Fan Fiction ❯ Illusia ❯ Illusia - Her Story 8 ( Chapter 8 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Serenitychan13 
Chapter 8: Dream of Love
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2004 | Updated On: 01.24.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 162 | Status: Completed
Chapter 8: Dream of Love
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2004 | Updated On: 01.24.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 162 | Status: Completed
Chapter 8
That night my sleep was tormented by nightmares.
In my dream I was in the form of a young girl running through the darkest part of the forest. The sickening smell of death pervaded all but I forced myself to ignore the feeling that I was about to retch. I knew I just had to reach him.
I was running toward a young man’s desperate calls for help.
Eventually, I saw a possibly humanoid figure in the distance, staggering like a rabid animal. But on closer inspection, I found that the form was indeed human so I continued my approach.
As I got closer, the young man’s calls grew louder, more desperate and more pleading in nature.
I pushed a snow-covered branch aside and found a rather good-looking young man staggering toward me, clutching his shoulder. It was so cold, I could see his breath coming out between his clenched teeth in low but audible hissing pants. His head was bowed so his brown hair fell into his face, covering his eyes. It was horribly obvious that he was in extreme pain.
I approached him cautiously…
“Who are you?” My voice was soft and uncertain. “What happened to you?”
The young man looked at me through his bangs and tried to speak, but only gasped in pain. His deep brown eyes widened, giving him a frighteningly haunted appearance. In spite of the bitter cold, snow barely coating the ground, his brown bangs were stringy and plastered to his forehead with sweat.
He took a faltering step toward me and fell to the ground on his side. His hand clutched convulsively at his shoulder. Blood from a deep, open gash in his shoulder stained several feet of snow a disturbing dark red. My heart gave a painful, horrified jerk. His eyes fluttered a bit, as though he was either delirious or only just semi-conscious. After a while, they closed, though he was still breathing, albeit very harshly.
“Please… You can talk to me… Tell me what happened?”
I knew that whatever had wounded him may very well have pierced his heart, even if only slightly. However, he seemed to be fading fast, so it had to have been much more than that. There were open, bleeding cuts and dark purple and blue bruises all over him. Some were so serious, they had turned a sickening dark green. They showed signs of shattered blood vessels.
His shirt was torn open across the chest, revealing a slash mark that looked deep enough to be fatal, plus several blue-black bruises at least the size of a man’s hand, most likely bigger. He looked like he had been through a war. Now, he was still fighting, only this time the stakes were his life. I wondered how long he had been suffering like this.
I didn’t have any idea why, but I felt so drawn to this young man and my heart was being ripped to shreds at the sight of him being in so much pain. He writhed slightly and gave a low groan of agony. I knelt beside him, brushing his damp bangs from his eyes with one hand, cradling his head with the other.
I tried to tell him that everything would be alright, that I would stay with him, but I couldn’t get the words out.
With each breath and every attempt he made to speak, he sounded as if he were choking. After staring at the look on his face and hearing the soft gurgling sounds coming from his throat, I realized with a horrible jolt that he was choking on his own blood. I felt extremely sick at first, but the churning in my stomach was quickly overridden with a painful feeling of sorrow.
Using part of my torn silver skirt, I wiped both the fresh blood and the dried blood from his lips.
He opened his eyes slightly.
“Princess… Help me… I can’t hold on much longer…”
When he spoke, his voice was revealed to be very low and deep, although just a little bit rasping from the blood in his throat. I was fairly surprised that he could speak at all, considering his many injuries.
His chest shuddered as it rose and fell with his breath. Blood streamed from the open slash mark displayed by the tear in his shirt. It looked as if he were having a good bit of trouble breathing. His whole body shook violently as he gave a harsh cough. A dark red trickle ran from the corner of his mouth. He blinked at me a few times, then let his haunted brown eyes fall half-closed.
My own eyes were filling with tears…
“But what can I do?”
I didn’t want him to die…
He turned on his back and gasped in agony once again.
I pulled him gently into my lap, continuing to stroke his bangs and trying to assure him that he was safe. He allowed a very soft moan to escape his lips, closing his eyes completely.
It seemed as though he was relaxing a little, but his breathing was still not eased and blood was flowing faster from both sides of his mouth now.
He opened his eyes very slowly and looked up at me. He had the saddest eyes I had ever seen.
“Illusia… I’m sorry…”
His deep voice was so choked up, it made me cry out to him to hold on. My heart was being wrenched apart as I watched him die and was powerless to stop it. He stiffened a little in my arms as he felt the life force slowly leaving his body. I held his hand tightly. It had the feeling of a hand that obviously had once been pleasantly warm but was now cooling in readiness to die.
There were tears in his eyes as he looked up at me, silently begging me to forgive him for whatever it was he believed he had done.
“You’ve done nothing wrong…”
I dropped his hand and wrapped my arms around him as he reached up to touch my face. His hand was now as cold as the snow on the ground. The chill frightened me. His hand only stayed on my cheek for a few short seconds before it fell limply onto his chest. He struggled to try and speak again.
His voice sounded choked and husky and more tears threatened to spill from his sad brown eyes.
“Always… so forgiving… Illusia… My dear Princess…”
A single crystalline tear fell from his eye and streamed down his dirt-, sweat- and blood-streaked cheek. Tears were flooding in my eyes as well. Still, he quickly blinked the rest of his tears away and managed a smile, shifting to prop himself up on one arm so that he was a good bit taller than me.
He was still smiling a little as he leaned his forehead gently against mine.
His smile could have made me melt.
“Now now, Princess… No tears… I want to remember you smiling…”
I was just about as choked up as he was, but I know I was choked with tears instead of blood.
Somehow I think blood was probably less painful.
“I can’t smile…”
I felt like the world was ending as I could feel my heart breaking into a thousand painful pieces.
Tears were streaming down my face.
“You will,” he whispered as a grin flashed across his face, lighting up his handsome features for a split second. “I promise you…”
He pulled away from me a little and looked away. I could have sworn I could distinguish a slight flush rising adorably in his face.
As he summoned the last of his strength to raise his hand from his chest to my cheek, smearing it with blood, I was still unable to return his smile. His hand felt so much warmer than it had before, though mostly because it was covered in fresh blood from the wound across his chest. Still, his touch was so tender. Though before I had been close to freezing because my dress was torn and soaked through with melted snow and his blood, I was so warm now.
Finally, I smiled back at him. It was as if he could feel my smile.
Slowly, he turned his face to me and brought my face up until it was just barely under a quarter inch away from his.
His deep brown eyes were shining as they closed while his lips brushed gently against mine. As his tongue parted my lips with a gentle, feather-light caress, it barely registered with me that this was my very first kiss. All these new feelings overwhelmed me, overpowering my senses and holding them in an exquisite trap. Tenderly, he taught my tongue to dance with his and soon I had lost myself in the comfort of his arms, which had somehow found their way around me. I could taste the blood in his mouth and a single tear ran down my cheek, still smeared with blood from his hand.
Somehow, this felt so wonderfully real and so right. It was as if I had known and loved this young man all my life.
All too soon, his strength failed him and he broke his last kiss slowly. We rested comfortably in each other’s arms for a long while. His deep brown eyes fluttered open again, watching the smile on my face. It must have been radiant, considering the way he was smiling back, even though my face must have been streaked with blood from his hand and from the cuts on his face.
He uttered his last words sounding as if he were already in heaven.
“You’re so beautiful, Illusia… I just… can’t… stay awake anymore… Please don’t ever forget… that… always and forever… I love you…”
I brought him up into a fierce hug as he exhaled for the last time and closed his eyes…
Blood continued to stream down his face, but there was still the trace of a faint smile on his lips.
I didn’t even know this young man’s name or ANYTHING about him, yet I begged him not to leave me… I loved him.
“Please… Don’t die… I don’t want you to leave… I love you too…”
I shook him slightly but the only response I received was his head lolling back, lifeless, and blood dripping off his cheek where it had worked its way down from his now-blue-tinged, still-faintly-smiling lips.
I let him back down and collapsed onto his chest, trying vainly to pick up any trace of a heartbeat. When I found none, I became hysterical, crying myself into silence.
That night my sleep was tormented by nightmares.
In my dream I was in the form of a young girl running through the darkest part of the forest. The sickening smell of death pervaded all but I forced myself to ignore the feeling that I was about to retch. I knew I just had to reach him.
I was running toward a young man’s desperate calls for help.
Eventually, I saw a possibly humanoid figure in the distance, staggering like a rabid animal. But on closer inspection, I found that the form was indeed human so I continued my approach.
As I got closer, the young man’s calls grew louder, more desperate and more pleading in nature.
I pushed a snow-covered branch aside and found a rather good-looking young man staggering toward me, clutching his shoulder. It was so cold, I could see his breath coming out between his clenched teeth in low but audible hissing pants. His head was bowed so his brown hair fell into his face, covering his eyes. It was horribly obvious that he was in extreme pain.
I approached him cautiously…
“Who are you?” My voice was soft and uncertain. “What happened to you?”
The young man looked at me through his bangs and tried to speak, but only gasped in pain. His deep brown eyes widened, giving him a frighteningly haunted appearance. In spite of the bitter cold, snow barely coating the ground, his brown bangs were stringy and plastered to his forehead with sweat.
He took a faltering step toward me and fell to the ground on his side. His hand clutched convulsively at his shoulder. Blood from a deep, open gash in his shoulder stained several feet of snow a disturbing dark red. My heart gave a painful, horrified jerk. His eyes fluttered a bit, as though he was either delirious or only just semi-conscious. After a while, they closed, though he was still breathing, albeit very harshly.
“Please… You can talk to me… Tell me what happened?”
I knew that whatever had wounded him may very well have pierced his heart, even if only slightly. However, he seemed to be fading fast, so it had to have been much more than that. There were open, bleeding cuts and dark purple and blue bruises all over him. Some were so serious, they had turned a sickening dark green. They showed signs of shattered blood vessels.
His shirt was torn open across the chest, revealing a slash mark that looked deep enough to be fatal, plus several blue-black bruises at least the size of a man’s hand, most likely bigger. He looked like he had been through a war. Now, he was still fighting, only this time the stakes were his life. I wondered how long he had been suffering like this.
I didn’t have any idea why, but I felt so drawn to this young man and my heart was being ripped to shreds at the sight of him being in so much pain. He writhed slightly and gave a low groan of agony. I knelt beside him, brushing his damp bangs from his eyes with one hand, cradling his head with the other.
I tried to tell him that everything would be alright, that I would stay with him, but I couldn’t get the words out.
With each breath and every attempt he made to speak, he sounded as if he were choking. After staring at the look on his face and hearing the soft gurgling sounds coming from his throat, I realized with a horrible jolt that he was choking on his own blood. I felt extremely sick at first, but the churning in my stomach was quickly overridden with a painful feeling of sorrow.
Using part of my torn silver skirt, I wiped both the fresh blood and the dried blood from his lips.
He opened his eyes slightly.
“Princess… Help me… I can’t hold on much longer…”
When he spoke, his voice was revealed to be very low and deep, although just a little bit rasping from the blood in his throat. I was fairly surprised that he could speak at all, considering his many injuries.
His chest shuddered as it rose and fell with his breath. Blood streamed from the open slash mark displayed by the tear in his shirt. It looked as if he were having a good bit of trouble breathing. His whole body shook violently as he gave a harsh cough. A dark red trickle ran from the corner of his mouth. He blinked at me a few times, then let his haunted brown eyes fall half-closed.
My own eyes were filling with tears…
“But what can I do?”
I didn’t want him to die…
He turned on his back and gasped in agony once again.
I pulled him gently into my lap, continuing to stroke his bangs and trying to assure him that he was safe. He allowed a very soft moan to escape his lips, closing his eyes completely.
It seemed as though he was relaxing a little, but his breathing was still not eased and blood was flowing faster from both sides of his mouth now.
He opened his eyes very slowly and looked up at me. He had the saddest eyes I had ever seen.
“Illusia… I’m sorry…”
His deep voice was so choked up, it made me cry out to him to hold on. My heart was being wrenched apart as I watched him die and was powerless to stop it. He stiffened a little in my arms as he felt the life force slowly leaving his body. I held his hand tightly. It had the feeling of a hand that obviously had once been pleasantly warm but was now cooling in readiness to die.
There were tears in his eyes as he looked up at me, silently begging me to forgive him for whatever it was he believed he had done.
“You’ve done nothing wrong…”
I dropped his hand and wrapped my arms around him as he reached up to touch my face. His hand was now as cold as the snow on the ground. The chill frightened me. His hand only stayed on my cheek for a few short seconds before it fell limply onto his chest. He struggled to try and speak again.
His voice sounded choked and husky and more tears threatened to spill from his sad brown eyes.
“Always… so forgiving… Illusia… My dear Princess…”
A single crystalline tear fell from his eye and streamed down his dirt-, sweat- and blood-streaked cheek. Tears were flooding in my eyes as well. Still, he quickly blinked the rest of his tears away and managed a smile, shifting to prop himself up on one arm so that he was a good bit taller than me.
He was still smiling a little as he leaned his forehead gently against mine.
His smile could have made me melt.
“Now now, Princess… No tears… I want to remember you smiling…”
I was just about as choked up as he was, but I know I was choked with tears instead of blood.
Somehow I think blood was probably less painful.
“I can’t smile…”
I felt like the world was ending as I could feel my heart breaking into a thousand painful pieces.
Tears were streaming down my face.
“You will,” he whispered as a grin flashed across his face, lighting up his handsome features for a split second. “I promise you…”
He pulled away from me a little and looked away. I could have sworn I could distinguish a slight flush rising adorably in his face.
As he summoned the last of his strength to raise his hand from his chest to my cheek, smearing it with blood, I was still unable to return his smile. His hand felt so much warmer than it had before, though mostly because it was covered in fresh blood from the wound across his chest. Still, his touch was so tender. Though before I had been close to freezing because my dress was torn and soaked through with melted snow and his blood, I was so warm now.
Finally, I smiled back at him. It was as if he could feel my smile.
Slowly, he turned his face to me and brought my face up until it was just barely under a quarter inch away from his.
His deep brown eyes were shining as they closed while his lips brushed gently against mine. As his tongue parted my lips with a gentle, feather-light caress, it barely registered with me that this was my very first kiss. All these new feelings overwhelmed me, overpowering my senses and holding them in an exquisite trap. Tenderly, he taught my tongue to dance with his and soon I had lost myself in the comfort of his arms, which had somehow found their way around me. I could taste the blood in his mouth and a single tear ran down my cheek, still smeared with blood from his hand.
Somehow, this felt so wonderfully real and so right. It was as if I had known and loved this young man all my life.
All too soon, his strength failed him and he broke his last kiss slowly. We rested comfortably in each other’s arms for a long while. His deep brown eyes fluttered open again, watching the smile on my face. It must have been radiant, considering the way he was smiling back, even though my face must have been streaked with blood from his hand and from the cuts on his face.
He uttered his last words sounding as if he were already in heaven.
“You’re so beautiful, Illusia… I just… can’t… stay awake anymore… Please don’t ever forget… that… always and forever… I love you…”
I brought him up into a fierce hug as he exhaled for the last time and closed his eyes…
Blood continued to stream down his face, but there was still the trace of a faint smile on his lips.
I didn’t even know this young man’s name or ANYTHING about him, yet I begged him not to leave me… I loved him.
“Please… Don’t die… I don’t want you to leave… I love you too…”
I shook him slightly but the only response I received was his head lolling back, lifeless, and blood dripping off his cheek where it had worked its way down from his now-blue-tinged, still-faintly-smiling lips.
I let him back down and collapsed onto his chest, trying vainly to pick up any trace of a heartbeat. When I found none, I became hysterical, crying myself into silence.