Claimed

Chapter 7 - Dreaming (Reprise)

It was as I dreamed again that I realised we hadn't escaped that place 'no strings attached', as I may have hoped - no. Instead, we were still, apparently, due a truckload of trouble that I really didn't want to ever have to deal with.

It was dark. Very dark. A faint light glowed above my head, illuminating everything around me in an eerily dim light.

He stared at me, and I stared right back.

It's not like I had a choice, though.

My feet felt like anvils, weighing me down and firmly in place like glue as he approached.

His coat of darkness shrouded him as he neared my face, not quite close enough for me to make out his features completely in the darkness.

The tip of a nose.

Point of a chin.

The cold glint of eyes, haunted in a way that I hadn't seen since the Isle.

Definitely male.

I felt his warm breath on my cheek, scalding the skin as my stomach recoiled in disgust.

My arms felt like lead.
There was no moving them.

No moving him out of my face, either.

But I didn't need to.
He backed up himself, the angular edges of his face dissapearing completely from my vision.

"I had hoped I would be able to connect to you in this fashion," he mused, quietly, softly.
A voice filled with malice and ice cut at my ears.

I scowled.

This brought a laugh from, riddled with an ice that matched his voice.

"Not very happy, hmm?"

Naturally.
I can't move.

"I know you can't," he replied to the statement I didn't realise I had made out loud.
"That's because I'm in your dream. I'm the one in control."

That sounded familiar.
Where had I heard that before?

He tutted gently, mockingly.
"Forgetting your own powers, Daughter of Maleficent?"

I blinked slowly, my eyelids heavy.

What?

He sighed, disappointed.
"So you have? And to think I was merely making a joke.."

I scowled again.
I had not forgotten.
I remembered just fine.
I had always had the strange ability to enter one's dreams.
It's just not something I liked to use.
Or even think about, for that matter.

He chuckled again.
"I see. Shy of your own powers, hmm? How.. Pitiful.."

The man stepped forward again, close enough for me to see the ice in his gaze, and suddenly, a cold hand grabbed my chin.
He lifted it slowly, forcing me to look deeply into his eyes, without me having the power to resist.

I managed to just about make out the furrowing of heavy brows.

"This isn't fun anymore. You're not fighting, or telling me to let go, or asking me what I want."
Harshly, he ripped his hand from my chin.
"That's all that makes being a villain fun, you know?"
The voice had taken on a childish tone, biting against my ears when coupled with the ice that hadn't relented.
He turned his back to me.

"When your plan all plays out, without a fault, and you get to see the sad, injured look on the protagonist's face when they realise you've won."

He sighed.