Yet again, Clarisse found herself in an unfamiliar environment in her dreams – this time she was standing in the middle of a long corridor. Walking on wooden tiling, her footsteps made a soft patter as she paced down its length to investigate her surroundings.

  Seeing that the corridor originated from a living room and bifurcated into a pair of rooms to either side, Clarisse concluded she was in a house or at least a dormitory. The sudden sound of dialogue from the living room made her jump, and she hid behind the turn of the corridor to try and listen to what was being said.

  “You’re not seriously considering this,” A female voice spoke, accompanied by two pairs of footsteps entering the living room. “He’s just a kid!”

  “And that’s a shit ton of money, Selene,” A man replied to her, the inflection of his voice betraying excitement. “We could start a new life! The kid’s just going to be a liability without the old geezer anyway. We can’t control him.”

  “It’s just been a few days, damn it,” The woman chastised, before the sound of a large bag being dropped on the floor was heard. “Give him some time to recover, and he could be useful.”

  “He is going to be useful. Right. Fucking. Now,” Came a swift yet emphasized counterpoint from the male voice. “We already have everything we need, so can you stop second guessing and start helping!? Or do I have to do everything myself now?”

  “Roman-! Don’t just barge in there… I’ll deal with him.” the woman spoke, by which point Clarisse felt a sickening feeling rise in her stomach from how they were talking. She retreated backwards in the corridor, before deciding to check the other two rooms the corridor led into.

  The first room seemed to be a bedroom empty besides the expected furniture, but she didn’t get a chance to analyze it further before a noise from the other room caught her attention. Hearing what sounded like the muffled sobs of a child, Clarisse carefully treaded towards the other room to find a similar looking bedroom, except with a much smaller bed which was currently occupied by a child, curled up in the corner.

  Even before stepping in, Clarisse spotted a platter of food, which she was sure had been left in the open untouched for a few days merely by its crusty exterior and nauseating discoloration. As she took her first step in, the wooden floor creaked loudly and made her lift her foot in alarm.

  It seemed that the child had heard her awry step, and he froze for a few seconds before slowly turning over to check what had taken place. What stared back at Clarisse were the same eyes from her previous dream, this time stained red by the incessant fall of tears still fresh on his cheeks. He said nothing, simply staring at Clarisse with confusion.

  “Hi…?” Clarisse waved awkwardly to him before glancing again at the untouched food and deciding to step closer. “What’s wrong?” she asked, planning to approach him since he didn’t look as hostile as before.

  The little boy scrambled backwards in his bed, picking up his pillow and putting it between them in self defense. The pained and fearful expression on his face as well as his heaving chest showed no signs of abating as he locked his sight onto her. “Who are you?” he asked in a shrill tone.

  Clarisse paused, recognizing his voice to some degree but she still had her doubts. “I’m Clarisse… Can I come closer?” she asked, almost certain that this was some warped version of Nikolas her mind had conjured up. He looked entirely human and barely even a teenager, perhaps just a little older than ten? She had other concerns over questioning why she had dreamt of him like that at the moment.

  The boy considered her question for a few seconds, before nodding and letting out a sniff as he shifted to one corner of the bed.

  Clarisse quickly closed the gap before the boy could change his mind, sitting on the edge of the bed and placing one of her hands beside him. “What happened? Why were you crying?” she asked, leaning down slightly to be on his eye level.

  The boy let out another sniffle, wiping away one of the tears building in his eye. “They killed him… they killed Sherly! I saw it, but no one believes me!” He fumed, his fingers digging into the pillow he was holding almost as if he was trying to tear it apart as more tears flowed down his face.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that…” Clarisse replied, instinctively raising her hand towards his face to try and wipe away the tears, but stopping halfway when she noticed his eyes narrow defensively like a cornered animal. She withdrew her hand, waiting for his figurative bristles to calm down before speaking. “Actually, I don’t know who Sherly was. Can you tell me about him?” she instead asked, sitting a little closer to the boy to hear him out.

  The boy hesitantly took another deep breath but before he wanted to answer, there was someone at the door who was now the full focus of his strained sight.

  Clarisse almost jumped when a crudely dressed woman appeared at the doorway, looking at the boy with a handkerchief in her hand. Sporting black hair with numerous brown streaks, she wore a loosely protective vest over her shirt, which was tucked into a pair of long pants with a pair of boots to finish it off. Clarisse thought that everything about her seemed so… utilitarian, and yet there was a strange prettiness to her outfit when considering it all together.

  The woman, who Clarisse had pieced together was presumably Selene from the conversation she had eavesdropped on, walked across the room and sat by Nik, completely ignoring and even phasing through Clarisse, which was yet another surprise.

  “Nikky… you haven’t even touched the food I left for you…” Selene sighed as she put an arm around the little boy and pulled him closer into a hug. “You’ll get sick if you don’t eat.” she gently chided him with a kiss to the top of his head.

  The young boy didn’t resist against Selene, but neither was there any significant reaction from what Clarisse could tell. She quietly slid off the bed, shaking her head as she reoriented herself after phasing through Selene to do so.

  Selene began to wipe away Nikolas’s tears using the handkerchief, softly consoling him with her gentle, motherly voice. “Shh… it’s alright Nikky. I’m here for you. It’s all going to be okay… you can let it all out.” She hugged him tightly, gradually swaying back and forth as she held the handkerchief over his face.

  Clarisse’s lip quivered at the sight, she was momentarily reminded of how her own mother had consoled her when her father left for the war. Wordlessly, she stood there, wiping away a tear of her own as she assumed that Sherly must have been someone similar for this strange dream-version of Nikolas she was seeing. Even so, she couldn’t shake away the strange, sweet sugary smell which had suddenly filled the room as the boy cried into the handkerchief presented to him.

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  The tender moment shared between them came to a close after a minute or so as one of Nik’s hands clutching the pillow slowly began to loosen, before it fell to his side, completely limp. Clarisse caught the gradual change as the boy’s entire body began to show signs of loosening, before he suddenly lashed out at Selene.

  “Hey-!” Selene cried out as Nik ripped the handkerchief from her hand and threw it aside before scampering off the bed, looking at her with animosity. “Nikky! Why would you…” she began.

  Nik was breathing heavily once more, standing with his back against the wall as he looked at Selene with desperate vitriol. “Chloroform…” was all he had to say as he glanced at the discarded cloth and then back at her.

  “Nikolas.” Selene spoke, before both her expression and her motherly tone faded away now that he had caught on. She got up from the bed and stood in between him and the door, both her hands raised halfway as she tried to pacify him. “I wouldn’t hurt you… you know that, right? All of this is only to help you. Don’t make this harder than it is.”

  Clarisse was shocked by the sudden change in their dynamic, but even as she tried to stop Selene she simply walked through the woman. “Nik, what’s going on?” She asked, suddenly afraid of what was about to happen.

  “I’ll kill you!” The child charged straight ahead at Selene, passing through Clarisse as he did.

  Much to the redhead’s horror, the scuffle that ensued wasn’t clean. With her back pinned against the wall, she realized she could only watch what was happening.

  Selene quickly grabbed the handkerchief from the ground as Nik approached, grabbing his hand as he tried to punch her and pushing the drugged cloth into his face.

  Despite his small frame, the young rogue was equally more nimble to make up for it. A series of jabs using his fingers aimed at the inside of Selene’s forearm followed by a backhand smack to her face disoriented her, and a swift jab at her neck followed. Selene’s body physically stuttered, reeling back from the nerve strikes for just long enough that Nikolas wriggled free of her grip.

  For just a moment, there was hope before the other voice Clarisse had heard in the living room lumbered through the corridor, intercepting Nik. Towering over the child’s short height, a single powerhouse of a kick from Roman to Nik’s chest was enough to send the boy across the room.

  Clarisse let out a whimper, covering her mouth as she watched what was happening. She was mortified, why was this what she had decided to dream about? Why was Nikolas suffering? “Stop! Stop it, you’re hurting him!” She cried out, but nobody in the room acknowledged her presence.

  The adrenalin-fueled runt was back on his feet within a moment of being sent across the room, flipping over to stand upright and charging at Roman, who wound his arm back to throw a heavy punch. The surface of potential impact was about the size of Nik’s face, barreling towards him at a surely dire pace. Nik barely dodged it within the little space he was afforded between both adults in the room, slipping past Roman’s punch to grab his arm and deliver a kick to his gut.

  The strike, while annoying, lacked in strength and Roman immediately followed up by grappling Nik’s shoulders and raising his knee to smash into the boy’s face. Refusing to let up his momentum, Nikolas used yet another trick up his sleeve – quite literally – slashing upwards at Roman’s face with an unfurled dagger and cutting his left eye open.

  Roman howled in pain, raising his hand to cover the wound as blood splattered the ceiling above him. Nik took the first chance and found another, turning the dagger around in his hand and slamming it into his assaulter’s neck.

  Clarisse couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or horrified when the swing connected and the tip of the dagger drew blood yet again, but was barely held from making any significant damage by Selene, who had recovered from Nik’s nerve strikes just in time to catch his arm.

  “Shitty little punk!” Roman doubled down on the opportunity and pinned Nikolas to the floor as Selene held his arm down, before beginning to punch him. With one knee pinning his other arm down and his entire weight keeping Nikolas from doing anything meaningful with his legs, Roman relentlessly attacked the child. Each vengeful punch struck harder than the last, until Nik’s struggles began to weaken and gradually stopped.

  Clarisse’s hands shivered as she attempted to wipe away a tear from her cheek, but remained frozen in shock. By now, she was as much a prisoner to the situation as Nik was – helpless to do anything to change the scene and yet suffering more with each strike that rained down on him.

  “Roman, Roman!” Selene called his attention once Nikolas had stopped struggling. “Roman, stop! He’s unconscious!” She exclaimed, watching his bloody face and legs laying limp under Roman.

  “This kid? No… I’m not taking any chances with him.” Roman shook his head, taking a break just to catch his breath before continuing to pummel the boy’s battered face. “This isn’t the first time! Little fucker’s crocodile tears almost killed me… He deserves this!”

  Selene watched on as the dagger in Nik’s hand remained held tightly, but even that would loosen as more punches hailed on the little boy. It wasn’t long before his fingers slowly unfurled and the dagger clattered to the floor. Selene flicked it out of anyone’s reach before letting go of Nik and grabbing Roman’s arm. “STOP! You’re going to kill him! He’s supposed to be alive for the transaction! He’s not worth anything dead to the doctor!”

  It was the reminder of money that made Roman reconsider as he let his arm rest and slowly got up after confirming that Nikolas was indeed unconscious. “Scrappy lil’ runt… tie him up and pack him in the sack. I need to patch this bloody wound before I lose my eye…” he instructed Selene, before disappearing into the corridor while grumbling more expletives on the way.

  Selene waited for a few more seconds to confirm that Nikolas was indeed unconscious before leaving the room in a hurry. There were only two left in the room, Clarisse and Nik.

  “Nik…” Clarisse fell to her knees next to the wall, beholding the violent scene that had just unfolded. Angry tears flowed freely down her cheek as she looked up at Selene and Roman who shuffled around the house with urgency. She tried to reach towards Nikolas and pick up his hand to comfort him, but once more was reminded of the painful predicament that she couldn’t touch any of them. “Nik, I’m sorry!” she spoke with a choked voice, “I don’t know why I dreamt of this, I’m so sorry!” She said, and kept crying even as Selene came by with a few loops of rope in a cloth sack.

  Clarisse watched as the previously motherly figure knelt next to the little boy, now devoid of all her parental qualities as she began to methodically tie him up. There was no remorse, no regret in her eyes as she picked up the child she had been comforting not long ago and dragged him into a bodybag. She was reminded of how a butcher would judge their animals by the scene, simply commodities to be skinned and sold for a profit. She couldn’t help but feel that this was no different, not in the care she showed and nor in his ruthlessness. As the head of the sack around Nikolas’s body closed, so did the rest of the dream collapse around Clarisse, sending her back to the waking world all at once.

  “Clarisse… Are you okay… Clarisse?”

  Clarisse looked up at the mask she was all too familiar with by now; the Nikolas she knew was standing by her bedside, holding her shoulders as he spoke to her in a mildly aloof, somewhat bothered tone. She threw herself up at him, hugging him tightly and burying her face into his shoulder as she let her heart calm down. “Nik… I’m so sorry!”

  “Hmm–!” Nikolas let out a surprised sound, expecting neither the hug nor the apology, but still made a half-hearted attempt to hug her back so she wouldn’t have to remain sitting at an awkward angle by herself. “Woah, save the sorries for later. Are you okay?” he asked, his attempt only being a meagre hug, though even that seemed to suffice for now.

  “Y-yes, I think I’m okay now,” she replied, keeping her arms wrapped around him for a little longer before slowly letting go and wiping away the remaining tears on her face with a light blush. “Thanks for waking me up… I’m glad you’re here…”

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