The sound of my alarm clock rang from my phone and I was awakened from that strange dream.
No, I had been dreaming about him every night. And each dream was getting more vivid than the last.
My eyes scanned to see I was back in reality, back in my small, crappy apartment in the factory's basement. Glancing around, beer bottles were scattered everywhere and I reeked of alcohol.
"Fuck, don't remind me," I mumbled to myself, rubbing my aching forehead from the hangover.
I slowly got up from the mattress as I headed to the sink and washed my face. As I looked at my reflection in the mirror, I saw my flustered cheeks, dark circles were visible under my eyes and I had grown a bit thinner.
My fingers reached to touch my parted lips, recalling the dream—the kiss and the touches he gave me felt so real.
Yet, he had said so many cheesy words that I felt like I had mixed his words from movies I had watched.
It had been a week since I had last seen him. And as much as I wanted to forget about that creature, there were occasions that my mind wandered off recalling his voice, his touch and the way his lips had claimed mine.
Was I attracted to him? I wouldn't deny he was a very handsome man. Was I attracted in a way I wanted to date him?
No, of course not.
I often watched romantic movies. Those happily-ever-after stories could make me applaud in the end or make me wail out like a sobbing idiot. Sometimes, I imagined myself having a man for myself who could sweep me off my feet as he whispered in my ear with sweet nothings.
But, they were just stories. A fantasy that only gave a fleeting sense of happiness or an imagination. Nothing more.
So, these wet dreams were just due to my lack of experience. Yeah, that was how it was.
After all, I had no time for romance.
Ever since I had given up my acting dream, I exhausted myself in getting methods to earn money.
Hadn't it been for those men in black chasing after me for years, making me a wanted criminal, I would have been focusing on acting than…all of these odd jobs.
My mother had probably sent a middle finger to me as a parting gift. Her death to me was still a mystery—something I didn't give a shit about right now.
If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place. I kept repeating this to myself, reminding myself of how much of a horrible mother she had been when she was alive.
"SIS LYRA!" Randy yelled. A loud bang on my door followed. Soon, multiple small hands kept banging my door.
"Hey, keep banging and you'll break my door, kids!" I mused as I fixed myself first, sprayed peppermint to hide the scent of alcohol odor around me before walking to open the door.
And the four rascals were back once again. I smirked, trying to act tough. "You coming here for an acting class again, kids?"
"No! That's not important! Look at this, Lyra!" The kids showed me a large poster of my face caught in the surveillance camera when I had left the hotel.
I had seen that coming, actually. After all, I had knocked out one of them and stolen money from him as well.
But what made my jaw drop and my eyes nearly come out from my socket was the number of zeroes of my bounty.
"W-What the–? H-How?!" I counted the digits. "One, two, three, four…" I gasped. "How did I get this bounty?!"
"YOU ARE AMAZING, SIS LYRA!" They all beamed at me, ignoring my demise. They were all looking at me like I was some kind of a hero. "What kind of crime did you commit that you were now the most wanted person in Slumber Hound City?"
Funny story, in Slumber Hound City, if you got a huge bounty on your head, that usually meant you had done something horrible to the creatures from above. So with that amount, naturally people all thought that I had done something like…being a vigilante instead of a criminal.
"Did you kill someone? Oh, it must be one of the creatures if you have the highest bounty!" Paul squealed excitedly.
"Kill someone?! No, of course not!" I turned pale. Wait, did I kill that handsome man? That couldn't be right! But then again, I had wet dreams of him—
—Oh, God. I didn't kill him, did I?
While I was in the middle of an internal crisis, the children continued praising me.
"Did you shoot the creature with a gun? Or kick their butts with your martial arts?!"
"Or did you kill it? With a sword or a gun?!"
"You are our hero, Lyra!" Cassidy yelled.
"Yeah! Our Hero!" Amy agreed.
"LYRA, OUR HERO! OUR HERO!" The four kids were now running around my messy room, chanting praises over and over again.
"H-Hey, s-shut up, brats!" I yelled at them. "I…I didn't kill anyone, okay?!"
"Oh, sure, sis Lyra, whatever you say! We will protect you from being arrested!" Randy grinned.
I slapped my face while heaving a deep sigh. They were not listening to me at all.
"Lyra," Cassidy gripped on my sleeve as she smiled at me. "We will tell Uncle Berns not to kick you out. He's a good old man. He won't kick you out now that you are our hero!"
I smiled back. "Gee, thanks, Cassidy."
The four kids ran out of my apartment, chanting "LYRA, OUR HERO" while leaving me alone in my apartment.
Well, whatever, if it made these street kids happy, I didn't care anyway. I had already had a wanted poster there on the wall years ago…so I was used to it.
But since that handsome man was so eager to find me like the rest of those aiming to get my head…
"Bring it on," I muttered as I clenched my fists. "I'm not going to back down without a fight."