Darkness

Inspired by ‘The Nightmare’ by Elfpen.

Visser Three sneered at me. ((You think you can defeat me?)) he taunted.

((I know I can!)) I roared back, shaking my massive bear head. A drew back my claws and slashed his side, leaving three long red gashes.

His eyes widened. ((No!)) he cried in terror. But I took no notice and, without hesitation, leant down and ripped his throat out with my teeth.

Visser Three died.

A swirl of darkness…

My fellow Animorphs stared at me in horror. Cassie spoke first. “How… how could you do that?” she cried. “Kill an innocent host?”

“Couldn’t control the blood lust, Xena?” Marco sneered. The pair of them walked away.

Ax looked at me like he’d never seen me before. ((I-)) he faltered. ((I cannot stay here with this creature.)) He turned away.

Jake shook his head. “You’re just too unpredictable, Rachel,” he said sadly. “I can’t have you in this team anymore. Goodbye.” He and Ax left.

I turned to Tobias, his hawk face unreadable. “Tobias,” I pleaded.

((I’m sorry, Rachel,)) he said softly. ((You- you’ve changed. I don’t like this new you. So violent, not who I fell in love with.)) He spread his broad russet wings. ((I won’t see you.))

As he soared into the sky, and I ran after him, screaming his name.

“Tobias!”

“Rachel, calm down, I’m here.”

Wait, what?

I opened my eyes and sat up quickly.

I was lying in my bed, my bed sheets tangled around my legs and drenched in cold sweat. Sitting next to me on my bed was a sweet looking guy with messy blonde hair and soft brown eyes, holding my hand. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I- sorry, Tobias,” I stuttered. “What are you doing here? In human morph?”

He shifted on the bed, not letting go of my hand. “I couldn’t sleep,” he explained sheepishly. “I was flying around a bit, and I went past you window – you were thrashing around, muttering. You looked like you needed someone there, so I came in and morphed. Hope you don’t mind,” he finished guiltily.

I threw my arms around him. “Nightmare,” I whispered. He looked right into my eyes.

“Do you need to talk about it?” he replied gently.
“I… I was looking at Visser Three, and he was taunting me, and suddenly I just snapped. I clawed him in the side, and I ripped out his throat.” Tears started running down my face, soaking the front of Tobias’ morphing suit. “And then, you all told me that I was too unpredictable, too violent, and Jake said I couldn’t be an Animorph anymore,” I faltered. “And you… you said I was a different person to who you fell in love with. And… you flew off.” A sob rose in my throat and I buried my face in his chest.

Tobias just held me close, making low soothing noises in my ear until I calmed down. Then, he quietly said, “Rachel. No matter what happens, no matter how much you change, or how much I change, or whatever happens in this war, know that I will always love you. No matter what.”

As I stared into his eyes, I found myself believing every word, and the nightmare slowly faded, not forgotten, but put away in the back of my head for later. And then Tobias started to kiss me, and everything disappeared.

---

The end could be, one: she was so absorbed in the kiss that everything else didn’t exist to her, or two: her waking up was a dream, and she just woke up for real.

On that depressing note, I’ll leave you. Stay tuned: I’ll be dropping a story in sometime.

--Fox