Sword Art Online FanFiction

Chapter Ten

That night, the nightmares started. They invaded my sleep and attacked my memories. They were merciless. They kept me in their grasp of sleep, and I was stuck in the dreams the whole night.

I woke with a scream. Dawn scrambled up and looked at me.

"Kila! What happened? What's going on?!?" she yelled at me, grabbed my shoulders firmly, and stared at my face.

I breathed out a trembly breath. I was drenched in cold sweat and I was shaking uncontrollably. Dawn. She was alive. I reached out a trembling breath and gently touched her cheek.

"You're alive," I whispered.

Dawn smiled weakly, still worried. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? Inns are safe zones."

Relief flooded through me and I lost control of my emotions completely. My eyes stung as tears flooded down my face.

"Kila, what's wrong?" Dawn asked me and hugged me tightly.

I held her tightly and sobbed into her shoulder. I thought I had lost her. Dawn was safe. We were all safe. Everything was fine.

Dawn pulled away and asked me, "You good?"

I nodded, sniffled, and wiped my runny nose with my sleeve.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dawn questioned gently.

I shrugged.

Dawn scratched her arm and said, "Well, I suppose I kind of deserve to know. Considering you woke me up at 4:30 in the morning by screaming fucking bloody murder."

I laughed. "Alright, that's true. Sorry. I just had a bad dream, that's all."

Dawn nodded and mused, "Must have been one bad dream, huh."

I looked at her. "Ay? How do you know?"

Dawn chuckled. "Well, besides the fact that you woke up screeching hell, you were rolling around in your sleep more than usual."

"Oh, sorry." I said and yawned. "Is it really 4:30?"

Dawn opened her menu. "Yeah. We meet back at the stadium for the battle at ten. I don't know if we'll be able to get more sleep."

"The meeting, huh," I thought to myself.

"What?" Dawn looked over.

I gulped. "Dawn, this is gonna sound weird, but can we not go to the battle?"

"What?" She looked at me incredulously.

"U-um, I have no idea. Uh, I r-really wasn't expecting that," she stuttered. "Why?"

I sighed and explained, "Well, in the dream, you died. And maybe it was a warning or something. Maybe we shouldn't go to the battle. It might be dangerous."

Dawn chuckled nervously and responded, "Well, of course it's going to be dangerous, a little. But we're not rushing into danger. We're playing it super safe. We already talked about this. And how do you expect to level up if we don't take risks? We have healing crystals and other people around us. We're going to be fine."

"But, D-" I started.

Dawn interrupted me. "Kila, I know you're nervous. I know I am. In fact, I'm terrified. I'm about to mess my pants just thinking about it."

"Then why are you doing it?" I asked her.

Dawn looked at me and smiled. "Because I'm not losing to a game. I'm not going to lose to something silly. Fear is an illusion. That's all. Something in our minds. If you don't face your fears and fight them, then you start to fear fear itself. I'm not going to lose to myself. If I die in this game, I'll die because I was strong. Not because I was weak."