Our second world- Book two: War is coming

Chapter 34

~Haren~

The sky was a blood red and the air stunk of burning. Black plumes rose from somewhere beyond the horizon. His lungs burned from inhaling the smoke in the air. His eyes stung from hot ash. Monstrous howls overlapped human yells and screams. The ground shook. He couldn't run anymore. His entire being protested as he forced himself onward. Breaking from the tree line of a forest he didn't know he was running through, clouds of dust puffed from the ground as he slid to a stop. Before him lay a steep cliff. At the bottom in a crumpled head lay what he was searching for. Broken, bloodied, and still. Three forms almost unrecognizable. A wolf, a man, a young girl.

"Too late! Too late!" Unfamiliar voices taunted.

"It's your fault!" The girl spoke in a voice choked by pain," It was you! You did this!" She yelled," It's your fault! It's all your fault!"

"No!" He tried in vain to block out her voice as it seemed to echo inside his head.

"Your fault! Your fault!" She shrieked over an dover," Hate you! Hate you! Hate you! It's your fault!"

"No!"

"Liar! You promised! It's your fault!"

"NO!" Even after everything burned out to a black nothingness around him, the voices still played in his head.

"Master? Master!"

His eyes snapped open. Rala was standing over him; worry clouding her violet eyes.

"Rala?" It took a moment to remember where he was.

"Are you ok?" She shuffled back so he could sit up.

"Y-yes." His voice broke slightly as he spoke," It was just a bad dream. Happens all the time."

"Must've been awfully bad." She replied, rubbing her head under his chin.

"What time is it?"

"Ten after twelve."

"Of course it is," He sighed and quietly crawled out of bed to put his clothes on.

"W-where are you going?" Rala asked, shuffling to the edge of the bed.

"Downstairs." Haren answered, pulling his over shirt on and picking up his shoes.

"Why?"

" I won't be getting any more sleep tonight so I might as well find something to occupy my time." He shrugged.

"May I come along?" Rala asked.

"Yeah." He pulled back the curtains and she jumped quietly to the floor to follow him down the staircase to the practically pitch black commons.

Haren made his way over to a couch and sat down. Rala jumped up beside him.

"So," Rala began after a long silence," You have bad dreams a lot? Does that have anything to do with why you don't sleep?"

"Yeah. The dreams started when I was younger. A few days after my parents died, I found myself re-living the accident that killed them every night in my dreams. I'd usually wake up screaming more often than not. I started sleeping less and less; The dreams weren't getting better. Eventually they got so bad I was afraid to even close my eyes."

"Sounds awful."

"I went six years without them before they came back out of no-where one night," he pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them," I thought I was over it; now I'm finding myself with the same fear that tormented me so long ago. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."