Author's Note: Hroom. Not much to say… err, I lurve Seventh Tower? =D AND SAY HELLO TO CROW! ^-^
Disclaimer: Still down own 'em… I'll be sure to notify you all if I ever do.
Chapter Two
Nightmare
Darkness.
Ferek's eyes slowly fluttered open. His whole body was covered in a strange tingling sensation, and he shivered. Slowly, the world around him began to focus, and Ferek sat up. Putting a hand to his forehead, he felt dizzy and sick.
He was sitting in an old whitewash room in a dirty bed, tangled in the sheets. It was vaguely familiar, though Ferek's ill head was still muddled…
Ferek suddenly heard someone approached the room. He spun around, caught in the sheets, and fell to the floor with a thud, not realizing that he didn't feel a thing.
And then he realized where he was: the Underfolk Caretaker's Hall.
Scrambling to his feet, Ferek untangled himself from the mess of blankets and looked back at the bed. It was the same bed in which Tari had lay, but it was empty now. Where had she gone?
Terrified that the Chosen had taken her, Ferek cried out and ran to the door, mind racing with a thousand thoughts—is she alive, where is the vial, how did I get here…?
Ferek threw open the door and ran straight into her.
From the floor he stared at Tari in shock. It was her, standing there, looking down at him in playful confusion. Her red hair fell gently around her soft features.
Ferek couldn't move. The last he remembered, he'd been in the Hall of Nightmares… and now this? Ferek shook his head in disbelief. Perhaps they'd let him out, and Tari had somehow been healed…
The older girl grinned but said nothing. Ferek, unable to control himself, leapt up ad hugged her 'round the waist and began to cry. "Tari!"
For a moment she just smiled, her hands resting lightly on the boy's shoulders. Then her arm moved the slightest bit, and Ferek only had one terrible glimpse of the sharp, silver dagger in her hand…
He didn't feel something that could quite be described as pain. He felt the dagger slip between his shoulder blade and spine and he felt his flesh tearing, but all that came to Ferek's senses was the cold, cold steel.
But his heart pounded in shock and fear and his eyes were wide as his arms released the girl and he staggered backwards. No blood came from the wound in his back, but he could feel the dagger lodged there. Tari—or the thing that looked like Tari—merely stared at him, a calm and somehow sadistically pleased expression on her face.
"Tari?"
And suddenly the red-haired girl's placid eyes shot open wide and her mouth split into a fanged grin. Tari's pupils narrowed into catlike slits. Her skin paled as though all her blood had bee drained away, and then began to…
Ferek gasped and scurried backwards against the far wall. Tari's skin had begun to… split… along jagged lines that appeared on her cheeks, arms, neck, and legs. They ran along the whole of her body like worms, spitting shadow that oozed over her skin and threatened to envelop her.
She shattered.
Tari's form split into a thousand shards, breaking along the worm-lines and falling to jagged pieces of shadow on the floor. Ferek's breath hitched in his throat and he was crying, though he didn't realize it himself.
For a moment Ferek merely stared at the crackling, simmering pile of what had been Tari. He was breathing hard and willing himself to move, but his body refused to obey. As he stared, Ferek slowly began to realize that the shards were moving… no, not only that… they were growing.
Pulsing and trembling, they were doubling in size every few seconds. Their surfaces were moving like water, changing shape and sprouting what appeared to be arms and legs…
Ferek screamed and finally found it in him to get to his feet. The boy looked frantically left and right, but somehow the doors and windows were gone as though they'd melted into the wall.
Before him, the pieces of the Tari-creature had become a thousand vicious Spiritshadows, bug-like and covered in extra limbs and pincers. From what Ferek assumed to be their faces came a low gnashing sound, and they all stank of decay and age.
He had long since realized where he was and what was happening, but it was then that it dawned on him completely—this was some horribly lifelike dream Fashnek was controlling, and the Hall of Nightmares had him.
"She's dead," one of the insect Spiritshadows spat. "Dead, dead, dead…" The thing bore Fashnek's voice.
An image of Tari appeared in the center of their black mass. She was pale and obviously cold, holding her arms around herself. Ferek wanted to run to her, but in an instant the Spiritshadows had toppled her and she fell into their claws. A terrible ripping sound followed, accompanied by Tari's scream, and a stream of crimson shot into the air, bloody and bright…
On his knees again, Ferek could not move nor scream. Two of the insects crept to his side and pinned him down before he realized what was happening.
"Your sister is dead. Your sister is dead. Your sister is dead."
"Tari!"
Then the Spiritshadows advanced on him, overtaking him in a mass of black. Ferek screamed, or at least tried to, but the moment he opened his mouth something leapt inside and crawled down his throat. Then another, and another…
The Spiritshadows surrounded Ferek; he was being tossed about in a sea of them. They shrank and crawled inside him through his ears and mouth. Slowly they tore away his clothing until he was bare and exposed, feeling the tiny hairs on the insects brush against him all over.
Ferek then felt them bite him; they sunk their pincers deep into his naked flesh. Again there was no pain, only cold and the sharp tingling. But this time Ferek could see himself bleeding. His innards spilled out of a gash in his stomach and the insects fed greedily upon them, slurping and laughing…
A Spiritshadow began to feed upon Ferek's exposed heart, and the boy's consciousness was shattered, and all the things that made him Ferek fell apart.
~*~
Outside the globe, Fashnek felt Ferek's spirit break. It was as though his mind had simply snapped, and Fashnek smiled, recalling the minds of thousands before the boy breaking in turn. This had been his goal, and now his task was complete.
He scuttled to the machine and touched his human hand to a large Sunstone upon it. The globe slid open with a whir and a hiss, exposing the crumpled boy inside.
Ferek was slumped in a heap against the bottom of the sphere, trembling and twitching violently. He was indeed unconscious, but his eyes were open wide, pupils dilated and blank.
Children are always so easy to break, thought Fashnek in satisfaction as he pulled Ferek to the floor. The boy did nothing as his head hit the hard tile.
"Take him back to the Underfolk levels," Fashnek said aloud, seemingly to himself or the shadows. Two men stepped out from behind another machine.
Both of them wore tattered red robes, and both were definitely Chosen, but their eyes were glazed and they said nothing intelligible. For these two were also prisoners who had lost their minds to the nightmares within the globe, now slaves to Fashnek's will.
They grabbed Ferek briskly by the shoulders and hauled him upright, dragging him along the ground. Fashnek nodded approvingly and they left though a large door. Behind the two men, their small Spiritshadows followed.
~*~
Ferek could see, but he couldn't think, and his ears only heard echoes and sounds that weren't real.
As he was dragged through several hallways and down steep staircases, Ferek heard the sounds of gnashing insect pincers. He saw blood all over himself, his innards spilling out, and black swarms surrounding him. These illusions paralyzed him with fear and kept him in his coma.
Your sister is dead. Your sister is dead. Your sister is dead…
Somewhere, far in the recesses of his mind, Ferek was screaming. He watched the men drag him but did not see them clearly. He heard them mumble and grunt but only heard pincers and Tari's cries of pain.
Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead!
One of the men's Spiritshadows trotted up beside them so Ferek could see it in the corner of his eye. It truly had a doglike shape, with shadowy paws and droopy ears, but in Ferek's mind it was different. It was disgusting and hairy, with sharp pincers and gnawing insect jaws and horrible beady eyes—
Every muscle in Ferek's body tensed and his eyes lost their blank stare, coming into focus. He tried to scream but threw up instead, turning his head to the side and coughing as he was dragged.
The men both let go of him in surprise, and Ferek fell to the ground, choking, screaming, and vomiting. He whirled around and saw both Spiritshadows a distance away, both moving their evil claws and scuttling closer on their thin, hairy legs…
Ferek screamed again and blindly got to his feet, abandoning the men and charging down the hall. He ran through the maze of the Underfolk corridors, recognizing none, psychotic and driven by fear.
She's dead!
Pincers, blood, innards, Tari's dagger.
He couldn't even recall the burning pain in his shoulder from the Caretaker's Red Ray.
Insect shadows crawling down his throat, hairs all over his naked body.
As he ran every shadow around him seemed to leap out at Ferek, and, crying, he pressed on, stumbling out of control.
The boy with the feathered cap stepped into the hall and had no chance. The moment he turned around, he was hit head-on by the boy who'd been sprinting full-speed through the corridor.
Both boys fell over, Ferek on top. The smaller boy screamed and swatted at the capped boy, desperately trying to disentangle himself.
The tall boy dislodged himself and Ferek fell to his hands and knees. He was obviously tired beyond imagination, breathing hard and trembling all over. Ferek wanted to run, but he couldn't move.
"Are you alright? Slow down next time, kid."
The voice was distant and Ferek looked up. He saw a distorted image of a tall, thin boy with pale hair and a cap donned with a black feather.
Like a feather from Rornir…
"Kid…?"
Ferek whimpered, crying and sobbing. "Help… she's dead… she's dead and they're coming. They'll cut me and go inside me and—"
He suddenly gagged and lurched forward, vomiting again, coughing and gasping. The other boy's eyes widened in surprise and he stepped back.
"Please…"
Ferek moaned and began to fall over, but the other boy jumped and caught him. Ferek's head flopped uselessly back as the tall boy held him, looking him over in concern and confusion.
Though the small boy was unconscious, his eyes were still open and he trembled and shook. He was pale, smelling of vomit, though the tall boy could sense something else… something sickly-sweet and relaxing, so easily distinguished from all other smells.
The boy smelled like Bennem had after returning from the Hall. The tall boy sighed in sadness and anger. "The Chosen do such things to children? I should stick them in that horrible place and see how they can deal with it, let alone a boy like this…"
Ferek groaned, and the other boy picked him up. Though he was reluctant, he couldn't just leave the kid there. He, driven mad by the Nightmare, would end up being killed or, haphazardly or not, killing himself.
In his dream, the shadows were receding a bit, though their presence remained. They couldn't get Ferek now that he was safe with this other boy… Ferek felt a bit warmer and no longer heard the slicing pincers or the slurping insects.
He gave a shuddering sigh and relaxed, one hand clutching at the other boy's shirt. The boy with the feather blinked but didn't really mind, vaguely wondered if Bennem had felt this strange protectiveness inside when he'd been well…
Ferek slipped into a real, genuine sleep, free of nightmares and granting much-needed relief.
~*~
Author's Note: One more chapter after this. ^-^; Whee… review, please? *begs like an idiot and tempts you with chocolate*