look me straight in the face, even if he was tilting his head up in my direction. "There was, there was this woman there, too. She was wearing an... and old, black dress, and... and a veil."

"So creepy, dead, wedding lady," I said sarcastically, hoping to be some sort of comic relief.

Totally ignoring my comment, Rafael continued with his description as I massages his shoulders. He put a hand on one of mine, keeping it there. "She told you, 'You know what I want.'"

"The urn," Hope said, giving us a knowing look.

I shook my head, sighing as Alaric let out a deep breath.

"Sounds like our next monster showed up," he said, walking towards his book shelf. "You know, every culture on Earth has legends about creatures that only appear in dreams. But a woman in a black dress and a veil is pretty specific."

"So, does that mean she can, like, control what we see in our dreams?" Rafael asked. I furrowed my eyebrows at him, at how panicked he seemed. "That she can put stuff in our, in our heads, right?"

"It's possible," I said, going back to trying to soothe him by rubbing his back. He wasn't relaxing, just nodding.

"Does this look familiar?"Alaric asked him, showing him a page from the book he was flipping through.

He nodded again.

—

"Our latest monster is a Night Hag," Alaric said, beginning to give the students a run down on what she is, and what she can do.