By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 41

Sleep claimed Snow very fast, almost too fast, as if someone wanted her to sleep too soon. She was already tired, because along with the concentrating exercises that Grandma Elizabeth had made her do while hunting and practicing magic for the first time had drained her quite more than she had expected it to, she herself had also made quite a strenuous job by bonding herself with magic which had been lying dormant in her soul for this long but that was all fine because finally she could some rest, so Snow had thought.

Not even a few minutes had passed when Snow had slept, Fluffy who was sleeping at the end of the bed on the floor mat started whining loudly, so that Snow could wake up from her sleep because something sinister was going to happen . But to no avail, could she wake Snow. Fluffy jumped on her bed and started licking her face but Snow was lying there as if laying like a dead log. Fluffy having no more idea what to do, cocooned and wrapped herself closely to Snow’s body so as to kill the chill if anything close to death touches her body.

In her sleep, suddenly Snow found herself transported to a beautiful room, glorious and decandent. Dark and every thing was in shades of black and red. When Snow opened her eyes and tried to get up from the bed, she found that her hands were shackled to the bedpost and she could not move it a bit.

“Oh dear!!! I wouldn’t want to do that if I were you.. I wouldn’t want to hurt myself, will I?” a silky breezy voice from the darkness that swirled around the room like dark Swarovski crystals.

“Who are you?” asked Snow still jerking her hands against the restraints.

“I am who you want me to be darling. I can be greatest fear and the darkest depths of your personal horrors. I can be your brightest dream and the greatest powers can be absolutely yours if you want them to be. I am Life, some even call me Death.”

“Why don’t you come to the front and let me decide that what are you?” asked Snow in her cockiest voice she could muster.

Before she could even blink a dark breeze flowed over her eyes making her snap her eyes shut. It was a disgusting and creepy feeling as if something dark and foreign was trying to ooze into her pores and suck something out of her. She could feel that someone was calling her out to wake up from this sleep but she was trapped and she couldn’t wake up. But she knew now, that someone was there for her trying to help her. Snow opened her mind and gave out a full blast of her psychic power so as the black thing that was trying to get inside her would move away.

Suddenly she was free of any kind of force over her and a split second later on she heard a loud thud on the floor as if something dropped down.

“Mmmmmmmmm, young and very very impressive I must say. Really impressive. Your mother never had this strength I must say. A lot of spirit yes but too weak to be harnessed for something greater. But you my darling have so much of potential, oh dear, I can’t even imagine how much you can grow….”

“I’m sorry, but I must cut in to your lunatic ravings. Look, whoever you are, I am not really interested in knowing and I don’t give a s**t about your bloody schemes. Well I must say that you need to work on your salesmanship skills because I am really really not convinced,” as Snow was speaking she was trying to call upon her memory about the charms of unlocking the locks which she had memorized earlier this evening. But she very well knew that she could not attract attention towards herself that she was unlocking her so she kept on talking to the strange creature. The voice had a beautiful hypnotizing lilt to it, if you kept listening to it you would be caught unaware in it’s charms but Snow was too focused on distracting it to concentrate on the voice. The worst part was that she could not identify the gender from the voice.

“Such a brave heart, such pure soul, always thinking about others like your mother. At what happened to her in the end?” asked the voice as if smirking.

“ If you think that you can rile me up saying this useless s**t, then you’re highly mistaken,” Snow said this while she had already unlocked one wrist of hers and felt her body slipping away from this dream.

“Oh language, my sorceress, language. You are forbidden to speak in this language in front of beings higher than yours,” said the voice.

Snow started laughing out loud and said, “ And you need to work on your ego and esteem. My Grandma Elizabeth is much higher being than you, stupid imbecile!” Snow had unlocked her right wrist and quickly willed herself back to her bedroom. She woke up on her bed with a start and she screamed out in terror. Panic had gripped her and she had understood that something had happened to her which was pretty bad.

Her screams were so chilling and loud that they were more than enough to wake up everyone in the vicinity. Sonata was the first one to kick the door open and there was a knife in her hand which gleamed in the slight light of the morning. Akira was next to reach as she came close to Snow’s bed immediately and took in her pale and ashen face.

“Are you fine Snow? What happened?” asked Sonata and Akira at the same time when Raphael came inside with Elizabeth in tow.

“Has there been any kind of attack? Have you been able to find the one who was the assailant? Snow? Are you hurt? Check her pulse and pupils,” instructed Raphael as he started checking the locks of the windows and the shades but found that every single thing was in place but Snow was still silent. She was shaking and her teeth were chattering in fear.

“Akira, Sonata, get me a few bags of blood from the kitchen as soon as possible and also call the doctor and ask her to come and check on Snow White in her room for she is thoroughly indisposed and is not going to be able to make it to the infirmary,” said Raphael and both the girls nodded at him and followed his instructions almost immediately.

Elizabeth just looked at Snow who was still shivering and then wrapped the blanket round her.

“Are you alright dearie?” asked Elizabeth in the softest tone she could muster. It had been too long that she had spoken to a child and that too when she was sacred out of her wits. Normally she knew her grand-daughter to be a very strong and resilient woman but the way she was behaving today could only mean something truly terrible had happened with her.

Snow looked up at her with her eyes absolutely blank and vacant and then she said,” Who was my mother?”

Elizabeth looked at her in a strange manner and then she replied,” Your mother was one of the fiercest warriors and diplomats of the entire Vampire clan, darling. Your mother was Rosalind Martha White. You know that, don’t you? Why do you ask that?”

“There was someone in my dream….” Said Snow as Raphael’s eyes narrowed at her words.

“Do you mean like a nightmare? Did you have a nightmare sweetie? Is that why you are so scared?” asked Elizabeth softly, but instinctively she knew very well that it was not a nightmare that had woken up Snow in such a frightened state.. And the other alternative which might have happened was not at all a pretty condition.

“No, not a nightmare…it was like I was locked in some room and my hands were shackled up to the bed post. I could not see the person talking to me. I was absolutely clueless regarding what to do, it was like I had no way out at all,” said Snow as she finally looked at Raphael. His eyes had turned to red and he was shaking with anger.

“Who was this person that you are talking about? I mean could you see who he or she was?” asked Elizabeth as she started prodding the younger girl.

“I could not understand anything, neither the gender and nor the identity of the voice. It felt like that the voice was so disgusting and dirty and it was slipping and trying to slip under my skin. That was something which had a sinister purpose to fulfill…but the worst part was his groping,” said Snow, as a tear slid down her cheek.

“What did you say?” asked Raphael in a cool voice, his entire body was emanating fury which could not be controlled. His nails had grown out of his fingers and so did his fangs. He was looking ferocious but that did not reflect in his voice.

“There was something which was trying to grope my body and then it was trying to seep inside me, as if it was trying to search for something. Inside me, that was when I said that he was a very bad salesperson and my grandmother was far better than him and much higher being than him,” said Snow as she smiled sadly at her grandmother making the older woman smile. Then she suddenly burst out in peals of laughter.

“You said that to someone who had you spirited away to some place inside your dream that your Grandmother was a higher being than him?” asked Elizabeth, still laughing and shaking her head in disbelief.

“What was I supposed to do? He called me a sorceress and then said that it was forbidden for me to speak in that terms with creatures who were higher beings than me. I did not know what I should have done and what I should have said. I was absolutely clueless that I said whatever came to my mind for the first time. When he called me sorceress I was baffled by his words. Then he said that he had seen my mother, and I was just like her…but she also did not have this much power at such a young age. That creature said that I was holding immense power within myself and I would not be able to hide it for long. He said that I was a magnet and if I would just let him in my soul then he would make all my darkest desires, all my wishes come true. Everything I can ever want would be in my hands if I just said yes to him,” said Snow as Raphael growled out loud.

Elizabeth looked back at Raphael turning at him and then said,” Seriously King, you are more than a thousand years old and still you behave like a petulant child. When are you going to grow up?”

“There is no question of growing up when my students, the ones who have been entrusted in my care and are solely my responsibility have become so unprotected that anyone can be able to attract them and that too when they are the most vulnerable then I am not going to be able to stay calm under any circumstance. You should understand that,” said Raphael as his eyes still blazed red.