Luxiana SommerisI swallowed, glancing back up at the treehouses with a newfound sense of understanding. It made sense now—why this place felt so eerily silent, why the air around it carried an almost heavy stillness. The higher the houses sat, the more isolated they became, removed from everything below. If someone wanted to disappear from the world, this was the perfect place to do it.“I see,” I murmured. “Now it makes sense why I was brought here.”Damien gave a slow nod before stopping, tilting his head back to look up toward the highest treehouse. “He’s up there,” he said, jerking his chin toward it. “Let’s go.”I turned to him, blinking in slight confusion. “Wait—are we using our powers to go up there?”Damien’s lips curled into an almost mischievous smile. “We can, but this time no,” he said simply. “We’re flying.”Before I could ask what he meant, I heard the faintest rustle of air. Then, right before my eyes, a pair of magnificent wings unfurled from his back, stretching wi
Luxiana SommerisRay stiffened at Damien’s words, his jaw clenching. “They’re not hunting me. Walkers can’t come here.” His voice was sharp and irritated, but something else was underneath—hesitation, uncertainty.Damien, however, didn’t falter. His expression remained grim as he took a step closer. “Yes, they are.” Without warning, he grabbed Ray’s shoulder and spun him around, his fingers digging into his skin.That’s when I saw it, the mark. Dark, swirling like smoke trapped beneath his skin, pulsing with an eerie glow on his bare back. It stood out starkly against Ray’s skin, it was a sinister mark. One that sent a shiver down my spine.My breath hitched as I turned my wide eyes to Damien. Was he saying that I had the power to save someone teetering on the edge of death? That I, a mere oneiromancer, could interfere with something as final as the Walkers’ claim?Damien’s voice was steady, unwavering. “Do you believe me now?” His golden eyes burned into mine. “This mark means they’r
Luxiana Sommeris“Ray! Snap out of it, damn it!” Damien’s furious voice cut through the chaos, raw with frustration. He had been yelling at Ray for what felt like forever, but there was no response—no flicker of recognition in his blank stare. Ever since we had pulled him back from the depths of his troubled mind, he had been like this, trapped in the lingering grip of those cursed walkers.We had been fighting relentlessly, doing everything in our power to cut down the Dream Walkers before even one of them could escape and report back to Morpheus. But more than that, we needed to stop them from draining Ray’s soul before it was too late.“Can you purify him now?” Damien demanded, summoning a roaring flame in his palm. The heat licked at the air between us, casting flickering shadows over his sharp features.I gave him a firm nod. “I can...watch over me—I’ll hold onto Ray this time while I purify him.”Without hesitation, Damien moved closer, ensuring I was fully within reach befor
Luxiana SommerisThe walkers who had tried to kill him vanished into thin air, their presence dissipating as if they had never existed. My knees buckled beneath me, and I collapsed onto the ground, my entire body trembling from exhaustion. A sharp breath left my lips as I struggled to understand what had just happened.Had I pushed myself too far? That light—what was it? It had burst from my mouth like a force beyond my control. My powers… I could feel them slipping away, draining from my body like sand slipping through my fingers.Before me, Ray lay unconscious, his face peaceful yet eerily still. The world tilted, and darkness consumed me before I could process anything further.When I finally stirred, a warm, gentle touch glided through my hair. My lashes fluttered as I adjusted to the soft glow of light filtering into my vision. Blinking slowly, I took in the sight before me—Damien.He gazed at me with quiet patience, his expression calm, as if he had been waiting for this moment
Luxiana SommerisAfter sharing a lavish dinner, we sat back, letting the meal's warmth settle in as we studied the map before us. The flickering candlelight cast soft shadows over the parchment, marking the various destinations we had yet to explore.“Are you curious about what each point looks like?” Damien asked, his voice smooth as he reached for my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine.I couldn’t help but smile, but something about his touch felt different tonight—softer, more lingering. It made my heart race. I tilted my head and studied him. “What’s up with you today? You’re acting so... I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”Damien chuckled, a deep, rich sound that sent shivers down my spine. “What do you mean? Acting how?”“Like I might lose you again,” I murmured, eyes searching his. “So you’re being extra sweet to make up for it.”His laughter echoed in the dimly lit space, full and unrestrained. “No, love. You’re not going to lose me. And I’ll make sure no one takes you fr
Luxiana Sommeris“The make-out point is down, and the touch point is next,” I said, scratching the back of my head while glancing at the map. A sigh escaped my lips as I looked around. “Can we just get out of this park already?”Damien shook his head with a teasing grin. “Nope. We’ve already started, so there's no turning back now.”I groaned in frustration, exhaling sharply. “You should’ve warned me before we came here!” But instead of dwelling on my annoyance, I chose to see the silver lining. I shot him a playful look. “Not that I mind doing these activities with you. We could've just done them in your room or mine, you know.”He smirked, his voice dropping into that smooth, confident tone that always made my heart race. “I know. But it’s more thrilling out here. Makes me appreciate you even more... from head to toe.”Heat rushed to my face, and I nearly choked on my next words. “W-Well, um… shall we check out the touch point?” I stammered, hoping to shift the conversation.Damien
Luxiana SommerisI glanced down at the map in my hands, tracing the path we had already taken. “Let’s see… Make-Out Point and Touch Point are done. So far, nothing too terrible has happened to us—aside from, well, Make-Out Point,” I muttered, shaking my head at the memory.Damien chuckled beside me, stretching his arms as we took a moment to rest. We had lingered at TouchPoint for a while, curious to see if anything about the area would change after completing the challenge. As expected, once we were done, the marker disappeared from our map, though we knew it would reappear for the next pair of participants.“This park really has a way of keeping things interesting,” I mused, taking a sip of water. A thought suddenly crossed my mind. “What happens if someone doesn’t complete all the points?”He smirked slightly, tilting his head. “Depends. The punishment varies based on what you failed to do and whether your partner was involved.”I suspiciously narrowed my eyes to him again because
Luxiana SommerisI exhaled sharply, breaking the lingering silence before gathering my scattered clothes and wrapping them around my body. “We did it.”Damien let out a low, breathy chuckle, his fingers still resting against my waist as if he had no intention of letting go. “Barely.”I met his gaze, a slow smile tugging at my lips. “I guess we should get dressed before someone sees us like this.”He smirked, his grip on my waist tightening slightly. “Or… we could stay like this a little longer. I’m enjoying the view.”I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the laugh that slipped past my lips. “Tempting, but we still have one more challenge ahead. The bed-point, right?”As I pulled my shirt over my head, I caught Damien watching me, his expression unreadable—like he saw something more than my body.“Bed-point is different, Xiana,” he murmured. “I told you, once we get there, you’ll hear all kinds of creatures moaning—inside rooms, outside, everywhere.” His voice dipped lower like he was l
Luxiana SommerisDays passed—maybe even a week—and still, Damien hadn’t returned. The worry that settled in my chest grew heavier each moment he was gone, and when I finally tried to teleport to find him, a strange, foreign energy pushed back against me, blocking my path and leaving me more anxious than before.I hadn’t gone to see Margaret either, to check on her or ask if she’d heard anything, though deep down, I could sense she was alright. The energies that lingered around me whispered comfort, gently assuring me that she was safe.Damien was right all along—I truly had unlocked my full potential as a Oneiromancer. I could feel it pulsing within me like a tide that had finally reached the shore. There was so much more for me to uncover, to understand, to master, and even though I had come a long way, I was certain this was only the beginning of a much larger journey.Right now, I was trying to see if there was any way for me to reach Damien or anyone from the faction, to create a
Luxiana Sommeris“Do you think he’ll be alright?” I asked softly, my voice barely louder than the wind as we stood there, watching what had just unfolded between him and Mira.It broke my heart to see them like that — two people once so close, now carrying wounds that words could barely heal. Still, a part of me felt relieved, even grateful, that they had found the strength to finally talk. Maybe not everything was resolved, but enough was said to ease the heaviest part of their burden.Damien’s arms were loosely wrapped around me, his weight leaning on mine. I held onto him carefully, helping him stay balanced, mindful of the injuries he had suffered earlier when he hurt his feet during the chaos.“He will be fine, he has survived a lot of things that no normal human would,” Damien stated as a fact.Even now, standing here with him, I still find it hard to believe that we have defeated Morpheus. After everything he put us through, after all the nights filled with fear and fighting,
AntonAt first, she couldn’t bring herself to meet my eyes. She stared down, her fingers trembling slightly against mine. But after a long, weighted pause, she finally smiled — a soft, bittersweet curve of her lips — and tightened her grip on my hands.“I have feelings for you,” she whispered, her voice barely above the breeze, “but it wasn’t allowed in the faction...so I forced myself to forget.”She gave a short, breathy laugh that sounded like she was trying to make light of something that hurt far too much.“I slept with others in their dreams,” she admitted, her eyes clouding with memories, “but no matter what I did, I couldn’t forget you. I couldn’t forget the way we opened up to each other so easily... the way we were so gentle, yet so passionate together.”I swallowed hard, feeling the familiar ache rise in my chest, and found myself confessing before I could stop myself.“I felt the same,” I said, my voice thick. “I tried...I slept with others, too, but it never worked. I eve
Luxiana Sommeris“My walkers… they can’t fully possess the people in either the waking world or the dream realm—what did you do?” Morpheus screamed, his voice sharp and accusing, echoing like a crack of thunder through the heavy air, forcing me to leave Damien’s side and step forward until I stood directly in front of him, unflinching.“What I did,” I began, my breath shaky but my voice steady, “was use everything I am as an Oneiromancer to stop whatever it is you’re trying to tip out of balance.” I exhaled sharply, the pressure of it all catching up to me. “You really think I came all this way just to fight you without a reason, don’t you?”“We know what you've been doing,” I continued, my fists clenched so tight my nails dug into my palms, “I swear I won’t let you get away with it.”“Maybe you escaped the consequences before—I don’t know how or why—but this time, I’m here to make sure it ends.” “I might be the last of my kind,” I said with a quiet strength that came from something
Anton“Y-You saw it? B-But how?” I asked, my voice almost breaking.“It doesn’t matter how. I want to see it and take it from you, so let’s go back, okay?” Mira said as she held my hands.“O-Okay,” I replied, the word trembling from my lips, but it was enough to make them both smile, and for a moment, that warmth was all I could feel.“There’s still time,” Mira said again with the authority of someone who had walked through too many endings to be afraid of one more. “But we have to act now. Morpheus still has his grip on you, and if we wait, he’ll pull you too deep—we might never reach you again.”I looked at them—at Luxiana’s steady eyes and Mira’s unshakable calm—and for the first time in what felt like forever, I let myself believe that maybe I wasn’t lost after all. That the darkness hadn’t consumed everything, that the flicker of light I thought was long gone had survived because they had come before the dream collapsed.“I don’t know if I’m strong enough,” I whispered, the trut
Luxiana Sommeris“How can we reach him?” Mira asked, her voice low but laced with worry, the concern lingering in her eyes despite her valiant effort to mask it.A sudden surge of hope rose within me, a warmth that spread through my chest like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. I was just about to tell her what to do, to explain the next step, when a sound tore through the stillness—a scream, raw and anguished, that shattered the moment.Damien was down on one knee, his flames sputtering like a candle on the verge of going out, his breath ragged and uneven. Across from him stood Morpheus, towering and bloodied, yet crackling with the vicious energy of victory, his form coiled and ready to deliver the final strike. Time stretched unbearably thin in that instant, as if the world held its breath with me, one heartbeat, one second suspended in the space between what was and what could still be.“Damien! No!” The words ripped from my throat like a bolt of lightning, sharp and despe
Luxiana SommerisFor a fleeting moment, I saw fear flicker across Morpheus’ face—a brief crack in his mask of arrogance—but he quickly smirked, recovering his composure. I had been told before that he never liked Damien, and now I understood why. It was the white flames. Something about them, something pure and ancient, unsettled him.“You’re making this even harder,” Morpheus sneered, rising slowly from where Damien had brought him to his knees. He dusted himself off as if the attack was nothing more than a minor inconvenience, but I could see the tightness around his eyes, the tremor in his voice. “Do you really think the two of you can be together?”Damien took a cautious step forward, eyes narrowed in disbelief. Clearly, he hadn’t expected Morpheus to recover so quickly—not after being consumed by white flames, the same flames that had once been powerful enough to destroy entire darkness.Despite Morpheus’s attempt to appear unshaken, I could tell the damage was real. He was hur
Luxiana Sommeris“Where’s Anton? If you hurt him, I will end you.” I clenched my fists, which made him chuckle.He didn’t say anything, but he moved forward. I didn’t flinch—not when the shadow moved like a living creature, snarling without a mouth, nor when Morpheus hovered a little closer, like he was trying to study me, savor me, as if I were a guest of honor at some twisted performance he’d been rehearsing for centuries. My fists clenched at my sides, and though my heart thudded hard against my ribs, I refused to let him see fear. Not now. Not when I had come all this way.“What kind of show are you planning to put on this time?” I asked, my voice firm, even as the chill of his presence settled into my bones. “Another nightmare? Another illusion to trap me in?”He tilted his head, his expression between amusement and curiosity, like a child toying with a fragile toy, waiting to see how easily it would break.“Oh, this one’s going to be special,” he said softly, almost sweetly, as
Luxiana SommerisUntil I reached a clearing—something that might once have been a beautiful place. A forest, frozen in twilight.The trees were twisted now, unmoving, but not dead. The air hung heavy with silence that pressed against my skin, sharp enough to hurt.And then I saw him. Anton stood at the center, his back to me. He was still—too still. His shoulders were stiff, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, and his head was tilted slightly, as if listening to something only he could hear.But I could feel the wrongness in the air. His energy wasn’t right. It vibrated dark and low, coiled and waiting like a snake beneath the surface.“Anton,” I said, almost tearing up, my voice piercing the silence like a blade. He didn’t move or answer.“Anton, I know you’re in there. I know what Morpheus is doing. But I also know you’re still fighting.” I called out again.A gentle but biting wind passed through the trees. When it stopped, it became extremely cold, so when Anton laughed, I