Author's Note:
This is my first ever story! Woohoo! I'll try to update it regularly, hopefully at least once a week. Most chapters will be longer than this, this is simply the prologue, boring exposition pieces and all. I'm still learning how to use this system, so there may be a few kinks I haven't noticed. I will attempt to correct them as soon as possible!
Please be gentle, as I haven't ever shared something I've written before. I would love to hear that I'm doing a good job though XD Feel free to leave a review! If anyone has some tips on how to format these, that would be fantastic.
Happy reading! -E
Run. Run. Run. Run! RUN!
RUN!
Harsh breathing. Panicked crying. Horrors lurking in every shadow, fears come alive, night terrors stalking closer. Never ending halls and eternal abysses, ropes to tie your own noose. Spinning rooms and shattered doors. Nowhere is safe. Not even the other side of the glass.
The bells are tolling, tolling, tolling. Time is running out. Bong, bong, bong, bong, heralding the coming of hell. Flee the bells, flee the hell, escape the endless endless endless screams, the ancient ancient ancient beasts, the shadows that move and the hanging figures. Escape the cage, the awful awful cage, the power that looms and the ground that swallowed your mind before it ate your body too.
Don't turn around. Don't look back. If they don't know you've seen them, they won't hurt you. If they don't know that you know they exist, they won't touch you. If they don't know you know what they are, you're safe - until the bell tolls again.
Keep running. Never stop running. Get away. Get away. Get away!
RUN!
Feliciano snapped awake. He was gasping and panting like he had run a million miles in the few hours he had been asleep. Sweat dripped down his tan skinned, half naked form, which trembled slightly in fear of what he had just seen in memories and nightmares. He buried his face in his shaking hands, trying to breathe, to calm down, to remember that it was all in his mind like Lovino always said whenever Feliciano came into his room during the night after one of those night terrors.
But were these really dreams? Feliciano had never thought so. They were too real to be figments or phantasms. These were real, dangerous and tangible. They chased him down even in the day now, visions of the world past his reflection taunting him into terror.
Feliciano's shoulders trembled. He released a tiny, pained moan, slowly raising his legs and knees to press them into his chest. He could hear them, even now. Running. Always running, their footsteps pounding into his head - no, inside his head. Running, sobbing, begging for just one moment more - dying, too, last wails of fear and pain echoing into his mind and out of his ears. Feliciano stifled a wail of his own. Running footsteps came from all around him now, echoing into the room and out of the room and through the walls and banging against the edges of the place.
Feliciano screamed softly in terror and curled up tighter and tighter, trying to crush himself into a small lump of once-human.
"No." He moaned. "Please, no, I don't want to, I don't like this anymore, it's not a dream, it's a living nightmare, and I want to wake up!"
"Feliciano!"
Someone shouted for him, a deeper voice with worry and fear in it. Warm, strong arms wrapped around the trembling, gasping form of the auburn-haired young man. Words were murmured in a language both people knew, the familiar scent of sunlight and herbs soothing Feliciano as much as the whispered comforts.
"L-Lovino!"
Lovino was Feliciano's brother, who was the elder by two years. He was the one trying to keep Feliciano safe from the horrid night terrors that had begun to plague his brother ever since they had moved into their new house. Feliciano rambled on and on about his dreams, stories of a nightmare just past their reflection in every mirror in their home. He couldn't stand to see Feliciano like this, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing, that is, save hold his baby brother and try to dry his tears.
"I'm here. I'm here."
Was it enough to help him get through the crying, or was it enough to try to keep him happy? Could he be doing anything more? Lovino wondered every time he woke to Feliciano's panicked, horrible sobbing and harsh, gasping breaths. It reminded him of his brother's asthma attacks in more than one way, and he disliked thinking about those rare yet frightening events.
"Make them go away."
Lovino felt his heart cracking once again. Feliciano's childlike pleas for help always hurt him to hear, but he knew he couldn't do as his brother asked.
"I will."
Feliciano sniffled, settling down and trying to go back to sleep while his brother was still there, while someone was watching his back. Lovino rubbed Feliciano's shoulder gently. A few moments later, Feliciano was once again asleep, hopefully for the rest of the night.
Lovino released a long, deep sigh and got out of the bed, trudging back to his own room. As he passed a mirror in the hall, he stopped, blinking at it. For a moment, he thought he had seen… No, it couldn't be. It was only Feliciano's bad dreams and his own exhaustion tricking his eyes, that was all. Lovino shook his head and let the door to his own bedroom fall shut with a satisfying click, as a man with blond hair giggled in the mirror, unseen by any in the house.