Cherchant (Kylo Ren x Reader)

Thirty-One

The sound of whispering voices draws your attention. Your head snaps to peer over your shoulder into the shadowy corner of the room. The end table and darkened lamp occupy an otherwise empty space. These mundane fixtures in your bungalow obfuscate the location of the ghostly presence, whatever it is.

With a sigh, countering the weighted frustration raging in you, you turn back to your easel and are met with a ruined portrait of Kylo Ren. A smeared handprint across the charcoal distorts the image into a twisted menacing version of itself. The unintelligible whispering continues to rattle through you as you reach up and tear the drawing in half, crumpling up a piece of the paper in your fist and squeezing until your knuckles turn white and your fingers ache.

You bring your hand up in front of your face, turning it over and unfurling your fist. Staring at the balled up paper, you concentrate all of your frustrations and anxieties on it. As it levitates over your hand you follow the tendrils of the Force energy that bridge you to the object. You feel a heat rising in your chest, a new emotion. The intensity of it draws your focus but before you can try to dissect the sensation, the paper floating above your hand bursts into a bright flaming mass. The flames reflect in your shining eyes giving them a threatening red glow.

As it burns, the whispering voices inch closer to you until they are swirling, fading in and out of close proximity. You are unable pull your eyes from the fire but it wouldn't matter if you did because there's nothing to see. Fractured words, barely distinguishable, invade your space but they mean nothing in their muddled disjointed form. The voices abruptly stop as the flames extinguish, leaving nothing but ashes that drift lazily before your eyes.

Out of the deepest silence, a grating voice speaks your name. Loud, clear, and cold as ice. The voice shifts your reality. Your bungalow fades away, replaced by the cavern below the villa.

With a scream you're falling backward off of the cliff's edge, hands extended, reaching toward a stricken looking Kylo who reaches back. As you fall Kylo begins to shrink and fade. Just as suddenly, you cease falling and begin floating back toward him, reversing time itself. You drift back onto solid ground and Kylo smiles sweetly at you. Pulling you close, he presses against you and relief spills over you.

The reprieve is short-lived. An intense heat begins to radiate from Kylo Ren's chest. Panicking, you step backward and watch his face distort into agony as his body begins to glow red and fracture into a mosaic of burning embers before bursting into flames.

— — —

You sit up in bed, panting loudly. As your chest heaves, you look around the room, fighting against the confusion of waking from a nightmare. A bead of sweat drips down your temple and your damp hair clings to your neck. Your skin feels cold and clammy when you run your fingers down your arms.

You're at the villa. Kylo is sleeping soundly next to you with his face buried in a pillow.

"What the actual fuck."

"Hmm," Kylo moans in response, still half asleep.

"Nothing, just a nightmare," you mumble.

Last night's mind-blowing sex had successfully distracted you from the newly enhanced power that courses through you veins. It's only now, half awake, that a new understanding washes over you. While you had slept your mind had relaxed, allowing you to subconsciously begin to process the complexities of how you've changed.

You are altered to your very core.

Still sitting upright in bed, absorbing this new information, you begin to disassociate. Your own mind feels foreign as it works in hyperdrive in an attempt to analyze your dreams.