Broken Soul | Din Djarin

interlude ~ nightmares & dreams

Everything's on fire.

You don't know how to stop it.

Everything's burning. Everything but you.

The walls, the floor, the air. The heat is indescribable. It fills the room and taints the air in your lungs. It's as if the flames are drawn to you, but they don't want to touch you. Or maybe they're coming from you.

Did I cause this?

You shrink away from the flames, backing as far away as you can to avoid touching them.

It's hard to breathe. Everything is filled with smoke. You can't see. It's too much.

"Din! Din!" you yell into the smoke. "Din, please! Help! Din!"

The only response is the crackle and roar of the flames as they intensify.

"Someone! Someone, please!"

Your voice becomes hoarse as you call out. The smog and ash stick to the inside of your mouth and throat as you struggle to breathe and scream. Strangled chokes and gasps for air entangle themselves with your words.

This isn't real. It's not real. It's another nightmare.

"Please-"

You can hear suffocating coughs and gasps for breath, and strained groans coming from the other side of the room, cutting through the sound of roaring flames. There's the clatter of metal against stone and a scream of anger that cuts through the smog.

And then the smoke cloud shifts to display a man, restrained with long thick chains to the floor by his wrists, struggling to rise and break away as the flames approach him. Squinting to see through the clouds of smoke, your eyes widen when you see who it is.

"DIN!"

He's fighting against the chains, trying to rip them up from the floor.

"DIN!" You run forward, stumbling back when a wave of fire explodes in front of you.

"ALORA!" His voice is hoarse and strained and you watch as his helmet whip up to search for you in the smoke. Fear and pain and dread doesn't just fill his voice - it overwhelms it. His entire being is afraid. Not for himself, but for you. Din lunges forward when his gaze falls on you, trying to break free once again. "ALORA!"

"DIN!" The flames are getting closer to him, but they aren't stopping in front of him as they do for you. The tongues of fire reflect in his visor as he stares at you in horror and dread at what will become of you if you stay.

The flames creep forward, moving so fluidly and smoothly that it's almost as if they were liquid. A river of heat and death that's lapping the riverbank, inching closer to Din.

No...

"ALORA! ALORA, GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" He strains against the chains again, backing away from the approaching flame until his chains were pulled taught. It laps at his feet, flicking up at him.

"DIN!"

The blaze catches the edge of his cape and starts to travel up his back.

"NO!" You lunge forward through the devouring waves of heat.

Din screams in pain as the fire spreads over his body.

"NO!" Your throat hurts from the straining of your voice and the poison of the smoke.

"AUGH, NO! ALORA, STAY AWAY! GO! GET OUT OF HERE-" His screams overlap his words as his knees buckle and Din collapses to the ground. The flames devour him, engulfing his body with the heat and hell.