Hello my lovely readers! I'm back with another chapter of The Nightmare Number. I was able to talk to my co-author CloudKyrystalNine and she pretty much made the beginning of this chapter, while I made the really long ending of the chapter. This is four pages long and I was not intending to have this as such a long chapter. But anyway, we hope you like chapter 10.
Astral closed his eyes to sleep, or so Yuma thought. Yuma left the room so he wouldn't disturb Astral while he slept. He took one last glance at his brother sleeping, then shut the door behind him and went back down stairs. Once Astral heard the door close behind his brother, he sat up in bed and looked around the room. All was peaceful and calm, Astral took off the covers and made his way to the window. Wondering what Dark Mist intended to do with him.
'What did Dark Mist do to me, and what does he hope to gain from this?' Astral asked himself, while looking at the moon with it's soft glow. Astral was growing more tired as the minutes went by, but something inside him told him not to sleep. He thought about this for a while, and didn't realize that Yuma had come back to check on him.
"Astral, what are you still doing up?" Yuma asked, surprised to see his brother out of bed. Astral jumped at the sound of Yuma's voice, and turned to face him. "I-uh, couldn't sleep..." Yuma didn't buy Astral's excuse. "I can tell you're lying Astral." Yuma said back with a stern face. "Alright so it's not that I couldn't sleep, it's just that I don't want to!" Astral replied back, raising his voice a little. He turned away from Yuma, back to the window to look at the moon. "Astral you have to sleep, you're going to get sick if you don't." Yuma said, trying not to raise his voice back. "I know, but what if I have another nightmare?" Astral complained, in a soft voice."You don't know that Astral. Please, just try to rest." Yuma said trying to convince his brother. "No Yuma." Astral replied back.
Look in the mirror Astral." Yuma said as he walked over to Astral, taking his wrist gently, guiding Astral over to the small mirror on there dresser. "Look at yourself Astral." Yuma said, as he stared at his brother's reflection. Astral rolled his eyes at his brother, but looked into the mirror. And what he saw slightly scared him, he saw himself with pale skin and dark black circles under his eyes from lack of sleep."
As much as the sight scared Astral, he still refused to sleep. "I don't care how I look Yuma, I refuse to sleep." Astral said as he turned away from the mirror, crossing his arms. "Astral please, don't do this. You have to sleep, I don't want you to end up back in the hospital again." Yuma said with worry, as he put his hand on Astral's shoulder. Astral yawned and rubbed his eyes, "Alright fine, you win Yuma. I'll sleep, but only for an hour or two." Astral said has he walked over to his bed. "I'll make sure you sleep longer than that Astral. Yuma said and placed the covers over him.
Astral tossed and turned as he tried to sleep, Yuma kept a watchful eye to make sure Astral went to sleep. It took a few minutes but eventually, Astral fell asleep. His breathing becoming slow and even. Yuma left the room to tell his parents that Astral's alright and that he was going to sleep. But really he wanted to keep an eye on Astral to make sure nothing happened to him. "How's Astral sweetie?" his mother asked with a smile. "He's alright mom." Yuma replied back with a smile. "I'm going to bed, if that's okay." Yuma said. "After what happened to day I think everyone could use a good night's sleep." Kazuma said. Yuma bid his parents good night and when back up to his room. Yuma breathed a sigh of relief to find Astral still asleep. Yuma walked to Astral's bed and sat down on the floor. Yuma took his brother's hand, and Astral unconsciously squeezed his hand back. Yuma smiled knowing that Astral was okay for the time being.
Out in the woods, hidden from view is Number 96. He looked up to the sky to see the moon overhead, he smiled to himself. "Now is the perfect time to activate my little present." Dark Mist said to himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated on turning his little present on. After a few minutes he opened his eyes. His left eye shined a crimson red, before returning back to it's gold color. "Let the fun and the nightmares begin." he smiled.
Astral loosened his grip on Yuma's hand, Yuma looked over thinking that Astral had woken up. But breathed out a quiet sigh of relief when he saw Astral turn on his side, still sound asleep. An hour has passed since Yuma had gotten Astral to sleep, Yuma got up from his spot on the floor to get ready for bed. But little could he know, that has brother was about to face the nightmare of a lifetime.
*In Astral's Dream*
Astral was slowly waking up in a destroyed abandoned building. "W-where am I?" he asked himself as his vision cleared. There was large piles of the destroyed building laying around, which was useful for anything to hide behind. He tried to stand, but pain ripped through his right arm. Astral groaned in pain, he looked at his arm to see a bullet wound. Somehow Astral had been shot, but how and by whom he did not know. Astral held his arm, trying to ignore the pain he felt. He slowly got to his feet and called out, "Hello, is anyone here?" Small pebbles from the piles fell to the ground as strange infected people came out of hiding. Astral stepped back, for what he saw terrified him.
The strange people had blood spilling from there eyes and mouths, their teeth were sharp, their eyes glowed with hunger, and their hands looked more like claws. "Are these people infected with some kind of virus?' Astral thought to himself. The infected people inched closer to him, making him step back onto a rusted pipe making it rattle. That's when the people, if you can call them that, jumped towards him. Astral was lucky enough that he didn't get scratched by one of the creature's claws. He runs out of the building, ignoring the pain that was shooting up through his arm. He makes his way into the woods, just barely able to lose the creatures chasing him. Out of breath, Astral looked for a safe place to hide. In the distance, a decent sized shed could be seen. He looked around for any sign of the creatures from earlier. But all was clear, Astral slowly opened the door and coughed from the dust that came out. He went in and found a working flashlight which he used to light his surroundings. He made his way to the back of the shed and was surprised by who he found.
Astral could see the figure of a person in the shadows. As Astral got closer to the figure, the more detail he could see. The figure took on the shape of Astral's dear brother Yuma, but Astral wasn't completely sure that it was Yuma unless he called out to it. "Yuma… Yuma is that you?" Astral called out. "Yes my dear brother, It's me." The figure said, sounding exactly like Yuma. Astral inched his way closer. Relieved that his brother was okay, or so he thought. The figure pulled on a thin rope to turn a light on. With the light on, Astral could clearly see that the figure was indeed Yuma. Yuma was facing away from Astral, until he felt Astral's hand on his shoulder. Yuma turned around to face his dear brother. Astral let out a cry of shock and fear upon seeing his brother. Yuma's eyes were a deep crimson red and bleeding. His teeth and fingernails were sharp and silver in color. "No…" Astral whispered out. Yuma took a step towards Astral, while he took a step back. Only to hear the door slam shut behind him. Astral looked behind him to see Tori. But sadly she was just like Yuma, infected with the virus. They were both about to pounce on Astral.
*In the Real World*
"Astral! Astral! Wake up! Astral!" Yuma yelled as he shook Astral, trying to wake him. But Astral was still stuck in his nightmare. In the nightmare, Astral's back was against the wall. With Yuma and Tori slowly closing the gap between them. Yuma shook Astral harder and continued to call his name. Astral woke up with a scream of pure terror. Mira and Kazuma burst through the door upon hearing Astral scream. Mira rushed over to Astral's side and held him in her arms. Astral cried out of fear and held his mother tightly as if he would lose her if he didn't. Astral hoped that the nightmare was just a one time thing, but sadly it wasn't. Every time he went to sleep he would have the same nightmare. Five weeks have gone by since the nightmares have started. Astral had gotten very little sleep. Mira and Kazuma were talking to all different types of doctors over the phone. Trying to see what they could do to help their son. But nothing that the doctors prescribed helped.
Each time Astral had the nightmare, he made the same mistakes. But one thing stood out to him. Each time he was cornered by Yuma and Tori, Dark Mist would come to save him. Astral tried to figure out why out of all the people he knew, why it was Dark Mist that kept saving him. But he couldn't find an answer as to why it was him. Astral looked out the window as night begins to take hold of the sky, and the moon took its place among the stars. 'Here we go again, another sleepless night." Astral thought to himself. Yuma watched his brother worriedly as he looked out the window. 'What could be causing Astral to have these nightmares?' Yuma asked himself. That's when the answer hit him. "Dark Mist's gift." Yuma said to himself quietly. Yuma walked over to his brother and put a hand on his shoulder, "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Awful." Astral replied, not looking away from the moon. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" Yuma asked. Astral looked away from the moon's soft glow to look at Yuma and asked, "Yuma, why can't I sleep?" Yuma wanted to tell him that he didn't know. But seeing the dark black circles under his eyes, Yuma couldn't bring himself to lie to Astral. "Astral…" Yuma began, "You can't sleep because of Number 96, do you remember... what he did to you?" Yuma hesitantly asked.
Astral yawns and rubs his eyes, "Kinda, why?" "Whatever his little gift is, it might be causing you to have these nightmares." Yuma replied back. "Now it all makes sense." Astral said looking up to the moon. "What makes sense now Astral?" Yuma asked confused as to what Astral was getting at. "In my nightmares, Dark Mist was always the one to save me." Astral said yawning again. "So what does that mean?" Yuma asked. Astral turned back to looked at Yuma for a moment. "It means he's the only one who can stop the nightmares. But you and I both know what he wants in return for stopping them." Astral said turning back to look at the moon. "Yeah, that power he claims you have." Yuma replied, worried for Astral's safety. "We have no choice Yuma, we have to go into the woods and find him." Astral said, shifting his gaze from the moon to the woods.
Please review if you liked this chapter. See what happens between Yuma, Astral and Dark Mist in chapter 11. Bye!