Author's Note: First and foremost, I want to give a big THANK YOU to Tccrusher who took time out of his busy schedule to edit my story. His help and effort has made this chapter much more polished, and has made the story sing. I am very, very grateful to him and the volunteer editor program here on Literotica. Second, this chapter is big. Almost double the size of the previous two, at 58k words and 16 Lit pages. I really couldn't find a place to logically (to my mind) break it in half, so I give it to you complete. As always, thanks for reading, be sure to vote and/or comment, and most of all enjoy.
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It was the middle of the night, and the only light in our room came from the soft glow of the night-light that Kelli had picked up a few days ago. As stupid as it sounds, and as embarrassing as it was for me to admit, in the span of just over two weeks I had become afraid of the dark, just like a little kid. Two and a half weeks. That's how long it had been since Kelli and I had our Valentine's weekend getaway, and in that time I had started having my nightmare every three to four days. I was drinking my tea just like Millicent asked me to do, and I was trying to pay attention for clues and hints while in the dream world, but the terror I was feeling every time sleep claimed me was getting worse.
Sometimes I would face off against the two Neko in the clearing, and other times I would be blindsided by one while fighting the other. In every one of the dreams, however, my anger at my situation worsened, to the point that I could feel my personality slipping away a tiny piece at a time. The terror I felt coming from Kelli also intensified with every iteration of this nightmare, and the dream only ended in one of two ways. Either I was enslaved as I felt Kelli's life force fade away, or I fought so much that I was only stopped when the Neko or the woman in the green cloak were forced to kill me before I could be collared.
No matter which scenario occurred, I always woke up in a cold sweat, screaming more often than not. After waking up this way for so long, even the thought of closing my eyes made me shudder. The one recurring detail that I was picking out of these times, was that it was rare for me to interact with the woman in green. She would assist if I fought too well, and sometimes she placed the collar around my neck if I was holding off the Neko. Yet even with this limited interaction, I made a supreme effort to remember every detail about her that I could.
Whoever she was, she was a mediocre fighter at best and had only slightly better than human abilities. I had noticed it before, and I could tell that she wore no clothing under the green cloak for some reason. Her actions in the dream suggested to me that she was more comfortable in the background directing the details of my nightmare than in actually participating. I was starting to think that maybe she might be the Puppet Master that Millicent warned me of, but that didn't feel right. She was angry, and I felt that the grudge she carried like a personal cross was directed solely at me. Why this person should have such a burning hatred of me, I had no clue, but I learned that she hated me for sure when she finally spoke to me in the dream.
It happened during one of the few times in my dream that my anger became so intense that I completely lost control of myself. I remembered rising from the ground after nearly breaking the two Neko I had been fighting in half, and leaving their bloodied bodies behind me as I stalked forward to do the same to the woman in green. I leaped and started to punch, kick and grapple with her, letting my frenzy force her back time and again, always keeping the upper hand. It did not take long before it was clear she was fighting a losing battle, so she spoke a strange sounding command and black chains shot out of nowhere and latched onto my arms and legs. I was instantly immobilized and lifted off the ground high enough that the only thing I could do was stare with fury into her cold, angry eyes, which were barely visible beneath her hood.
"You just don't get it do you," she spat after using some unknown power to manipulate the dream we were in. "I am in control here, not you!"
Whatever power she had over me prevented me from speaking, but the anger I was feeling still threatened to tear me apart. Suddenly, a cold dark terror bubbled up in the back of my throat as she pulled out a curved silver knife. In an instant she began to slash and stab my helpless body and I could do nothing but hang there and scream silently in pain.
"You deserve every last minute of this you whore," she seethed, venting her own angry hatred with each cut and stab. Finally, she buried the blade in my heart and I felt my life begin to slip away. "Next time just accept your enslavement like the little slut that you are!"
She spat in my face as she wrenched the silver knife from my chest and walked off into the woods, leaving me behind to sink into the oblivion of death. I awoke in the moment that I felt my soul being pulled from my body, and my screaming was so bad that our neighbor called the police. It took nearly three days before sheer exhaustion dragged me down into sleep, and back into my nightmare. For some unknown reason, my life was going completely to shit, and it was getting there fast.
It had been just over a week after Valentine's when the woman in green spoke to me in my nightmare, and I had lost the will to even struggle in the dream. The silver lining was that the nightmare returned to its original intensity, but I was drained emotionally and physically. I was having difficulties in class again, I was barely eating, and I could only sleep after days of staying awake forced my body into unconsciousness.
Kelli did not know how to help, and was becoming ever more concerned as the effect of the recurrent nightmare became worse. She was spending hours going over Ali's magic book, along with several others, and I could see the toll the neglect on her classes was taking on her. So there we were, three weeks after Valentine's, my terror preventing me from sleeping, and Kelli with her arms around me in a desperate attempt to comfort me at three in the morning.
There was a knock on our door, and I gave Kelli a confused look as she got out of bed and put on her blue satin robe to go and answer it. Who the hell would be coming by at three in the damn morning? It had at least piqued my curiosity, though, so I got up and pulled on a short half robe that barely covered my ass, but had a nice slit for my tail, and walked out to see who was here.
"Hey Kelli, how are things going," Ali greeted my girlfriend as she walked in the door, followed by two other women.
"All in all, really damn shitty if you must know," Kelli replied, the frustration in her voice as sharp as her wit. "It's only been getting worse, and the fucking tea isn't working."
I sat in one of the corner chairs in our living room and took a good long look at the other women who had arrived while Kelli and Ali were talking. Both had medium length sandy blond hair, and average looks, nothing that would immediately set them apart from a crowd. They appeared to be in their early thirties, and with the distinct similarity in their features I thought that they were probably sisters. My sense of their strong love bond seemed to confirm my speculation. They were dressed quite plainly in jeans and non-descript blouses, and you almost wouldn't notice them if they passed you on the street. What did make them stand out, however, was that both sets of their eyes were milky white with blindness. It was a surprise to be sure, yet even blind they did not seem to be having any trouble getting around without help.
They were both moving around the living room, gesturing and talking quietly to each other about energies, points of entry, and auras. Every now and again they would stop somewhere and one of them would put a hand on the wall, floor, or a window which was followed by a slight muttering in some strange language I did not understand. And while they were arguing about the mystical properties of our apartment, Kelli and Ali were at our table arguing about something else.
"I know they're hard to come by and even harder to create, Ali, but a warding focus may be the only solution right now," Kelli whispered with barely contained ferocity, not realizing I could hear every word she spoke. "You don't know how bad this has become. Myka can't even eat and sleep anymore, and don't even get me started on what happened a few days ago! I thought I'd lost her!"
God, I was an emotional wreck, and life sucked more than you could possibly know at that moment, but the pure love I felt pulsing through my bond with Kelli, and her almost rabid concern for my wellbeing, reminded me why I loved her. I knew that with her help we would somehow make it through this. I went over to her at that point, and I collapsed into her lap while I leaned into her chest and cried. I just cried. I let my myriad fears and anxieties flow out through my tears and Kelli held me to her breast, tighter than a magnet holds iron. She was my rock and the only place I felt safe.
"Listen Kelli," Ali said in a soothing voice. "We won't have the ability to raise enough power, even with the entire Circle, to craft a warding focus before the full moon next week. We just don't have the strength."