The Tale Of A Hero

Chapter 18: I'm Not Afraid To Confess...

~Nightmare

~Sunburn's POV

...W-what? Where...where am I?

This world...a-am I dead? No...I couldn't have died! I was just breathing a few seconds ago...I saw my friends...But...there's no one here...it's just an endless, black void of...nothingness.

I don't...I don't want to be here! Please get me out of here! I wanna see my friends again! I wanna see their smiles again! Let me out! "LET ME OUT!!!"

"Hello, Brother."

...That voice...Could it be...him? I turned around and my mouth dropped in shock. Blitz. Or should I say, Blitz's small skeleton, because there was nothing but his bones talking to me.

"Blitz...Oh Arceus, brother! What...what happened? How are you here?" Blitz's eye sockets glittered with a tint of sadness. Nonetheless, he started at me with empty, emotionless eyes.

"Oh, so THAT'S the greeting I get? After all this time, you ask what happened, when you SAW what happened?" I shook my head violently. What is he talking about? He never looked like this!

"Blitz!" I yelled. "Snap out of it! You never looked like this! I saw it...I...I didn't enjoy it..." Blitz gave a sigh. "Then...it's come to this then..." I glanced back at him in confusion.

"Sorry to do this...brother."

Suddenly, I was lifted high into the air. I struggled against the invisible force, but it grew tighter until I couldn't move. Then, as I stared in horror, the skeletal Blitz turned...

Into Darkrai himself.

"YOU'RE AFRAID! YOU DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING BUT FEAR! WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE THEN?" He then shifted into an image of me. It was my rampaging form...I looked scarier than I imagined...

"Please! Stop this! I don't want to see this! I just want to go back to normal!" Darkrai turned back into himself, then he shook his ghastly head. "YOU CANNOT GO BACK TO WHO YOU WERE, UNLESS YOU LEARN TO BE BRAVE. FACE YOUR FEARS."

Suddenly, a black hole opened. "UNTIL THEN, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAUNT YOURSELF!" I felt myself being sucked into the black hole. I tried to push against it, but it was hopeless, and I was completely sucked in.

The last thing I saw was Darkrai's one blue eye, glowing menacingly.

~Nightmare end

***

I suddenly woke up in my tent. I was in no other world. I was just dreaming...But...it felt so real, somehow...I looked around me and saw that Mia was asleep on the other side of the tent.

She looked...peaceful. I didn't want to bother her, so I tried to get up and shuffle out as quietly as I could. Unfortunately, Vulpix's have excellent hearing, so her ears perked up the second I stood up, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"...Sunburn?" She quickly stood up. "Sunburn!" She quickly ran over and hugged me, much to my surprise. "Oh thank goodness! I thought...I thought you were gone...like "gone" gone." I felt a tear falling on my fur as she continued to hug me.

"I-it's fine..." I replied. "I...had this nightmare and-Wait...why are you here anyways?" She slowly let go and blushed embarrassingly. "Oh, um...I just wanted to check on you and I kinda...fell asleep." She let out a nervous chuckle.

I shook my head. "That's alright. I actually...uh, appreciate your company..." We both stared down awkwardly, not saying anything. Then, after a long silence, Mia spoke up.

"Look, Sunburn...We've all been worried about you...You kept so much from us and you didn't tell us...Why? You should've told us instead." I tilted my head. "But you kept a secret too, didn't you?"