Author Notes: Another one I did for a contest on Greatest Journal. This one is really bad, and I know it's short and all that, which is why I'm telling you all it's for a drabble contest. The writings aren't allowed to be more than 600 words. xx

Just a Dream

The world was drowning in darkness, monsters reaching up out of the ground to snatch and pull at human's legs; to drag them down into the icy depths of frigid water; to hurl them into the fiery pits of Hell to power their masters. Everything was ending, and no cities were left unburned; no animal or person left unmauled.

Sanji was sitting inside the relative safety of a wooden house, staring out into the pitch black day. The sun never rose anymore, seeming content to wallow in its misery behind a curtain of thick, impenetrable clouds. Night and day were one, and the only way time was used was to tell when a boy or girl was ready for the slaughter.

While the demons did like to kill and gore everything, their lords were smart enough to realize that they needed to keep some alive so that there could continue to be a population to feed their power. So each city was allowed five families, but those families had to make many children and give up to the demons all that were sharable when they reached a certain age. Sanji had reached his the day before.

The young blond man wasn't exactly looking forward to the next couple of days, even if he didn't know when they would be occurring. All he knew was that soon the demons would come for him, and that when they did, his family would gladly hand him over.

Not that he would blame them, but he could think of many better ways to die than by the claws and teeth of an ogre.

"Mother, I'm off," he said, standing up and turning to face the doorway. It was now or never. If he didn't run, he'd be good as dead. He at least had to try.

"Please don't come back." It was all he needed. Waving even though he knew his mother couldn't see him, he quickly slid out the door, closing it tightly behind him as he hurried off into the night.

But he really had to congratulate himself. The other times he'd tried to leave, he hadn't been able to work up the will to even open the front door; let alone force himself out and close it behind him. Of course, he also had to hit himself in the head, as he had chosen to leave on a night when it was storming, meaning there were even more places for demons to grab at him than usual.

Hearing a low growl, Sanji began running, mud splashing everywhere with each step that he took. He had to get away, had to get away . . . But all his efforts soon came to nothing as he felt a clawed hand wrap around his ankle, causing him to stumble and fall face-first into mud. He began screaming, clawing at the slick ground that crumbled beneath his hands as he felt the monster dragging him down, down –

The cook sat up straight, his blankets pooling down around his waist. Running a shaking hand through his sweat-drenched blond hair, he stood a staggering breath, trying to shake away the demons he'd seen in his dreams.

"Sanji. . . whassa matta?" Zoro asked sleepily from beside him, the swordsman's eyes showing concern.

"Nuthin', it was just a bad dream."