Chapter Text
Hakyeon unconsciously rolled around in his sleep, the movements of his sweat-covered body fluid and graceful even as his nightmare continued to hold him in its clutches and torment him.
Hakyeon had just barely managed to escape the monster on his heels...but the very moment he'd thought he'd finally gotten away, he could once again feel its evil presence closing in on him...could sense the ominous darkness of the all-consuming shadow as it threatened to finally catch up and devour him.
The sandy ground beneath his feet was flung high into the air as his frantic footsteps sped across the dry, dunelike surface. Hakyeon blinked, fine dust hitting his eyes and making them water after a strong gust of wind flung a substantial amount of dry dirt right at him. Unable to see a single thing as he continued to run across the uneven ground, Hakyeon finally lost his footing and hit the ground hard.
Disregarding the throbbing pain in his grazed hands and knees, Hakyeon immediately tried to pick himself back up and continue running. But his shaky knees couldn't hold his weight, his body crumbling to the ground once again just as the dark shadow of the evil creature on his trail slowly started to steal across his body.
Hakyeon squeezed his eyes shut, the loud drumming in his ears growing along with the rate of his frantically beating heart. But even with his eyes tightly shut, Hakyeon could sense the beast steadily coming nearer...and could feel its icy cold touch starting to sweep over him...
Just before it could reach his heart, Hakyeon's hands flew to his face in shock and pain as an almost scorching heat suddenly enveloped him, several patches of skin on both sides of his eyes starting to burn so hot it felt as if he were being branded.
And before Hakyeon even had a chance to understand what was going on...or why the icy cold shadow had suddenly started to retreat...the most beautiful hand he'd ever seen, a pale hand with delicate, long fingers, came into his line of sight as the person it belonged to - whose face and body remained in darkness - held it out to him in a gesture of help...
Hakyeon's eyes shot wide open as the pain he'd felt in his sleep transcended the realm of dreams, following him back into consciousness with a burning sensation so intense that he felt his head might actually split in two. After falling off the bed and scraping his hands and knees on the floor of his room in his haste to get to the mirror in his adjoining bathroom, Hakyeon managed to take a look at his reflection just as the last traces of something brightly glowing disappeared from the skin beside his eyes.
The split second that he'd managed to catch a glimpse of whatever had caused the pain, hadn't really been enough to make out what it could have been. And by the time several minutes had passed and the pain had completely vanished, Hakyeon was sure he must have imagined the brightly glowing markings he thought he'd seen next to his eyes or the creepy looking irises that had shone brightly yellow for a split second before returning to their natural color as soon as he'd blinked.
Shaking so badly that he had to hold himself upright by gripping the sink in front of him as firmly as he could - and feeling as though he might have to throw up at any second - Hakyeon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down.
Just a dream, he tried to convince himself by repeating the words over and over again in his mind, It was just a dream...no, a nightmare,...that's all it was. It means nothing.
But as much as he repeated the words to himself, the comfort they should have brought eluded him. Instead, the mantra was overshadowed by an overwhelming, ominous feeling...the feeling that what he'd dreamt of had been real - even if it hadn't happened yet.
Haha, what's wrong with you...you've gone crazy, Hakyeon laughed at himself, the sound coming out of his mouth too hysterical for his own liking. And even though he knew he was losing it, there was simply nothing he could do about it.
Looking straight at his mirror image, as though he thought he could fight the part of him that was starting to go crazy if he confronted his own reflection long enough, Hakyeon locked eyes with himself for the second time after having had the strange nightmare. But instead of seeing the eyes he was used to...or even the mysteriously altered, brightly glowing yellow irises he thought he'd seen before...the only thing looking back at him were eyes he suddenly recognized as not being his own.
Instead of seeing the familiar shape he was used to, the pair of eyes he stood staring at in utter disbelief looked more like those of a cat, the intensity with which they locked onto his own making him feel as though he was being regarded as prey. And although he could somehow sense that the person this intense stare belonged to meant him no real harm, the whole situation and the surreality of the nightmare he'd had not too long ago, made Hakyeon finally lose his consciousness and crumble to the cold floor of his bathroom...