Chapter 24 - The Countdown Begins
Although I wanted a comfortable sleep before having to face tomorrow, I was instead wandering in a strange dream. I was here, but not here. I was me but I didn't feel like myself. I was seeing the lives of other pass before my eyes. It was uncomfortably vivid, a feeling I knew all too well. The clarity of my dreams always increased with the severity, making it hard for me to tell nightmares apart from reality. In a world where it was already hard to live, I couldn't draw the distinction between one nightmare and another. Which of the two was worse? I never found the answer.
I knew I was dreaming from the moment I was approached by the figure that walked with a menacing aura. He was a man with soft pink hair and icy blue eyes to match the flow of magic surrounding him. Though I knew of the existence of magic, mages were so rare that it wasn't even worth considering it's existence. Seeing it with my own eyes however, I wonder how something such as this could be ignored. Something so beautifully powerful and yet hauntingly terrifying had no place being spoken of nonchalantly. Perhaps it was because of how overwhelming magic was, that mages were often seen as a threat by those who knew little of how they upheld our Empire. The prejudice left mages close to becoming extinct, with only 7 left within the Empire. Yet here was this stranger, looking anything but close to death. Why he felt so familiar to me, I don't know. In a way, all of his features told me that this was Theodore, the kid I constantly wants to smack, but it couldn't be him. This was a man staring at me with cold eyes, looking straight through me as he lifts his hands to strike me down with a force I knew nothing of. I was petrified of what was about to happen to me but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the glow of magic raising to the sky. I was in awe of the beauty that would soon become a murder weapon, unable to fathom how something so elegant and pure could be used with such malice. Knowing that this must be a dream, I attempted to settle down, but the fear permeating through my body would not go away. Just as I was about to be shot down with the countless blue arrows falling from the sky, I find myself elsewhere.
A harsh wind pushes me back, my heels trying to dig into the ground to steady myself. Rather than standing on my own feet, I feel myself being lifted by the throat. Instinctively I begin kicking my legs, flailing like a fish out of water. Though my eyes were tightly shut from pain, I pry them open and see the face of the man attached the hand that was choking me. While the previously stranger was somehow familiar to me, this man was not. He had long white hair, tied neatly in a low pony tail, and eyes so dark they could suck you in like a black hole. I didn't have the privilege of looking at him for long as his hand tightened, no long holding me up but instead digging into my throat. As I continued to flail he appeared unaffected, unshaken by anything. I lift my arms and try to pry his large hand away from me, feeling the bump of every scar beneath my fingertips. Much to my dismay, as my fingers begin clawing into the space between his palm and my throat, he begins to walk forward while maintaining the same distance between us. I could feel myself moving further back and with tear-filled eyes I look down. Dread poured in as I realised that the only thing standing between me and my death, was this man effectively hanging me over the roof. In utter desperation I was clawing at his hands, crying through my breathlessness, begging him to save me. But my words could not be heard by any one but myself, as my throat refused to move under the weight of this man's anger. As I looked back at him, I saw a smile making its way up. Frozen in fear, my hands were stuck in time. My fear wasn't unfounded as I felt him slowly release his grip, consigning me to a slower death than I would've liked. As I fell, I felt my stomach rising to my throat. I felt every emotion as I fell for what felt like an eternity. Just before plummeting to my doom, I once again found myself somewhere entirely new.
Gasping for breath, I try to look around, already aware of where things were heading. No matter how hard I tried, my eyes wouldn't open and I was restrained. There was a tightness around my wrists and ankles that I couldn't shake off. I could feel the cold, hard surface beneath me as I was writhing around, trying to free myself. Frustrated at my inability to do anything, even see where I was, tears started welling up. Unable to hold onto my emotions for a second longer, I curled up into a ball and sobbed uncontrollably, wetting the blindfold pressed against my eyes. All that could be heard were my wails echoing around me, until... I begin to hear footsteps slowly approaching me. Instantly my guard was up.
"It hurts me to see you like this, babe." The voice was all too familiar. Though the words were soft, the tone was taunting, laughing at my struggles. He begins to stroke my face, wiping my tears but never removing the blindfold. It was clear that he had no intention to free me, if anything, he had been my captor.
"Why are you doing this to me?" I ask with a shaky breath, afraid of what may be coming. Not once did he stop caressing my face, even in the face of my accusatory question.
"Hmm ~ was it because you touched what was mine?" he answers with another question.
The lack of vision had heightened my other senses, every sound resonating clearly. I heard every move he made, from slowly getting up from where he was crouched beside me, to the rustling of his clothes as he fumbled about. But clearest of all, was his suddenly malicious voice.
"I'll make this easy for you, don't worry". His voice significantly deeper than it previously had been.
As I heard the sharp sound of a sword being drawn, I began to panic once more. Resorting to begging this man to let me go, that I would do anything he wants. I was trying to move my hands around to find his feet, unwilling to die again, but he was always just out of reach. As I squirmed around, I heard the sound of the sword fast approaching, seemingly cutting the air between us. Just as I could feel the cold, steel against my neck, I hear murmurs coming from every direction.
Once I feel my body being lifted into a kneeling position, I open my eyes and look up. Ah, there was my brother, my saviour. He would be the one to save me from this nightmare. I tried to stand up, excited to see him, wanting to receive his comfort but instead I felt strong hands holding me down by the shoulder. Confused, I look at the knights holding me, wanting to ask what the were doing, but my answer came without me saying a word.
"Persephone Gabris." A middle aged man, standing in front of Helios and the emperor began to read off of a scroll. "For the crime of attempted murder of the Royal Princess, Elina Sinclair, you are sentenced to death by hanging!" Every word he said was spoken with unyielding authority.
"I- I don't understand", I yell. "No! I didn't do it! I didn't do anything! I'm innocent!"
As I began pleading, the knights quickly started dragging me away, not even giving me time to stand on my feet. I was still alive yet they were dragging me away like an unpleasant corpse to be disposed of immediately.
"Someone, help me! I'm innocent! Brother! Brother, help me! Please, someone save me!" I continued to cry but no one came to my aid. I didn't stop pleading until I was hooded and restrained.
In the end, I was powerless again. As they walked me towards my death, my anxiety continued to grow to a level that I didn't know was humanly possible. Once I had walked up enough steps, they stopped. This must be it. I hear a crowd cheering, enjoying the spectacle that was my downfall. It's disgusting, humiliating, painful... there aren't enough words to describe how it feels to have everyone celebrating your death. I just want to survive, just once. As I felt the noose just beneath my neck, I briefly thought that if there was hell on earth, this would be it. The cheers continued to get louder and as the noose became tighter, I woke up in cold sweat.
Unaware of whether I was still dreaming, I hold onto my neck, checking for signs of injury. Although there were none, I couldn't shake the feeling that everything I had seen had happened. It was far too vivid for me to be able to distinguish dream from reality. A never-ending nightmare was continuing to haunt me in my consciousness, preying on my unstable mind. While I collapsed on myself, gasping for breath, I turned on the lamps beside me to escape the threat of sleep.
Since my transmigration I've been tirelessly attempting to remember details of the game that may be favourable to me, but it was of no use. All that my futile attempts gave me were pain upon pain, my mind throbbing from the rejection of this world. After countless trials and errors, I had given up on remembering anything, instead focusing on building relationships. So why now, had they come to me in a dream. Was it because it had finally started? Was it to show me that this was my fate and there was no way out? Was it to taunt me about my helplessness? There must be a reason for it but my, still fearful self, could not think clearly enough to understand.
The only thing I understood was that the countdown had begun.
Time remaining: 4 months