Untouchable by Marii Solaria

Chapter 5 – The Nightmare

“Your nightmares follow you like a shadow, forever. “Aleksandar Hemon

Neron

Sinister hissing reverberated off the thick air. The crimson mlasma billowed with the harsh wind flaying my skin. Ominous silence dominated, my harsh breathing barely agitating the stillness. My hands clamped my neck as I struggled to breathe, gasping for a small remnant of oxygen. I made the mistake of looking at the red sky for a sign of hope, but all I found was a curse. The sun didn’t shine its purifying light, for an eclipse stood in its place. An irremovable eclipse.

How long has it been since I last had a nightmare? The years felt like eons, yet I’m plunged into a familiar trepidation I’ve long forgotten about.

Dread’s spidery legs crawled up my arms as I hobbled under the hellish atmosphere. I needed to find an escape. The longer I remained, the more disorienting my vision became. My breathing grew loud in my ears and the red blurred like a splotch of watery paint. But there was a danger hidden beyond the red haze. I felt it sinking into my skin, seizing my bones in a violent grip.

Leave. Leave! I must leave!

Suddenly, my energy was zapped. I fell to my knees, continuously gasping for breath.

The hissing grew louder. The ground moved beneath my legs. My heart–wait, the ground is moving?!

One dumb decision after another. When I looked down, the haze momentarily faded to reveal snakes. Nausea crept its way into my stomach at the sickening sight of the surplus of black, scaly bodies bumping and grinding against one another with reckless abandon. The earth rumbled, but the snakes paid no mind. One snake stood out from the rest, noticing me with its beady, red eyes. It slithered up my thighs, careening its head up to get a better view. Its forked tongue flicked out twice before returning to the herd.

I hated snakes with a burning passion. I had Osiris to thank for that. This nightmare was making it worse!

‘You don’t have a clue why you’re here, right, Alpha?” A deep, callous voice growled in my ear. The earth quaked again, the aftershock running through my body. A portentous shadow loomed over me, swallowing my body whole. When I whipped my head around, I nearly collapsed on my back in fear of the gargantuan serpent glaring down at me with eyes the color of the deepest fraction of blood. “Alas, I wanted to make my arrival unannounced, but oh well, I cannot help it”

“Who are you?” I demanded; my voice broken in wheezes. “Why are you showing me this?!”

“I’m not the one showing you this vision, stupid dog.” The viper hissed, lowering its colossal head toward me, his nose nearly brushing against mine. “Why would I show you the future when your power conjures up the future itself?”

“P–power? F–future?” The haze cleared to reveal nothing but absolute devastation that stretched for milles. Corpses of innocent men, women, children, and animals littered the earth. The snakes slithered to and from holes of the bodies. Adrenaline was dead. Panic rushed through my body. “N–no… you lie! This is not the future!”

“Not yet.” The serpent’s evil boomed with every chuckle it made. My skin crawled. “But it will be the future once I t

ake this plane as my own.”

“The future is not for certain.”

“That rule doesn’t apply to gods, little puppy.” Its laughter boomed through the world when it caught sight of the confusion on my face. “Ah, I forgot your feeble minds cannot comprehend the presence of a god. But it won’t matter once you surrender your life to me.”

“Like hell, I will!” I snarled, pushing my body off the snake–infested ground. The glant serpent cocked its head before shaking it in disappointment, rising back to full height.

“olves are as stubborn as the wretched goddess who created them. This will change your mind. Look behind you.”

snap echoing across the air, I looked behind me to see a scene so horrific I thought my heart would rocket out of my chest. Thick snakes suspended Kiya in the air by her neck, entrapped by the coils of snakes and cobras slithering around her body from her shoulders to her feet. Her breathing hollowed out to almost nothing as the reptiles” bodies tightened around

whimpered as dribbles of blood slid clown the ends

serpents were smart creatures. They sensed my fear. In their amusement, many shot up from the ground, colled around my limbs, and threw me on the ground on my back. Their

I screamed, struggling against my binds. “Let her go!

once again. Dropped on either side of Kiya like rag dolls were Phoebe and Violetta in identical states;

you

I haven’t forgotten about your involvement, dog.” It snarled. “It is only

This beast was going to kill them in front of me! I looked into Kiya’s eyes to

saw the

sorry for involving

sweat dripping down my temple. “Taking what belonged to me signed their deaths. Once I get my fangs onto all who were responsible for my loss, I

with the moon’s

tightened and twisted with a sickening

Chapter 5–The Nightmare

loudest scream I’ve ever mustered tore through my throat when I shot up from the bed. Sweat clung onto me like a second skin, entrapping me in unbearable heat. The world was in a muddled fog of black instead of red, but it didn’t

Is Kiya okay?!

wake up. I needed at sign that she’s alive. A sign that she wasn’t dead with a broken neck. A sign to ease my biggest fear. Onyx’s overwhelming presence flooded my own, sending a thick heat to my fingers. He’s telling me to stop. I growled and fought against

his warmth into mine. “Listen to your

need to know, Onyx! I

Anthony would’ve let us know if something happened! I promise you our sweet angel

She is…?

She is.

heart was an uncontrollable drum hammering against my chest, but it lessened when the world cleared up. I was in my bedroom. The air conditioner hummed at the window, the ceiling was dark, and around me were familiar items that made my bedroom mine. My breathing leveled out as the panic left me, my lungs sucking in the precious oxygen my

I got

was too damn real. I still hear Kiya’s scream before her death. Onyx did his best to soothe me, but I was terrified.

sure. Plus, it’s two in the morning, so you can’t expect her to

how late it was. After getting my bearings, I pushed my body off the bed and just sat on the edge of the mattress for a minute, trying to

like the other dreams I

had a couple of weeks

the way

of my warriors, confided in me about his worries about his wife and

even the dreams I had of Kiya when Osiris was alive. That big ass snake, somehow, knew too! A cold sweat

I wasn’t afraid of a lot of things

I needed some water.

wolves nestling in their bedrooms. Thank Goddess that my room was soundproof, or else explaining why I was screaming in the middle of the night would’ve been.

have a nightmare like that again. Despite the gentle cool, the nightmare lingered like cigarette smoke. Heaving out a heavy sigh,

she doing up

she faced the window. Moonlight flickered through the window, delineating my sister’s form in a gentle, silver halo. Her back tensed up