Page 22

Amias

For some fresh air, I figured I would go a few blocks down and saunter through the busiest and most famous street in the city.

Men in suits and women in tight dresses hold hands as they stroll by me. If not that, they are dining outside restaurants with dim lanterns hanging above them. Estrella's star is setting over the horizon, painting the sky in an ombré of scarlet, gold and indigo.

Soulmate Street they call it. They say that you're guaranteed to find your soulmate down here.

I walk past multiple romantic restaurants, catching a whiff of various smells like freshly brewed coffee from a casual coffeehouse, and seared fish and steak from a more sexy candle lit restaurant.

Skimming the windows I pass, I notice one with only elderly couples and another with only people my parent's age.

There's even one designed with bright abstract art and another with musical instruments hanging from the ceiling.

Fanciful book stores and stages for live music fill in the spaces between restaurants. Chattering groups pass me too, of which I'm sure are singles clubs I tried to join at some point.

Towering over me in the middle of a roundabout, the statue of Grandmother and Grandfather holding hands stands.

Grandfather had died before I was born, but apparently, they had first met in this exact spot when they bumped into each other on the road. Grandfather felt bad that he might have hurt Grandmother, but she was immediately star struck.

Too bad the ending isn't as romantic as people think.

They think they just fell in love, then lasted happily until Grandfather died.

Not that Grandmother went and changed him from being happily soulmateless, to being her soulmate.

Not that his forced love for someone who barely matched him was painful for him.

Not that they divorced and Grandfather went to live the last of his years alone in peace.

I head to the nearest lamp post and wait for the protective walls. A little ways down the street, there's a bookshop called Myths and Bliss. The letters are in red neon before the brick wall the shop is made of.

Maybe I can get evidence for Clara there. I can get some insight from the bookkeepers and find some scholarly articles to find her.

The street timer goes down to four flashing zeros and the sparkling protective walls coming up. I cross the street.

As I'm walking, my thoughts wander back to the dreamscreecher debate. I snicker to myself. How Clara could say such things and be so confident that what she says is correct is so bizarre to me. Especially after she got attacked at the mall too.

I know she's passionate because of her experiences but still. It's odd to me.

A shove against my shoulder breaks me from my thoughts. I scrunch my nose when I spot a man walking past me with a smirk. "Piece of shit."

He must be one of those conspiracy theorist weirdos.

“Fuck off freak!” He barks.

My face gets hot. “What did I do?”

“You know what you are, dreamscreecher fucker!”

My body becomes rigid at the accusation. Gross! I’m not a fucking monster fetishist! “I would never be into such a perverted thing!”

“Oh yeah, that's why those dreamscreechers were at the mall, you psycho!”

I jerk back. “Give me an-”

“That's why you're soulmateless, motherfucker! No woman wants a dreamscreecher fetishist! Fucking dictator!”

I clench my fists. The idea that I want to destroy the kingdom through my s upposed desire of dreamscreechers is appalling.

A girl comes up to him giggling, dragging him by his arm. "Shut up! You can't just say that!"

"He won't do shit. Amara wouldn't allow it." He takes a glimpse at me before he follows her lead.

I roll my eyes. I bet he doesn't even know where that rumor even came from!

Beep!

I jump at the car edging towards me. I should get out of here. The protective walls are down. Those people aren't worth getting run over for.

Something slams into me before a loud whoosh comes behind me. I yell, almost falling face first onto the ground from the blow.

Luckily, my hands hold my body up from smashing into the ground.

People gasp around me as I heave and look up to see what had hit me.

The first thing that I spot are purple eyes. Glowing purple eyes. Both looking back on the body of a dull purple dreamscreecher, with its back facing forward but its face turned to me. Its long oversized fangs glisten under the last of starlight.

My body freezes. The tiny hairs on my neck stand straight. My heart stops, hiding from the beast.

Where's my gun? I need it! It's gonna kill me!

My body tenses, slowly reaching for my satchel hanging under me, when my thoughts slow while keeping eye contact. I've always seen those purple eyes as rings of rage and violence. Gleaming with bloodlust like the one I fought in the mall.

But the eyes I'm looking at aren't harsh. There's no bloodlust or unsolved madness in those irises.

They almost seem… innocent… protective even…

I don't know why I believe that, but maybe it's the gentle bow of its head, or how its pupils are dilated. Or maybe the fact it doesn't move any closer. It just examines me from a distance before meeting my eyes again, as if asking if I’m okay.

I slowly move my hand away from my satchel. The fear within dissipates. It won't hurt me… will it?

"Hey kid!" I jerk my head to the gray haired man with a round belly, slamming his moss covered car door, as he approaches and glares down at me. "I could've-" His eyes shift to the dreamscreecher and he shrieks, stepping back with his hands up.

A few more screams follow his and the dreamscreecher arches its back, it's fur puffing . Its ears flatten before it runs into an alleyway behind us, disappearing around the corner.

My heart drops suddenly. "W-wait..." I whisper pathetically, as hands pull me to my feet again. My gaze remains on the alleyway.

Why did I want it to stay?

"Did the dreamscreecher do anything to you?" One lady asks.

"My goodness, a dreamscreecher!" Says another.

"I thought that they got rid of all of them!"

"We need to call the cops!"

People crowd a few feet away as I glance at the gray haired man. He lets go of my arm and pats my back with his eyes on the alleyway. His breath trembles. "That's the only time you can thank Cosmo for a dreamscreecher attack."

I shake my head. Thank a dreamscreecher? "What?"

"Your blood almost got splattered over my car. I was looking for my-" He pauses before shaking his head. “You probably weren't paying attention anyway! All these young people are on their phones too much!"

"What?" I whip my head back to the alleyway behind us as if it would peek around the corner.

Did that dreamscreecher just save my life?

“You see that?” The feminine voice comes from someone wearing a black cloak with clouds painted all over it.

One of those dreamscreecher loving lunatics.

From the white eye mask under the hood and the lack of wrinkles, it's not the same member I saw at the soulmate celebration. “Dreamscreechers aren't so bad.”

I gawk, still dumbfounded by the situation as people around us spew insults at her. No. This doesn't prove that. It-

"Oh, great! There goes the dreamscreecher he probably fucked!" The weirdo from earlier shouts, walking backwards from the crowd. "Loveless freak!"

"Monster fucker!" Another person shouts besides him and the girl who grabbed him before.

I glower at him and his posse. My mouth opens to tell them off, but seeing their faces twisted in genuine disgust, I realize they're being serious.

They really think I'd go that low.

The dreamscreecher fan girl approaches me and hands me a paper. “Perhaps this can answer some questions for you?”

I examine the paper, an article about how dreamscreechers are misunderstood. Curiosity gets me to hold it in my hands. There's crazy statements, like “Amara is lying to you!”, “There's no evidence that dreamscreechers are evil at heart!” and “Join us in the resistance for dreamscreechers.”

I reach my arm out to give it back, too overwhelmed by the incident to want it, but the girl has already disappeared. I take a look in every direction but I still can't see her.

Other people chatter among themselves, but I look back to the alleyway. That save couldn't have been on purpose. Could it?

If it was, then maybe the fan girl is reasonable. Why would such a monster, one that was created in spite of my bloodline, save my life?

Every species has its good and its evil.

Clara's words echo in my head. I almost want to shake off the thought but I can't…

Dreamscreechers aren't like other creatures.

The point of their existence is to make us suffer for punishing Godusa.

Their very creator terrified people with horrific nightmares before we put her in her place, and she made those creatures in spite.

All those dreamscreechers do is kill and ravage our kingdom for entertainment.

They have nothing but bloodlust in their hearts.

What happened moments ago should've been a mere accident!

But it doesn't make sense as an accident, or an attack at all. It didn't take a step closer when I was on the ground, where it could've taken me by the neck and snapped it out. Instead, it kept its distance.

And it's eyes. They were so gentle and pure. I felt safe under its stare, which is too strange to even fathom. Almost like it was my guardian.

My grasp on the paper tightens. Is it possible I've just witnessed the good of the dreamscreecher species?