Dreams

Distorted screams echoed throughout town. Ashes billowed out from the rising smoke clouds in the distance. The light from the approaching fires illuminated the alleyways. Parents desperately clung to their children, lining the streets in an attempt to escape the incoming chaos. Before long, the scenery faded to black. A faint but familiar voice reverberated through the darkness.

"Who would have believed that the legendary dark power could be born out of our town?"

"Is that... the mayor?" Came a soft whisper.

Raffaello, the owner of the timid reply, looked around in the void. "Can anyone hear me?!" The boy yelled as much as his lungs could allow. To his dismay, no one responded. "Mayor Gale! Stella! Shirma! Chocobo!" Still no answer. "Maybe I can find them. They have to be around here somewhere." Raffaello began to take a step forward until he froze midway. Pressure began to mount all over his body. He tried to continue walking but his body refused to budge. Something was keeping him pinned down. "What's going on..?" The boy struggled until he could no longer feel his limbs. He could still move his eyes otherwise he was completely immobile.

Before long, the burning town came back into view. This time, a clock tower rose from the flames. If he could move again, Raffaello would be clutching the sides of his face as he looked on in horror. The realization dawned on him. "This is- oh no! Why is Lostime on fire!?" The screams rang in his ears, some revealed to be death throes as a few corpses laid on the streets. Half of those corpses were children far younger than the boy. He thought back to his playmates Roddy and Claire from the park. "They can't be, no they can't be..." His chest tightened and his breaths stunted. He could feel that he was on the verge of tears. "Why is this happening?!"

"... was felled several times! But it came back alive each time."

The boy snapped out of his shock. This voice, too, was familiar. "That's Freja!" But Freja was nowhere to be seen. What was she talking about? What came back alive? Too much was happening for the boy to process. All he could do was listen and watch the events unfold. More cadavers appeared, this time, the corpses of two armored men. "Knights? No, one of them was a dragoon." Raffaello thought out loud. They weren't responsible for the blaze. In fact, they weren't responsible for the property damage. Buildings and houses lay in ruin, with shards of glass and broken pottery littering the ground. As for the fires, they swallowed the dilapidated homes. What was responsible for all this? Does it have to do with Freja's cryptic remarks?

"... war is meaningless when trying to stop a beast that feeds on human fear."

As if she read his mind, Freja spoke again. This time, she specified what "it" was. A beast, a monster, was terrorizing Lostime. It was responsible for all the deaths and woes of the town. And yet, when Freja mentioned it, Raffaello sensed a chill run up his spine. The pressure that was already on his body intensified. His breaths grew shorter and his lungs squeezed tighter. Compounded with immobility, the boy found himself unable to do anything about it. What made it worse was that the monster fed on fear. Trembling, he knew that his panicking state would attract it. He'd die by its hand, whatever it was. Even if he was able to move again, he can't flee. The flames have already surrounded him, along with the fallen debris. Should the beast fail to kill him, the fires will burn him alive. His stomach churned at the options.

"Why is this happening to me?" Raffaello's voice cracked. "Shirma! Chocobo!" He cried out again. The fires drew closer to him with each second. "Someone help me, please! Anybody! Please!" His eyes squeezed shut. He braced himself for the worst.

"If this goes on, the Destroyer will wreak havoc on the whole world."

"The Destroyer?" Raffaello's eyes cracked open. "Mayor Gale! Who's the Destroyer?!" But before he could get an answer, everything faded to black again.

---

Raffaello lunged out of his makeshift bed, sweating and trembling. His heart pounded against the chest and his stomach still remained unsettled. The boy rested his hands against his head, somewhat relieved that he could move again. He looked out the window, unsure if the fires were still present. To his relief, the town was in one piece. "It was... a nightmare then." He said to himself. His head ached from the current condition he was in.

"But... it felt so real." The words of Freja and Mayor Gale did not leave him, however. He clearly remembered what they said. Something about a monster known as the Destroyer. Thinking about it caused a weight to crash on his heart again. The headache he had worsened as well, causing the boy to clutch his head tighter. "Seeing the dead bodies, the people running away... All of it is so painful." A tear fell from his eyes. Raffaello's whimpers broke into frightened sobs.

Is this all... related to me?