Hey guys!! It’s been a minute! QOTD!!: What’s a dream you’ve had that you still remember vividly?
My dreams are often elaborate, but I still remember the worldbuilding of this one to the T :
I was born into a family of witches cursed with misfortune & death, all dying at a young age, & we had personifications of that. They can manifest into any shape or object. A cousin had a doll. An uncle had a hibiscus tree. I knew of a great grandmother whose reaper took the form of her soulmate. They're sort of our personal grim reapers because we couldn't die unless it was by their hands. Immortal snail, except ours were always near, reason being that it's a soul-link. Our family history hinted at them not always being a curse in the beginning. Rather, they used to be our guardians, before something came amiss.
Mine was a plain demon, through & through. Think of Scar's ( Wuthering Waves ) boss form. What was strange was that this was Tenma; whether the OC or the introject I can't quite recall anymore. I had childhood memories in this dream.
I remember holding his claw as he crouched down for me. We had tea parties & I added clips on his hair. In hindsight, he wasn't doing anything but closely observing.
My family warned me to not befriend my curse. I stubbornly refused because if I can befriend my reaper, & I won't die today, then can I make my death easier? Oh, how wrong I was.
The entire dream was a game of cat & mouse, ever since I found out about a grimoire from across the country that could possibly alleviate the family curse. My reaper was nothing short of Ill-tempered & Bloodthirsty. So, finding out that his truest joys, killing & freedom, was going to be taken from him by a lowly human, he was nothing short of livid. See, not only will killing me fulfill his duty, but in consuming my soul, the magic that fuels his existence, he'll become free to do whatever he wished. He needed me dead before I killed him first.
The chase went on for days, weeks. I was always one step ahead as much as he always drew near. Our soul-link made him inescapable, but I only had to avoid a fatal clash. Easy enough, right? There was one other element holding me back : I was cursed to never wield a weapon.
I was on a bus when I tested this out. This bus was supposedly magical as well, seeking out only passengers who are desperately running away. We gathered & spoke about our stories. A teenager avoiding accountability for his mistakes. A woman escaping from her abusive partner. A man trying to start anew. He gave me a rifle.
It turned into a toy in my hands.
part 01/??
part 02/02
My own dream was against me. Every weapon I touched became a toy. Every punch, kick, & slap I threw was as light as a feather. I would have been completely helpless if I wasn't lucid dreaming; that's the only way I survive as long as I did. I had foresight, the ability to float like a ghost, somewhat teleport within short distances. Regardless, I never had full control.
Mind you, there were very little timeskips in this dream. It started with my discovery & I have had to jump between motels, steal vehicles & wallets, live off-of gas station food & rural roads were completely unacceptable because he was always going to catch up to me, & I would've caged myself in a car on a barren road.
I took my chance with the bus because if it was magical, what else could it have done?
Not much, apparently, because as we were chatting, making witnesses to the lives we'll soon aband—I ducked. The entirety of the bus & the lives I witnessed, cleanly sliced in half.
We didn’t make it outside of the province & Tenma was already several feet away. I had to act, fast. I crawled above their warm corpses & sat where the bus driver was—is—sitting to zig-zag his row of attacks.
One wrong turn & a slice of his battle axe had jumping out of the bus before I fell into the cliff with it. I didn't look back when it exploded. I couldn't. I can't die but I can take injuries, & running away under agonizing fire isn't the most effective escape.
Just like that, I was back on foot. He was 50 feet away.
Timeskip, teleport, my mind was in too a state of terror to focus on wielding the only weapons in my arsenal. Then, I remembered. One more thing I had up my sleeve. The one leash I still had on him : my soul.
30 feet.
My chest liquified & melted.
10 feet.
My hand sunk into my skin & ribs like a ghost phasing through a wall.
His shadow engulfed my own. Tenma grabbed me by the neck, & I clawed at my beating heart.
Vividly, as I'm typing this, I can still feel the tightness at my throat. The apology I couldn't say, for taking his freedom, a concept that I, too, cherished; with my whole heart, in fact.
The same heart I ripped out of my chest as he raised his axe for the final blow. With it, my soul.