Chapter Thirty-Three: Killing For Keepsakes

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    I was so cold

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    I was so cold. God. It was so fucking cold. I knew I was bundled under a blanket, soft, down, blanket, and yet I was freezing cold. What was going on. I work on moving my legs and found that I was frozen.
    WHAT. THE. FUCK?!
"I hear you've been looking for me, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis."
I searched the dark but I couldn't see anything but midnight black and fog, so much fog and smoke, I suddenly felt like I was choking on it.
"What...what..."I cough. This isn't real. It can't be real.
"Ohhhh it's as real as I want it to be bana-phrionnsa milis, milis."
"Why, why can't I see you..." I whisper.
"You wish to see me, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis." A dark chuckle fills the air and then the fog lifts and smoke clears, and I can breathe again. It's him. Oh God. It's him. Branuel Or De A'lanuel's nephew. He's standing straddling my prone body in my bed. I work on keeping my breathing nice and even. Like hell if I'd let him see how much he scared me.
"Soooo brave...or are you merely stupid? So many humans are such...stupid sheep. So easily led to the slaughter."
"What...what do you want?"
"First, you will call me by my name, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis."
"Why? You're calling me something else."
"I'm complimenting you, you beautiful thing. I'm calling you, sweet, sweet, princess."
"Well, I don't like pet names, okay? If you want me to call you by your name, then you can call me by my name, I'm Annora, Annora Park."
"Ahhhh but that is not the whole of your name is is, Annora Gun Samhail Park."
"Someone's been spying on me, I see."
He laughs. "It's your turn."
"G'harna Yull Brennen." I watch as a blissful look takes over his face and I work on remaining completely still. I would give this psycho serial killer nothing, NOTHING!
"You say my name soooo sweetly, Annora Gun Samhail Park. Oh but how I wish I could take you." He frowns then and his arms tighten on my upper arms. "Do not think to escape me. This is a web dream, a dream of my creation. You cannot escape it until I decide to let you go."
"Again, I'm asking you, WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT?!"
"I want what I've always wanted! I want TO LIVE!" He screams in my face.
"You are living. You're a Fae Royal, your lifespan spans eons. Why...Why do this?"
"Do not play dumb with me Annora Gun Samhail Park! I know my uncle told me the sad oh so sad tale of my birth. Worthless, both my parents were worthless, stupid, worthless, pathetic creatures. But I am not. I have power, power that I will NEVER give up. Power that I will continue to accumulate."
"You cannot draw power from Fairy," I whisper.
"NO!" He snarls in my face. "But I can draw it from the human sheep you so love. I would take from you, and you would fill me with such power, such glory, such true magnificence I wouldn't have to feed for so long. But if I were to take you now...as you are now...I would have the Wild Host called down upon me. I will not risk that." He leans down closer to me and I swallow hard. He's pressed up against me, with only the blanket between us. And I can feel him, hard and unyielding against me. He's hard, Oh God, I want to throw up. "I should have taken you before that damn angel got to you, before you crossed into Fairy! If I had taken you before you crossed into Fairy, I may have been able to bypass the rules of the Sluagh and the Wild Host! But now!" His arms tighten even further. "NOW YOU ARE LOST TO ME..." but then his face forms a beautiful evil smile, "...for now...for now...I have figured things out, Annora Gun Samhail Park.  And I know things...such beautiful horrors...horrors that will in the end give me what I need...what I want...and give me you.  You think you understand.  You know NOTHING.  Do you know why I take them yet, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis?" I shake my head and he laughs, "Of course you don't.  And you won't.  You won't until it's too late ...too late for you...too late for them all.  And then..." He get a dreamy look on his face.
I've got to keep him talking.  He's letting too much go.  His ego is talking now.  He NEEDS to let me know he's smarter than me, that he knows more, that he can get to me.  Keep him talking Annora, keep him talking Annora no matter what you have to do, keep him fucking talking.
   "Then what, G'harna?"
   "Ohhhhh I do so love my name from your lips, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis.  My uncle thinks to make you his queen.  But you will be no one's queen,  You will be mine.  In me. In me. Mine.  Mine forever."
   "How?" I swallow, trying to speak through my dry throat.
   "Oh no no no...you don't get that, not yet, bana-phrionnsa milis, milis.  Just know, you are mine, mine....only going to be mine.  And I have figured a way around the Wild Host.  And when I have succeeded, NOTHING, NOTHING will save you."
    OUT! OUT! OUT! I want out of this dream. I pull every single mental shield I possess and pull them around me like a warm blanket. I fortify my shields and then I start to push...push as hard as I can. I CAN do this. I have to do this. When I feel him resisting, I call on my Empathy and FEED ON HIM! Let's see how he enjoys being the subject of his own rage and anger and horror. I feel his grip loosen and then I see the horror in his eyes.
"What...what...what do you do?" He screams at me.
I don't bother answering him, I work on making sure that my Empathy is pulling at him, haunting him HURTING HIM!
"NO NO NO NO! You cannot escape my Web Dream. It is of my making. It is mine. What is this. What are you?"
I grit my teeth and bare them at him before spitting out. "Your worst fucking nightmare. Now get the FUCK out of my head, you sick sonofabitch!" And just like that the fog spreads the smoke fills the room and he disappears leaving me to choke once again on acrid burn.
"Oh Goddess...Goddess be...my beautiful one my milis..." Terrenel says, suddenly standing by my bedside. I almost throw up and scream,
"NO NO, don't call me that, don't call me that! Please, God, don't call me that!"
Terrenel looks haunted. He looks scared to touch me. "Mo ghràidh. I...I...I am so sorry this happened to you...can you...can you tell us what happened?" I look around and realize that they're all there, all my men. I begin to shiver and can stop the tears that fall from my eyes.
"Let her get dressed," Chamuel says. "And then...then perhaps we can talk."
I give him a grateful look and nod. Once they're all out of the room, I burst out in great giant sobs.

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