019 Lament

Darkness.

Turning my head all around, I just see an all consuming ebony blacker than the darkest sapphire.

I place a hand on my chest. Confusion slowly setting about within me as I tried to identify a peculiar set of feelings flooding me from the inside.

What is this feeling? This suffocation feels too familiar. Guilt, remorse, longing, desire, pain, hate?What is filling my chest? Is that all of them? Or is it something else?

This combination feels too unique of a cocktail to be an exclusively singular emotion. Anxiety is now building and rising within me.

What is going on?

Why do I feel like this?

This spinning cycle of emotions rising and falling inside me is making it difficult to breath.

I keep looking but there is nothing around me yet, out of nowhere a voice seems to break through the darkness.

I'm on the lookout for it again. Wading through this sea of empty I hear it once more.

It provides no clarity to my despair. Instead it deepens the combined confusion of emotions residing in me.

"Why?" It echoes.

The voice was definitely feminine. Her soft and rich tones enchanted me. The intoxicating spell that was her voice bound this emotional pain tighter and tighter within my chest. Almost to the point of it being unbearable.

The threat of suffocation was now real.

I'm being consumed. Ever so slowly.

Overwhelmed.

I'm drowning in a relentless sea of feeling.

Wave after crushing wave hits me, dragging me below the waters deeper each time.

I struggle to stay afloat but this emotional dagger is stabbed too deep within me.

The insanity of this terrorism was soul crushing. The perplexing thing was that there would come moments when the female voice would speak and it would bring a feeling of ecstasy that numbs all the pain.

I yearned for these moments almost immediately after they faded away. Unfortunately for me they came to me too few and far.

As the unimaginable pain would build up again and again I found myself needing her voice. Just a whisper if even that. All I needed was something just to dull the edge for a moment.

I was caught in this unending cycle and before long I no longer had her voice to soothe the pain.

I had finally reached my breaking point and desired death. As quickly as it could come just to break me out of this endless prison.

Then it came again. Her voice. Full of Seduction and allure and anger.

The beauty of it was enticing. As it echoed again and again I could hear something more. Faint and hidden deep below the surface. It sounded almost like... sadness?

Her voice reverberated throughout the endless dark.

"Why did you leave?"

"You swore to stay at my side!"

"****** where are you!"

"Come back to me."

"I need you..."

The pain and frustration that were building up inside me after having endured all the suffering finally came out and exploded. I shouted in the direction I believed the voice was in.

Who are you!? What do you want from me! Where am I? Get me out of here!

I shouted the words at the top of my lungs but they only echoed in my consciousness. Instead a deeper voice flowed from within me. Full of power, pride, and conviction. It was this that replied in my stead.

"I never left you."

"I was snatched away."

"Taken away and sealed before we ever had a chance."

"Eventually."

"You've always had me."

The female voice perked up at this response. The both of them began to have a conversation before me. It didn't take much to make me feel like I was intruding on something private.

"Will you come back to me?"

"In time...there is still evil abound. This is the final attempt. If I don't succeed now..."

What were these two talking about ? Who were they? All this emotional torment just continued to the feed the confusion inside.

"Make me a vow. Swear that you will conquer and forever be reunited with me."

Heartache and desperation poured out from the feminine voice at her last response. It took a moment before the voice within me responded.

"So it shall be."

As he spoke, The male voice began to illuminate this horrendous darkness. A light orbed in brilliance flew in from the deepest nether and floated before me. It brought me a comfort that soothed away the vicious array of emotions which had been beating away at me.

"I ******, long forgotten Champion of the past. The one who fought against Death's incarnation wielding time itself as my weapon, invoke my eternal will. Shadows of evil be damned in my presence. Let the brilliance of my deeds outshine the wickedness of your existence. The flow of life has no meaning to me who has traversed the perversity of tribulation. Surely as the skies cry out to their children and the moon illuminates our paths, I will return to you with Evil having been perished and righteousness restored."

"I swear eternally... I will not fail."

His voice trailed off in a haunting echo. The orb of brilliant light was now fading away.

In its stead came a faint whisper.

"Waiting...Come...I'll...Life....Forever..."

Suddenly electricity poured into me. My consciousness was being lifted from the prison I had been residing in. I was being transported away and this time the voice I began to hear was a familiar one.

"Em...Em....Em!"

I felt a pull. Taking me away from this dreamscape and back into where I belonged.

I awoke drenched in sweat catching my breath.

Looking around in a panic state I was trying to orient myself.

Where am I? Where are my clothes? What's going on?

The moment my eyes found Ventus' peace flooded me immediately. She embraced me as tears marred her beauty.

"What happened?"

With choked sobs and a wet face Ven spoke.

"After You touched that fragmented sword Otto had showed us you blacked out. I didn't know what happened and and and I thought I lost you too!"

Slowly my memories were all coming back to me.

Coming back from the market, Otto showing me the shattered blade, then it was calling out to me. The last thing I remember was a jolt of electricity.

"Don't ever scare me like that again!"

Ventus continued to scold me and I welcomed it.

Returning the hug I did my best to comfort Ven.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Forgive me."

She clung on tighter.

"I swear to you Ventus, I will always be here no matter what. So don't ever worry again."

She nodded.

As the embrace broke off, the memories of the fading dream continued to haunt me.

What did I just go through?

More importantly, where is that senile bastard Otto?