Vic woke with a violent gasp.
His body jerked upright before his mind fully caught up, breaths uneven, chest rising hard beneath the darkness of the room. Sweat clung to his skin despite the cold air from the AC, dampening the collar of his shirt and tracing down the side of his neck.
Again.
That dream again.
No, not a dream most time he had concluded It might be a memory or at least… It felt like one.
The images still lingered behind his eyes in broken fragments, a yacht..Rain crashing violently against black waters.
Thunder splitting the sky apart.
The deck shaking beneath terrified screams.
Then a nassive wave very unnatural, towering over everything like It wanted to swallow the world whole and there he was. Younger, small hands gripping tightly onto a woman whose face he could never fully see no matter how many times the nightmare replayed.
Her arms wrapped around him desperately, protectively, holding him against her chest as the yacht trembled violently beneath them.
She was saying something.
He knew she was.
Her lips moved against his hair, voice trembling near his ear but he could never hear the words clearly, It was more like the ocean itself was stealing them away from him.
Then chaos.
The yacht tilted violently, people screaming, glass shattering, cold water rushing in and then he fell off the yatch Into the ocean.
Every single time, that was where the memory ended, not faded, ended like something refused to let him see the rest.
Vic dragged a shaky hand down his face, breathing hard.
"I hate this…" He muttered quietly.
It had been months since the nightmare last came so why now?
Why tonight?
That was the part that disturbed him most.
The timing. Ever since the presence in his room, he knew something was off and now the nightmares had returned.
Vic leaned forward slightly, elbows resting against his knees as he stared into the darkness of his room. The dream never made sense.
Because If It was real then who was that woman?.
His mother died giving birth to him, that was what his father always said.
No stories about accidents.
No stories about the ocean.
No stories about nearly drowning.
Nothing.
Yet every time he saw that nightmare
he knew one thing with absolute certainty.
That child… was him.
"Then...who are you?" He whispered softly into the silence.
The same question he had asked himself for years.
The same question that never had an answer.
Vic sighed heavily before finally pushing himself off the bed, there was no point trying to sleep now. He grabbed his earphones from the nightstand, slipping them in before scrolling through his playlist aimlessly until soft music filled the silence.Then he dropped back onto the bed, one arm behind his head, the other resting over his eyes trying not to think or remember.
Across the city It was well past midnight.
Corelia lay quietly on her bed, staring blankly at the slow spinning fan above her. The room was dark except for faint moonlight slipping through the curtains, painting soft silver lines across the ceiling..Mishell still wasn't back from her date but that wasn't why she couldn't sleep, her mind refused to settle.
Every time she closed her eyes she saw him again.
The way he turned.
The way his gaze landed directly on her.
The certainty in his voice.
I know you're here.
Corelia exhaled softly.
How did he sense her?
That level of concealment should've been impossible to break even powerful supernatural beings struggled against her invisibility spells.
Yet Vic, a human had reacted to her presence like instinct, natural and effortless.
"…Who are you really?" she murmured quietly.
Then unfortunately her thoughts betrayed her, the next thing she remembered wasn't his voice. It was him standing there under the warm steam, droplets of water tracing slowly down his skin… His damp hair falling over his forehead, the way his shoulders tensed slightly when he sensed her nearby.
Corelia immediately shut her eyes.
"What focus, Corelia." She pressed a hand dramatically over her face.
"This is not the problem."
The room door suddenly burst open.
Mishell walked in looking completely exhausted and deeply offended by existence itself. Her heels dangled from one hand while the other struggled with the zipper of her dress.
Corelia lifted a brow slightly.
"I hope he's still alive?"
"Unfortunately," Mishell answered flatly.
She kicked the door shut behind her before throwing her heels somewhere across the room without looking. One landed against the wall, the other disappeared entirely.
Mishell took a deep breath then another.
Eyes closed like she had just escaped prison.
"This was not the entrance I expected from you," Corelia said calmly.
Mishell cracked one eye open.
"You expected candle lights and rose trails?" She yanked the dress off one shoulder aggressively. "We might do that…"
She paused then dramatically...
"Tomorrow."
Corelia blinked,
Mishell groaned loudly.
"I am NEVER doing this date thing again. Let's switch sides. I'll take Vic–you take this one."
Corelia sat up slightly.
"Trust me," she said dryly. "Yours is way easier than mine."
Mishell stopped halfway through removing an earring.
"Easy for you to say," she muttered. "You didn't have to keep casting bonding spells on Jax to keep the ruin wraith away every five minutes while millions of people watched his every movement."
She finally got the earring off and threw it onto the dresser.
"Do you have ANY idea how difficult It Is hiding active magic during a live shoot?"
Corelia was quiet for a moment, then...
"Well atleast you didn't get caught."
"Of cause not, why will I.. Wait....."Mishell paused, slowly turned.
"You got caught?"
Corelia nodded.
"Doing what?"
Corelia hesitated which immediately made Mishell nervous.
"I went to place a protection spell on Vic."
"And?"
"He sensed me."
Mishell stared at her then laughed once.
A short disbelieving sound.
"Of cause he will, he Is not blind I mean did you walk up to him and say I want to spell proof you from a deadly spirt?."
Corelia didn't laugh back.
" You don't get It, I was concealed"
Silence settled In the air for a brief moment.
Mishell's expression slowly changed.
"What?"
"I was Invisible to mere human eyes but he avoided every attempt," Corelia continued quietly. "Every time I got close, he moved before I touched him."
Mishell frowned now, fully alert.
"That's impossible."
"I know."
"And you are certain you were concealed?"
"Completely, no one else could see me.".
Mishell stepped closer, for the first time that night, her exhaustion disappeared.
"What exactly did he say?"
Corelia's gaze lowered slightly.
"He looked directly at me and said…"
Her voice softened unconsciously.
"'I know you're here.'"
The room went still, Mishell's face hardened slightly.
"That's not normal sensing."
"I know."
"And then?"
Corelia hesitated again.
"He told me not to touch him."
Mishell stared at her for several long seconds,trying to understand and rationalize this entire situation but she was failing.
"That shouldn't be possible," she said finally. "No human should be able to track your movements through that level of concealment."
Corelia looked away quietly.
"That's what worries me..."
A silence settled between them, heavy and uneasy.
"We have to find out why". Mishell finally said, breaking the silence between them.
Corelia dropped back on her bed.
"Will this mission ever get easy?".
"Oh I knew we were doomed the moment we had a timeframe attached to this entire thing". Mishell replied, completely changed to her nightware.
" You are suppose to take a bath" Corelia pointed out.
Mishell dropped on her bed, the exhaustation had settled In again.
"If It solves one of our problem right now, I will gladly take It." She murmed half way asleep.