120 Nightmares

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WARNING: This chapter contains violent scenes, sensitive readers might want to skip.

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Temple of the Light, Radiant Domain, Human Upper Realm.

High Priestess Sharlin seethed with rage as she paced in her study. The room was ornately decorated, with lavish ancient elvish wooden furniture with ostentation gold finishes. The thick spirit beast woven carpet muffled Sharlin's footsteps and she paced back and forth.

Her fists were clenched so tightly that her long nails were digging into her palms, her normally pale skin was flushed red, as her blood pounded in her ears. After nearly three months of useless reports from her spies in the demon realm, she had just found out that Ren had disappeared, and none of her people knew where he had gone too.

Sharlin couldn't shake the premonition that he had found out that his true-mate has alive and on Doha, but none of her useless subordinates could track him down. The more she thought about him finding his true-mate the more she started to panic.

Her eyes narrowed into slits, she shouted for her trusted assistant. When the young woman entered Sharlin demanded that she fetch the Prophetess.

After she returned from the demon realm and her disastrous meeting with Ren, she had interrogated the Prophetess, but no matter how much she tortured her, the Prophetess had kept on repeating that she had no further information on Ren's true-mate.

For the past three months, the Prophetess had been 'enjoying' Sharlin's hospitality in her secret dungeon. After three months entertaining her special guards, Sharlin was sure that the Prophetess would be more than willing to divulge her secrets now.

Half an hour later, her assistant dragged in an old looking woman. Before Sharlin's 'tender care', the Prophetess has been a handsome middle-aged woman, who had stood proud and tall. Her salt and pepper hair tied into a severe bun, her dove grey eyes always reflecting a look of serenity.

In the last three months, she had aged a couple of decades, her back was hunched, and her skin sagged over her stick-like skeleton. Her once salt and pepper hair was now pure white, and parts of her scalp were raw and festering where large chunks of her hair had been ripped out.

Her once beautiful eyes were now just empty sockets. Sharlin had personally gouged out those serene eyes herself. The once beautiful golden rune in the middle of her forehead, with its delicate twirls and graceful lines that extended from the sun like rune, above her eyebrows, down the sides of her face and neck before disappearing into the neckline of her dress, was now a sickly yellowish color.

Dressed in soiled ripped clothing, her body was covered in welts from being whipped, as well as numerous bruises and bite marks. Many of the bites were festering with yellowish green pus leaking.

"Ah, my dear Prophetess I see that my boys have been treating you well, I do hope that you have been enjoying their tender attention," Sharlin said sarcastically as she stalked over to the old woman.

Reaching over to pitch the Prophetess chin, Sharlin raised her face to stare into her empty sockets, grinning sinisterly Sharlin said: "Being a generous spiritual leader, I am going to give you one last chance, tell me where that bitch is, and I will have our healers attend to you, and all will be forgiven and you can return to the safety of your temple."

Then brutally squeezing the chin between her fingers, nearly crushing the delicate bone she hissed venomously: "Else what you have just experienced will feel like a summer breeze. I will make sure that my boys f*ck you until your hips are shattered."

"I will tell you what I have seen Sharlin," the old woman croaked out.

"Excellent, I'm happy to hear that you have finally seen the light," Sharlin said smugly as she let go of the Prophetess' chin. Removing her handkerchief, she wiped her hands while sneering in disgust. Pity this old bitch is so useful thought Sharlin, if not, she would have personally fed her piece by piece to her hellhounds. But at least now this bitch belongs to me now.

"So where is that sl*t?" Sharlin demanded.

The Prophetess smiled widely, her dry lips cracked, as fresh blood started to leak.

"She is coming for you, she will take everything away from you. The man you love, your throne, your realm and you will end up in a situation even worse than me, and while you are screaming for mercy the man with the purple eyes will watch you suffering with pleasure."

The Prophetess then burst out laughing, her laughter was filled with madness but there were traces of joy in it.

"Oh yes you bitch, they are both coming for you, they will burn and destroy everything that you have built, the people of all the realms will curse you, and the rats will feed on your corpse."

"Never!" Sharlin snarled as she leaped at the old woman, her lips pulled back baring her teeth as she gave a guttural roar. Screaming Sharlin punched and tearing at the soft flesh with her nails. All the while roaring, "he is mine!" over and over again.

Finally coming back to her senses Sharlin looked down at the barely recognizable body that had fallen at her feet. Bending down Sharlin checked on the Prophetess, seeing that the Prophetess was dead, Sharlin howled, "f*ck!"

Kicking the corpse lying at her feet, "See what you made me do, you stupid sl*t" she yelled over and over again, as she continuously kicked the dead body lying there.

***

Elven Realm

A young girl lay sleeping, she had a beautiful oval face, her eyes were slightly slanted, with soft pink lips, a small delicate pointed ear peaked through her long wavy black hair. The young body outlined through the thin covering was tall and slender.

As the girl dreamed, a golden glowed surrounded her body. She awoke screaming in pain as a sun-like golden rune was engraved into her forehead.

The new Prophetess had been chosen.

***

Medbay, Protoss artifact.

Jayde was desperately trying to fight her way out the thick darkness. No matter where she looked, she could see nothing. She felt like she had been running in this darkness forever.

Just as she started to lose hope of ever finding her way out, she saw a small light flickering in the distance. She started to run towards the light. After what felt like hours she finally managed to push her way through the light.

Jayde found herself in a strange but beautiful garden. The lush green grass was bisected with a burst of colors, red flowers similar to roses, spiny-leafed white flowers, brightly colored dainty flowers, large yellow sunflowers, and brightly colored bushes in all different shades. Sunshine glittered off the small dew drops lying on the leaves.

The humming of insects could be heard over the soft sound of running water. The air was filled with the sweet perfume of the flowers and underneath the perfume, you could smell the damp earth.

Jayde followed a path of stepping stones until she came upon a fragile beautiful woman sobbing while hiding a small child behind her back. In front of the woman was a brute of man, his face twisted into a mask of cruelty.

The small child was adorable with long black hair, alabaster skin, his sharp white teeth were biting his pinks lips, while small tears dripped from his lavender eyes. The child couldn't have been more than five or six years old. A nasty purplish-black bruise covered his one cheek. His small body was thin and he looked as though he hadn't been fed enough.

Jayde wasn't sure why, but when she looked at the child she felt strangely drawn to him, she was filled with an inescapable desire to grab hold of him and protect him.

Just then the brutish man raised his meaty fist and violently punched the delicate woman in front of him. The blow was so powerful that the woman flew back, Jayde could see how she twisted her body to prevent herself from falling onto the young child.

"Hey, you bastard, how dare you raise your hand to a woman!" Jayde yelled as she ran up to the man, reaching down she grabbed her sword.

Jumping protectively in front of the small child, Jayde prepared to strike down this brute, when his hand reached down to grab the small boy, passing straight through her body.

WTF!

Confused Jayde looked around, trying to make sense of what the hell was going on. That's when she noticed that neither the woman, boy or man took notice of her presence, it was like they couldn't see her.

As the man roughly grabbed the small boy by his neck, Jayde tried to grab his arm to stop him, but her hands just passed through him. Not sure what was going on, Jayde had no choice but to stand there and watch as the beastly man beat the child.

Unsure why, but seeing that small child beaten was the most painful thing that Jayde had ever experienced, for the first time since she was a child she cried, her tears flowed as she tried over and over to stop the brutal beating.

But Jayde ordeal wasn't over, the young woman, Jayde thought she was the child's mother as they looked similar, jumped on the man's back, punching and pulling his hair. The bestial man then turned his attention to her. Backhanding her, she fell to the ground, the man leaped on her. He then proceeded to rip her clothing off, once she was naked he then savagely spread her thighs before he viciously rammed himself into her.

Horrified Jayde covered her mouth with her hands, shocked that she had to stand here and watch this without being able to help.

The small boy jumped on the man's back trying hard to rip him off his mother, the sadistic man didn't even stop his thrusting, just grabbed the child and threw him. The child hit a tree, his small body crumbled.

The next thing Jayde found herself back in the dark.

***

Small camp outside dragon realm.

Ren jerked awake, his breathing raspy, a scream trapped in his throat. Sitting up he shaking pushed his sweaty hair off his face.

Gods it had been years since he had dreamt of his parents.

"Milord, do you require anything?"

Hearing the voice of his manservant, Ren took a deep breath, before calmly telling him everything was fine.

Swinging his legs over to sit on the side of the bed, Ren reached for his glass of water, gulping it down greedily.

The past couple of months had been exhausting, but thankfully for nearly three months be hadn't been plagued by any nightmares. But then yesterday he had been awakened by severe stabbing pains assaulting his mind. The pain had lasted for hours, he had felt as though someone or something was trying to rip his mind to pieces.

Even with his strongest mental blocks he hadn't been able to defend himself against whoever was attacking him, he had nearly lost control of his beast as it tried to break through his mental cage, frantic to get out.

His beast had insisted that their true-mate was in danger, and Ren couldn't convince him that the attack had felt too real, different from the previous time. Right now his beast was sulking. Ren, on the other hand, was worried about this new powerful enemy that could reach into his mind. Even during his nightmare, he had felt as though someone was watching.

What really unnerved him was during the dream the presence had felt comforting, it was only now that he was awake did he realize that someone had been watching a small piece of his past, and he was not happy about it.

Bring it on, he thought. If this new enemy thinks that they will get a handle on him by finding out about his past, then they had another thing coming. He would personally rip their heart out and fed it to them.

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Quote of the day

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." -Robert Louis Stevenson