Moon woke me up abruptly saying he’s returning to his realm for a few hours to finish up some things he’s held off. After the conversation, I fell back asleep. But.. it didn’t last.

I woke up with anxiety, a feeling of danger. Opening my eyes, there was nothing but darkness surrounding my room. But at the very end of my bed, I noticed something. A figure, it resembled darkness itself. The crooked smile it gave irked me, the energy it radiated was suffocating.

“Sweet dreams, Toru?” the figure spoke, its voice a raspy, jagged whisper that cut through the stillness of the room.

I tried to quickly get up, while asking, “Who the hell are you?”

I blinked. He was gone. But I felt the crooked smile behind me. The suffocating energy intensified, scattering my thoughts in a panic. My heart pounded like it was about to burst from my chest.

Suddenly, a flash of darkness slithered through the crack in my door, creeping into the room like a living shadow. I bolted for the living room, my legs shaky, clutching the walls for support as the suffocating energy tightened around me. In the center of the room, he stood, cloaked in shadow, his pale face illuminated by the faint light coming from my windows. His grin stretched unnaturally wide, revealing sharp teeth, and his bloodshot eyes bored into me like embers in the void.

Before I knew it, he snapped his finger, and we appeared somewhere else. The place was oppressive, cloaked in shadows. The dim light of broken lanterns flickered weakly, casting shadows over piles of bones scattered across the floor. The walls almost seemed alive, pulsing with an unnatural energy.

“Oh, you’re still standing, even in my lair? Pretty impressive, what do they call you? Toru?” the figure states hysterically.

When he spoke those words, I started losing strength.The energy intensified, pressing against me like a crushing weight. I couldn’t take the pain any longer. The anxiety, the inability to breathe. I clutched my chest trying to calm down, until he laughed and said, “Oh hey, does this person mean anything to you?”

I look over and my eyes widen, seeing my mother bloody, hanging from the ceiling by her tied up hands. “I- is she alive?” I murmured out.

“She’s hanging on by a thread, literally!” The figure speaks out and laughs.

“Mom!” I yelled, my voice cracking as I crawled forward. 

My stomach dropped as fear tightened its grip on me, each second more suffocating than the last.. I try to yell, but my throat tightens, tears fall from my eyes. Everything gets swirly, I cannot think straight. 

"Let her go," I yelled, fists tight.

My power reacted, wild, unstable, as volatile as the storm inside. For a second, a soft glow flickered around my hands, the air humming with static.

The man's eyes narrowed. His smile slipped.

"Hmph… interesting," he murmured.

Then it was gone. The power vanished, and there was nothing. My chest tightened again as I tried to seize it, but it was gone.

The man laughed, the sound sharp and grating. “Oh, did you think I wouldn’t prepare for this? Your tricks don’t work here, Toru. You’re in my domain now.”

The man stood, his form towering over me. “The hierarchy of darkness doesn’t like loose ends. And you? You’re a very interesting loose end.”

My mother groaned faintly, stirring for a moment before going still again. My vision blurred with rage. “If you touch her—”

“You’ll what? Cry?” he interrupted, his smile growing impossibly wider. “Face it, Toru. You’re powerless here. But don’t worry. I’m not here to kill you... yet.”

He leaned in closer, his breath cold against my skin. “Toru, you won’t make it far if you’re this worthless. Do you think this display of power could save anyone? Face it, you’re nothing. You’re nowhere near where you need to be to even think about getting out of here Toru, face the reality. You can barely breathe.”

As he spoke his words, my chest pains became worse, and my breathing became worse and worse. The words he told me echoed through my thoughts, unable to get out.

The man walks toward my mother, he calls out, “Hey, Toru? You have such a beautiful mother. Be ashamed you’re too weak to save her.”

With that, he stepped back into the shadows, his figure dissolving like smoke.I passed out. The world was a loop of suffering. I have no idea how long the days were. Maybe three. Maybe thirty. Time never passed here..time bled. He made her wait. Her arms raised above her head, wrists bruised and oozing blood. Her respirations were shallow, strained. Her eyes, partially closed, quivering between hurting and out. Whenever I moved, flinched, coughed, cried, he showed. Sometimes behind me. Sometimes on the side of her. Always suddenly. Always cruel.

He'd cut her. Just enough to make her scream. When she tried to comfort me, he'd hit her. Laughing. Calling her “brave,” like it was a joke. “Say something again,” he hissed once, “and I’ll make him eat what’s left of your tongue.”

 My arms were puffed up, ripped from all the struggles to crawl to her. He would drag me backward by my hair, then knock my head into the floor till the room whirled. No food. No water. Only metallic in my mouth was blood. Hers. Mine.

I remember I passed out five times. Maybe more. Each time I hoped I won't wake up. I stopped screaming on the third day. My throat gave out. But my heart didn’t. He noticed that. He hated that. 

So he started whispering in my ear at night. 

“You did this.”, “She’s here because of you.”,“You’re the reason she’s dying.”

I tried to ignore it, but the words rooted in me like thorns. I lost track of the beat of her heart. I could barely hear it anymore. But I begged the darkness not to take it. Please. not her. Not yet.     I try pushing myself up, but the figure appears, seemingly bigger, taller, something more intimidating about him.

“Times up Crownless, you’re both dead. The King will be happy to see we were the ones to get rid of you. You pose a great threat to both sides, our war will continue on.” The figure says.

The figure walks up to me closer, slowly. This time his crooked smile was gone, his pale white face showed nothing but anger, seriousness, bitterness. He dragged me by my hair, stopped me right under my mother. Breaks the ties that held her up by her hands, dropping her right next to me.

These 5 seconds felt like an eternity, the figure's hand started glowing a sharp darkness. He gets closer, and closer to my mother with it. My heart is pounding, my anger and anxiety grows. I start yelling no, trying to put myself in front of his hand, the dark energy slices me, making me  bleed everywhere. The figure's hand impaled my mother. I heard it… her heartbeat slowing. Each thud... weaker.

“Toru, I’m sorry m- my baby. I’m sorr- cough. Plea- please surviv-” my mother pleads before being interrupted.

“Shut up bitch.” The figure says before stabbing her again. Right through the heart.

I hold her close, screaming and yelling. Cries came out as I held my mothers lifeless body in my arms.

“Do you think she’ll forgive you, Toru? For failing her? For dragging her into this?.” He laughed, his grin becoming crooked again.

“It- it’s not my fault. No. I never brought her into this.” I responded back with fear.

“The moment you decided to take part in this war, you included her.” The figure said, losing its grin.

His hands energy took shape again, all emotion left me as I saw him getting closer. My eyes, sharp, connected with his, it created a moment of hesitation in him before he continued. I closed my eyes before he was about to make contact.

I opened my eyes, confused why I didn’t feel any sort of pain. A hand stopped him. 

“You…” the figure growled. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Before I could see who stopped him, darkness claimed me.