Author's note: Okay, *rubs hands together maliciously* this is by far my favorite chapter, why you ask? I don't know, I'm a twisted person. As always picks up where the last chapter ended. Why do I get the feeling that people are gonna hate me once they read this one??
Rating: It's a definite PG-13 if not worse. Little blood here and there, the usual stuff. For some reason I feel that this part has some very gory depictions. You have been warned!
Matt was fast asleep when the phone began to ring. Gabumon slowly stirred and opened his eyes. He rolled over and went back to sleep when he could no longer hear the noise. Maremon had cut the phone wires.
"Now to finish what I started digi-destined," he said as he made his way to Matt's room. "I will capture you in my dream catcher!" he yelled.
"Matt wake up!" Gabumon cried. "Maremon's back, you have to get out of here!"
Matt was startled by the sudden shouts from his digimon, he jumped up out of his bed and looked on in fear as he came face to face with Maremon a second time.
"Dream Catcher!" Maremon shouted as he threw a ball of blue light at Matt. The boy dodged the attack and slammed through the doorway as he made his way down the hall. Gabumon tried with futile efforts to defeat Maremon. He pummeled him with every attack he knew, and still nothing stopped the evil mon.
"I need to digivolve, this isn't working!" he shouted.
Maremon had Gabumon cornered, "Come back here boy, or your digimon is dust!" he threatened.
Matt heard him, and feared for Gabumon's safety. He just couldn't leave his friend.
"Don't hurt him!" Matt yelled to Maremon as he burst through the doorway.
"Yeah right! Just watch me!" he laughed as he was about to hit Gabumon with his Dream Catcher attack.
"NO!" Matt screamed as he dove in between Gabumon and the blue light.
"Matt stop!" Gabumon cried, but it was too late, the shiny, ethereal light swallowed him up.
"What have you done with Matt!?" Gabumon yelled.
"Muwahahahaha…"Maremon cackled, "I have captured him in my realm of nightmares." he said as he swung the charcoal colored dream catcher back and forth in front of Gabumon. "You'll never get him back now!!"
With that, the dark digimon disappeared into the thin air, leaving a very distraught Gabumon behind.
"No! I'll get you back Matt!" he shouted, tears welling up in his eyes. "I've failed, I've failed as a digimon. I couldn't protect my friend," he sobbed. Gabumon fell to his knees and began to cry.
Hours later, everyone was assembled at Izzy's house.
"Don't you think this is rather late," Mimi yawned.
"It's never too late to save my brother!" T.K. said heatedly.
"Come on Tai, we don't even know where they are!" Joe commented.
"But our digivices should lead us to Matt's location." he shot back.
"True," Izzy added, "But they could be anywhere."
"That's why we split up into teams!" Tai explained. "Me, Joe, and T.K. will search the North side of town. You, Mimi, Sora, and Kari will search the South side. This will each give us the advantage of land and air digimon, and Gomamon will give us the advantage of water, because the North side is closer to the waterfront."
"Good thinking Tai!" Sora commented, "Let's go everybody."
"What about me?" Gabumon said with a look of guilt and depression.
"Look Gabumon, it's not your fault, you did the best you could," Tai tried to reassure him.
"No Tai! Matt's gone and it is my fault!"
"If my brother were here, he wouldn't blame this on you, you tried Gabumon and that's all anyone can do." T.K. stated.
"You can come with us," Gomamon added, "we could use the extra set of eyes." he smiled, trying to cheer him up.
"Okay," Gabumon said, still feeling responsible for Matt's disappearance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Matt felt like he had been hit over the head with a ton of bricks. He sat up groggily, rubbed his head and looked around. This place he was in was like one he had never seen before. It reminded him of the many descriptions he had heard of Hell. He could hear shrieks and voices screaming in agony, and suddenly Matt felt very frightened. He wanted out of this place quick.
Where am I, he wondered, and as if his mind had been read, a voice answered.
"You are in the Realm of Nightmares young one." the voice boomed.
"Who are you!?" Matt shouted.
"That is none of your concern. You are here now, which means you are eternally condemned to this realm."
"What!?" Matt said alarmed. The fear in his expression could blatantly be seen now.
"But again, that is of the least of your concerns."
"What do you mean!? Then what should I be concerned about?"
"That!" the voice boomed.
Suddenly the ground began to shift and crumble. Molten lava began to shoot up through the cracks in the foundation. Matt darted this way and that trying to avoid being singed by the volcanic liquid. He kept running until he found a giant doorway. Matt reached up and turned the knob. The door opened and Matt ducked in just as the lava engulfed the entire room. Matt stepped forward after shutting the door, but found that there was nothing solid underneath him. He began to freefall into the darkness until he landed in something icy cold and wet. It was water. Instead of floating to the surface, the water seemed to pull him down. Matt struggled to swim to the surface, but the current would not allow him. Matt glanced around in panic, as he was slowly running out of air. Then he felt something painful bite into his leg. When he looked down he saw that a shark had latched onto his leg and was now dragging him deeper into the murky depths. The more he struggled, the more pain the shark inflicted upon him. His lungs were burning, crying out for oxygen. He could see red streaks of water rising above him and when he looked back down he realized that the blood oozing out of the fresh wound in his leg was causing it.
Then for no reason at all, the scenery changed. Matt was no longer in the water, and the shark was nowhere to be seen. He just lay there soaking wet on what felt like cold pavement. When Matt inspected his leg he noticed that he was still bleeding. The little nicks and cuts on his hands from his previous run-in with Maremon were almost healed, but the gash he had received on his arm was starting to ache all over again. Matt then became aware of the loud squeaking that seemed to be getting closer and closer. When he sat up he saw hundreds of bats heading towards him. He pulled himself up and began to run for safety, but there was nowhere to hide!
The bats whizzed past his ears and kept biting him with their little fangs. It was not long before he had tiny cuts all over his arms, neck, and the rest of his body. The bats were swooping down and tugging at his hair. He tried to swat at them, but every time he did he received another painful bite. They then began to latch onto him and started sucking the blood from his open wounds. Matt screamed in terror and tried desperately to rip them off. In his panic he tripped over something and went flying into the air and finally landed in a bloody heap a few feet away. The bats were gone.
Matt cried out in pain. There were so many cuts and scrapes on him now; he thought he was going to bleed to death, despite how small they were. All was quiet. Matt wanted to see what he had tripped on since there didn't seem to be anything on the ground. He thought that maybe he had tripped over his own feet. He crawled over to the spot where he had felt his feet go out from under him. To his astonishment, there was something in the road. Matt threw his hand up over his mouth to keep from vomiting and his eyes went wide as he realized that what he was looking at was the decayed corpse of his little brother.
"Oh my God!" he cried.
Matt began to feel very sick to his stomach and turned his head to throw up. Everything became a blur to him. He didn't know where he was or what was going on. Matt sat there and started to hyperventilate. His heart began to beat faster. He had never experienced so much terror in his entire life. The blonde boy brought his hands up to his face and covered his eyes. He was trembling all over. Matt slumped onto his side and curled up into a little ball beside his dead brother.
"If I have to remain here forever," he whispered, "then I wish I were dead."
Matt continued to repeat the phrase over and over. He had lost his mind, lost his nerve, and was lying in a pool of his own blood. He felt like his soul had been swallowed up into an empty void. Physically he felt nothing; his entire body was numb. Then as he lay there, staring blankly out into the dark void, he felt his heart stop. His mouth hung open as he pushed air in and out of his lungs. How could this be, he thought. Matt clenched his hair and began to scream for all he was worth. He screamed until his throat was raw and hurt and then he just laid there silently watching the dark clouds around him circle and close in…
To be continued…
OMG! Was that wicked or what? I feel so evil!
Yikes! Didn't think I was capable of inflicting so much torture on one character. I know I'll probably get a lot of flames for this one, but I assure you things get better for Matt…maybe…*laughs maniacally* Next chapter's coming soon! =)