Kuroi Chi no Yume 5

^^^^^CHAPTER 5^^^^^

Soul waited for the sound of Maka's door closing before he reached into his pocket to pull out the bag of pills. He wasn't sure why he wanted to hide it from Maka, possibly to avoid worrying her further. Soul snorted at the thought.

Yeah, I don't think she could get any more worried. Pulling one of the capsules out, Soul examined it a minute before grimacing and dry-swallowing it. The pill left a sticky feeling in his throat and he gagged a moment, vowing to take the next one with an entire glass of water. Finishing up, he dried off his hands and headed to his own room to pack and hopefully catch some sleep before the morning that would come far too quickly. With any luck the capsule would work almost immediately and he could actually get some sleep tonight.

"You're an optimist, Soul. I like that." The demon grinned as he swayed off-rhythm to the jazz music. Soul only glared in reply, determined not to move from the chair he'd found himself in for the duration of his dream. As long as he didn't do anything, he wouldn't be able to regret anything, he reasoned with himself.

"Really, that optimism is an endearing quality." The small creature crooned, swaggering closer.

"Get out of my head!" Soul growled, annoyed at the miniature demon. The red creature chuckled heartily in reply.

"Trust me," he crooned, assuredly, "I would if I could, this place really isn't my style, but I'm trapped here, you see." Soul glanced around the room, his eyes falling on the large double doors at the end of the room.

"The door's right there, don't let it hit you on the ass on the way out." The demon laughed again, almost cackling. Soul winced at the annoying pitch.

"This is your mind, Soul. You're the only one who can move freely through those doors. Unless of course," The demon's eyes glowed with malice as he continued, "You were to stand outside and invite me out." Soul glanced doubtfully at the red creature that looked innocently at him, despite the glint in his eyes.

"That's all it takes to get you out of my mind?" He questioned dubiously.

"Of course." The little monster replied sincerely. Soul frowned, unconvinced. There was no way that it was that easy to get rid of the little demon that had been tormenting him in his dreams since that fateful night in Italy. Clearly there was some kind of catch to this.

"Perhaps you require some incentive?" The monster grinned, nodding to a curtain that parted, revealing a familiar person.

"Maka!" His meister stared blankly ahead, as if not hearing him. Without a word, she turned slowly away from him, walking towards the far wall of the room.

"Maka! Hey, wait!" When he left the chair he'd vowed to stay sitting in throughout this dream? He didn't remember, all he knew was this burning feeling that something bad was going to happen to Maka. He had to reach her… Where had she gone? Why was this room so damn big? And dark!

"Maka!" He hollered into the darkness. How long had he been running now? Surely he had to have caught up with her by this time…

"Damn it…" Soul could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears, a nagging voice in his head yelling at him to hurry, hurry, hurry… Something bad would happen to her if he wasn't there… An image of a dark sword swinging towards his partner, Maka's desperate look as she realized she wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, his own horror that he might not be able to save her in time… It had been the waking nightmare that had plagued him since that night…

"MAKA!" He yelled, desperate to find her. If only it wasn't so damn dark in this room… The darkness pressed on him from all directions bringing irrational terror with it. It squeezed him from all sides, bringing him to his knees, infecting his mind, his body…his soul…

"Make it stop…" He gasped, reaching for something…anything… That blue light! The one that always taunted him!... A feral instinct grasped him as he pushed closer to it. This time! This time it would be his! And this horror would stop for good!... His left arm now a dangerously pointed weapon, he lifted his arm, entire body trembling. Why was he hesitating? Do it.

"Soul."

Do it!

"Soul."

DO IT!

"Soul?"

"Soul?" The voice came again, sleepily and questioning. "Hey, what are you doing? You're supposed to be sleeping." Soul blinked, eyes darting wildly.

He was in Maka's room.

Next to her bed.

Standing over her.

With his trembling raised left arm a scythe.

With eyes the size of dinner plates and a face that nearly matched his hair in color, the young scythe backed away slowly, lowering his arm, now human.

"What's wrong?" Maka mumbled, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She had missed the whole thing, Soul realized with a breath of relief.

"Soul?" Finally finding his voice, Soul muttered a lame excuse of mistaking her door for the bathroom door. Quickly letting himself out of his meister's room before she could call him on his bluff, Soul let himself slide slowly to the floor; back to the door and fists tangled in his hair.

I almost…and…Maka…I'm so sorry!...I… He could feel the rush of blood in his ears and his breath came in shallow gasps.

Okay Soul, just calm down…it's okay…Maka is okay…What am I talking about? It's not okay! I almost…!

"Ow…" Soul was suddenly aware of a sharp pain from his scalp. Disentangling his hands from his hair he was shocked to discover his right hand was not a hand, but a scythe.

I didn't do that… It took way more concentration than it should have to remember how to turn the weapon part back into a hand. Gingerly reaching a hand up to his head he discovered it to be wet and sticky. Worriedly probing his scalp he winced when his trembling fingers found the tender bleeding spot. Soul let out a shaky breath upon discovering the cut was only a shallow nick.

I'm really losing it, aren't I? The thought was scared him to be honest. He didn't want to be crazy, locked up in some padded room with a straight jacket…Soul shuddered and cut off that unproductive line of thought.

But wouldn't that be better than harming the people around you? Or possibly killing them? If Maka hadn't woken up… That line of thought was even less productive. Slowly climbing to his feet, Soul shakily made his way down the hallway to the small bathroom. Closing the door before turning on the light so as not to further disturb his partner, Soul examined himself in the mirror, wincing. He knew head wounds tended to bleed a lot even if they were only shallow, but with his white hair stained pink from the still bleeding cut it looked more like he'd just come out of a war zone. Grabbing a towel he held it under the faucet for a moment before trying, rather unsuccessfully to dab out the blood. Soul grimaced at the failed attempt before reluctantly lowering his head into the sink and allowing the water to run over his head. He shivered as the cold water ran over his scalp and reached for the tap to correct the water temperature. After a few moments of nearly burning himself, followed by another splash of icy water, he finally found a good medium.

Rinsing out the blood that had already coagulated and crusted into his hair, he finally lifted his head, using a fresh towel to dry off the now clean spikes of white hair. He gingerly touched to spot again and winced, but was satisfied to find that it was no longer bleeding. The scythe distractedly wondered about what ungodly hour of the morning it was as he hit the light and opened the door. Not that it really mattered since he knew for a fact he wouldn't be getting any more sleep this particular night. Engrossed in his thoughts, Soul ran smack into the figure standing in front of the door, expectantly.

"Oof!" Soul reached out to try to catch her before she stumbled over backwards, but missed, his hand snatching only air. "Ouch! Damnit…" Maka growled, landing ungracefully on her rear.

"Uh, sorry," Soul mumbled, "I didn't think you would be right there…" He stood by awkwardly as Maka climbed back to her feet, only thinking that he should have at least offered to help her back up after she already was.

"I'm fine," Maka replied, "But…are you okay?"

"Yeah, just had to pee." Soul answered, trying to duck around the young meister and make it back to his room, but in the narrow hallway it wasn't possible.

"Well, if you're sure then you should probably get some sleep because we have a long flight in three hours."

"You mean we have to get up in three hours?" Soul groaned.

"No," Maka replied, "Our plane leaves in three hours, we have to be ready to go in one." Soul only sighed.

"Well good night I guess." He tried to edge around his meister and managed to be successful this time although he could feel her eyes on him as he stumbled down the hallway, legs still trembling. Fortunately he could blame it on late night tiredness if Maka asked. The remainder of Soul's night was spent anxiously pacing his room trying to ward off both sleep and his own tormenting thoughts. An hour had never seemed so long and Soul was grateful that it wasn't three. 4am finally rolled around and Soul could hear Maka's alarm from the next room.

A/N: Ironically it is now 4am as I am writing this. No I didn't plan this XD. Also, thank you all for the wonderful comments, as always they're a great source of motivation and encouragement:)