Hi everyone!
I hope you're all enjoying the current peak season of drabbles! Not to jinx the streak or anything, but I'm currently up to #60, which means that there will certainly be quite a few more before (if it happens at all) the stream runs dry, so to speak.
Also, other exciting and only partially related news: I'm taking a short fiction writing class! Yay!
The first two days, our professor told us that we sometimes have to just buckle down and squash our inner critics while we write (and post!), so hopefully that will inspire me to, er… also be inspirational! Hope you enjoy!
Author's Note: This drabble refers to Season R in the anime, when Mamoru begins having nightmares of Usagi's death if he gets too close to her and breaks up with her as a result.
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100 Themed Drabbles
Ala Verity
54. Nightmare (Word Count: 582)
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Endymion rarely slept anymore. When he did manage to catch a few hours of sleep, the nightmares continued to haunt him.
He was standing at the altar. His heart quickened with excitement as he gazed at the breathtakingly beautiful figure in white approaching him, beaming and radiant under her pale veil.
Her foot crossed the threshold to the chapel when, without warning, the chapel floor burst open under her feet with a terrifying screech and blazing rocks flew up out of the earth like flaming furies from Hell. Usagi screamed, trapped by the pool of white surrounding her feet, when a fireball of granite suddenly roared by, ripping through her airy veil and right between her shocked eyes.
The pool of white slowly became mingled with red.
"No! NO!"
Endymion was still screaming when he awoke to an empty bed, drenched in cold sweat and gasping for air.
After minutes of fading horror had passed in the unrelenting darkness of his bedroom, Endymion fumbled with trembling hands for the picture he always kept on his bedside table. He held it centimeters from his face until his bloodshot eyes could make out the faint shimmering of his dead wife's silvery hair in the faded picture, and until his breathing evened once more in the terrifying silence.
The night came, however, when the dream consumed him completely. He awoke from the nightmare crying as he had not cried since the day Serenity had died in the accident, salty tears mingling with the blood that Endymion drew from his own lips when he bit down to choke back the sobs. And he knew inside that he could not take it anymore.
He slipped shakily out of bed onto legs that would barely support him and stumbled out of the room.
Of course, he knew that the only magical way to get rid of the nightmares was to pass it on to somebody else; but he also knew that there was not a single living soul that he would ever inflict that kind of torture on, not even to escape his own unbearable pain. Not a single soul, except one.
He crawled down the corridor and pushed open the great oaken doors.
"Pluto," he whispered in a hoarse voice when he had pulled himself into the vast chamber. "Please."
The Guardian of Time nodded as if she had been expecting him, her eyes unreadable as she received the weightless package from her king.
"Thank you." Endymion's will seemed to give out completely with these final words and he fell to his knees, trembling and sobbing at Pluto's feet.
The woman turned impassively to the golden gates, murmuring incantations of a time long past, and finally released the bundle of nightmares into the vast unknown beyond the Time Portal.
"It is done, Your Majesty."
A strangled moan ripped out of the broken man's throat, the desperate cry of a wounded animal. However, in spite of the hours that passed, the anguish would not leave him and he could not find the will to stand again.
Serenity's death had all but killed his soul at the time. There was no way to spare himself the agony of it; it was something he would have to live with for the rest of his tormented, lonely days. Endymion could only hope that, in sending his nightmares to his past self, he would at least be able to prepare him for the pain that the future would one day inevitably bring.
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Love it? Like it? Hate it and hoping that the nuclear warheads get to it? Even with all this coaching on positive thinking about writing, it's hard to break free from old habits…
Lastly, though, thank you for all of your lovely reviews! You really know how to keep a gal running (and flattered!). As always, tomatoes and extensive critic's sheets gladly welcomed!
Cheerios, Ala
