Reinvented DreamsShe had it again the sixth time around.The recurring dream that she knew all too well yet she could not recall for some unknown reasonHer hair was being blown by the cold night air, strands twisting with each other, dancing mid-air, as she stands on top of a hill looking over a vast clearing of a forest.She watched the werewolf, his back hunched over, as it waited for the full moon to show itself. And then, when the clouds get out of their way to reveal the fullest moon, the werewolf went into its howling position.Again, it howled five times. It sounded as lonely and as hurt as it did from her previous dream.Elinor watched as the dream is repeating itself again.The werewolf stood on all fours, unmoving. He was staring right at the moon as if his eyes were glued to it. The last howl was her cue. At any moment now, she would awake feeling disoriented and dazy.She counted the remaining seconds silently in her head.One…Two…Three—“Elinor.” A quiet, raspy voice
The CourtshipThey stood in the lobby in awkward silence. What Yves said rendered them speechless.Ah! Bloody hell. He uttered a curse in his mind. Yves did not have to say that, really. Now, he does not know whether to hide his face in shame or to smile and pretend they did not just hear Yves introducing herself as Elinor’s future sister-in-law, suggesting that they will marry each other soon.“Can you walk me through your estate’s garden?”Colin was relieved that Elinor broke the silence between them. And even more so, he was glad that Elinor made the awkward atmosphere surrounding them disappear by asking him that.“It is a pleasure,” He said, almost offering his elbow for her to link her arms around but Colin remembered she was not a sister nor a cousin of him, and the act, he figured, was done if both of them know each other very well.At that point, he was reminded that he and Elinor were not that acquainted yet. They just met. But he makes it his goal to get to know this lady w
JewelsElinor’s eyes were busy scanning the hand-crafted jewelry that Colin had laid on his study table earlier when she heard him grunt as if he was in pain or had some personal business to attend to. She tore her eyes away from the jewelry and shot him a stare.“Are you alright?” she asked when Colin stood up from sitting at the edge of his bed looking unwell. His ears, she noticed, became blushed. He started clearing his throat, facing his back to her, avoiding her stare.“Yes, I—uh I will go get you anything, drinks? tea?” He said while still facing his back to her.Elinor’s forehead creased with confusion, but then she nodded her head and said, “A tea would be fine.”Colin rushed outside, he vanished so fast that it made her think he could not wait to get out of there.He seemed fine just minutes ago when he lay open the velvet boxes of the jewelry to show her. Maybe Elinor was so preoccupied that she missed something that could be the reason why Colin is suddenly acting like tha
MourningShe could not get close to her because her knees had become so weak that she dropped to the floor. She was still in the doorway, kneeling, her hands clutching her chest. The pain she felt was so heavy that she thought she would suffocate to death.It felt as though the time stood still.Everything stopped. Her world stopped turning. Flashes of her moments with her mother played in her head.“No! No!” She screamed, crawling to where her mother was. Her face was wet with tears, her cries were full of pain.When she finally reached her mother, Elinor could not take to look at her pale face. She shut her eyes and tightly embraced her mother in her arms. She wanted to scream in pain but there was no sound escaping her mouth as if she had gone mute, or her voice had been taken from her. The veins in her neck looked like it was about to pop from screaming in silence.What is she supposed to do with her life now that her mother is gone?Things are never going to be the same again and
His EmeraldElinor had been silent since the burial of her mother. She hid herself in the corner of her mother’s room. Lying in a fetal position, her mother’s clothes serve as her blanket.She does not have any single clue at all on how to carry on with her life now.It was so fast. She couldn’t even brace for it. It’s like someone punched her in the face out of nowhere before she could even avoid the blow.The pain that follows completely swallows her whole, throwing her into a bottomless well, and she’s still continuously falling even now, bracing for an impact.If this is what losing someone you love feels like, then I don’t wish another creature to experience the same pain.She heard the creaking sound of a door, then followed by the sounds of boots on a hardwood floor.“Eli, please. You need to eat something. Or have something to quench your thirst,” Colin begged.Instead of answering him, she tucked herself even more, her knees touching her chest. She could not see him because o
A Move to the EstateIt’s been a week. Elinor heaved a long sigh as she stood in the middle of her mother’s bedroom wearing a light blue cardigan that her mother had knitted for her sixteenth birthday.She hugged herself as her eyes scanned the room. Bonnie helped her clean it yesterday. It doesn’t change much. It still looked like how it used to be before, only that she would no longer see her mother pace around the room, or see her hunched over her desk where she used to knit.There is no warmth in it. The warmth of her mother that she longed to feel so much so it hurts.She figured that if she is to stay in this cabin by herself, she will live her life forever stuck. Her days would always be gloomy and unproductive because of the sudden death of her mother.It took her a week before she finally came up to Colin one afternoon and spoke for the first time in a couple of days.“I have made up my mind,” she said.Colin put down the paper or what seemed to be like a map that he’d been r
HerThe movement of whoever was in the forest was so fast that it disappears in a blink. Colin couldn’t catch its shadow, only the swaying of trees are left moving.His senses were heightened and were about to run through it, had he not heard Elinor’s voice calling him.“Colin, when did you get here?”He tore his eyes away from the dark forest across them and swallowed hard. He then looked over to Elinor, looking very soft in her light blue dress. It was the same dress she wear when he first saw her. The faint light of the afternoon sun hits the red locks dangling on the side of her face. Her hair was up in a simple bun, and she looked more beautiful than he remembered.“Just minutes ago. How are you?” He asks.“I feel a little bit better now, thank you,” she said, but her eyes are still the same. It was void of any happiness. And the heavens know how much he wanted to give anything to bring it back.Bonnie followed close behind her, Elinor looked over to her and back to him again.“W
The SurpriseSitting across Colin, Elinor thought to herself how this is the first time she gets to watch him this close and study his face as his hands were busily polishing a topaz.Earlier, when he told her about any of his plans today, she looked forward to seeing jewels again and not having the freedom to stare at his pretty face.But for the love of all the holy beings, this man right in front of her is a pleasant sight to see that she cannot take her eyes off his serious face.His thick dark brows twitched, his lips parting with concentration, and the few dark locks dropped on his forehead. Not to mention the light escaping from the red curtains hit a portion of his face where his scar is.Elinor does not understand it, really. How can someone insult him just by this one scar he has on his cheek?The rumors, Bonnie had told her while they were out in the lake. The story goes that some woman he liked by then regarded his face as unattractive, and the worst part of it all, Colin