Into The Shadow Realm | Rascal x fem reader story 2023

33| Kurt and Jules

Planet Earth spins faster and faster around you. The agony seeps into your veins like poison, and you can only scream into the harsh wind whipping around you, though it drowns out your cries effortlessly.

You tried keeping the anxiety at bay. For nights on end it worked and you were able to get through with little to no pain at all. This time, it does not matter, it pulls you in anyway. It is hard to remain calm as whatever poison that flows through your veins makes it feel like each bone in your body is breaking, your skin tearing to shreds and hot fire burning your flesh.

Gasping, you wake from your vision in the middle of the night. The spot Rascal has taken up every night for the last couple days is vacant. He told you he was going on observation for any extra negative energy he could find elsewhere, in attempts to refill what was lost when Nogo restored his memories.

Of course the pain endures. Oh the agony! It really feels like fire is consuming your body, no way out, it hurts!

God please make it stop!

Breaking into a desperate sweat, searing white pain travels your arms, legs, chest, stomach and face while your insides spasm with sharp aches.

Unable to move, unable to make a sound, you shift your eyes down to view your arm and hand, pale as paper and slowly being coated in those dark black veins. But no, they do not just stop at the arm. You watch in absolute horror as they travel further, twisting around your upper arm. You feel it, you can feel the veins! They continue past your shoulders, then to your chest! Through gritted teeth you stifle a groan, tears welling in your eyes. It's all too much!

And then...

Then it stops.

A single tear spills then rolls down your cheek as you watch the black withdraw from your veins, becoming less and less painful. You stare daggers at the patterns on the underside of your bed poster, chest and shoulders heaving from horror and exhaustion, unable to move.

Once it is all over, you sit up shakily. The fact that you were truly bedridden this time is petrifying. The tear that spilled now rolls free down the side of your face and even to your neck. While you slow your breathing, you lift your arm to examine it in the light coming in from the window. No veins and back to its usual shade.

Your eyes become blurry, and so does the room. Its colours mix like a painting and you zone out staring in an exhausted fascination. Then you let the tears fall as more and more tension grows in the front of your head, a lump rises in your throat and your eyes begin stinging.

I'm not. I don't believe it.

You realise that after all this time in the Shadow Realm, you have not once properly cried. Slowly, you turn into your pillow. At first, all that comes out are sobs, then they turn into harsh cries.

I'm not dying.

Why did Emperor Nogo choose you for this mission? You think, then it all clicks.

The reward for Rascal's energy was your health. It was implied of course, you can only serve Nogo if you are in top health. Only someone in such a high power is able to heal you. That is why he chose you, saw you as the perfect gateway.

He knew all along.

You are dying, but you are never going to steal Rascal's energy, you never were.

...

"And that's how you move a cauldron." You stand weakly, half dead and half asleep in Brooha's once again cluttered brewery, teaching the witch more negative energy for a potion.

"Great! Thank you (y/n)." Brooha says as she turns to the now stationary cauldron, beginning to toss the ingredients in. "I will make the potion now, you said stronger this time?"