We found Ryan in the hallway hanging out with his friends. He looked like a normal easy-going teenager, laughing with his peers. I did not understand why did he have to act like a bastard to me.

"Hey," I said with a smile as I went up to the guys.

"Venus. What are you doing here?" Ryan asked.

"A normal person unlike you, would have said hi."

"Uh...hi. Now answer my question." Ugh, Pure arrogance.

"Wait up. Are you the girl from the newspaper?" one of his friends chimed in.

"Yes," I said, still looking at Ryan. "And she is my best friend, Emma."

"Hey, what up? Hi Ryan," she winked at him making me shoot a glance at her that said gross.

"Hello Emma. Nice to meet you," Ryan smiled at Emma. And now, he could talk nicely.

"I need to talk to you," I said somewhat sternly.

"Can't. Busy now."

"Hanging out in the hallway is not what one calls busy."

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked, clearly irritated. I did not know what problem he had with me. At the ball, he was nicer to me than he was now or at his house- there it almost seemed he was trying to hide something, and after the dreams I had, I knew that he was hiding something.

"Hope your friends won't mind giving us some space," I said, not caring how did it sound and what the guys thought I wanted to talk about, though they did give us some space.

"That day I had gone to that garden...," I hesitated, then said, "...and drank from the pond,"

"Oh," Ryan said just that but something in his eyes seemed to change but it was gone in a moment. He said, "You need to stay away from me, Spark."

A humorless chuckle came out of my mouth. Then, squaring my expressions, I said, "You can't order me, Ryan. I'll do whatever I want." I was clearly losing my patience.

"Does that mean you don't want to stay away from me?" he smirked. Among everything I was unable to understand about Ryan, one was why he liked to smirk so much.

"No. If I could I would have stayed as far from you as possible, but I am having these weird dreams about you." I leaned against the wall.

"You will be able to stop dreaming about me if you really want to," Ryan said though his tone suggested that he had completely ignored the word 'weird' and was quite pleased with the thought of me dreaming about him.

"But you still won't explain what is going on." I crossed my arm.

"No," he smiled at a girl walking down the corridor. They seemed to be friends.

"Now, if you will excuse us," he told me before going to the girl- they disappeared around a corner. I was left standing in the hallway, my mouth open in astonishment. We were having a conversation- an important one. He clearly did not have any manner, though he was civil enough to say 'excuse us'.

Emma came to me. We both looked at each other. Then, I left that place as quickly as possible. It seemed as if he would do anything only to get rid of me. Or maybe Ryan was like that only. Either way, I did not care. Atleast I did not want to care.

"Whoa, slow down. I did not know he is such a douchebag."

"You know now," I said behind my back without slowing down. I was going to meet the Dean and forget whatever just happened as soon as I could. I had never been humiliated like that in my life.

"Let's check out the astronomy department," Emma attempted to cheer me up but I was not going to stop till I reached the Main Building and I told her so.

***

We explored the main building for some time before Emma went to check the fashion designing courses offered and I waited in outside the Dean's office. I, still felt embarrassed but was glad to have spoken with him. Atleast, I knew how to stop those dreams from occurring again. I was recalling those events when I was called inside.

I would not say my meeting with the Dean was how I imagined it to be, but it was satisfactory. I also sensed a feeling of accomplishment for not letting the thoughts of a boy I met a week ago sabotage my dreams. Maybe, if I thought about the consequences from the first, none of those would have happened. I sighed as I thought about the fact that I told Lin to think through all decisions but failed to apply it in my own life, and then texted Emma.

Emma held out a coffee for me as she asked about my meeting with the Dean. "Yeah, it went fine. Thanks for the coffee," I said before taking my seat on the bus. The bus journey seemed long with Emma talking about fashion, other students playing some stupid game and the teachers telling them to lower their voice. I tried to sleep but in vain. I needed peace.

I went to my library as soon as I reached home and took out my favourite fantasy novel. I really wanted to escape into a world I loved so much, wanted to temporarily keep my mind out of those scary, captivating dreams, out of the thoughts about my future.

It was already dark when I put the book and went to my room. Strange as it was, reading also did not improve my mood that day, so I tried to paint. I wanted not to think about Ryan, the dreams, that morning-anything. But all I could draw was those eerie black waters, the garden, the pond, the flowers. And before I knew, I was experimenting with colours- trying to paint the water with light, bright colours and the garden in shades of black and grey. The paintings looked so magical- till then I did not know I had the ability to draw so well. But once again, I hid the paintings in my closet and turning on some calming music, went to bed.

I still had those dreams.

***

The night before, I did not dream of the warriors or of underwater. It was the first peaceful sleep I had in about a month, and I welcomed it like nothing else sleeping till eight in the morning.

I entered the dining room a little after nine and found a note on the table. The house was too quiet. A little surprised, I thought where everyone might have gone-my parents I could understand- but Lindsey? We used to go to school together and we used to leave at around nine-thirty, and certainly not at nine!

Shaking my head, I took the note and went on to read it.

We have taken your parents and your little sister with us. As long as you act too naïve, they are not going to be returned to you. A little advice, don't try too hard to stay away from the boy or to shut down your dreams.

Regards.

By the time I was done reading it, my arms were shaking. I did not know what was happening. My family was kidnapped? Why was I not? How were there no commotion, did they not try to fight the kidnappers? What about the police? It had to have happened while I was sleeping. Why did not anyone wake me up?

I read the note again and again, several questions turbulent inside my mind, till I noticed the last line. Don't try too hard to stay away from the boy or to shut down-

The dreams I were having.

I gripped the edge of the table to prevent my shaking legs from losing their balance. My family had to pay the consequences of my actions-that very thought crushed me. I blinked back my tears. My family was at stake, and I was ready to do anything for them. With that thought I went to my closet, took out the paintings that I had made of the visions from my dreams. I studied them, tried to remember every dream I had in the past month- but I got nowhere, got no hint of the place my family could have been taken to.

The note said something about not wanting to stay away from Ryan. In the dreams also, I saw him. Deciding that I needed to see him, and took my car keys.

***

I was frantic by the time I pulled up to their curb. I rang their doorbell several times and was constantly knocking on the door, and when the door finally opened, I almost stumbled into Eleanor Waters.

She held the door open for me. I looked into her eyes and saw concern, fear and a strange mischievous gleam in them. The note fell on the ground from the fragile grip of my fingers, and before I could reach to it, Eleanor lifted the note from the floor.

She looked at it and told me to go inside.

Ryan came out of the kitchen after he saw me enter the drawing room. "What happened to you?" He asked, his words were mixed with a concern that I never before heard in his voice.

Eleanor gave him the note. Ryan looked at it once, then he looked at his mother. There were traces of fright in both of their faces, along with some sort of an understanding. An unspoken conversation seemed to pass between the two of them, before Eleanor took the note from Ryan and went upstairs.

The Waters had to know something.

"What do you know?" I was afraid and on the verge of panicking. I moved away from Ryan, towards the door.

"What happened to them?" I asked in a trembling voice.

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Hope you liked CHAPTER 8 of "A World of Treason and Tides". Do vote and comment.😊

I am really excited about the things that are going to occur next. XD