How to Catch a Fish (ManxMan)

Original Chapter Twenty-Five: Once More Before You Go

[AN: This is a chapter with sexual content. There are no obvious marks for when the scene starts and ends, so you'll just have to skim over it if you don't want to read it.]

~Chapter Twenty-five: Once More Before You Go~

Something drips down my chin and, confused, I reach up to touch it. My hand comes away black with blood. My chest grows heavy with the urge to cough. What starts out as a wet cough turns into heaving and my blood splatters all over the flowers at my feet.

Flowers?

I look up at the ruins of my childhood home, and then down at the two demon bodies of my parents on the damaged stone path. Seeing them like this makes me inhale sharply, only to choke on more blood. When I look down, there is more of my blood on the white uniform, the gold buttons just barely showing under it. A uniform that was white to show the blood of the enemy only shows my own.

Something sparks in my memory as déjà vu kicks in, reminding me that I have seen this exact same scene before. It's just a dream, I tell myself when I see it for what it is.

"Atasah!"

Just a dream...

I look up again and see Sidr running towards me, his swords in hand. His uniform is red with blood. That is, he was running, until a spell flies past my head and hits him square in the chest, throwing him backwards. I do not need to look over my shoulder to know that there will be witches. Against my will, my legs start to carry me towards where Sidr fell and the fear is still there, but I am aware that this is a dream now, allowing me to remain semi-calm. What did Nero tell me to do during a nightmare?

Think good thoughts...think about Nero.

My thoughts drift towards my fiancé, causing me to smile a little. The scene fades to an empty blackness and I am able to stop running. Images of Nero appear in front of me in slow motion, making me feel sluggish. Normally, these dreams bother me, but I am content to stare at the images of Nero as they go by instead of trying to go somewhere through the air that feels like syrup.

However, just as I start relaxing, the images begin to move faster, slowly at first, until they are practically blurred together. The light from the pictures makes my eyes hurt and I want to close them, but something is keeping me from doing so. Instead, I watch as they move faster and faster until the blurry images explode in a shower of sparks and the light dies, plunging me back into darkness.

The sudden darkness makes me grimace, but since mentally trying to create lights does not seem to be working, nor does it seem like I can wake myself up, I remain still, waiting for something to happen. However, nothing does for a long time, making me wonder if the point of this new dream is just to bore me to death.

Not knowing what else to do, I take a step forward, only to flinch when something snaps loudly under my foot. Looking down does nothing since it is too dark to see the ground, if there even is a ground in my dream. Something rattles to my left, causing me to stiffen because something about that sound is eerily similar. And when I look in the direction of the sound, red eyes reflecting non-existent light stare back at me.

Wendigo.

For a long moment, I stare at its unblinking eyes, waiting for it to do something. Dream or not, there must be a reason it has appeared here. "You don't look so good, demon," the wendigo comments, its eyes moving as it slowly circles me. "Haven't been sleeping well?"

I do not reply, unwilling to answer a taunt that my own mind conjured up. Unfortunately, my lack of response does not seem to both the wendigo. I did not expect it to, but that did not stop me from hoping that the dream would end if I refuse to acknowledge it.