digibutter.nerr

[MsDevin92]

Prologue is up so far. I'll add the rest on later.

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NiGHTS: Requiem of Dreams
Prologue: Twin Dreamers

Aspen hummed a rock song to himself as he stepped out of the front doors of the Sableton Animal Shelter, waving goodbye to Sunny, the clerk behind the desk, and the assortment of yipping and purring animals within.
He tucked one hand in the pocket of his beaten brown jeans, keeping a hold on his backpack strap with the other, and began his walk home. On his way back from the shelter every day, he passed the Sableton Mall. He stopped on the sidewalk and looked up at the shopping structure. Music store, food court, maybe some new sneakers…They all appealed to him, but he rarely set foot inside. As much as Aspen enjoyed hanging out at the mall, he never did well with the crowds.
…And speaking of crowds…
He didn’t even see them coming. One second, he was standing there on the sidewalk; the next, he was surrounded by about seven kids. He stifled a groan, recognizing them all too well. These were the same jerks who usually gave him trouble. They pounced on him whenever they got the chance, so it only figured that they’d ganged up on him once again now.
“What’s up, dog?” one of them taunted, pulling him over by the collar of his shirt and poking tauntingly at the paw print of his shelter uniform T-shirt. “Going home for your kibbles?”
Aspen shoved him away, although the boy and two others pounced on him and grabbed his arms. The others pulled off his backpack and emptied its contents on the ground, kicking them about.
“Get off of me!” Aspen snapped. His parents had always told him to avoid violence, but he couldn’t stop himself before he kicked one of the guys holding him. The guy hopped back, holding his shin, and Aspen wriggled away from the other two.
Thankfully, a mall security guard happened to look out the door and saw the beginnings of the fight. A warning glare and gesture from him was enough to send the bullies running- although not before they’d spat on the head of Aspen as he knelt down to retrieve his things.
“Later, sap-head!”
“Loser!”
“Wuss!”
Aspen sighed. Just another regular day…
The other kids streaming out of the mall didn’t stop and offer to help. Most of them either walked right by, or stopped and pointed, laughing.
Looking up as he finally reclaimed his last book, Aspen couldn’t help but notice one of the girls in the crowd. She was a slender and basically stunning beauty, dressed from head to toe in baby blue, with her light brown hair hanging down to her back. He felt his cheeks go slightly red, although he knew a girl like that would never go for the school outcast- him.
Something shifted in the crowd behind the blue-clad beauty. His eyes were immediately drawn to the movement.
It was another girl, this one pale and dressed in purple, with her dark hair hanging in a thick braid down her back. She didn’t look back at him, however, and she was only in his sights for a moment before she disappeared into the crowd.

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Her art folder under one arm, Lydia made her way down the sidewalk from the Sableton Community shelter, her face blank and eyes tired- drained by despair. She shuffled through the crowds like a zombie, paying no mind when she was jostled, bumped, or even full-out pushed by the kids fleeing the mall security guard.
She continued to walk, down and across streets until she reached her house. Letting herself in with the key in her pocket, she locked the door behind her and made her way upstairs.
Her bedroom door was wide open, the various shades of purple adorning the décor bursting out. Every possible inch of the wall was covered in tacked-up drawings, and even more of them sat in heaps on the desk, along with pencils, paintbrushes, and more.
Lydia flung the folder on the desk besides the stacks of drawings, causing several papers to spill out. She then turned and faced the wall.
She began to take the drawings down.
One-by-one, she unpinned and removed them. There were dozens, and the job took hours. Not that she seemed to mind or care, however. The only change on her desolate face was the presence of a few tears, streaming weakly and silently from her cheeks.
Taking the stack of removed papers in her hands, she scooped them into one large pile along with the contents of her folder and the ones on her desk. With her foot, she opened the closet door, and dropped the entire stack to the floor inside, slamming the door shut as hard as she could.
Turning around, she flung herself on the bed just as she erupted into full-fledged tears. Eventually, she cried herself into a restless sleep…

The sound of the papers shifting in her closest haunted her dreams…

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It had taken Aspen a while to reach home. He’d been on foot, after all, and he hadn’t taken his bike out since the day he’d exited the shelter to find it covered in spray paint and spit wads.
He dropped his backpack, which was now beaten and dusty, into the coat closet, and headed into the bathroom to wash whatever remaining spit there was out of his hair. Disgusting, he though, making a face as he did. Why wouldn’t these guys give him a break?
Because he was too different, he knew. To them, different meant weird. Weirdo. Freak.
With an exasperated sigh, he trudged upstairs. It was late, and he was tired. Dropping onto his bed, frustrated, it wasn’t long until he drifted off.

The derisive laughter of the bullies still rang in his ears…

[Frozenwinters]

YOU HAS AN UBER SPIFF PLOT FOR MY NiGHTS? :D

[MsDevin92]

YES. 8D

[Light Prognosticus]

I like it. I know of a NiGHTS forum where it would be appreciated.

[MsDevin92]

Yey for next chapter.

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NiGHTS: Requiem of Dreams
Chapter One: Into the Dream World

Lydia was painting.
She dabbed the brush in a spot of lavender paint on her palette, and then reached down. A flower was at her foot, but a very strange flower- it was pale and colorless, almost like a pencil sketch.
When she touched the paintbrush to it, the flower came alive with the lovely, pale shade of purple. She ran her thumb across the bloom, and found that she couldn’t feel wet paint- only the feeling of a silken petal against her skin.
Filled with an unbelievable happiness, as if she were glowing like the sun with joy, she dipped the paintbrush in the green paint, and began to paint the stem and leaves, as well. Soon, she was done.
She rose and looked all around her. An impossibly beautiful landscape, like something out of a fairy tale, surrounded her. Mountains in the distance, rolling hills, rivers with waterfalls that threw rainbows out in the clear air, birds darting across the bright blue sky…
She had drawn it all, she realized. She’d made something beautiful.
A breeze whistled by her. Instead of leaves, it carried pieces of paper. They were her drawings, all of them, twirling about her in a playful circle before dancing off across the horizon…
And then they burst into flames.
Lydia gasped. She could barely comprehend how it had happened, but- they were burning! And as the wind, now a dreadful, icy cold gale, carried them about, they set fire to everything they touched. The fields burned. The flowers burned. The trees burned. It was all burning, all being destroyed.
Her dream was being eaten away.
The scene abruptly darkened, as if some force had sucked all the light and warmth out of the world. The flames darkened as well, and the remnants of her happy world crumbled in black fire, leaving behind only a barren, smoky waste.
Her happiness vanished, as well, replaced by only an agonizing sadness. She crumpled to her knees and buried her face in her hands, breaking down into tears.
Through her sobs, she barely heard the growling sound until it was close- right above her head. Trembling slightly, she lifted her head and looked up.
A hideous creature had appeared before her. It had almost no form to speak of, instead being a shadowy blob, wavering like smoke, thin and ghostly as a shadow. But its eyes and malicious grin burned a bright, evil red.
She took a step back, but the cold wind started up again. Wherever it touched the wasteland, more of the shadows arose, until there were dozens of them. They began to swirl around her in a tornado, walls of red eyes and demonic grins on all sides of her.
Lydia cowered and shrank back. She wanted to get away, but there was nowhere to run to. She was trapped in the center. Any second, these things would consume her-
She had to get out.
With a rushing burst of determination, she darted forward, diving between an opening in the whirl of shadows. She heard them pursuing her, moaning and howling angrily, but she kept running.
She continued to run. It looked like the wasteland would never end, and that the shadows would soon catch and devour her- but then they were fading, their wails growing fainter, and the darkness was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant light…
She reached for it…

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The laughter still remained as Aspen opened his eyes once again.
He blinked, confused. He was standing in the middle of the Sableton mall. But it was eerily silent and empty. The air was still, as if time had frozen.
Now, while isolation wasn’t that new to him, this was just plain freaky. Extremely unnerved, he turned in a circle, looking for the exit.
It happened so fast, just like the last encounter. One second, he was alone- the next second, they were there, surrounding him.
He didn’t exactly know who they were. They looked like the guys who usually ganged up on him, but…at the same time, they didn’t. Something about them was just wrong. Part of him even felt that they were not fully human.
“Who- Wha-” he began.
One of them chuckled, and the laughter soon spread around to his cohorts. The low, malicious sound sent cold chills of dread throughout Aspen’s now-shaking body.
“Heads up, loser!” one of them cried, his voice twisted. And the entire group lunged at him.
In midair, they changed. Their features, save their eyes and bloodthirsty grins, melted into blackness, which then exploded in smoggy clouds. The mall darkened, illuminated by only the evil red glow of their demonic faces.
If he hadn’t thrown himself forward, ducking under one as it pounced, he would’ve been completely swarmed. Losing his footing from shock, he stumbled and rolled to the ground, just barely managing to get back on his feet.
The shadows whirled in a tight funnel before swirling out into a wide cloud again, facing him hungrily. With a unanimous howl, they all shot forward.
At first, he was frozen in fear. But then-
Run!
With the thought, his muscles snapped back to life and action. He turned and ran, as fast as he could, through the cold, empty void of darkness the world had become. He felt those evil red eyes on his back as he ran, bearing down on him…
He would’ve been lost if not for the light. It shone brightly from ahead of him, and when so much as a thin sliver of it touched the shadows, they shrieked and shrank away.
He had to get to it. He ran and ran and ran. The warm embrace of the light calmed him, and he threw out his arms…

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The grass spread out in all directions around her, as far as the eye could see. It was waist-high, paper-thin, and shook in rippling waves in the gentle breeze, its tips touched gold with the sunlight.
Off in the distance, she could see a chain of mountains, sepia stone against white peaks encircled by clouds. A few trees stood here and there across the grassy plain, and as her knees gave way beneath her, she found herself leaning against a large, blocky boulder.
Lydia’s eyes widened.

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The first sound he was aware of was the leaves. They shifted all around him, a beautiful shade of emerald green- in the trees, on the bushes, swirling around and past him. Dappled golden sunlight fell in beams through the canopy of the forest, and he could hear water running somewhere nearby.
Aspen barely stifled a gasp.

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“Where am I?!”

[Frozenwinters]

I like this because I only have to read one side of the story.

I really like the painting scene. It made me feel nice. :)

[MsDevin92]

[MsDevin92]

Posting the link, 'cuz my compy's whack.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4116028/1/NiGHTS_Requiem_of_Dreams

Will update when...updated.