‘This has to be the most bizarre dream yet,’ Kit thought fuzzily as their consciousness blinked in and out, in and out. Nothing made sense. It felt as if they were in a wind tunnel, their hair whipping painfully around their face, images flashing by so fast and disordered they could barely see what they were. It took tremendous effort just to keep their eyes open.

Something began to take shape in all the chaos as Kit struggled to get their wits about them. Too far away to see clearly, they could tell it was big, whatever it was. It thrashed wildly and roared like an animal in pain, and their ears pricked up as they recognized the sound.

Jamil! Or, rather, his beast form. Kit tried to focus, envisioning solid ground beneath their feet, and slowly they were able to move forward. The hurricane winds immediately became stronger, more intense, and everything went black for a moment; Kit fought through until their vision cleared. They could see the shape was, in fact, Jamil’s beast form. He seemed to be fighting himself, the ghost-like form shifting violently from Jamil to the beast and back to Jamil, all overlapping in a tangle of limbs and claws. As Kit drew closer they began to see something crawling all over him, slimy black things that looked like slugs and left hideous goopy trails on his body. They appeared to be hurting him.

‘If I don’t get to him soon, the Beast will break out and then we’ll be in trouble!’ Kit tried to move faster but felt as if they were trying to walk through cold molasses. Looking down they shrieked, horrified to see the ground covered in that black slimy gunk and they stood in it ankle-deep.

‘I’ll never reach him in time like this…!’ Panic began to set in but Kit ignored it, already forming an idea. Holding their hands open over the slime, they closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could. The air around their palms shimmered weakly.

‘Come on…!’ The tingling that accompanied their powers began to build, first a mild zing in their fingers, crawling up their arms and down their body until they felt ant-bite prickles all across their skin. Kit groaned and focused harder, their outstretched hands starting to ache as the pressure built. Just as it became unbearable, they felt a sensation in their chest like a balloon popping and all the built-up energy bursting out of them at once. Kit’s skin lit up like a neon sign, glowing brighter than ever before, the warm pink light instantly evaporating all the slime within its radius.

‘Whoa, hell yeah!’ Ablaze with their new power, they ran toward Jamil, burning the slime away with each step. The howling winds tried to push them back but not even that could slow them down now. Jamil was close now, almost close enough to touch.

‘Just…a bit more…’ The moment Kit’s glow met Jamil’s aura, the winds abruptly stopped and the black muck surged up around them, snapping closed like a bear trap. Now they were trapped in a pitch-dark void, but Kit was unafraid. In fact, they felt calmer than ever. This darkness was no match for their light, overpowering the writhing mass of energy that surrounded Jamil’s consciousness . It was as though they were watching a recording of Jamil transforming, speeding up and slowing down, a ghastly composite of terrible images. For one brief moment, the shifting paused on his face , his eyes frantic and afraid and full of pain; the beaked face of the Beast burst through and Jamil was gone again. The Beast seemed to be winning.

‘Don’t give up, Jamil! I’m here! Let me help!’ Kit plunged their arms straight through the Beast’s energy, reaching desperately inside for Jamil. They could feel him in there but couldn’t get ahold of him, groping blindly through the layers of anger and worms and anguish. The worms were beginning to creep up Kit’s arms but they fought back their revulsion and reached deeper. ‘Jamil, please…! Please take my hand!’

‘Kit…’ His voice was so weak and small, they hardly heard it. Kit’s fingers brushed something solid, and they grabbed it tightly with both hands.

‘I’ve got you, just hang on! Please!’ There was immense pressure as the darkness surrounding them contracted, closing in like shrink film. The darkness seemed to be trying to suffocate Kit’s light but they weren’t about to allow that. Letting out a feral cry, they planted their feet and pulled hard on Jamil’s hand. He didn’t budge.

‘I don’t know what’s got you but I won’t let it take you! Let me help you, idiot!’ Ignoring the worms now biting their arms, Kit mustered all their strength to pull as hard as they could, and the void disintegrated as their light exploded out of it. The slime dissolved into nothingness and Kit found themself on the floor of their own bedroom of all places, the crumpled form of Jamil slumped across their lap.

‘I-I did it…Jamil, I did it…!’ Relief washed over them but it quickly soured as Jamil weakly raised his head and they saw the black tears leaking from his eyes. Recoiling in disgust, they nearly pushed him away.

‘Jamil…? Wh-what’s wrong with your eyes…?’ His face looked strange, his expression jerky and unreadable. Kit raised a shaking hand to wipe away the inky tears but he batted their hand away roughly, shaking his head.

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‘D-don’t…don’t touch it…’ Jamil’s voice came out phlegmy and hoarse, and as Kit watched in horror black sludge began to pour out of his mouth. They couldn’t stop their scream of revulsion and he actually smiled, crooked and weary. He coughed, more black spilling out. ‘P-pretty gross, huh…?’

‘What’s happening to you…?’ Kit’s chest felt tight and it became hard to breathe as realization set in: Jamil looked like Master Jesper had when he’d been possessed by Vendic. Jamil seemed to know what they were thinking and gave a solemn nod.

‘Afraid so…I-I can’t fight him anymore…’ His body began to convulse and shift, more black running from his eyes and mouth. This was nothing like the transformation Kit had witnessed, when his body had melted and twisted and broken itself. This was his consciousness being consumed. Kit had never felt fear like this, so powerful they didn’t think they would feel anything else ever again. They could feel tears pouring from their own eyes as they held onto Jamil, screaming for him to fight.

‘I can help, I can burn it off!’ Struggling to contain their sobs, Kit summoned their power again and their glow picked up in intensity, coloring everything pink, sending out waves of shimmering magic. It had cleared the way to reach Jamil, surely it could get rid of whatever was trying to hurt him!

It wasn’t enough. It burned away the worms that clung to Kit’s arms but it could not touch what was inside Jamil. He was almost fully transformed now, only his head in their lap remained and it would not be long before that was gone, too. The tip of one claw lightly grazed down Kit’s cheek as he weakly tried to brush away their tears. That tiny touch hurt them so deeply, they wished he’d cut them.

‘You tried…’ Little more than a faint growl, Jamil’s voice faded as the last traces of him vanished beneath the great horned visage of the Beast. It looked wrong, distorted, as though it were made out of those nasty slime-worms. Even its eyes were black, hollow pits of darkness in its oily face. Looking on in tense horror, Kit watched the Beast slowly raise its claws to its face and examine them before staring blankly at the ground. It did not move.

Intense pain boiled over Kit’s body, pouring in waves off the Beast, powerful enough to nearly trap them beneath the weight of its suffering. It wanted them to give up.

‘N-no…I won’t…I can’t! Not yet…!’ Focusing on how badly they wanted to save Jamil, Kit slowly rose to their feet against the Beast. It stayed still, watching them. Why didn’t it attack?

‘Because Jamil is still fighting it.’ The voice Kit suddenly heard was terribly cold and harsh, but before they could turn toward it they were grabbed, hard, by the back of the neck. Screaming, Kit tried to pull away but was forcibly turned to look into a pair of angry, oozing black eyes. Fear and disgust plowed through their body like electricity as they immediately recognized those eyes, the hand on their neck tightening so hard they almost blacked out. Their light flickered, threatening to fade completely.

‘V-Vendic…?’ They choked out and the eyes narrowed, more black dripping from them.

‘And who are you?’ Vendic sounded mildly amused, and Kit would have thrown up had he not held them so tightly. If Vendic was here, they must have failed. He had them now.

Before Kit could succumb to the overwhelming dread that now filled them, the Beast suddenly lashed out at Vendic with its tail, the evil deity’s body dissolving into a pool of slime. Dropping to their knees, Kit coughed for a moment and looked up at the Beast, their light reigniting and glowing brighter than ever.

‘You saved me…?’ They staggered to their feet but the beast stopped them with one clawed hand. Its massive beak parted and it growled out a single word:

‘Protect.’ It swung its tail again, this time at Kit, but instead of pain they felt nothing when it hit them; instead, the force of the strike pushed them back like a gust of wind and they went spiraling into the bottomless dark—

Shrieking, Kit tumbled out of their bunk and onto the floorboards, shrieking again when they unexpectedly splashed into cold water. Disoriented, they grabbed for the bunk frame to pull themself to their feet, gasping at the chill. Why was there water on the floor? It was too dark to see much in the berth, only the vague outline of the other bunk, but before Kit could figure out why the floor was wet an ear-splitting roar shook the cabin and their stomach sank. They knew that sound all too well by now.

There was no time to process the dream they just had as someone outside the berth screamed and something heavy-sounding crashed through the deck. Scrambling out of the berth, Kit’s eyes met with destruction. The cabin was almost completely destroyed, two of the four walls ripped apart and most of the roof missing, debris from all the broken wood and passengers’ belongings making escape nearly impossible. From where they stood, Kit was trapped.

A different voice screamed. Someone else was crying. Wood splintered and shattered, and the Beast bellowed again. The water was rising slowly, almost ankle deep now and so cold it made Kit’s bones hurt. All visions of Vendic left their mind as they thought of their friends, and the passengers on the ship that were now in trouble.

“I have to do something,” they said out loud, looking in the direction of the Beast’s roars, forcing themself to not be scared. Slowly, Kit began to pick their way through the debris to get out to the deck.

~