SLAP!

Elise felt a burning pain on her cheeks, her tears rolling as she saw the woman who stood in front of her. "All because of you!" shouted the woman. Her hair was red and her eyes were black in color.

Elise knew what this was— a nightmare. She always had this nightmare several times that she knew what it was and how it would go. This was another memory of hers when she was still a child where her mother had cursed her to death, wanting to kill her.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see it again as she could feel whenever her memories revert to this nightmare, her heart breaks to pieces. She looked away to where her mother had left the house. Standing up from her place, Elise felt her small legs walking away from the bed.

She sneaked out from the door that her mother didn't lock. Her head first peeked left and right, trying to see whether there was anyone and where there wasn't, Elise walked barefooted from the house.

How weird, thought Elise. Her dream always ended to the point where her mother would scream at her and curses her, but this time, she saw herself making a walk away put the house.

Elise continued to follow her little self. She looked around the place in the village, everything looked vague and obscures, as if she had seen everything through a blurred mirror. Did the view turn vague because she didn't remember this part of her memory? wondered Elise.

It was years since she had seen the village she was born at and somewhere Elise hoped she could see the view but with how blurred the surrounding around her, she could only focus on her little self that was walking in a hurry. She didn't remember. Where was she going to?

She watched herself continuing to walk inside the forest, but she didn't enter the forest. Instead, her small self walked around the fence that separated the first and the village. She continued to walk until reaching a tree. Her small hands pluck the flowers that grew under the fences. When she had gathered about five of them, little Elise begins to make another run.

So her journey wasn't ending yet. Elise remembered when she was little she loved flowers. But would she sneak out from the house for simple flowers? Elise recalled how her mother would scold her harshly or worse slap her across her cheeks if she leaves the house without permission.

Elise was scared to be slapped on her cheeks, but she was more afraid of making her mother angry, hence her reason for never leaving the house. Curiously, Elise followed her little self who continued to make a run after entering the first. She only stopped when reaching one place.

Bending on her knees, Elise placed the flowers on her hand over the ground. Elise at first questioned why she placed the flower, especially at the place until she noticed there was a small bump on the ground.

"Mister Birdie, please rest in peace," whispered her little self. Now Elise understood that this was her little self burying the little bird she found dead. It was a custom Elise

earned in the past that when a person was buried, a flower was needed to wish the soul for a life after death to be in peace.

Seeing her little self, Elise can't help with the small gesture that she did.

"You're back little girl?" a voice came behind her from one of the trees. Elise curiously ducked her head, wondering who was talking but her dream ended there and that.

Waking up, Elise opened her eyes to feel a drop of tear had rolled from the corner of her eyes. She pushed herself from the bed, her hand reached out to rub her eyes when she felt a hand reached out to touch bellow her eyes to wipe away the tears that had settled on her eyes.

"Bad dream, sweetheart?" Ian smiled when he met her eyes, she looked at him with her head still trying to think why Ian would be in her room. "You should have dreamt of me, that way no bad dream should date to haunt you. They'll be afraid of me first."

"Isn't this a dream?" asked Elise. She was still in a half-asleep state that made her somewhere questioned if Ian who was standing in front of her now was a part of her dream.

"Hm?" Ian quirked his lips, his mischievousness playing on his eyes. It seemed that his sleep magic side effect still lingered on Elise.

Being an opportunist, Ian didn't want to miss the chance of flirting with Elise and he had to make use of every chance there was between them, "Do I always look this handsome in your eyes even in your dream?" Elise nodded her head, and Ian noticed her listlessness to be extremely adorable, "Which is more handsome the real me or the me in your dream?"

"You," Elise replied, she pulled a soft smile with her head snuggling to the warmth of his hand that felt soothing.

The obedience that Elise showed riled something meaner on him, "Really?" asked Ian in a sing-song voice. He moved closer from sitting on the side of her bed. His lips moved closer to her ears, and he whispered, "Then do you want to do things that you could only do with me in dreams?"

Elise felt a soft touch on her thigh. She looked down to see Ian's finger tiptoeing like two legs from her knees and upper, "What did you always dream of me, Elise? In what situation?"

Elise didn't reply, her slender neck rolled when she gulped. Her eyes trailed on Ian's fingers while her ears felt poisoned by his devilish whispers. "Tell me, Elise."

Elise felt reason filling her head, waking her up, and she pulled herself from his hand, her eyes finally shedding away the sleepiness that she felt, "I... I thought I was dreaming," she whispered, making an excuse for her embarrassing behavior.

"Hm, it's alright, don't be shy," Ian pulled his grin wider, the smile was crinkling with a very bright at the same time intense look. "You can continue thinking you are dreaming, and we can do something else to wake you up. Perhaps we can also try things that only happen in your dream."