🎬 Season 1, Episode 6 - "The Dream Continues"

"The Dream Continues"

I barely slept a wink that night. Every time I closed my eyes, flashes of that terrifying dream played before me the white linen, the chanting, the snake around Axel’s neck, and that cup of blood. My entire body remained tense, like I was bracing for something I couldn’t explain.

I forced myself to stay awake till dawn. The moment the sun cracked through the window blinds, I jumped up and got ready for work, hoping that normalcy would somehow return.

But it didn’t.

At the office, I was a shadow of myself. My hands trembled slightly on the keyboard, and I must have typed the same sentence five times. My mind wasn’t with me it was somewhere else, trapped in that strange palace from my dream. My boss noticed.

He walked up to my desk, stared at me for a moment, and asked coldly, “Do you want to keep this job or not?”

I couldn’t speak the truth how could I explain such madness? So I feigned a headache and requested to leave early. He rolled his eyes and granted the request, more out of irritation than sympathy.

I didn’t go home.
I went to the house. His house.

I needed answers.

As I approached the gated property near the beach, the same one he had taken me to just nights ago, the security man walked up to the car with a slight frown.

“Good afternoon,” I greeted, trying to appear calm. “Please… I’m looking for Axel.”

The man blinked at me with confusion.
“He travel for business, madam. He no dey around since two days.”

My heart skipped a beat. Two days? That couldn’t be true. He was with me just last night or was it?

“He didn’t mention any trip,” I said, forcing a smile.

“No, madam. E don travel. His mama and papa go market, say them wan buy things. Dem no dey too.”

His tone seemed casual, but something about him made my skin crawl. His eyes darted around like someone hiding secrets, and the way he spoke like it was rehearsed. Like he had said these exact same lines to someone else before me.

Still, I thanked him and walked back to my car.

As I shut the door, a strange heaviness fell on me. I sat in silence for a few moments, trying to steady my breath. The dream. Axel’s sudden disappearance. The unreachable phone. The “parents” who were conveniently never around.

Nothing added up.

And that’s when it happened.

The moment the car engine purred to life, so did the weariness in my body. I hadn’t realized how truly exhausted I was. My head leaned slightly back on the seat, and within seconds...

I was asleep.

And the dream... continued.
Exactly where it stopped.

I stood frozen before the glowing goblet of blood, held out by Axel. His eyes, now glowing with an eerie light, never blinked. The ruby rod in the woman’s hand now crackled with electricity, as if charged with power too immense to comprehend.

The crowd around us chanted in a language I still couldn’t grasp, and this time, I wasn’t merely an observer.
I felt bound.

My body trembled, but something invisible held me in place.

The woman raised her rod again and looked directly into my soul.

"You have tasted the union. Your soul now bears the mark."

Suddenly, my white gown began to darken, slowly transforming from white to crimson red. I looked down at my arms and saw the same red mark glowing again, pulsing like a heartbeat.

I tried to scream, to run, to beg but no sound escaped my lips. Axel reached out, not lovingly, but possessively, and whispered:

"You belong to the tides now."

And just as he reached to touch my face
I woke up.

This time, not in bed.

But still in the car.
Parked by the roadside.
It was already evening.

And my palms... the red glow was gone. But the outline of the symbol? Still faintly visible, etched like a scar beneath the skin.

What was happening to me?

And worse...
What exactly is Axel?

To be continued…
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