9 Chapter 9: The Nightmare Realm

When Scarlet opened her eyes she saw red everywhere. Red mountains in front and behind, red land beneath her feet, red sky and red clouds above her head...it was literally red wherever your eyes met. The strange thing was there was no trees in this place, only infinite wasteland as far as eyes could go. Also it was particularly silent, not even a sound of single living being could be heard. Scarlet thought her ears had gone deaf. She looked down at her two hands which were respectively held tightly by Dax and Nina. Dax was about to open his mouth when he saw a bunch of fist sized red shining spheres appeared in front of them out of nowhere. This red spheres were gently floating in the air, giving the illusion of bouncy little balls. They really aroused the desire of squeezing in someone. Scarlet, herself as a slave of 'cuteness', was no different at all. With an expressionless face but with glittering eyes, Scarlet raised her right hand to touch a sphere unaware of the danger hidden underneath.

"Stop!!" Dax and Nina shouted in unison. Both of their faces were as white as paper as Nine explained,"Master, you should be careful of these red balls. These balls are very very dangerous and even can be considered as life threatening. Don't be fooled by their harmless appearance, they are actually the manifestation of the nightmares of the living beings. And we are currently in the nightmare realm. When the living beings have a nightmare, the nightmare itself being the aggregation of negative energy of the respective beings, is rejected by the world itself. Those millions of nightmares have nowhere else to go so they can only concentrate around the dream forest, the only place in this world where the concentration of negative and demonic energy are so high. But some of these nightmare slowly consumes so much negative energy that it becomes impossible for the world to allow them to exist in it's own realm. So the world created a completely different realm, the nightmare realm and exiled all those nightmares here. The dream forest being the center of the dense negative energy has always been a very unstable point between the nightmare realm and the living ream. So, sometimes a tunnel between these two realms may appear in the forest...."

Dax hurriedly said at this point as not to be outshined by Nina, "Yes Master, actually I came in the dream forest as I perceived the opening of a portal here. You see I wanted to close the portal but then you came....umm...then I forgot about it...."

Nina continued with her previous explanation, "All in all Master, you should never touch those red balls. If you touch them even by chance, your consciousness will be trapped in those hellish nightmares forever. Even Dax and I won't be able to pull you out from it. The only option is death."

After listening to this frightening explanation Scarlet secretly shivered. How many days it had been till she recovered her memories after her death? And how many unusual things she had encountered till then? At this moment Scarlet really missed her little underlings back on earth. Oh how lovely were the days when she brought all those underlings to skip school and fight with the other punks. Scarlet sighed. Nina noticed Scarlet's agony and asked sweetly," Master, what happened?"

Dax also questioned her through his gaze. Scarlet looked at the two little buns, clearly worried for her and her heart felt warm. These two cuties looked a little bit like her when Scarlet was a child. They fully managed to arise 'motherly instict' in Scarlet. With a straight face she shamelessly thought in her mind," Such cute children...ah...their eyes are red, like me...ah....look at their nose and mouth...like a carbon copy of mine....those silky white hair, exactly like....wait a minute..."

Scarlet hurriedly observed some strands of hair which had accidentally came over her face. Before she didn't have the time to notice her hair transformation but now she looked at her hair with widened eyes- her beautiful black hair had turned into completely white.

Scarlet cried secretly. As her contracted beasts Dax and Nina also understood her slight change in emotions. So they again asked, this time both in unison, " Master, what happened?"

After Scarlet moved her gaze from her hair to those two, she understood the reason for her hair's transformation was the contract. She sighed. Although Scarlet was a little bit sad for losing her black hair, she was happier to get this two little lives in her lonely life to accompany her. She slightly raised the corner of her lips and said," You two, why are you still calling me Master? Didn't I tell you to call me mom? Hmm...call me mom otherwise I won't tell you anything."

Dax and Nina suddenly didn't know what to do. It wasn't that they were unhappy, on the contrary they were extremely happy. So happy that they were momentarily overwhelmed. From the moment they had consciousness, they were told that the 'life God' created them. They were told that their life purpose was to serve their Master. Only after leaving their race, when they came in contact with other civilization they found out about 'parents'. To them 'Parents' were really a unexplained mystery of outer society. These parents would love their cubs unconditionally, selflessly forever. Even if they were betrayed by the cubs, they would still love them. They wouldn't expect anything from their cubs ever...well in ninety nine percentage of the cases. Dax and Nina were very jealous of these cubs who had parents. They also wanted parents who would love them unconditionally forever. And finally when Scarlet wanted them to call her mom they were stunned, then happy, then very very happy. Although they only got one of the parents, it was still a dream like thing for them.

At last Nina first called out shyly,"Mom..."

The cheerful Dax also called out loudly, so loudly that his voice echoed throughout the silent Nightmares Realm. But who cared about that. Dax asked again," Mom!! so tell us what happened? Why are you sad?"

A very rare smile bloomed on the face of Scarlet. With Scarlet's very pale skin, red pupils and long smooth white hair she can be considered as a demonic beauty who still held her original purity. Dax and Nina were a little dazzled for some time. Too beautiful. They secretly vowed in their heart that in the future they would protect their mom from all the pests who would try to pursue her.

In the future Edwyn would suffer greatly for this certain vow from the little ones. The cause for all of this was just a smile from Scarlet. Anyway that's for later.

Scarlet was really satisfied from being called 'mom'. She said with a smile in her eyes," Well it's nothing actually...sigh.....from the day I have become a vampiress, I have been encountering troubles continuously. Today even if you two have saved me from touching those nightmare spheres, but I am sure I will be encountering another trouble soon"

Dax and Nina both wanted to say that with them present, nothing would happen to her and they would safely return to the living realm. But they couldn't open their mouth as a loud cry of a male abruptly came piercing the sky.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."

"see.." Scarlet emotionlessly said. Then three of them looked at the sky in unison.

A small spatial tunnel had opened in the sky above them. The tunnel vomited a human out of it and closed almost instantly. Soon the human figure started to fall very speedily towards the ground. Scarlet instinctively gathered the demonic energy around her feet and then flew towards the human and caught him like a fielder catches a ball after the batsman hits a sixer in Cricket. More specifically speaking she caught him in a princess carry.

The human male in question was so scared that he immediately caught his life saving straw at the speed of light. Scarlet didn't even managed to see his face. This particular human male then buried his head into the depth of Scarlet's breasts and like a big sized coala he held her waist as tightly as he could.

Scarlet,"....."

Dax,"...."

Nina,"...."

Dax and Nina clenched their fist. Their vow to protect their mom from pests seemed to have been broken in a few seconds after it was made. They both looked at each other in mutual understanding and nodded. The secret message passed was, 'let's hurry to do the pest control.'

Scarlet was still in the air. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. This was the second time in her full two lifetime that someone dared to touch her in that area. Suddenly a familiar mesmerizing scent stimulated her all senses. ' This scent from this human.....'

Scarlet's heart was beating a little bit faster. She hurriedly set her feet on land released her grip around the man. The man as if had understood that she was releasing him, hurriedly winded around his legs around her waist to tighten the grasp. His head was still buried into her soft bosom.

Scarlet's beating heart calmed down suddenly, instead her mouth twitched a little in annoyance. Scarlet held the man's head by his golden hair and roughly pulled him out from her cleavage. She directly looked into his ocean blue eyes. Alright, she knew the man or the youth in front of her. It was the boy whom she had given her first time.

After a few moments the man or the youth's beautiful blue eyes widened in a visible rate in immense surprise until it couldn't widen anymore. His whole face was caught between emotions like surprise, bewilderment, happiness, excitement and nervousness.

He unknowingly called out," Wife!"

Then again he embraced her lovingly but this time his head buried in between her neck and shoulder in one side.

Scarlet,"...."

Dax,"....."

Nina,"....."

Yes, this particular coward.....ahem....handsome boy is the second prince Edwyn of Fye Empire.

Scarlet was momentarily stunned. She was sure if it was any other boy who dared to treat her this way she would have already broken their family treasure in between their legs. But in this particular boy's case she couldn't bear to do so. Because the gaze she received from him only just for a moment could be considered as the epitome of purity and love. Love, solely for her and this love was not limited to only bodily pleasure. But it held the importance of beyond that. You say how did she recognize his gaze in one glance?...because of her bitter experience in her previous life.

In her previous life she was the only daughter of the richest man in the city. But from her early childhood she was a little bit tomboyish type and didn't want to engage in any kind of girly activity. Among the girly things her only hobby was to grow long black hair. She was more violent than her little brother. Her parents were also open minded and didn't control her freedom. But however much she fighted, however much she practiced judo or karate, as she turned older her attractive feminine figure began to take shape and with her parents' excellent genes she grew into a charming beauty. After she turned sixteen she had to attend many social activities, many parties with her parents. In these places she received so many dirty, flirtatious gazes on her body that she already began to grow numb towards it. At first she couldn't understand but slowly she got used to it. She had seen many different kinds of people in all her lifetimes. Some tried to drag her into the game of love for the sole purpose of getting close to her parents. Some have drugged her, some had kidnapped her to get her parents' weakness. But she didn't become their weakness. She had got past every obstacles herself. In her last life she neither got to experience true love for herself nor she saw one. Even her parents who were having harmonious marriage life were not true lovers. They married out of duty. There marriage life was harmonious because they were good friends. They minded their own business. And both of them loved her and her brother very much.

It was only when Scarlet went into a mountain trip on their school tour, she truly encountered a loving couple. It was a middle aged married couple. The couple were very open minded. They easily began to talk about their live experience with Scarlet as she was curious. Curious because they always maintained a certain distance from the students. Then she came to know a story which defy all the conclusions she had drawn about love.

About the couple, the wife was from a moderately rich family but her first love was her current husband. It was a normal family drama. Her family didn't like her first love and married her into a different family. But what was unexpected was that her previous husband had AIDS and she also got it after marriage. Her parents-in-law thought that it was because of her, that their son got that disease. Her previous husband directly divorced her. Even her own family misunderstood her and abandoned her. But her first love came and married her at this moment despite her several rejections. From youth up until to this day they never had any excessive bodily contact with each other but in their gazes, in their every little actions Scarlet saw so much love everyday. And it was a love, so pure without needing any filtration. One the last day Scarlet asked the couple a question which was beyond her age and limitations but she really couldn't help it.

" Is love really possible without any bodily contact?"

The couple smiled gently. Then the husband answered her. Those words by that illiterate man was engraved in her heart till now. He spoke the words which even many literate people failed to understand.

" Miss, I am a illiterate person. I don't have all that complicated thoughts. All I know that love can be shared through body and soul. Loving through body, evryone can achieve that. But once you loved her soul then only then you can truly say you truly love her. And isn't the other name of love is restrain. True Love is a magical thing which give one inspiration and the power to handle sufferings happily. Towards my wife my love is directed to her soul. Towards her body my love is restrain. She is my inspiration to live and I am for her. Actually loving through the soul is more soothing and pleasurable than loving through body....ha...ha..."

Scarlet looked at a certain coala on her body. Her eyes contained uncertain emotions. They only met twice. How could this boy have that kind of gaze for her? That much pure and loving gaze. Scarlet was a little afraid that she wouldn't be able to return the same kind of feelings towards this boy.

.......

......

A little far away from the dream forest, Wylie village

At the entrance of a particular orphanage stood a tall man. If Scarlet was here she would have recognized the orphanage right away. It was the orphanage she had live for sixteen year before her death.

The man covered himself with a black long robe and his head was also covered with black hood attached with the robe. He walked towards the entrance with long steps. The guards stationed there tried to stop him but as soon as the man looked at them with his red pupils through his hood they froze and they soon fell unconscious. The man walked towards the head office directly. He smashed the door and entered forcefully inside. There was a fat woman sitting there eating pastries leisurely. Hearing the sudden noise she accidentally smeared the pastry on her face. She turned around and saw the tall man claded in black cloak and immediately got frightened. She began to shout for the guards. The tall man opened her hoody and looked straight into the woman's eyes. The woman immediately shut up. She looked at the man as if she was mesmerized. Her eyes looked empty. The man asked her in a hoarse but commanding tone," Do you know someone called Scarlet? She stayed at your orphanage."

The woman said emotionlessly," yes"

There was not a trace of previous restlessness in her tone.

The man asked,"Where is she?"

"I sold her."

The man immediately broke the stone table in front of him. He grinded his teeth asked,"Where?"

The woman replied in a monotone voice as if she didn't feel anything, " To the Duke's youngest son."

As soon as she finished speaking there was a sound of bone breaking. The woman fell on the floor. Her neck was twisted in unimaginable angle. She had stopped breathing.

The man left the orphanage and headed for the Duke's mansion. Under the black hood his eyes were glowing in bright red. Those pupils contained rage that was beyond belief. This man was the the vampire prince Zachaeus.

Zachaeus took several deep breaths to calm down his rage. He already had used up two calming stones and on the way of using another. Inwardly he swore, " If I found even one dirty claw on my daughter I swore I will make you wish you were never born!!"