DISCONTINUING - Fairytale Dreams [Diluc x Reader x Kaeya]

ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ７

[name] had sat looking dead as ever beside the table within the interrogation room. She wasn't phased by the way the two knights in front of her tried to appear intimidating, ranting and demanding answers from her. This had been going on for almost an hour already, and this entire time she had been quiet. Most of it was just them ranting, really. She had been so out of it that she had forgotten the rest.

"Miss Aviatora."

"[name]." She contorted quietly frankly tired. "[name] Xiu, not [name] Aviatora. You can just call me by my first name, however."

Hearing that she would prefer to have her last name addressed by using her mother's maiden name, the knight awkwardly looked down to the floor, speaking in wavering tones. "Miss [name], where were you eight days ago when night fell?"

In a ghostly whisper she uttered aloud, "The Whispering Woods."

The two soldiers looked at each other, suddenly feeling guilt crawl from within their stomach at how dead she both looked and sounded. "A- and, what were you doing there?"

[name] hoarsely responded back. "Sleeping."

Dumbfounded, the two knights refused to take such for an answer. "Miss [name], please, answer honestly. What were you actually doing there that late at night?"

But the answer remained the same unchanging in spite of the rough attitudes she had been given. "Sleeping..."

The knight frowned slamming his fists onto the table startling her a little. "Miss [name], we appreciate you coming to this interrogation willingly, but refusing to participate in telling us the truth is still a form of being uncooperative一that night, you were there dealing an illegal trade with someone from the underground community; what were you buying and exactly who were you trading with. We demand to know!"

[name]'s head swirled in confused loops as she let the knight rant on and patronize her. Her mind zoned out into her subconscious thoughts, that wouldn't just simply leave her alone.

She wasn't lying though: she had truly been sleeping一sleeping inside of a deep dream for the longest time: ten years worth, waiting for a prince or knight to save her from that damned house. Ten long years as she turned away from chances to bond with another. Ten long years as she watched the relationship between her father and her fall apart. Ten long years of acting and wondering if Guinevere and Adelle would one day change. Ten long years of wanting a real family. Ten long years of promising to hold herself together as she worked every day and night endlessly.

Ten long years full of rejection in suffering denial.

Though she was young, only eighteen years old, she had worked her body hard enough to where callouses were starting to form at her palms. It no longer felt as smooth as it used to. Ten years was a long time, for her body, her mind and her heart.

She was tired, of everything, wishing once again for: "everything to go away." But she had woken, and the numbness she had once felt had been a broken barrier with screaming ghosts entering in, haunting, taunting and attacking at her insecurities and feelings.

If it had not been today: how much longer would it have taken for her to wake up?

Her eyes were drooping closed struggling to keep herself awake. The lights from the candle was dimming, wax melting drop by drop一drop by drop, just like the tears that fell down her cheeks again on a daily hour. There was a clatter of panicked voices from the knights talking among themselves if they had been too harsh to her, and apologizing to her, but she couldn't even discern what they were really saying anymore.

Her vision had fell into darkness and for the first time, in a long time, she had fell into the most peaceful slumber she had ever had in years: to sleep without anything coming to bother her in her dreams.