Chapter XXXV - Bittersweet Nightmare
I slowly open my eyes, the corners of my vision refocusing. Standing with pale blades of grass halfway up to my shins, I look around, the field of grass stretching for miles in each direction. The air hung with a white mist, not too dense, but enough to block out the color of the sky.
"...Who...are you?"
I turn warily, looking for the direction of the voice, "...Who's there?"
No answer.
A feeling tugs at my chest, compelling me forward. My legs seem to move on their own, walking until thin ashen branches appear above my head, petals the color of crimson fluttering to the ground.
"...Beautiful, isn't it?" A young girl stands in front of a tree's trunk, back turned to me, "Change is timeless, but this one hasn't changed a bit." Her hand was resting on the ghostly white bark, the color matching her short, flowing, silky white hair. Also that of her dress. Her fingers trail up towards a low hanging branch, cupping a rose-like flower, "Beautiful from a distance...but pricked if you get too close." She draws her hand away, blood was notably blooming at the tip of her fingers where she touched the flower, already dripping down her forearm. "...Either it withers or strives...does not matter on time. But what it's watered by..."
I feel a ping of melancholy, and reach forward, before my hand can touch her shoulder, she starts to turn around slowly.
"Don't forget our roots...as toxic as the water as we were fed with was, remember..."
Before I could see her face, my fingers pass through her frame, her body dispersing into flower petals, the color of snow- disappearing onto the wind.
The scene falls away to darkness, which unveils a web of chains, the metal links glow with soft inner light, softly radiating energy.
A pitch-black coffin stood chained in the middle, etched with glowing red runes, seeming to pulse with contained magic.
My head hurts looking at it, I couldn't bring myself to stare at it any longer. I stumble slightly, catching myself by a chain, I instantly recoil, my hand steaming from where it had touched the chain.
'This feels like a dream...it can't be real, but the pain...the pain, was painful.'
The chains shift to fallen beams of wood, the glow now from the fire that rampaged of a, unfortunately, ghastly familiar scene...
The grief I had held on for so long inside resurfaces, as I remember this scene, replayed a hundred times in my nightmares...This time, however, each spark, each person, each moment of terror, frozen in time. I knew what was happening in one of those houses, I knew how it happened, the crime that happened right before my eyes. But I wish I never knew, and remained the innocent child I was. An image of a blade stained with blood returns to my mind...my mother's last words-no...I cant...
I tear my eyes away, the memory too much for me. Soon, the scene blackens before me, disappearing like fire into ash. The chalky tree with red flowers I had just seen before, reappears in front of me. I gingerly take a step forward, the ground going out in small ripples as if I was stepping in water. I look down, to see my own ghostly reflection staring back at me. But, it didn't look exactly like me. I looked younger, more like a child if not, a child that had seen too much. My eyes matched that of a stormy sky, my hair cut slightly above my shoulders, and my complexion so pale-I could pass as a ghost.
'...Raven...'
I whirl around, coming face to face with a spirit. The one that I had encountered in the fog.
"You...how do you know my name? And what are you doing in my dream?" I asked, carefully.
'...'
No response.
They just hover there, looking back at me intently. As if silently engaging in this staring contest. Then they reach out with one hand, hesitating, before dropping it again. The spirit brushes past me, sending a shocking chill through my body.
'Don't stop us...we will..succeed.' They disappear into puffs of black smoke without another word, taking the ominous exit.
I glance down at my feet, feeling afflicted. A voice seems to whisper again in my ear, a dark weight hanging on my shoulders,
'You can't do anything...can't you? You let them down...you let it happen...it's your fault. Succumb to the darkness, so you can pay for your sins...'
"No...no..." I cradle my head, dropping to my knees in dismay, "Go..go away! It's not true...no..."
'But it is...you have to face the truth, for what you let happen to me!!' An indescribable force seems to turn me around, and a distorted version of my mother, her face twisting in a furious snarl. 'Time to pay your dues...child.'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone