8.

That night, while I was sleeping in the guest bedroom of Teenyma's apartment, I had another nightmare. This time, I was standing in what seemed like the middle of hell. There was fire everywhere. To my left, to my right, in front of me, and behind. I was standing in an empty field of shifting red and orange, where nothing and everything was burning. But I wasn't hurting.

I was completely fine. Which, in turn, confused me.

I looked down at my hands and legs, and I was quite surprised to discover I was standing in my own body. I wasn't trapped in some other stranger's body like I normally was. I was me. I looked up to gaze around my surroundings, but all I could see for miles and miles was an endless field of dancing flames. For a second, nothing happened. There was just me standing there, completely untouched by the flames while the rest of the world burned around me. There was no sound either. Other than the gentle enveloping rush and rise of the crackling fire, I couldn't make out any other noise beyond that. But then, just as I was starting to think I was alone, something happened.

A figure suddenly appeared in the distance ahead of me. I was a bit startled at first but quickly regained my composure when I realized I somewhat recognized the person I was staring at. It was a man. Dressed in kimono styled robes and a hat. Although he was standing several yards away, I was able to recognize him from the nightmare I had the previous morning before school.

Like me, he was just standing there in the midst of flames not doing anything. I couldn't see his face as he had his head lowered and staring at the ground, but there was no doubt he was the old man I dreamt to have been stuck in his body while he battled a shape shifting demon and her army of dragon knights.

Suddenly sensing he might be able to help, I lifted my arm up and tried to get his attention. "Hey! Over here!" I yelled over the gentle roar of the fire all around us, while I waved my out stretched hand side to side.

But he did not respond.

"Hey!" I yelled again, still waving my hand. "Over here!"

There was the roar of flames. The crackling of fire. But just as before, he did not respond.

Disappointed, I lowered my hand to rest. However, a dreadful sense of unease suddenly crept up the back of my neck as I soon realized something horrific. The figure, the old man, was missing his right arm. Almost as if it was sliced off at the elbow.

Not only that, but the place where his sword should have been, connected to the belt on the left side of his waist. It wasn't there. The spot was empty.

"Doko. Da."

I was startled at the sudden sound of a voice I didn't recognize. I turned around. Looked up. Look left. But I couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"Ore. No. Ken."

Starting to panic after hearing it for the second time, I quickly spun around to the only other person standing there with me. The figure, the old man, was now several yards closer than before.

"Doko. Da."

Just as I heard the message reverberate all around me for the third time, I paid close attention to the words being spoken. I suddenly found myself able to identify the language, just not the words being delivered.

"Ore. No. Ken"

The figure standing in front of me, the figure of the old man, was still somehow getting closer without actually moving forward. I tried keeping track of his movements, but it was like he only got closer whenever I blinked or whenever I wasn't looking. I had no doubt he was the source of the ominous message I was hearing, with the demonic undertone of his voice elevating the severity of the words being recited.

I had this sudden urge to flee, to get as far away from the approaching man as possible. But no matter how much I tried, no matter how much I willed my body to do so, I couldn't do that either. I suddenly found myself unable to move, and the more I struggled, the closer the man got. However, for a split second, just as the space between us was approximately 10 ft. apart, he vanished.

Only to then reappear an instant later right in front of me.

Everything happens so fast after that. But I caught a quick glimpse of his face before any of it happened. He had deep black eyes, and razor-sharp teeth. A face I recognized to have been hunting my dreams ever since I was 9. It was the face of the black spirit. The Ghost of vengeance. Not the old man.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Sensing the immediate danger, I tried screaming but The Black spirit suddenly shot out its only good arm and grabbed me by the throat. I couldn't breathe. As I choked and struggled for air, it slowly lifted me by the neck and held me in a suspended state while it proceeded to intensify its grip and the muscles in my neck began to break. My eyes went wide and started to water. My throat felt like it was about to cave in at any second. My nose started leaking blood, and my vision was starting to blur. All the while, the creature, the ghost of vengeance, continued staring up at me through those menacing eyes, watching the life as it slowly leaked out of me.

However, just as my vision began to darken and my body began to go limp, there was one more sentence I heard it speak before everything went black.

"Ore no ken ga. Hitsuyou da."

That was when I woke up.

I woke up sucking in a huge gulp of air, desperately trying to fill my lungs with oxygen as I shot up to a sitting position and began coughing violently. The room was shrouded in darkness, only illuminated by the soft glow of the moon pouring in from the window behind me. Teenyma came bursting in through the bedroom door a minute later, dressed in her pink sleeping robes with her hair laid down. "Hiroshi!" she yelled, as she immediately rushed to squat by the side of my bed, completely forgetting to flick on the lights in the heat of the moment.

"What's wrong?!" she asked as I continued coughing violently. "What's the problem are you alright?" she asked again, and this time I was starting to hear the fear and confusion in her now shaky voice. "Hiroshi talk to me. Please. Stop coughing. she demanded. “But I couldn't. My throat still felt like it was getting tighter by the second, despite the fact I was no longer having the nightmare.

"Water." Teenyma suddenly said to herself, getting up an instant later to Sprint out of the room before running back with a glass of water in hand. Not wasting another second, she carried the glass to my lips and urged me to drink, holding up the cup as I drank while also caressing the center of my back with her free hand. The water, as it went down my throat was freeing and relaxing. My throat felt much less constricted, and after I had finish drinking, I stopped coughing.

"Wait. No, don't move." Teenyma reacted as I tried getting off the bed. "Just relax." she said. "Let the water settle." She took the cup from me and asked. "Do you want more?" I shook my head in response, and through wide and concerned eyes, she asked again. "Are you sure?"

I nodded.

Satisfied with my answer, she placed the empty cup on the bedside table. "Here." she said, helping me to get out of the blanket and sit on the side of the bed.

Then she sat beside me.

"What happened?" she asked. "What made you start coughing so much? Was it dust perhaps? Or the cold?"

"No." I replied, my head lowered and staring at the floor. Flashes of the dream flooded through my mind that very moment, causing me to grit my teeth and grip the sides of my head in frustration.

"It was just another stupid nightmare. “I said, frustrated.

"Why won't it stop? “I whispered, more to myself than to Teenyma. "Why won't it just stop? “I said again, becoming more frustrated by the second.

Teenyma reached out and placed a hand on my back. "It's okay." she said. "It was just a bad dream. It's over now."

We stayed like that for almost a minute, the both of us sitting in the semi dark room on the side of the bed, with Teenyma gently caressing and rubbing my back, while I relaxed and the nightmare slowly faded into distant memory. Just like the others, this one felt so real with the smells, the sounds, the sights, and the thing that was trying to kill me. Unlike the rest however, it was also one of the very few dreams I experienced as myself and not someone else. The first time I could clearly remember having such nightmares were again, shortly before my 10th birthday. After that, I occasionally had them while I was in confinement, but ever since I got out 6 months back, I hadn't experienced such a nightmare until that night.

"Feeling better?" Teenyma asked after a short while, still rubbing circles around my back with her palm.

"Yeah." I responded. "Thanks for rushing in so fast by the way." I said, turning to meet her gaze and smiling.

"You kidding? I would have been here a lot sooner if only I had the power of teleportation." she said. "Also, don't mention it. It's my job as your aunt, to always ensure your safety. And it's a job I put first before anything else."

She returned the smile, and I felt a million times much better in that moment. Then, after some more time had passed, she asked.

"Do you want to talk about it? The dream that is. Do you think it will help to talk about it with me?”

I took a second before replying. "Yeah. “I said. "But you already know how most of it goes. Strange location, one that I have never seen before, and something that was trying to kill me."

Teenyma lifted her head from my shoulder and turned to stare at me. "Well," she said, "What did it look like this time around? The thing that was trying to kill you."

"I don't know. “I replied. "Like a man, I think. An old man." I quickly thought back to the dream before I continued speaking. "He was missing an arm. His right arm. He also had these deep black eyes; I think he might have been possessed or something. And he also kept repeating these phrases to me over and over again."

"What was he saying?" Teenyma asked, her eyes curious.

"I'm not sure. “I replied. "But I think he was asking me the whereabouts of something."

"Of what?" Teenyma asked.

"His sword maybe? I don't know. It looked like he had lost it."

"His sword." Teenyma repeated, lowering her voice to a whisper as she suddenly trailed off and went quiet. She had a brief recollection of an event that happened to the both of us as kids. An event that, involved an old man stepping onto the road while our parents were driving. He was bleeding from top to bottom, and he appeared to be missing his right arm from the elbow. His white robes were torn and burnt, and his eyes were rapidly alternating between the color black and normal.

She remembered how my dad was able to step on the brakes at the last second, bringing the car to a scraping halt near inches away from actually hitting the old man. But that did not stop the elderly stranger from collapsing on the ground an instant later and dying from his already sustained injuries the next. Teenyma remember being shocked at the site, but was unable to do anything as both my mom and my dad rushed out of the vehicle to help the stranger. Their orders were for us to remain seated in the car, but when they decided to rush the man to the hospital, we were asked to quickly step out of the vehicle while his body was carried over to the back seat. That was when she looked around and found me slowly walking towards the side of the road, where I was completely transfixed and leaning over to pick up something lying in a patch of bushes.

It was black. And although she couldn't quite see it from where she was standing, from her angle, she could have sworn it almost resembled the hilt of a sword.

"Hey. Earth to Teenyma. Are you alright?" I suddenly called out after she had spent nearly a full minute staring at the bedroom floor. Teenyma lifted her head back up and turned to stare at me. "It seems like you zoned out quite a bit back there." I said. "Are you good?"

She gave me a short nod, and through saddened eyes, she tried to top it off with a reassuring smile. "I'm okay." she said. "I was just a little worried that's all. Still am to be honest."

That made me feel guilty.

"Well don't be." I told her, knowing fully well that for Teenyma, that was easier said than done. "I told you I am fine okay? So, you don't have to worry."

"Okay." she said. "I'll try. But on one condition. Are you absolutely sure you're alright? Because I can't go back to bed until I am fully convinced that you are a hundred percent fine."

"Truly, I'm fine now. “I replied. "I don't want to be the reason you show up late for work tomorrow so, please go get some sleep."

"Please." she said dismissively. "Family first, work second. But okay. “She gave me a quick hug, then got up to leave.