Nightmares and Daydreams

Chapter 4: It's Just a Dream

Wirt's Pov (There is a bit of gore in the first part of this chapter. If you don't want to read it just skip the italicized part)

-- Trees. That was all I could see for miles. Just a large dark forest, edelwood trees surrounding me like prison bars. There was no escape. "He-hello!" I cried out. "I-is anyone out th-there!?" The forest was completely silent, the only sounds were the cold harsh wind and my own heartbeat. I waited for what seemed like hours when two large white eyes appeared. I started to panic when an all too familiar figure walked into the clearing. "You've come back," the deep voice of the Beast said. He walked forward, casting a large shadow over the entire clearing. "Now that you're here, you can become what you were always meant to be." He moved closer and held out his hand. "Come now. Take my hand." "N-no" The Beast cocked his head and frowned. "Excuse me?" The air around me started getting colder and my head started hurting. "I-I s-said NO!" The Beast sighed and his eyes went from completely white to an ominous swirl of bright colors. "It saddens me to see you resist. No matter, you will submit one day. Until then..." He raised his hand and edelwood branches wrapped around my legs. Another two branches shot out of the ground and grabbed my wrists, pulling me to the ground. I let out a bloodcurdling scream when another branch stabbed through my stomach. I looked up at the Beast, tears staining my cheeks and blood dripping from my mouth. "Pl-please st-stop," I pleaded, but he wouldn't listen. As the branches tightened around me, their thorns piercing my skin and staining the soil with more of my blood, the Beast lifted up my chin so we were face to face. "I'm afraid I can not help you, my child. Your soul belongs to the soil." He let go and turned to walk away. "One last thing. No matter what you try, you can not fight fate. I am you, you are me, and we both are one with the trees." With that, he walked off, leaving me alone in the clearing. My vision started to blur and everything went black. --

I woke up in a sweat, trying to calm my heart. I looked around the motel and let out a breath of relief. It was a dream. I got up quietly and made my way to the bathroom, hoping that a small splash of cold water will help calm me down. But when I looked into the bathroom mirror, my heart dropped into my stomach. Large horrid scars littered my body. There were bruises and gashes everywhere the edelwood was. Wherever there was a scar, there was also small traces of black oil. But the worst part was my eyes. They had the same multi-colored glow of the Beast.

I covered my face with my hands and shut my eyes. It's just a dream. It's just a dream. None of it was real. I slowly opened my eyes and took a peek at my reflection. It was back to normal. The cuts and bruises were gone, my skin was no longer stained with black oil, and my eyes were back to their natural blackish-brown color. I took a deep breath and sighed. See it was all a dream. He can't hurt you. Everything is fine. After managing to calm down, I left the bathroom and sat down on the bed. 

"W-Wirt?" I looked down to see Greg staring up at me. I smiled and ruffled his hair, "sorry buddy. Did I wake you up?" He yawned, clearly tired, and sat up, "did you have another nightmare?" he asked. I sighed and nodded. There was no point in lying to him. Greg knew better than anyone else how much the Unknown scared me. He knew what it was like to wake up afraid that you lost someone. On multiple occasions, he would comfort me when my nightmares were too much for me to handle. He knew exactly what to do whenever I would wake up crying. So naturally, I told him the truth, and like always he pulled me into a hug and promised that everything was going to be alright. I hugged him back and felt tears roll down my eyes. "Are you okay Wirt?" "I'm fine Greg." He frowned slightly and asked, "then why are you still crying?" I laughed quietly and wiped the tears from my eyes. "I'm just really happy you're here. Now it's time for bed okay." "Okie *yawn* Dokie, brother oh mine." Greg slowly drifted back to sleep, mumbling something about a "magical flying tiger' and I rested my head on the pillow trying to do the same. My eyes eventually started to close and I went back to sleep. The last thing I thought of was the Beast words, 'We are both one with the trees'.