Nido awakens in the middle of the floor. Groaning, he gets up. Suddenly he notices that something is wrong.
"What the hell!?"
The Linkshell house is in a horrible state, the walls are bare and there are holes in the floor. It is as if no one has lived here in ages...suddenly, Nido is hit with a pang of fear.
"Mommy? MOMMY?! MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU!?"
A faint and angelic voice drifts out from the shadows before him.
"Nido.......Nido......"
Nido's eyes go wide.
"Chihiru? Chihiru is that you!? Where are you?"
A beautiful Mithra steps out of the darkness, she is dressed in a flowing white gown that billows in an unknown wind. Slowly, great white wings sprout from behind her and open in a heavenly glory. She looks down to the shivering Tarutaru and smiles, her eyes filled with tears.
"Good bye, little Nido..."
Chihiru closes her eyes and falls backward into the darkness.
"NO WAIT! DON'T GO! DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE!"
Nido jumps up and tries to catch Chihiru as she falls, but just as Nido gets behind her to catch her, she passes right through him and smashes into the dusty floor, shattering into millions of tiny shards of glass. Stunned and shocked, the Tarutaru falls to his knees and starts to cry.
"Not her...please not her..."
Suddenly another voice drifts up from the darkness.
"Nido...my little one?"
Nido immediately stops crying and looks up in a panic.
"MOMMY?!"
Nido races into the hallway, calling for Reiswind. He stops and finds that the walls are smeared with blood, the blood is still wet. He shakes his head in disbelief and continues to run down the dark, endless hallway. Running and running, the portraits upon the walls, each of a member of Asheron's Dream, seem to be changing. Each face is contorted in horrible fear and terror as he passes them. Nido does the best he can to ignore this frightening sight and continues to race down the dark hallway, the pictures on the wall seem to watch him as he runs past their silent screaming faces. Eventually he runs past a door that is slightly ajar and stops short and turns around.
A smeared path of blood leads inside the open door. Collecting as much courage as he can, Nido opens the door slowly and finds a horrible sight awaiting him. Reiswind and Samanosuke lie upon the floor, holding each other in an embrace of love, a pool of scarlet flows beneath them. Nido backs up against the wall, sobbing.
"Mother...Father...no...please no..."
Suddenly he looks down at his hands...
...they are covered in blood.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Nido wakes up in a cold sweat, shivering. There is a knock on the bedroom door.
"Nido? You okay?"
Nido sighs and wipes his forehead.
"Yeah...I'm...I'm in Missez."
A female Tarutaru dressed in a Vermillion Cloak opens the door and walks in.
"Are you going to stay in bed all day? Come on we...hey, did you have a nightmare?"
"Uh, yeah..."
Missezjingles walks over to the bed and looks at Nido.
"You look like you saw something horrible...do you want to talk abou-"
"NO!...uh....no not now...thanks..."
"Hmm...okay, but come on, you need to get ready soon. We're finishing up."
"Okay...thank you..."
Missezjingles smiles and leaves the room, Nido sighs and gets out of bed. He picks up a Seer's Tunic off the bedpost and puts it on. He looks to the sleeping Rooster in the corner. He walks over and softly strokes the Rooster's head, the Rooster wakes up and looks up at him lazily.
"Come on Mr. Sprinkles...it's time...let's go..."
The Rooster seems saddened but gets out of his nest and heads out the bedroom door.
After taking one last look, Nido leaves his room and shuts the door behind him. He goes into the hallway and stands outside Reiswind's door, he opens it and looks inside. The room is completely empty and desolate. Sighing, he starts to close the door but stops when he notices something on the floor. He goes over and picks up an old photo. It is of Reiswind and himself, he is on her shoulders and they are both laughing. Staring at the photo he starts to cry. Wiping away the tears, he puts the photo in his pocket and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Walking into the foyer, Nido finds Misterjingles at the front door.
"Ya ready Nido?"
Nido takes a final look around and sighs.
"Yeah...I'm ready..."
Misterjingles smiles and goes outside to the Chocobo waiting for him. As he leaves, Nido places a hand upon the doorknob and closes his eyes.
"This Linkshell House has served us well...we shall never forget the times we have spent here, the good, the bad and the frightening. The house may fall but the memories shall live on in our hearts and our souls."
Nido pulls the door shut behind him and steps out onto the curb. There is a rumbling sound and the linkshell house starts to shake. The windows start shattering one after another, the potted plants burst into flames, the garden splits open and the lawn chairs fall into the gaping maw. Then the house itself fell with a great crash.
After the dust had cleared, where there stood a great house, now lay a great pile of debris. Slowly the debris began to fade away, and then there was nothing but an empty lot.
Nido sighed and walked over to the Chocobo waiting for him, it knelt down and the Tarutaru mounted into the saddle. After taking one last look at the empty lot, Nido nodded and they raced off into the distance.
-END-