The Sleeping Darkness

3. The Nightmare

Warning: This chapter contains possibly triggering content, including blood, descriptions of rape and horror in form of dreams.

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The room was strangely dark and there were no sounds to be heard, not even the soft breathing from the bed next to him he would have expected.

His eyes were open, he knew it, and yet there was no light, and something was off.

Didn't he turn around before he fell asleep? He should be facing the pillow, not the ceiling.

Samekichi started to breathe heavily.

It was dark in the room, like it was back in his cell. Was he back in his cell, was everything just a dream? He didn't want it to be a dream, not after having his witch back.

The darkness around him started to move and scratching sounds filled the air, chains were dragged across the floor, somewhere he could hear a heavy door creak in its hinges.

A bloody smell filled the air, accompanied by salty water and old mud, just like back in the Old Sea.

His heart was beating madly, he didn't want to be back there, anywhere, but not there!

He didn't dare to move, what if he was really back there, if everything was happening again from the beginning, or if everything from that point on had been a dream? He could hear the sound of footsteps on sandy floors, but also laughter, giggling and humming sounds.

His chest started to feel tight, and within a second, he had just blinked once, she was there, looking at him. Her weight like that of a marble statue, pressing down on him, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

The red witch sat on his chest, her hands flatly pressed against his collar bone, paying no heed to the quaking heartbeat in his chest.

She stared into his eye, her glowing, red irises the only source of light in the dark room.

"Samekichi, I'm so happy," she whispered, "Are you happy?"

He took a sharp breath, his throat tightened, and he was unable to give an answer.

"Are you happy?" The red witch asked again, her mouth forming a pained, twisted smile, "I'm so happy!"

She couldn't be there, it was not possible - Wadanohara was sleeping in the other bed, there was no way she would revert to this personality, was there?

His mind started to race, and he tried to look away, but he couldn't see the other bed, it being on the side of his torn eye.

"But, Samekichi, I'm so happy!" The witch cooed again, and he couldn't stop himself from rolling his eye back towards her. Bloody tears were trickling down her face, just like when she was lying there on the ground, desperately clawing the sand and reaching for him, without ever making it, "Can't you see it?"

He wanted to raise his hand and touch her face, but just then he realized that it wasn't that he didn't dare to move - he couldn't. The realization raised his urge to scream, to struggle and get the witch off his chest, but he couldn't even move his head or feel his tail twitch, and she was holding him down with her cold, gloved hands, eerily staring at him with her teary, blood-stained eyes.

The smell of blood was overwhelming him, twisting his insides and sending waves of nausea up from his stomach.

"Please Samekichi, help me, why are you not happy with me?" Her face started to change into a pained expression, it was like he was lying on the ground in the cave again, with the smell of Wadanohara's blood in his nose and her screams in his ears.