WMMAP - [S2] Shelter You

16: Falling For You, Over And Over Again

Running...

From what?

He didn't know, but he was on the run...

Bellicose phantoms rose from the ground and he fled their wrath, escaping the rising shadow as light blazed and the moons and stars wheeled overhead. The shadow on the walls slithers around him; always muttering, always conspiring to feed his fear.

He pressed his bloody hands which ended in vicious to his temples, but he couldn't shut his constant companion in the darkness out.

He never could.

The Whisperer knew every secret path into his mind, twisting every certainty he once clung to, every virtue that made him the person he was. It told tales of his shame for running away. It spoke of those who he had harmed, because of him.

A part of him believed these to be honeyed falsehoods, twisted fictions told often enough that he could no longer sift truth from lies. It reminded him of the light being shut away, showing him the person who brought the nightmare.

Time had all but erased the angular script beneath the faded image, but enough was still legible for him to remember the face of his assassin. Their gaze met as He condemned him to the abyssal dark for all eternity.

"What's the matter, kiddo?" He asked lips curved into a smirk. "Afraid of a little shiny toy?"

He looked at the weapon before him, duel blades without an owner, but a fleeting memory had broken his composure as he remembered what the bearer did to him.

Now he remembered; the foremost reason why he was running...

"You ain't no wolf," the voice echoed. "You're just a dog with chipped fangs, running tail between your legs..."

SHUT UP!

"You couldn't even protect yourself. Do you think you can protect her? Hahaha... You're more pathetic than I imagine."

I SAID SHUT UP!

Tears gather at the corners of his red-ruby eyes and he angrily wiped them away, rejecting truth, denying terror. He remembered staggering through the limbo, his mind afire with visions of blood then a blade brought down, slicing up his body in the blink of an eye.

"Lucas...!"

He jolted and woke up with a gasp when he heard his name called, hands resting on his stomach to see if it was still intact.

Sweat stung his eyes, he blinked away only to see a humanoid figure hovering over him, making him skid away in a state of panic.

A startled yelp escaped his mouth when he lost balance over the edge of the sofa. As he was about to land on the cold hard ground, his wrist was grabbed and hauled back. Resisting and thrashing, Lucas tried to fight for his freedom.

"Hey...! Hey...! Lucas! Calm down...! It's me! It's just me!"

He abruptly stopped the dispute and asked unsurely, "Athy...?"

She hummed in acknowledgment then he felt warmth envelop him.

"It's alright... I'm here... You're okay...," she repeated her soothsayer, wrapping one of her arms around his neck, the other soothing the back of his head, running up and down.

Like a heavy rock was lifted from his chest, he let out a relieved sigh and pulled her onto his lap. He placed his chin on her shoulder, holding her around the waist with his arms though his eyelids drooped.

His thoughts were a cloud of duneflies, myriad shattered memories buzzing a nightmare in his skull. Months of progress undone for the sake of one man's vanity and pride. Was it his? He didn't know but feared it might have been.