Chapter 12: Nightmares 2
The chains bruised his skin, purple blotches on his wrists and ankles. He struggled like a wildcat against the iron. Alone again, imprisoned again. Tears and tears and tears. Like a child Goku cried out. He wailed, the loneliness like a dagger in his gut. His sorrow subdued when Gojyo re-emerged from the darkness. He had a secretive smile on his face. "Gojyo, GOJYO, PLEASE LET ME GO! SET ME FREE..." Goku trailed off, his pleas mere whispers against his reflection in the cold silver blade that his friend held in his hand. Long elegant fingers curled around the decorated handle. Goku caught the sight of his frightened self and looked into Gojyo's eyes. The fire in his eyes ignited as he tore into the monkey king's flesh. He cried out in pain. "Gojyo, what're you doing" He screamed, tears like dew in his golden eyes. "Heart of a lion, I'll cut it out." He breathed in his ear. "But why...why Gojyo..." He moaned through his tears, the blood like crimson tears trickling down the contours of his abdomen. "Gojyo I...I..." The boy trailed off, gashes painted in his arms, little symbols in his legs. "Do NOT use the word "love" with me Monkey. It's meaningless. You are meaningless. Sweet thing like you would only be good for a screw." Goku struggled against Gojyo "Give up Goku. Let the darkness consume you..." The pain of the blade was nothing compared to the stabbing words that Gojyo threw at Goku.
The earth shook, the lightning cracked like a whip in the blood-red sky. Then everything fell into a pitch darkness. He froze, breathing hard. Confused, alone, tears like hot water on his skin. He heard footsteps in the darkness, knees underneath his chin. He felt a hand on his face, the tender flesh of a woman. Her lips against his lips, her tears brushing onto his cheek. He sat there, stunned. She smelt like flowers and love. He snaked his arms around her waist. Stroking his hair, fingernails torn, silk of her nightgown frayed. "Mmm, I think I might like destroying you..." She said against his lips. Gojyo's eyes shot open, he struggled as light flooded in about him. He was a child again in his home. In his living room. His mother knelt before him, her lipstick smeared, seductive smile. Gojyo pushed himself back against a wall. She stood, a smirk plastered into her perfect exterior. "What? You're too good for me now?" She demanded, taking an axe into her hands "Your brother wasn't." Tears took form in his frightened eyes, his mother towering over him. "P-please...don't" He begged. Goku sat in the couch across the room, glasses on the edge of his nose reading a newspaper. "Goku, help me!" Child Gojyo pleaded. His hand was ignored, his tears were scoffed at. "You're pathetic" laughed Goku. Gojyo's brother passed through the door wielding a sword he rose it behind his mother. Goku leapt from his spot and pulled a gun from his belt. "Goku..?" Gojoy watched wide-eyed as bullets tore into his brother's fragile body. "NO!" He screamed. The mother's grin broadened as she hurled the axe down to Gojyo. He moved and caught the blade with his leg. A deep gash in his thigh. Goku chuckled and it seemed to echo throughout the nightmare.
A light shone on the decorated doorway to his old master's chambers. Sanzo stared at it, confused. He pushed himself off of the ground, weary steps following the path to the next terror in store. The doors were heavy as he pushed it open. The scent of wood dampened by rain and lust illustrated the room. Sanzo glanced at the window, the bed was in the other room. He heard voices. Carefully, he passed through the sitting room and its elaborate and beautiful decor to the bedroom. He froze in the doorway, the bed a rumpled mess of sin and betrayal. He stepped back a little, Ebony's back arched his master's lips at her throat. Her face flushed with blood, she moaned his name. His fingers at her breast and eyes closed. Sanzo stood in the doorway unable to move. Ebony's gaze fell on the priest and she smiled at him. A dagger in her hand, it was hovering over his master's back. Her knees tight about the man's waist. She winked at Sanzo "No! Master! Ebony don't!" She launched the blade into his master's back. He convulsed, the blood trickling from his mouth to her face. Ebony threw the body off of her and walked towards Sanzo. Nude body shimmered in the morning sun. He shook his head and pulled the gun from his robes. "Don't make me." He said tonelessly. She leant against him with her seductive little frame pressed against his. "Don't make me." He said again. She laughed and pressed her lips against his. The bullet tore through her body like some uncanny missile. She staggered back and reached out to him, bloody fingers trembling to mirror the quiver in her bottom lip. She dropped to the ground and grasped the hem of his robe with her dead grip.
The blood soaked her clothes, she was in a pool of it. Hot and bitter. A pool of blood so dark it looked black. The corpses face down and white, lily dead limbs frozen in their last attempts for freedom. The dead girls that were also taken from her village, they lay lifeless in this pool. With her, naked and alone. The blood was getting hotter, steam rose from her soaked flesh as she rose her arm from the pool. "SOMEBODY HELP ME" she screamed out and only her desperate echoes answered. She was suddenly dragged under the surface, the blood cleared and Sanzo held her hand. His gun close at hand, bullet holes in his body. One of his beautiful violet eyes completely missing. The flesh on his hand was rotting. He dragged her from the water and tossed her to the ground. Blonde hair like angel's wings glistened in the sun. He didn't smile, didn't frown, didn't cry. The grass was a welcome softness beneath her exhausted body. He knelt at her side and his sharp nails pierced her shoulder, the blood spewing from the wound. "Sanzo, stop it!" She screamed. He didn't listen and continued to dig claws into her tender flesh. Her screams of pain unsettled the birds perched in the trees.
Hakkai tore the iron bars with his strong and trembling hands. Reached the dead girls inside. Their blood saturated the ground. The blade discarded. Their eyes were open, tears on their cheeks. Death tears. Hakkai took Ebony into his arms and her lifeless limbs went stiff. She was not slack like he had expected, but stiff. And cold...so cold his little sister was. She shared the element of emerald in her eyes like he did and Kanan. Kanan's body appeared only inches from Kerri's. Ebony's lips melted into a peaceful looking smile /You can't protect me big brother...when you forget that I exist.../ He heard her voice in his head and the tears refused to spill. "Choose" Kanan said, her corpse propped up against the cell wall. "Choose" said Kerri, body sprawled on the ground at Hakkai's knees. "Choose" said Ebony in the circle of her brother's arms. Kerri clawed her way to rest her head in his lap "Three of us Hakkai...two must die..." Kanan stood before him, her smile rotting. "...who will it be? Who do you choose?" She asked quietly. Hakkai looked from one woman to the other. "Do not make me choose" he said softly. "Do not make me chose" he said again. Ebony slipped from his grasp. "I'll chose for you." She said and plunged her hand into Kanan's chest. Hakkai watched helplessly as his little sister tore her own sibling's heart from the protection of its ribcage. "Ebony, don't." He whispered weakly, unable to sustain his normal energy in his voice. She smiled and tore the flesh away from her own throat with her blade. Kerri leant against the wall, blood on her hands. "...m-me?" She said quizzically.
The wood launched splinters into her back, the rope burning her arms and chest. Golden straw lay at her feet looking beautiful but somehow threatening. The light bounced off of the ground, which was just one giant mirror. Kerri saw the straw, the stake she was bound to. Her body bruised, her arm was broken and ribs. She could feel it...that pain was unmistakable. Her new friends, the ones who she could have loved like family one day all stood around her. The glass platform was high, steps fashioned leading up to her side. "Burn witch!" Goku yelled with a sinister eagerness in his eyes. "Burn" Sanzo said "Burn" Gojyo chanted. Ebony and Hakkai stood by her holding torches. "Burn" they both whispered. She struggled against the rope. "No, please, don't. No, Ebony, Hakkai, no!" They lowered the flames and touched the torch to the straw. Licking at the fuel provided the fire sprung from a flicker to a blaze. Hakkai and Ebony turned their backs on her and stepped down from the platform as the fire raged below her feet. Cloaked in thick smoke, smoke so thick you could tear it apart with a blade Kerri screamed out to her friends. "Burn witch, burn!" They chanted below her. Their voices seemed so far away. Sweat masked her face, the flames were hot. Eating the straw like some kind of crimson monster. She could not bring herself to cry anymore than she could escape. "SOMEBODY SAVE ME!" She howled, the mirrors cracked below her. Hakkai's reflection mocking, he held to a woman with golden hair and green eyes that matched his own. "You will never compare to her you witch" was the last words he spoke before her body enveloped in flames. "No, this isn't real. It's just a dream...just a dream. IT'S A DREAM!"
Kerri's eyes snapped open, pain boiling on her flesh. She took in her surroundings, darkness illuminated by a pale blue glow. The trees of the forest were distorted, red eyes glowing in the shadows. The campfire had gone out and the others lay about her. Each of them lying in a pool of their own blood. "Wh-what?" Tears emerged in her eyes, She grasped her side and pulled her shirt up to examine her aching body. There were dark purple bruises all across her ribs. "B-broken?" She stammered, disgusting boils, marred and melted flesh caused her a terrible pain. "But that was a dream. Maybe this is a dream" She said aloud.
Shy-Phantom – My nightmares are scaaaaary
Elendur – you don't say…I worry about you sometimes…
Shy-Phantom -