DREAM: RESTLESS NIGHTS

CHAPTER 14-FRIEND

"L-LET GO!" Haruto did everything in his power to get out of the Puppeteer's grip, but it was hopeless.

"N-no... this.. No..." Tears ran down Haruto's cheeks, as the mouth was about to chomp down on his head, there was a loud chime, glitches everywhere, eyes appeared. Haruto was dropped, the Puppeteer's head turning back to normal, it started clawing at the mask. As the mask fell down, the sight Haruto was faced with was horrifying.

"1 n33d t0 g3t 0ut...1t'll k1ll m3 t00..." The large creature mumbled, leaving Haruto alone. The Puppeteer seemed afraid of something, but also not so monstrous. Haruto's head began hurting, so did his back from the fall. The ground began to shake when there was a loud roar. Part of the ceiling came crashing down as Haruto ran under a desk for cover. As light came into the room, the black dot covered more of the blood moon than before, the redness of the moon was darker too, and so was the sky. The clocks were glitching, there was no exact time displayed on the clocks.

"That's super convenient..." Haruto said sarcastically. He crawled out from under the table, confused about what was happening. The wind currents were pretty strong, and the atmosphere sent a chill down Haruto's spine. The eyes on the walls looked at Haruto. He was scared, he didn't know what to do. It didn't help that he was extremely anxious about Yukio and Kuroki. Moments later, the wall collapsed, revealing incredibly chaotic hunting grounds, climate and weather was mixed and completely split by land. Eyes were everywhere, nothing made sense! As Haruto took a look at the moon, something clearly wasn't right. None of this was normal, the Puppeteer backing out, mixed weather and climate, mixed habitats, it's as if reality had broken or something. Even gravity made no sense, certain areas there would be no gravity, and too much gravity. No pressure and too much pressure.

Watching a demon pass by the HIGH pressure zone, it exploded almost immediately. As another demon passed by the anti-gravity zone, it instantly began floating, it was still alive. That is until it got shot by something.

"No, no, no... please don't be another beast..." Haruto hid himself again, afraid of what might happen.

"Looks like I got me dinner!" A familiar voice said aloud, carefully passing through the zones.

Haruto's eyes widened, hoping it'd be who he thought it was. 'Could it really be...?' He peaked at the area, and Haruto became lit up with joy, with hope.

"Mamoru...?" As Haruto said that, the person turned around, pointing his sniper at Haruto. He pointed the sniper down when he realized who it was.

"Bushida?! What are you doing here?" Mamoru grabs the demon carefully, running over to Haruto.

"Mamoru, I thought you died!" Haruto looked at Mamoru with amazement. He looked at Mamoru, happy, until he noticed dark cracks on Mamoru's arm.

"...What happened...?" Haruto stepped back, unsure of whether it really is Mamoru or not.

"An illness. The mirror beast that threw me into the realm... had a contagious illness deadly to my kind. I don't know the effects it has on humans though." Mamoru backed away. He looked tired, he clearly wasn't as strong as he was back when Haruto first met him.

"How exactly did that spread to you?" Haruto let down his guard, with a look of bewilderment in his eyes.

"I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but I think it was from when the beast scratched me with its dark ice claws. But I do know for a fact that I've only got about a year to live, give or take." Mamoru sighed, brushing his hair back with his hand. After a moment of awkward silence, there was a really loud crash, shaking the ground.

"Wait, Mamoru, are the days still twenty-four hours during the blood moon?!" Haruto yelled, the crash sound was still going.

"Can't say! I've only ever been here once, not including this time!" Mamoru covered his ears because of the loud sounds. Finally, the sound stopped. Something was off though, mirrors appeared too, with dozens of eyes on them.