Hitoshi Shinsou | Pro-Hero AU | 172732014

Night Terrors & Fever Dreams | Harbinger

The quiet sound of still air was a familiar resonance when you slowly opened your eyes in the white void. Your mind space, your mind palace to some degree, expanded for as far as the eye could see, forever traversing into the distance while the soft murmurs and voices of memories lingered. A calm stroll helped with reflection. It was a secure and homely place despite how clinical it may look to some, if they ever stepped foot. Images appeared above, much like paintings framed along non-existent walls. They were tiny moments in motion, much like films alight against the air, casting your memories bare for all to see. High school memories were always a warm welcome despite the lows that dragged you down, but without the lows, the highs wouldn't be as thrilling and joyful.

Every step you took shimmered across the floor, just as white and clear as everything else around, much like crystal that was solid and firm. Your hands trailed through the images that rippled like water with every touch. It was calm while you observed the myriad of images and moving pictures in your vicinity, looking back on many things. You held a fondness of the friendships you've carved, the roads you paved, and the life you've made for yourself, watching many memories that you shared with the man you've committed to. You absorbed yourself into the quiet, content while your fingers trailed along his image until–

The shattering of glass stole your attention from your trip down memory lane, more or less, turning to find someone crashing through the floor from below, breaking through the clear veil of crystalline fractals, pulled by an invisible force. They hung in the air, as if frozen in time while broken shards of glass shimmered around them. They paid no mind to them. Fear was imprinted on their face, cast with tearful eyes and a silent cry while their hands reached out below. You recognised them immediately, suspended in a moment of fear before a voice called out to them in the distance.

"Lightweight!" yelled the voice, its echoes a shadow of its gruff intensity until they disappeared from sight.

The shuffling of feet and cloth took your ear immediately, finding someone else scuffling across the clear surface of the floor, their panicked movements shimmering the crystals brightly along their heels and hands. The red cloak was unmistakably recognisable when they tripped over a few times, their eyes staring ahead at an empty void you could not discern. Their breaths echoed around the space, fearful before something swiped at their face, tearing their skin and spilling blood before they too disappeared like a ghost.

"Cutie!" called another, a familiar voice that bounced around your mind space.

Your eyes darted around the white endless room, discerning the sounds and visions until you bumped into a cold hard surface that hovered like a wall. Within its frosted confines you found someone drowning, as if trapped behind ice, the wall trembling with every slam of their fist, resonating deep and muffled knocks around. Bubbles trailed violently from their cries, staring back at you until a dark figure grabbed a hold of them from behind, its golden glowing eye piercing through the frosted glass until they disappeared from view, as if pulled into the depths behind them.

"Love!" yelled a familiar voice, the deep richness of its voice echoing further in your mind and in your ears. You frantically sped your step in your mind space, eyes continuing to turn to all sides of its vastness. Something was not right.

A thunderous boom caught your ear, quickly turning to find someone else intruding in the space, their body speeding towards the floor from the everlasting ceiling above. You watched their eyes turn, eyes widening too late before they slammed with a loud sickening crack that pierced your ears. You flinched while their body hovered after the impact, their face contorting with pain while their cry grew silent from the crash.

"Thumper!" yelled another voice while their body disappeared from view, leaving only the shattered crater along the crystalling glass.

You felt yourself hyperventilate, drawing faster breaths with panic-stricken eyes, glazed with confusion. Why were you seeing these horrible things happening to people you knew? What nightmare haunted you in your mind, and not your dreams? Perhaps it was a dream, you thought, hoping the atypical method of pinching yourself would wake you, but to no avail. It was a silly notion. You knew better that the mind was more complex.