Franklin Richards finds himself walking through a dark castle as he holds up a torch to light the way.
The sound of heavy rain fall pouring above as lightning crashes, giving off brief light in the dark halls for but a second.
But Franklin knows where he's going.
An old wooden door lies ahead in the dark hallway.
Finally making his way to the door, he slowly reaches for the hands and pulls his arm back as the door gives off a loud creaking sound.
With the door fully open, Franklin stares off into nothing but darkness.
As sweat trickles down his face, Franklin tiptoes forwards into the black shadows.
"H-hello?" he calls with a voice filled with fright.
Suddenly, there's a flash of bright light which makes Franklin recoil and shut his eyes tight.
The pre-teen's eyelids soon flutter open as his pupils begin to dilate.
The room was finally clear for Franklin to see that he was standing in some sorta throne room with a statue of a scary looking man wearing a cloak and mask in the middle.
But something else caught the young boy's notice.
Looking ahead, he saw his two uncles, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm laying on the floor, motionless.
"Uncle Ben! Uncle Johnny!" Franklin yelled as he ran over towards the two.
Franklin quickly approached the former and began to slap his orange-rock skin in hopes to awaken him only for nothing to happen.
Franklin then gave up and ran at his uncle.
"Uncle Johnny! You need to wake up!" Franklin cried as he shook his uncle only to gain no response.
"So you've finally come!" a dark voice boomed
Leaping in fright, Franklin turns around only for his heart to drop at what he was seeing.
A tall man wearing a green cloak and a metal mask on his face.
The man was also holding Franklin's parents by their necks but only his father moved while his mother was dangling in the man's arms..as if she wasn't alive.
Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, gasps for breath as the man clutches his throat tighter.
Reed's eyes then shift towards his son.
"F-Frank..lin...run!" Reed choked
The man's arm which was holding Franklin's dad suddenly bursts with a field of green electricity, electrocuting Reed as pained screams escapes from his mouth.
And after a few seconds, there was silence.
The man then released Reed and Susan Richards from his grasps and faced Franklin.
"The son of my old enemy, here alone with me." the dark voice behind the metal mask cackles.
Franklin falls on his butt and tries to crawl back as his eyes are fixated on the horror before him.
"Years and Years, my plans have been foiled by these four imbeciles. But now they're dead and soon, you will be too." the man continued
Tears stream down Franklin's eyes as his back meets with the statue from before.
Now standing before him, the man grabs Franklin by the front of his shirt and lifts him into the air where their eyes met.
Franklin peered through the metal mask's eye-holes to see a pair of evil looking eyes staring right back at him.
"With you out of the way, there will be no one left to stop DOOM!" the man laughs maniacally
Franklin begins to hyperventilate as the man's metal hand reaches for Franklin's face.
The only thing heard is a scream.
Franklin shoots up in his bed as his breaths are unsteady and quick and heartbeat racing over one-hundred miles per hour.
He looks around frantically to see that he is back in his old bedroom and what just transpired was nothing more than just a dream.
A few minutes later, Franklin walks into the kitchen to see his family all at the table.
His father was looking over some notes about a new experiment, his mother was finishing the pancakes, his uncle Ben was reading the newspaper while his uncle Johnny was reaching over to Ben's coffee mug and using his power to manipulate fire to make Ben's beverage much more hotter than necessary while he was distracted.
"Uncle Johnny? What are you doing?" Franklin asks with a small grin at his uncle's mischief.
Ben Grimm dropped the paper as he saw Johnny reaching for his mug with his hand on fire.
"Hey!" Ben growled as he tried to swat at Johnny only for the latter to back up just in time.
Franklin sat at the seat between his two uncles.
"Good morning, son." Reed greeted without looking from his notes.
"Mornin' sport." Ben greeted as he went back to his paper.
"A few more minutes later and one of your parents would've sent me or Ben to wake you up, squirt!" said Johnny as he playfully ruffled Franklin's hair.
"Morning, honey." Sue Richards greeted as she brought her son his breakfast.
"Thanks, mom." said Franklin as he began eating.
Reed Richards grabbed his mug only to see it empty so he used his stretching ability to reach for the coffee pot.
Bringing the pot to himself, Reed looked up from the notes to see how much coffee he's pouring and caught a glance at his son.
"Are you alright, son? You look more paler than you usually do in the morning." said Reed
Franklin swallowed the bite of food he had in his mouth and began to speak.
"Yeah, just had a weird dream last night." he replied
"Was the dream about you having an uncle who's a ugly rock monster? Oh, wait. That isn't a dream!" Johnny laughed
Ben lowered his paper as he glared daggers towards his teammate.
"No. The dream was about my uncle who hides behind a smirk and fire powers because he's trying to compensate for something. Oh, wait. That isn't a dream." Franklin answered with a smile.
Ben Grimm roared with laughter.
Johnny blushed and tried to keep a straight face.
"Alright, alright. I'll give you that one." Johnny admitted embarrassingly
"But seriously. My dream was very strange. I found myself in this dark castle..."
"So you dreamed that you were a night in shining armor?" Sue asked
"I wish. I was walking through a dark castle and found myself in some throne room. That's when I came face-to-face with this evil man. He was wearing a green cloak and metal mask and called himself Doom." Franklin explained as he took another bite of his breakfast. Completely unaware of his families reaction.
All four adults were staring wide-eyed at one another.
Even so that Johnny looked completely shocked and unusually spooked?
Franklin looked up to see the nervous glances of his family.
"Is everything alright?" he asked confusingly.
"Everyone snapped out of it and put very sheepish smiles on their faces.
"Y-Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine!" Sue Richards lied
Ben coughed.
"H-Hey, shrimp. How's about you finish breakfast and we'll head out to a comic book store? My treat!" Ben offered randomly, trying to change the subject.
"A-And maybe we can take you to visit the X-Mansion as well? It's been a while since we gifted those mutants with our presence.' Johnny smiled nervously.
Seemingly convinced, Franklin complies.
A few minutes later, the three walks into the elevator and leaves the Baxter Building with only husband and wife remaining.
Sue Richards got up and headed over to the sink where she placed the dirty dishes as her husband tried to comprehend what he was jsut told.
"Reed? What Franklin said...you don't think?"
Reed Richards got up from his seat and approached his wife and wrapped her into a hug.
"No, dear. He's gone for good." he replied quickly
Sue holds onto her husband.
"But we believed him to have died before and he came back. What if.."
Reed looked into his wife's teary eyes.
"Sue, listen! Victor is dead. And I mean actually dead! No robotic duplicate, no faking his own death, and no clones. We buried his body under his castle in Latveria years ago." Reed explained
"Then how did our son dream of him? Franklin has never seen or heard anything about that monster." Sue cried as she buried her face on her husband's chest.
"I-I don't know." Reed sighed as he held his wife closer.
Multiple thoughts swarmed in Reed's mind all at once.
Was Victor Von Doom really dead?
He remembers placing his old foe's dead body into the coffin itself as it was chained and locked with a padlock and buried deep, deep into the earth.
But why did Franklin dream of Doom? Reed wonders.
Reed Richards has never been a religious man.
But he prays to God that the day Dr. Doom would possibly return will never pass.
I had this idea in my head for a while and finally decided to get it made. I never was a huge reader of the Fantastic Four comics but I still love the characters and also glad that they'll be returning to the MCU very soon!