Fragments (One-Shots) | Mystery Skulls Animated

Dreams (3/4)

[AU: Time-skip since the encounter with the spirit. The purple flash was Lewis casting a spell on Vivi in hopes she'd simply forget about Arthur so he could take revenge, but that spell is now gradually eating away at her memory—all of her memory. She and Lewis keep accidentally sharing dreams as they're connected through the memory spell. Written 2017.]

CONTENT WARNING: Swearing.

Everything was black. She was floating in a dark void of nothingness, enveloped by a disturbing silence and unable to move. Her eyes flicked around wildly, searching for something to focus on, something to at least give her a sense of direction. There was nothing.

        But wait. There was something. A tiny pinpoint of light, straight ahead—at least, she thought it was straight ahead—and she was being drawn slowly but surely towards it. Soon the light dimmed and a blue heart locket came into focus, beating strongly despite its large cracks. She reached out a hand (for she was now able to move again, and like most dreamers, she didn't dwell on the mysterious fact) and traced the fault lines on the heart, which was warm to the touch.

        The heart nestled itself into her palm and Vivi gazed at it in wonder. It was so pretty, so fragile, and yet its steady, strong beat reminded her of something tougher. As she watched, a pink, dancing flame crept out of the locket, sputtering and bending as if battered by a gale—but as Vivi closed her eyes and stayed as still as she could, she could feel no breeze; not even the slightest hint of disturbance in the warm air. Her face grew hot and her eyes snapped open to be faced with a skull, inches from her face. Aching with familiarity, she watched as a fiery pompadour arranged itself on the skull, the dark eye sockets were lit by flaming irises, and a face started to come into focus—

        And then the face was consumed with fire, fire that funnelled down like a miniature cyclone, twisting like a fish's tail, and then the fire extinguished and someone was left in front of her—someone with a kind face, spiky blonde hair and striking amber eyes.

        She reached out for the stranger but his face contorted, twisting into a cruel snarl which grew sharp, pointed teeth; the figure's skin coloured with a sickly green, his hair shot through with white; and last of all, the whites of his eyes darkened to black and his irises sharpened into toxic green, knife-edged disks.

        Vivi lurched back in horror as he reached out with crooked fingers, catching the edge of her scarf in his hand. He yanked on it cruelly and she choked, gazing pleadingly into his sharp, cold eyes.

        "You don't want to end up like him," the stranger hissed, turning to the left. Vivi's eyes followed his intense gaze and she shrank back from a purple figure suspended in mid-air, a look of absolute horror and betrayal on his face. She jerked back to the blonde stranger for an explanation—but there was none to be given.

        With a sick grin, the stranger let go of her, leaving Vivi to plunge into the black void beneath her, screaming out a name.

* * * * *

This time she was walking in a garden of creeping vines, following the strains of song floating to meet her.

"Stitched you up, put you together
With cotton and feather.
Gave you love, put my heart inside you. . ."

        Where was it coming from? The voice seemed to be singing a melody, but there were only echoes where the tune should be. Purple roses struggled to grow on the vines around her, but couldn't sustain life and shrivelled up into brown crumples of petal. In their place grew dazzling white lilies, blooming and stretching out to the world around them, overshadowing the dark thorns sprouting along the vines below them. She shivered and pressed on through the living garden.