[CHAPTER-9] Nightmare

"SNAP-SNAP" Corridor lights above them were flickering ,with each flicker distance between Irim and Valentina seems to get shorter.

When the light stabilized, professor Irim was there standing barely an inch from Valentina. His was face was pale and  expressionless . His pupils were dilated, vast black pools that swallowed the light, reflecting nothing but darkness.

“Isn’t this yours, Miss Valentina?” he murmured again, his voice was low. He held a small pink handkerchief between his long trembling fingers. 

An unwelcomed chill run down Valentina’s spine, Her carefully constructed composure began to fall. 

“N-no that isn’t mine…” She said in shaky voice and wanted to scream but something held her rooted to the spot, a primal terror that locked her muscles.

He tilted his head in a slow and deliberate movement that felt utterly unnatural. Too far... The angle was wrong, disturbing.  

Then, he leaned closer to Valentina, His nose cold and sharp brushed against a loose strand of her hair.

Valentina gasped... a tiny choked sound.

 She felt the delicate hairs on her arm rise. His eyes rolled back in his head, a grotesque pleasure as he smelled her hairs. That sound – half sigh and half moan. 

"Ah this smell indeed same..... This handkerchief is definitely yours miss Valentina" He said in a pleasured state.

 Eva’s hand shot to the hilt of her sword , she was ready to make a move and to pull Valentina away..... to put herself between her friend and this *thing*, but fear rooted her too. Luna, usually so quick to fiery outbursts stood rigid with her jaw clenched but a dangerous glint in her Ignis-attribute waiting for an opening. 

Suddenly Irim felt something was glaring at him , a deep, resonant growl rumbled behind them vibrating through the stone floor. It was Noctis, Professor Rosa’s formidable magical beast, stood at the corridor’s end.

 His form was calm, composed, but his eyes were fixed on Professor Irim with an intensity that promised immediate, brutal action if Irim even twitched or move a inch.

Irim’s vacant expression instantly snapped and replaced by a flicker of something primal. His face twitched with subtle spasm of irritation , His eyes those dilated black pools darted towards the beast.

 Just then, Professor Rosa’s brisk footsteps announced her arrival as she turned the corridor corner. Her presence was a sudden instantly breaking the suffocating tension.

 “Professor Irim, what’s happening here?” she asked, her gaze sweeping over the scene, sharp and questioning. 

Irim’s  glassy emptiness got replaced by an unnervingly human politeness smooth and effortless. He smiled a quick almost too-smooth motion that didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

“Ah, nothing, Miss Rosa. I was merely… returning a lost belonging.” He held up the pink handkerchief, then executed a small graceful bow.

 His smile was sharp with a predatory glance in the depths of his eyes as he looked at the girls. “Such lovely students. Always leaving behind pieces of themselves.” With that, he turned and walked away down the flickering corridor, leaving behind an unbearable stillness.

Rosa turned towards the girls, she was confused “What did he mean by that?” They couldn’t answer. They didn’t know. The words themselves felt like a threat, vague yet chilling. Valentina felt a  wave of nausea and Luna just stared at the empty space where Irim had been, Eva’s hand still gripped her sword hilt. 

Noctis was still there a statue of contained fury his gaze were fixed on the receding figure of Irim. “Noctis always seems to be hostile towards Professor Irim,” she muttered, a thoughtful frown creasing her brow. She looked back at the girls, clearly unsettled, but seemed to decide against pressing them further, for now. The tension though eased, hadn't entirely gone.

Inside dorm Valentina usually the picture of elegance and composure was feeling as if her entire body was vibrating with residual terror, “We have to report him,” Eva finally burst out, stopping her pacing abruptly. Her voice was firm resolute, despite the tremor in her hands. “To Dame Lilith. Immediately. 

 Valentina however snapped her voice sharper than she intended. “No! Not yet!” Her heart hammered against her ribs. “If we go to her now, she’ll think we’re paranoid! She’ll think we’re unstable, imagining things!” The thought of being dismissed, of having her fear trivialized, was almost as terrifying as Irim himself.

 Aqua in her small and trembling voice tried to reason with tears welling in her large, empathetic eyes. “But Valentina, he was… he was so scary. What if he does something else?”

 “Exactly why we can’t rush,” Valentina countered, her voice laced with a frustration born of fear. “He acted perfectly normal the moment Professor Rosa arrived. He’s careful. If we accuse him now, without anything more than our word, he’ll twist it and  make *us* look like the problem.”

 Luna, despite her fiery nature nodded slowly. “She’s right, Aqua. As much as I want to punch his creepy face in, if we go to Lilith with just ‘he gave us the creeps,’ she’ll probably just tell us to avoid him. We need proof..... Something concrete.”

 So, a pact began to form, unspoken at first, then solidified into words. “We’ll find out who he really is,” Eva declared, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword. “We’ll find it.... We’ll gather evidence.” Valentina looked at each of them, her fierce gaze meeting theirs. “We’ll prove it,” she affirmed, her voice gaining strength.

 “We’ll prove what he really is.” It was a promise, a desperate gamble against the unknown.

 They talked until exhaustion took them, “Let’s sleep together again… please?” said Aqua ,Her plea was raw, childlike expressing the unspoken fear that they were safer together. No one argued.

 They piled onto bed, a small island of warmth in a sea of dreads.

Moonlight, now a silvery-blue cascade, coming through the window painting the sleeping room in hues of shadow and pale light. Everyone was asleep, their breathing was soft and even, lulling the room into a deceptive calm. The camera of consciousness panned across their peaceful faces – Eva, serene even in sleep; Luna, a faint frown etched between her brows; Aqua, curled tightly, almost invisible under the blankets. Then, the focus sharpened, settling on Valentina.

She was in a room drenched in the sickly sweet scent of copper, Red. So much red. A younger version of herself, perhaps only a child stood trembling beside a shattered glass jar glittering shards reflecting the horrifying scene. Then, whispers insidious and cold  into her mind: *“You killed him, Valentina…”* *“Your fault… always your fault…”* The words wrapped around her, suffocating, chilling.

  Valentina woke up gasping, drenched in cold sweat. Her heart was a beating against her ribs, She blinked trying to orient herself in the familiar darkness of her dorm room. It was empty....

She looked beside her but no one was there, The dorm room door was half-open.... All she could hear was the sound of fast blowing wind and rustling of leaves on trees carrying a chill that was far more profound than the night air.

 “Eva? …Luna? …Aqua?” Her voice emerged as a fragile whisper, trembling with a fear that was too deep for words but she heard no reply. Valentina pushed herself up off the bed, her bare feet touching the cold floor.  She stepped into the corridor, the lights which were always reliable were flickering faintly now in unsettling pulse of light and shadow casting along the walls. 

 The long empty hallway stretched before her unnaturally. It seemed to expand to lengthen far beyond its normal dimensions dissolving into an impenetrable darkness at the far end. 

A faint silhouette stood there, a man’s figure unmoving, perfectly still. The figure’s head was tilted..... a sickening angle that defied human anatomy, Its eyes, even from this distance, felt locked on her a predator’s unwavering gaze. 

 “Professor…?” she breathed, the word catching in her throat, a desperate hope clinging to the impossibility of it. He didn’t move. Not a muscle. Then, slowly, agonizingly, his head tilted further. The soft, sickening *crack* of joints echoed down the hall. But suddenly that figure started to look bigger then she realized that it was approaching towards her, taking pace getting faster and faster.

 Valentina bolted that raw panic seized her She didn’t look back, didn’t dare to. Her breath tore in her throat, her heart thundering. 

She burst through the half-open door, slamming it shut with a resounding thud that vibrated through the silent room with trembling hands she fumbled for the lock, the cold metal a small, futile comfort..... Silence. 

Only her ragged, desperate breathing filled the room. She leaned against the door, trying to reclaim her shattered composure. But the cold, the wind, the impossible length of the corridor… that wasn’t a dream. Slowly, she turned her gaze scanning the room. The camera of her fear followed her face in a slow agonizing 360-degree rotation. Every shadow seemed to deepen, every familiar object to morph into something threatening. 

Her eyes darted from her bed to Eva’s, to Luna’s, searching for any sign of her friends.... Nothing. 

 As she was gazing a shadowy hand lowered from the ceiling, silent as death itself. It wrapped around her throat. Instantly, the air was ripped from her lungs. She was lifted off her feet, Her feet dangled uselessly, kicking at empty air. She gasped a soundless desperate struggle. Choking her eyes wide with terror, she stared into the impenetrable darkness above her. Veins bulged in her neck, her face rapidly turning a mottled purple. Drool, thick and warm, slipped down her chin, a testament to her helplessness. *My magic! My Carnis magic!* She screamed internally. The veins in her arms glowed a faint, ethereal red, the raw power of her blood attribute responding. Droplets of crimson, like tiny, precious jewels, began to rise from her skin, a desperate attempt to manifest her power. But as they hovered in the air, trembling and then vanishing. Dissipating into nothingness, as if an invisible force was devouring her magic before it could even fully form. Her vision blurred, the edges of the room closing in, dissolving into a tunnel of fading light. The pressure on her throat intensified crushing. The last thing she saw or rather felt was the vast  darkness above her. A massive fanged mouth not fully revealed just the terrifying outline of something impossibly vast and monstrous opening in the dark and pulling her whole in mouth.

A faint, distant voices pierced the nightmare. “VALENTINA!” Luna’s fierce shout. “VALENTINA, WAKE UP!” Eva’s desperate plea. “Valentina, please!” Aqua’s tearful sob.

 Valentina’s blurry eyes fluttered open, Her head throbbed with a dull ache. Slowly, the shapes resolved into faces –  hovering over her with expressions of profound relief and terror. She was lying on her bed, gasping, her entire body drenched in sweat. 

 “You were choking yourself!” Aqua cried tears streaming freely down her cheeks, her voice choked with sobs. “We couldn’t wake you! You were making these awful sounds!” She reached out, her hand trembling to touch Valentina’s cheek. 

 Valentina lifted her right hand but her muscles were aching but she touched her neck. It was raw, tender and bruised. 

Pain shot through her as her fingers brushed against the swollen skin. But the shape… the imprint… were wrong. So wrong. It wasn’t the neat, even pressure of human fingers. These were uneven, too wide. 

 “These aren’t my hands…” she whispered, her voice a raw and barely audible.

 The realization sent a fresh wave of terror through her, cold and absolute. Eva her face pale quickly helped her sit up offering a glass of water. 

“Drink this Valentina.  Valentina drank, the cool water was a soothing balm to her parched throat. She looked at her friends their faces were filled with concern. Slowly, she began to tell them about the nightmare, She described the impossibly long corridor, the tilted figure, the strangling. But she omitted the flashback part, the blood-soaked room and the accusing whispers. That was hers alone, a secret horror too deeply ingrained to share. 

Her voice broke as she spoke about nightmare because all was bringing back the visceral terror, When she finished they were all silent,  The unspoken question was clear: was it just a dream? Or was something more sinister at play? The bruises on her neck were a chilling answer. 

 They all gathered on the same bed again, this time with Valentina in the middle between them. Aqua leaned into her side, still trembling. Eva sat protectively on the other, her gaze scanning the room as if expecting another manifestation of the nightmare. Luna wrapping an arm around Valentina’s shoulders, held her tight. 

 “He can’t touch you when we’re here,” Luna softly said, her voice a low rumble, a promise of fierce protection. It was a simple statement yet it resonated with a powerful truth about their unity, there was strength, a fragile shield against the coming darkness. But even as the words offered comfort, the lingering dread of the unknown of the monstrous thing that lurked just beyond the veil of sleep, remained.