[Amber]
Amber's dreams started out horribly.
She squatted. Her arms were wrapped around her body as tall shadows loomed over her smaller frame. She wasn't looking at them but she could feel their eyes on her.
They circled her, their gaze burning her skin. It was hot at first, like the warmth of a spotlight, like the brush of heat from the fire. But with time, it burned. Tendrils of smoke flickering from her flesh as they stared at her. Their eyes were laser beams, dripping acid on her skin, poison. She was horrified at the sight of her melting, bubbling skin and her eyes automatically darted upwards to her tormentors.
The shadows were anonymous, their features swathed in veils of dark shadows. The veil that concealed their features fluttered with the wind with each step and she caught sight of certain characteristics.
She saw the eyes of one; cold, icy, devoid of emotion. The lips of another, stretched into a leering grin filled with disgust. They whispered, their voices melding together into a cacophony of sound.
The voices peaked and she was thrown, tossed aside by the shadows. There was a bang of a door, the beep of a lock and she was forced through a silver gate.
Amber found herself banging on the metal, watching as the shadowy figures disappeared into a garden of bobbing purple and pink light. She tried to call them and she was screaming their names. But her cries were drowned out by the sound of the wailing flowers that surrounded the gate.
They were lilac bushes at the corners of her eyes, faceless shadowy females when she looked directly at the flowers. The pretty flowers were morphing into people right before her very eyes.
Their actions mirrored her own, creepily mimicking her every move. Each fist on the gilded bars, each shake of her hands. They moved when she moved, smiled when she smiled, screamed when she screamed. But when she cried, golden tears streaming down her cheeks, they leered, revealing bloodied incisors. Red and gold mixing in the dribble of their saliva.
They roared, their voices overpowering hers and she dropped to her knees, consumed by their sound. She was alone and lost in the sea of people. Chills darted up and down her body, and their eyes burned her skin, hands tearing at her hair as she sobbed.
Amber watched as the gold spilt from her eyes and stained her body. Tendrils and rivulets of glitter running down her arms to pool at her knees. The colour spread across her skin until she disappeared, melting into the silver gate.
A statue of gold.
"You're safe baby, don't cry."
Someone soothed in English and her eyes fluttered barely registering her surroundings. It was dark and her cheeks were wet with her tears. The pillow beneath her head was soaked with her tears.
A soft whimper escaped her lips along with a little sniffle that she could not control. Someone gently stroked her hair, pulling her hair back to wipe the cold sweat that beaded on her forehead and she felt the brush of something soft and warm on her neck.
They fluttered up her skin, like the caress of a butterfly's wings, kisses that reached her hair. They led to blossoms of warmth in her chest which drove the coldness away.
"Just a bad dream," he murmured in Korean this time, gently rubbing her arms with his hands. He brought his hands to her middle, pulling her closer to his body. She was cocooned in his warmth and the familiar soothing scent of crisp snow and clean sweetness surrounded her frame. She wanted to look at him, turn her head over to see him but sleep took her back down into its depths.
This time the dreams were sweet.
Soft sunsets, wispy clouds and the warmth of someone's hold. She sat at the edge of the world, her legs swinging over a waterfall that dropped far into space.
In her dream she sat in his lap, his right arm wrapped around her middle. His left hand lacing their fingers together. She had never felt this protected...This safe...This warm. A voice would hum, cooing whenever she felt a jolt of fear. It was there whenever those shadowy hands reached from below to take her back into the nightmare.
When she awoke it was to soft light, flickering through deep blue curtains, a white closet, and a bunch of shelves filled with books. She blinked, squinting as she shifted in the bed. Then her breath hitched, finally registering the hand that held hers.
His fingers were large, laced over her tinier, slimmer digits. Soft and warm. Her mind continued, ticking off the boxes as it tried to map out the position of this other person pressed snug against her body.
His right arm was looped over hers to hold her hand. His left? A bump of warmth under the pillow. His chest was pressed snug to her back, hard, wide and strong. His leg propped over hers such that his thigh brushed gently against her core. She shifted, her ass rubbing against his flesh and then she felt it.
The hardness of a thick length. Its warmth was seeping through the fabric. She flushed, her ass suddenly hyper aware of the monster pressed flush against her skin.
He exhaled and she froze feeling the brush of warmth on the nape of her neck, his nose and lips gently touching the skin of her shoulders. Holy shit. Her skin tingled with sensitivity with his every breath.
He was spooning her.
Her mind raced, heart pounding fast and hard as she considered whipping around to slap whoever the hell had taken advantage of her sleeping body. Then she finally registered the burn of warmth in her solar plexus. The brush of beautiful comfort that his touch brought her. The drip of liquid gold that seemed to seep into her body with his touch. The ease of that painful emptiness in her chest like a soothing lozenge to a sore throat.
A soulmate.
One of her soulmates, her cheeks burned as she swallowed thickly. Her throat was dry from sleep. Who was it? She frowned, trying her best to stay as still as possible. What had happened—
The memories unlocked within her mind, spilling to the forefront of her mind and she sobered up. Hikaru, Ezra, JieMi. Her lips parted. JieMi? The door clicked open and she squeezed her eyes shut in her panic as someone walked into the room.
"Hey," the whisper of a voice called, soft and cheery. "Stop pretending to be asleep. Get up."
Amber's heart jolted, fluttering madly in her chest as embarrassment creeped up her skin. Her body was suddenly more than aware that someone was looking at her. Looking at her being cuddled by another man. And whoever it was seemed to know that she was awake. She was about to open her eyes and confess to her sins when the rumble of a velvety voice escaped from the man pressed against her body.
"What is it?" He asked, his voice husky as he spoke.
She could feel the vibrations rumbling through her skin and lighting up the fire deep within her lower belly. God. A jolt of heat rushed through her, her core warming and melting at the thought of him. Who was it?
"You're not supposed to take advantage of her like this!"
The angry whisper back was familiar. Amber's brows furrowed just a little. Her mind trying desperately to remember who it reminded her of. Oliver?
She swallowed thickly, her eyes darting about in panic under her closed eyelids. It was a deep wrenching panic that spun in her chest at the prospect of seeing him in person. The last time they had met he had heard her session with Ezra. Mental Amber groaned, slamming her head into the wall.
Goddamnit.
"She was crying in her sleep. She only stopped when I held her like this."
The reply was immediate, a soft whisper of words more for her benefit than for Oliver's. They were keeping quiet for her, just in case she was still asleep. Her chest warmed at the thought but her breath hitched when the person's right hand, ghosted over her navel. The pads of his fingers dancing lightly over her stomach. She shivered, her body clamping a little in response and she gulped. He didn't feel that, did he?