O Death ⇉ Paul Lahote

seven

After Heidi's first real encounter with Ereshkigal, she refused to be left alone and had someone outside her door at all times and had Paul by her side whenever possible. Even with that added protection from Paul, Heidi still asked for spiritual protection from the tribe and was quickly blessed and assured that the ancient spirits of their ancestors would protect her and fight off her demons. Heidi desperately wanted to believe that the spiritual protection would help her against Ereshkigal but she knew that it wouldn't be enough to stop her forever, sooner or later she was going to come for her and no amount of blessings would stop her.

Although the blessings and spiritual help suppressed Ereshkigal or her shadowy minions from appearing while Heidi was awake, it wasn't enough to stop the nightmares, the dreams of Ereshkigal taking over.

They always started the same way. Ancient temples sprouted from sandy wildernesses. Elaborately carved marble columns inlaid with jade, silver, and gold rose more than a hundred years tall and listened in the harsh sunlight. As always, she was surrounded by thousands of servants, bowing subserviently – which, embarrassingly, even in her dream, she greatly enjoyed. They were chanting words she could never understand.

After staring at the temples, she suddenly noticed that she was standing in the middle of an immense koi pond. The ancient fish, large and meaty, swam about her feet as if guarding her from some underwater enemy. She saw herself reflected in the eerily calm water, but she wasn't seeing the face of Heidi Warrington; the abandoned child with no place to call home, parents considered her dead and nobody would ever want her in their lives. Instead, a lean, muscular woman with stark white skin and dark black eyes stared back at her.

Then the dream ended as it always did. The reflection reached out to touch her – or she was trying to drag Heidi down? – and just as her fingers were about to touch, she woke up screaming and Paul would have to come in and calm her down, assuring her that it was just a nightmare and it wasn't real and she was safe, although Heidi knew it wasn't just a nightmare – it was a warning, telling her that Ereshkigal was coming back for her and it would happen soon.

The night terrors went on for almost two weeks straight, and almost as soon as they had started, they stopped and for one whole week; everything was silent and calm and everyone went back to their normal routine, thinking the worst was finally over and everything would be okay. But they were wrong; in reality, the worst was just about to start. And their entire world would be turned upside down and destroyed.