Chapter 298: A Horrific Nightmare
Alex went to sleep shortly after returning to his hotel. He did not even bother to check the encrypted files which were sent to him by Iranian Intelligence. At least not until the following morning. He was well and truly exhausted from the events that preceded him on this day.
And in the end, he found allies in the most unlikely of places. Regardless, Alex decided to make use of an ability in his sleep that he had neglected for a very long time. Simply because, until now, he did not need them.
While the Queen of Hearts had encouraged Alex to make use of his ability [Nightmares] on La Madre, in the end, Alex had followed his own path to success. One he did not regret. But knowing that he would need to play his cards right and use every advantage available to him to coerce Aisha into falling in love with him.
Alex connected himself to the girl’s dreams. However, unlike in the past, when he had used this ability, Alex did not drag his rival into them. Instead, it was solely him and Aisha. The setting of the dream was a small rural home in an area that Aisha was unfamiliar with.
She was wearing a lavish silk dress and was in a peculiar state. There was a little girl by her side who she was playing with. The girl was unknown to her. In fact, she had never met this girl at all in her life. But at the same time, there was a very deep connection between the two of them, one that only a mother and her child would have.
In fact, this girl was very clearly her own, as one could see the family resemblance. But there was another person’s features mixed within. The young girl was half Caucasian and half Arab. Displaying Alex’s blue eyes, as she cried out for her mother.
“Mommy! When is daddy going to be home?”
Aisha did not know why, nor could she control it, but she answered the young girl with a loving smile on her face.
And just like this, Alex appeared, walking through the door while dressed in a royal ensemble. His hair was not in its usual style and was instead slicked back in a regal display. The man quickly approached his “wife” and “daughter” with the same smile on his face that Aisha had.
All the while, their young “daughter” rushed towards him.
“Yay, daddy’s home!”
Alex appeared genuinely happy as he picked the young girl up, who could not possibly be older than five, and swung her around as if he were a human carousel, he then placed the girl down, and kissed her on the forehead in an affectionate display.
“How’s my favorite little girl doing? And how is her beautiful mother on this wonderful day?”
Aisha approached her “husband” and kissed him on the lips. It was a strange and alien feeling to the woman who had never experienced such a thing before, yet it felt vaguely familiar, as if she it was a routine part of her life.
The young Arabian princess rested her head in the broad shoulders of her man and spoke the words that she felt in her heart. Or at least, that’s what she felt despite having no control of them.
“Better now that you are here…”
The two shared a loving moment, and all was well with the world. In fact, Aisha could not explain it, but she felt incredibly happy, as if she were living in an absolute fantasy. But then everything changed. A violent storm suddenly appeared outside, as the thunder crackled in the distance, while the windows were shattered by a turbulent display of lightning.
While Aisha’s “daughter” was frightened, trying to hold on to her mother and father for comfort, a pounding began on the door. It was violent, and the screams outside were filled with murderous intent.
“Come out and surrender yourself! We know you are in there, Alex Smith! By order of his majesty Sultan Ali of Oman, you are under arrest for crimes against the Royal Family!”
Alex quickly ushered his young daughter into the hands of her mother, while insisting they flee for their lives.
“Go now! Take our daughter and run. I will buy you both some time!”
Against her control, Aisha latched onto Alex’s sleeve, assuring him that if they were to die, then they would die together.
“No! I won’t leave without you! Whatever comes our way, we will face it together!”
Alex had a soft expression on his face, almost as if he was touched by the gesture, but in the next moment he pushed both Aisha and their “daughter” the two of which immediately vanished from sight. And in the next moment, the doors were busted down by the Royal Guards of the Omani royals.
Though the guards could not see Aisha or her daughter, the two of them could clearly see what was happening. As Ali stepped forward into the room and looked at Alex with a wicked smirk on his face. All the while cursing the man out.
“I finally found you, you bastard. To think that you had the nerve to steal my fiancee and run all the way to the ends of the world. Hunting you down nearly drove me insane, but it in the end none of that matters. I now have you in my possession. So tell me, where is she? Where is my betrothed?”
Alex smirked. Though he was surrounded by heavily armed guards with no possibility of escape, he did not seem to fear them in the slightest, and instead openly mocked the Prince of Oman to his face.
“Where is my wife, you mean? You will never find her, even if you search to the ends of the Earth a second time, she will never be yours. Face it, you have lost.”
This remark obviously did not sit well with Ali who immediately drew his pistol and shot Alex in the head, causing his figure to fall to the floor, his lifeless eyes staring directly at Aisha and their daughter.
Aisha wanted to scream but found that she couldn’t. Instead, the shriek of horror came from their daughter, and in doing so, instantly revealed their location to Ali and his men. Ali glared at Aisha, who was clutching a young girl with a resemblance to both her and the man that Ali had just killed.
Realizing that Aisha was truly tainted by Alex, a look of utter hatred appeared in his eyes, as he dusted his hands off of his failure and walked out the door, but not before giving one last order to the gunmen beneath his command.
“Kill the girl first, then the whore…”
With that said, Ali left the room, where the gunmen did exactly that. Aisha wanted more than anything to protect her young daughter and take a bullet for her, but her body froze, completely incapable of moving as she saw the girl shot and murdered, just like her father.
Tears streamed from Aisha’s eyes as she fell to her knees, sobbing. Screaming at Ali, the words in her heart. But these were not words that Alex forced her to say, unlike everything else that had been perfectly scripted until now. These were her own genuine thoughts, which she yelled so loud that even Ali heard them as he walked out the door.
“I hate you!”
In the next moment, the guards fired another shot, killing Aisha like they had done her daughter seconds prior.
—
Aisha woke with a fright in the middle of the night. She was covered in sweat, and what were clearly tears. She continued to sob for the little girl who she had never learned the name of. A little girl that was not real, and one who would not have the possibility of becoming real thanks to her father’s declaration earlier in the night.
She was visibly distraught, believing that the Ali she had met in the dream was really the man in life. She despised the man for what he had done in her dream and dreaded the idea of marrying him. Even if this entire thing was simply a conjuration made by Alex specifically to invoke feelings of hatred towards his rival.
And it worked like a charm. Because Alex too awoke the same time as Aisha, and when he did he saw something that made him smile something sinister.
[Aisha is terrified of the prospect of marrying Ali!]
[-25 Affection from Aisha to Ali]
[Aisha’s Affection to Ali: -25/100]
Alex had dealt a hefty blow to his rival, and the man did not even yet realize he was in competition for Aisha’s love. Obviously, Alex would not dare to start another nightmare, because if he did he might genuinely cause long-lasting distress to the woman he was trying to win over.
And thus he rested his head on his pillow and fell back to sleep, content with the progress he had made on this day.