Ghosts of the Dyad - A Reylo story

This is Where I'll Surely Die

Meanwhile, Rey was sitting at the end of her bed in her small but surprisingly cosy hut. She had found it abandoned not long ago. The bed was made by her out of logs, sticks and bark and the floor was just sand - she really meant to do something about that. It was very DIY and very dusty but it felt like home which was good enough for her.

She thought of her power. She aspired to become a jedi and that wasn't going to come easy. She had to train, work herself to the bone. She'd been struggling lately, not just with her training but with feeling whole. There was nobody training with her or teaching her. Her whole life she had been alone and yes, she had Leia, she had Finn but nobody truly understood her...except one person. She thought back to the hut on temple island, how easy it was to confide in Ben and how connected she felt with him.

The more her mind raced, the more stressed she felt and she knew from experience that things got dangerous when she felt this way. She thought about Ben's words to her about her being the one to turn. Was there more dark in her than light? If she didn't get this under control who knows what would happen? The objects in her house started to shake. She recalled the last time this happened when the sand from the floors had swirled into a tornado, flinging objects left right and centre. She breathed deeply, thought of the ocean and the waves crashing over rocks, the sound of birds crying as they circled above the deep blue that stretched for miles and the objects became still as she relaxed.

She decided to get herself out of the house. She had to remain strong - she would never finish her training at this rate.

'The marketplace could be a good distraction' She thought to herself, so she left and wandered down the familiar Sandy paths and roads she knew so well.

Rey walked aimlessly through the marketplace. She didn't know where she was going. She wasn't going to buy or trade anything, she didn't even have any money with her. She was wandering aimlessly around through the crowd of busy bustling bodies. Some of them human, some different with huge heads and great bulbous black eyes, colourful characters full of culture and charisma and she felt exactly the opposite - black and white among technicolour like a gull in a flock of peacocks.

The crowd was moving against her, barging into her. Merchants beckoned her towards their stalls, hoping to get her to buy their goods so she politely shook her head and smiled. The marketplace was a place to escape, a place of procrastination and isolation for her. Nobody here asked questions, most didn't even glance in her direction, they just went about their day trying to get from A to B. It was so alive with noise and movement that she couldn't even hear herself think. She felt invisible and she knew in that moment, that's what she wanted, to walk in the skin of the world unseen.

She decided to head out and just see where the road took her. She sauntered back towards home as she felt a sudden chill in the air. A terrible feeling like all the good had gone out of the world washed over her like a stormy sea. Rey shuddered. She saw in a distance, a dark figure moving towards her, hurtling towards her at 100 miles per hour. As it grew closer, she realised it was some sort of formless shape. Some sort of shadow, its movements rippling and coiling as it approached her.

Rey drew her lightsaber, the familiar buzzing sound giving her hope. She swung wildly at the shape, but it was like fighting smoke. The being just floated through, unscathed and unbothered. It started swirling, circling her like a vulture. Rey tried to run, but she couldn't get through the growing darkness that surrounded her. She looked upwards and saw the night sky.

'That's impossible. It's the middle of the day.'

The view of the sky got smaller and smaller as the stars disappeared from view. The creature enclosed her into pitch darkness as she shut her eyes, inhaled deeply and told herself this wasn't real.

She felt herself lift off of the ground and move far away from everyone, far from the crowd of the market, far from her friends and in that moment, she was nowhere. The smoke filled her, absorbed through her skin. Her insides were churning as the smoke flooded her insides, her mouth, her head, her body. It was everywhere. Her mouth was dry, her skin broke out into a cold sweat and her chest was tense. She thought in that moment:

'This is where I'll surely die.'

She felt the creature, the smoke, whatever it was leave her through her, stinging her mouth and nostrils, her body paralysed with fear. Every part of her urged her to move. Her body was begging her now, her head screaming the same word over and over - "run," but she was limp and lifeless, then everything shifted to darkness once more and she was gone.