The Primordials: Death's Fury (Book One)

Chapter X: Internal Nightmares

      I couldn't remember falling asleep that night. The last thing I remembered was lying in bed, pondering over all the experiences I had that day: I found a creepy forest, Tymon's spirit energy attacked me, went into the said creepy forest, another of Tymon's abilities attacked my mind, went to Tymon's home, V showed up with a bombshell of information identifying Greed and said I'd have to defeat an army if I wanted to stop him, and then, just when I thought that was enough for the day Tymon stopped me and asked questions that got me to wonder about my family's superiority to others seriously.

      Now, I was floating in space. Mentally, not physically. For some reason, this was how all my dreams started: me floating in space, staring at Earth.

      After a moment, the dream zoomed in toward Earth. When it stopped, the scene was now that of a raging fire that had engulfed everything in its path. The heat I felt radiating from the fire was unreal; imagine standing in front of an oven set to max temperature. Now, imagine someone opening that oven, and all the heat trapped inside it suddenly released towards you. Now, multiply that heat wave times a thousand. That's what standing there felt like.

      In the center of the sea of flames stood a figure whose body seemed to have caught fire. It wasn't until the figure started walking through the fire towards me that I realized they weren't caught on fire; they were the source of the fire. As it got closer, the sweat on my skin began to dry as fast as it was produced. My body didn't even have enough water left in it to form blisters. Instead, it just started flaking and peeling off, layer by layer.

      I watched my hands as the heat caused my dried skin to crack, then ignited as it burned away right in front of me. My blood bubbled and evaporated before reaching the ground; my muscles sizzled, then became charred and gave off a sickening aroma. After they started resembling charcoal, my muscles shrunk, exposing the bone underneath them, then broke off.

      I suddenly felt nauseous and began to hack. I just watched some of myself be incinerated and didn't feel any of it.

      Why would I dream this? Who the hell dreams of themselves being burnt away like that?

      The flaming figure and its unbearable heat were just before me now. Most of my body was either skeletonized or dust at that point, and I knew it was a matter of seconds before I found myself in a different dream.

      While waiting, I observed the figure closely and realized there was something familiar about it, like I'd met it before. I tried to touch it with my remaining boned hand, but the dream shifted just before I could make contact.

      Now, it was dark. Absolute darkness.

      Then, up ahead, I could see a light flickering in the distance.

      After making my way to the light, I saw it was the same figure from before, except its fire was more like a candle now. It was trapped inside a semi-round glass cell and sat with its knees curled to its chest. Somehow, I could feel its desires. It wanted to be free, to spread its flames and regain its true glory. Regardless of the heat, I knew it would release; I tried to help it by lifting the latch that kept the glass connected to the metal frames of the cell.

      I managed to lift the latch and began to slide the glass open. I noticed that the more I opened the glass, the stronger the figure's flames became, but before I could open the glass even halfway, two large hands appeared around me and the cell. Deep violet energy released from the palms of the hands and wrapped around me and the figure.

      I suddenly felt myself lose strength.

      As I sunk to my knees, I felt all spirit and aspiration leave me and instead be replaced with a crushing sense of hopelessness. I watched through empty eyes as the glass closed and relatched itself to the metal frames. The figure inside had returned to its weakened, demoralized state as the hands and cell began to pull away and fade into the darkness.