“How do you like that, Loki?” she sneered at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be the greatest Dreamhunter in the world?”
“How do you know that?” Loki frowned. “And how do you control your dreams?” he wasn’t sure why Charmwill told him he was the greatest Dreamhunter in the world anymore. Apparently, Loki wasn’t even strong enough to kill a chicken vampire.
“Poor you,” she teased him and held his head with her hands as if he were a good puppy.
Loki kept looking around while she talked to him. He should have tapped his Fleece three times as a sign from Axel to break the mirror. He reached with his left hand to tap the fleece on his right hand three times, and prayed Axel would hurry breaking the mirror.
“Don’t wake up, Loki,” Snow White pleaded. “We can play together here. There are things that I need to show you. I need you here. You’re the only one who can save me,” Snow White whispered in his ears as if she was scared of someone again—or something.
Why does she do that to me? Why does she play me when she can just kill me? Is it that she really needs to be saved, and I am just too stubborn to admit it? I need someone to save me.
“You’re just playing games with me,” Loki said, wondering why Axel hadn’t broken the mirror yet.
“Not now, believe me,” she held Loki’s head in her hands. Although she had drawn her fangs back, and her face returned to normal, he still didn’t trust her. “I’m not the evil one,” she whispered, glancing momentarily at the locked door behind her as if scared of what lay behind it.
“Then who is?” Loki said.
Damn it, Loki. Don’t ask her that. You don’t care about her. You only care about yourself.
“I can’t say,” she lowered her head. “I can’t,” she repeated, her eyes scanning the ceiling as if there were hidden monsters somewhere up there. Loki looked up and saw nothing suspicious.
Is she trying to tell me something?
“And yes, I’m controlling this dream,” she said. “You keep trying to kill me when you should save me, and I won’t let you in my dreams as long as you still want to kill me without knowing my real story.”
Suddenly, Loki heard the cawing of crows. They were many, and increasing, circling outside the castle. They looked a lot like the crow that had knocked him down entering Snow White’s window in the waking world. Loki didn’t know what this meant. He watched the crows outside the window fluttering hysterically in the sky.
Then he heard a thud, and another.
He felt the earth shake underneath him as if there was an earthquake. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The world outside was collapsing; mountains were crumbling, the earth was shattering, and the stars were falling like snowflakes from the sky.
Loki turned back to Snow white, but she was gone.
The room was falling apart. Everything was shaking violently, and it was only seconds before the castle was going to crumble to ashes.
The dream was ending.
It was healthy sign, though. It meant that he was just waking up from it, and that he wasn’t going to drown in it. Loki closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, ready to wake up, and planning to have a nasty encounter with Axel for not breaking the mirror.
***
Loki thought that waking up from the Dreamworld would give him enough time to relax and catch his breath.
He was wrong.
When he opened his eyes, he heard Axel and Fable’s screams. The curtains had been pulled open, sunlight filled the room. Loki stood up instantly, checking to see if someone had pulled the stake out of Snow White, but no one had. Axel and Fable weren’t in the room. They were screaming outside.
“Run, Loki, Run!” Fable shouted.
“It’s Big Bad,” Axel screamed. “He’s still alive!”
Before Loki could recover from his dream enough to comprehend this, he saw Big Bad in front of him. He had a big smug smile on his face, holding Axel and Fable like two sacks of potatoes, one in each hand.
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Loki asked Big Bad whose face was wounded badly. Loki assumed it was from yesterday’s little adventure with the vampire princess.
“He’s here for revenge for what you did to him in the parking lot, Loki,” Fable said, hanging like a yoyo in Big Bad’s hand. “Axel and I stopped him.”
“Let them down, Big Bad,” Loki said.
“No way,” Big Bad said. “I’m going to kill them both, kill you, and then finish the sleeping vampire princess.”
“Kick his ass, Loki. You can do it!” Fable kicked her legs in the air. Amazingly, she reached with her hand and slapped Big Bad on his cheek as hard as she could. It was a brave move.
“You little brat,” Big Bad threw Axel rolling on the floor, and grabbed Fable with both his hands. “I’m going to kill you first, lousy witch,” he grabbed her by the throat.
“I’ve been called worse by better!” Fable choked.