[Joshua Cross]

The mistress smiling face was but a vague memory in Joshua’s mind. He’d become conscious, if he could call it that, in a black endless void that was lit by some preternatural light allowing him to see his hands and himself with great clarity. Upon further examination of his surroundings he found that if he looked upward, he could see an array of beautiful colored lights dancing in the sky- some colors he had not seen before and could not possibly describe. As the half-elf gazed at them he found himself filled with a sense of emptiness and unfathomable sadness, unconsciously he raised his hand to grab at the colorful lights but could not touch them no matter how hard he tried.

Eventually Joshua would give up, and cast his eyes downward as if looking upon the lights any longer would only cause him more pain. He then realized that he could see his own dim reflection below him, as if he were standing on a great mirror; however, the lights were not reflected as his body had been. For an unknown reason that disturbed him deeply, but instead of dwelling on it he began to walk hoping to find an exit to this depressing realm he’d found himself in.

Endless was the only description that could do the dimension justice, for no matter how he tried to tell the time it seemed that such a concept did not exist- nor did distance. Joshua had even tried to listen, or use the beat of his heart to keep time yet he could do neither in this place and had begun to wonder if he was even still alive. At least that’s how he’d felt until he finally came upon something new within the endless void, an entity of some such that made it difficult to concentrate when looking at it. When focusing on the entity- which was nothing more than a nebulous cloud- he became disorientated because it was blacker than black, if such a thing was possible. Even in the endless void its darkness seemed to contrast greatly against the surrounding void like a black blotch on a white piece of parchment.

Regardless of its strange and sudden appearance, Joshua felt himself drawn to it to the point that he reached out for it like he’d reached out to the lights beforehand. Unlikely the lights however, the darkness reached back and wrapped smoky tendrils around the half-elf’s arm, crawling ever so slowly consuming more and more of his body and leaving a sick-clammy feeling on the parts it touched. Until he was swallowed whole.

It was like passing through a pool of water, and once on the other side he’d passed from an empty dimension to a field of endless white roses on a flat plan beneath a dark cloudy sky. Joshua could feel the dampness in the air, as well as smell the rain on the wind; it was a nice change from the empty darkness he’d been in beforehand.

True to form, it wasn’t like before the sky opened up and let the rain fall upon him and the field of beautiful roses but as it fell he noticed something odd. No matter how much of the water fell, he could not feel any of it hit his flesh; more disturbingly was the result it had on the flowers. Each droplet left a red mark on the petals of each rose, more and more the marks were added until the field had become a stark crimson. The rain not only effected the plants but his clothing as well, what was once a white hooded robe had now become blacker than the darkest black he’d seen.

There was a moment of disorientation as he looked down at himself, and suddenly found that he was looking at his figure from a distance. A feeling of nausea, dread, and fear all mixed together sat in his chest like a heavy lump as he gazed upon his visage. A black hooded figure with black hair, and eyes like dark lipid pools empty of light or emotion like his pale face as it stared- though it looked like him, it didn’t feel like him- down at the roses dispassionately. Ever so slowly, his dark doppelganger bent down and gently pulled one of the flowers from the field to examine it before crushing it in his hand, and from the spaces between his fingers oozed a thick red fluid that was all to familiar to the half-elf.

Joshua awoke with a start, as though he’d been under water for a long time, gasping for breath and covered in a cold sweat. He’d heard of the unbinding dream, but never of an unbinding nightmare- though he guessed most people would rather forget about them.

“That, was interesting.”


OOC: Nothing like a good nightmare once and awhile XD