chapter 12: Waking Nightmare

IM BAAAAAACK! More dark n' edgy stuff happens now! If you liked chapter six, you'll love this!

Cold.

It was the first thing that registered in Touma's mind. The boy shivered and instinctively brought his arms around him in an effort to fight off the lack of heat that enveloped him. He opened his eyes and took a breath, the exhale visible in the frigid air.

The boy looked around at his surroundings, trying to work out where he was. The sky was grey with clouds, casting the world around him in a soft shadow. The air was filled with snow, the ground covered in a light blanket of it.

At another glance, Touma realized that the snow wasn't actually falling; they were suspended in space and time. Everywhere, in the air as far as the eye could see, the stationary flakes were just floating here.

With a feeling of apprehension settling in his gut, Touma ventured out of the alleyway he had found himself in.

The street we stepped out onto was desolate, devoid of any signs of life. Windows all smashed in, the asphalt of the road cracked and in disrepair, street lights broken or missing all together. The buildings surrounding him were destroyed beyond repair, some reduced to nothing more than a simple pile of rubble. In the distance, broken skyscrapers loomed in the distance against the cloudy sky, more than one looking like it was torn in half by the hands of some large monster.

Wherever Touma was, the place was a desolate and lifeless wasteland. Against his better judgement, the boy decided that staying where he was would do him no good. He needed to find a way out of this place, but hadn't the slightest idea how to do that. After some deliberating, Kamijou decided that his best course of action was to climb the top of one of the towers and get a grasp of his surroundings. Noting the general direction of the listless monoliths, he set out into the cold wasteland around him.

Pressing down the damaged streets through the desolate city, Touma looked around. The snowfall, or rather snowstill, mildly obscured his vision, the shadowy areas of the alleys indiscernible from his position in the street. The whole place gave him a worrying feeling, like he was being watched. But as far as he could tell, the city was lifeless. Nothing moved and there was no sound other than his footsteps through the soft snow and his regular breathing. Not even ambient noise like a soft breeze or any insects were there. Everything was silent, dead.

After a while, Touma found his way into what once must have been the commercial area of the city. Just ahead behind a stack of rubble, he could see the street open into what appeared to be a plaza of some sort. Rounding the debris pile, the boy looked out into the opening.

What lay before him seemed like it might once have been a major intersection between roads lined with storefronts along its sides, but what he saw was the remains of a battlefield. Massive craters littered the area, and scorch marks practically blanketed the scene. It was like two people had a duel here using every explosive and incendiary device they could get their hands on. Panning the area, something just to his right that stood out from all the grey and black caught Touma's eye.

It was a green piece of material partially obscured by the rubble dotted across the scene. Not quite fluorescent, but still more vibrant than the rest of the area.

As he made his way towards the green, he could see that the material was fabric, probably a clothing of some sort. Touma moved closer still, as this was probably the first proof that there might be people around. When he was about ten yards away, he broke into a panicked run.

There were white flowers imprinted in the green.

As Touma rounded the bend, the body of Motoharu Tsuchimikado came into full view. Or rather what was left of it.

The young spy's upper torso was mostly intact and lying face down on the ground, but what was supposed to be below the waistline looked like it had been torn off by some animal. A good chunk was missing from the abdomen, and what should have been his left shoulder was just a pile of mush. Touma, someone who had his own arms dismembered somewhat routinely over the past two years, resisted the urge to vomit. He lost that internal fight when he looked to the back of his friend's head, which despite the abundance blond hair, had clearly been crushed inwards from behind.

Touma turned around and dry heaved over a pile of rubble, his stomach trying to regurgitate its nonexistent contents. Anything that did come up was pure digestive juice and spit. A solid three minutes passed as the boy gagged and coughed vehemently in shock and disgust.

Breathing heavily, Kamijou collected his nerves as the bitter taste of bile settled in his mouth. Steeling himself, he turned around to face the mutilated corpse behind him again.

The body seemed to be old, the blood underneath having apparently dried up. Touma bit his lip and, after casting one last forlorn look at his dead friend, he surveyed the square once again. He immediately wished that he hadn't

Bodies littered across the opening that he hadn't seen before were scattered everywhere. A very deep sense of dread washed over him as he took the horrific view in. He made his way towards the center of the former battlefield, and with every step he took he recognized more and more people among the bodies.

Yomikawa sensei, dead amidst other Anit-skill personel. Shirai, leaning against a wall missing half her upper torso. Aogami, lacking and arm and a leg as well as half his face. Sogita the number 7, a gaping hole in his stomach. The list grew longer and longer every time he turned his head.

Dread, fear, anxiety, and despair swirled in a mind and stomach wrenching cocktail through his body. He stumbled forward in a daze and tripped over something. Touma looked down at what had toppled him over, and his mind almost completely lost it.

It was Mikoto.

She was half buried under a pile of rebar and concrete most likely thrown from a nearby building. Touma crawled over on all fours and frantically tried to remove her body from the rubble. She was mostly intact, save a few scrapes, but she was still very much dead. His vision blurring, Touma cradled her head in his lap. As the tears came falling down, the world around him began to change.

The cold changed into a smothering heat. The sky went from a dull grey to a disgusting shade of red. The snow that had been hanging in the air became ashes and began to fall. Touma's nostrils were filled with the smell of smoke and blood.

His bewilderment left him barely any room to process what was going on when he was startled by something grabbing his hand. He looked down to see that Mikoto, who had been dead on his lap not ten seconds earlier, was gripping his wrist.

"Go..." her voice was panicked and raspy. "he's coming..."

Before he could even reply, Touma was grabbed by the neck and hoisted off the ground.

Mikoto screamed.

Gasping for air as his windpipe was crushed, Touma was passed from one hand to another as he was turned around to face his assailant. The sight that met his eyes was baffling. The person at the other end of the hand choking him...

was himself.

The twisted reflection he saw smiled and leaned in.

"Don't worry," it wispered into his ear. "I'll come for it soon enough."

Touma's evil twin pulled back, grinning. Touma felt the one-handed grip around his neck tighten, fully closing off his airway. As the grip continued to tighten, Touma began to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. He could barely see by this point and was feebly trying to claw the hand around his neck off. A few more agonizing seconds and he stopped, his arms limp at his side, hands twitching.

The last thing he heard before everything blacked out was Mikoto's continued screaming and the sound of his own neck crunching.

Touma bolted upright in his bed screaming bloody murder. A startled Mikoto jolted awake beside him. leaning in from the chair she had been sleeping in, she grabbed his shoulder and managed to get him to quiet down.

Touma panted, feeling the adrenaline coursing through him like liquid fire. He was drenched in cold sweat and in a very bad state of panic. His heart was racing a million mile and hour and it felt like it had just finished a dozen or so marathons.

Concerned, Mikoto moved from the chair to sit next to the distraught boy on his bed.

"Hey, you ok?"

Touma swallowed and slowly nodded. Mikoto, in spite of her usual demeanor towards him, enveloped him in a hug.

0-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o Ten minutes later o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o

Touma ran his finger through his wet hair. As he stood in the shower with the hot water running, he could hear a nervous Mikoto just outside the door pacing about.

The boy splashed his face with water and focused.

What the fucking hell was that dream I had?

Well... This was LOOOOOOONG overdue. It's been like what, nine months? Honestly, FML. College has been a bitch and I wrote little bits here and there over the course the school year. Didn't help when my laptop kept crashing. Finally finished it off during spring break when i came back home, but honestly? It's been a pain not being able to write. I'm sorry that this wasn't out sooner, plz forgive meh -_-; I would say that hopefully ch13 comes out soon, but knowing my luck with computers and school that's kinda unlikely. But either way, I still plan to finish this fic.

As always, Please leave a very much appreciated comment and PM me if you have any ideas or questions.

-ShadowShuriken