~The Ghost Alchemist~

Chapter 3 (The dream)

(Slight warning for the tiniest amount of gore, didn't know if I should put a warning but here it is anyways!)

"Do you even remember me?" A faint voice echoed out before continuing to softly speak, as if the person was far away "did you ever really care?". It was familiar; but couldn't quite grasp the memory of who, it was a dark area with only few lights shining around the place but Rapunzel had to figure this out.

Taking a few steps forward into this shadowed place; she grew confused as the area around her lit up more, the place was almost broken; there were cobwebs and debris of old corona almost everywhere. Inspecting the place more she took note that there was parts she recognised instantly; the library and the Palace gardens, but why are they here?. Continuing to walk further into the place, Rapunzel soon found herself frozen to the spot; her eyes glued forward. Only ten feet away, stood a faded figure of a young boy who was constantly flickering between being visible to invisible; a person who was un-mistakably familiar.

The person turned their head to look at Rapunzel over their shoulder, there was no denying who it was and Rapunzel was scared to speak..it was Varian. The flickering body of varian approached slowly and stopped only three feet in front of Rapunzel, before speaking out in a heartbreakingly soft voice "why did you do this to me?".

Tears blurred the blondes vision but before she could let out a word, Varian's form began to scream in pain; large puncture wounds formed and bled out. Moving forward in a staggering manner, Varian fell to his knees and clutched Rapunzel's dress in his bloodied hands. Rapunzel screamed out in shock and fear as she watched Varian begin to choke on his own blood and see the life drain from his eyes.

And then she sat up; panicked, sick, and upset. Rapunzel took in her surroundings and found a small amount of comfort recognising the room she occupied. After slowly calming down from the shock, Rapunzel buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

Eugene had taken immediate notice of Rapunzel's behavior throughout the day since she had left her room for breakfast. Cass and Eugene had tried to cheer her up by doing things she loved, they even tried to get along with each other just to make her happy, but when none of that worked they knew they had to sit her down and talk.

"Guys, what's going on?" Rapunzel asked with a irritated expression as Cass forced her to sit down on a bench in the gardens, which unknowingly to Eugene and Cassandra made Rapunzel slightly uncomfortable. Eugene stood in front of Rapunzel and gazed at her with soft worried eyes, while Cass occupied the spot next to Rapunzel on the bench. Letting out a small sigh Eugene spoke up first "Rapunzel, ever since this morning you've been acting...different..and not in the bad way of course..well I mean-" Cass frowned and interrupted Eugene by placing a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder and bluntly asked "what's wrong Rapunzel?".

Rapunzel was tense, she knew they were going to bring it up again but not actually force her to sit down for it. Looking down at her folded hands, Rapunzel noticed her vision get blurred by unshed tears, before speaking in a quiet voice "I..had a bad dream.." she answered with a troubled expression. Cassandra raised an eyebrow and Eugene perked up in curiosity before kneeling in front of his love; staring into her eyes with a worried expression. "Blondie..what was it about?" Eugene questioned.Rapunzel flinched slightly at the memory of her dream but found enough courage to speak up "it...it was varian..." at the mention of the name, Cassandra and Eugene exchanged a knowing look and turned back to Rapunzel with a sad expression.

Cassandra pulled Rapunzel into a side hug to comfort her friend while Eugene held Rapunzel hand; rubbing small circles on the surface of her skin. Cass let out a small sigh and spoke softly "I know, you are still troubled by what happened raps..we all know..I...I think about him too from time to time, do you want..to talk about what happened in your dream?" Looking over to Cass at her words; Rapunzel's tears fell.

"It was so horrible..it..it was so dark at first and then it got brighter and..we were right here..but there was pieces of the rocks and broken houses of Old corona but..there was part of the castle library too, I don't know why..but he was-" Rapunzel paused and took in a shaky breath before continuing "he was just...standing there! His back was turned and his body was..faded and it kept flickering as if he wasn't actually there fully. He asked me wh..why I did this to him, at first I didn't know what he meant but then-" choking on a sob, Rapunzel looked down at her lap with a broken expression.

"I saw..him die...again...but,it was in front of me and I could see it..all of it..he was in so much pain..". Shuddering slightly, Rapunzel looked at her loved ones to see their horrified expressions as they recalled that night. But that quickly faded as the three of them heard the sound of a twig snapping from the bushes.

Cassandra quickly got up from her position and quietly made her way over the bush, after a moment of silence, Cass quickly reached in and pulled out a screeching and unmistakable Raccoon. "Ruddiger?!?" The three of them yelled in shock; they hadn't seen Ruddiger since the incident, they all assumed he had just ran off back into the woods. Rapunzel quickly ran over to Cass and soothed the frightened creature and had taken him from Cassandra's hold.

Eugene was intrigued by the appearance of the fluffy animal and spoke his and not only his thoughts of this surprise "why is Ruddiger here of all places?".The animal in question was relaxed by now but was scanning the area as if searching for something, but did not have any sign of wanting to be out of Rapunzel's careful hold, who was in a deep thought.

After a while, Rapunzel had snapped her head up with a determined glint in her eyes and looked at Eugene and Cass "how would you guys feel about a small trip to Old Corona?".The two people being asked tensed and looked a bit worried, but Cass was the first to speak "raps..I wouldn't mind but..why?" She questioned. Rapunzel simply looked down at the creature in her arms with a caring expression, "well..I think it would be good for all of us, but more importantly we should visit Quirin..I don't know if anyone has seen him since he got freed....plus I think both Ruddiger and Quirin might find it nice to have family company, ya know?".

Eugene smiled proudly at Rapunzel before walking over to his girlfriend and placing a tiny kiss on her nose; which caused a small joyful giggle from the person he adored, and spoke with confidence "I'll go wherever you go, blondie".Cass thought about the idea for a while before coming to a decision and smiled "of course I'll join you, it could actually help us all out. Rapunzel looked at the two people she had been through so much with before speaking,

"Then let's go visit Quirin".