Dead Inside

46.

Sabre jumped back from the attack. Emburn stood in front of him, holding out a dark scythe. Her fur wasn't the glossy orange it was before; instead, it was a  black the color of night and shadows. Both her eyes were visible now, both a bloody red with deadly black on the rims. She had black spike wristbands around both her wrists and a tight silver chain around her neck, a red-eyed skull connected to it. Sabre couldn't remember how she turned to be this way, but right now, he had to worry about dodging each and every attack she tried to lay on him. Emburn's fur was bristling as she readied for another attack. She bore her teeth, revealing a pair of fangs, before lunging. Sabre quickly leapt to the side as her scythe landed hard in the ground. With her claws gripping the scythe, she ripped it out of the ground and threw it down on Sabre. He tried to escape, but the scythe's sharp tip snagged onto his arm and he was thrown to the ground with a cry of pain. 

"Portal Steve gave away my secrets, didn't he?" Emburn asked, pressing harder on the scythe and digging it deeper into Sabre's arm, blood dripping to the ground and creating a pool of the salty crimson liquid. "I knew I should never have trusted him, you, or anyone else. Why did I? I was a fool!" she ripped the scythe free and Sabre struggled to scramble away before she pressed the scythe deep into the ground next to his neck. "And so were you, Portal Steve, and all my other 'friends'. You know I killed my father, brother, and so much more. That's some valuable information that can only be given to a trustworthy being. And you," she chuckled slightly. "Definitely not trustworthy." she lifted the scythe over her head and Sabre knew what would come next. He rolled to the side, ignoring the sting his arm from his weight, as the scythe landed hard in the ground where he had laid. Emburn hissed in annoyance and whipped around to face him, settling the scythe on her shoulder. 

"Fool!" she growled. "I may have be nice to you, but not now. Why don't you just fight?" she lunged and Sabre summersalted backwards to avoid the collision. He scrambled to his feet, clutching the wound in his arm with his other hand. 

"Why should I?" he challenged. 

Emburn growled, clenching her teeth. "I'm your enemy, why shouldn't you fight back? You're life is at risk, anyways." 

"You're not an enemy," Sabre said, gently. "You're a friend. It's the necklace you're wearing that's causing you to be this way, I'm sure of it." And he sure did hope it were true.

"I am not a friend to anyone!" Emburn slashed her claws across his face. He stumbled back, touching the wound in his cheek. "I fight, kill, and work alone. I'm the one who starts wars with humans and Iumis, the one who causes loved ones to be lost. My PowerSkull has given me power that I should've seemed years ago; the power to destroy and create death. That's what I've been missing all my life, the thing I've been searching for since I was eight. I thought it was friends, but that's stupid, why would it be that when I could have power over all beings? Why say we're friends? We're nothing close to that!" 

Sabre blinked back at her. What was he to do? Emburn wouldn't listen to a word he said, how was he going to convince her to be her normal self again?

Emburn laughed, startling Sabre. "I knew it. You really are a fool. You can't say anything to change the way I am, and you never will. I'm staying this way." Before Sabre could react, the scythe in Emburn's claws dripped into shadows and smoke. The black smoke crawled towards Sabre and slowly climbed up his legs. It burned and Sabre tried to get the stuff off; all it did was burn his hands and the smoke began crawling up his arms. He fell back, unable to feel the ground below him from the strong pain the smoke gave him. 

"Don't you see?" Emburn challenged. "You got nothing. No friends to help you, no confidence to take me on, nothing. And now," she opened her flexed claws toward the ground and more smoke climbed out of the soil into her paw and took shape of a scythe. She clenched her claws tightly around it and the smoke exploded into dust to reveal the same dark scythe she had before. "You will join Barron and Stricter in the deep debths of the Dead Lands." And before Sabre could react, or even speak, sharp pain split through his chest as the scythe pierced his chest. 

Sabre woke with a jolt. He was sitting up, and he looked around the makeshift camp the group of friends had made for the night. Emburn was nowhere in sight. It was calm and peaceful and quiet, nothing seemed wrong. But Sabre's heart was pounding so hard in his chest, it hurt. He didn't realize how fast he had sat up; his head was now spinning from the fear he felt in his nightmare. He had been worrying about whether to trust Emburn or not so much, he guessed it must've caused him to dream about his worries. He stayed awake for quite some time, trying to cal himself down, but his nightmare felt so real; it was hard to believe it was fake. 

"You alright, Sabre?" Sabre jumped from Rainbow Steve's voice which took him by surprise. He was also sitting up and was gazing at him.

"Yeah," Sabre replied. "Only a nightmare."

"Sounds like a pretty bad one," Rainbow Steve said. "How long have you been awake?"

"No idea," Sabre admitted. "But I'm guessing quite a while." he paused for a moment before making up his mind and continuing. "It was about Emburn, one of the spirits in the Cemetary of Bones."

"What happened?" Rainbow Steve asked. 

"She wasn't herself, not the one I knew," Sabre explained how Emburn had tried to kill him multiple times and what she had told him. "The scythe pierced my chest and I woke up."

"That's awful!" Rainbow Steve said when he finished. "I'm sorry about that, it sounds like some nightmare."

"It was," Sabre agreed. It was quiet before he spoke again. "I think I'm going to try going back to sleep, we still have a long journey ahead of us."

"True," Rainbow Steve nodded. "Alright, then, goodnight."

"Goodnight," Sabre responded before laying back down. He laid there for a moment before deciding to close his eyes and try to sleep. He hoped the nightmare he had would never come to be true. Sure, Emburn sounded like a terrible person, but she couldn't be.

Right?