Hands as rough and heavy as a brick clenched my shoulder. Nails softly pressed, careful not to pierce my clothes.
And at first it was just the pair on the shoulders until I felt another pair take ahold of my waist.
"Invasion of privacy..." I muttered angrily.
Was this the world's most common manner of intimidation and display of power? It was freaky, to say the least. But easy to overpower.
The pair of hands on my shoulder eventually made their way to hover over my eyes. Staring at me, despite having no eyeballs to see. But I could feel its hungry gaze.
"SUCH EMPTY EYES, DEAR PRINCE..."
The hands fled from my sight and a shadow was casted over us by the sound of beating wings. Blinding me by both sight and sense of smell after the scent of licorice and smoke overpowered my nostrils.
"EMPTY WITH SUCH HEAVY SHADOWS LIKE DARK RAINCLOUDS. OH HOW SLEEP DEPRIVED YOU ARE." The beast snickered hushingly. "DO YOU NOT WISH FOR A QUICK SHUT OF THE EYES?"
I pucker my lips in thought. "You want me to fall into an eternal slumber, even though we're in a dream? How stupid are you?"
I turned as quickly as I could, hand ready to pierce its chest but I was too late.
I was face to face with a yellow room glowing in the distance. Wallpaper old and smelled faintly like expired limes. Smells I associate with a type of light. Perhaps used by those of light? Like light elves.
"IF NOT THROUGH SLEEP YOU WILL REST, I SHALL GRANT YOU IT THROUGH DEATH."
And with that, it was gone. Leaving me inside a cramped space. My hands gripping bars and half my body submerged in this smelly water. Like sewage. I was confident it was a sewer just peering out the bars since it revealed a deep, gaping hole with the stench of waste and dirty water.
I turned as far as my head could to peer behind myself. Only to find a dark abyss.
I had to admit. I was growing uncomfortable. With every movement I made I felt the walls close in more. The water becoming stinkier and more slimy. Hugging my body like a slime.
"Damn you wicked beast." I snarled, attempting to push my body around so that I could crawl down the dark abyss since knocking at the metal bars didn't seem to succeed.
But when I carried my legs over my head, I became stuck.
"..."
I was rendered speechless and breathless. Ribs crushing under the growing pressure of my knees.
"Fuck."
I squirmed a little more. Trying hard to slide my torso backwards in order to get my feet to the ground. But I didn't realize how close I was to the bars. So I only ended up trapping myself more.
With my deep breaths growing harder and the stink becoming clouding, I tried once more to free myself by pushing my feet against the bars. Forcing my body to slide backwards, giving me more space for the tips of my toes to touch the ground.
From there I squeezed my head until I was on my belly. Catching my breath with a deep wheeze.
I thought I was free. But when I opened my eyes, I was face to face with a creature smiling at me.
Face pitch black but with three eyes glaring at me in eerie happiness. Teeth twice as much as a human's with little bumps on the surface.
No. Those were fingers poking out of the surface of the teeth. Waving at me like the antennae of ants.
By instinct I held my breath. Eying it as if I were eying death itself. But I felt we would've been at it for hours and I would be making no progress waiting for it to move. So I made the initiative.
"Who are y--"
"Give me your hand." The creature demanded. Its smile never breaking.
"Why?" I asked. But the creature did not asnwer.
So after sitting in the water after some deep thinking, I hesitantly complied. Sticking out my hand to it with palm face up.
What little light could pass through the holes of my body revealed its hand being a rather large lion's paw. Leaving a trinket in my open palm. Claws as sharp yet chipped as an uncared lion in an abandoned zoo.
"For your travels."
And at that it left me in darkness.
What was left in my hand was what appeared to be a seed. To what plant or flower I had no clue. But it had to be important. Putting it away in my pocket I focused on the main task.
Crawling out of here to who knows where with nothing but a seed in my pocket. It was ridiculous. That dream fairy was ridiculous. If he cared about the world and saw me as a threat, why didn't he just kill me on the spot? Unless he was too weak.
Careful to avoid any flying water from falling onto my face. But then I paused.
"This is going nowhere. Let's try again." I whispered and closed my eyes. Reaching deeper in the dreamscape to try to mend my surroundings as well as search for the damn fairy Dream Master. Cowardly hiding instead of facing me.
Until I felt my grip on something, I pulled and commanded for a change. Only for the ground below me to open. Letting me fall a great length.
Once I landed, I found myself in front of a large painting with a style that looked the Renaissance. But it depicted me in the middle of a bloody field with mountains and skeletons and body parts underneath. Behind me nothing but the night sky with cracks of rifts and the stupid Mad Star.
"Hey." A voice popped up from behind me.
I turned only to meet a great whack in the face. Making me drop to my knees, watching the blood spill heavily on a now wood floor. I turned to my assaulter with a spear straight through my forehead.
"Me?" I peeped curiously with a grunt, standing up to face the Prince of Mirrikh with my hand gripping the spear.
He was more composed. Standing tall with his royal clothes, tiny pieces of armor, a more dark complexity, more pointed ears, shoulder long white hair and eyes black yet glowing white, with grey veins slithering out from it. He was infected by dark magic....
No. It smelled putrid and poisoned, but also familiar.
The smell of a rift that ruined his eyes.
"Sin?" I asked and the prince shook his head angrily.
"You are ruining it." He grumbled, eyes still the same as he took large strides to me until he was merely a finger length away from my face. "Playing hide and seek with a fairy."
"..." I chose not to reply, trying my hardest to pull the spear without dozing in and out of consciousness. I felt no pain yet I could feel myself slip away. A great blanket of darkness slowly cover my eyes. Was this real?
"You were supposed to aid me and my cause!" Sin suddenly reached in, gripping the spear and forcing it to stay in my flesh. Shaking it, as if attempting to make the hole bigger.
"Damn Fairy!" I turned my head away as he still held his grip. And we both listened to it snap in half.
But there was no time to recover when I yanked out the spear. We fought over it with me attempting to swipe his leg. Get him to fall to the ground many times. But he continuously evaded my attempts. Using the classic Mirrikhian fighting routines used to teach new palace soldiers.
An arm swipe attempt to Sin's neck failed as he would push it away with his fist and use his other to spin and swing for my head. It was constant spinning, surprise attacks, and evading.
None of us ever landing a hit on each other.
And it became increasingly obvious when we took a step back to catch our breaths.
"I know all your moves." Sin remarked slyly.
"No." I barked, sitting down with legs crossed. "I was never the physical type."
"Yes. You are obviously not a fighter." He grinned. "You are far less than me."
I tried to stay in tune with my control over the dreamscape, yet I felt it slither away slowly. Remaining nothing but a mere finger's touch. Becoming so far out of reach, just like my will to stay awake.
"Give up. Let yourself be consumed." Onyx's voice broke over Sin's.
"I..." With all the strength I could, I laughed. "You teamed up against me because you fear me. I have abilities beyond your imagination."
When I looked up to peer at his expression, all I saw was Sin's face replaced by a blanket of pitch black. No definition of light or volume could be seen from any angle. Just a wall of black with no eyes or nose or even a mouth.
"I enjoy feeding off of dreams. Fears induced by nightmares. But you, ever since you appeared again all nightmares began to shake. Like unstable mountains I could once climb with little strength."
"What do I do what do I do?!!!" I shouted, banging my hand with my spear.
The more I try to take control of this dream, the more illusions the fairy threw at me. From dream demons to useless memories and face to face confrontations with my two halves. As if I pulled an automatic trigger to a shotgun or a cannon.
"Something isn't right." I hummed, drumming my fingers.
This was a dreamscape created by the fairy. Dreamscapes are no different from regular dreams. Except--
"Look at me." A little girl's voice peeped.
I felt my whole body heat up in anger. "That's a new low."
"Don't you think you've kept up the act for too long?" Questioned the beast. Its soulless eyes piercing me.
I looked away from it. Watching as various people stepped out of the darkness with these bloodied bodies, faces covered in all sorts of bruises and wounds.
"Stop it now, Onyx!"
"WHY?!" Bellowed the demon. Laughing in a girly high pitched tone overlapped with its deep demonic one. "YOU KNOW IT IS TRUE."
"This is just a horror cliché." I grumbled. "Unoriginal and..."
I peered down to my chest, remembering the ability I tried out in my first fight. Perhaps I could summon it again. Allow it to do what it was going to and win over this annoying Fairy's Dreamland. Then I could continue off where I was.
But what was I going to do?
"Stop!!" I snapped in realization, abruptly turning away from the pesky hand that phased through my head stealing my motivations. "I had enough of you pesky beast." I threw the spear at it, only for it to miss.
Then I combed my hands over my chest with clenched teeth. Imagining the transparent hands and the strings they held onto. As I imagined their existence, their shape and purpose vividly, I coughed and felt my body twitch as dozens of transparent hands struggled their way out my chest.
The strings they held onto was tossed around the multiple illusions Onyx manifested. Tying them and trapping them still.
Whilst they pulled and tugged, I was unable to take control of their rapid movements. Unable to beg this mysterious ability to climb back inside of me and disappear. Allow for me to take care of the rest.
They pushed themselves out more, until I could feel something bigger try to escape me. Something that carried a thing of great value that I needed to stay inside.
"How how how." I breathed painfully, tightening my curled fingers at the arms and strings. Hands holding onto the ground, pulling me forward. "Stop it..."
As I fell to my side, I remembered.
"Call my name."
Whether or not it was wise to call upon his name, I did not choose to think it over again so I picked up my head about to whisper his name.