Chapter 13

Nightmares

Long, dark hallways formed a labyrinth through which a young man ran in a panic, opening every door looking for someone or something, only to find every room empty. Sweat dripped from his forehead when he opened yet another door.

"Mom! Dad! Jennie! Where are you?! Please answer me!" he called, but there was no reply. He had lost count of how many doors he had checked. Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand? He didn't know, nor did he have any idea of where he was or how he got there. All he knew was that he had to find his parents and sister.

Tired and on the verge of collapse, both physically and mentally, he stood still for a while, catching his breath. While he did, he heard a faint voice from further down the hallway.

"...Raymond..."

"Jennie? Jennie is that you?" he called out.

"Raymond?" the voice came again, now clearer.

"Jennie! Hold on, sister, I'm coming!"

With his hope reignited, he found the strength to continue looking. Running through the hallways, guided by the voice of his sister, he came to a stop by a lone black door. Opening the door, he found himself in a dark room, and as he entered it, the door slammed shut behind him. He tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge.

"Raymond?"

Turning around, Raymond saw his sister standing in the middle of the room. She had a sad and worried expression on her face. Raymond hurried over and embraced her while he shed a few tears of happiness.

"I thought I'd never find you." he said.

"Why? Why did you do it?"

"Do what? What are you talking about, Jen-Jen?"

"We trusted you, loved you… and you killed us! You are not my brother… you are a monster!" Jennifer pushed away Raymond violently, almost causing him to fall backwards. Shocked by her sudden outburst, Raymond couldn't understand what she was talking about. When he was about to ask her, he saw that her appearance had changed.

Her eyes seemed lifeless and her skin was sickly pale. The clothes were covered in still wet blood from claw marks that had cut both fabric and flesh.

Terrified, he took a step back, and that's when he noticed that his hands were wet. Looking at them, he saw that they were covered in blood.

"Monster… you betrayed us… slaughtered us..." another voice said from Raymond's left side. There stood his father, he too pale and brutalized like Jennifer.

"This is all your fault… why should a monster like you live… when we have to die? You are not my son!" said a third voice to Raymond's right. Standing there, was his mother, just as torn as the others.

Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, they all collapsed and fell onto the floor. Pools of blood formed around their bodies and soon the entire floor was covered with blood.

Raymond fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks while he still could hear his family inside his head.

'Monster…'

Trembling, he looked at his blood covered hands and saw that his skin was being torn apart from the inside. Black claws sprouted underneath the nails, pushing them away, and red scales showed beneath the skin. The hands grew larger as the change continued throughout his arms and the rest of his body. Like his skin, his clothes were torn apart as his body grew and changed. Appendages sprouted from his shoulder blades and lower back, forming wings and a tail, while horns grew on his head.

Once the change was complete, Raymond opened his now blood red eyes and felt only one thing.

Bloodlust.

Standing up, he opened his wings and roared loudly as he thirsted for more blood.

Tyroth woke with a jolt and sat upright in the bes, sweating and hyperventilating. Looking around, he was still in the guest-room in the lair. Seeing himself in the mirror, he saw that his eyes glowed red.

'Just a nightmare, but… it's clear that I'm not well. My emotions… they're in turmoil, and my magic is reacting to them. Just like in the torture chamber, and the Dwemer vault, before I… before I lost it. If that were to happen here… I need help."

Tyroth is starting to loose control due to all the stress that he has been forced to endure. And all of you that have read Bloodrayne666's story A Dangerous Captive and/or my own Mutants Misplaced, you know what happens when Tyroth looses it. How much longer can he hold out?