When my mind allows me to think again, I find myself lying on the side.
I don't know how long I lay there, but after a while, I decide to stand up again before anything else comes for me.
The thought that this is just a dream helps to soothe my shaken mind, yet not by much.
When I rise again, I start to notice an itch behind me at my waist.
Looking at this place, I discover a tail.
A reptilian tail, extending to the ground.
Yes, why not?
At this point, I'm through with reality.
Can come what may.
I walk forward, setting this tower as my destination, and manage to move at a rather fast pace.
But the closer I get there, the more uncomfortable I become.
The reason is that there's an abundance of creatures in this area.
But only the corpses.
Terribly mutilated corpses.
Shredded apart, ripped in two.
The blood and intestines look a bit like the sludge that comes out of me, but a little brighter.
Not the same grade of darkness, but rather a dirty brown.
I look at my claws and the beast paws.
How might my blood look?
Has this far too vivid dream also detailed this?
I don't want to know and just keep going.
Soon, I can cross the distance through this lake of bodies.
An uneasy thought gnaws at me.
What if these bodies are linked to my destination?
The tower.
It doesn't take much longer, and I see the footing.
I am almost there.
When I can make out a door, I become excited and change into a sprint.
After this eternity of walking, I can now manage to keep my balance despite the unfamiliar appendages.
As fast as I can manage, at a speed overshadowing all my records in running I ever made, if not even some pros, I rush forward.
The door grows bigger and bigger with the decreasing distance.
But as soon as I can make out the outline, something moves there.
A figure emerges from the darkness inside.
As soon as I see it, I start to quiver again.
Demon!
This thing is a demon!
It's good, three times larger than me, with claws ending in blades longer than my arms.
A towering figure, muscular scarlet red skin, giant horns sprouting from its head like a crown, and hooflike legs.
A true demon!
This monster wears something like a cracked, stuck smile on its apparently hard skull that won't change and step for step closes in on me.
At its size, it doesn't even need many of them, and before I can contemplate anything, it stands directly in front of me.
I look pleadingly up, hoping that I am prejudiced and maybe it just looks evil.
"Raaahhh!" (demon)
Before I can have another thought, its claw flashes out, and my torso gets slashed in half.
Or so it should be.
Instead, both halves directly reconnect with billions of strands.
I notice some similar tendrils coming out of the demon, disfiguring it.
It lifts me up and rams its claw directly through my chest, while some tendrils pull at me.
"Agck!" (I)
The scream inside my throat gets stuck at the impact.
Only some panicked tears quell out of my eyes, black in color.
Yet my sense of pain is totally off.
Something like this should finally take my consciousness, being a total sensual overload.
Yet I feel so detached.
As if this all just doesn't concern me.
This attack should have finished me off, physically as mentally.
Yet, as an answer, my not completely connected lower part literally explodes.
Explodes in billions and billions of tendrils.
The demon looks puny against this.
In seconds, whatever this thing is that was moments ago, my legs and waist crawl around the demon and envelop it completely.
The demon wildly struggles, and sometimes its claw can grasp out of this crawling horror, but ultimately it succumbs to the weight and kneels down.
Being connected by these strands, I as well am slowly lowered to the ground and keep lying on my back, just looking upwards, gazing at the other planet directly above me.
All the while, the lower part of me wriggles with the demon.
At one point, all movement inside ceases.
I think it's done now.
At least I can feel how it retreats back inside me.
Lying a little longer like this, I wait, knowing what will come.
I feel a wave of heat rising.
"Uooohhh!" (demon)
A face builds up in the middle of my chest, making me frantically claw at it.
The demon screams, but then progressively loses shape.
Ultimately, nothing remains, and it grows quiet again.
I'm finished!
My eyes are hollow at this point.
I banish every thought out of my mind to prevent me from thinking even the slightest bit, as I'm sure I would break if I do.
Instead, I concentrate on my goal.
I wanted inside that tower.
The only remarkable location in this hellscape.
The exit must be here, as there is no other way.
No other possible final destination for my nightmare journey.
It has to be!
Entering through the door, I find a large, round staircase.
Starting to climb this tower, whose end I cannot see, I just keep going.
On my way, I notice that there might now be two horns on my forehead, but keep any further thoughts at bay.
I rush up as fast as I can manage.
The distance is vast and appears as if there is no end to it.
Still, I push forward and eventually enter a round room.
Yet it is empty.
Completely void except for a hole in the ceiling.
Walking around, I find a strange sensation towards the walls.
The gravitation shifts on the sides.
Traversing like this, first I climb the walls and then the ceiling, where I promptly find that everything is subverted.
As there is nothing else here, I enter the hole.
Unsurprisingly, there is a staircase leading downwards.
With growing unease, I climb it down.
Eventually, I reach the ground.
A door is there.
I head out.
And there is a demon.
No way out.
No end to this nightmare.
Just more of the same!
Just another planet!
Completely the same, like the other one!
Hey, maybe a slight tint of orange!
"Ha! Haha!
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" (I)
With bursting emotions, I unleash all my frustration at this already engaging demon.
With my scream, a thousand tentacles unleash with sharp ends.
At some places, they gather into strange accumulations, forming several maws like those of the monsters I've encountered before.
The demon does stop at this sight for a moment before a tidal wave of claws, spikes, and teeth runs over him.
As expected, nothing remains where it stood.
The wave gets sucked back inside me, and I stand there as if nothing happened.
And I stop moving.
If not from falling on my knees.
I barely notice the last death struggle of the torn demon inside me.
"It's over! There is no way out!
I'm lost! This is it!
I-I think I'm going crazy.
Ahahaha! Hick! Hihihihihi! Hick!
Hick! Sob! Uwaaaahhh!" (I)
It's all over!
No hope remains.
"Help me! Anyone! Sob! Please!" (I)
My back starts to shift again, and an accumulation of vile stuff comes out.
It forms something like a sheet or wings and wraps itself around me like a thick black layer.
I whine inside, while it grows, completely enveloping my body.
The layer cuddles around me, and suddenly I can see outside.
I soon notice that thousands of eyes are sprouting on its surface, allowing me a roundabout view.
I cry more as this just makes it worse.
"Let me go! Let me wake up! I want out of here! I want into my bed! I want home!" (I)
At this moment, the puddle below me, formed out of my tears, gives in, and I fall through.
Like the last time, I am encompassed by pitch-black fluid.
Then there is this drain again.
I get flushed, and for a long time, I just feel movement without a sense of direction.
Then I rush like last time out of a puddle.
I look up and see a door.
A normal door!
Then the wooden floor.
My posters?
This is my room!
I look at my bed!
There I am!
Wait!?
I am there?!
I'm lying in my bed!
Sleeping!
I rush to the other me and start to shove my sleeping self.
"Wake up, stupid! Wake up!" (I)
I want to wake up!
Just come to your senses!
At this moment, I wake up.
I gain consciousness!
I am awake!
I open my eyes.
And see me.
And I do see myself?
At the same time!?
I move an arm for confirmation and then the one of the other body in front of me.
My sleeping self and my dream self look at each other.
Yet it is the same.
This monstrous being that my dream self became, and this normal sleeping human, are the same thing!?
Like with these strange eyes that are popping up, it is just a weird part of my body.
My second body?
Sitting in front of me...
My dream self's eye twitches visibly, while the other's stare blankly.
I intently look at myself and soon can't keep it up.
Both of us equally start to breathe erratically.
I grab my human self's hand, wanting to shake me, unwilling to accept this situation.
At this moment, tendrils emerge from my claws and push into the held hand.
They dwell in as fast as it's possible and with enormous suction.
Incredible force drives me inside, makes more and more of my body enter, and soon everything is absorbed.
When the last bit of me has entered, I am feeling strangely disconnected, and everything turns dark.
And like this, it stays for a while.
But then there is a spark.
Light!
Warmth!
The sun!
Finally, my eyes open.
I am awake!
I rush up.
I am awake!
Excited, I feel around my blanket and bed to confirm it.
My hands touch the surface beneath it, the known feeling of my bedsheet I used for so long.
I see the posters around me.
My room!
"Iori! Wake up!" (S)
Mum!
I am back!
This is truly my home, and everything is normal!
Like it should be!
My emotions take over, and my eyes fill with tears.
I remember everything.
I couldn't forget.
But that doesn't matter.
I might be finished now, maybe even traumatized, but I am home.
I feel so glad!
The nightmare ended!
It's over!
My eyes are swimming, and the tears separate and fall onto the sheet.
They are pitch black.
.
.
.