At First There was Darkness(On Hold)

The Scarlet Trance

Remus sat straight up...had it just been a dream? He reached his hand towards his face, he made sure to keep his eyes closed. He touched the side of one of his eyes...it was wet...had he been crying....? No...he wasn't crying. The stuff he felt was thick and sticky, he moved his hand towards his mouth and licked it. It had a metallic flavor that he knew well.

"Blood....?" He asked himself. Why was there blood on his face?

He opened his eyes slowly and immediately squinted. The light hurt his eyes. He got up and made his way towards the bathroom that was connected to his room. He looked down at the doorknob. It was shiny. He felt like staring at the doorknob all day, it seemed to pull him into another world...it was pretty. It had an erratic pattern that Remus couldn't quite explain.

He sighed and pulled on the handle, he kept his head lowered until he reached the sink. He slowly lifted his head.

There in the mirror he saw a man with messy black hair, a shirt that didn't match his pants, and one blue eye. The other eye was different.

It was red, and surrounding the red was black. This was the eye that had been bleeding. The blood continued to drip from the eye.

"Drip....drip..." Remus mumbled, the blood had put him in a trance, his eyes were fixed on the sticky red substance...this color made him excited. He touched the blood again, he stuck out his tongue and was about to lick it when he heard someone open the door to his room. He quickly wiped his hand on his pants and stepped out of the bathroom.

Standing there was a pretty girl with shoulder length blue hair, bright pink eyes and tanned skin. She was wearing a white tank top and shorts, but she was bare foot.

"Oh no! Remus what happened?!" She quickly ran over to him and touched his eye. When she moved her hand away the blood followed. Remus had to restrain himself from grabbing her hand.

"Hmm....and what happened to your eye...why is it such a weird color? Plus your eyes don't seem as glazed over as usual..." She muttered to herself.

"Astral..." He wanted to tell her that he could see now, but he was afraid she would laugh at him and say, 'Oh don't joke around with me!'

"What is it Remus?" She asked curiously.

"Um....can I tell you something really weird...?" He asked with an unsure smile.

"Of course, you know you can tell me anything! What is it?" She said with an elated smile.

"I can see now." He said seriously.

She stared at him for a second before whispering,

"Hope got you too, huh?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, why did she say it like it was the end of the world?

"Once Hope helps you...bad thing happen. They always happen. First comes weird thoughts...then comes murder...then comes death." She mumbled...had she been through something like this before?

"Stop playing with me." Remus frowned, he couldn't believe this.

"Oh...! Yeah! Right! I'm just playing with you! Hahahahaha!" She laughed nervously.

Remus frowned then shook his head.

"Get out, I gotta get dressed."

Astral nodded and went to wait outside for him.

Remus reached for the closet handles when pulled them open. He had a lot of stuff in his closet. He pulled out a scarlet sweatshirt and a pair of black pants.

He pulled the shirt over his head and then the pants over his underwear. He stopped and looked in the mirror for a second, he liked these colors. Especially the red.

He licked the side of his mouth, catching some of the blood that had been dripping from his eye on it.

It tasted...good.