Scales

Quatro

*Dream*

It was black. The darkness consumed the poor blue-haired boy whole. He made twists and turns but came up with nothing but the darkness that had first greeted him upon his arrival. He had been stuck in the dark void for what felt like hours. In fact, he knew that this experience was merely a dream, but was still not able to control anything around him. The lucid dream felt more real than dreamlike, almost familiar to the young boy.

Noah stopped dead in his tracks once the sound of hissing ensued. He didn't have the courage to look back. Something slithered around his foot. It was cold and slimy, but comforting to the boy. He let out a shaky breath but stayed perfectly still as the creature slithered up his leg. Soon, he was face to face with an electric blue snake. The snake's scales glimmered and cast rainbows throughout the void without there even being light.

The snake's hisses soon became louder, and the next thing he knew, Noah was walking forward, as if in a daze. After another few minutes of walking, a figure appeared in front of him. The snake slithered down to his leg and coiled himself tighter than before, as not to fall off the human boy. "Hello, Paixão," The figure said from in front of him. "It has been far too long. Why don't you come back to me?"

"W-who are y-you?" The boy stuttered out. The figure merely shifted without sound. Soon, it slithered forward enough for Noah to see it. "My name is Perigo." Noah let out a choking/supprised sound at the naga in front of him. "W-why are you i-in my d-dre-dream?" The naga sighed and wrapped his arms tightly around the shaking boy. "Come back to me, Paixão. Come back or I will come for you."

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Noah awoke with a start. He was laying on the couch along with a sleeping Ashton and a yawning Cole. "Morning," Cole stated when he saw Noah had woken up as well. The boy's chest felt heavy and the air was dense. It was hard for Noah to breath right and his body started shaking as a result. This caused Cole to rush over and try to calm the shaking boy.

"What's happening?" Ashton yawned out as he sat up from his sleeping position. "I dunno know! He just started freaking out again!" Ashton sighed and walked over to his brother's side before joining Cole in rubbing the blue-haired boys back. After what seemed like a normal episode's length, the pain did not subside. The burning in Noah's throat felt as if someone was stabbing his vocal chords with a mantel skewer.

The headache also made the back of the boy's eyes itch and burn. Soon his hands reached from under the blanket to his eyes. He scratched the orbs, wide open, relentlessly. Ashton and Cole yelled when they saw what was happening. Ashton grabbed Noah's hands in an attempt to stop him from injuring himself. The boy didn't fight against his brother's touch.

Cole ran upstairs to get his parents. They needed to see what was going on. When the parents reached downstairs with Cole, they saw something horrifying. Blood was dripping out of Noah's eyes, mouth, ears, and nose with seemingly no cause. "I have no idea what's happening, but it wasn't me!" shouted Ashton. It was at that moment, Noah let out an ear piercing scream before bolting upstairs and slamming the door to 'his' room. Everyone flinched at the sound of the impact. The four looked around at each other for a moment. "Go get the others. I think Kristin is in the basement, so I'm sure he's playing Fortnite or something. Just go get them, I'll talk to Noah." The others nodded in agreement at their mother's words and left to get the others.

Alison swiftly walked up the stairs to her sons' bedroom. She knocked on the oak door the second she reached it. Her heart dropped when it opened to see her son. Blood was still covering his face, but scars had been littered across every part of visible skin. Parts of his shirt were also ripped up with blood surrounding them. Alison pushed the door open roughly and grabbed her son. She latched on to him in a tight hug.

"What's wrong, baby?" She cooed to her son. He let out multiple choked sobs, but tears didn't stream down his face, rather some thick blue liquid dripped down to the floor. Once the mysterious liquid touched the floor, a hiss sounded out. When Alison pulled away and looked down, it was burning through the floor, as if it was acid.

"I-it hUR-ts!" He yelled out, "M-make i-i-i-it s-stOP!" Alison scurried around before grabbing her son's shoulders. "Okay, calm down. I'm going to call the doctor, okay?" He nodded and Alison rushed downstairs to see her whole family (besides Noah) in the kitchen. "Call the doctor." She said calmly while pointing to her husband. Mason rushed over to the phone stand and picked up the phone. He dialed the same doctor from the zoo. The phone rung five times before someone picked up. "Hello?..... Yes, it is...something happened......there was blood without scratches....Okay........Alright, we can bring him in whenever today...... five?..... okay......alright bye, Doctor Jets. See you at five."

"We're meeting Doctor Jets at five. We have to go back to the zoo, so we would need to leave at two. What time is it now?" Mason asked his family. "ten fifty-two." Emilia piped up. The whole family was worried, you could see it written across every one of there faces'. "Ohh, I forgot to tell you something," Alison started, "when I went up to talk to Noah, he started crying, but his tears were blue and acid like." The whole family looked confused at this.

"Acid like?" Cole questioned. "Yes, it dripped down his face fine, but when it hit the floor, it burned it up. I don't know what we can do for him, we'll just have to take him to the doctor and hope he knows." Alison finished and everyone nodded. "Why do we have to take him to the zoo though? Shouldn't we just take him to the actual doctor?" Kristian asked. Mason looked over at his son. "Doctor Jets is infamous for cases involving animals. That's why he works at the zoo. But, all in all, he is a real doctor, he just specializes in cases like Noah's." Kristian looked up to his father. "So he's done cases like this before?" Mason sighed. "I seriously doubt it."