Zera opened the door of the car and stepped out. It has been a crazy day, and an even crazier one at the university. The only things left on her mind right now were food, rest, and maybe sleep. Those were the orders they needed to follow as well. Her body wasn’t tired, so to speak, but her mind was. Her brain was exhausted from thinking, and she wanted to shut it down. She made her way up the balcony and towards the door, and when she got there, she pushed and stepped inside.
She smelled the tasty smell of beef, and her mouth watered. This particular recipe for beef was made by none other than Aaron. That meant he had come home earlier and decided to enter the kitchen and cook. Her heart skipped in delight at the thought of meeting him.
She made her way to the kitchen, and upon entering, she saw no one there. She figured he must have returned to the bedroom after cooking. It would only make sense.
She made her way up the stairs, dragging her hand along the railing with every step. She paused as a thought flew into her mind. Why was there so much silence? Yes, the estate wasn’t always noisy, but with her hearing ability, she could hear far and wide if she put her mind to it, and sometimes it subconsciously happened. From children playing in the field to the birds chirping away on the trees, footsteps, and even the whistle of the wind. However, now she couldn’t hear a thing, and it was almost as still as the grave, and the only noises were the ones her feet made.
She came to the bedroom door, pushed it open, and stepped inside, but just like in the kitchen, she didn’t see Aaron. His scent wasn’t in the room as well, and it didn’t look like it had been in a while. At this point, her heart had picked up at an unsteady pace.
Where was Aaron? Where were Zion and everyone else? What was happening?
She almost panicked when she heard Zion’s voice from not so far away: “Mommy!”
Her heart felt heavy but in much better shape, and she raced out of the bedroom in the direction she just heard Zion’s voice.
It was downstairs in the dining room.
She arrived there less than a second later. There, she found Aaron seated at the table. There was a ceramic plate before him and cutlery at its side, as if waiting for someone to serve food.
Why didn’t she see him when she came in earlier? She thought, but didn’t dwell on the thought for long. The most important thing was that she was here now.
“Aaron!” she called out, a smile coming to her face, and she walked up to him. She paused when he didn’t respond to his name, and it felt almost as if he didn’t hear her. “Aaron,” she called again, and she came to stand before him, but he didn’t respond or act as though he even saw her.
Was she invincible now? She wondered to herself.
She reached for him when she heard Zion’s voice again. “Mommy!”
She withdrew her hand and turned around to see where the voice came from. She saw Zion at the door of the kitchen with a smile on his face. A smile almost came to her face when she realised he was not looking her way; he was looking inside the kitchen, so he wasn’t calling her.
“Zion,” she called, but just like Aaron, he didn’t answer her, and now it was beginning to get to her. Her heart couldn’t take it, as she feared what it all meant. She wanted them to see her, but more than that, she wanted to know who he’d been calling mommy.
She stepped into the kitchen, and there she found someone else, standing before the cooking gas with an apron around her neck while tending to the food she cooked.
Her brownish-blonde hair was in a neat bun, and though she had her back turned, she could tell this strange lady’s height was the same as hers.
“I see you finally came.” She said it without turning away from the cooker, and it sounded like the very voice in her head, only it wasn’t in her head. It felt as though the voice in her head had taken on human form and now spoke to her.
She didn’t speak; she couldn’t. She stood stunned and a little terrified.
The lady before the cooker picked up the pan cover and placed it over whatever she was doing. She turned around to face her, and her purple eyes landed on her.
Zera’s heart dropped into her stomach, and she couldn’t control the reaction, nor could she stop the fear that gripped her skin at the sight before her. She was staring at herself, and she didn’t know how possible that even was. This woman standing before her was exactly like her, with a few exceptions. Her hair was blonde instead of dirty blonde, and her eyes were purple instead of blue.
If she didn’t know better, she would call her a sage.
“Surprised to see me?” The lady asked with a smirk on the corner of her lips.
“Who are you?” Zera demanded, and that made her chuckle.
“You cannot be that dense, Zera. I am you, only the better version.” She answered and stepped towards her, saying, “I’ve been waiting for you, and now that you’re here, I get to finally do this.”
She thrust her hand forward towards Zera’s heart, but Zera caught it in reflex and pushed it away before stepping back.
If Zera didn’t know better, she would say this sage was trying to kill her. “You came into my home, and you are not only trying to replace me but also to get rid of me.”
The witch that looked like her smiled and said, “When the new comes, the old has to go.”
She launched at Zera and tackled her to the ground, trying to rip her heart out, but Zera fought her with all she had. She was right; she was the better version because she had the strength and speed Zera didn’t possess, which was strange because Zera was faster than most werewolves she had been around.
This witch was a sage just like her, hence her ability, but stronger and faster.
Zera manoeuvred and used the sage’s attack against her, and it sent her falling to the ground. She got on top of her, and she was about to thrust her claw into the imposter’s heart when she heard Zion’s voice.
“Get off my mommy!”
His words took her back, and in the moment of weakness, the sage took advantage, thrusting her claw through her chest and ripping out her heart. Zera saw her bloody, beating heart in the sage’s hand as she lost balance and fell to the floor before her eyes shut.
“No!” Zera cried out, and her eyes opened.
The room lit up, and she felt someone beside her move, and her heart almost skipped before Aaron spoke. “Zera, it’s me. It’s me. It’s okay, it’s okay.” He wrapped his strong arms around her tightly, unwilling to let go until she was calm and settled.
She gasped a few times and placed her hands on her chest, trying to make sure her heart was still beating in its cage.
It took almost thirty minutes to completely recover from the nightmare, and Aaron’s arms stayed around her the entire time.
Her body shivered a little now that she was calmer, but Aaron did not let go, not until she pulled away. A few tears had escaped her eyes in the last thirty minutes, and now her eyes stung a little.
She ran her palms over her face and dragged a deep inhale before releasing it, and she turned and found Aaron’s unwavering gaze on her. He looked concerned, as he should; what she had gone through in the last half hour had placed him there, and there was no pulling out.
He knew she had had a nightmare, and this wasn’t the first nightmare she had since they had been together, but it was the first that made her cry.
“Whatever it was, I am sorry.” He spoke, and it was the first word that had been said since she’d woken up.
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault,” she told him.
He shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter; it made you cry, and so I’m sorry.”
At his words, her eyes blurred up again: “I died, Aaron. In my dream. Someone killed me. I killed myself.” She corrected herself, and he stared at her, a little confused.
She took the next ten minutes to explain to him the dream she had had. “And she ripped out my heart,” she said, and there was a silence that followed.
“Neither Zion nor you could see me. At least not until I was about to kill her. She had taken my place, and I became almost like a ghost.”
He pulled her to himself and wrapped his arms around her tightly. “That’s never going to happen.” He leaned in and kissed her hair.
She wanted to believe him. She wanted to agree, nod, and also say that wouldn’t happen, but she didn’t know if that was true.
“Ms Lane had told me at the party that what would kill me was my very own, and so this nightmare felt like looking into the future. What if I wasn’t just hallucinating and making things up? What if this is all really happening? What if, in the future, I kill myself? Or bring about my own demise?”
“No such thing will happen, Zera.” Aaron dismissed her theory immediately, and he held certainty in his voice as he spoke.
“How do you know that?” she asked, peaking up at him.
He glanced at her, and their gazes locked. “Because I know you.” He answered in confidence, “And I know you would never do that to yourself. You will not leave Zion and me anytime soon. I believe that.”
He leaned in and kissed her lips. Despite her fear, her doubt, and her second thoughts, she kissed back and let him calm her raging mind and heart.
He knew what she needed more than anything was him.