The Dream Shifter

Chapter 242

The boy stood next to her with his fingers pressed to her forehead. "Still nothing. All of it is nothing." His fingers pressed through her head seeping inside her mind. A b****y, deathly scream escaped Yumi's lips as her eyes turned completely white.

Yumi closed her eyes tightly. Wrinkles buried themselves into her forehead. She struggled to keep her concentration with the pain surging through her skull. It felt as though his fingers squeezed and scratched her brain. She bit her teeth straining her jaw. 'What's he…doing…to me?' Her mind felt ready to collapse.

A small piece of her power still felt within reach of her fingers. Yumi focused the last threads of her sanity together to bring her hand up to the boy. Through her screaming and pain, it left him distracted enough that he did not notice her movements until it was too late. Light glowed from her palm immediately blasting out.

The energy did not have a chance to form before it splashed across the teenager's stomach ripping through his uniform. A second later, the force lifted him off the ground and cast him aside in debris. It left him unconscious.

Released from the invasion, Yumi collapsed to the ground panting heavily to recover. While she regained her composure, her eyes darted over to the boy to check that he did nothing. She felt certain he caused the problems to her powers and feared he might still have something planned. However, he made no move.

Yumi was safe.

A few minutes in silence passed. The enemy seemed to give her the time she needed to recover before reacting. She found a couple of soldiers entering her path by mistake. They tried to attack her, but came up short. Yumi noted to herself the renewed strength of her powers. 'Where are you, brother?' The immediate matter concluded allowing her to continue her search.

Nothing revealed itself to her for nearly thirty minutes. All she found was empty tents, likely abandoned with the fighting taking everyone's attention. Occasional soldiers or MP users crossed her path, but she struck them down before they mounted any offense. She did not want to waste any time. Her brother waited for her.

After all of the searching of the camp, she finally found him tucked away. She already dealt with the guards for the tent. It was only the two of them. "Brother!" Yumi rushed around behind him to remove his bindings.

Yori slowly lifted his head, a dark shadow cast over his eyes. He groaned a bit still coming around. A tilt of his head leaned him towards Yumi. "…Yumi?"

She frantically scrambled over the last couple of bindings. "It's alright! You're safe now!" Her hands slipped away from her control scrapping her skin. The slight pain went completely ignored by her as she immediately forced her hands back. "You're free now!"

Yumi hurried around in front of Yori to help him stand. She lifted him to his feet giving him support to his weakened body. They staggered a bit while Yumi got used to his weight. "It'll be okay. I'll get you out of here."

They slowly made it to the tent flaps before Yori began to mutter. Yumi paused trying to understand him. She leaned over her head to get a better listen. "Huh?" It did not help her. His voice was too quiet for her to hear. "What are you saying?"

A cough broke up his pacing. His weakened state dropped him off his feet for a moment. It brought him to cling on to Yumi. He pulled himself up holding on to her shoulders with her aid. Yori hung his head over her shoulder panting. His mouth sat next to her ear. "Yumi…"

"…brother?" She did not have a moment to react as she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. It made her cough suddenly as blood came out of her mouth. The shock left her eyes wide and shaking in confusion. She looked down to see Yori's hand pierced through her stomach soaked in her blood. Another cough weakened her legs. "Why?" she pleaded, looking up into his eyes.

He caught her before she fell. Soulless eyes stared down at her. "The nightmare begins…"

Blackness filled around Yumi. Time lost itself between the pain and the calm that followed. She did not know what happened to her. Her mind went blank immediately after Yori stabbed her. None of it made any sense to her. She did not even know how much time passed since she realized something changed.

A cough broke Yumi out of her haze. She jerked forward. Her breathing ran shallow as her mind made her body feel the last moments again. However, she quickly realized that no pain permeated her body. She touched her stomach trying to figure out what happened.

Nothing.

"What's going on?" Yumi struggled to get herself back on her feet. Her hand rubbed her stomach still not convinced. It felt so real to her, but Yori did it. She did not understand. "Must be a dream, but why? What's wrong with me?"

She finally took in her surroundings. The tent she found Yori in was empty. It held no signs that he had even been in the tent. Only a simple chair remained as a note of his captivity. Yumi thought he might be in the camp and walked towards the tent flap. She still had to save him. The thing she saw before was not real.

Something splashed loosely at her feet when she neared the tent flap. The noise was enough to pull her eyes down in curiosity. A dark liquid ran around her feet thickly clinging to everything. It seemed too dark for water. "What is this?" The closer she got to the expanding pool the more uneasy her heart became. It started to take on a reddish hue and then her mind took over. Her body froze. The pounding of her heart echoed into her head heating up her body. She did not need to test it any more.

"Blood?!" It stretched from beyond the tent. The source fell out of sight, hidden and ominous. Yumi staggered back uncertain if she wanted to move forward. Curiosity dragged her forward against her will. She pressed her hand to her chest hoping to calm her breathing and beating heart. Yumi did not even know the cause and her body already entered full panic. She never saw so much blood before or even thought it possible. Her eyes did not want to see the sight beyond.

Reality had a different plan in mind for Yumi. It refused to allow her to hesitate. A wind ripped open the tent flaps and somehow tore down the tent in the process. It forced Yumi to take in the whole scene all at once as though forced to chug a liter of water in only a second.

The first seconds Yumi could not react. Her eyes widened and pupils shook. It passed through into her shoulders and body, but something kept her standing. A frigid touch ran down her back drenching her body in sweat before overheating. Her lungs refused to hold air keeping her panting heavily. She wanted to throw up, but could only gag. Yumi was granted no release. It forced her to endure it all at a constant acceleration that she could not take, but still had no choice.

A scream finally escaped her lips, yet it was no more relieving than stepping in the shade on a humid day where shelter meant nothing. Yumi screamed until her voice disappeared and she wanted to collapse, but her body still turned her away. The scene burned into her eyes that even closing them made it all replay clear as though open. She knew no escape. Yumi thought her mind would break before her body let her a moment of pause.

Horror magnified for Yumi when a bloodied figure rose from a mound of corpses. The only one in the entire camp besides Yumi that had not been mangled beyond recognition. However, the longer her eyes stared the more she realized the reason. They had not escaped. They were the reason.

Blood seemed to become their skin, no longer sprayed or a coat. They become one with it. Only the whites of their eyes broke the even deeper crimson color over them. Then they turned to their head in the direction of Yumi, detecting her presence.

For the first time, Yumi's body allowed her to react. She stepped back several times wanting to run. Yet even with control back, it refused her. Escape seemed impossible.

"…Yumi…" spoke the entity.

She shook her head not wanting to believe the sight. The voice was too familiar to her to ignore. They marched down towards her treating the c*****e the same as a child that discarded an unwanted broken toy. Yumi's feet held her from trying to flee away. She could not believe it was him. Something was wrong. "No! No! This isn't real! It's all a dream! NO!"

Yumi passed out.

Blackness returned once more. It was just as endless and deep as she remembered it. Yumi did not know how long it had been since the world disappeared. She just wanted to stay in the void. In the void, nothing bad happened. All of the horrors she saw etched themselves into her eyes. The only peace she knew was it only existed in her mind as images.

She could not calm herself down. Her body feel numb and fatigued like she had never known. The fight she experienced before did not compare to what she felt. She wanted it to all be a bad dream. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. Nothing made sense anymore.

Yumi did not know how long her mind could last. It already felt like she was slipping away. The images overwhelmed her. They became the only she saw. They became her reality.

She wanted to sleep.