The Raven's Nightmare

CHAPTER SIX

NEXT DAY

  Nightmare left right before dawn, heading in the direction of the Nightingale's cottage; he hopes that Raven's condition has gotten better. A frown formed on his face at the memory of her limping up to him; beat and broken. How can anyone do such a thing to a sweet SOUL like Raven? What have she or her family ever done to be labeled as outcast when all they've ever done was trying to live peacefully and treat the Guardian as one of their own? After what Salem and Batair went through, it seems that the universe enjoys watching them suffer...

    'It's just that this world is too cruel...'

    "Hey, monster!"

    Snapping out of his dark thoughts, the skeleton's eye lights landed on the one person he needed to see today; Terrence, who had his two goons behind him. They were standing between Nightmare and the area of the woods that lead to Raven's home. Standing his ground, the Guardian of Negativity gave the trio a harsh glare and clenched his fist as he shouted "You took it too far yesterday, Terrence! You could have killed her!" The rabbit monster gave a smug smirk, retorting "At least there would have been one less freak walking around!"

    With a dark aura forming around him and his eye lights disappearing, Nightmare's magic activated as he sent a sharp bone to Terrence and left it floating near his throat, threatening, "Since I'm a Guardian, I can't kill you but..." pausing to give a sadistic smirk to the frightened trio he finished, "that doesn't mean I can't give you nightmares where you stand." Nudging past the shocked aggressors harshly, Nightmare started to walk to the outline of the forest; it felt good to be the one to make his tormentors cower before him.

    Turning slowly to look back at the Guardian, Terrence shocked expression turned into a look of fury. How dare that freak of nature humiliate and threaten him? Looking around at the ground, the rabbit monster spotted a decently sized rock and picked it up; weighing it carefully in his hands and eyeing Nightmare with pure HATE, he threw it at his skull where it landed with an ear piercing CRACK!

    THUD

    Falling unconscious on the dirt road, Nightmare laid there motionless with a large crack on his skull with purple marrow seeping through it. The two looked at the rabbit with paled faces; Diana pulled on their sleeves and hissed out, "Shit! Hide! Someone's coming!" They ran towards a bush and hid, not even sparing a second glance at the Guardian.

                       ꧁꧂꧁꧂

    As soon as Raven woke up, she ran. There was an urgency in her SOUL telling- no- demanding her to find Nightmare. She could feel the dread forming in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong; very wrong. Her tiny bare feet digging through the dirt for more momentum as soon as she saw the break in the trees.

    When she reached the path leading to the town, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight before her.

    "Nightmware!"

    Lying in a pool of purple marrow was her dear friend. Not caring if she injured herself more than she already was, Raven skidded to his side. Looking over his body for the source of the odd liquid, Raven went to put Nightmare's skull on her lap when she felt that it was wet. Looking at her purple colored hands, it took a while for the poor child to realize it was the skeleton's way of bleeding. The realization hit her hard as her face paled and her hands shook. Looking back at her friend with a wavering smile and tear filled eyes she croaked out, "Don't worry, Nwighty! I-I can fwix you and-and then you can wake up! O-ok?"

    Silence.

    Bringing her tiny shaking hands back to the Guardian's skull, Raven decided to do the one thing that her parents warned her not to do.