Mage (A Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter 26: Black Dahlias

At my words, Helgír's expression darkened visibly, a tinge of disgust creeping onto his features as he regarded me coldly, seeming almost offended that I'd tried to speak with him at all. I received no verbal response, however, and I stepped away from him nervously, unsure of what to do, or what I could do to try and reach him-if that was even a possibility at all. This might be my dream, but I'd long since lost control of them, and, as it stood now, I hadn't the slightest idea of how to get that autonomy back. With a sense of helplessness threatening to overwhelm me, I noticed that at my movement, my former companion's face took on a hostile expression I'd never seen before, his mouth twisting with loathing and disdain as he stared down upon me, and a feeling of smallness and insignificance I'd never felt before came over me at his expression, although it was just as painful as it was cowing.

From my right came a distressed and all-too-familiar cry, and, both shocked and afraid, I turned to face the sound quickly, just in time to see yet another old friend enter upon the twisted dreamscape. Toralf was making a beeline straight for me, running faster than I'd ever seen anyone move in my life, as if his life depended on it, his hazel eyes wide with pure, raw terror and the thick sheen of sweat coating his skin glinted in the dim light, indicating he had been running for a long time. His once nearly pristine glass armor was dented and cracked at places, and there were noticeable rips and tears in the fabric underneath, which exposed several bruises and small lacerations on his pale, freckled skin, their causes unknown to me. It was then that I discovered that Toralf wasn't running towards me-he was running away from something else, and that something else was here, not more than a few steps behind him.

It was as big and black as the void, blurring in and out of existence in wild bursts as it sped after its prey, with a pair of gigantic, slanted eyes burning like crimson coals in a furnace. Its shape kept changing, one moment similar to that of a wolf, then a bear, then a boar, then something else entirely, but the shifts in its appearance had no effect upon its unnatural speed. Suddenly, it leapt forward with great force, just as Toralf had gotten just yards away from reaching me and he fell to the ground, letting out a cry like that of a dying man, and fear seized hold of me as I attempted to move forwards, only to discover that I was rooted to the spot, unable to move no matter how much I willed myself to. His shouting was quickly drowned out by the triumphant howl of the shadowy beast, an otherworldly and wicked sound that shook me to the core. A dark haze fell over where he'd fallen, leaving me unable to do anything but guess at what had befallen my unfortunate friend.

I wasn't given much time for speculation, as the true plot of my nightmare unfolded even more. Something rustled in the gardenias behind me, and, when I turned to face it, it took every ounce of will within my being not to scream. A bloodied and broken figure was being pulled up from the ground by odd bluish-purple strings, the flower-carpeted ground giving way as it was tugged relentlessly upwards. The dusty and bloodstained leather armor it wore was unmistakable, and bile rose in my throat and tears sprung to my eyes at the sight of my deceased friend being so mistreated. As Nightbrook's cadaver rose to the point where his feet were dangling only slightly over the earth, his head hanging down limply at an odd angle, a wave of indignant fury washed through me, causing me to involuntarily shake with rage. His skin was deathly pale, nearly as white as snow, dirt smudged across it unevenly and in random splotches and caking strands of his now uneven hair together. Seeing him like this was both disturbing and degrading, and, if I'd thought that Vaermina had been more than overstepping her bounds before, I knew now that there was far, far worse that she was capable of than just forcing me to relive one of the worst events to ever happen in my life. The knowledge of that alone was perhaps the most frightening thing about this entire situation.