Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 7.1: In Search of Answers

Drake

Taiyou-Shi Sector 2: The Upper Plates, 1116 D.A., Present Time

The nightmares came as they did every night. Demons crawled through every crevice of his mind. His dreams were dark, filled with bleak scenarios, words turned to ash in his mouth. He was running after her, but could never catch up. No matter how fast, how smart he became, she was always one step ahead.

This time around, he wasn't trying to win the race at all. All he wanted to do was save her. She was running into impending doom.

"She's going to her death," he told himself. "She's going to lose her life and there is absolutely nothing I can do to protect her. I wasn't strong enough. I may never be strong enough."

He saw her in the distance, ahead of him in the dark. Tall buildings rose up in the background, black, twisting towers that loomed ahead, their presence oppressive. The damnable Light Spires glowed throughout, adding to the gloom, not dispelling it. The buildings bled, the blood flowing down the walls, turning the crumbling facades into crimson effigies. The pavement kept sliding from underneath him, slowing him down. He was running as fast as he could now, but making no progress, a mouse caught on a wheel. She got farther and farther away from him, gradually becoming a dot in the darkness. He screamed at her, begged her not to leave him.

The demons showed up, as they always did in this part. Their dark, shadowy outlines shifted like smoke. They were immaterial, almost other-worldly, pure evil emanating from them. They laughed – a curious chirping, cackling sound, a cacophony of evil that surrounded him, their shrill cries reverberating across the building walls.

His heart ached. He wanted so much to spend a little more time with her, to run through the fields as they had done when they were little. The demons tormented them both. Shadowy hands groped at their faces, brushed annoyingly at his ears, whispered nameless doubts. The pain was worse when they hurt her. She screamed in pain and he closed his ears in terror, unable to bear the pain."Why am I so weak? Why wasn't I strong enough to save you? Why can I do nothing? Why?"

Drake Riordan woke up in a cold sweat. The sheets were drenched. The light clock by his nightstand continued ticking away. He looked around in the darkness of his room. He was safe and sound, but his heart ached.

"Fala..."

Tears ran down his cheeks, as he buried his face in his hands. There was no shame in crying in the dark. No shame in being weak when no one was looking. In his room, he could be a boy again, weak-willed and frightened. Honest with his pain.

Fala had always been around. He had only been nine when the Great Storm hit. The darkness gave way to flashes of lightning, the wind lashing at the windows, the rain and sleet drenching everything. At the storm's height, lightning had struck the old elm and it had fallen through his room, shattering the windows, narrowly missing his bed by a few feet. It gave him nightmares for days.

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