My Dream Not Your Dream by Lyan Sa

A woman was running in the middle of the rain one night. She was looking for where she could hide but since she had nowhere to hide the person chasing her saw her.

You could see the fear on the woman's face until she fell to her feet, "Please, don't kill me!" she shouted "Did something wrong I’ve done with you?" she was still crying while crawling. The murderer did not speak when he suddenly stabbed her and the woman's blood spread on the floor.

The next day, it was reported that the victim was one of the most beautiful women working in a nearby salon from the crime scene, she was the twentieth female victim killed in a week.

"It's not really good what's going on now" said Penelope 's Dad while eating breakfast "So you have to be careful" he added

While Penelope was lying on the floor due to the physical pain she suffered from her mother's beating this morning. She could not answer what her Dad said, later she forced herself to stand up because she had to go to university to see Sebastian. After taking a bath, she first treated her wounds and bruises.

She just smiled when she looked in the mirror and her bruises couldn't see when she had applied liquid foundation on it, "It's not obvious" she said smiling as she looked at herself in the mirror.

For Penelope, Sebastian is the only reason why she is still happy even she have more suffering as the only daughter of the CEO of Crimson Group of Companies. At the University, the students there knew her because she was beautiful, kind and helpful and her professors knew her because she was a good student. In their classroom, Sebastian becomes her competitor so she admires him even more.

When she arrived in the classroom, she saw that Sebastian was being bullied again because she saw that many things were written on the table he was using so she approached him and greeted him,

"Good morning Baste" she greeted the young man with a smile "I made you a sandwich, do you like it?" she put down her bag and took the sandwich she made for him “hope you like it” she said smiling.

"Thank you Penelope" he said as he grabbed the sandwich, he was about to put it in the bag

"Why? Don't you want to take a bite of it?" Penelope asked "you can still eat that, Prof isn't here yet" she said

Because he felt ashamed, Baste removed the wrapper and bit into it, "It's delicious!" he marveled at the taste of the sandwich.

Penelope was happy with Sebastian's reaction, "Okay, I'll make you some sandwiches again tomorrow" she said and went to her seat. When she noticed that Baste was no longer looking at her, she looked furiously at those who always bullied the young man.

At eight o'clock, their Professor, Ms. Anastasia Alfonso carrying their examination papers with scores already.

"Good morning class!" a happy greetings from their teacher "I have now brought your papers and as usual only two have passed my subject" she looked at the papers and called Penelope and Sebastian to get their papers.

Penelope was happy because she got a perfect score and so was Sebastian.

"Go back to your seat" she said "Congratulations again" she added.

Aside from Penelope, one of the smartest in their class is Sebastian. He is often bullied because he is weird, he often talks to someone they don't see and he is always in the top 10 in the departmental rank so he is bullied even more.

When the class is ended, he waited for Penelope to thank her so he waited for her at the gate to join her to go to their house.

Penelope was surprised when she saw Sebastian outside so she immediately approached him, "Hello, are you waiting for someone?" she asked but in her mind when she was waiting for another woman she would kill her right away.

Sebastian stuttered, "You're the one I'm waiting for, I'll take you to your house if it's okay" he replied "I just want to thank you because you're the kind one to me in our class" he said

Penelope almost jumped for joy when she heard this and she calmed down as well, "It's okay, even if you take me every day" she replied happily.

The two had already walked to Penelope's house but she didn't let Sebastian in, "Thanks for joining me for a walk" she said and she kissed the friend on the cheek.

Sebastian's face turned red because of what she did, "Thank you too" he stammered

From inside the house, they could hear her mother shouting "Where are you Penelope! I told you not to leave the house!" she still kept shouting.

Sebastian looked at Penelope, "will you be okay?" he asked worriedly

She forced to smile, "I'm sorry on behalf of my mother, she's sick so she's always like that but I'm fine" she said

Sebastian just nodded even though he was too worried for her, "I'm leaving, see you tomorrow" he said.

She just smiled at him, "Be careful, see you tomorrow" she said and she waved her hand to him until he left.

When she entered the house, her mother immediately beat her, "I told you not to leave the house, why can't you listen!" her mother said angrily as she hit her with a stick. She continues to be beaten even though she already feels that her body is extreme pain but she still does not resist because her father always tells her to just understand her mother because she is mentally ill.

When her father came home she was lying on the floor again and crying, her father just greeted her and left her lying there. He go to greet her wife and to look what she’s cooking for the dinner.

She really couldn't stand the pain in her body anymore so she just forced herself to get up to go to her room to rest. She tries to not to cry while walking towards her room because her father didn’t want to see her crying.

Her Dad noticed her going to her room, "Aren't you going to eat dinner?" he asked as if he didn't know that her mother had beaten her again.