Dracula 9: Behind his Closed Eyelids

“You mean he was screaming in his sleep?” Tea asked Anna when she told her the whole story the next day
“Screaming? That’s a compliment! He was screaming, yelling and growling!”
“Growling?”
“Yes! Like a wounded lion! He has a demon inside him! I know! I saw…”
“Anna calm down…” Tea said placing a hand on her shoulder
Anna took some rasped breaths and she tried to calm the new wave of panic that had started to form again inside her.
“And also…I managed to see something on his shoulder…something that was glowing red!”
“Red?”
“Exactly! Like a burning coal! It was on his right shoulder blade I swear!”
“Anna! Please calm down! This is not like you at all!”
Anna drew some more deep breaths. Tea gave her some water and she chugged it down at once. Her heartbeat was beating loudly as if she was a trapped animal!
“Have you spoken about this to anyone?” Tea asked her.
Anna shook her head.
“No. Only to you…”
“Good. You better not speak to anyone about it. Let things be for now”
“But…he… I…I can’t have him in my inn! Demons and bad spirits control him! He has been hunting them for so long that they are now controlling him! I can’t have him in my inn! I…”
Tea’s hand stopped her scared monologue.
“That is the most unlikely to happen. After all he is our guest. There is no other place he can stay without attracting too much attention. If he stayed at Mai’s or in my house things would be difficult cause bad rumors spread quickly. If he indeed had a demon inside him he would attack you immediately”
“B-But what if…”
“Then…he knows how to keep his demon in if that’s the case!”
Tea’s lips drew to a somehow mocking but friendly smile.
“Anyway, I’ll handle it. Meanwhile you do not tell a word to anyone for what you saw!”

“So it was he the one who did the screaming!” Mai said when she heard Tea’s story.
Tea nodded
“It appears that he has strange nightmares also…”
Mai’s eyes looked at Anzu with interest.
“…She said that something was on his shoulder blade. I know he has a scar there, something like a mark or something. But she said that it was glowing! Glowing red”
“Probably that was in her imagination or it was reflection from the moon! Honestly we already have enough supernatural things to deal with! Jeez! This is getting annoying!”
She sighed pushing some of her golden hair off her shoulder.
“How many people do they know about it?”
“Only you and me. I told Anna to keep it a secret! No matter how much she likes gossip I believe she will remain silent. She is far too terrified to speak about it!”
Mai seemed thoughtful.
“This is getting troublesome! I knew that we shouldn’t trust him! He is a real disaster even if he is not hunting! He is a threat to us and those damn vampires are playing with our nerves! We must get rid of him as soon as possible for our own good!”

Joey was alone in the inn room and he was working on the book again. Yami had gone out. He had taken care to “re-fuel” his flask with new alcohol and he had got out, probably to clear his head a little, if that was possible with the alcohol he was consuming, or check the other passes he could take in order to find clues about the vampires and their vampire, Seto Kaiba. Joey knew that his job was really important but that book was driving him crazy! Those damn scriptures were damn hard and he was trying to understand some things that as it seemed were the basic ones in order to understand what the book wanted to say! He was being concentrated to his work, cause no matter what, when he saw a challenge it was in his character to be stubborn and never give up on it! Then his concentration was interrupted when he heard footsteps on the hallway and soon a knock on the door. He knew it wasn’t Yami. He could recognize his certain footsteps from kilometers away. The footsteps were female ones, or they belonged to a young boy. He stood up, opened the door that was separating his from Yami’s chambers and went to the door. He opened it.
“Oh! It’s you!” he said.
“I am sorry to disturb you from your work but we need to talk” Tea said.
“Eh, of course. Come in…” he stepped aside to let her in.
“Thank you”
She walked in looking around.
“Isn’t Yami here?”
Joey closed the door.
“No. He went out.”
“Ah, that’s better! Actually I wanted to speak with you”
Joey raised a brow at her request. But he had to confess that his interest was caught now.
“Sure.” They sat down on the table, “What is it?”
“It has to do about Yami” she said plainly
Joey bit his lip.
“What did he do?”
“Nothing of what you might be thinking.”
She crossed her hands together on the table.
“It appears that he is the one who did the screaming in the night! It has kept everyone awake with his screaming! And loud voice no kidding!”
“Y-yes he has good lungs…” Joey mumbled feeling a bit awkward as if he was being interrogated.
“The problem is that it appears he has terrible nightmares. And also he can’t wake up from them! I was being told that he had been screaming for hours and yet he kept sleeping…as if he couldn’t awake before the nightmare ended and when it did he kept on sleeping. I found it right to inform you about it…”
Joey frowned. She was leading the conversation well. She wanted to make him speak this way…however on the other hand he didn’t have anything to hide. He gulped.
“Yeah…sometimes it takes indeed hours…” he said.
Tea raised a brow.
“You knew?”
“How is it possible not to know? Now the entire village heard him and is it possible that I wouldn’t have heard him since I am living in the same room with him? It happened once again…didn’t it?”
“Yes!” Tea said, “It lasted for one or two screams. Why?”
“Well…I was the one who…who stopped him!”
“You did?”
“Yes. It was the middle of the night when this happened. I was sleeping in my bed when I heard his voice and that woke me up for good. Who wouldn’t wake up after all? He was damn loud! When I opened the door and I saw him…well…in the condition that your friend saw him, pretty much, I really got scared. Not for any other reason but because I know it is dangerous for the mental health of a person to wake up after having such an awful crisis of nightmares. I had to do something so he wouldn’t wake up… I approached him slowly and…I wrapped my arms around him… In the beginning he kept on screaming but then…the screams became lower and finally he relaxed but thankfully he didn’t wake up… He seemed exhausted by his nightmare so he didn’t wake up. I placed him back on his bed and covered him with the blanket. Then I returned to my bed like nothing happened… And that’s the whole truth”
Tea was left indeed speechless.
“So it was you…who stopped him… Why? Why did you care so much?”
“You will find it strange but I love the guy! I mean come on! He spent years alone. He is the only person who doesn’t criticize me all the time and I trust him deeply. He might be dark and rude sometimes, cold towards most of the people, he might be drinking like a dog but he is not a bad guy. He is honest and noble. He is a man of his word! And he protects the weak no matter what the others say. I want to be his friend…”
“Aren’t you already?”
Joey shook his head negatively
“He doesn’t let anyone close to him, mostly because he doesn’t want to put innocents in danger, but also because he believes that he doesn’t deserve compassion. He is being called “monster” and “murderer” all the time so some times he comes to believe it himself! And he has put a wall around his heart and he won’t let anyone in!”
“Not even now that he needs help from those nightmares?”
Joey didn’t answer.
“Anyway!” Tea stood up, “I am going to find him and talk to him! Maybe this way he will tell me why since he came here he has nightmares!”
Joey’s eyes widened and jerked up.
“No! Don’t go…it won’t be necessary!”
“But he needs some help here! It is not a crime!”
“Wait!” Joey grabbed her wrist to stop her from going, “He won’t tell you a thing!”
“And why is that?”
Joey sighed in defeat.
“Because…Yami is being tortured by terrible nightmares…long time now”
“Since when?” Tea asked now her attention officially caught
“Who knows… As far as I remember…he always… When he didn’t…well…drink enough so he would pass out or when he wasn’t dead tired so he would sleep heavily in a dreamless sleep…he’s being tortured by them. That’s why sometimes he gladly goes hunting at night…or another reason he drinks so much…”
Tea’s breath was caught in her throat.
“Do you know what he dreams about?”
“No. No one knows what Yami dreams about. And honestly, I don’t think there will ever be a mind sick enough to imagine what could possibly make Yami scream that way!”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on! Yami? He has been hunting down monsters for years! He has seen blood and terror and angst and every monster of nature you can imagine! He has seen people being burnt or torn till their guts were running out and much worse and yet he hasn’t moved a muscle. I can’t possibly imagine what would make him scream this way!”
“Couldn’t he be feeling guilty for what he’s done?”
“No. That couldn’t be. Yami has been killing for years. He has learnt drowning his guilt and that is definitely not guilt. It is more like…re-living something. I cannot possibly imagine the agony or the pain or the terror he’s being through…”
“They are just dreams.”
“Ma’am. In a dream all five senses are active! Even touch and taste. And sometimes they are not random images but live memories. Whatever he’s dreaming about though…it must be awful… I don’t…I wouldn’t dare to imagine…”

Even though Joey had warned her not to go to him, she went out to search him after all. She was really curious to hear his point of view to that… She walked a little farther in the forest and she didn’t find him. Then she walked up to the small church in the forest. It was the last place where she hadn’t thought to search. She got in doing the sign of cross while walking in. In the church the cold was less and it could even be warm in there. And there she saw him. He was sitting in the church looking straight forward, but he wasn’t praying. He was just sitting there.
“I should have expected to see you here…” she said sitting next to him.
He barely looked at her.
“Why?” he said in a flat voice.
“Well…I know about your dreams…”
Yami’s eyes widened for a second and looked at her.
“You know?” he questioned.
She nodded.
“Joey told me. Also someone saw you last night. You scared him to death”
“The innkeeper?” Yami remarked.
“I never said that…”
“You didn’t have to. Who else could it be? The man last night was in such a shock that he wouldn’t be able to wake up. Covering for her by hiding her name isn’t the best idea. Good enough but not too good for me!”
Tea sighed. Yami took out his flask.
“Please! Not here…” she told him.
Yami rolled his eyes and stood up. Did the sign of cross before walking out. Tea followed him. They were now out in the cold again.
“I can help you…”
“I don’t need help.”
“I can tell Setoko to give you milk from poppy. It will help you sleep”
“I don’t need milk of poppy or any other drug. I think I can handle some bad sleep”
“So you are planning to drink yourself to sleep rather than ask for help because you are cautious because I might poison you?”
Yami draw another sip from his flask.
“It is a possibility” he says, “No thank you I get enough sleep already!”
“I am not saying only for your own good! I am telling it for everyone! Have you no idea how scared they are? They already have enough to be scared already”
“Well my bad but I cannot control my dreams!” he mocked
“No but you can stop them or ask for help! Anyway you are here because you want to kill Seto Kaiba and not for scaring people!”
“You want to kill him too deep inside! Or every single person in this village! Maybe except Kisara. And so?”
“For me it is all personal! It’s all about family and honor and for everyone’s shake! Why do you do it? What do you hope to get out of it?”
“Oh, I don’t know…maybe some self-realization” Yami says sarcastically
“And what have you got out of it so far?”
“Nightmares”
Anzu stopped immediately. She could see how devastated he was. She softened her eyes and voice.
“What do you dream about?”
“I don’t remember”
“Liar”
Yami sighed and sat on the root of a big tree. Tea sat next to him. The sky was gray again and it had snowed some minutes ago but now it was just cloudy. The cold was still sweet thanks to the snow… Yami took another sip.
“It is complicated…” he finally said.
He didn’t know why or how had he come to open his heart to her but on the other hand he could see that she was stubborn and she wouldn’t let him go and secondly he had lived in a nightmare so far thanks to the vampires…
“…I don’t see something specific…just blood…blood and eyes all around me…Eyes that are looking at me like…like hungry wolves. I also feel pain…lost of it. I don’t know what’s going on I am just tied down somewhere…sometimes face up, some others face down and I feel the pain…I feel like I cannot avoid screaming. It is as if some strange power is actually make me scream even if I don’t want to… Some other times I see some random images from ancient battles…and some others…faces full of terror and fear…”
Tea remained silent for a little after Yami finished to what he had to say. It wasn’t really helping her so her mind turned back to the images of guilt. She couldn’t stop thinking that his nightmares were caused by guilt because of his job.
“You don’t like what you are doing!” she told him out of nowhere
Yami raised a brow
“Where did that come from?”
“The alcoholism…the solitude… You don’t like what you do! But you do it anyway!”
Yami growled a little
“I don’t really enjoy killing people!” he mocked angrily, “It is my job”
“Then why do you do it?”
Yami shrugged
“Someone has to do it”
“That’s not an answer!”
“It’s the best I have…”
And with those words he spoke in a low voice, Yami stood up and walked away leaving her behind… And he said nothing more… Tea sat there alone…Snow had started falling again softly…