This week's dream cast:
Sophie -Natalia Castellar Calvani
Casper - Zac Efron
Luc - Ian Somerhalder
Mia - Chloe Grace Mortez
Nico - Jai Courtney
Jacques - Toni Mahfud
Christie - Amanda Seyfried
Sally - Cara Delevingne
Blood - Chris Wood
Rayne - Ezra Miller
The Royal Hunting Lodge
Sophie Reese
Standing on the back veranda of the cabin, I waited for Casper to join me. The night was eerily quiet. The snow had stopped falling and the air was perfectly still. All I could hear was the sound of my own breath... the silence felt unnatural. From inside the cabin, I heard Casper's footsteps. He opened the door dressed in black, holding a flashlight.
"Are you ready for this?" He asked.
"Ready for what?" I questioned.
"This whole cabin is being watched by guards. We need to slip into the trees without them seeing."
"How are we going to do that?"
"Come here."
I walked over to him and he gently cupped my face with his gloved hands.
"Kiss me," he whispered.
I leaned forward on my tiptoes and gently brushed my lips across his. He kissed me back, pulling me close. Sliding my hands up his chest, I started to lose a sense of reality. The world around us started to fall away until it was just me and him. It was bliss, until he broke the kiss, roughly murmuring, "We need to stop."
Dreamily, I looked up at him in a daze. It took a few seconds to register the freezing fog that had suddenly surrounded us and the rest of the house.
"Come on, let's go inside," he announced loudly.
For a moment I thought we going to head back inside, but we didn't. Instead, he kicked the cabin door shut and pressed his finger against his lips. He slid his hand into mine and led me down the veranda steps into the fresh snow. At this point, I could no longer see the trees where Jacques and Christie were hiding. I kept close to Casper, holding his hand and trusting in his sense of direction. He led me through the snow and in the distance, I heard Jacques' voice whispering, "Christie, stay close to me."
The mist thinned and I was able to see a couple of trees ahead of me. Christie's figure emerged from the haze, waving at us. Jacques was close to her, his arm placed lightly around her waist. When we reached them, we moved together silently into the forest.
The forest here was different to the old woods that the encircled the main lodge. The trees here were mostly pine and were spread out, making it easier to walk through the forest. However, the undergrowth was thicker and denser. Dead brambles and protruding roots, covered in snow, were treacherous trip hazards. At one point, I watched in slow motion as Christie caught her foot on a dead branch and started to fall forward. Jacques was quick to dive in front of her, allowing her to stumble into his chest. He caught her, wrapping his arms around her.
"I'm so sorry, Jacques," Christie apologised. "I must have clown feet because I keep getting them snagged up."
Jacques carefully helped her to regain her balance, and replied, "Don't apologise. It's a privilege for me to be your personal crash mat."
"You should just let me hit the floor, it might knock some sense into me," Christie sighed.
"Not in a thousand years, darling," he replied.
The way that he looked at her, made my heart turn over in my chest. It was beautiful to see. I glanced up at Casper, wondering how he could let Christie go back to Rudolph after he had seen that. I leaned into him and whispered, "I think he really loves her."
"Yes, it seems that way," he said softly.
"They should be together," I pressed, hopefully.
"Maybe," he shrugged.
"What do you mean 'maybe'? Can't you see it? He loves her."
"Yeah, I see it," he sighed.
"So she should stay with Jacques."
"We'll see," he replied, lifting my hand to his mouth and brushing a kiss over my knuckles.
I couldn't understand why he didn't just tell his cousin to go to hell. Christie was an angel. She didn't deserve to be chained up to that monster for the rest of her life. Jacques was clearly in love with her. The way he looked at her, as she struggled to regain her composure was adorable. He was so cool, while she was so flustered. It was like watching the bad boy fall in love with the sweet innocent shy girl.
He gently tucked a stray curl behind her ear and offered his arm for her to hold onto. Christie eyed the arm nervously, "I don't think that's a good idea. I'll fall down and take you with me."
"Darling, stop it," he reprimanded her lightly and placed her arm over his.
She didn't protest. She secretly enjoyed being close to him, just as I enjoyed being close to Casper. We both craved to be near our mates.
When we were out of sight of the guards, Casper relaxed and lifted the mist around us.
"This better be good," he said sceptically to Jacques.
Jacques rolled his eyes and replied, "Casper, Casper, Casper - always the doubting Thomas. Do you think I'd really cut your honeymoon short for anything less than good?"
"Maybe," Casper replied coolly.
"Well, I haven't," Jacques said and pausing in front of the thick trunk of a tall pine tree and pointing to its trunk.
"What the hell is that?" Casper muttered, shining his torch on the tree.
The beam of light fell across the rough bark revealing an intricate pattern of lines scratched deep into the surface of the tree. I took a step closer, reaching out to touch the strange markings, but Casper pulled me back.
"This is bad magic," he warned, looking at the strange symbols with a grave expression.
Jacques stepped protectively in front of Christie and said to Casper, "Those symbols look Mayan - could this be the work of Henrietta's friends?"
"Perhaps," Casper replied thoughtfully, "Henrietta had accomplices."
Confused by the conversation, I asked, "Who is Henrietta?"
"Henrietta was my oldest brother's second wife. She was also an ancient vampire hellbent on destroying our family. She practised dark magic like this," Casper explained.
"Great," Jacques groaned, "Black magic. I guess we should consult a witch."
"I don't think a modern-day witch is going to help. This is old magic," Casper remarked.
"Well, that's not the worse of it," Jacques said taking the torch from Casper. He swept the beam of light across the forest and revealed that every single tree had these strange marking carved into them.
"Shit," I muttered under my breath, wondering what the hell was going on.
Casper drew closer to me and said, "We need to call the guards and sweep this area of the forest."
I could sense his anxiety and need to protect me from harm. He wanted me to remove me from the danger as soon as possible, but deep down I knew that there was something else waiting to be discovered, something important. I let go of Casper's hand and wandered away from him.
Leaving Jacques side, Christie followed me,
"Do you feel it? It's like the whole forest has been corrupted by evil," She said quietly.
"I do sense it," I replied.
The forest had a strange energy about it that seems to be growing with every step we took. The trees started to thin out and we soon found ourselves walking into a large clearing. Christie paused and pointed towards a lone tree that grew in the centre of the clearing.
"What's that?" She asked.
At first, I thought she was talking about the tree. It was unlike the other pine trees that grew in the forest, it was smaller, rounder and covered in bright red berries and frost. It almost looked picturesque, sitting by itself in the snowy landscape... but then something swinging from its branches caught my eye... it was a pair of stockings.
I took a step forward to investigate, but Christie grabbed onto my arm and pulled me back.
"Sophie, don't look," she gasped.
I stared back at her, confused by her panic.
"What's wrong? It was just a pair of stockings." I said.
She shook her head.
"Its legs, Sophie - it's a pair of legs."
My eyes lifted up and through the branches, I saw the body of a young woman hanging in the tree.