'Was that a dream?'
'Nah that was more of a… nightmare?'
'Holy sh-'
'Oh my god!'
'I'm dead!"
'I'm really dead!'
'Is this the afterlife? It's… why is it… it's hot?'
'It's just darkness…'
'Oh my god, oh my god no… is this hell? Did I go to hell!?'
'Why the hell would I go to hell!?'
'This is terrifying! What is this place…'
'It was just a nightmare dammit! Just-'
'Wait- who's voice is that?'
The other voice in his head sounded familiar yet at the same time like a stranger.
Leo's gaze moved around slowly in the darkness, and as all these thoughts in his head were flying he was steadily rising into a massive panic attack, his chest heaving heavily up and down as he started hyperventilating.
Just then he heard… growling. In the darkness, deep inside of this darkness, there was the faint noise of rustling and quiet groans. As if some demon was watching him. Immediately realizing this he sprung up from whatever he was lying down on.
"NO!"
He howled out at the top of his lungs as he flailed his arms defensively, helplessly trying to hit whatever it was. In these couple seconds that he was doing this, thousands of thoughts flooded his mind in seconds.
'I really died and this is the afterlife! Is it just darkness? Or is this hell and hell is just darkness? That doesn't make sense! Don't bad people go to hell! What… What could I have ever done to be here!? This can't be hell! But I'm dead and I know it…'
'I remember… oh god I remember everything… His claw felt so cold inside my chest. So… so cold, and unnatural, like it didn't belong there. Of course his claw didn't belong there!'
'And when he pulled it out… god, it felt like a waterfall made out of lava was flowing in my chest. I saw the hole in my chest! there's no way I'd survive! I'm dead! I'm dead!'
"HOLY SHIT I'M DEAD!"
Leo cursed out loud for the first time in his life while still flailing his arms. Although it was his first time cursing out in such a manner, it felt strangely familiar as the words rolled off his tongue.
"Shuuut up!"
An unfamiliar yet familiar sounding voice groaned out from the darkness. After that something wide, soft and flat hit Leo's face.
'Oh my god the demon is attacking!'
'I'm gonna die again! Can you even die in hell or is it just endless pain…!'
He kept swinging around and yelling. Tears streamed down his face even though his eyes were tightly shut. He had yet to even acknowledge the existence of his own face and tears.
"NO! GET AWAY!"
Just then another flat, soft thing flew and hit the side of Leo's head. Finally he shivered as he steadily opened his eyes to look down at what it was, it was still dark, but as he felt the thing that hit him his mind became more and more warped with confusion and panic.
'A pillow?'
It was a pillow. And so was the other one. And upon further inspection, this was a bed he was lying in. A thin, small wooden bedframe with a ragged straw mattress.
Leo muttered to himself in confusion.
"What the…hell?"
Just then a faint light turned on at the end of the room. Slightly illuminating it, along with some curtains being opened. The light came from a lantern that was sitting on a small wooden dresser attached to another bed to the right of Leo. These beds were more like wooden cots if anything. They were all copies of each other. And after those curtains were opened, soft white moonlight shone into the large room.
It was a long rectangular like room with fifteen or so of these old ragged wooden cots, with thin straw mattresses. Lined up and down in rows. Like something you'd see in an orphanage. But what freaked Leo out the most was that there were kids on these beds. Some sleeping, some not. They were dressed in a long white fabric with uneven stitches across them.
Then, at that moment a boy on the cot to the right of Leo, the one that had the lantern turned on, got up and walked over to him.
"Cain, what's wrong! You're screaming like an idiot in the middle of the night!"
Leo's panicked and tear streaming face contorted into utter confusion. In fact, he was so confused that it outweighed all the other emotions that were exploding deep in his soul.
Leo studied the kids face in silence as he tried piecing together what was happening. The kid that was seemingly talking to him, and not someone else, had long dark brown hair with orange eyes. The hair was tied back.
"Aaaah!"
Leo's voice slowly rose in horror and confusion as he backed up in his bed away from the boy that was coming closer to him with a worried look on his face.
"Get away! Who are you!?"
He felt like he had woken up inside a dream, like lucid dreaming. Except when you lucid dream, sometimes the people inside the dream feel uncanny, because they know you and for some reason you know them. But you've never met these people, because you're only dreaming right? That's why it felt uncanny. Sometimes as a kid whenever Leo had these dreams he'd wake up in a cold sweat.
But how could he be dreaming? Hadn't he just literally died? It was all too real for that to be some nightmare, and he was not waking up in that familiar cold sweat right now either. This was real, he was alive. But how could that be? Nothing made sense to him, and it didn't help that another unfamiliar voice was in his head echoing just as loud as his own.
'What do you mean "who are you" that's Rowan! What the fuck is happening!? Get out my head, bastard!"
'What!? your head? This is mine, you get out!'
The two consciousnesses clashed inside as Leo blankly stared out.
"Uh what are you talking about? It's me, Rowan?"
Rowan, the orange eyed boy said with a slightly worried expression as he waved his hand in Leo's face. Unfamiliar memories were slowly flooding into Leo's mind upon seeing Rowan's face. Memories of this kid. He knew him? But at the same time, he didn't know him. It was all too confusing for Leo.
"Get away!"
Leo said in a panic as he was brought out of his thoughts and backed up further in the cot, but there was no more cot to back up on, and he fell over.
"Oomph!"
He landed flatly on his back, the one thin blanket falling with him, tangling his legs. The ground felt like cold cobblestone. Leo finally looked down and realized that, he too, was wearing one of these long ragged white gowns.
Suddenly another person who was on the cot to the left of Leo, stepped out and grabbed his hand, pulling him up. By this point all the kids in the room were awake and coming over as well.
"Cain what are you doing! Cut it out, it's the middle of the night…"
A young girl with mint-green eyes said. She had long black hair that slightly fell over her face as she bent down to give a hand.
Leo shirked his hand away in fright as he fell back down.
"Who are you people! Get away from me! Gaah!"
He shouted as he struggled to untangle his legs in the blanket, eventually succeeding as he hurriedly stood up. His bare feet felt the cold stone.
'Oh god now you've done it. That's Selene! Why am I acting like this?? It's this voice in my head, it's his fault! This is your fault! Get out!'
'Th-This is my head! You leave!'
The girl's brow furrowed in a mix of annoyance and confusion.
"Not funny, it's the middle of the night Cain. Can you cut it out-"
But before she could finish Leo was already running down the rectangular room.
"What is happening, this isn't real this isn't real this isn't-"
He muttered to himself in a panic as he kept running, but just then the wooden door at the end of the room slammed open. It was so sudden and loud that Leo stopped running in fright. He was standing a couple of steps away from the figure in the door frame who held a lantern.
For some reason, seeing this person made Leo's heart race in fear.
"Great! thanks a lot idiot, you've killed us both now.'