Black Lace (Complete)

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐈𝐗

Chapter Thirty-Six

I could not speak.

Could my world crumble around me? The dust at my feet suddenly felt so fitting.

"You're kidding."

What he was saying was ridiculous. This was a dream. But I remembered how his eyes turned black, and I remembered all those times I felt he was a special kind of darkness—that which pleasured, that which lured.

That which was not human.

"Tell me you're joking." I laughed, the smile on my face slowly becoming bigger and bigger, as if trying to replace the growing doubt and the slow cloud of uncertainty creeping within. Aziel remained still.

"It doesn't make sense, I'm not even dead," I said.

"When you sleep, I become your dreams, Romina," Aziel said. I took a step away from him. "It is always you that sleeps, so I asked myself, for once, if I slept, what would happen?"

"No," I laughed lightly. The huge smile on my face, the fake one, quickly shriveled to one I could barely call a smile. I held my arms with my fingers, but I could not feel myself. I was truly numb, but I wasn't sure if it was just from the cold.

To have your entire world fall out from underneath you, is this the feeling?

"You doubt me," the man said—no, not a man. What was he, truly? He moved forward but I only stepped further back.

I fell and now I was falling. The ground would crumble, leaving me nothing to fall upon. I was slowly emptying myself out into the abyss, the unknown, and giving it my all. I was no more.

"I want to wake up." I managed, voice cracking. I looked down, and though tears lined my eyes, they quickly solidified into drops of salty ice.

"It won't go away, Romina. This still happened."

"What are you?" I couldn't cry. Ice was piling up along my cheeks. I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel.

"I'm a monster." Aziel stood before me, glorious as he was terrifying. But I knew him. I may not have known all of him, but I knew him. And he was not a monster. I stepped forward and placed my hand to his chest. I closed my eyes.

"I do not have a heart, Romina."

I pressed my ear to his chest and listened. God, I tried to listen. But I heard nothing. I felt nothing.

"Are you dead?"

"I was never alive," Aziel replied softly, removing my hands from his chest. He pried me from him because he knew that was what I needed, not because that was what I asked.

I looked up into his eyes, seeing nothing but darkness. He did not hide from me anymore, he showed me who he was. No light, just...darkness.

"Wake me up. Take this away," I pleaded. The buildup of ice along my skin was slowly growing. I had to tear it off, leaving a stinging sensation behind.

"I will wake you up, but I can't take it away," Aziel said, stepping forward so he could hold my arm.

"Take it away, please," I sobbed. "Why can't you just take it away?"

He pulled me close as the dust slowly faded, replacing itself with that deep, empty black. "I cannot take it away because the nightmare never ends. Wake up, Romina." His voice caught.

"I'm sorry."

---

I woke up in his arms, still wearing my robe, cheeks soft and clean, as if nothing had happened. It was a dream—a nightmare, I told myself. All logic led me to define it as a dream; a nothing. But my heart told me otherwise. Something was different.