𝟙.𝟡: 𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕤 ℍ𝕠𝕡𝕖 𝔻𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕀𝕟 𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞𝕤?

—Narrator's perspective—

Arabella was fiddling with a pen on her one hand, while the other was Hope holding boredly, casually tracing circles on the Vampire's palm. The two was awfully quiet while Ric gave his speech about a follow-up to the rest of the students. She was too much unfocused seeing as she was tired, thanks to Hope, and wanted nothing more than to sleep.

However on the other hand, Hope couldn't stop feeling a little guilty for Landon who was glancing on them from time to time. It was wrong for her to use the boy as a scapegoat or as a definition to confirm on who she really liked. And it's Arabella Salvatore none other.

"...But rest assured we are taking every precaution. Sheriff Donovan has been kind enough to open the doors of the Lockwood Mansion to us, So Mr. Williams and Ms. Tig are now in the process of evacuating our students from the lower grades..."

Time and time again, Arabella voiced out Alaric's voice and instead stared at the floorboards in boredom. There's nothing Ric told them that she didn't know already.

"Hey let's go." Hope said and pulled her hand upwards. The girl breathed in and looked around her to see everyone scattering already to go to their dorms. "You look kind of crappy if we're honest." She teased as they both walked their way to their room.

"I am glad to know my lovely girlfriend cares for my well-being." Arabella snarked and yawned loudly and supressed it. "Damn it— you know what? damn you." She said to Hope who looked at her surprised.

"What did I do?" She asked, towering her voice in confusion by her sudden outburst.

"Oh you know what you did." Bella said and gave her a look which made Hope laugh in realisation of what she meant. "I didn't think you're the reason what kept me up at night." She said and opened the door, letting Hope come in first before she followed.

Hope chuckled and nearly jumped into bed, Arabella's bed, for that matter. She already pulled the covers to her neck and it made the blonde look at the girl in adoration before joining her.

The tribrid snuggled her face to Arabella's neck, closing her eyes gently while feeling comfortable of their position. Arabella came to conclusion that she will never in a million years let this girl go, no matter the cost. She didn't even bid her goodnight because of her tiredness.

Someone opened the door making her open her eyes, her heart immediately dropped when she recognised that face. "What— H-how..." She asked and sat up, Hope was on her side looking the opposite way of where she was and asleep.

"You are even pathetic than what I could remember." He sneered, gripping on her wrist harshly making her jump and the water in her eyes begin to form.

"Stop! You're dead— You're dead!" This time, she used her vampire speed and threw him across the wall, a mirror shattering and a painting fell.

However, the man stood up like it was nothing and lets out a sadistic laughter. "Where's your girlfriend gone?" He asked making Arabella turned around and saw Hope was gone, the bed was full of blood making her heart drop to her stomach. "You are hideous, Arabella Black. I could never call you my daughter." He sneered, gripping on her throat and all of a sudden, she couldn't feel her strength, it was gone in a snap.

A woman with a black veil appeared behind Emmett. Arabella's father was gone but before she could escape, the night hag stretched her hand forward and dug her nails onto her skin making her yell in pain of it. "You know what I want. Give it to me!" She demanded and just dug it deeper making her cough in blood. What was happening?

Arabella gripped her neck in gentleness when she got pulled to another world. She looked around and began to murmer many 'no' over and over again. It was the place where her coven died, more specifically, where she slaughtered all of them.

"Who the hell are you?! Let me out of this trick!" She shouted in demand, looking around the village.

It was as if the blood never was cleanse. The bonfire in the middle was still roaring its flames powerfully. Many bodies surrounding it, blood over all of them.

"Stop... Just stop!" She shouted again and pressed her hands to her face but only to realise there was blood on her hands. She retracted it in fear, a mirror was placed in front of her. Arabella could see her eyes turn to bloodshot red and the veins under her eyes was visible, blood smeared on her mouth like she just recently fed on a human until they dropped dead.

"You are a monster..." A voice whispered to her ear making her glare at anything of what she could see around her. "All these innocent lives, dead because of you. Look at yourself, Your father was right, you are a disgrace and hideous."

Arabella clutched her fist, wanting to break or kill anyone that was making her feel something she's never felt for a long time. Guilt. Before she can even do something horrible, a voice called out for her, soothing and familiar. She was telling her to wake up but her voice sounded so far away.

"Arabella... Bella, wake up..."

There was only one person calling her that name. She gasped and sat up too quickly, gripping on her neck and coughed in the horrible pain.

"Oh thank god." Hope said in relief, hugging her tightly. "What happened? Did you hurt yourself?" She asked and gently looked at the scarring on Arabella's neck.

"It's not healing, why is it not healing?" Arabella asked in a desperate manner and looked at Hope who didn't know what to say. "Oh god, that was horrible." She whispered and remembered everything of what the nightmare occured.

"Let's get you to Dr. Saltzman." Hope said in a determined tone to find out what happened. Well, someone did hurt the girl she likes so Hope went automatic kill mode for who did.

The Tribrid held her waist to steady the limping girl, hand over her neck that seemed to sore more than what it was seen. Arabella struggled to keep her eyes open but got relief when she sat back down to a chair.

"Ric! She's not healing." Hope frantically said and the man jotted awake from his desk. He looked over the two and got back to his senses when he saw Arabella bleeding badly.

"What the hell happened? Here." He tossed Arabella a clean cloth which she took and pressed it on her neck. "What did this?"

Arabella winced, a hand holding hers tightly knowing it was Hope. "A Nightmare." She managed to say and felt relief when her wound began to heal. She took the cloth off, touching her neck and it was like the nail marks was never there.

"A nightmare? That's impossible." Ric sighed out and tossed away the bloody cloth.

"No, It's not." Rafael said and he appeared on the door, holding his hand up and showed a bruise. "Something's wrong, Dr. Saltzman."

Alaric and Hope looked at each other, knowing that a monster was ready to take the urn from them.

"This happened to both of you in a nightmare?" Alaric cleared out again, officially asking Rafael and Arabella who nodded. "Are you sure?" He directed the question to Rafael moreover.

"Look, I know that it sounds crazy but I was studying and then I fell asleep, then I just started to dream about..." His words trailed off when Hope asked her about what. He looked at her for a split second, almost spilling of what he dreamt about. "One of my old foster dads. He was in the library and he had this old belt that he used to use on me."

Alaric turned to Arabella who was standing behind Raf, nervously crossing her arms. "How about you? What'd you dream about?" Arabella spared Hope a look, wondering if she should tell what happened.

"It was my dad. He showed up and all of a sudden I was back to my old village. Where my coven..." Her words trailed off, swallowing a lump in her throat in guilt. "Where my coven died." She finished off and didn't want to look at anyone rather than the wooden floors.

"Do you remember anything else?" Hope asked to the two, visibly concerned for Arabella and Rafael.

"There was a woman. A black veil covered her face and she was wearing a Black dress. She wanted something." Arabella said and when she did, she sighed in realisation. "She wants the urn."

"Yeah she was there in mine too." Rafael said and turned to Alaric.

Alaric breathed in, "Sounds like our next monster showed up." He stood up and took a book from the shelf. "You know, every culture on earth has legends about creatures that only appears in dreams. Here in our dreams but a woman in a black dress and a veil is pretty specific." He turned back and flipped through pages of a book.

"So, does that mean that she can, like, control what we see in our dreams? That she can put stuff in our, in our heads, right?" Raf asked, concerned.

"It's possible." Ric nodded and stopped to a certain page of the book before holding it out for Arabella and Rafael to see. "Is that familiar?"

Arabella sighed, hung her head low in defeat. She felt Hope's hand comfortingly rub her shoulder which made her feel grateful and held her hand that was on her shoulder. All she wanted was sleep but now, she can't do.

☘︎︎