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 Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:27 pm
 Kyreth pulled his bedsheets up to his chin, the nights were chilly these days, despite his dorm room's window being shut. He thought maybe the insulation was bad, but perhaps the cold was just his imagination. Regardless, he shivered before turning to his side. He'd been having dreams lately, vague at first, but every night they were getting more and more vivid. More and more memorable.
And yet despite his desire to lay awake, to delay the inevitable nightmare he dreaded would come, his heavy eyelids slid shut. He had a long day and was exhausted from the schoolwork. There seemed only to be a brief darkness before he found himself standing on a hilltop. More lucid than ever, he could feel the breeze, smell the freshly-cut grass in the wind. But everything seemed bigger, distorted in a way. He supposed it should, since in this dream he was in the body of his six-year-old self.
He could hear the footsteps behind him, it always started out the same. He turned to face the boy his age, followed by his older brother, at least 10 years old. He could always recognize their faces, but no matter how hard he tried he could never remember their names. He clenched his fists, muttering, "no...not again, i don't want to see it happen again, and again, and again.."
The little boy spoke, "what'd you say?" as he held onto the plastic ball. His brother stood off to the side, looking off and minding his own business. He was only there because his mother told him to watch over his little brother. If he hadn't been there...
Kyreth shook it out of his head, "nothing, I said nothing.." he answered, forcing his eyes not to make contact with the child. Every time he looked, he felt an overwhelming hunger. Like he hadn't eaten in days..weeks. He didn't understand it then, but he understood it now. He was six years old, only let outside once in a while and always played by himself. And this boy in front of him wanted to be his friend, he could tell. He would have been his first friend. And the elation of having a friend drove him crazy.
But his mother didn't teach him about what he was, not until much later. He didn't know how to control his hunger, much less how to safely siphon magic from others by using their emotions.
But every time he had this nightmare, he, just as he began to do right now, turned to face the boy, took him by the shoulders, and began draining what little magic the boy possessed. It was like rain after a long drought, and he didn't know how to stop drinking. His eyes began to water because every night he wondered if that boys brother would stop him again, or if this time he wouldn't pry him off in time. If this was the time he would have changed.
It felt longer than the last dreams, and the scenery around him changed. Though he couldn't tear his eyes away from the boy's frozen face, his periferals became a swirling mass of darkness, where the winged monsters he viewed witch eaters to be flocked by his side, taunting him. Beckoning him to lose control. He desperately wanted to cry out, to be saved, but the older brother wasn't coming. No one was there to save him or the boy this time.
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:59 pm
Slipping between the veils into the Dreamlands was almost like coming home for Rhapsody. Shedding the corporeal body she could appear any way she wanted to and walk with impunity within the minds of others. Which happened to be her favorite place to be. Sometimes she had a specific target, someone who had information that she wanted. Sometimes she let herself drift from dream to dream in a sweet cloud of fantasy. And sometimes she could feel the twinges of nightmares, their dreamers calling out for respite or wakefulness. Rhapsody didn't make a practice of wandering around in other people's nightmares but there were times when the call was so strong that she dared not ignore it. As was the case tonight - a dissonance that she could feel vibrating in the very air as soon as she fell asleep. With the speed of thought, Rhapsody found herself silently observing a scene which, at first, seemed unremarkable.
Two little boys facing each other while another watched casually. Nothing outwardly disturbing, except for the fear and the panic that tainted the air in a way that was almost tangible to the sensitive mononoke. And then, as she watched, everything changed. The air grew dark and heavy and the whisperings of monsters could be heard in the background.
One whispered phrase left Rhapsody's lips. Unintelligible but effective enough. Everything froze. The little boy, the whispering monsters, the swirling darkness. It all paused for a moment and Rhapsody, appearing as a child herself, approached the dreamer, the one other being that was not frozen within the dream.
"Do you need help?" She asked softly, stepping lightly towards the boy swathed in a soft blue dress that offset the terrifying blackness.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:00 pm
Kyreth cried out and shook his head, his hair looking like fire. Shouldn't that be enough to wake him up? He couldn't pry his own hands off the other boy to pinch his cheeks. But just as he was about to give up, give in to all the taunts and sweet beckonings to lose control, it all stopped. Frozen. Like someone had pressed the pause button on the DVD that was his dream. The boy stood motionless, the swirling abyss and the witch eaters within it suspended as well. Even the soft tendrils of magical energy being drained from the boy stood still.
Kyreth blinked in disbelief, yet his arms still clutched the boy in front of him. His feet were still nailed to the ground. Not because he too was frozen by whatever powers were at hand, but due to his own fear. He really thought this time..this time his nightmare would come to pass.
Suddenly his legs gave out from the nerves, limbs all shaking, sweat trickling down his temples. A sweet voice sounded beside him and he spun around to look, droplets flung aside and wet locks of hair clinging to his face.
She was..like an angel amidst this terror. His eyes were pleaded though his mouth found no words without stumbling over them. "Wh-who are y-you?" he stuttered, "Did you...d-did you do this?" he added, meaning the stopping of time in his dream. Had she come to save him? It was all so unclear, he had never seen her before in his life, let alone his dreams. Yet he inched closer to her on his knees, desperately.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:18 pm
She didn't always know what to say in the waking world. Things were so solid there... nothing like the fluid beauty of the dreamlands. People called her aloof sometimes, or mistook her quietness for shyness. But here, here she was never at a loss.
"I'm Rhapsody." She knelt down, reaching out and brushing her hand over his. "I made it stop." She added. "What is it?" She asked, taking a closer look at what was going on in the scene. She could see the tendrils of magic snaking out from the frozen boy towards the one she was speaking to. With her free hand, she ran a finger through the tendril to see what would happen. "I mean, whats going on here? In your nightmare? Are you hurting him?" Her tone was soft and not accusing, rather inviting him to confide in her. Remembering that a smile could go a long way, she offered him an encouraging one.
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