SFO Fanfic Scraps: Terror of the Night

Kazu lay tossing and turning upon his bed in the midst of a surrounding darkness. Sweat had broken out on his forehead, and was trickling down his face. A certain image flashed repetitively inside his brain, filling his mind so that nothing else could surface in his thoughts.1

~A kind, joyful face, with a bright, unnatural green eyes that sparkled like gems, and a beautiful smile. Around that face, golden locks fanned out in a tumble of curls, orange streaked with sunlight. "Kazu," the face's lips whispered, pouring out streams of a soft, melodious voice that seemed almost to float on the air. "My little Kazuki..."~2

Kazu's cheeks started to wet with tears. "Mother..." he whispered, scrunching his eyes tighter, as if he thought that by doing this, he could keep himself from seeing what happened next. This, of course, was a delusion, and did nothing to keep the next piece of his dream from rolling into place.3

~The face crackled for a second and then transformed, its once-unsuppressable happiness now replaced by pain and sorrow and suffering. A mixture of tears with sweat rolled down its cheeks, blood dripped from its deathly pale lips, and the eyes had lost their previous sparkle to be filled with a haunting cold that pierced deep into Kazu's soul. Then the picture disentigrated, splashing hot crimson blood everywhere.~4

"No! Mother, don't die!" Kazu screamed, so loud that he woke Sakumo up…and yet, he himself kept sleeping… "DON’T DIE!"5

Sakumo groaned. It was three o' clock in the morning. Couldn't Kazu have waited a few hours later to have his nightmare? Then the silver-haired Takeda stopped, realizing Kazu had actually done him a favor. Sakumo had been experiencing torment of his own in his slumber, and it was thanks to the half-breed screaming in the bed across the room that he had been released from it. Luckily, unlike Kazu, Sakumo did not vocally respond to his dreams - that would have been rather embarassing.6

Even though he didn't show it, Sakumo actually had a soft spot to his heart, hidden though it was. He knew Kazu's pain, after all - when he was younger, he used to conjure up frightening images of his father's death and Yuudai's maniacally laughing face every night. And besides both having lost a parent, there was also Megumi's recent death, a case where they both had experienced the same loss.7

"Kazu, wake up," Sakumo said softly, navigating himself through the darkness to the other side of the room. "Come, on, Kazu," he murmured, shaking his friend in attempt to bring him out of his trance.8

But Kazu couldn't hear him.9

~“KAZU! You’re BACK!” A raspberry-umber haired girl cried, squeezing Kazuki so hard he could hardly breathe. Her cerulean jade eyes twinkled vibrantly, radiating her overpowering ecstasy everywhere.10

Then the image rippled…11

BANG! Megumi’s eyes widened in shock, then wavered, becoming hauntingly cold depths of frigid emptiness. Wordlessly, the Aburakoji dropped like a log, as if all the life had been sucked out of her.~12

And Kazu was yelling at the top of his lungs again, loud enough to wake the dead. “MEGUMI! YOU CAN’T DIE ON ME!!!” Then an iron-hard fist flew into his stomach.13

A pair of vivid green eyes snapped open. “OW! You didn’t have to hit me so hard…did I sleep late?”14

“No,” Sakumo replied, his ice-cold blue eyes unreadable. “You were screaming in your sleep, though. About death…more particularly, about the death of your mother, and that of Megumi.”15

Kazu turned red. “I didn’t realize I was screaming outside of my dream…” he muttered.16

“Kazu, it’s okay. I won’t tell anyone about your nightmares…except maybe Jiro,” Sakumo said slyly, a rare smile sliding onto his lips. He knew full well, of course, what Jiro would do with such information.17

Kazu’s eyes narrowed into slits. Hardly a second later, a pillow hurtled through the air at high speed.18

“Oof!” Sakumo was blown into the wall by the force of the throw. Then he grinned. “Now I have two,” he said, plopping Kazu’s pillow on top of his own and getting back into bed.19

Kazu glared at him. “Karquoken.”20

The only response was a soft chuckle, then snoring.