Pandora Hearts © Jun Mochizuki
...
Blood spilled and another Chain held. Bewitched, the boy destroyed himself as the power became his - and a Nightmare raged inside.
Reim didn't know why she did this, why Aristocracy plunged her heirs into the depths of the Abyss, ritual sacrifices for monsters untold. He watched as the child of Vessalius returned from the Gate, once sparkling eyes dulled and sightless, dirty glass set in ashen pallor. He had succumbed, frothing in the workings of his own personal demon.
The Nightmares would never end.
Miss Sharon met the dark horse, Eques, on her thirteenth, and became a cunning mistress, malicious and deadly: a perfect Reinsworth princess. Reim could see the wildness in her eyes - gone were the days of his beloved childhood friend.
Ladies Cheryl and Shelly, too, demons corroding their bodies as all monsters of the Abyss are wont to do. The once tall and stately Lady Cheryl now humbled by a wheelchair; Lady Shelly imprisoned at her bed. His good friend Break was not far behind, raking inches deeper his own grave. (The Mad Hatter was a slow one about it though.)
All of which began with the Baskervilles (only a skin example of nobility) because Glen contained five Nightmares of his own. They devoured his soul, but lost humanity is of no consequence; the power granted by five Nightmares vaulted the Baskervilles into the highest fame. Even now, they remain too far out of reach.
Reim started; it was his turn. An exemplary and faithful servant to both the Barma and Reinsworth Households, he had been granted this undeniable honor: to contract a Nightmare and know its glory. True power. The world of Aristocracy.
He watched the Vessalius boy cut down his Baskerville friend. Bloodied, the Raven-possessed youth cackled as he rose to his feet. Demons clashed.
They had a wonderful time killing one another.
He could no longer delay. They led him to the Gate. Resigned to hellish fate, he fell in, drowning among Nightmares and rotted hearts, twisting memories of sunken souls, lamenting the perverted irony of his fall.
He landed in a tarnished cage of Chains. His own personal beast rose to greet him. He let out his breath beneath black waters, willing himself to die while retaining humanity - hoping to perish before he embraced this madness.
He was accompanied by the spirits of his friends, captive innocence damned to a holding cage while their bodies swam freely in a cesspool of aboveground decay.
The light was too bright, the noise too loud. His blood ran hot in his ears. His lungs clenched and his flesh prickled. It was there, waiting. He resisted.
His reflexes won and he breathed the venom of Abyss. Reim would be no more; the blood was in his body.
He walked out dulled, pale, and languid like all the others, but when his lifeless limbs reached out to touch the nearest breathing body - Lady Sharon - his mind broke into clarity.
He was still Reim.
Sharon screamed and wailed, convulsed on the floor, a grand mal frothing in frills. Reim was filled with horror - but then, with a terrible retching noise, Eques was expelled from her body. She shuddered and lay still.
Reim stared while the March Hare whispered quietly in his ear.
He had contracted a Dream.