Second Dream: A Kingdom's Shadow

All was falling apart.

She stood at the center, hearing nothing but the howling winds. The grass that once grew so green here was nothing more than rot, overrun by scraggly weeds. The night sky was painted crimson, as if the gods had spilled blood across the heavens. Ahead stood the broken castle, pearl-white bricks crumbling down. Like a fairy tale had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Dread filled her heart. She had never been here before, but one glance at the area was enough to bring shivers down her spine. No life thrived here, no ravens or crows soared overhead. There was absolutely nothing but the wind and weeds, desolate and lonely. As she jumped from rock to rock, her heart beat faster and faster. Paranoid. Fearing that out of nowhere, the monster that did all this would arise...

Her fear faded away as she reached the castle, with no harm done. A closer look at the exterior showed all the cracks in this once-beautiful castle, the stains of blood. The interior was much worse: shattered glass was strewn about, tables and desks were knocked over with bookshelves, and bones were scattered. Every room had seen signs of a struggle, some moreso than others. Walls had horrible holes torn in them, as if a giant wolf or bear had clawed right through. And everything... everything stank of death. Enough to almost make her retch.

The throne room was no exception to this, either. The throne itself was split in half, pillars were toppled over like dominos, objects strewn around as if a child had came through and threw everything about, never cleaning up after themselves. She walked over and picked up the crown left in front of the throne. Seven gemstones were embedded, a giant amythyst sitting in the center. She was sure it looked stunning when it sat upon the ruler's head, but now, the amythyst, the centerpiece, was cracked and dull, no longer the shimmering purple star that shined in the light of night.

She continued her journey through the broken castle, but all told the same story. It was when she entered the basement, the dungeons, that things became interesting.

Seven doors were before her. Each one, she checked. The first was full of fire and lava, sheer hatred eminating from within. One step inside was enough to tell her that it wasn't a good idea, as her throat and nose began to burn, her body breaking into a sweat. She closed the door and opened the next before immediately closing it, her mind unable to comprehend what she had seen. The next was merely a room with all gold, cluttered and filled with golden objects. And the next was cold, barren, with only a dying rose at the center. The fifth room was also cold and barren, aside from one small bed with a sunken, human-shaped spot. And the last door, she was sure some nobleman lived in it: it was all too full of grandeur for someone like her to live in it.

Wait. She skipped a door, she noticed: the sixth one. She wasn't sure how she would miss that, considering it was right there, but she went and opened it-

An eerie fog poured out, blinding her for a moment before she could take a step in. For a moment, she thought it looked normal, with open books sitting on desks, dolls sitting on the windowsill, and a half-knitted sweater folded neatly on the bed. When she blinked, however, it was all gone, replaced a room filled with pipes leading to a capsule in the center of the room. Surrounding it were scattered, half-eaten bodies, bones cracked open and marrow sucked out, eyes rolled back and mouths wide open with shock. Cows, chickens, pigs, and humans alike were half devoured, all in the same fashion. As for the capsule itself, it was filled with a green liquid, and inside was a shadowy figure, one with a hole in his chest and what looked like his heart floating in front of him.

He opened his five eyes, fixing his sights onto the woman that had trespassed. She was unphazed by this eerie stare and took it step by step, getting closer and closer to get a better look at the prisoner. With each echoing footstep, the shadow flinched. And when she was in front, she could hear his heart beat faster and faster out of panic. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Badumpbadumpbadumpbadumpbadump.

A closer look at him made her realize something. One, the vessels that attaching his heart to his body? They were chains. And second, those chains were wraped around his heart, with a small lock in the middle.

"What happened to you?" she asked the shadow, reaching out to touch the glass. "Why are you like this?"

The moment her hand touched the glass, touched the spot closest to his heart, an ear-piercing wail  shook the room. Hundreds... no, thousands of chains sprouted from the around the capsule, and on instinct, she leapt back, narrowly dodging some that had lunged at her. She noticed that the wailing was coming from the shadow itself. Had he summoned those chains? They wound around his capsule like snakes until she could barely see the shadow at all. All she could see was his face, that sorrowful look in his eyes, hear the frantic beating of his locked heart. He stopped wailing, at least, and she took a step forward; when she noticed he was opening his mouth to scream, she took steps back. Today was not the day to become deaf, not at all.

 One thing was obvious to her at that moment.

 He feared her.

 Or maybe he feared everything.

 As she turned to leave, things began to fall apart, the walls cracking like glass and crumbling away, leaving nothing but the darkness, the lonliness, and that tug. That inevitible tug. She heard something against glass and turned back towards the capsule. Some of the chains had receded, and now she saw the shadow, his hand against the glass, a tear forming in one of his eyes.

 Was that a yearning look he was giving her? What could he possibly be yearning for?

 She had no time to ask him, as the border between dreams and reality eroded, giving way to the morning sun...