Chapter Twenty-five: Once More Before You Go

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[AN: Implied sexual scene. There is nothing to really skip, though.]

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

Something drips down my chin, and, confused, I reach up to touch it, only for my hand to come away black with blood. A heavy, swollen feeling settles in my chest, like the filling of a balloon, and I choke on the urge to cough. I bend over in an instinctive move to ease the feeling, but I only end up coughing up blood onto the grass by my feet.

Grass?

Something sparks in my memory as déjà vu kicks in, reminding me that I have seen this exact same scene before in a dream. A dream...

It's just a dream, I try to convince myself.

"Atasah!"

Just a dream...

I look up again and see Sidr running at me, a sword in each hand. His uniform is red with blood that is not his own. When a spell suddenly flies out of nowhere and hits him in the middle of his chest, knocking him onto his back, I try to block out this fake reality.

Think good thoughts. Nightmares can't hurt good thoughts.

My thoughts drift towards my fiancé, and, before I know it, the scene fades to an empty blackness. For a moment, it seems like I am going to wake up - I can feel my body even if I can't move it - but then sleep pulls me back under, and I quickly forget that this was ever a dream in the first place.

Blinking, I look around at the empty blackness as it slowly turns into a light at the end of a tunnel situation. Even without walking, it seems to be coming closer, but the second I take a step towards it, the light shoots off into the distance and disappears entirely. I try to take another step, ready to chase after it, but then something crunches under my foot, and I cringe back, quickly stepping backwards until nothing cracks under my weight, as I know without looking that it is bone, even if I do not know how I know that.

Glowing red eyes blink into existence in front of me, something visible even without any light, much like that time in the prison but brighter. Wendigo.

For a long moment, I stare at its unblinking eyes, waiting for something to happen. However, rather than attack or disappear, it starts to talk. "You don't look so good, demon," the wendigo comments, the red in its eyes flicking downward, as if eyeing me. "Haven't been sleeping well?"

Whether I answer or not is apparently unimportant, as the wendigo suddenly surges forward and shoves me backwards. I trip over bones as I stumble back, but I manage to catch my balance before I can hit the ground. By the time I realize that it was not an attack but just the wendigo pushing me out of its cell, the creature is gone, leaving me alone in the dark prison corridor.

I just sigh and walk across the hallway, and I am suddenly back in my better-lit cell on the other side of the inhabitable area. I make to lie down on my cot - the only one in the room - when the wendigo is suddenly back in the doorway, only Heather is behind him. "Look what cat was dragged in," it says, grinning widely, though even with its mask in the way, I can tell the smile does not reach its eyes.

"Atasah, right?" She asks, and I frown at her, confused. Doesn't she know me? "My name is Heather, and I'm here to break you out."

"Haven't we met?" I ask, wondering why she looks so familiar when she clearly does not remember me.

The girl looks confused, but it is the wendigo who answers. "Did'ja hit your head or something? She's new."

Not sure what that has to do with anything, I open my mouth to say so, but then my breath catches, and I sit up as the room starts to turn fuzzy around the edges. "What's...this?" I try to say, but it feels like my words are being pulled through molasses with how slowly they come out. My body feels unbelievably heavy, and I find myself falling back onto my cot, which feels unusually comfortable while my backside just feels numb.

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