The only person holding you back is you and… strangely enough, your neighbour.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 1st Generation
Current Date: March 18, 2058

Character: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Meta – Dreams
Age: 93, physically about 26
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

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I wonder if it would surprise anyone to learn that over the last few years, I’ve begun to write short stories based on snippets of dreams that have come to me from others. I only use a brief scene or idea as a setup, I tend to always change things plenty enough that one would be hard at work trying to find its origins or know who it came from, and they would very likely fail.

This is also why I don’t use snippets if, within them, there are telling traits. Traits that only a handful might have, or telling signs such as any focus on a potential herbal shop, or a candy store, or the adult store. I doubt anyone would truly be able to connect the two, they would possibly think that the stories were only based on these places because that is what we have here in the community but the people whose dreams the snippets come from could be part of the readers and then things could possibly be different.

As is, changing so many details so that only the bare bones of snippets remains makes for an interesting exercise for the brain. It keeps me from being repetitive and it just gives the short stories a little extra more.

Now, I don’t go out and hunt for dream snippets. I really do only use the ones that come to me and I don’t write every day, let alone do I even write every week. Maybe every other week seems a better schedule for writing these short stories and I do mean short. Two, maybe five pages at the very most.

The most recent story I’ve published into the system—under a pen name mostly because I think it still makes sense—came from a dream that confused me more than anything else when I first caught a glimpse of it. It made no sense and I can only imagine how the person who had that dream felt when they woke up. Now, I do know who had that dream, but this is beside the point. This is why I make so many changes to the snippet. I really only keep the barebone idea of it and then go off from there.

The only thing I did keep from this snippet was one odd statement, or perhaps it really was more of a feeling. Something about being held back from doing something important, but the only person doing the holding back was the person themselves and, strangely enough, that person’s neighbour.

Now, this little bit was so vague, even in the dream, but it stayed with me enough to give me the idea I had for the story. It’s only a smart part of the story, the one part that turns it around and brings it to its conclusion but that’s usually how I work. Either it is what turns the story around, or it is the general idea behind the story itself.

I wouldn’t even be able to tell when I started writing these or why. Or, well, that would be a partial lie, I’m sure that if I look through all of my files and the dates when I started publishing these short stories, I’d be able to pinpoint near to exactly when I did start writing but that’s not the point. The point, I’m sure, if I can stay focused a little while longer, is that I know I was scribbling out brief stories or snippets and ideas long before I started posting them into the system.

In the long run, though, I don’t think it really matters that much, does it? What matters, I think, is that I’ve found something to do in quieter times when my mind refuses to let go of everything else. This became a thing, I think, when the kids finally all left home. I was so used to their sound and presence that I think my brain just partially rewired itself in a different way.

Our beautiful home is quiet most of the time now and my brain, even now, has days when it simply has little desire to just be. To allow itself the quiet for rest and relaxation. Yes, I’ve tried meditation but with my mind as it is and my power—under great control or otherwise—as it stands, I will never be in absolute quiet and this chance to focus on something else is just an extra that I appreciate as being part of my life. I like being able to write these stories, going back over them to fix up what’s wrong and just trying to make sure that they’re ready for the reading.

We all have to have our means of keeping ourselves entertained and this is mine.

Final Word Count: 797

This is why you shouldn’t leave everything up to me.

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Terraphim – Lost and Found
Current Date: December 18, 2515

Character: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Dream Keeper
Age: 32
Current residence: Xiang Po, Terraphim
 

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Trips out into the village that is some hours away aren’t a complete unknown. We sort of take turns, the few times we head out there. For the most part, we’re self-sufficient. We grow our own food, there is enough game roaming these surroundings that meat is rarely an issue and fruits come with the bushes and the handful of trees nearby.

I don’t know who built this near-castle in the middle of the forest. The trees nearly hug the structure on all sides, keeping it fairly hidden if you look at it from a ground perspective with your feet securely down. I know that the tower is high but as it is his bedroom, I’ve not been. I don’t know that it is higher than some of the trees, but it must still be seen from the sky. Not that anyone has sought us out in the years we’ve been here.

It must have been planned around self-sufficiency, however. The trees look planted, as do the bushes. They’re set in neat rows and placed just so. The pond is clearly man-made, but I was told, when we finally came here, long after any of the others, that the place had long since been abandoned, by the looks of it. A few areas had looked ready to crumble but nothing that some care couldn’t fix.

I’m not much of a fan of going out into the village. Perhaps not so much because I have to cover up from head to toe—my hair makes me stand out though I’ve seen others with somewhat similar locks—but because while I’ve learned to control my gift, there is the rare time when something will slip through and, yes, it will distract me.

I wouldn’t even dream of trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a much, much bigger city. The village is usually easy enough but some project far more than others. They usually only tickle the back of my mind, and I can ignore them but when it comes to the thought of children, it is just so much harder to ignore.

Especially when there is a plea somewhere in that thought.

It happened when we last went. It was some months ago at this point and it still troubles me every now and again. I have never been around children for any proper length of time. Yes, I’ve been around children in passing, I’ve been around teens a little more so, but the younger ones are the ones I’ve spent the least time with, and I don’t know whether or not this is a good thing.

During our trip to the village—I always go with Devante, it makes the most sense as I feel the safest with him though I know I could go with my brother—there was some sort of chaos happening near the far side of the village. The mind voices were a jumble, and I could sense them long before we had ever made it to the village. I did block them out, this has become easy, but it still remains a very faint hum at the back of my mind, mostly letting me know that this isn’t just the usual humdrum of everyday life in the village.

I did allow a few bits and pieces to come through, not so much because I thought I could fix anything, but because I wanted to make sure that we were safe. At one point, I sensed a much stronger voice, almost louder than the others stating something about how this whole mess was why things should not have been left to them—I was ready to pay a little more attention, just to understand the situation when the begged plea of a child shot right above everything else and I lost track of it all.

I’m still not quite sure how I reacted to that, but the next thing I knew, we were back on the road and heading home. I don’t open up my mind to anyone. It would be foolish. I can pick out anyone I might want on this planet to peek through their thoughts if I so wish but I still remember what it was like before the dark swallowed me whole and I can’t go back to that. I just can’t. I lost track of almost half of our trip back home, my mind on the child. I was so worried about this unknown that I didn’t think to reach out and find out more.

If I’m being honest, a small part of me was possibly very worried that I wouldn’t find the child in question anymore. I was quite certain that the mental screech for help had been one that came just before a final blow and I couldn’t face that particular thought, so I tried to just let it go. It was hard. I mean, it still comes up now and again and it’s been months.

Final Word Count: 827

You’re terrible. At least I’m never bored when you’re around.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Meta – Dreams
Age: 91, physically about 26
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 757 words
 

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On certain days, I ask myself if I’ve had a childhood. I mean, I know it sounds dramatic and it potentially is, but what I remember of my childhood isn’t very child-like. Unseen parents, Jacob about but not always, this older presence whose name I think I could recall up until the alpha telepathy took hold of my brain and sent me into the dark that first time around.

There had been so much noise when I first got hit with that gift, I couldn’t handle it. I’m still not sure why I’m the one that got hit with it either, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I was just about an adult at that point, and this is about reminiscing of when I was younger, an innocent, sweet slip of a child and, oh who am I kidding?

I imagine that I was at least mischievous to a point, aren’t all children supposed to be, in their own ways? Looking at my four, I know that this would disprove that statement right away, but I still know that I was no perfect angel. I did act older than my age warranted but I don’t think I actually had much of a choice in the matter.

There are no real memories of playing around with Jacob while we discovered our surroundings; there are no memories of playing hide and seek or touch and go. We were two children who grew up far too quickly for anyone’s liking. It is one of those things.

I do have fond memories of watching the kids as they were growing up, though. I mean, what parent doesn’t? Well, okay, parents whose kids were likely hellions possibly don’t have quite as many fond memories, but I know that even hellions have to have quiet moments, right? Right.

I remember thinking that these four never had a boring moment to worry about when they all were together. Not all days were good days and on certain days I was shaking my head at them, amused by their behaviour but certain that I was thinking as to just how terrible that behaviour was, even with a smile curling at the corner of my mouth. I never really thought any of them behaved in a way that truly required ‘extra’ parenting.

Things began to turn slightly sour when they entered their teens, especially between Caleb and Thire, I was worried about these two for some time but looking back now, I suppose that things happened for a reason. Don’t get me started on the storm that seemed to have changed everything.

All in all, looking back, I can’t really complain about my life. It wasn’t the most exciting but, on that same note, it wasn’t just a dull sort of life and I’ve grown to appreciate all moments of my life, they’ve led me to where I am now.

Would I want more children to watch over as they grow up? I don’t know. Most of the population seems content to have settled where they are, and I don’t blame them. You do only have one life to live, and you can experience it all at your own pace. Maybe in some ten, twenty years, we’ll have another baby boom. It wouldn’t be all that surprising, I don’t think.

My pregnancy wasn’t terrible, but I remember waking up on certain days, my hands on my belly, telling these little ones to calm down because they were making it nearly impossible to rest or do anything at all. I wouldn’t change a day of it all except perhaps for the final few hours during which I struggled with Caleb. I was so terrified that I would lose him.

The first three came easily but Caleb, my youngest, my sweet and tiny child, he took his time, he terrified me by his persistence at staying inside where it was potentially warmer than outside and yet, after long, long hours and with exhaustion tugging away at me, there he was, born to his own day.

That didn’t stop us from celebrating all four over the course of both days. It took some doing, especially as they grew old enough to understand that things usually weren’t supposed to be stretched out over two days like we were going at it and once they did understand why we did what we did, things just settled again.

I love my children—my grown adults at this point—and I would give them my life all over again if I had to.

If you’re going to treat me like a monster, I’m going to act like one.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Terraphim – Lost and Found
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Dream Keeper
Age: 30
Current residence: Near Xiang Po, Terraphim
Final Word Count: 729 words
 

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You would think that having both dream and nightmare keepers within the same area would be a mess but it’s hard to define where we both fall. What constitutes a dream for one could potentially be a nightmare for someone else and being so close to my brother—though he roams plenty, seemingly restless with his life—seems to be a good thing. We’ve both ‘shared’ dreams as they had the markers for both dream and nightmare and that was the end of that.

Recently, I was caught in the middle of something that was just borderline nightmares and Jacob wasn’t around for me to ask him if he’d had this one pass through during his night. That’s the thing, we might get certain dreams and nightmares coming into our own nights, but we don’t get those of everyone out there. I don’t think anyone’s mind is wide enough to accommodate the dreams and nightmares of all and there is at least one person at all times on the planet sleeping, so can you imagine?

This one, though, it still gives me the shivers because it felt like it hit home a little close to, well, home. I don’t know how to really explain it other than that. I’m not sure where the dream came from or who it was for; I usually can never tell unless there is only one participant, so to speak. In this one, there were groups of people, though a pair stood out more than the other. A boy and a girl, and the girl was just so angry. I can’t tell if her anger really was valid or not and even out of dreams, that’s hard to ascertain. Anger might feel justified for one and not for the other.

She was just so terribly angry, her hissed words should have been low enough just for the boy to hear but that is one of those things about dreams, nothing is secret to the keeper. She was telling the boy about how, if he kept on treating her like a monster, she was going to begin to act like one. These types of things always just make me so sad but there is again the issue where you can barely tell whether or not what you hear and see is true.

Does she believe that his behaviour is that of treating her like a monster or is he just defending himself? Is he just afraid of her general actions? There is so much that could be going on and it was hard to focus on all others that were around. Yes, there were a lot of people, groups of them really. They all seemed to merely be standing around and talking about everything and nothing. I couldn’t pick up much from them.

The girl, though, everything kept on coming back to her, even as the boy seemed to be cowering away from her. She was growing angrier by the passing moment and it wasn’t just her words, in the long run, it was in the little pushes she would give him, the growling, the sneering.

By the end of what I suppose could still have been a dream of sorts, there were physical changes to her and that’s when I lost track of that particular dream. I figure it had to have been swept away to Jacob’s side of things but, again, he hasn’t been around—he took Sadie on a trip out again—so I couldn’t exactly ask him about it.

By the time he’ll come back, it will have been too long and potentially too many dreams and nightmares will have passed on by for him to recall that particular one, so waiting to ask is moot. I’ll just have to live with the fading memory of that particular dream, still unable to tell whether it was his or hers if it even was theirs, to begin with.

I mean, I’ve witnessed dreams with participants that had nothing to do with the dreamer, those are always a little strange but not all that uncommon, not really. At this point, I should be used to these things and yet I don’t know that I ever will. I don’t care to tap into my gift and find out more about the dreams. They’re not mine to fix, after all. They are mine to keep.

I didn’t earn that title. It was simply given to me. It’s certainly misguiding, huh?

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Terraphim – Lost and Found
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Dream Keeper
Age: 29
Final Word Count: 699 words
 

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There are very few people that knew what I was in my life before this one. It still is strange, in a way, to think of my life up until the dark spit me out as another life but, just the same, it feels like a fitting thought. I was someone else entirely, I thought I had found love and my place in life but when the darkness eased me out of its embrace—I have heard of some being unceremoniously spit out—what happened near instantly after cemented the fact that I did not belong with these people.

I stayed, of course, for a short while until I could find a way out and that way out so happened to come wrapped in a very golden glow. My life changed after that and, shortly after, there was my brother and a woman whose face rang no bell to me but he seemed so familiar and content at her side that I simply smiled at his happiness and I left this old life behind.

Still, of those few people who knew me for the title I had been given from my near birth, one tended to give me squinting looks as though to try and understand why I was called as I was. Their definition of dreams and mine so happened to be rather different and I suppose that they thought the title to be quite misguiding. They even confronted me about it once. They told me that I was undeserving of the title as I had let down the dreams of so many people.

It is at that point that we did have a long conversation of things and while I had been so sure that I had at least gotten through to them about the difference in sleep-dreams—what my gift pertains to—and someone’s hopes and dreams—something I can do absolutely nothing about—it became clear just a few days later that my words had meant nothing at all to them and I simply would continue to be on their bad side.

That suited me just fine; I hadn’t had much of a like for that person, to begin with, and I had other things on my plate.

I don’t really see how anyone can protect the hopes and dreams of the entire world unless they have a superhero complex going on and feel the need to never sleep and ‘right’ even the smallest of wrongs. Not everyone’s hopes and dreams will lead somewhere. I could have hopes and dreams about somehow no longer having to worry about whether or not I’ll sleep well every night—silly, isn’t it?—and no one would be able to make sure that it happens exactly as I’d like it. As is, I wouldn’t want someone just there, right over my shoulder, making sure I sleep peacefully every night.

What of those who hope for a good life? That is such a vague request. A good life could be considered when they first meet love, when they have children, when they finally grow old with all of their family members present. Will someone, a single someone, somewhere in the world, be there to ensure that it all goes according to plan and that no one ever has a single bad day ever again?

It all seems like crazy talk to me and I’ve had to deal with crazy. It just doesn’t make any sense that someone would believe that a single person can somehow ‘keep safe’ the hopes and dreams of an entire planet, let alone possibly an entire universe—I’ve had dreams that made no sense with scenery that seemed all wrong and I never was able to find its source, hence my mention of the universe.

My brother has witnessed things that should not exist on this planet and areas that make even less sense than the ones I’ve seen; we both believe our gifts reach much further than it should but it has only happened since I’ve come to join their side, so one might imagine it comes from my telepathy perhaps coming into play.

These are mysteries that will likely never have any answers.

It sucks when I forget something and a reminder was written down right in front of me, but I still didn’t remember to do it!

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Meta – Dreams
Age: 85, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 670 words
 

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Am I forgetful? Not often but I am merely human. I love this phrase, it’s iconic and yet ironic. It’s an excuse that humanity has used time and again before this world went to shit and ended itself. Though I’m sure that there are some pockets of survivors out there that might still use the saying but somehow, I doubt it.

Saying ‘I am only human,’ seems to state that, hey, look over here! I am this feeble thing and while I can make big decisions that have huge impacts on everything, it might not be smart to let me do so! At least, that’s how I see it. I know it could be argued that it only means that as humans, we are not perfect and prone to errors but the alternative is just as true.

I have been quite forgetful over the last week, however. I don’t know what got into me but it was one of those things. It’s gotten better over the last day or so but it was pretty bad even just three days ago.

I remember that I had written myself a note about something I needed to do—at that point; I think it was about needing to clean up some of the cupboards because I’d noticed that they needed it. I wrote a note and stuck it to that very cupboard but, as the day crept on by and I went into the kitchen several times, I would see the note but pay it no mind. There was a nagging sensation at the back of my mind that I was supposed to do something but I couldn’t remember what it was.

It was only the following morning, after waking up from a somewhat better rest than I’d gotten all week that I saw the note and I just… I promptly facepalmed. There it was, a reminder that I had to do that one thing, right in my face, right at eye-level and I spent my whole day ignoring it because I had this feeling I was forgetting something and it couldn’t have been that easy but it was.

I did clean the cupboard, it needed it. I found several old things we hadn’t used in quite some time and I threw them out. Then I told myself that maybe I should check the rest of the cupboards and I’ve taken care of that over the last day or so. The kitchen is spotless, the bathroom cupboards will be gotten to later today but I get the feeling that there will be a lot of laundry hanging on the line to dry.

You can bet that I like clothes and laundry of all sorts drying on the line for as long as can manage. Once the air turns crisp, I love it even more because it leaves that crispness and fresh autumn scent in the clothes. Now, once it turns wet and cold, that changes things and I’m back to drying things in the dryer.

But when spring first really settles in, that drying line is cleaned up and it is put to good use for all of the laundry as much as I can manage. I don’t know when I discovered my love of air-dried clothes but there you have it. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve tried keeping the yard set to summer year-round but I couldn’t handle it. I need the snow for a couple of months a year, I suppose you could call me odd but what does it change? I like all of my seasons and all of the quirks that come with each of them and that’s that. Nothing else to it.

At this point, though, I think I’m just going to keep my setting of Post-it notes to a minimum and use the system to remind me of tasks I’ve set out for myself to do. That might ensure I really do get them done if I forget about them.

Why wouldn’t you spend most of your eternal life learning as many skills as you want?

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 1st Generation
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Meta – Dreams
Age: 84, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 620 words
 

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My life was never meant to be eternal, not really. In the long run, all I am is human. A human with a very powerful gift but that gift would have been passed on to someone else when I died, either young, middle-aged, or old. In this place, however, this forever-life place, things are different and to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of forever when I first came back out of the dark. It was one of the reasons I’d slipped into the darkness in the first place, after all.

When I exited the darkness, I was just as lost as when I’d first stepped inside. I did truly think that I would be spending the rest of all times in there, away from everything that would hurt me, away from the ache in my heart that did fade over time with this new wonderful, perfect presence at my side.

As he made his presence known to me, it was then that I knew why I had been pulled from the dark; it was that tug, that little thing that had changed everything. I couldn’t claim to understand why it had done what it did; only that it had and that he was at the source of that tug.

Things have changed over time, of course. I want to believe that I have overcome a lot of obstacles that had been left in my path and I feel good about these things.

I’ve stopped asking myself a lot of questions. I’ve stopped wondering about the fate of things. Would I be able to handle this gift I have to handle for the rest of my days? Yes. Would I be able to have a normal life, despite the presence of this gift? Yes.

Would I spend most of my eternal life learning as many skills as I want? Yes.

That last one came to me out of nowhere. I had been fine and content with just living my life as a passing day-to-day thing, there was nothing bad about this particular method but I woke up one morning and I really, finally so, realized that I had the rest of forever ahead of me. The children were grown, they had moved out, it was just the two of us again and while we filled our days with things to keep ourselves busy, I did finally realize that I could learn all those things I never could have learned before I came here, before I had children, before I had a life I truly could call my own.

I can understand that for some, the idea of being ‘forced’ to learn, is an ugly thing; especially for those who did not care much to spend extra time in school but what else am I going to do with forever within my grasp?

Sure, we travel. Now that a lot of the world has settled again, doorways to travel have opened up again, though VR wandering is also a good way to go about things but the thrill isn’t quite the same, close but not quite. We roam, we read, we rest, we make love. We do a lot of things but there still is room for so much more and that’s why I’ve found myself digging through the course load offered. I’ve never been to school, not in any formal way and there have always been things I wanted to know, things that had been far out of my reach but it’s all there now and I have forever more to do everything that had been denied to me before.

I intend to learn as many skills as I can.

Can they justify it?

 
Timeline/World: Terraphim – Lost and Found
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Dream Keeper
Age: 28
Final Word Count: 637 words
 

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The taking of a life should never be taken lightly. This is something that has always sat with me and even when He took me in to raise me, I knew better than to allow for the taking of a life without giving it thorough consideration.

The thing is, not everything believes in justifying these killings. I’m just glad that my life, as it is now though it is not perfect, has kept me from having to make decisions like these. It has been years since I’ve taken a life. Thinking back, I’m more than a little certain that since my release from the dark, I have not taken a single life and thinking back to the time before, I don’t even know that I ever really have.

I have been surrounded by those who have taken lives again and again—not always willingly, I know. Now, now I am surrounded by those I know I can call family though it is strange. Only one truly holds my attention and the thought still baffles me somewhat. He is the absolute gold to my silver and I never thought the two would go together and yet. I’ll not go into details.

I had a dream recently, something that is rather rare due to my given title; due to the gift that is mine to carry though it is not half the burden that which my brother carries as the keeper of nightmares. Then again, what one might consider a nightmare could very well be a dream for someone else, I know.

The dream held no familiar shape or form beyond that of what had surrounded me for years before it spit me back out. Not that I have any memories of the darkness, I have none. That is the point of the dark. It swallows you whole and keeps you there, suspended—falling, floating?—until you are ready to face the world outside again. Some say that the darkness will open its doorways if you call to it but I know I did not; that was the one thing that I was accused of, willingly stepping into the dark when the ‘world’ needed me.

It is the reason I left. I did not need to be reminded that I had lost what I was told were years of life because of the new gift that had been forced into me, a gift that would have likely killed the whole planet if I hadn’t managed to control it. That’s what I’m told and that’s what the dark did for me. It took me away until my mind and body could handle the gift.

The dream was one of darkness and emptiness. There were no emotions, no sensations and little else but darkness—which is usual of my own rare dreams—but there were words. Words that I thought I could not decipher at first but that changed when I focused somewhat and opened myself to these words.

I still don’t know where they came from or to whom the voice belonged. I also cannot tell whether or not there was more than one speaking, there could have been. There were discussing the killing of an entire village, trying to justify the deaths. How can killing people ever truly be justified? One person alone cannot be judge, jury and executioner but it does seem as though those in my dream thought themselves to be.

I woke when it was clear that they were coming to an agreement about the village and that might have been for the best. As it stands, it was tempting to try and locate that village but it could have been anywhere on the planet if the dream was indeed mine and not just a figment, so I left it be.

What else could I do?

Don’t tell people that they can’t love others if they don’t love themselves; it’s wrong and messed up. In fact, I think that by loving others and getting that love in return, they eventually learn to help themselves.

Timeline/World: Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Meta – Dreams
Age: 82, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 537 words

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I don’t think I would be a mother of four, or sharing my life with the half of my missing soul if the old statement was true. I know it likely works out well for most everyone out there but there are exceptions and I am one of these exceptions.

I don’t look the part; I suppose that came in handy with letting the world around me believe that I was a strong, willful woman who could do anything. It was so far from the truth. I mean, all of this landed me in the dark, didn’t it? It wasn’t just my gift. My first stay in the dark had been enough for that though, for a long time after my release from the place, I felt as though I had been released too soon. I was one too many, my brother had Sadie, they had their kids, her father, Ayame as a wonderful mock-adoptive mother, I felt like an ugly fifth wheel and the dark was the only place that seemed to make sense.

I didn’t know what to make of it when the dark released me the second time. I didn’t feel ready, on the contrary, I felt painfully frail and exposed and I wanted to crawl back under a rock and never come out again but there he was, my colour opposite, golden and wonderful and things just… they slowly fell into place. Clicked into that slot they were meant to interlock with and voila.

That’s not to say I don’t have days where I worry about everything, days where I feel low and where I don’t like anything about myself. Days where I worry that maybe I wasn’t a good mother but then I look at our children and I know we’ve done the very best we could and that’s all there was for us to do. Those days happen, they sweep me off my feet without any notices and these moods, as they’re moods more than ‘days,’ they can last for as short as a few moments to several hours bleeding into days.

Normally, they only last a small handful of hours, enough that I feel miserable inside but I’m so used to it that I can overlook that feeling and try to focus on something else instead, it usually works in my favour.

All of this though, all of this to point out that the only reason I have any true love for myself is because he taught me how to. Through him I saw that I was more than just faults, a failed something or other, a net that caught a gift that wasn’t meant to be mine but is, a gift that forced me away from the one person I thought had loved me but proved otherwise, it was an ugly truth I had to face when I first came out of the dark but I don’t think about that time much anymore, there’s no need.

I owe Devante my sanity, my heart, my everything. I would likely still be in the dark without him and I wouldn’t have experienced all the different moments of motherhood. Some were easy, others were much harder, but all were worth it.

You are very specific.

Timeline/World: Terraphim
Characters: Sakori Kusanagi
Race: Human – Dream Keeper
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 614 words

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“I don’t know what you expect of me. That you are asking for such a specific item tells me it’s very likely you can get it yourself, so why force me to do the deed?” The chains rattled some as she thrust her hands forward as if to remind her captor that this was just what it was, a game to find out where the power really was. She wouldn’t remain captive for long, she could tell. It didn’t make the wait any better, however.

It already felt like it had been far, far too long. Just a little longer now, she could feel them draw closer to her location. She couldn’t recall having actually ever started to broadcast her location to him but obviously, she’d been doing that much, else he likely never would have come all of this way, not with the one he had fixed and grown attached to.

Closing her eyes, not caring to watch the man walk away, she turned her back as best she could, which wasn’t very much and settled to try and sleep. Her dreams were blank, they had been since the shackles had been put around her wrists and she cared little for it.

She woke with a gasp, rubbing her wrists and taking in the empty room around her, the cot in which she was settled, the cool, almost cold air that surrounded her. “I hate remembering what happened back then.”

The rescue certainly hadn’t been all that grand and she couldn’t even remember if it really had been her brother or something else, she still could see flashes of something brighter, golden to hers and her brother’s silver. It couldn’t have been the woman, could it have? She’d been too drained of most of her energy to focus on the rescue; she hadn’t even been able to walk herself out of the whole thing when it was over.

One moment there was chaos, the next she was on the ground, a blanket over her person and a fire crackling a few feet away. Her wrists had been bare and it had been the only sensation that had mattered.

Even now, the scars were visible, her wrist had been mangled by the shackles, a pair made in a material made to keep her power dormant and every time it tried to reach out at all, come out of the shell, the shackle would just heat up to the point where she could smell her own skin burning. The scars ran deep, she covered them most of the time, not even to not have to deal with the gaze of others but because she couldn’t stand the sight of them, herself.

“If it had been before I could control any and all of it…” she laughs, the sound low and bitter as she pulls her knees to her chest, face in her hands, struggling to keep the tears at bay. She was tired of feeling weak but no amount of trying to act like she was fine was doing her any good at this point, there was no escaping her recurring nightmare and the scars along her wrists were too deep to ever heal completely and disappear. She was surprised that she could still use her hands at all; it had taken a long time before she could even just hold a cup, after all.

For a moment longer, she kept her hands pressed to her face, feeling their trembling weakness. Shuddering, she lowered herself back down, curling somewhat on her side, her lashes falling, exhaustion still present but her fear of the nightmare kept it all at bay. All she wanted was sleep.