Chapter 5: The Dream & The Call

"Our organization was called DIP, Death Inspector Protocols. We handled unexplainable incidents that the local police government couldn't handle on its own. We keep the safety of our people from any form of entity that could threaten the lives of innocent ones. We also capture some monsters to tame and train so they won't do any harm once it was on the field." She continued explaining to Gwen.

"We also recruit people like you to join us while we help you train and give you enough life that you used to know. But you can't go back to the exact life that you used to do. You'll just be able to move around with a little restriction of not using your magical ability or running amok around the surface." Slavica went on while Gwen was putting the thought of consideration to what she just heard.

"I know it's a lot to take in because both have their pros and cons. But keep in mind that the power residing inside of you is an enhancing entity which meant that we can't be so sure if it was just one power or if there are others. That's why I am offering to be in my care as I teach you how to deal with it and maybe one day some part of your used lifestyle you could do them again." Slavica sounded like she was smiling while bargaining for protection and care for Gwen's well-being; only if she took the chance of change within their underground organization.

"How?" Gwen wondered how the typical life that she used to know even though she already has power.

"Dr. Jeo Young, for example, he's a jackal shifter. He could shift into a jackal if necessary and he was a doctor before he turned into a jackal. We helped him and he's working with us as our primary field doctor where he met Irina. Irina was once a prostitute but her last client obsessed with her and almost took her life away after getting what he wanted from her." Slavica made the best example with those people that Gwen already met earlier.

"From that incident, Irina changed as she was chosen to wield the air entity that's exactly when she met Jeo. They became partners and who would have thought they ended up being a couple." She went on her explain for Gwen to understand the change that could happen in her life once she joined their organization.

"They still have a life of their own but if duty calls, they have to answer. That's all." She made it more simple when she added the last part. Slavica even started to notice some calm air began on radiating around Gwen.

Slavica smiled on her own before she leaned closer to Gwen's face. Gwen was suddenly caught off by that sudden closeness of Slavica's face against her. She could feel the heat started on forming all over her body, especially on her cheeks.

"Take all the time you need." Slavica stated as her forehead touched Gwen's.

"W-why y-you sounded like you're leaving me?" Gewn stuttered when she sensed that Slavica was going to leave her in the hospital room where she was confined.

"Don't worry I'm not going anywhere out of the hospital. I just need to personally talk to Dr. Jeo about something." Slavica pulled away and caressed Gwen's sudden worried face.

"I'll be waiting for your call." She continued and let her mask touch Gwen's forehead as if she placed a kiss there.

"H-how can I c-contact you then?" Gwen stuttered again but she totally feel warm when Slavica does that gesture.

"Just whisper my name, and I'll be there running into your arms. Rest some more, my queen." Slavica answered and the longing gaze from her eyes pierced the heart of Gwen before she leaves the room.

Gwen's heart rate increased and the heat from her face made her cover them up with her both hands. She couldn't contain the heat that the only strange masked lady could give her. No one has made her feel the way.

"How could you…Slavica Baldisimo…how can you make me feel like this…" Gwen started asking herself while she was trying to calm her rapid heartbeat.

"...I've been through some relationships but she has this effect on me that I really want to keep going." Gwen deeply sighed before she laid her back on the bed which seriously, only took her for a second to fall asleep as if there was nothing to think of.

Gwen was drifting into the deepest part of her sleep and the dream was totally somewhere familiar to her. It was the same nightmare that haunts her and disturbed her night all the time she sleep.

'Do you believe in supernatural entities lurking around us or myths?'

The same chaotic downfall of the same land where it was almost burned into ashes and deaths were all over her feet then the bloody massacre was still the same. Everything was the same even the noises from crying children as they lost their parents on the battle field and the pleading voices of the innocent victims as she kept walking further within her dream, again. The screaming of a dying citizen around the land was still hitting her chest in such sorrowful pain even though it was just the same dream that kept reappearing in her sleep.

'The power of Excalibur wasn't just because it possessed a mystical power but it also needs a kind heart to wield it and you don't have it any longer.'

A king informed him of a kind of knowledge that no one knows about a mystical sword that Gwen thought would be just a legend. But the sinister opponent or the rebel man smirked as some of his men got inside dragging the queen of the king.

'Got that right yet but it doesn't change that your blood was already in my hand.'

'Guinevere.'

'LET ME GO!'

Gwen witnessed how the calm facade of the king drastically turned into grim when he saw how those rebels held her queen in a forceful way. The queen shouted as she tried to break free from their grip until the anger from the king began to radiate to where the mystical sword was stuck. It vibrated with such intensity that led their fight to turn intense as well. The king was clearly winning the battle but the rebel's leader noticed it. He played dirty and managed to stab the king's abdomen. The king stumbled which made the queen squeal in pain seeing her husband bleed. Even though the king was bleeding, he still stood firmly like nothing was hurting him angered the king's opponent and without thinking clearly, he attacked the king. But the queen was not just an ordinary queen - she snapped.

'Nobody touches my king except me. His queen.'

She wanted to make it stop but she couldn't as if she has to go through them and remember something which she doesn't have any slightest clue about what could it be or why her. But as the same dream kept playing into her background, she could feel something was calling her around this dream of hers. She followed where it was leading her as walked past the bloody and gruesome scene in her dream.

'You're no fair lady.'

'You wronged me, Mordred. I showed my fangs to those asking for it.'

Gwen could not escape from the repeating dream of how the queen gruesomely killed the rebels without remorse. She didn't expect the queen could be covered in blood by killing those men who made the kingdom to burned and wound her king.

"Badass queen." Gwen thought as she was starting to get used to seeing the blood queen but Slavica's voice runs into her mind.

'Do you believe in their existence?'

But she stopped on her track when she was taken into another part of the same land that she had never been into. It was new.

"What is this? I never…" Gwen mumbled when the scenery in her dream shifted into something she never had dreamed of before.

The same land that was once covered with blood and fire was now turned into excitement and fun as the castle was covered with the festival moments. It was exciting and it was making her heartbeat even though there was a certain figure of a lady that she was following. She still wanted to see more about where her dream was taking her until she saw something familiar figure.

'Be careful, Vica.'

'I will you as well. You're a great team.'

Gwen could not believe what she just heard and when the scene began to clear, her heartbeat started to get strong. It was like slow motion when the figure of the lady started to be clear and hearing the same voice from the same person she just met, she gasped.

"Slavica?" Gwen went thoughtful because her dream was totally somewhere in middle age and Slavica was just the masked lady that she met earlier.

It was confusing but since she was dreaming, she was suddenly being taken into another scene. It felt like she was still in the past but at the same time somewhere in the present - a timeless dream. There where she saw a broken stone that still has its perfect carved symbol as if it never turned into ruins or something. But the more she looked over it, she noticed that it was the same symbol that she has on her wrist. She looked at it back and forth to check if that was real and if she was totally seeing the right thing.

'Triquetra. Magic.'

Gwen recalled what Slavica told her about the symbol she has over her wrist and seeing that inside her dream, she really was weirded out. Her heart began to change its rate as if it was in the fastest adrenaline of a race car which leads to a panic attack. It was really ringing through her ears which made her cover her ears with both of her hands as she wobbled on her spot. Something was indeed happening through her body while she was still in her dreamland. She even began panting because of lacking some air as she had just been through the incident.

"I have to get out of here…" she thought as she panted before she looked around but there was nothing familiar to her just a field of grass with a symbolic stone that she was facing.

Gwen couldn't see anything that she could use in her dream to wake her up like a kick but there was nothing except the stone with the triquetra symbol which was glowing like a heartbeat. As soon as she saw that she reached out to touch it but instead of getting out of her dreamland, she was taken into another scene. She was still dreaming but her heartbeat calmed down for a bit as she was feeling safe in a very familiar chamber.

"This room again…" Gwen mumbled as she recalled the exact setup of the room that she dreamed of before she woke up from the fire.

She let her eyes roam around the room and she never realized that she wasn't just familiar with it because of the dream but something more that she couldn't put a word for it. She might have had an idea but never had the courage to say them. She just looked more but the more she looked the more the place felt like it belongs to her. She could hear her heartbeat once again but it was louder than earlier. It was numbing her as if it was the only noise that she was hearing then tears fall down from her eyes as she couldn't take it anymore.

Gwen really feel pain upon seeing the same dream with the same scenario yet the broken knight suddenly had a face that her heart was familiar with. She could feel that in her dream the broken knight was Slavica. The more she went on into her dream, inside the chamber, she hates how painful the last memory inside the chamber has. She doesn't want it which made her mind drift into the same painful expression from the person who saved her. The sorrow of Slavica was totally the same as the broken knight from her dream.

'I'll be waiting for your call.'

Gwen didn't know how to call Slavica since she was in her dreamland and she was starting to lose from her consciousness inside her very own dream. She only could hear was the pain in her heart as if she was being torn over and over again with the same sorrow. The loud noise from her unsettled heart was getting too much for Gwen to handle and she started on crying. She couldn't hold them altogether any longer. It was getting too much for her and it was making her mad at the same time. She wanted to be out of her dream and let her heart be at ease and at peace in the arms of someone who will hold her dearly.

"Please, Vica…wake me…help me with this…" Gwen cried as she pleaded for a helping hand which it supposed to be anyone, but she whispered a name that she never called Slavica. But when she spoke of that name it really brought back some tiny light inside her heart.

Meanwhile, Slavica might leave the room of the person she rescued named Gwen but she didn't literally leave the hospital, instead, she stayed with Dr. Jeo's office. They talked some random stuff regarding about the incident that has been reoccurring lately around their town. Some incidents were the same and some were just normal day-to-day incidents that a hospital has to deal with. But there are also reserved cases from the DIP that Dr. Jeo has to be hands-on and have no interruption which includes the incident regarding Gwen.

"So what do you think? Could she be your soulmate?" Dr. Jeo asked Slavica who was watching the busy people on the street from the window of the office of Dr. Jeo Young.