Catastrophe in A Distant Dream

A hurricane of fire. Tall as the mountain, two fiery dots in its center. The heat could melt any steel, much less human skin. The sky was dark, except when the lightning blazed and thunders struck mercilessly. The earth shook, cracked, and crumbled to dust.

Heon ran like a deer hunted by a lion. His breath was short like a thorn was in his stomach. His big, round eyes widened even further as the brown irises mirrored the terrifying thing in front of him.

His face reddened, much like the steamed lobster he got for his eighteenth birthday last summer. It was a gift from his friends. They ate it together after a day of playing on the beach.

Now, his red face was covered in dirt. His short hair was more black rather than its natural white. His hands flayed uselessly while his feet moved with no grace. Only a matter of seconds later, he stumbled and fell to the ruins.

"Heon!"

He turned his head and looked at the figure calling him loudly. The figure in the yellow cloak with luminous, blood-red eyes conjured the fire tornado with a flick of his hand. Gyrating like a storm in the middle of the sea, towering to reach the sky.

The yellow cloak was also guarded by beasts. Thousand and thousand of fanged and sharp-clawed beasts behind him. Their roars deafened him, distorted into a rumble of battle cries. Even with touching the beast's head with his left black hand, Heon wouldn't be able to overpower the yellow cloak's control over them.

"You can't run from me, Heon!" The yellow cloak shouted. He would never stop hounding his prey.

Heon snarled, trying to summon his diminishing courage with great effort as he crouched on the ground. His wide brown eyes glared heatedly at the figure clad in a yellow cloak. Even so, he knew, with every breath of his being, that this was the end of him.

This was the end of Heon's story.

Just like how it was the end of Azran and Sunny's lives. For real, this time. How could it not be real when Azran's body was cut in half, blood dripping quickly until there was no red liquid left inside of her? How could it not be real when Sunny was lying on the ground, hands akimbo as his legs were bent in five places, with torn stomach and broken ribs protruding from his chest?

"Give my artifact to me!" The yellow cloak's growl was loud enough even among the beasts and the hurricane. It was then that Heon realized the yellow cloak had teleported behind him. "Hand it over, and I will set you free!"

Startled, Heon took some steps back, though it wouldn't matter much for a mighty wizard like his current opponent. The yellow cloak would kill Heon on the spot if he wanted to.

"I'll give it to you if you resurrect my friends!" Heon tried to bargain. "They can't die!"

The yellow cloak hummed, giving the impression that he was weighing the choices. They both knew that the menacing grin under his brilliant red eyes was a dead giveaway that he wouldn't even consider it. "That's not the deal," he casually said, "Moreover, I don't know how to resurrect people."

"Then, I won't give it to you," Heon said in finality. As if he didn't care about the fire tornado. Or about the beasts under the yellow cloak's control. Or the telltale of the catastrophe that would end the entire world.

"Why do you want them to live?" The yellow cloak asked, feigning curiosity.

Heon bit his bottom lip, still glaring daggers at the person responsible for his friends' death.

"Oh, I know that look," the yellow cloak sang. "It's the look of a guilty man who blames others for his own sin. Looks funny on you," a chuckle resounded. "You must be a vile human being if you honestly think like that now. Should I give you a mirror?"

Heon's blood boiled, anger cruising through his veins. The fear creeping in him gradually became a rage as he heard the yellow cloak's rambles. He knew where to push Heon's button, where to poke, so it hurt.

"But I can grant you this." The yellow cloak stated. "I can make you forget this entire thing ever happened when I get you back to your realm. You can't feel hurt if you don't even remember the death of your friends, right? Hell, you won't even be sad because I can erase the memory of you even making friends here in the first place. How about that?"

The humorous laugh spilled from the yellow cloak's mouth was the worst sound Heon had heard. He wanted to tear his ears off just so he wouldn't be able to listen to his taunt any longer. "Their life is not a joke for you to laugh at!"

"Oh, oh, oh… did I just strike a nerve?" The yellow cloak cackled again. "You should let them go."

Heon would not.

His opponent continued, tone cheerful unlike before. "That is the order of life. Everything born in this world will die in the end. The privilege to live is served on borrowed time. Death is the ultimate goal. You are such a foolish boy if you can't accept death."

The rage inside Heon kept building. His black left hand balled into a fist, shaking. The power that buzzed beneath his skin and at the tip of his fingertips was whispering his name. Urging him to unleash his fury, even when they all know that Heon was a mere pebble compared to this yellow cloak's might.

It would be useless.

"Think about it, Heon," the yellow cloak continued, words dripping with honey. "Just give me my artifact and you'll be back to your own realm, your own world where you can be a foolish young boy without this hurt and sorrow. You will never know pain."

That was the end of it.

"Or… I can just kill you, like I did them?"

Heon snapped upon hearing that careless statement. He stood up as power surged in his entire being. From the center of his chest, it traveled in a haze to the palm of his left black hand. His wide, round eyes flashed white.

"O, the creature who taught us how to live. Creator of sacred songs, verses echoed in the dark. One living under water, King of the Ocean," Heon chanted, words flowing effortlessly without knowing the origin, fueled by his desire to tame the strongest beast and kill the person responsible for his friend's death. "Seize!"

The earth rumbled, and he felt the creature unraveling itself from its previous motionless state. Heon felt his energy rapidly drained, leaving him with a short, quick intake of air as his gaze blurred.

Heon was jostled awake. The breath left him in one shocking exhalation as his wide, round eyes roamed the space he was in.

"What…"

"You okay, kid?"

Startled, Heon turned to his right and found a middle-aged man in a cap starting with a slight worry at him. Heon nodded stiffly, gulping air as he continued to observe his surroundings.

"You look like you just had a nightmare there." The man in a cap said without prompting. He was not wrong.

Heon just woke up from one hell of a nightmare. All of that was only a nightmare. There was no taunting yellow cloak figure who wanted something from him. There was no fire tornado and thousands of beasts ready to trample him to the ground. There were no horribly shaped, dead bodies near him.

It was only a nightmare, and Heon was just a senior student who had fallen asleep on the train after a tiring day at school.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Heon placed his hands on the seat near his thighs. He quickly looked down to check his left hand's color. The slight tan color was the same as his right, no more black hand. He sighed in relief. Then, he looked straight ahead, studying his reflection in the glass window, afraid to see that his hair had turned white just like in his nightmare. He sighed again, finding the black, short strands on his head.

It was then that his tense shoulders finally sagged down. That was just a nightmare. He was so glad at finding himself back on this train, sitting between a middle-aged man in a cap and a silent high school girl. Maybe he shouldn't play too much RPG on his phone and start researching some good universities on the internet instead.

Even if he must major in law, as his mother and father dictated, Heon could choose where he should study. However, his parents also demanded that he apply to a prestigious university. Didn't they know that the university entrance exam was not as easy as choosing a restaurant to have dinner?

Heon rubbed his left hand, wallowing in the difficulty he would surely pass in the near future.

Suddenly, the light inside the train flickered. Heon looked up, curiously studying the now dim light over his head. He found it strange that he had to stare at the dim light a bit longer. The others didn't notice, too busy with their own phones or just sleeping like he was before.

Then, the lights flickered again. The dimness turned so bright that he had to squint his wide eyes. The flickering lights continued to happen until he considered asking the others about it. But, before he had the chance to do so, the lights completely went out.

Heon started to feel something was off. Why was no one making a sound? At least, someone should exclaim in surprise or question loudly. No matter. He would get off at the next stop. He hoped the lights would turn on before that.

Thankfully, the darkness only lasted for no more than thirty seconds. Unfortunately… Heon screamed at the top of his lungs. His usual wide, round eyes enlarged even further at the view in front of him.

A still body sat right before him. The body was missing a hand. The left one. Leaving rivulets of blood from the open, clean cut.

What the hell happened in this short time he was shrouded in darkness?

Where were the others? Why was he alone on this train, only accompanied by a dead body with a missing hand?

Was this also a nightmare?