A dream can be good or bad, and at the same time it can be neither one nor the other. A nightmare can become a dream, as a dream can become a nightmare. Don’t let your dreams take over your life. Wake up...


As rain pours down from the midnight purple sky, thunder crackles loudly with the company of a crimson colored lightning faintly shining bright in the sky. The clouds are black, the land is riddled with craters, holes, and mass destruction in every part of land.. Within all this destruction, there are many bodies that litter the land. Not one is left alone, with most being either mutilated, rotten, or reanimated. For each corpse, there is an occasional thing, a shadow-like figure that rips and tears through the flesh of the carcass. Whenever one of the figures finishes, not even a single trace of that body is left behind… There are flocks of plagued crows cawing loudly, filling the air with a sound of death on wings. In this dark world, there is but few humans left… The hit was hard, and the victims were all unprepared. There are however survivors that were prepared. About ten in total, however for now forget the very mention of any of them…
One survivor, a lone survivor, is the most important currently: Deron. Deron stands to be 6’3”, and his eyes are a deep, icy-blue. His hair is long, and it just barely reaches his chin. It happens to be faintly curly, yet mostly straight, and is auburn. He wears a cross, naive to any truth behind this situation.. Yet, he still clings to it with fright on the mind. Now, the important part of this: Deron is alone. Nobody to help him, and nobody for him to help. Soon enough, he gains a bit of a push as a dark, deep and mysterious orb calls out his name and beckons him to follow. With curiosity, he does just that of course. However, curiosity can be dangerous as everyone knows… Especially Deron. 
The orb leads him to a group of survivors, having just finished a fight. The once great number of survivors has now been diminished… There is but four. Deron, two girls, and a guy. They all turn immediately after hearing the footsteps, as the orb fades away behind Deron’s back. One of the survivors, formally named Viola happens to have shorter hair as to prevent it from getting in the way. She not only has that, but her eyes are purple, and her skin tone is a bit darker than Deron’s. Lately, it’s rare to see anyone in general on the planet. Much less anyone out and about without any form of protection. So, Viola walks to Deron, before getting him in a hold and pinning him down.
“You have one minute to explain.” says Viola.
Then, just after that threat, the voice calls to Deron once more, and it says: “I shall grant your wish.” Deron is left in confusion after hearing that, though he shakes it from his thoughts and speaks, his voice is hoarse and in dire need of hydration. Not just that, but he looks to have a dry mouth, along with that of semi-dry skin. His facial expression shows a faint hint toward dizziness, and is surely exhausted already. With a yawn, accompanied by a stutter Deron speaks submissively, “I-I’ve been searching for a source of food and wat-” Before he can finish speaking, Jack interrupts him.
“We’re all looking for a source of food and water, so that part is obvious. Tell us why you’re alone instead, maybe we’ll give you a bit of a break. Y’know? Ain’t that thoughtful of us?” As Jack speaks, he uses a bit of a playful, teasing tone and even flicks Deron on the forehead lightly.
“Let him speak,” said Viola, who appeared to feel rather bad for Deron. After having said that with omit, she looks down at Deron with pity in her eyes, Deron gets a bit frustrated and responds accordingly.
“I’m here alone because I never really mixed well with others, obviously,” he looks down solemnly, then back up with his face filled with a perfect mix of both anger and sorrow. “I thought if I was alone, then I not only wouldn’t be a burden, but I’d also be able to get around faster and more discreetly. So yeah, I’m alone. Problem?”
Jack gives a faint smile, followed by a frown. After that, Viola decides to let him go, and does just that. Deron then stands, and rubs at his wrist a little. He remains silent and cold for a bit after that, grumbling below his breath. About a half hour after that, a bright crack of lightning fills the deep, crimson sky. The lightning is accompanied by an ear wrenching boom of thunder, almost as though the gods, deities, or whomever resides up above are having an intense game of bowling. The moon, covered by black clouds, can occasionally be seen as blood red and chillingly full. Soon enough, the sky clears oddly. Not a cloud is left in sight, nor is there any thunder, rain, or lightning.
“Betcha think you’re reeeaaal cool, huh?” A voice unknown to any of the four calls out. The voice is scratchy, unnaturally pitched at times, and rather annoying to hear. When it comes into view, they can barely even stand up without quivering a little from the dark, strange feeling received just by looking into the cold, black, bleeding eyes of whatever creature walks toward them. It looks feminine, yet male at the same time, indicating it has no set gender. It constantly twitches a bit, and seems to be ready to pounce at any given moment. Although they sound like they’re facing some sort of enormous thing with ungodly characteristics, in reality it stands at about 8’3”, has a thin build, and unnaturally long arms that just reach past the knees. It’s hair is long, down to the back and black. The hair has no curves or waves, and seems to faintly emit a strange smoke. It’s horribly pale, almost as though no blood at all pumps through it’s black veins. Not to mention, whenever you just barely look at it you can easily see those veins popping. The fingers are long and thin, with sharp nails. The mouth it has shows a constant grin from ear to ear, quite literally, revealing red-stained razor sharp teeth. Because there was so little time, Deron makes a swift decision and grabs the two nearest to him. After that, he makes a run for it as fast as he can with them falling close behind. All that’s heard where they had taken leave from is the cries for help.
“Seriously? I barely even got to do anything and you’re screaming?” Shouts the fiendish devil, as it finishes with a rather worrisome threat,“Shut the f*** up, you’re annoying me. I’ll be coming for you too one day, by the way~!” When saying this, it seemed to say that to one person in particular.
Oddly enough, after hearing that, Deron shivers a bit. Now there is no going back… Deron has entered Hell itself, for some strangers he just met. “What’s wrong with me… Seriously, what the Hell got into me?! I don’t even know you people!” Obviously, Deron is none too excited with his new followers. What with Viola constantly trying to take off his head out of frustration, and Jack constantly making smart, witty remarks. Though, Jack’s words are soothing to hear. At least someone knows how to act under the massive pressure that lurks in every area around them. “Ugh… This is so stupid… I might as well go ahead and give up now. We’re screwed.“
As if on queue, Jack says to Deron, “Damn, you hate us that much eh? I see how it is. “
“Both of you, shut it. Why don’t we just start over and introduce ourselves? Then we can go from there. “ She speaks with full authority, showing that she doesn’t intend to die any time soon as she gives the two boys a glare.
Jack shivers, nodding in response and holding his hand out to Deron for a handshake. “Name’s Jack. Call me whatever. I don’t really care ‘pal.”
Deron sighs softly, and, closes his eyes before giving the worst, laziest handshake he can to Jack. “I’m Deron. Just call me Deron.”
Jack shrugs, a bit disappointed by this, but not complaining. “‘Kay.” He then looks over at Viola, gesturing a bit obnoxiously for her to introduce herself.
She crosses her arms, and speaks formally to Deron in particular. “You can call me Violet. Only friends refer to me by my nickname.”
“Whatever. I didn’t plan to anyway. Now where will we go exactly?” As he asks this question, the entire trio seems rather depressed with the knowledge that they don’t even have somewhere to start going. Then, Deron breaks that silence. “I have an idea. Why don’t we all just go our separate ways then? Not like we care for each other.” As he says this, he looks to the other two who appear to be giving a face filled with doubt.
“What are you, an idiot? We need to stick together or else we’ll all end up becoming chow.” She gives Deron a look of agitation, arms still crossed with more disappointment added now.
“Look, why don’t we all just chill a bit? Being at one another’s throats’ll kill us off just as fast as being alone.” Said the uncomfortably shifting Jack.
“Tch. He’s right. Anyone got a map?” When asking, Deron’s insomnia-filled gaze, deprived entirely of sleep, shifts from person to person.
“Yeah, I have one. But it’s pretty messed up. Think you can read it?” When saying this, Viola shuffles through her duffle bag and pulls out a tattered, wrinkled map that looks to be close to it’s breaking point. Then, she hands it over to Deron who nods at her in silence. After about an hour, he gives a general rundown as to what the plan is. The three of them will travel from their current location in the ruins of New York, though barely recognizable, and go straight to the safest place they know for temporary refuge. This journey however will not be short, for it will take them one entire month to get there.
Once they have all their equipment ready, they set off on a month long trip to the location in question, although, unluckily their travels will require something none of them have: A ship. However, Deron went over this issue already during his explanation. The simple answer is finding whatever they can, and using that.

Upon the end of the chilling December, the beginning of a new month comes out to view. Now, the dawn of a new day had slowly seeped over the planet with the sun rising gradually into the sky. The hissing sizzle of skin burning slowly, as the three meat-bags, Viola, Deron and Jack have become nothing more than crispy, darkened leftovers.

With a soft, irritated grumble Viola calls out to the two busy bees, “When exactly are we planning to dock? It’s been a friggin’ month already!”
Not willing to accept the obvious defeat presented to them by that of the ocean, Deron checks the horizon and responds with agitation filling his words “Shut it, we’ll be there…. eventually. On a side note, am I the only one that’s getting pissed off from that ungodly noise?” The loud roar of the rugged boat’s engines soon come to a silent halt, while beneath the hull is a rumble. Following the rumble is a horrific groan, almost like a whale’s if not for the monstrous amount of sound it creates. There seems to be no warning at all when an enormous, scaled abomination rises from beneath the surface. It roars aloud, showing off every single one of it’s huge, crimson coated along the tips of it’s teeth. After the roar, a shockwave follows and causes the ship to turn and over. There are about twenty eyes that each blink individually, one at a time on it’s head. They each appear to be differently colored, even the sclera has black, red, green, and plenty more rainbow colors. The scales that go down the back, and up the head only to cover the eyes just barely seem to be jagged and used, just biding time. Meanwhile, it’s breath smells of nothing but the most rotten of foods, corpses, and trash bins you’d get a whiff of on the way through most neighborhoods. Soon enough it arches in an upward motion, before diving down and disappearing from the view of all that had just witnessed it.
Jack, naturally shocked beyond belief, immediately questions both Deron and Viola, ”The hell was that ugly motherfucker supposed to be!?”
“What? Do you seriously think I’m supposed know?! This is my first time even seeing that thing!” Exclaimed Deron, who’d been shaking and thrashing with an alert look upon his face.
“H-how could a Leviathan possibly even be here...” questioned the shivering Viola, at which both Jack and Deron gained an immediate shred of doubt toward her credibility.
“What exactly do you know about that?” Deron demands from her, glaring by now with suspicions filling his tired eyes.
“Don’t ask, it’s a long story. Just swim already, idiots!” She exclaims in horror, after which she then makes a swift, frightened dash toward the nearest land. It didn’t matter where, as long as they could get to land. That was all that rang in their heads: survive, hide, and run.
After looking to one another, both Deron and Jack force themselves to swim as fast as they can, merely following her lead. As they make this effort to escape, Deron curiously shifts his gaze down to the depths below him, only to be greeted by the back of the beast itself. Now with a better look, he catches a full image of it’s many, many scars, ever so deep and ever so deadly. He thinks to himself, playing scenarios out in his mind that are similar to most of the games he’d played with a giant creature as the enemy. He watched himself fail again and again in his mind, visualising his attempt to slash the stomach wide open or stab an eye and enrage the monster. His mind eventually went blank, and he continued until they’d reach their new base of operations.
“Wonderful. Just wonderful. Now what do we do? Hide and wait for dehydration to kill us off one by one? Or maybe we can turn on each other. Right? Yeah. Totally. I’ve seen this before, it won’t end well,” mumbled Deron who then sighed, trying to think straight, but completely unable. It wasn’t until he’d been given a slap to the face that his senses briefly straightened out.
“Shut up, calm down, and sit down. There’s still some useful things. That, and we actually have materials all around us. Now both of you, go and start gathering whatever you may think will be useful. I don’t care if it’s garbage, half eaten food, or whatever it is, we can’t be picky!” Viola viciously roared, furious at the petty duo.
Immediately shaken by the orders Viola barked out, Jack responds swiftly only to rush off into the forest and gather the required resources. ”Y-yes, boss!”.
“A-aye…. You got it,”  Deron shakily maneuvered away from Viola, not willing to butt heads with her in this state.

After a good five to seven hours soar by, Deron and Jack return baring only scraps of metal, wood, cloth, and a shameful amount of scavenged food. Although, Viola had managed to catch the lot of them a full three meal course’s worth of fish. If not for her, Jack and Deron would be going hungry.. Thus, they eat and set up a terribly built shack to take refuge in for the night.

After having slept the entire night away, Jack and Viola both sit up in order to stretch and move on with their first day living on an island. However, there is no sight of Deron waking, as he just lays in his space conscious yet unconscious. Eventually he finds himself asleep. . .

**A brief entry into the mind of Deron**

Deron sees what can only be described as the Devil, the beast, Satan or Lucifer even before him.. They seem to call out, only there is no sound to be heard. All that is to be known is that Deron stares forward blankly without any motion to be noticed at all.

At the end of the day, they did not start off with much. Come the end of the year, they were surviving like champion survivalists, with Viola fishing, Deron gathering heavy duty materials, and Jack gathering lighter materials. They set up a better place to call home using whatever they could gather, and now they may sleep comfortably within a walled sanctuary accompanied by drawn maps. They happen to be in a room where the literal purpose is planning with the use of maps right now, in the beginning of December.

The trio now knows that they are located on an island left uncharted completely, and because of that they had a necessary need to explore. After doing so they figured out what purpose it may have had in the past, and that purpose was as simple as night and day: Rituals. However, they did not know of what kind of rituals were performed on this island. All they had to go by were dusty areas littered with skeletons and skulls, an empty throne room built before an altar stained with a no longer colored substance, and a few rusted, old age vaults that are filled to the very brim with well saved weapons and riches. Unluckily those riches would easily be deemed useless, and thrown out because of it by this point. Using these materials discovered in some of the vaults, Deron managed to get his hands on a well crafted dagger, though it is surely nothing compared to Viola’s double-edged axe. Both edges on this axe are rather stained and used to the breaking point, as the very blade pieces happen to be chipped. Jack decided to grab a simple thing, nothing too fancy nor too casual, but instead a blunt, rusty metal pole he had found with the junk around the island.
Soon enough, Deron turns around with a wide, excited smile. Upon noticing it, Viola soon questions him sarcastically, hiding the envy in her voice easily, “You can actually show emotions like that? Who would’ve thought.”
Immediately, he struggles to think of something and instead abruptly shoots back, “W-whatever… At least now we’ll be able to live.”
“Live……” A voice, tired and long since forgotten calls out. The sound it has behind the words seems rather depressed, almost yearning even.
Upon hearing this, everyone shivers as the temperature around them becomes horribly chilling. This is nothing like what they’d felt after the first meeting with one of those horrific creatures, early on. No, this one is not petrifying, but instead it is more likely saddening. They look around only to see nothing, as Jack makes ready to speak, only to be interrupted by a rather sudden hit to the chest. Viola and Deron are shocked.. The hit was from the very bat he carried, now bloodied and impaled into his very chest. His eyes are wide open with shock, as his hand moves to the rusted bat, and he himself attempts to comprehend what had happened. Standing behind him is a short figure, all the figure appears to wear is a black long coat, and a black suit. Their skin is as white as the snow itself, as is their long, straight hair that just reaches the back of their legs. They stand at about 5’0”, having a rather thin but not too thin build, and their eyes.. Their eyes are black at the scleras, and silver at the irises. They seem to be constantly frowning whilst having bloody tears faintly stain their cheeks. Jack reaches out to Deron, uttering his last, dying words, “Run.”
The figure soon shifts its gaze, slowly turning over to Viola, who widens her eyes and turns to Deron. She makes certain to push him away, and immediately gain a new look. Now, her head rolls over to the feet of the shaking Deron, after this the figure speaks softly to Deron and says, “Living is painful, isn’t it?”
He falls flat to the ground, those very words leaving him unconscious and broken. His mind, shattered by the very sight left behind of his two, no longer living friends. Every time he closes his eyes now, he sees nothing. Nothing but the head of Viola staring into his very core, filled with an expression of terror. The figure has fled now, without even cleaning up the mess left behind.

The dream has only just now ended. Now, the nightmare begins… Why are nightmares so powerful? Wake up. Now it’s your turn to fight. So wake up, win.

After having been borne witness to such horrific events, after being so weak and frail, after being so lost, he has finally realized. He no longer runs, he no longer hides. He heard once more the call of his name, “Wake up. It’s a nightmare. Fight. Deron, it’s your turn now. Don’t just lay down and take it, stop observing!” It materializes, and appears to be him, only the exact opposite. Unlike him, it has orange eyes that are accompanied by black scleras, short hair that is a shade of bright green, and is completely straight. It looks as though Deron was colored the exact opposite way, as even the skin is the opposite to his darkened skin. It’s skin is snow white from the look of it. After a while, it calls out to him once more. This is Nored, and Nored is the very thing that has been trying to guide Deron through this long, painful journey. Although, if it were guiding him, why did it not do anything but call for him? That in itself has Deron furious and ready to attack Nored. He never does make a move, however.
At some point, Deron heard a different voice. A young, timid voice. It rang in his head, going against the Nored without hesitation…. It was his tormentor, that devil that slaughtered Viola, “Shut up. . . You don’t deserve to feel bad. Are you not angry at me? I killed both of your dear friends. Why have you given up? You’re all alone just like you wanted to be now, so stand up. . . Hunt me. Try to kill me. Help me.” Then, it was no longer there oddly enough. It was gone as fast as it was in his face. Just like that day. He began to hold his head in agony, with the soundless screeches constantly leaving his mouth.
“Dammit….. “ He threw a punch at Nerod only to see it hit nothing, once more shouting at the top of his lungs, “What do you want?!”
With a twisted smile, Nerod used his bewitching words to start swaying Deron, “So you’ve finally acknowledged my existence. Are you ready to learn, now?”
Rather lost at this choice of words, Deron merely nodded his head and stared him down. He watched Nerod as though it was his own reflection, trying to see whether or not he plans to make a move, but instead Deron demanded him, showing a rather greedy yet furious look, “I want power. I want to be able to slaughter whatever is in my way.”
Eagerly moving toward Deron, Nerod silently whispered in his ear with a soft, yet menacing tone of voice, “Then, I grant your wish, monster.”

In the end, man has no say in the matter. You can either become the greater of two evils to kill the lesser one, or you can sit back and watch everything you care for fall unto oblivion. Deron has now learned what is considered the truth. He has witnessed it first hand. No sleep, no friends, no family, nothing. Now, Deron is dead. Instead, a new person is born in his place. His body, his mind, and his soul have been damned. The nightmare is only just beginning for him.. Is power truly the answer he has been searching for?



“Did you expect it to end so soon? This is just the beginning…. Now it’s my turn. “








The beginning of a new chapter… Life can be cruel at times. More so than death could ever hope to be. For Deron, life has taken everything away from him. In the past he had clung to a cross, clung to hope. But now…


Deron has returned to the very beginning of town, and is now on route toward where he met his late friends. “Disgusting. It wreaks here. “ He says, spitting out a blob of saliva. Now, Deron has a completely different look about him. His eyes have gone pitch black at the scleras while his irises have changed to a pure golden. On his chest, there are noticeably violet colored veins popping from the general area of the heart. From the irises, to the very outer portion of the eyes, golden veins pop just barely enough to be seen. His hair is now a deep mixture of bright blue, midnight purple, and golden brown.
In the dusty, barren wastelands of this long since dead city, it’s as though Deron had been walking for centuries until he finally got glimpse of something worth going for. Once more, he is met with the creature responsible for Viola and Jack’s forgotten friend. After which, the raspy, excited thing shouts aloud for Deron to hear, not wasting a second before moving on to agitate him, “Ooooh~ Look who came crawling back. Gonna beg for mercy? Say, I heard those two pissants died. Can ya describe the look on their little sappy faces for me?~”
“Shut your mouth,” He growls, walking toward the thin, horrid creature in utter silence. “I’m not running this time.”
“Tch…. whatever~ Then I’ll just rip you to f***ing pieces myself!” It lunges at him, only to laugh wickedly while making ready to not only bite him at the base of the neck, but to use those sharpened claws to shred through his chest and gut him alive.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” Without moving at all, instead of a frown or a wide eyed look, Deron grinned. “You don’t know what true fear is.”
“Oh really now…..” With the sound of teeth grinding, it backs away rather than attacking. Now it almost seems to be afraid of Deron. “F*** you!” It shouts at the very top of it’s lungs, rushing toward the next victim in sight, preparing to massacre Deron.
“You’re in my way. Move!” With a sudden stop and a quick drop, Yragvviar, the very frightful creature responsible for his first ‘escape’ is now holding it’s missing lower half. On the ground and in agony, the very face of it twisting in pain as it crawls toward Deron’s feet and tightly grips.
“Monster…..” It whispers, before easing up on the grip and falling into a motionless state of being.
“I didn’t say you could give up yet….. Get up. I want to make you suffer. Get up!” With pure rage showing in Deron’s cold eyes, he picked the upper half of Yragvviar’s corpse and slammed it back down. After which, he then began twitching with a fit of disgust. “You’re not allowed to die yet..”
A voice so soothing, so calm, so quiet, and so shy soon speaks to Deron, “Neither are you.”
“. . .” His face twists with sudden rage as he holds his forehead in agony, only to begin laughing rather maniacally, “so you’ve finally showed up….. Now I can kill you!” With vengeance clouding his thoughts, Deron rushes in blindly. Only to then receive an immediate pound to the stomach, followed by a jab to the face. He lay there on the ground, cringing with multiple bruises, scrapes, and a bit of a gash. He soon stands up and returns one, single hit.
His hand went through her stomach, but she did not even flinch. Instead, she returned the favor, causing him to spit up blood. After which, he grunted and punched her in the pale face over, and over, and over again. “Die……. Just die!”
“Know your place in hell. You cannot kill me… You’re useless. You’re weak. And you failed. Die.”

An unlikely event has now occurred. Deron is bleeding out, having his last final moments, his last breaths, his last words even. “F*** you.” With one final breath, he died with an odd, faint smile on his face… “Now I can be free.” He said lastly. He’s alone. Dead. All alone with no friends, no family, and no enemies either. Nothing at all.

The world can often be cruel, it can often bring even the strongest person down. Nightmares are something everyone has, and they are even something almost nobody can conquer. Deron has now woken up from his nightmare, only to enter the greatest nightmare of all. The Void.

(To Be Continued...)