The Ankou

Prelude

Do you know that feeling of falling that you experience just as you're drifting off to sleep, a sudden rush of spine chilling vertigo? Well, that's exactly what woke Toshiro up but instead of waking up in his bedroom, he was in complete darkness, floating in mid-air. What was going? In a pure panic, he waved his arms wildly as he tried to gauge where he was. He ended up spinning helplessly in the air.

"What the hell is going on..? Hello?! Is anyone there?!" Toshiro yelled out in desperation, hoping for any kind of response but there was nothing. He twisted his head around rapidly, trying to see any glimpse of light or any kind of landmark, to get an idea of where he was but there was nothing. Just an empty void, cold and silent. Almost too silent as all he could hear was his heart pounding in his chest and his slow deep breaths, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating.

'Is this a dream?' he thought. It was unlike any dream he'd experienced before. It felt.. Different somehow. He couldn't explain it but it was there.

A strange, loud crack pierced through the darkness, running straight through Toshiro, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck now standing on end as his body was quickly covered in goosebumps.

Minutes passed by as Toshiro continued to struggle until suddenly, he could see tiny pinpricks of light, almost like stars. Galaxies started to form among them but they didn't surround Toshiro. The rest of the "room" was in complete darkness but the stars and galaxies seemed to exist in this shape. In Toshiro's mind, it looked a lot like a long, tattered robe, the hem of the robe moved slowly, like it would if it was submerged underwater, moving with the tide or the waves.

Toshiro looked up at what he thought looked like a head as another deep crack pierced the darkness, echoing around him. Enormous, dark tendrils rose from behind it as something started to emerge in the middle of the shapes' head. As it grew larger, the light of the stars seemed to distort around it, twisting their shapes, falling into this black hole. As the tendrils extended further and further towards him, Toshiro clamped his hands over his ears as a booming, otherworldly howl erupted from the shape as well as what sounded like the screams of the damned. The shape seemed to lower its head, the black hole getting closer to Toshiro, it's tendrils snaking their way through the void towards him. They looked like they were made of smoke and as one got closer, the tendril parted into smaller tendrils which latched themselves onto him, tightening their grip.

Toshiro yelped in pain as the tendrils grew tighter around his legs and his body. Smoke rose from where they gripped onto him, Toshiro now gritting his teeth as his lower half felt like it was on fire. He tried to wrestle with the tendrils but then clamped his hands over his ears once again as the howls and the screams became deafening, causing him to cry out in fear.

Shutting his eyes tightly as an attempt to hide away from the nightmare, images of planets and stars began to appear in his mind. One by one, they began to break apart, some imploding or exploding, stars were crushed by some invisible force, causing supernovas to race through their solar systems to bring a quick and violent, fiery end to everything in its path. The screams grew louder and louder as each planet was obliterated, the destruction sped up as he raced through countless solar systems and galaxies.

Toshiro tried to open his eyes but something was stopping him though he couldn't work out which was worse; watching this carnage unfold or try to struggle as this 'entity' moved closer and closer to him.

As if it was answering his fears, the 'entity' began to appear among the carnage. Remnants of planets, asteroids, gas giants, and stars started to be pulled into the black hole which sat within the entity's 'hood'. Searing pain filled his chest and his shoulders, causing Toshiro to yelp in pain. The tendrils had now reached his neck, burning him wherever they touched. His hands were pulled from his ears and yanked behind his back as two more tendrils wrapped themselves around his arms and his hands. A cry of fear started to erupt from his throat, but it never came, as a cloud of thick, jet black, scalding smoke wrapped itself around his mouth and to his horror, up and over his nose and eventually, over his eyes until there was nothing but the sound of howling, his own muffled screaming, indescribable searing pain and complete darkness.