Chapter Five

"Nightmares are your inner demons screaming to be let out."

After Rae assured me of his help, I headed into my bedroom to try to sleep, but I knew I'd never sleep peacefully. I always have the same dream with the same two men in them. The only change I have ever observed was the change of scenery.

When I was nine, the scenery of my dreams was very vague and almost cloudy. Like I was watching a story unfold off an old grainy film. But as the dreams happened more often, I was able to distinguish more details like where they were or what time of day it was.

As I lay, guessing where they'd be or what part it would start at this time, I drifted off like a leaf in water.

Next, I heard the starts of a conversation that always ended in disaster.

"Is this world really worth protecting," mused the man who would eventually become the personification of the void. He stood on a mountain top onlooking a small civilization that appeared to be based somewhere in the Changbai Mountain Forest.

"Of course! If we don't protect it who will," declared the other man who would soon shine as brightly as the sun itself. "Besides, this isn't about what we want, it's about what 'it' wants," and he turned his head to show he meant the treasure. I had personally never seen the treasure they fought so hard to protect, but I could tell from the way the two would eventually fight over it that it wasn't something of little importance.

My mind began to wonder as I listened to them have the same argument they had every dream.

"You don't have to refer to the treasure like that," pointed out the cloaked man. It always seemed to annoy him when the light man spoke about the treasure. It was almost like he thought of the treasure as human, with emotion and feelings.

During that time I developed a pain in my chest that I only felt when the two began to fight. I watched the two slowly become more and more estranged by the polarity of their opinion of the treasure, I could feel my heart yearn painfully for it not to end the same as it did every night.

"It's nothing more than a tool, nothing more nothing less," roared the one enveloped by the light as he readied himself. The scenery had changed with the mood. The wind had picked up, swirling the once beautiful autumn leaves into a gale of darkness that had begun to envelope everything.

"I knew you'd say something like that, but my treasure wasn't put on this planet to be sacrificed for the likes of those ungrateful beings!"

The more they fought the darker everything became, and I could feel the ache in my chest grow every second. Next, the shining man drew his sword at the speed of light and swung at the cloaked man. However, before anything further could happen, I heard a small voice cry out the same words my soul wished to scream every time the two fought; releasing me from the torturous grip of my dream world.

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I awoke screaming, but unsurprisingly it was drowned out by the shattering of my glass windows. The window wasn't the only thing to be destroyed however, on my floor I could see the clothes Rae had fixed or replaced scattered across the floor in tattered rags. My pencils that sat on my desk were protruding from a nearby wall, and everything else was either broken or scattered around the room, making for a dangerous escape from bed.

Later, when Rae returned from his early morning run, he knocked on my bedroom door. I was sitting on my bed still trying to soothe the pain in my chest and buzzing of my mind.

"Things got pretty intense last night , didn't they Naru," asked Rae in a concerned voice as he surveyed the damage I had cause this time.

No, I didn't cause the damage, my dream did, I reassured myself as I turned my gaze from the broken window to the ruined wardrobe Rae was inspecting.

"Yeah, I guess as of late the um...feelings I get when I have those dreams has grown," I discerned in a weak voice.

"Haha, so has the damage," kidded Rae as he turned to leave the room. As he was leaving Rae stopped halfway out the door and demurred, "Naru, you sure you want to investigate these dreams? The more you seem to know the worse they get."

The worry was clear on Rae's face, and it saddened me to make him worry about me more than he already did. So, in trying to ease his worry I managed my best smile and said, "Don't worry Rae. Nothing's going to happen to me; at least not as long as I have you."

"Hm, I guess that's true," surmised Rae as he left the room with worry still drowning out his usual jubilation.

I hate it when I make Rae worry. I wish these dumb dreams would just disappear, I brooded while I started to clean up the floor of my room.

Author's Note

Enjoy! Also, I forgot to mention I don't upload on Saturday and Sunday because I am unbelievably busy on those days. Sorry for not mentioning it! (^V^)