Chapter 1- The Nightmare Returns

“Where am I?” A somewhat tall woman asked in confusion. She looked around her and all she saw was mountains on either side of her. She was apparently standing in the middle of a pass between. But the main question was how did she get here? The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in her comfy bed at home. Was this all a dream?

Probably, but it didn’t feel like any ordinary kind of dream. For one thing the entire world seemed to pulse with a dark purplish color. And all across the sky, lightning flashed like some kind of rabid storm. But the strangest thing about this dream was that she was completely lucid, completely aware and conscious of her surroundings. “Oh well, maybe if I just keep walking I’ll find something worthwhile.” The woman said to herself. This place gave her the creeps. There was just something about this nightmarish landscape that didn’t seem normal, even by dream standards.

Suddenly an echoing peal of evil laughter was heard. “What was that? Who’s there?” The woman turned around in fear in the direction of the laughter. Her answer was a lightning strike nearby and a horrible boom of thunder. “Who’s there? Why, I’m hurt I thought you’d recognize me.” A dark, yet somewhat familiar voice mocked. “What? Who is it? Show yourself!” The woman demanded in obvious fear. “There you go again, always making demands. Well here’s one for you: Run!” The dark voice yelled as multiple lightning strikes appeared all around her. In a panic, she turned and ran away from the lightning strikes in fear and desperation while that voice continued to laugh demonically.

As she ran, the woman panicked. Who was this demonic voice? And why was it chasing her? But as she scurried away, she eventually tripped. And when she did, she looked back in fear to see one last lightning strike right in front of her. When the flash subsided, she saw a huge dark dragon with a dark figure riding on top of it. The figure, that of a young man, jumped to the ground not too far in front of the woman. “Ah, Lori Banet is it? It’s been a while, but surely you remember me.” The dark voice of the young man said. The woman was speechless, but the truth of the matter was that she didn’t recognize the man. How could she when the young man wasn’t even fully there? It was like he was only a dark shadow with bits and pieces simply not there. She only knew him as a young man because he still had the faint outline of a human. But surely this figure was anything but human.

“Speechless I see. That’s fine; I’ve always hated the sound of your voice anyways.” The demonic figure said. As the woman slowly rose to her feet she noticed a strange glowing symbol on the figure’s forehead. It was a green circle with a strange six-pointed star-like shape in the middle. Then she noticed the man’s dragon also had this same symbol on its forehead. “J-just who are you?” The woman asked again in fear. “Who am I? Well surely that is a base question.” The young man figure chuckled as he walked closer to the woman, who gasped in fear and confusion as a green circle formed around her feet; a green circle with that same dark symbol in the middle. Suddenly she felt very weak, almost as if her very soul was being drained from her. “Who am I you ask?” The demonic man figure asked as the symbol on his forehead glowed brighter. “I’m your worst nightmare!” He proclaimed as the woman took one last gasp of dream air as her soulless body crumpled to the ground.