DAYDREAM → PAUL LAHOTE

° 25

Mera can't think of what to do, she just graduated and her aunt doesn't want her work. It doesn't make sense to her.

So, all she does all day is lay in bed and read books or wait for the maid to tell her that her Aunt wanted to see her.

Coraline wanted her to be wed before she turned twenty-five but she's not planning to be wed any time soon.

Many men had asked for her hand through Coraline thinking she would just accept it and hand them her niece but they were all wrong, even though she wanted Mera to be wed she still consider Mera's decision.

Mera had called her three friends to come over. Coraline wasn't very fond of them. She said that party girls always caused trouble which is somehow true because Mera's friends always cause headaches whenever they went.

"Mera, we've been waiting for you for a minute now." Mia said as she stand up from the couch, "Shut it, Mia." Mera said.

"So, why are we here?" Jen, the fraternal twin of Mia, the complete opposite of her twin sister. Jen looks so comfortable sitting on the couch as she ate the fruit that Mera assume Mia ordered maids to fetch.

"Nothing," Mera answered, her friends look at her in disbelief as they rolled their eyes, but the annoyance on their faces change as soon as they saw who was behind Mera.

"Hemera." She heard her Aunt's toneless but soft voice coming from behind her, Mera turned her head around and starts walking towards her, leaving her friends abandoned in the drawing room.

"Why are your friends here?" Coraline asked loudly enough for Mera's friend to hear "I told you not to let them enter our manor."

"I invited them." As far as she knows, she's allowed to invite her friends to come over "les faire partir, on va parler de quelque chose." Mera nodded. Of course, she wants them to stay but she knows that she can't argue with what her Aunt wants in her own house. (get them out, we're gonna talk about something.)

"You three need to leave," Mera told them. Mia spoke "But-" Mera didn't let her finish anymore, she grab her wallet and hand her some cash "go." Mera can bribe them anytime with money, and they would take it with a smile on their face. Lizabeth, who preferred to be called Lizzie grab her bag and walked towards me, and said her goodbye before leaving.

Coraline gestured for Mera to follow her, she assume they will go to Coraline's office but, instead, they went in a different direction

The corridor of the mansion is as cold as the winter and it wasn't even midnight yet. As they walked, Mera's footsteps echo through the whole corridor, only because of the shoes she wears. She is surprised that Coraline didn't comment on it.

"Where are we going?" Hemera spoke but Coraline remain silent, she instead gave Mera a look.

As they walked, Hemera figured out where they were going, because she was familiarized with this corridor. She's been here for years yet she cannot figure out or memorized every corridor she went.

They entered a luxurious room with a height ceiling, at first glance it may look empty because of how spacious it is.

The window is pleasantly curtained. It is one of the most beautiful curtains Mera had seen in her entire life.

"Seat," Coraline said as pointed at her queen size bed, decorated with a fancy blanket and sheet, the bed has a bed curtain, just like what Mera expected when she first walk in there.

Mera looked down as her feet touched the rug, which she guessed is old by its design.

"What's your plan about Mateo?" Coraline asked as soon as Mera sat on her bed, "What do you mean?" confused about what Coraline said, she furrowed her eyebrows, "I am no fool, Hemera." Coraline chuckled.

Mera doesn't know if Coraline is intending to confuse her, she does that sometimes "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You haven't changed at all." Another sentence she does not understand,
"Just say what you want to say, Aunt Coraline." Mera sighed while Coraline paused "Gael and I had a conversation yesterday, a very heartwarming talk." Coraline spoke, "What does he have to do with me?"

"His son has," Coraline answered. "Gael is no better than the others, Hemera. He's a fool like everyone else." That's the thing with Coraline, she sees things others can't. She knows it when somebody is lying to her "But he knows things some people don't." Coraline added as she gaze back at Mera.

"He doesn't mess around." She warned she knows that Mera is probably still confused but she has to tell her everything she knows "He used to hurt Mateo's mother." Coraline added, her eyes shifting away from Astraea to the window as she walks towards it, hands on her side. As she reaches the window she closes her eyes.

"Is he a threat?" Mera asked "A very big threat." Coraline sighed yet she doesn't look scared at all "What do you want me to do?" Mera asked.

"Know better," Coraline answered
"And I meant it as do not provoke him. Even his son doesn't know him." She continued, her voice sounding toneless as usual "You need to stop whatever you and Mateo decided to do. I'm not risking you." This time, Coraline spoke softly "I understand," Mera nodded, trying to understand every word her aunt spoke to her.

"Call Mateo and shut off whatever the two of you were planning to do." She demanded.

Mera clears her phone as she stands up "I'll get my phone." But as she walked towards the door, Coraline spoke again "You can call him later." Coraline told her niece. She is trying to hold Mera back from leaving the room.

"Mera, you're my heir and everyone knows that. Every powerful family here in France wanted their sons to marry you."

"Why can't you just tell them that I can't marry them?"

"Again, I'm not risking you." Coraline repeated, "They are powerful, powerful enough to get you killed." And after that, she dismissed Mera and send her back to her room.

Mera knows that there are many dangerous and powerful people in france and Coraline Blanchette is one of those people. Coraline's hands weren't as clean as she make it seems to be but she did what she had to do to survive because in a world full of wolves, you can't be a sheep so you might as well learn how to tricked them like a wolf.

And Hemera Blanchette knows that.