Title: Afraid of the Dark
Character: Ryou
Time-Frame: Post-Series
Word Count: 381
His dreams are dark and red and full of fire and he wakes up to the sound of screaming.
His hand frantically searches in the dark, until finally he finds the switch, and he can't turn it on fast enough. His room is flooded with light, and although he is blind and his eyes burn with pain, he keeps them open wide.
A figure perches on the edge of his bed, a pale figure, hair ice-white; and eyes, cold, flat, staring straight ahead.
"Afraid of the dark, Yadonushi?" the figure hisses, slowly turning its gaze on him. Slowly it smiles, and it's like nails on a chalkboard, setting teeth on edge, and tremors rolling down his spine.
The figure stands, turns.
He tries to speak, to move, but he is frozen, and his voice is mute.
The figure approaches him. Gold gleams on his chest, burning with light, cold as darkness.
Panic, loathing, fear—no—terror, grip him, and he is suffocating.
Then the figure is in front of him. It pushes him back against the wall, palms against the walls on either side of him, caging him. Its eyes are a red so dark it's nearly black, gleaming, staring daggers into him.
He can't escape, there's nowhere to run.
It laughs softly, breath ice cold, leans in and whispers slowly in his ear, "You can't run from the other half of your soul, Hikari."
He closes his eyes, the fear, terror, panic drowning him, and he's powerless and weak and pathetic and small and—
His body jerks, and he wakes to the sound of screaming. Only this time the screams are his own. He sits up, gasping. He can't get enough air. A hand lifts to his chest, feeling deep beneath thick silvery scars, the rapid beating of his own heart.
His room is dark.
No one sits on the edge of his bed.
"Ryou," murmurs a young woman sleepily. She slowly sits up beside him, resting her head on his shoulder, "What's wrong?" She asks with a yawn, wrapping her arms around him.
Ryou takes one of her hands in his. "Nothing," He lies, using every ounce of will his has to stamp out the fear eating him from inside, "Nothing" He says again.
"It was only a nightmare."
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