Chapter Text
The castle was filled with marble and you woke up swathed in tulle and lace in a room made of mirrors. This was not your humble home and you did not recognize a single thing in this room. Gilded coo-coo clocks hung on the reflective walls; they tick-ticked, in sync and out of order. It was a symphony orchestrated by a large grandfather clock, built handsomely in mahogany and positioned right in the middle of the room.
And then all at once, the clocks stopped ticking. You braced for the loud hooting to announce the hour but it was silent except for the grandfather clock. A door opened and you caught your warped reflection for a second as it swung away. The doorway was dark and yet you ventured through it, unafraid. The cold marble pulsed with gold and you followed the flow. The layers of tulle had started to fall off your shoulders and trail behind you. The fabric did not weigh you down, not even when you came across a black spiral staircase and started to climb it.
It was very chilly in the tower, but you didn’t pay any attention to it. As you climbed and climbed, you could see though a window, a pink sky filled with thunderclouds. The next window had a deep blue sky with aurora borealis shining through. It seemed the higher you climbed, the more color the sky held, but that was no matter; you wanted to get to top of the staircase. It was like as if the purpose was built in you. And the very top, you were greeted by a glass stained door. Through the glass, you could see someone sleeping very soundly. You pushed the door open.
The sun was setting in this room. The sunlight poured over a four-poster bed with black-blue sheets embroidered with golden stars and constellations. There were flowers on each and every surface, hanging on the wooden wall panels or drying out on the window. The smell of flowers was almost overwhelming and whatever coldness you felt in the tower was replaced by warmth. Something was missing here.
Or rather, a someone.
You went to the bed and examined it closer. It looked to be as if someone had recently slept in it; the sheets were wrinkled in certain places and the pillows were strewn about.
The hair at the back of your neck stood on end. You felt someone approach you and as you turned, your quickened heartbeat relaxed at the sight of a man in a black suit. His hair was pitch black and his face was prickly with stubble. His deep blue eyes made you gasp.
He smiled at you warmly and he opened up his arms to embrace you. You melted in his arms and his laughter rumbled in his chest. His hands caressed your back and his eyes shined when you pulled back to look at them. It was like he was made of stars.
For over a month now, these were the dreams you had each and every night without fail. Each night you woke up in a different room, bundled in layers of fabric. You arrived at a staircase and climbed it to arrive at this room with the glass stained door. You were trying to wake him up, but he was never in the room.
He was the prince of the castle, of the night sky that never came.
It was all too soon that morning sounds came though the haze of the dream and you were woken up by loud morning birds. You weren’t in a castle decorated with golden clocks nor was there a handsome prince. You rubbed the sleep from your eyes and willed yourself to leave the bed and warm blankets.