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 Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:43 pm
When Yuki woke up, he would be in the middle of a field surrounded by fog, clothes dripping wet, or what remained of them. Around him were thousands of white crystals branching all directions, some of them faded and shattered.
He would have no memory of how he got there.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:04 pm
Considering all of the weird places and events he'd encountered in his afterlife, his first thought was that things could certainly be worse.
He sat up slowly. "Where...?" Questioning anything and nothing, he got to his feet and looked down at his clothes. Frowning, he tried to spot some body of water around. Had he slept through rain? Was this some sort of strange dream? Strange was better than terrifying, at least.
To memory - not that it counted for much, when one was but a ghost - Yuki had never seen anything or anywhere like where he stood. It was quiet. Peaceful, even. He admired the pure white crystals scattered everywhere and surrounding him, reaching out to touch one curiously.
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Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:39 pm
The second he touched the crystals, they immediately crumbled, and it sounded like, oddly enough, they were in pain.
He remembered a flash of something suddenly - screaming, fire lots of fire - but nothing other than vague images. There was a word at the tip of his tongue, and it felt important, but nothing could stir those memories either.
The fog was growing thicker, and in the distance, there was a shadow.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:00 am
The effect of his touch had Yuki jerking his hand back swiftly, startled by it. They didn't just crumble, but cried out in pain? Guilt had his chest tightening uncomfortably, and he was drawing his arms up close to his chest as if afraid to touch anything else around him.
His eyes flew open wide just as suddenly as a vision invaded his mind, screams making his heart leap into his throat. The gasp he drew in felt like it choked him on the heat and smoke that was not really there. It was over as quickly as he'd seen it... Or, remembered it? Why was it familiar? What was it that had happened? He couldn't remember, and it frustrated and upset him that no matter how hard he tried he could recall nothing more.
When he looked at his surroundings again, he could not see as far ahead as before due to the thickening fog. What indifference he had toward being here was short lived, and when he glimpsed a shadow within the fog he actually moved cautiously and slowly toward it.
"Hello...?" Yuki called out apprehensively into the fog, toward the shadow he could not yet identify. "Can you tell me where I am?"
He never looked away from it, tense and ready to bolt in the opposite direction if there was so much as a hint of claws or tentacles.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:08 am
He knew exactly who it was through the fog.
It was him, wearing his usual clothing but red. The other him moved, and thousands of red butterflies scattered all directions, corroding whatever white crystal they touched.
"So you're the last one," Yuki didn't have time to make sense of it before his other version pushed him through the water, the both of them sinking deep, deep downwards. He could briefly feel the other wrap their fingers around his core, feel them squeeze, and felt himself begin to break and unravel as all around him churned fragments of red.
"I'll destroy you."
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 1:22 am
Yuki had been trying to prepare himself to find someone he feared, but to see himself wasn't what he had expected at all. He'd fought shadows in the guise of his own form before... But this one was different. He could feel it even before everything around him was the sight of crimson and the sound of fluttering wings. His arms raised to shield his face, but he realized that the swarm was not coming for him. He'd actually watched them, for just a moment, witnessing the destruction that they were leaving in their wake.
His own voice brought his attention back, and before he could so much as open his mouth in question he couldn't breathe and could hear only the water rushing past his ears.
He'd died before. Dissipated before. After his mortal life had ended there was always that reassurance that no matter how much everything could hurt his Fear would still reform and he would not cease to exist.
The foreboding statement his other self firmly spoke, the deep pain that seemed to radiate from his very being rather than any specific part of his body, both of those things made him dread that this time there would be no reawakening to find himself whole again.
Unable to distinguish up from down he struggled, trying to grab hold of his other self, pulling and pushing and clawing to get free. He shut his eyes tight to block out all of the red, feeling as though he were being torn apart, afraid to look at himself and find it to be true. He thought he was screaming, but he couldn't hear anything over the water he couldn't escape.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:18 pm
They were still sinking, and it was getting colder, darker, the other's hands still firmly wrapped around his core. They were winning, and pushed him deeper until at last they hit something solid, and they grabbed a hold of Yuki and easily shoved him in.
It was a red marble box of some sort, and it was even colder inside.
"Night night," said his other, as they slid the lid shut with a grating noise, and it went silent.
He was trapped.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:55 pm
It was useless for him to struggle, because no matter how he tried his other self was stronger, making him weaker still the longer he fought in vain. Yuki still didn't understand what was happening, or why, or even if this was a nightmare that he could wake up from.
He was supposed to be used to the cold, but he was shivering. He shouldn't have felt like he was suffocating, but his chest was tight. As everything got darker and colder, the revenant thought that it might have been his consciousness slipping away. Darkness closing in on him as he gave up. Even the dim illumination of his body looked like it was threatening to die out against the darkness.
His back hit something solid, and he pressed his hands back into it to find smooth, cold stone. Yuki's stomach lurched when he was forced in, not able to stop the heavy lid from being shut to keep him in.
"No, wait!" His cries of alarm were deafening to his own ears, and he wasn't even sure if he could be heard from the outside. "Please, don't leave me like this!" Even as he shouted, he didn't expect his pleas to be answered. He tried with all his strength to budge the lid over him, pushing and literally clawing at stone until his nails were torn back and bleeding.
"Help me!" But there was no one to help him, was there? "Let me out!"
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Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:10 am
Yuki would be there for what felt like a very, very long time.
It was beginning to feel cold, it was beginning to feel crammed, it was beginning to slowly feel like he belonged there. Maybe this was his fate, maybe this was his existence and everything he had experienced just a quick fleeting dream fading to nothingness.
Is this what you want?
It would take Yuki a while longer to realize it wasn't himself who said that but something outside, watching him. He could just, through the thin lines of the box make out burning white eyes, and long white hair cascading all directions, but nothing else. They stared at him curiously within the box.
Do you want to be destroyed?
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Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:16 am
Yuki wasn't sure how long he'd clawed uselessly at the walls, though the evidence was painted in thick, black streaks where he'd dragged his bloodied fingers. He'd stopped shouting when he'd lost the ability, his throat painful and raw. Eventually, he thought he might not feel as cold anymore, but he slowly realized that he really couldn't feel much of anything because of how long he'd been cold.
What was the use in continuing to fight when there was no hope of winning?
Yuki felt tired, weak, lying silent and unmoving in the darkness of his prison when he heard a voice. After nothing but silence for so long it actually frightened him, even if there was no outward response to show it. When he finally processed that he was no longer alone, his gaze focusing on white instead of the darkness that he had been trapped in.
It took several long moments for the words to sink in, and it hurt when he tried to answer. It hurt in his throat, and in the revenant's Fear-fueled heart.
"I... I don't know anymore..." Yuki managed in a whisper. What he recalled of memories... Hallucinations... Whatever they were... So many of the choices he had thought were right had brought grief, and regret. Perhaps they were memories, perhaps this was his punishment for ignorance. Or, perhaps he was wrong even now.
He didn't want to be here anymore, but was here all that he had? Was there even a different existence to return to, or had it all been conjured by his mind so that he didn't feel so alone? Hadn't he endured this long enough?
"Don't I deserve to be destroyed?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:22 am
A thin, long white hand reached in, too unnaturally thin, and tilted Yuki's cheek. The same burning white eyes reached deep into him, as if weighing his essence. He could feel it the second it touched him, a deep sadness, a resounding regret.
No, you do not deserve to be destroyed.
Yuki was crying now, involuntarily, without understanding why. Perhaps he had never cried in his life and the feeling was strange, a profound grief settling in. It felt almost relieving.
You do not deserve this grief either. For you, there is still a chance.
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