Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 15: Lost Control

Darkness. Nothing but darkness. I'm used to it, though. It's who I am.

There's a small light in the distance. What is it? I feel so drawn to it.

"Onyx..."

That voice...!

"Palladium!"

He's here! Is he that light? I extend my hand to the light, desperately trying to reach him. I start running towards him. The more I run, the farther he gets.

"No! Palladium! Don't go!"

I need you! Please...

Darkness. The light is gone. Palladium is gone. Once again, I am left in pure darkness. But this time... I'm scared. I'm scared of the darkness. I'm scared of being alone. I want that light back! Palladium!

"Onyx!"

I open my eyes and find Flora shaking me by the shoulders.

"Huh...?"

I rub my eyes, trying to understand what's going on. So... it was a dream.

"Onyx! Get up! It's an emergency!"

This is not the first time that Flora's barged into our room to wake both Stella an I up. I bet it has something to do with Bloom.

"Guys! Bloom is doing it again!"

Stella yawns and collapses back on her bed.

"Doing what?"

She says all groggily. Flora then drags me and Stella back to her and Bloom's room. When we do get there, we witness Bloom mumbling and shaking in her bed.

"You see? She's talking to someone in her sleep."

Flora worriedly whispers to us.

"That's not so unusual. She's probably just having a nightmare or something."

A nightmare, huh... I hope I didn't say anything weird during my nightmare.

"You don't understand! This is no ordinary nightmare!"

Flora exclaims as she pulls the covers off Bloom. That's when we see her glowing.

"She's transforming in her sleep!"

Stella's right. Bloom is transforming back and forth in her sleep. How's that possible?

"We should do something! Maybe we should go get the others or the nurse! Miss Griselda or even Miss Faragonda!"

Flora's panicking. And that means that Stella's going to get pissed at her.

"Cool it, Flora! It's not like she's dying!"

"Shhh! You'll wake her up!"

I hush at Stella, but it's too late. Bloom's already awake.

"What are you guys doing here? Again?"

I swear, it's always the same scenario lately. Flora panics, gets Stella and I, Stella complains, Bloom wakes up from how loud we are, and...

"What is it this time, guys?"

Musa and Tecna wake up from the noise too. Since we all have classes the next day, we all decide to go back to sleep for the few remaining hours. Bloom denies that she's having nightmares. She says that they're more like visions. Never had those myself, so I wouldn't really know. Nightmares, on the other hand, I've had plenty of those. Way too many to count. Like the last one. Is Palladium really that much on my mind?

The next morning, we all wake up and head to our classes. After the class that we all have together, we head out. Bloom starts talking about her visions again. Stella doesn't really seem impressed about it.