He floated endlessly in the depths of his unconscious mind, still and stiff. Ashton tried to look around him, but he no longer had the gift of sight. As far as he knew he laid in the abyss of death, surprisingly it wasn’t as cold as he thought it would be. The peculiar warmth surrounded him, almost inviting him to wallow in it,the longer he relished in the experience the more he felt his consciousness drift off. The hollow warmth spread across his body , he felt a soft, but firm pressure, wrap around his arms and legs. Slowly making its way towards the center of his torso the feeling nearly consumed him. The encroaching nothingness was so comfortable, whispering to him, compelling him to be nothing. As moments passed Ashton could feel the darkness stripping him of his individuality. Memories, fears, dreams, they were all scanned and processed, leaking out of him into the black surrounding him. Fading away slowly, his mind became complacent, devoid of fear, devoid of anything. He pondered if this was the afterlife, had he met his end, this felt damn close.

Ashton had know idea of the time that passed since he had last seen light, his body limp and unresponsive lay suspended within the dark. Once he felt the gentle , cautious touch of an unknown hand pressed into the small of his back. The sensation rippled across his body, focusing his attention on the point of contact, the cogs began to turn in his brain. The feeling spread deep beneath his shoulder blades, wrapping around his spine. His toes tingled with restless excitement as it sparked up his leg, jumping himself back to life. Slowly the lungs pulled smooth cool sips of air from the expanse, he was still alive. While he was excited, the demoralizing awareness that he still couldn’t move his body The foreign energy pulsed through his veins, as they flowed through him. The light that pierced through his dark skin began to illuminate the abyss around him. From faint to bright, the glow grew  filling the void with light. Every shadow was expunged shrinking back like a scared prey meeting its untimely end. Shining like you had just stepped outside of the house for the first time that day, Ashton hid his eyes from it shutting them tightly. He found himself wrapped in its beauty as he felt control return to his limbs, but like the dark, the light’s brilliance slowly subsided. He let out a deep worried sigh as he let peeked open each eyelid one by one. To his surprise, once he opened them, what lay waiting before him was the bluest sky he had ever seen. Freedom was fully within his movement as he spun his head around. Nobody was around, just him, Ashton, sitting on what he could only guess was the ground. A clear reflective surface sat underneath his crossed legs, rippling for each movement he made. It looked smooth as liquid, but it would not break to let it sink down below. White wispy clouds stained the crystal blue sky . The calmness of the scenery was slashed with the strips of white , despite how the dream started, it was effective. The surface shifted slightly, knocking him off balance, he clicked his teeth in annoyance displeased at the attempt to knock him over. He mustered the balance to hoist himself up through the onslaught of ebb and flow. 

Trying to take a nervous first step on the clear ground, he quickly realized that his feet were not wet. Standing now gave him the vantage point to see his whole reflection as it distorted and bended with each wave that passed. Rose petals fall gingerly across the scape littering the clear mirror, with faint speckles of crimson. Gracefully they danced moving in rhythm with the flow of Ashtons heartbeat. The pitter patter of his life, let them fall encircling him, he couldn’t resist the mesmerizing display. He didn’t question it , he accepted it. The petals that swayed past his skin left him feeling like he had been kissed by silk draping over him. It was pure bliss.

Harsh bumps poked themselves out of the back of his neck, restlessly spreading down his back and across his arms.  The tickling of something sinister walked its way down his spine, the serenity and peace of the moment was lost to him, swept away by the tide of anxiousness. Ashton swatted at the petals catching some of the last ones within his hands, desperately clutching it tightly as he began to sweat. Cold to the touch, the feeling of life returned to his hands, as each moment passed the creaminess of the red rose slowly crumbled away. Just as quickly as it was given to him , the comfort he found within it betrayed him. Sickly, he felt, as his arm began to fade in feeling, settling dormant deeply rooted. Ashton’s breathing began to shallow as his heart skipped a beat each time, life left his finger tips. Dark skin, paled running up his arm,  through his heart, into his mind. Dread was like a thick haze, choking the very drive out of him. He dropped to his knees as the ripples splashed aggressively, causing waves to ripple and pulsate as each wave layered over the sky. The clouds followed suit as they swirled, darkening with each movement. As darkness slowly encroached its way into the dreamscape, blue skies turned into a despicable purple. What was left of the roses, formed an avoidant circle around him, slowly pacing as if they had turned into vultures waiting for him to give up. Ashton’s strength oozed out of him minute by minute , releasing his grip. Black decrepit carcass of the petal was all that remained, the aroma of death filled his nose, as it fell within the water. As it mixed, the place where it entered began to bubble, cackling at him.

Faint whispers find their way to him, mocking him, piercing his mind full with holes of uncertainty. The urges, he tried to fight them, clutching his right arm tightly, he braced himself resisting the call. The voices were muffled, but they spoke in unison, what they called for, Screamed for he had no clue. Confusing as it was, what he was sure was he didnt want anything to do with that. How could he? A creepy eternal darkness was calling out to him from God knows where, and he couldn’t even get his arm to act right. It intended to take him voluntarily or forcefully, and there was a lot of intent. Right in front of his very eyes the beautiful area he had once laid eyes on in beauty had become a personal version of hell. Water stained with ink black sludge that only seemed to grow in size underneath, the white clouds all but gone. Replaced with menacing stand- ins that loomed over him, but the worst was the underlying feeling of fear that seemed to always tickle its way back to him. 

Suddenly, he felt a brisk tugging at his limp arm, snapping his attention back. Tiny threads of the mass spit out from underneath the surface latching onto his arm. Fiendishly more and more consumed his hand, submerging it. He was full on panicking now, Ashton tried and tried to pry his arm from the shackles of the unknown but each time he pulled, it pulled back stronger. As hands of shadows clamored for a taste of him, his face was pressed up against the water, he had been pulled up to his shoulder. Helpless he was, each hand dug into his arm with deep purpose. The tiny needle like pricks kept biting like a frenzy of piranhas during feeding time at the zoo. Each thought that passed through his head was how fucked he was, as the paint intensified he cried out, but no sound rang out across the dreamscape. Ashton was silenced, but bouncing back from the pain. His hand was suspended in uncertainty, the pressure was unreal. It took pulling away from him, but finally he managed to free his arm, over exerting himself in the process falling back. The gashes in it were deep and red, but no blood leaked out. Permanent crimson reminders to the onslaught he had just received. Ashton finally relaxed his shoulders pushing out an exasperated sigh, leaning away from the gaping hole. Staring at it. As the opening slowly closed a pale arm burst through the surface. It was limp, dangling, and cracked as it spun around un-naturally, like a doll being stuffed up. Each finger cracked and expanded as the filling made its way menacingly up to the point of each end. Once the main job was fulfilled, the arm succumbed to gravity falling on the surface. The murky water condensed around it returning life to the area, thickening. 5 more  pale fingertips pushed apart the jelly-like substance, giving birth to a being. It floated in the sky right above the surface, rouge droplets separated from the pack slowly orbiting it. It twisted itself into a ball of limbs, cracking and snapping at  every joint, Ashton winced, the display subsided into the fetal position.

Its arms thin and needle like, which flowed into the boney fingers that were balled up. Its legs were thick at the thigh then slowly tapered off into its feet funneling up into its body. As long and slender as it was Ashton was mesmerized by the seemingly daintiness of the creature. The vibrations of his blood flow shook his vision, he felt powerless forever at the mercy of the creatures that floated right in front of him. Was it too much to ask for a normal night, he wished. As the piercing figure lay as obstruction to the peaceful aura, cold sweat dripping from his brow he gently got up.

It’s eyes sprang open…

Pitch black sclera, with a scarlet iris, and white pupils. Magnificent yet terrorizing in this moment, Ashton’s heart skipped a beat as the beast slowly but surely pulled itself out of the fetal position. Never breaking the life or death blinking contest with him, Ashton didn’t want to blink, he didn’t want it to leave his sight, not even for a second. By the time he realized, it had fixated its body to stand exactly like him the creature had closed the distance. Not fast, not roughly, but gently softly, quietly. Run, run now, was his first thought his legs wouldn’t listen to him anymore, he was stuck as this thing got closer and closer examining him. Invading his personal space. Despite the cold glare he was getting, the monster was devoid of the rest of a face. It had assumed full height to meet  Ashton eye to eye the stare down ensued. The pupils dilated laser focused, quickly pacing back and forth. Right before his very eyes the beings face gained definition over time, dimples, skin, teeth, nose, ear. Its limbs outstretched as it began to draw itself from nothing tissue, and muscles grew on each spindly limb. Toned and defined, the face too brought itself to its completion. Every second that went by, every wrinkle dot, blemish, became all the more familiar than Ashton would have liked. The embodiment of creepy set deep within his spine this pale thing was recreating him. He winced as his heart began to speed  up faster than he could handle, struggling to take a clear breath he scrambled the pace of his breathing. A bubbling pressure welled up in his stomach, he had watched himself be reborn from nothing. But, yet it was something completely different, something malicious in nature. Salty sweat dripped into his causing him to blink, his vision fading to black for a split second and as he reluctantly peered them open. He was me with the toothless grin, as the other Ashton twisted its neck craning towards the side like a confused dog. Reaching out for him, arm jittering and twitching, Ashton tried to release his fear out of his mouth. No sound came. No one came. The Void once again enveloped him.  

Small bits of darkness invaded his mind as he sank further away, The creature stared at him before the final piece of its puzzle was complete. Slowly, it spread its mouth into the widest grin, reeking of terrible. Waving goodbye….

( I know its been a while, but I think its now more important than ever to continue this story. As for future plans, I’ll be making for this story as well gradually to better illustrate how I envision the characters to look. Stay tuned for that !)