Angel Monarch

Sera woke up in a bed, she didn't have nightmares this time for some reason, turning on her side she remembered why.

'If he sleeps he can't torture me... at least not mentally.'

In the night he chained her collar to the bed, so she couldn't get up until he unlocked it. She began moving around trying to remove it, but it was to no avail. Sera did achieve something though.

"Can't you just lie in peace for a while?" Said a sleepy voice next to her.

"Not with someone as disgusting as you next to me." She wanted to spit on him, but the collar might consider it an attack.

Nightmare sighed, then unlocked her collar and called in the maids.

"Clean her and Freak, get them ready for breakfast!" He sounded quite annoyed by her.

"Yes, Lord Nightmare!" The emotionless maids pushed Sera into the bathroom.

There a bath was already ready and Victoria was in it. Sera didn't wear any clothes for obvious reasons, so she just went into the bath to join her daughter. Victoria immediately went and hugged her.

"Good morning, mother!" She said cheerfully.

"Good morning to you too! Did you sleep well?"

Sera asked and surprisingly she wasn't a little bit sad. Seeing Victoria happy already made her day. Even though without clothes Sera saw every wound on her body. Seeing her like that she hugged her even more.

"Mother... I... Can't... Breathe..."

Sera quickly released her from the too tight hug and had a scared expression on her face. "I... I'm so sorry... I didn't mean..."

Her expression quickly changed to annoyed, when Victoria began laughing at her. "You little vixen! I thought I hurt you!"

The both laughed and began bathing. Afterward Sera didn't let the maids to clean or braid Victoria's hair. It just didn't feel right.

They went out of the bathroom laughing at some joke, but the mood turned solemn when they saw Nightmare sitting at the table. He smiled and motioned them to sit.

When they sat and the maids placed the food down on their plate, Nightmare spoke.

"You look happy this morning My Love. Did you enjoy last night perhaps?"

Sera was very angry, but turning towards Victoria, she was reminded of the suffering Vicky doesn't need to endure because of her. So instead she just turned at Nightmare and smiled.

"Yes very much." Saying these words were like pulling her teeth, in which she was an expert in. Sera was even missing multiple of them.

Nightmare grinned back. "That's good, for the next time maybe we should invite Freak as..."

"NO!" Sera shouted before he could even finish.

It took her a second to get her emotions under control, but she quickly said, in the sweetest voice Sera could muster.

"No... My Love... I want to enjoy you alone..." It physically hurt to say these words, but seemed to convince Nightmare to drop the case.

"Fine, fine, but then you have to put more work in! It feels like I'm the only one with heart in it!" He laughed.

"Okay..." Is the only thing Sera said, she tried to hold back her tears. She couldn't contain them all and one found its way down on the left side of her face.

Victoria saw it and she quickly took Sera's hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

'I wil endure it, so she doesn't have to. I will endure it, so she doesn't have to...'

This became her new mantra and everytime Nightmare used some kind of torture on her, she began repeating it.

They began eating, there were some kind of monster eggs, bread and of course roasted monster meat. They even got some seasoning, it wasn't half bad. But after the tube anything would taste heavenly.

After breakfast Nightmare finally left them, they went into Victoria's room. They had fun playing some board game, that was nearly three decades old. They laughed quite a lot during it.

Then they lay down on the bed where they talked for hours. Sera told Victoria everything, her past life, the journey to Havel and even the stories she already knew about, her life in Havel.

Victoria was jumping out of her skin she was so exicted. She was really interested in the outside world and especially about Newber. She asked so many questions, that Sera could hardly follow her.

"Slow down, what was the question?" Asked Sera with a beautiful smile. With Vicky, she forgot all about the place they were stuck at.

"I asked what was the most beautiful place in Newber." This was probably the 1000th question she asked about the city, but Sera didn't care. She loved this about her daughter, the curiosity.

"There was a large park in the middle of the city, with a bunch of old world monuments overgrown with plants. But nothing mutated, just regular beautiful plants. It was especially magical in the spring when all the flowers bloomed."

Her daughter stayed silent for longer, than usual so Sera turned to her. Her face was confused, but there was a mischievous smile hidden beneath.

"What is it Vicky?" She asked a bit concerned. The smile turned obvious as she said.

"Mother, did you perhaps love that garden so much, because of Bea." She began to giggle.

"What do you mean you little rascle? I didn't even know Bea back then." Sera began to tickle her and they both chuckled for a minute or two. When they finally settled back down, Vicky asked with a serious expression.

"Mother, what if you really loved the garden, because you knew you will love Bea? Isn't that possible?" Sera was very skeptical, but had no heart to tell her daughter that it was just the only garden she ever saw.

"Maybe you are right." As she said it, she kissed Vicky on the top of her head, which made her giggle.

They stayed silent until footsteps approached the door and a voice came in.

"My Lady, dinner will be served soon, if you don't mind Lord Nightmare ordered you to take a bath."

With a sigh Sera stood up and helped Vicky on her feet as well. Then with a smile she asked.

"Do you want to take a bath with me?" Vicky jumped up and down from joy and she said yes over and over again.

Sera and Vicky went, both laughing and happy. This was her life now, hell in the night, heaven in the day.

After spending a week with Vicky, she actually began to think that this is fine. She could live like this with her daughter and wouldn't care about the night's suffering. She would give everything in this world just to never see her daughter sad.

But as all good things, this had to end as well.