Chapter 16: .•8.1•.

The hours flew by so quickly as she let herself sink into her own daily chores, struggling so hard to distract herself and forget everything about those haunting nightmares...

She squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds as she'd stopped at a red light, for the thousandth time that day willing her mind to focus on something else instead. And after a deep and calming breath she took off at the green light and quickly drove all the way back to King Estate since it was already so late.

Passing through the iron gates, she anxiously kept on chewing on her bottom lip as she was so desperate to finish her chores for the day as soon as possible and finally lock herself within the safe confinement of her own room.

Blowing out a tired sigh, she entered the big house and quickly made her way to her room, not even daring to waste a second more as she threw her purse and jacket over the bed, quickly discarding her shoes as well before running back downstairs, skipping around over the marble flooring as she was only wearing her socks now.

Gathering everything she needed, as always, she then hurried to the living room and started doing her job with the utmost speed.

Looking at the time every once in a while, she noticed how every minute ran out so quickly as she worked, with every little second passing feeling herself becoming even more and more anxious as she struggled to finish as soon as possible and scram out of there already.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Just as she'd gathered her working "tools", her lips escaped a startled gasp as she turned around to leave.

He was already there, standing in the doorway as he intently peered at her, hands shoved deep into his dress pants' pockets, his heavily tattooed forearms now on complete display as his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, making him seem all the more intimidating.

"Miss Diana..." He nicely greeted her with a smile, starkly contrasting the rest of his appearance.

All those cleaning supplies she had previously gathered were now sprawled over the floor as the memory of that haunting dream came back to her full-force, fear now gripping at her like a clawed monster and rendering her completely uncapable of thinking straight as she watched him take a few steps closer, her legs moving on their own accord as she took a few backwards.

She could feel her heart pounding so fast within her chest as she was now practically trapped between him and the large piano, feeling its edges dig into her butt as she futilely tried to put as much distance as possible between them.

"Is there something wrong?" He suddenly asked as he dared step even closer, noticing how her breath quickened as well as she struggled to hold her trembling body still, small tears forming into those large green eyes as she widely stared up at him like a trapped prey.

"You are afraid of me..." He observed with a rather puzzled frown upon his boyish features as he deeply gazed into those captivating eyes of hers.

What the fuck? How did this happen? Why didn't it work?

"Why are you so afraid? I'm not going to hurt you, I would never lay a hand on you," He said, struggling to sound as gentle as possible, masking that bout of fury that was brewing up within him.

That sneaky piece of shit. He must've tampered with her dreams again.

"M-mr. King..." the girl weakly hiccuped, gazing between those dark brown eyes of his.

She wanted to tell him. She wanted so bad to tell him all about those nightmares. Unfortunately, that large boulder trapped within her throat was preventing her from doing so.

"Nicholas," He corrected her with a gentle smile.

"I'm not really fond of that title,"

"Now...Will you tell me what's going on?" He coaxed her with the utmost gentleness, daring to gingerly wipe a sliding tear from her delicate cheek with the back of his fingers, the girl wordlessly staring up at him before her gaze abruptly darted somewhere past him as a translucent and almost distorted silhouette suddenly appeared over his shoulder, intently staring right back at her as she froze in utter shock and horror, swiftly disappearing right after.

The unsuspecting male however continued to watch her, expressing a concerned frown as he heard how she audibly struggled to get the air past her throat with each loud and hitched breath, those vibrant and glassy green eyes now so large with pure fear as she stared up into his own, mere seconds before she lastly fell into his arms, completely unconscious.