The Raven's Nightmare

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Opening her eyes, Raven found herself in, what appears to be, DreamTale. But... something feels wrong...

'Where is everyone?'

The sound of angered shouting caught the young girl's attention as she turned to the direction of the Tree of Feelings. Eyes widening in realization, she yelled out "Nightmare!"

Raven ran as fast as her feet could carry her until she finally reached the angry mob that was beating her dear friend who laid unconscious on the ground.

With furrowed brows and gritted teeth, she screeched "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

When she got close to the bruised and bloody Guardian, the distressed mage found herself tackled and pinned to the ground.

"Well, look who we got here! It's bright eyes!"

Lifting her head up, she was met face to face with Terrence.

"Terrence? What are you doing?! I thought we had a deal?!"

Giving her a sadistic smirk, the rabbit monster mused "You were getting boring. Always the same thing; never putting up a fight. At, least with Nighty over here; he at least tries to fight back."

"You BASTARD!"

"R-Ra...ven...?"

Snapping her head towards her dear friend, she gave a wobbly smile "Hey! Everything is going to be ok! I'm going to get us out of this predicament and we'll go to the clearing to hang out! H-how does that sound?"

Purple tears started to form at the corner of his eye sockets as Nightmare gave a sad smile, "Th-that sounds... nice..." He gave a violent cough as purple blood poured from his mouth which caused Raven's face to pale and her eyes to widen in horror.

"I'm... s-so.... t-tired... S-Star...light... Maybe... we could... t-take a... n-nap when we... g-get... t-there?"

With tears streaming down her face, she gave him a closed eye smile "Y-yeah... we can d-do that... but you got to stay awake until then, ok, Nighty?"

"R-Raven...?"

"Yes? I-I'm right here."

"I... can't see y-you... it's s-so... dark..."

Tilting her head in confusion, the young girl was about to ask what he was talking about until she took her time to get a good look at the skeleton. Raven let out a wail as she saw Nightmare slowly turning to dust before her eyes which caused her to let out panic cries, "NO! NONONOnononono! Nightmare, PLEASE! Don't give up! Don't leave me...! PLEASE, stay with me...!"

Giving her one last smile, Nightmare whispered out before turning to dust, "I'm... s-sorry... Star...light..."

It was as if time slowed as Raven watched Nightmare's crescent moon crown fell to the, now, dusted covered spot with a CLANG!

Giving a maniacal smile, Terrence announced to the crowd with raised fists "The abomination is now dead!" Causing them to cheer in victory and forgetting the young, heartbroken girl to fall into a dark pit of despair. It was at that moment, that a dormant ember that resided within her SOUL finally came alive as an overwhelming feeling of burning RAGE erupted from her very being; as she let out a primal battle cry.

"YOU'LL ALL GOING TO PAY!"

All she saw was RED.