"And you have been searching too, haven't you, Serena?" he asks, his voice smooth as he puts his arm around her, gently caressing his back. As he speaks, she feels a deep loneliness rise out of heart, a yearning to have a partner in her life.

Serena pulls herself from Larna Lock's grasp. He's putting her under some kind of spell..she can't take her eyes off him...

"Don't resist me, Serena," he says, and she ducks as he tries to caress her hair.

She wants to leave, but she doesn't know the way out. (It's a dream, try to wake up, she thinks, but it doesn't work) "You can't leave until I release you," he says, taking her hands.

"I don't know you, I don't want to be your 'bride', I'm not searching for a partner," Serena insists. "Who are you to hold me here?"

Again he's caressing her back with his smooth touch, as whispering at her with his melodic, hypnotic voice. "I don't believe you, Serena. You have been searching, and you will be my bride."

Serena walks away from him in a kind of daze. It's seem so silly, the kind of thing you read in fairy tales. She knows the world she lives in is different & more magical than the common world, but mysterious strangers who appear in your dreams & say they want you for a bride, is too fantastical even for her. Could it be just a dream then? It seems so unlikely, for Serena never has 'just a dream'. Still, it would be more comfortable to think Larna Lock is a figment of her imagination, than real. She wakes very uneasy & turns on all her lights. It is still late at night, but for the first time in her life, Serena is afraid to go back to sleep. She looks at the clock: it's just after 1am. She thinks aboutt Byron, feels that he's thinking about her. It all has something to do with Byron & his movie, Serena thinks, but what?

NEXT