THE VIAJANTE - by Kankokage
Please be kind and don't plagiarize. Thank you.
PROLOGUE – THE NIGHTMARE
Hello, my name is Mark Anders.
My life had been one of tears. Not the tears of joy, nor of sorrow - rather the tears of solitude…tears from knowing that I had no one, only memories that didn't seem right, memories that seemed to be from another's life. In those strange and sometimes harrowing glimpses of a seemingly different universe I took my refuge to weather the storms of existence.
Now that is all different, though. I found a companion, a wife with whom my solitude is banished, and with her my days of tears are ended. Her spirit seems to lift mine to higher peaks of happiness and contentment, and together we drive back those storms of sorrow and loss. Finally, I feel like my life can be one of joy.
Still, though, I have these memories…
And then of course there's the nightmare…
Darkness enveloped the room as the young child slept. Outside in the night air the clouds and stars were hidden, the only visible shadows formed from the numerous torches and lanterns scattered throughout the city. It was thus as the child slept a number of shadows separated from the rest and sped over road, wall and house towards the room, the sleeping child unaware. Suddenly the windows to the room burst open revealing a group of dark figures, and the child began to stir.
"Is this the one?" asked one of the figures in a deep, overtly masculine voice.
"Yeah," replied another, in a clean tenor. "He's the one. Master says everything's ready." The boy became more lucid, and sat up, his eyes widened and his body trembling with fear.
"Wha…what are you…?" gasped the boy in a weak voice, barely perceptible to the ears of the dark figures.
"Now now, little one," said a third, this one with a smooth alto voice of a young woman. "Just look at the bunny and everything will be all right." From the shadows appeared a small, cartoonish rabbit's hear attached to a spring, and slowly the world around the boy began to fade and melt, the images of the room drizzling down like runny paint down a wall.
"Grab him and let's go," said the first voice, and with that all became black as pitch, and silent as the grave.
Every time the dream begins the same. The dark room, the figures, the fear, the bunny. I don't know what it means, but I do know that after everything melts away, the worst part comes…the part that always makes me wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes screaming, sometimes clenching my wife so tightly it hurts her…
Once the darkness became complete, the boy felt himself drifting along softly, almost pleasantly, but not for long. With a swift drop he began to plummet through the darkness, glimpses of pale light peeking through seeming clouds of obscurity. Each second brought greater velocity and greater visibility, until it all became clear. Now with the world around him clear, he realized his position: he was falling, faster and faster down, towards the earth a thousand feet below.
"No!!!" cried out the boy, tears whipping from his eyes to his temples, these then being swept off into the air as he fell. His wailing continued even as the ground grew closer and closer, until he saw what he was falling towards. At first it was small and featureless, but as the feet began to dwindle and the moment of impact arrived it became clear – he was going to land upon a person, likely killing them both. The impact then came, swift with only a brief thud that lasted a microsecond…and once again all became dark.
I have had this dream thousands of times, and nearly every night of my life. But only very recently have I made the realization of the identity of the person I was always falling onto - it was me.
I can only hope that someday, somehow I will find an answer. Who knows…perhaps even today I'll learn of what this all means.
Next time: CHAPTER 1: THE UNBOUND SOUL
BONUS! This is just a preview of the upcoming Bleach story - chapter one won't be released for a little while (like, not until Akira, Kankokage of the Three Mountains is finished…which is coming up fairly soon ^_^). But since I had this done, I figured I would just get it up there to maybe spark a little bit of interest. BWA HA HA! Keep watching the skies!