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Nightmare
Fire. There was fire everywhere. The heat from the flames had wakened me and I hid in the corner of my room shaking in fear, tears rolling down my cheeks. I could barely breathe through all the smoke. Through the flames I could hear screams of terror and sounds of battle. What is happening?
A young woman burst through the flames on the opposite side of the room. She looked twice as scared as I felt and was looking around frantically. I had never seen her before yet I knew exactly who she must be.
"Mum!" I shouted, taking in a mouthful of smoke. I choked on the fumes as she came running over to me. She bent down and grasped my tiny fists in her hands and spoke to me in a language I had never heard before. It sounded ancient, yet I could understand every word she said. Follow me. Don't look around. I obeyed her and rose to my feet.
She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the way she entered. We made our way through another slightly bigger room and within seconds we were outside in fresh air, but we were far from safe. I hesitated a second at the sight before me. The whole village was on fire. People we're running frantically clutching their most prized possessions and trying to find their way to safety. But nearly everyone I looked at couldn't make it 10 feet without meeting their death at the blade of masked horsemen. They were big men wearing armor of gold that reflected the flames of the burning buildings around them. My mother scooped me up before I could see anymore. I hid my face against her shoulder as she ran, making her way to the outskirts of the village. It wasn't long before I could hear horses behind her. She turned off the road into a narrow alley and kept running. The horses were too big to follow so they went on pursuing another villager. After a minute or two of running, she stopped in the shadows of a small hut. I lifted my head curiously to see what made her pause. We were back in the middle of the village.
She was trembling as she looked around. There were horsemen in every direction, but they seemed not to have noticed us yet. She put me down and told me to hide in a wooden crate sitting close by. She told me to stay there until everyone was gone. She told me she loved me and that someday we would be together again. Someday… She was crying harder than I had ever seen anyone cry. I didn't have time to understand what she meant as she placed me into the crate. She put the lid on the crate and slowly walked to the middle of the village. The masked horsemen noticed her in no time and made her kneel in the middle of the town square with two other villagers.
The square was scattered with dead bodies; some on fire, others drenched in their own blood, some even missing appendages. Everyone was yelling back and forth to each other, deciding what they should do with the remaining three villagers. This went on for what felt like forever. Finally, the biggest of the men jumped off his horse and silenced the men. He walked towards my mother and stopped directly in front of her. I caught her eye just before it happened. The man stepped forward, held up his sword, and plunged in straight through her heart.
A scream escaped my lips as my eyes flew open. I sat up in bed, my body shaking and drenched in sweat. It was just a dream. Only a dream. No… it was a nightmare. But… it felt so real.
"That's because it was." I looked to the opposite corner of my room and saw my Yami sitting in the shadows. He was polishing a small knife, looking just as uninterested as he always looks. "In fact, that just so happens to be one of my oldest memories."
But how? It couldn't be real. Yet, I know it was. I could still smell the faint scent of smoke and ash in the air. "That place… it was so ancient. It had to have existed centuries ago." I pulled off my sweat soaked sheets revealing my pale white chest. I had never experienced such a frightening dream in my life. My head was spinning from the adrenaline. I pulled my arms in and wrapped them around my stomach. I definitely wasn't feeling well.
Yami smirked. He put the tip of his knife to his lips and lifted his eyes to meet mine. "Ryou, you silly boy, that memory is way more than centuries old." He set the knife on the dresser next to him and crossed the room, his body almost disappearing as he passed through the moonlight shining through the bedroom window. Sometimes it's hard to forget he only exists outside the ring as nothing more than a spirit. I leaned back nervously as he sat on the edge of my bed, leaning towards me. He sensed my uneasiness. "Are you still scared of me?"
I clenched my fists as I averted my eyes from his. It didn't matter what I said, he could read my thoughts perfectly. And even if he couldn't read my mind, my actions speak much louder than words. A vicious grin crossed his lips as he placed his hand under my chin. He lifted my face to his and I looked into his eyes. He enjoys my fear, feeds on it. "Don't be scared. I'm merely trying to talk to you." He continued to stare at me, taking in my apprehension. After a few moments, he traced a finger down my bare chest and then leaned back, laughing lightly. He turned his body to face mine and placed his hands on either side of my legs. "Would you like me to explain the dream you just had?"
I bit my lip and pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. I nodded gently and he slid over to lean against the wall.
"That was the last time I saw my village. The kingdom's soldiers killed every last one of the villagers and burned the whole place to the ground. They thought they had killed everyone, destroyed the whole village, but they didn't know I remained there, hidden in that crate." He paused for a second, playing with a lock of his long white hair that hung on the side of his face as I waited patiently for him to continue. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. "I was hidden there for days, too scared to move or leave. I was afraid I might die, that someone might be waiting for me. I was only a child…" I had never seen my Yami look this way. I could feel his sadness taking over my being. "When I finally left, I got the full effect of what had happened. The amount of dead bodies was unfathomable. It was a massacre. They were piled everywhere throughout the village. My mom's body was there too… just lying in the middle of the street…" He choked lightly and a tear fell from the corner of his eye. He quickly wiped it off and looked at me angrily, daring me to question his emotional strength. I looked away, afraid of what he might do to me if I said anything or did anything he deemed unacceptable. "I saw what they did to my village. Why they destroyed it. They used it for evil things. To create evil things. Only they didn't know they created another evil that had taken a new hiding place within me." His bangs fell across his face and hid his eyes from me, but I could still see the small smirk that formed. "I left my village that day, for good. And I began a new life, the life of a thief." I watched him, expecting him to do something else, or maybe say something more, but he didn't. We sat in silence for a while. I knew better than to ask him to go on. After a few moments, he turned his head away from mine and spoke to me softly.
"Go back to sleep," he said. I lay down obediently and pulled the sheets up to my chin. He looked back at me and I turned away from him, sensing him watching me. That's the first time he had ever told me anything about his past. He had never opened up to me like that before. I wish he could have told me more but I knew better than to pry. I knew now that he would open up to me one day. And I would know who he truly is.
I closed my eyes and tried to think of something other than dead bodies and burning buildings, if not for my sake, but for the sake of my Yami. Just as I was beginning to fall asleep, I heard him whisper. "I plan to avenge them one day. My village. I've been waiting millennia to do it. And now that I have you, I believe it can happen."
I was too sleepy to even begin to make sense of what he meant. How he could possibly right something that happened thousands of years ago. Slowly, my mind drifted off to other things. And within minutes, I was back asleep, peacefully dreaming.