Pitch black darkness.
Only that was what Janeen could see.
A creepy nothingness and an eerie silence. Absolute nothing.
And then, a blue glow appeared in the middle of this darkness, calming her soul. The blue glow surrounded her and gave her light and warmth. She now could see around.
She was in her room, buried comfortably in her bed. The soft touch of her pillow was too good, and she didn't want to let go of this comfort, but she knew she had to get up and go outside. She had things to do.
She lifted herself from the bed and rubbed her eyes, they were wet as if she cried while asleep.
"Mmh... Did I see a bad dream?"
She got up and looked outside from the windows. Everything was fine, this was just a normal day, the peaceful days she had earned by enduring many difficulties. She tried to get rid of the slight uncomfortable feeling inside her by telling this to herself.
'It's okay. This is my life. I earned all of this. I have power and I am happy. I won't let anyone take it from me. It's okay...'
But no matter how much she forced herself, something was bothering her. She decided to ignore it and leave her room to start her day.
"Hmm... What should I eat for breakfast?", she said as she walked towards the door.
She grabbed the handle and opened the door slowly.
"...No..."
There was nothing outside. It was the same pitch black void from before.
"-My room..."
She turned back in panic to enter her room back. But it was gone. The whole room was gone and the only thing remaining was the door she was holding. She ran through the door in panic, in an attempt to get back to her room. She passed through the door but the room was nowhere to be seen. She looked back, but the door she let go of was gone as well. Her breath quickened in panic.
"No... My room..."
She was racking her brain to find a way to her room.
"That's right! P-power. My power!"
She quickly reached towards her power, expecting the warm blue glow to envelop her back again. But, she couldn't reach her power. Except, the whole void glowed a familiar shade of red this time. Janeen lost her breath in fear and collapsed on the ground, struggling to breath.
"Hah~ No... My power... Hah~ Let me go..! Hah~"
Step Step Step
Something was slowly walking towards her, emerging from the red glow. It was the same boy she saw at the street. His face was covered in darkness, and his red eyes glowed in the dark. Janeen's heart went out of control. It was beating out of fear so much that it hurt.
"Stop! Hah~ Go away! Hah~ Give it back... Give my power back!"
The boy smiled sinisterly and talked. His voice was robotic, a synthetic voice that shouldn't belong to any living being. But, the boy looked straight into Janeen's eyes and talked with the uncanny smile on his face.
"Warning. Warning. Warning..."
He repeated the same words over and over again, and each of his words echoed strongly through the void. Every word felt like another boulder was placed upon Janeen's back. His sinister smile that burned itself into her eyes angered Janeen. Along with fear, her anger was also piling up. Gathering all the air she could gather in her lungs, she shouted at the boy.
"I WILL NOT GIVE UP! Hah~~"
She tried to reach towards her power once again. As her mind was stretching itself, she felt the warmth of the blue glow once again. She carefully brought the blue glow out of herself.
"Heh...Heh...Heheheheheheh.... I did it.... heheh..."
The warm blue light shone in front of her, clashing with the red glow that covered the whole void. The boy stopped repeating the same word and slowly walked towards the glow, still smiling eerily. His footsteps echoed in the void once again and the last one was heard when he stepped in front of the blue light.
"W-What are you doing..."
The boy slowly reached towards the blue glow and touched it.
"Stop! That's mine!"
He held the light between his fingers and brought it up to his mouth. Placing the light between his teeth, he bit it. The light cracked and shattered into many pieces. The blue glow snuffed out and everything went silent.
Janeen started screaming in terror but she couldn't hear herself. A loud buzzing noise blocked Janeen's hearing as her vision faded away.
*****
The rough breathing voice of the pretty girl caused Corvin to stop reading his notes. He lifted his head and looked at the girl sleeping on the couch of his room at the inn.
Her expression was uncomfortable and she was sweating. Her mouth would jitter from time to time and her lips would look like she was about to cry. And sometimes, her expression would turn hostile and angry, making Corvin wonder what kind of nightmare she was seeing.
Corvin finally decided to wake her up. He slowly got up from his seat and walked towards the girl on the couch.
"NO!"
Just as he got close to her, she suddenly woke up. She got up so fast, it looked like she jumped on the couch.
She quickly looked around, and then saw Corvin. Behind her eyes, Corvin could see a lot of fear and anger.
"I-I am sorry... I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.", said Corvin and tried to give a natural smile.
Janeen's eyes lost their focus and tears started rolling down her eyes. She held her mouth and ran out of the room and the inn while making a puking sound.
Corvin ran after her to make sure she was okay but when he got out of the room, she was already missing in the darkness of the tight streets at midnight. He could chase after her but because that would only terrify her more, he decided against it.
"...If she can run away like that, she will probably be okay, right?.... But, why did she puke? I-It's not because of my face... is it?"
Corvin would rather go to sleep instead of feeling hurt by some stranger's health problems, so he walked back to his room. The dim streets that were lit up with Sermee's dim red glow were once again, empty.
*****
Sitting on the roof of the inn, SAM slowly got up.
"Sigh~, Sure enough, the report was true. The second one fell as well. How many mistakes did we make before testing this thing in total? Is it all just breaking down slowly? Well... Not like it matters now, I can't change anything since it already started..."
Floating in the air, he followed Janeen who was running away from the inn.
"I may have gone too far with that dream... But, this is for everyone. Miss, I hope this makes you stay away from him. If I didn't have any limitations, this would have been easier, but I can't break the rules too much. I am already getting close to my limits... Maybe I should visit her in person to make sure, huh? Even though it is kind of bothersome..."