Author's Note: So, I really should be working on my other stories but…I couldn't help it…I'm so glad none of you know where I live…
Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man, nor do I own the song that is featured at the beginning of every chapter, which belongs to Metallica (Enter Sandman).
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Chapter 1: Allen Walker
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Say your prayers, little one
Don't forget, my son,
To include everyone.
Tuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin,
Till the sandman he comes…
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When Mana was alive, he would tell me stories to help me go to sleep. I never had an adult tell me so many wonderful tales before, so it was something I always looked forward to. It was the sound of his warm, safe voice that lulled me into unconsciousness without fail. His voice kept the memories from returning to me, of the days when I was alone and cold, shivering and starving in the dirty alleyways of a dark city. His voice kept the demons away too; their hatred and anger could not touch me in my safe bed with Mana's voice beside me.
Every night, no matter where we would be, Mana would tell me a bedtime story. He would make me say my prayers before I did so and I would kneel by the bed and pray for him and for me and for all the other people we knew or had met. Then Mana would tuck me into bed, nice and warm and safe and tell me so many stories…
My favorite one was about the Sandman. He was the one who controlled time and dreams, the one who brought you sleep at night. It was amazing how Mana told me of the Sands of Time and the giant Hourglass that each grain slipped through. He was a good storyteller.
I miss that.
The dreams in those days were always bright and happy, so warm and colorful, because my life had been so wonderfully changed by Mana's loving presence in my life. But now…now they had changed again, but this time, for the worst. I suppose that was obvious, what with all the things that had happened since then.
Every night became something that I dreaded. Something that made me wish for those innocent nights again. The dreams were always dark, a shade tainted with crimson. Eyes watching me, hundreds of eyes…I could hear voices talking to me, whispering in the black nothingness of my head. It was better than the screaming that always came later…
I dreamed a lot of Mana. It was scary how his face turned from such a warm and caring one to cold, cruel steel with long jagged teeth and ruthless eyes. His voice was different too, colored with pain and hate. The pain was what I brought him in my grief by calling him back to Earth. The hatred was the result of the pain. That once loving tenor to my young ears became a screech of curses. I think that hurt me more than the pain of the curse inflicted upon me.
Even more so when my Innocence activated and dragged me along the rough ground toward the man I called father. I tried to stop it then and every night following, I tried to stop it again. And again and again and again. But to no avail. It was imprinted upon my memory: the way Mana's twisted, skeletal frame lay broken on the ground, the way I cried for him to run away, his whispered last words before my claws sank into his body and killed him.
"Allen, my son…please…destroy me…"
I never thought it could get worse than that. And then I went to the Black Order to become an Exorcist.
The dreams became even worse.
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Bodies, bodies, bodies everywhere. No one is moving. Why is no one moving? Oh, God, oh God, why could you let this happen? Everyone isn't moving. They aren't moving and they're painted red and their chests are still and the snow is crimson and why, why, why am I the only one still standing?
Lenalee is nearby. Her hair is splayed out around her like something soft and delicate and her face is perfect, almost as if she is sleeping and not lying out in the cold snow covered in blood. Her boots are gone, her legs bloody, staining the snow beneath her. I run to her and kneel beside her, shaking her unmoving shoulders.
Lenalee, Lenalee, Lenalee! Why won't you wake up? You're just sleeping! It's time to wake up now or else you're going to get sick from being out in the snow too long. Komui will get mad if his favorite little sister got a cold from this. C'mon, Lenalee, all you have to do is open your eyes and smile at me and tell me everything's going to be okay and that you're fine…
Kanda is beside her. The way his body is positioned it looks like he was trying to protect Lenalee from whatever it was that was coming at them. He looks just as peaceful and there are no lines on his face from where it is always turned down in a scowl. He looks younger, younger than he should. A young soldier. Mugen is broken. A young, broken soldier.
Kanda, Kanda, Kanda. Yuu-chan, whatever! Wake up! Wake up and hit me upside the head with your Mugen and call me "Beansprout" and then get mad and walk away. Wake up, Kanda, and I'll let you get ahead of me at the cafeteria so you can get your Soba first thing. You'd like that, wouldn't you? And if you don't wake up then Lavi's going to come over here and annoy you…
The redhead is near to Kanda. Lavi is on his side as if he had fallen that way and could not get up again. His hair matches the snow. That headband is soaked through with blood. His hands are blistered and bleeding, clutching the handle of his hammer. It is broken too, just like Mugen. A trickle of vermillion remains in a perfect line from his marble lips.
Lavi! Lavi, Lavi! Wake up! What's wrong with you? You know that if you don't get up and get moving soon, Bookman's going to come and yell at you because you didn't finish your work on time. You need to get up! C'mon, Lavi. C'mon…I'll even go to the library with you and sit around while you work. I know you like having the company…
The rest are scattered around me; twisted, grotesque forms of my friends. Krory, Miranda, Marie, Komui, Reever, Johnny, even the fallen form of what looks like my master…
Why won't you all get up? Why are you all not moving? Get up! Please get up! You can't leave! You can't be gone! We have work to do! You can't just leave the war behind! You can't leave all those innocent people out there to die! You can't leave the Innocence unprotected!
I stand there. No one answers. It's cold and smells like blood and sadness. I sink to the snow.
"You can't leave me."
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Then I wake up. It's morning and the sunlight is pouring in through the windows. I stay in bed for the longest time and hope that it was all just a nightmare, tears falling down my cheeks unchecked. Then I can hear the sound of voices: Lavi trying the patience of Kanda and Lenalee keeping the Japanese swordsman in line with her clipboard and Komui's crying over it all that his little sister was spending too much time with boys who wanted bad things. The sound of yet another Komurin reaches my ears along with the shrieks from the science department as they try to get their supervisor under control.
It was all just a dream. I wipe the tears from my eyes and sit up to look out the window. It was all just a dream.
Until I fall asleep and make it real again.
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So there you go! Chapter One of about…seven, I think. I'm not quite sure yet, haha. See, this story sprang to life because of countless hours spent playing Rockband with my friend. We had to play the song Enter Sandman by Metallica about twenty times during our tour, so it kind of got stuck in my head. So after listening to it for a million times on iTunes, I decided to write a fic based off the song. Yaaaay! More time spent not doing things I should be doing!
But I really like this so far. I'm a sort of angst-driven individual, so this is fun for me. Allen's chapter was sort of contrived I think, because we all know that if he had nightmares, it'd be about Mana and about his friends' deaths. But all in all, I do think it came out quite nicely. I even used different tenses to make people like myself freak out a little.
Anyway, enough ranting! I have almost the entire story finished! If you liked this, please drop me a review so I know to continue. If not…well…I might just pitch it with a bunch of my other ideas!
Dhampir72