Login to ManoBook
icon 0
icon TOP UP
rightIcon
icon Reading History
rightIcon
icon Sign out
rightIcon
icon Get the APP
rightIcon
Dream Sketcher

Dream Sketcher

gdbloxor

5.0
Comment(s)
View
1
Chapters

Dreams can be deadly. Art can be a weapon. And love? Love is the most dangerous masterpiece of all. Arwyn Delacroix never knew his mother. All he has are the fragments of her life. And then there's the gift his father left him: the power to bring his darkest fears and brightest hopes to life with the stroke of a pencil. Raised by a father who drowns his grief in silence, Arwyn aches to close the chasm between them. Every sketch he creates pushes him to a world called Terra Incognita, where countless of other artist's sketches bleed into reality. But, There were others that were present in this world. Kingdoms, landscapes, allies, friends, discovery. He meets a man, a living sketch who claims to know the truth about his mother's death. Together, they unravel secrets his family buried. And so, Arwyn must choose: Become the weapon his enemies fear, or hold onto the boy his mother loved. In a world where imagination shapes reality, the greatest danger isn't losing his life. It's losing himself.

Chapter 1 Prologue (1)

Him.

Through the glass, Marco watched his newborn son, Arwyn, swaddled in wires no thicker than threads. The infant's chest rose, as if each breath was a miracle.

Behind him, the doctor's voice fractured the silence. "There's... something you need to know."

Arlene's heart monitor beeped, steady. Marco turned slowly. The doctor stood framed in the doorway, her gaze avoiding his.

"The hemorrhage caused irreversible damage," she said. "Her organs are failing. She has less than an hour."

Victor, Arlene's father, collapsed into a chair, his face crumpling. Silent tears carved paths through his stubble. Beside him, Cedric-Arlene's brother-stiffened. A single tear slid down his cheek, too precise, too rehearsed. Performer, Marco thought bitterly.

Ria, Arlene's childhood friend, choked back a sob. "There must be a mistake-"

The doctor shook her head.

Marco didn't move. Couldn't. The world narrowed to Arlene's hand, pale against the hospital sheets, and the faint smile she wore even now.

Less than 24 hours.

That single phrase echoed in his skull over, and over.

"Marco..." She called him. He glanced back at her, and with a hopeless grin, he walked back, beside her.

Arlene squeezed his hand weakly, pulling him back from the void of his thoughts. Her voice was barely audible, fragile as glass. "C-can you... sit beside me for a while?"

His eyes widened, not from shock, but from her smile. It was faint, almost ethereal. She didn't care, even if the ground beneath her was crumbling.

"Yeah... I'm right beside you." He whispered back, but his voice quivered as he spoke. He turned his head back to Ria with a nod.

Ria silently signaled Victor and Cedric out. They were all hesitant at first, but they slowly considered what Arlene wanted just for that time. So they left, along with the doctor.

They were alone. The orange lamp flickered, and it cast her hair in gold. Her fingers brushed his cheek. "Don't cry. Not yet."

He swallowed. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Everything."

So, he asked her favorite color.

"Brown," she whispered. "Like your eyes."

He laughed, raw and broken. "You always lied about that."

Her weak chuckle turned into a cough. "Maybe I just wanted you to look closer."

When her journal slipped from his pocket, she stared at it, recognition flickering. "You found it."

He cradled the worn leather. "You wrote... you hoped I'd forgive you."

"There's nothing to forgive." Her grip tightened. "Just... stay."

She rolled her hazel eyes and didn't answer, but her gaze was fixed on him, and his eyes looked at both her and their baby. The silence between them was loud, but not awkward.

"So, you got a name?" Marco smirked, smoothly brushing the strands of her hair with his hand.

"How about... Arwyn?"

Arwyn. Arwyn Delacroix. That... sounds great.

"Yeah. Arwyn fits." His gaze flicked to Arwyn, just lying down peacefully in the incubator.

But when her eyes blinked, almost closing, she gripped his hand with all her strength.

"Marco..."

Her grip around his arm tightened, like she did when they were last alone, together.

"I don't... I don't want to..."

"No, no no... It's okay, Arlene." He bit his lower lip, trying to hide the tears he was about to release. He forced another unsteady smile.

Hours bled away like nothing. He let her rest, though Arwyn's faint cries echoed from the incubator just there.

Arlene's voice grew thinner and thinner.

She closed her eyes briefly, breathing shallow. When she opened them again, there was determination. She began.

"Hey... Promise me something, Marco."

"Don't... stop drawing." Her voice was firm despite its fragility. "Draw for Arwyn... Draw for us. Don't let this... Don't let me fade... Even just one minute."

"I promise," he choked out. Another tear spilled, no matter how he tried to hold it in. "I'll never stop."

Arlene chuckled for one last time. "You always... knew how to paint the world kinder."

And the lamp flickered more and more.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The monitor quickened, but Marco didn't call for help.

He climbed onto the bed, lying beside her, and her head nestled in his shoulder.

The weight of her body went slack in his arms. The clock's relentless tick, and the stars shone bright beyond the hospital window barely broke the silence.

Meanwhile, Marco's lips trembled into a frown, the frown of a cry. He wanted her to remember these words that he'd say.

"I'm here," he repeated, his tears soaking into her hair. "I'm here."

But her breath hitched. She smiled wide.

"You... always... were."

Beep! Beep! Beep!

His heartbeat matched the rhythm of the monitor. Fast, then faster.

"Arlene... Don't leave..." Marco's whisper barely left his lips.

And then-

Beeeeeeep!

. . .

Endless tone.

His knees buckled. The world twisted.

The way his eyes flicked downward, the way his shoulders sagged. The way he...

It was over.

The three of them went back inside, hearing the endless, constant tone of the monitor.

And Marco hesitated, as if deciding who or where to look. Victor, her father, standing. Ria, her friend, pressing both hands over her mouth. Cedric, her brother, for once, too stunned to move.

"I–I'm sorry."

Silence. Crushing, suffocating silence.

And just like that, the weight of the world crashed down.

Continue Reading

You'll also like

The 5-time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King

The 5-time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King

Stina‘s Pen
4.9

COALESCENCE OF THE FIVE SERIES BOOK ONE: THE 5-TIME REJECTED GAMMA & THE LYCAN KING BOOK TWO: THE ROGUES WHO WENT ROGUE BOOK THREE: THE INDOMITABLE HUNTRESS & THE HARDENED DUKE *** BOOK ONE: After being rejected by 5 mates, Gamma Lucianne pleaded with the Moon Goddess to spare her from any further mate-bonds. To her dismay, she is being bonded for the sixth time. What’s worse is that her sixth-chance mate is the most powerful creature ruling over all werewolves and Lycans - the Lycan King himself. She is certain, dead certain, that a rejection would come sooner or later, though she hopes for it to be sooner. King Alexandar was ecstatic to meet his bonded mate, and couldn’t thank their Goddess enough for gifting him someone so perfect. However, he soon realizes that this gift is reluctant to accept him, and more than willing to sever their bond. He tries to connect with her but she seems so far away. He is desperate to get intimate with her but she seems reluctant to open up to him. He tries to tell her that he is willing to commit to her for the rest of his life but she doesn’t seem to believe him. He is pleading for a chance: a chance to get to know her; a chance to show her that he’s different; and a chance to love her. But when not-so-subtle crushes, jealous suitors, self-entitled Queen-wannabes, an old flame, a silent protector and a past wedding engagement threaten to jeopardize their relationship, will Lucianne and Xandar still choose to be together? Is their love strong enough to overcome everything and everyone? Or will Lucianne resort to enduring a sixth rejection from the one person she thought she could entrust her heart with?

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book