Chapter 8


Rey did not see Kylo the next day, nor the day after. When Luke told her they would be moving onto Form III on the third day, she had hardly celebrated, thinking more about the fact that when she slept, her dreams had normalised again, that despite still feeling Kylo's presence in her waking hours, she had not spoken to him.

It was strange that she felt like something important was missing. As if the dreams themselves had given her some balance, and that they were a trial for her to conquer or master outside of reality. The fact that she could sense him meant he wasn't dead, so she wondered what had changed. Had that room really been what had caused the end of it all?

She should have felt relieved. That at least without these dreams, neither could influence the other; that she could be safe from falling, though she was incredibly doubtful it could even come to pass.

Her thoughts went back to the training for the next day as she sipped on the broth Luke had cooked for their dinner. They would begin developing her Alter abilities as well as beginning Form III and Luke had continually repeated that she needed to be careful, that she needed to concentrate with every molecule of her being. But she couldn't in truth. Her mind wandered to Kylo, wondering whether he was still trapped in that room with a mirror of himself as a child; crying for his mother.

'Rey be sure to spend the evening and morning concentrating on focusing your mind. The art of object manipulation is dangerous if the user isn't well-practiced in channelling the Force.'

She nodded. 'Yes master.'

'Perhaps you should turn in early, tomorrow will be a very difficult day.'

Rey quickly finished her broth and stood, bowing to her master and making her way back to her quarters. Once she was out of her training gear, she went to the meditation room and sat beneath the open roofed ceiling beside the impluvium, using the moon to relax her. After an hour of concentration, she went back to her quarters and laid down on the cot, trying not to think too much about what she could potentially dream about.

XxX

She awoke in what had now become the familiar dingy hallways of Kylo's hell house. It was just as she had left it; darkness whispering in the corners, blood and grime coating every surface and the echo of tortured screams reflecting off the stone walls.

Rey began to move through the house as quickly as she could, to the point where she was running, looking into rooms for Kylo. She couldn't explain why she was in such a hurry to find him, yet her feet carried her as if her life depended on it. As if she could just slip out of the dream without a moment's notice and he would be left alone in the void. Then Rey stopped, feeling Kylo's presence behind a door.

Kylo sat in the room she had left him in, sitting on the floor clutching a map of what looked like an ice planet in his hands, and he rocked in silence.

Her automatic reaction was to treat him just like she had his younger and more innocent self. She was already knelt in front of him, searching for his injury by the time she realised what she was doing.

His eyes flashed to her and Rey fell back onto her bottom and their gazes held, neither of them speaking.

Take me out of here.

The words weren't spoken but Rey could hear them loud and clear. They were thought by a man who had no other choice.

Kylo didn't say anything as Rey took him by his hands and helped him up. Nor when she held his hand tightly, leading him from the room and moving them through the house. They passed rooms that were equally as destructive and were no longer conducive to Kylo keeping control over himself. They only stopped when they had reached the entrance hall and the spectres of his mind seemed to catch up with him in order to pull him back into the deep recesses of darkness that the house presented.

Even Rey could feel them. She could feel the darkness – his darkness – whip at her, punishing her for helping him; for bringing him out of his dark cocoon.

You won't hurt me.

They seemed to shirk away from her when she thought it. Even if darkness was difficult to escape, at the very least Kylo's darkness could be kept at bay. Sheer will alone could do that.

Kylo couldn't seem to do the same, however and darkness' whips slashed at him, tearing his skin and causing him to drop to his knees. Rey suddenly understood that at the very least, her view of the house was very different from what he saw. This was his own trial, she realised and it could have well been hell itself.

'You have to fight it,' she said, her hand against his shoulder. He didn't seem to respond and his eyes skittered between the demons. Rey reached to her waist, removing the training Lightsaber from her belt and placed it in his hands.

The cold metal seemed to wake him up and he looked at the Lightsaber as if he had seen a Force remnant and despite the darkness not halting in wounding him, he stared at the Lightsaber, turning it in his hand as if he were trying to read it.

Rey shook his arm and glanced at the door that would lead them out of the house. 'If you want to leave you're going to have to fight.'

Kylo looked at her and then back to the Lightsaber before he powered it up and watched the blue blade emerge. He turned to the spectres, which had now taken on the physical form of shadowed shrouds. They ran at him and then seeing Rey, went for her and without a weapon, she could only use her hands as defence. Before she felt any pain, she heard the swing of the Lightsaber and it collide with solid mass.

He had stood in front of her, blocking the attack and splitting the spectres in half with a single swing. They evaporated into the air and Kylo dropped the Lightsaber, it turning off once it hit the floor.

Without another thought, Rey was leading him by the crook of his arm towards the exit. It was more like a gate than a door; made of pig-iron and its curling grates covered in a thick layer of rust. Rey pulled it open and stepped through the darkness into what looked like a small clearing in a dense wood.

When Rey looked at Kylo his eyes were wide and when he turned to the door that had shut behind them, he looked younger. He looked like a young man taking his first steps into freedom.

Rey's hand dropped from his elbow to his hand and she shook it gently, trying to grab his attention.

Before she could meet his gaze, Rey felt herself being pulled away. There was darkness and then she was awake.

Awake and her face pressed tightly into the crook of her arm, her skin warm and covered with a light sheen of sweat. It was just before the sun would make an appearance and Rey's heart hammered as she considered what she had just done.

She had freed him. She had taken his hand and led him from that place.

Rey didn't know what her actions could mean, what kind of repercussions either she or Kylo would face. What would freeing him from his own house of hell do? And did it mean she was winning or losing?

She rolled over, staring at the wall beside her cot for several seconds before getting up and dressing, preparing for the day of training ahead of her. Rey hoped that she could distract herself from the stuffiness growing in her chest, knowing it was the lack of conclusion to their dream and wariness of the future.


Sorry it's a short chapter! Will probably update again tomorrow. Thanks for reading ;)