A/N: Haha, okay I realise the beginning didn't make much sense. But hang in there, it is a mystery after all! The next few chapters rewind back to a couple of weeks before Bra's death.
Jeice: An' when am I in this?
Star: Is that all you care about!
Jeice: No, I really care about Veggie's little brat (end sarcasm)
Star: Damn you sarky Aussie! You should be kissing my ass for giving you a spot in this fic at all!
Jeice: That sounds fun (lecherous grin)
Star: O o

Within Me
Hello darkness, my old friend

The gorge was deep and damp, and stank of wet leaves and stagnant water. An icy chill swept through the blackness, carrying with it the putrid scent of decaying flesh and far off cries. Bra wrinkled her nose and shivered in her thin cotton nightdress, more from the lifelessness of the strange place than from fear. Her bare toes touched upon something hard and dry. Tentatively, she pressed her full weight down on the invisible object, which cracked and splintered in retort.

'Bones,' her mind whispered in alarm. The idea of picking her way across a heap of scattered skeletons was not one she relished, but it didn't seem like there was any other way out. The high, treacherous walls of the gorge towered hundreds of metres above her head. It was as if a knife had cut a great slash in the land and she was standing at the bottom of it, bewildered and lonely, but happy to be hidden below ground than above where the strange winged creatures circled the canyon ominously, their beady eyes scowering the land for prey in to which they would sink their long sickle-shaped beaks.

Another shiver travelled up her spine. There was no running from this place, which now resided within the subconscious confinements of her mind. Bra felt sick at the thought that she might never wake up.

'What a silly notion,' she thought with a forced smile and stepped gingerly over a grinning skull, 'besides, dreams are not always what they seem. A nightmare can be interpreted in as many different ways as a piece of art. They can even be prophetic,' she thought, keen to keep positive. 'Who knows, maybe it means a bit of luck is coming my way… I probably shouldn't have eaten that hunk of cheese before bed.' Bra paused for a break on top of a slippery rock covered in green scum, knowing deep down that she was fooling herself. Her sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the pale purple sky above.

Then, a skeletal hand reached up and covered her mouth, dragging her down amongst the slick and burial grounds. She tried to scream and wriggle out of creature's grasp, but his grip grew all the more fierce.

The figure's face was emotionless and pale as the moon. The black mantle he wore looked as if it had been woven from cirrus clouds, and his fingers as though they had been carved from the bare tree branches at winter. They scratched and grazed Bra's fair skin as she struggled, and yet his firm hold was almost irresistible – temptation warring with repulsion, a feeling which always alarmed her when she dreamt of him.

'It's only a dream Bura, focus!' she urged herself, 'people have them all the time, wake up!' With one last tug, Bra wrenched out of his grasp, her blue eyes flashing triumphantly as she did so. She turned to face him, raising her chin as if daring him to make a second attempt.

"That was a sloppy move," she spat indignantly at the wraith. "You're usually far more cautious."

Behind the folds of his mantle, two milky colourless eyes gazed impassively back at her. Slowly, silently, the wraith extended an arm towards her.

Bra reared back, shivering with disgust. "Don't touch me!" she commanded, shunting the decaying arm aside with contempt.

"Princess, you wound me," the wraith remarked in a tone she suspected was mocking, though she could not quite tell from his rattling breath. "Heart hard as stone."

"Every night you meet me here, every night you speak sheer pleasantries, and every night I tell you to bog off!" she snarled. "Most guys, even dead ones, would get the hint by now."

The wraith chuckled, abrasively. "Yes," I suppose that I am perhaps a little persistent," he said and the loose fleshy tissue, which served as his mouth, pulled into something that resembled a smile. "I like to think of it as one of my better traits."

Bra folded her arms and tossed her pretty head resentfully. "You might as well. It's not as if you're swarming with those."

He grinned, the putrid skin around his lips pulling aside so that his entire jaw was visible to her. "So cold, Bra. You wound my honour. I feel the gentleman in me has failed you somewhat," he smiled. "But I must admit, I do enjoy you quips."

Bra glowered at him beneath her long eyelashes. Loki never got really angry with her; at most his expression revealed a trace or irritation, but it soon melted away. He explained that he could never get angry with his Princess.

Loki slunk into the thick green mire, chuckling softly: a warm, soothing sound, which reverberated against the cavern walls. It was certainly not the villainous mocking laughter she was used to. He almost sounded inhuman: Godlike. The sound washed over her like an advancing wave as it echoed around the gulf.

Once again he extended his hand out towards her. And with a heavy sigh, she took it.

Almost at once Bra found herself propelled forwards into a narrow, cobbled street. The night sky was starless here and silent as the grave, but the street was illuminated with soft golden halos of light from the street lamps, which a small, filthy looking boy was lighting, one by one.

The town looked as if it had been snatched right out of a fairytale.

Small houses lined the streets of cobblestone. Crooked and bent, they lent precariously over the road on either side so that the tips of their slated roofs almost touched in the middle. Tall, affluent young men marched by in their tailed coats and top hats, or chatted and spun their brass-knobbed canes lavishly by the roadside.

"Why are there such wealthy men in a rundown part of town like this?" Bra found herself asking her pale-faced companion.

Loki smiled shrewdly and simply said, "Nothing is what it seems in the Minds Eye. Look again."

Bra frowned, irritated with Loki's infuriating inability to ever hand over a straight answer, but she grudgingly obliged and turned to look at the young socialites again. Now she realised something was very crooked about them too.

Bra almost gasped aloud. Their handsomely chiselled faces were smudged, or obscured, by some grey gauze and the more she squinted the harder it became to distinguish their features.

She looked to Loki, fearfully. "I don't understand. It almost feels as if I'm going blind looking at them,' Bra said with a terrible shudder. Quickly, she turned her gaze away. "I can't look at them anymore. What on Earth made them like that?"

"What makes you think they haven't always been that way?"

Bra was about to snap how ridiculous a notion that was before she caught the eyes, round, wide and curious, staring at her from behind the dirty glass panes in the houses. 'Children?' she thought and peered at them curiously. The surrounding cramped quarters were full of them, pointing and whispering soundlessly to each other at the odd pair in the street.

Loki was smiling serenely. "Ah. It seems we have a small problem."

Bra glanced at him, askance. "What do you mean a small problem?"

But she already suspected she knew.

Peering over dustbins and emerging from the shadows of the streets, their grimy young faces gaunt and pleading, the children crept towards her. Bra swallowed fiercely and inched closer to Loki, unsure whether to be afraid of them or not.

Suddenly, the faceless socialites collapsed to the ground, their long legs crumpling like paper beneath them. Then together, they dropped their grey heads onto their shoulder blades and at once made a sound which split the night, a terrible brazen roar which chilled Bra to the heart. She clutched at Loki's withered hand, who in turn held her tight.

A moan of terror followed the cry and the children scattered. Grey, boneless bodies were slithering from the forgotten tailored suits, merging as one and rushing down the cobblestones towards the children, who ran frightened and frantically across the street like rabbits in a fox's den.

The boy lamp-lighter looked terrified as he clambered desperately up his ladder.

Recklessly, Bra called out to him. "Get off that thing! You're not safe there!"

The boy gave her a fleeting, horrified look and attempted to latch onto the streetlight itself, but the creature was too quick and swallowed the lamp up, wick, flame, boy and all, in one instant.

Bra shuddered a dry sob. "I don't want to see this."

"That is a selfish thought," Loki replied, watching the game of cat and mouse as it played out around him.

"Can't you do anything?" she asked, earnestly.

A secret smile crossed his lips. "Perhaps. But now it is time for you to awaken."

oOo

EliteVegito: Thank you very much! Heh, sorry for nearly making you cry though. I promise the next chapter will make more sense. I have the whole plot worked out, even though it may seem a tad random at the moment.

LunaBela: Thanks for the fav luv! I'm so glad you don't like MarronxTrunks or Goten. Can't stand those pairings. I find them so bloody dull! So you can be certain they won't show up in this fic.

Utanbisaya: Yay, an old fan! Thank you for reading the new version. I really didn't expect anyone would remember Within Me. Ahh, the ego boost )