The nightmare ended without ceremony.
There was no triumphant music, no sense of victory—just the sudden, brutal absence of pain. Erin Solstice lay on her back, staring at a sky that wasn't a sky at all but a ceiling of cracked stone and dim, bluish light.
She breathed in.
The air didn't burn.
That was how she knew it was over.
Her hands trembled as she raised them in front of her face. They were her hands. Not bloodied. Not frozen. Not clutching at someone else's sleeve while screaming words that had never mattered. Her fingers were whole, her nails intact, her skin pale and real.
She laughed once, sharply, then clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Oh," she whispered hoarsely. "Oh. That was—"
The words failed her.
When she looked up, she realized there was a woman there, she had short raven-black hair. Her skin was smooth, supple and white as snow, she was really, REALLY pretty.
"Wow"
After she exclaimed that, the woman finally noticed her.
"I see you are finally awake, congratulations on surviving your First Nightmare, sleeper Erin."
"Uhm, hi, can you untie me? This is kind of kinky"
The woman started laughing, after she calmed down she aproached the reinforced bed and started undoing the restrains holding Erin in place.
"I am ascended Jet, you can call me Master Jet, these past days I was on duty due to both of your nightmares.
Both? Erin thought. It was just then that she noticed another person sleeping in another reinforced bed not far from her.
It was a frail-looking young man with pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. He was unhealthily thin and pale, looking haggard in cheap clothes.
Erin still needed time to process everything so she tried to take deep breaths, but just as she was doing that with Master Jet still loooking at her, possibly waiting for her to move or say something…
Gasp!
The young man that was lying on the other bed woke up.
"Well, it looks that the Little guy also just finished his nightmare, quite the timing"
Jet said that as she looked at the Young man who was waking up and in her face… was that a smile?
"Do you know him?"
"No I don't what made you think so?"
"You smiled a bit when you saw him starting to wake up so I thought you knew him"
"Ha, I guess i felt a bit relieved seeing him waking up, I do not know him, but he is from the outskirts like me and as you know it's difficult for us slumrats to survive our first nightmare so I guess I felt a bit relieved seeing another one of my kind making it."
After saying that she walked toward the young man waiting for him to fullly wake up.
As he started to wake up he seemed a little lost on his own thoughts until he finally noticed Master Jet in front of him. After that he spent some time looking at Jet, quite a long time actually, and… was he looking at…?
"What are you looking at?" Jet said, not a gram of humor in her voice.
The man blinked a couple of times, embarrassed maybe, and quickly came up with an excuse. Then he opened his mouth and answered:
"Your breasts."
A second later, his eye widened in absolute horror.
The woman slowly smiled with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Then, without any warning, she moved her hand and his across the face.
Ouch. Well i guess he had it coming, pervert. She started giggling a bit that, then she started fully taking her surroundings.
The armored ceiling hang above her. More beds like theirs were spread around though none had anyone in them.
It familiar and at the same time not. She could clearly see this was a pólice station but it was unlike anyone she hade ver seen, not that she saw a loto f them before besides on the tv.
After she stopped looking around she noticed the Young man and Jet looking at her. She turned a bit red due to the attention.
"Hi. I'm Erin, nice to meet you"
He looked at her a bit more and then responded.
"Sunless"
A moment of silence descended between them which Jet used to continue talking.
"Well, I hope you are awake now. Let me give you a piece of advice: don't just say anything that comes to your mind. Especially to girls. It's not like you haven't seen a girl before, right?"
"I've seen plenty... but no one as beautiful as you."
Then he flinched back, his face as red as a lobster.
Wow, smooth.
Jet stared at him for a few seconds and then burst into laughter.
"I see you haven't met a lot of Awakened then. By Awakened standards, I'm below average."
"Wait, me too, Will I become prettier too?" Erin said looking at her with doubt.
Jet looked at her for a second and shook her head.
"Yes, you too, this is common knowledge"
"As your soul core develops, the body gets rid of all its imperfections. So it's hard to find an unattractive Awakened, especially among the stronger ones. Live long enough, and you both might just become beauties on your own."
That's so cool.
Then she turned back to the boy and gave him a thorough look and added:
"Well… maybe. In any case, since you're awake — welcome back to the land of the living. Congratulations on surviving your First Nightmare, Sleeper Sunless."
"Congratulations on surviving you First Nightmare! I just finished mine too, I'm Erin by the way".
The Young man, Sunless, gave her an odd look as if he was not used to be treted with such familiarity and then responded.
"I am Sunless, you can call me Sunny"
"Then I'll do so, Sunny, nice to meet you" Erin said with a bright smile, as if she had not just gotten out of her own hell herself.
She rolled onto her side and sat up slowly, as she thought abut Sunny who seemed lost on his own thoughts again.
She wasn't alone.
That should have comforted her. Instead, it made her chest tighten.
He went through it too.