Vibrant Eyes

Chapter 7 - Chilling Nightmares

I woke up in a cold sweat. My heart raced, and I couldn't breathe normally. I was drenched from head to toe, but my clothes didn't seem to be helping with the fact that I felt hot all over. I blinked away the remnants of sleep in my eyes and looked around at what seemed to be Aether's bedroom, the moonlight streaming through the window making me wince at how bright it was. The sound of movement had my nerves jumping, my body went rigid. There was a knock on the door. "Alana? Are you awake?" Aether opened the door with a smile. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw him.

"You ok? You seem a bit shook..." He asked. He stepped closer into the room, moving closer than I had expected, and I flinched. A look of worry passed over his face.

"N... no, not really, I just uh... yeah sorry, I'm fine." I smiled weakly at him. Aether nodded, moving towards the bed with careful steps. He sat down beside me, looking worriedly down at me. "Did something happen?" He asked softly. I sighed.

"Yeah... I just had a bad dream, that's all," I admitted. "Sorry if I woke you up." He looked at me with kind eyes.

"Don't worry! It's perfectly fine. I wasn't asleep anyway." Aether gently put his arm around me, to which I instinctively leaned my head on his shoulder.

"You alright now?" He asked with a warm smile. I nodded. "Mhm." We sat there for a while, just enjoying each other's company. I suddenly realized what I was doing and my body tensed up. Aether looked at me and laughed.

"You alright down there?" I instinctively said shut up to him, to which he laughed off. We sat there until the sun came up. The light gleamed through the bedroom window as my eyes squinted. "Rise and shine~" He said dragging out the 'shine'. I laughed and stood up, so did Aether. We made breakfast and sat down, having a nice conversation before leaving to go see the others. I walked down the hall to see Saturn talking to Mizuna. My eyes widened as I saw her standing and talking with a bright smile on her face. Her brown wavy hair fell over her bandaged left eye. I saw all her bandages around her leg. Aether waved to Saturn.

"Hey! Saturn you're all better now?" She turned and nodded, seeing me there. Before I knew it we both ran to each other and embraced each other in a tight hug. Tears streamed from her face as she hugged me. There were no tears for me, but I could feel the relief in my heart.

A few hours past. Me, Aether and Riggs were stationed at a cliff looking over a small base in a clearing. "Mind telling me what we're doing here again?" I asked. Riggs sighed. "Takashi wants us to take some supplies from this CyberCorp station," My ears twitched and my body stiffened. "CyberCorp..." That name ran chills down my spine, but I didn't know why. "Yeah, that's what I said." Riggs looked a bit worried, but brushed it off. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "You ok?" Aether looked down at me with a worried look. I smiled slightly up at him. "Yeah." He smiled warmly. "Good." Riggs yelled out to us, "Hey, love birds! Hurry up." We both blushed slightly and followed Riggs.

We walked behind the building and found an open window. "Wait," I said. The two turned to me. "What's up?" Riggs asked. "Don't you think this is a bit too easy? A window is just casually open with no security at all?" I answered. Aether nodded. "She has a point." Riggs sighed. "Well, what do you want to do then?" I picked up a stone and threw in into the window, to which the stone disintegrated in thin air. The hairs on my arms stood up. "See?" I said with a glare. We looked for another way in, seeing a hole in the wall that we could chip to make it big enough to fit through. We managed to crawl through the hole, feeling the damp, cold ground underneath us. I stood up, helping the others through. "Alright, let's get this over with," Riggs said.

We all split up and gathered as much as we could from the big crates, shoving a bunch of things into our bags. I walked around a corner and could feel something wasn't right. I don't know why, but I felt very off. I looked to my left and saw a bright sign that said CyberCorp Testing Chamber. My heartbeat quickened as my mind flashed back.

"Alright, here we are!" The man in the white coat smiled down at me as he opened the door. I tilted my head as I saw a bed with wires attached to a head piece.

"I'll need you to lay down and put this head set on for me, ok?" The white coat said. I nodded, not really knowing what was going on. I did what I was told, putting the head set on and sat down, my feet barely touching the ground as I was very small. I laid down, shutting my eyes as I tried to relax. "Ok 901, you're going to feel a bit odd, but everything will be over soon!" The white coat left and closed the door. I laid there in silence for a long time, before hearing his voice again. "Please just relax, it will be over soon." I shut my eyes, counting backwards from ten.

Suddenly, I felt immense pain in my whole body. I screamed and yelled as a few people came in and tied my down. I yelled and tried to break free, kicking my legs and trying to lift my arms. My screams were drowned by the sounds of the machine. Next thing I knew, it was over. I was laying on a bed, but it was different. Instead of being in an all-white room, it was black. I shot up from my bed and ran to the door, banging on it and screaming "LET ME OUT!" I felt a warm liquid drip from my mouth. I reached to touch it. It was black, but glowed purple. I freaked out, falling down and holding my mouth. I coughed more and more, releasing the black liquid from my soaked lips. Tears streamed from my eyes as I began to hyperventilate. Suddenly, I got dizzy and collapsed onto the ground. I saw the door open, but it was all blurry. Then, I heard a chuckle, "Good... it was successful."

"Alana!" I snapped back into reality, seeing that Aether had me in his arms on the ground. He looked worriedly down at me. As I looked at him, tears formed in my eyes. I instinctively wrapped my shaky arms around his neck as he pulled me closer. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," I repeated over and over again. He reassured me, "No, you have nothing to apologize for. You'll be ok."

Riggs knelt to our side.

"Are you ok...?" He asked. I was surprised that he would ask such a thing, but I cleaned myself up and nodded. "Thank you both..." I said. We gathered the rest of the stuff and exited swiftly. I looked back at the place. As I did, I felt sick to my stomach and looked away from it. Aether walk back to me. "Hey... come on." He put his hand gently on my shoulder and guided me away from the CyberCorp base.

I slept restlessly that night, having the same nightmares over and over again. Every time I woke up after those nightmares, that cold sweat would come back. I'd feel hollow... empty. I was still breathing, but I didn't feel alive. Aether would come into the room regularly to check on me. I felt better when he was there, but when he left I felt alone again.

Alone...