Chapter 1
Lily is running for her life among a maze of heteroclite objects, knocking down everything in her path, but she doesn’t even notice it as her survival instinct screams to get away from there as fast as possible.
Glass explodes, behind.
The bewildered young woman cannot take her eyes from the orange cloud that terrorizes her very soul. She stumbles on something before crashing heavily on her back.
Lightning flashes within the center of the frightening cloud. It instantly condenses into a terrifying orange feline creature with reptilian skin and a crocodile muzzle. The beating of its powerful bat wings is lifting a cloud of dust.
-“What’s that?”
She quickly tries to get up to escape from the infernal winged demon.
Too late …
The dog-size dragon, with its unmissable long curved fangs, is already hovering close to her.
Lily stares at the dragon’s blood-red eyes.
The beast’s nostrils are now smoking.
-“Noooo!!!” she yells, as the dragon seems to sadistically smile a brief second before blasting a stream of fire more intense than the flames of hell.
Instinctively, the young woman raises her arms and tries to protect herself from that inferno that now covers her entire body.
The last thing she can do is scream, and scream …
-“Lily, stop screaming! Wake-up! You’re having another nightmare!”
The young woman’s pale brown eyes open for a moment before closing again under the bright ambient light.
-“Oh … It was just a dream? But it seemed so real, Genevieve.”
-“And what happened in your dream that also woke me up?”
-“A dragon was cooking me in a blast of fire for its breakfast!”
Amused, Genevieve barely holds it in before laughing.
-“At least, this dream of fire won’t ever come true.”
Lily closes her eyes. She tries to empty her mind of bad memories the fastest possible.
Genevieve realizes that Lily just connected the dragon’s fire with the disastrous accident her friend had with her sister almost two years ago.
It was the first time that one of her dreams had become a terrifying reality.
A profound gloom permeates the room. Moaning with an intense headache, Lily squeezes her head with both hands. Genevieve sneers again before realizing that she’s not in a much better condition.
-“It’s only a bit normal that your hair hurts so much after the party bash we had last night!”
Lily finally recognizes her small attic bedroom. The sun rays are reflecting on the cardboard boxes stacked against the walls.
-“What are we doing here? I was with a stunning guy at my party. I never thought I would be waking up at home!”
-“That was probably before you passed out on the dance floor, drunk like I’ve never seen you before. You drank shooters non-stop all night, Lily. It’s a good thing we don’t pop pills, anymore. Just think what that would have been!”
The young woman searches through her foggy memory.
-“You’re right, but that cute guy I was with … The hockey player with the big muscles. I can’t even remember his name.”
-“Sebastian!”
Lily falls back on her pillow. Her tangled red streaked light-brown hair covers her face, but she doesn’t even bother moving them away.
-“And I was sure I would remember my eighteenth birthday party for the rest of my life. I can barely recall anything about it the next morning!”
Genevieve’s blond head falls beside her on the pillow.
-“Then you must also have forgotten that Ernesto gave us a ride back here last night and was so wasted himself that he had to sleep with us?”
With a troubled look, Lily lifts the sheets. She gladly notes that they both still have their underwear on.
-“For a moment there, I thought that he wasn’t as gay as he claims. By the way, where is he?”
-“No idea. We woke up at the same time when you started screaming like a nutcase in your goddamn nightmare!”
Lily peeks at her alarm clock.
“Almost nine … Hey, didn’t you have an important political debate breakfast thing, this morning?”
-“Argh! I forgot! Have to go!”
Genevieve rapidly puts on what she wore the night before. She tries to brush the tangled mess that betrays her very eventful party without much success.
Lily hears her pillow screaming her name and succumbs to the call.
-“Have a good day, Gen.”
-“I’ll give you a hand with the boxes, this afternoon … No! Maybe later tonight or tomorrow morning,” the blonde shouts back as she runs down the stairs. “I’m supposed to have another meeting this evening … But it’s not confirmed, yet.”
The front door slams with a bang before tires screech and the growl of a powerful engine quickly fades away.
-“I’ll unscrew her head off!” shouts an angry woman, downstairs.
The not so sweet comment brings a smile to Lily who’s trying to go back to sleep. But her vivid dream keeps her awake and after turning around a few times, she decides that she might as well get up early for her big day.
But I better wait until Mom calms down a bit before my first coffee. Meanwhile, I’ll prepare myself to pass my test. Finally, I’ll be a black belt. I worked so darn hard for it!
Lily puts on slacks before getting a glimpse of the horrible reflection of herself in the mirror. She winces as she sees the huge woolly ball of hair going from shoulder to shoulder and the heavily shadowed eyes looking back at her.
Nothing to do with that until a good shower.
The young woman starts her daily morning katas as best she can after having moved a few of the cardboard boxes scattered all over the place. She decides to give up her exercises and instead get a strong coffee, which she really needs to wake up on this important day.
I’ll just redo my routine in the backyard.
Someone knocks on the door.
-“Can I come in, Lily?”
