Digimon Fan Fiction / Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Fire Within ❯ Sleepless Nights ( Chapter 1 )

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"Raging Flames! Hope's Arrow!" I yelled into the darkness, blasting shots of scathing fire and blinding light into the night air. My hands were red from the continuous magic summoning and my eyes were blurry with fear. "Where are you Quillfire? Where. . . ? Quillfire I need you!!" Icy cold fear gripped my heart at the silent response. The calming, reassuring presence of Quill was gone. The silence swallowed my remaining hope as I ran deeper and deeper into the forest of darkness, searching and avoiding. Calm down, I told myself. What's wrong with you tonight? You're always cool and collected, and here you are, yelling your head off for a dragon. But I can't stay calm, I thought, I am lost and something I don't want to meet up with is right on my tail. I ran past abandoned buildings, which stared at me with their empty window eyes. Lonely trees howled in the wind, urging me to keep running. The city streets became pitch black and the echoes of my footsteps rang around me.

What I ran from, I didn't know. It was an impending doom, a coming future I never wanted to face. A future filled with fear, sadness, pain, and loneliness. Wrapped in all these horrors the night grew colder, so cold that even with the element of fire, I could not stay warm. I never looked back to see what it looked like - and I never want to.

Suddenly, the pavement gave way to soft sand that threatened to make me fall prey to whatever was behind. The sand hindered me as I plowed through it, trying to find out where I was. The next thing I know, I was knee deep in the sand. I could barely move, never mind running. The blood in my veins froze as I felt Fear itself walk up behind me, whispering, "You cannot run from the mission. You cannot run from the coming truth. You must a--" It stops abruptly as an immense ball of fire rips through the figure, lighting up the night sky as darkness withers up like a dry leaf. I slowly turn around to see what happened and see a figure rising out of the smoke… It slowly comes toward me . . . "Takeru…" it mutters…

I jolted upright, dark blue eyes wide with fear, and a heart pounding at 80 miles per hour. "Oh God", I thought, "What happened?" I closed my eyes for a second, concentrated and got a small fire going in my palm. A warm, safe feeling filled my body as I gazed at the dancing red flare. I looked around and found out I was back in my messy room, with beads of cold sweat on my face. Everything seemed normal and in place. Then, from the shadows under me, a hoarse voice whispered, "Takeru?" I almost fell off of my bed as I tried to keep the fear from my voice. "Who's there?!" I croaked, my eyes darting around, trying to catch a glimpse of someone. "Whoever is there, I warn you, I control the--"

"The element of fire and hope. I know, I know. You say the same thing almost every night." the cross voice mumbled back. "Stop being so paranoid and go back to sleep. Or else I'm gonna kill you tomorrow when, if I can, wake up."

"Oh, its just you Quillfire. Jeez, I thought it was… you know…"

"Yeah, I know. So cut the sympathy story and go back to sleep! Its 3 in the morning!"

"'Kay Quill."

"Andgettoffmytail." he muttered sleepily.

"And burn my mail?!"

"No! Aughh.... here's a nice example of the situation now. Figure 1: TK sitting on Quill's tail. Figure 2: Quill burning the hell outta TK. Get it?"

"Uh… yeah, sorry. G'night."

Good night, yeah right… what a lie, I thought, staring up at the stars through my window. Ever since The Final Receiving, I have been getting the same nightmare, over and over again. The Receiving last year was different from all others. There was a notice sent out, saying that everyone MUST go to the Receiving. When everybody was gathered into the meeting tent, the atmosphere crackled with curiosity and puzzlement. The elements and powers were quickly handed out. The lead Element Giver then stood up and announced,

"This was the last one. There are to be no more Receivings, because even under certified instructors and a well-managed environment, someone, not in this community, had the element fear and used it very unwisely. Usually fear can be blocked and suppressed if it is inside someone. That is, unless the person wants to use the powers of the element. The person, who will go unnamed, made a foolish decision that cost the lives of his whole community. That community was destroyed and over time, it's remains disappeared from the world. What happened and how, we do not know. But we do know, that in order to keep ourselves safe, there will be no more Receivings, partners, or elements. Those who are in their 3rd year of training may keep their powers and partners, but no one else. I thank you all for coming here and I am deeply sorry that this had to happen. I apologize to those who were going to receive their gift. Also, I want to warn you to not exit the community without someone who can protect you. Fear is an element that cannot die with the person, unlike the element nature, which died with its owner 300 years ago and was never found again. Fear simply exits out of the body of the one and searches for another body to occupy. The element of fear was set free. Currently, we have no idea where it is. What we do know is that it must live in either a monster or a human. So, when traveling outside, be aware of monsters that may attack. Kill it immediately or run away as fast as you can. Fear takes time to transfer bodies. Be careful. Again, I am sorry to all those who were expecting their elements. Have a nice day."

There was not a single sound in the tent except for his soft slippers walking off the stage. 10 minutes later, the shock finally hit everyone. Many were worried, while others cried at the loss of their partners. I was very fortunate to have been in my 4th year of training. Quillfire and I walked home, still in a daze and thoroughly confused. I plopped onto my bed, exhausted from what just happened. That very night, my days of endless sleep started.

At first, they start out with me standing in the middle of a dark street, gazing up at the brightly burning stars. Then, the endless running starts. I feel as if something is sneaking up behind, and I run away, calling for Quillfire to help me. Quillfire would then respond, but in a very far away voice. I would then keep running, searching for him. And every night the dream occurs, the thing I fear gets closer and closer while Quillfire's voice goes farther and farther away. Today, the thing spoke to me for the first time. What was it again? Oh yeah. Something about me not being able to run away from some mission. What mission? Who was that thing? Where did that huge fireball come from? What is appearing from the shadows? Millions of questions plague my mind as I pray for a dreamless sleep.