Chase Away The Demons

Walk | Talk | Think

In her dream, her breath came rapidly. Her heart felt like it was jumping in her chest, as if trying its best to leap right out and run ahead of her and away from the danger that lurked somewhere around her. Searching for any visible sign of the demon was useless; in the white of the snow, Lel was nothing more than a phantom, a ghost, capable of hiding anywhere he chose and blending in so well that he was all but invisible when he wished to be. And Callisto knew now of all times he would use that to his advantage in order to get as close to her as he could get without being detected. Her gaze was frantic as she fought to move more quickly through the snow, no longer searching for her children but now searching for an escape. Useless as it might have been, she could not relinquish herself to this fate another time, not even in her dreams. Her grey paws clawed, scrambled, desperately trying to drag herself through the wintry wood, but even for all her efforts she still felt the presence closing in, could sense him drifting closer.

With another sickening twist in her stomach, darkness suddenly closed in around her, blotting out whatever light source had enabled her to see just seconds before. Callisto froze and felt whatever hope she had of escaping plummet away. This was new. Not once, yet, had she been tossed back into the pitch black cavern where her life had begun its downward spiral into nightmares. Until now. And though she looked left and right around her, seeing nothing and no one around her, she could feel him close and knew he would only get closer. The incoherent mumbles she had been making very quietly became audible as she murmured, "No," below her breath, her body still twitching from the fright her mind was putting her through. In a last ditch effort, her dream-self tried to walk through the darkness, but even before Callisto could complete that first step she felt paws on her, drawing her back, and heard his growling chuckle.

Her body lurched as she came to and feeling someone touching her she immediately began to struggle, just as frightened and desperate to get away as she had been in her dreams. Heart hammering, she looked up quickly as she tried to push away, expecting to see the face of her tormenter, the purple eyes that promised her destruction within their malicious depths. But it was not the demonic purple that she saw. Eyes of two different colors - one brilliant, sapphire blue and the other rich, dark gold - stared back at her with concern, from a face that she recognized, and between her surprise and disbelief Callisto stopped struggling. "Jak?" Her voice was little more than a whisper, staring upward into his face incredulously until relief filled her silvery blue eyes and her body began to tremble and shake with the realization she was no longer dreaming. The nightmare was over.