Once Upon a Dream

Chapter One - Rosalie

I didn't even realize I was having the nightmare again until Aunt Flora's hand gently rested on my cheek. It was the same nightmare as every night. The newborn baby. The fantasy kingdom. The evil fairy sister.

Despite the chill in the night air, sweat dripped from my brow as the sheets clung to my bare legs. The pounding inside my chest was more like one of my best friend Nissa's drum solos than a heartbeat, and my breath couldn't come fast enough.

"Hush, my child," Aunt Flora said as she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her gentle arms. The gray of her wiry hair tickled my nose, and I sniffed, the flowery scent of her perfume filling my nostrils until I was pulling away from her and scrambling for fresh oxygen.

I should have been used to this. I couldn't remember a single week in fifteen years where this nightmare didn't torture me at least once. "You read too much fantasy," one aunt would say. "It's the video games," the other would argue. Back and forth and back and forth, but the dream never once changed, never once strayed from the King and the Queen and their infant daughter.

"Tea?" Flora asked as she stood gracefully and smoothed her nightgown.

Not answering, I swung my legs over the side of the twin bed and slipped on the fuzzy cat slippers beside it so the hardwood floor didn't freeze my feet. I strode after her, still half asleep as she walked into the kitchen and flipped the light switch, temporarily blinding me with the harsh fluorescence.

As she put the teakettle to a boil, I sat at the small breakfast bar and let my head rest against the familiar cold marble. I'd been there so many times, doing the same procedure. I didn't know what it was about Aunt Flora's tea, but it was the only thing that could get me back to sleep. In fact, so much so that my Aunts used it as an excuse to keep me from sleeping over at other people's houses.

I was sure it wasn't the only reason, since I wasn't even allowed to stay at other people's houses during the day, let alone the night, but it was their go-to whenever asking to stay out for an extended amount of time was involved.

It might have been a lonely life if my aunts weren't the two most understanding guardians in the world. They never once minded the racket coming from the shop at the back of our property when my friends and I jammed. Unlike other parents who just complained about the noise, they did things like bring us sodas and snacks and told us to keep practicing.

As if summoned by my thoughts, Aunt Fawn rounded the corner of the kitchen, special snacks from her nightstand in hand. My mouth watered immediately upon the mere sight of the box of mini cookies.

"I heard a racket. I assumed it was the nightmare again."

"You were correct, sister," Flora said, turning around with a steaming mug in her hand.

Aunt Fawn came over to sit beside me, her short legs working overtime to clamber up onto the slightly shorter-than-her stool. She looked at my still-shaking hands and then to my face before turning her head to her sister. "They seem to be getting worse."

"Oh, you know how these things go," Flora said, dismissing her with a look I didn't quite understand.

I held the warm mug between my palms and breathed in the sweet scent of the tea, imagining its taste before it even hit my lips. A few sips in, my shoulders relaxed and my hands stilled. It was working. A few more sips, and a cookie or two later, and I was ready to climb back into bed. After all, school waited for no nightmare.

"Goodnight," my Aunts called out behind me as one foot slid forward and then another, pulling me back to my cozy bed, almost as if by instinct.

I'd reached the stairs before they started whispering in the kitchen, but the two old women were not made to be quiet and their voices carried down the hall straight to my ears.