𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫

The Ghost

 Wheels clattered against the smooth rocky floor of the Wastes of Time. It was a cloudless night, and a new moon too. Everything felt dark. Cold. The stars shone brighter than ever as they danced across the black sky.

 Torin and Koral slept soundly beside me. I sat, watching the stars and distant stone formations as we rolled by, waiting for sleep to pull me under. Everything was so quiet, so... still. So unlike the bustling cities where I came from where people didn't seem to be able nor want to settle down.

 Nothing was ever quiet. Nothing was ever still.

 I felt so small- the vast emptiness of the black sky spreading out all around me. I felt... alone. Insignificant.

 That didn't sit right with me. I like to think I can make some sort of difference in the grand scheme of things... But I suppose that's the flaw of humanity. Thinking of ourselves as something much grander than we really are.

 The darkness seemed to envelope me in it's cold embrace, and I found myself leaning into it's touch. Then the whispers came... a soft but constant crescendo of indistinct voices filling the void of my mind. The voices grew and grew until they reached the volume of a freight train.

 My shoulders curved inward as I bowed my head, trying to drown them out. A flicker of light caught my attention though. I glanced up, seeing nothing at first, then-

 A girlish giggle piercing through the symphony of whispers in my head. My eyes darted to the left, landing on... a floating orb of light.

 It flickered in and out of sight, dissappearing and reapearing in completely different places. I heard another soft laugh and, within a blink the glowing speck was gone. A flash of white to my left had me peering at one of the rock formations in the distance. Something was waving behind it... Like a piece of cloth, floating on an inexistent breeze. I willed my eyes to focus, to try and discern what it was.

 Then we were passing the formation and I saw the girl. She was a child, with long raven hair and skin as pale as the moon. She wore a long, ivory dress. She was facing away, so I couldn't have seen any of her features, even if I had been close enough to discern them. And yet... I could have sworn I'd seen her before.

 The girl twirled on the large rock where she stood, throwing her arms out, her skirt billowing out around her. Like the glowing orb, she flickered in and out of existance, reapearing in different spots. She seemed to change too, each time she appeared. Sometimes she appeared as a baby, other times as a young woman.

 Like memories...

 Everytime though, she wore the same white dress as her hair spilled down her back in midnight waves. She was like a phantom. A dream. Unearthly. I opened my mouth to call out to her, but she turned around.

 And I saw her face.

 Eyes as dark as khol met my own.

 Eyes that I recognized as mine.

 She wore no expression, her perfect lips parting slightly in curiousity. Everything about her was perfect. But there was nothing human in her gaze.

 Everything seemed to stop. Somebody had pressed the pause button. My mouth popped open. This wasn't real, was it? I raised a hesitant hand and waved at myself, or whatever that thing was.

 A faint smile graced her full lips, and I blinked. When I opened my eyes she was gone. And she didn't come back.

 The whispers, once forgotten, came crashing back in. It was so sudden I winced, fighting the urge to cover my ears. Phantom hands seemed to latch onto me, dragging me down, pulling pulling pulling-

 "Wren wake up!"

 A gasp escaped me as I surged upward. My eyes flew open, darting around disorientedly as I tried to figure out where I was.

 A large archway made of giant white bones greeted me. Past that were what appeared to be the remains of huts and houses, made of similar materials. Rubble and dirt everywhere. Something seemed off.

 A squeeze on my shoulder brought my attention to the hand resting on it. Koral.

 "It's alright," she said softly. "You're alright."

 I didn't meet her stare, my stomach turning. "I saw-"

 "It was just a dream, Wren. Everything is fine."

 My heart felt like a hummingbird trapped in my chest. "Where... where are we?" I murmured.

 Koral seemed to falter, removing her hands from my shoulder to pick at a long nail. "This is the village... or at least what's left of it..."

 "What happened here?"

Torin's breath hitched. He silently shook his head. His eyes were wide. "We... are too late."