The Devil's Temptation!

She exclaimed in fear, rising up from her bed like a quick jolt from her nerves that screamed for her to run, but she just remained frozen on her bed.

She was sweating and her chest heaved violently as the dream sent a shuddering feeling down her nerves, like some doomed soul. Her heart thrashed in her ears and her head was nowhere near reality, as if stuck in an inescapable trance and one could easily guess it from the look in her eyes.

“No... what?” Asked the voice of a certain Demon who heard her scream and Anna slowly turned her head to look at him with shock-filled eyes.

The glacier was sitting up while going through a book on the bed and only then did Anna’s eyes shift to view her surroundings with a hopeful gaze, hoping she wasn’t hallucinating this one too but after pinching her arm a little, nothing happened. She was back in the room!

A relieved look washed down her face at the sight of Roshan, seeing he was alive and well. Her delicate fair hands weren’t stained with blood. Her white night dress also had no stains of blood but as happy as she felt it all to be nothing but a dream, it was something that made Anna cry lightly as it didn’t make sense to her.

Her heart was already grieving and she couldn’t help but let it out.

The sight baffled Roshan who just stared. He was busy going through a book that talked more on symbolic meanings, only to witness Anna scream in fear as she rose to a sitting position on the bed.

He didn’t want to cause some sort of panic attack by interrupting her which was why he remained quiet, but he wasn’t expecting her to cry at all. What happened??

.....

He stood up from his own bed and headed for hers. He sat at the edge, staring at the woman who silently sobbed to herself and Anna met his stare.

“Was it a nightmare?”

He asked and she nodded, still unable to utter a word about it and he could tell whatever nightmare she had really scared the life out of her. He knew he wouldn’t get the answer from reading her mind at the moment since the shock of it must have disorganized her thoughts.

“It’s just a dream.” He assured her, but Anna shook her head in disagreement.

“It_it didn’t feel like one,” she forced herself to speak after swallowing the lump that kept building in her throat, “there was blood everywhere, so much blood Roshan. Many lives were taken and you were_” she paused when she met his stare but didn’t complete it, “There was someone with a mask and he kept_ he kept calling me Aveline.”

Tears streamed down her eyes at the recollection and she sniffed back a cry.

The name struck a chord in Roshan for the second time and he paused. “Aveline?”

She nodded and looked at Roshan, “yesterday, you also called me by that name. Freya mentioned something about the two of you being really close before she fled, who is Aveline and what has she got to do with me????

Anna half-panicked as she asked, she knew what she heard and saw and as the stranger called her Aveline, her body unnaturally responded to it’s call.

“I’m scared.” She admitted while hugging her knees and she found it difficult to stop herself from crying, “I don’t know why, but I’m scared of the future, I just wish the world can freeze for a few years let me catch my breath again, I’m not prepared for what lies ahead, I don’t have that strength.”

Watching her grieve sent a pain even worse than death crawling into Roshan’s chest and he looked away when it became difficult to bear. He was tempted to make her stop, he hated it each time she cried and now, this was just a torn to his chest.

“Anna.” He called softly and that’s when she took his arm and placed it around her shoulder, leaning into him as she cried her eyes out. She needed comfort, she was scared and needed someone to reassure her that she didn’t have to be.

Roshan, who didn’t expect this, also gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and pulled her into his arms.

“It’s alright.” He consoled her, stroking her hair lightly to calm her down, “it’s just a dream, stop thinking about it.”

Anna didn’t restrain herself and succumbed to the comfort of his protective arms. She rested her small head against his chest like it was a pillow. His voice was calm and naturally pleasant to the ears as she heard him speak, sounding concerned for once and it eased her heart to some extent.

They remained that way for a few hours and when Roshan heard her heart return to a normal rate and her breathing normal, he moved the locks of her hair away from her face, only to see she had fallen asleep.

He looked relieved to see she was sleeping soundly again, but that didn’t stop a hint of worry from flashing in his unique colored irises.

‘there was blood....so much blood Roshan....!’ her words kept ringing in his head and he exhaled. She might be an Euphrasia, but she proved him wrong in his mentality towards all of them.

Afterall, there are good and bad people in this world. The innocent ones don’t really have to pay the price for who killed his mother and sister.

The ones who did must be dead anyway, rather than start a war, he’ll get rid of the bad eggs that haven’t stopped criticizing the innocent and he’ll do that after destroying that sword he saw on those sketches in sir Steve’s home.

Figuring out Aveline’s identity is something he’s going to get from Azazel. If he was really close to this unknown Aveline, only Azazel can give him full details on it.

And also, the reason why he doesn’t remember her.

Staring at Anna’s sleepy face again, even if they end up departing someday, he’ll secretly be there to protect the scaredy being if she ever needed him.

“Annoying woman.”

In other words, she was ‘his’ annoying woman.