Here to Listen

Dreams speak to us. So what do the nightmares do?

This story was inspired by real events. It takes place in Axel Gear's Arackniss series, it's more Fannon to the series. Hope you all enjoy!

Loud heavy breaths broke the silence of the quiet night. Cold sweat dripped down from Arackniss's forehead head, he looked down at his hands. They were trembling more than ever before, he could feel his heart pounding against his chest. His eyes scanned the room as he tried to focus on his surroundings. He was spending the night with his boyfriends on Sir Pentious's air blimp. Two snake demons were heavily asleep next to him. Their tails curled around each other, arms held one another not wanting to let go. Even in their sleep neither Penn nor Monty could keep his hands off each other. They didn't even seem the least bit distributed from Arackniss's sudden jolt.  It was just a dream, it was just a dream he told himself. Sighing heavily, he got up from the bed needing a smoke badly. He made his way to the head of the ship. There were no signs of any of Penn's little egg helpers anywhere. It must have been very late into the night they were still asleep.

He walked into the pilot room, the large glass windows revealed Pentagram City also known as the Pride ring. A place all sinners called "Home". Though this was far from any home. It was a punishment for any person who sinned in their previous life, a fitting end for many people to live in this literal Hell hole. Arackniss found a pack of cigarettes he had hidden, Penn had convinced him to give up smoking so he took it upon himself to get rid of all his smokes. Unlucky for the Victorian snake Arackniss had a few packs hidden around just in case of something like this. With a quick flash of fire, he breathed out a thin trail of smoke, the nicotine helped take off the edge. Yeah, Penn would be mad if he found out he was smoking again but he needed something to take his mind off of what he had just experienced. He stepped towards the window and looked down.

The small hums of the machinery could be heard as the air blimp flew above the city in its nighttime autopilot route. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between night and day. There was no Sun in Hell, so getting used to life in this darkness was a big adjustment. Sure the so-called sky would light up to "Day" light hours but there was no replacing seeing the clear blue sky or even grey cloudy days, it had been replaced by red. "Night" time was the same as well no stars or moon only a darker shade of red. Stars were one of the few things Arackniss had missed in his former life. The ability to look up at midnight and see hundreds of stars glowing was something he wished to see at least one more time. He continued looking down at the city, the lights continued to glow even at this late hour. Now that he thought about it, they look almost looked like twinkling stars.

"Caught ya." An Irish voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked behind to see Monty with his arms crossed, he had a playful smirk on his face. Arackniss only rolled his eyes and puffed out another cloud of smoke.

"So you are going to tell Penn about this?"

"Aw come on boyo, you just started on your thing. I'm not that cruel to tell ya to stop right away." He slithered up to Niss, looking down at the city as well. "I sure do miss seeing the twinkling stars at night but I guess this isn't a bad sight.",

"Heh I was just thinking the same thing."

"Trust me lad you never saw the stars until you see them while sailing."

"Does it make that much of a difference?"

"A huge difference. When it's just you, the sea, and the sky it's almost like nothing else is there. It's just you watching the universe glowing with thousands of bright stars for miles and miles." He sighed. "It's breathtaking"

"It does sound like a sight to see," Niss said with one last breath of his cigarette.

"It was. Sometimes it would help after a bad dream." Monty nudged, but Niss didn't say anything. He only kept his sight on the city.