Nightmare Again or... Memory?

It was a long and hard day for Oscar. He was mentally exhausted but it was worth it. He researched and practiced magic. Then he lost his friend. Mason died in his arms. He hoped that Kairi could somehow heal him but he couldn't.

"I will go to the secret house grandpa left. Hopefully, there are some records about this foreign energy at there."

He already had bought a ticket to Zhose Region. If everything will go according to his wishes, he will find a way to resurrect Mason there and maybe even Nora. And he then will take revenge on whoever harmed Mason. While imagining his revenge he soon fell asleep.

"Thomas! Wake up already."

"Let me sleep. Just five minutes."

"No! We are going to the forest with other kids. We can't be late!"

"Ugh!"

The boy with dark-haired wakes up with a frown. A girl with dark hair kept poking him without rest until he completely woke up. The boy looked at the girl. His orange eyes were unfocused. But after several seconds he blinked and his eyes regained their focus.

"You are weird. When you wake up, you look like somebody different."

"Yeah, yeah. You say that to me every morning, sis."

The boy, Thomas get out of his bed and went to the bathroom. He washed his face to completely wake up. When he saw his own reflection in the mirror he froze. He touched his cheeks and he become even more dumbfounded.

"Hey, is this... Huh? What was I thinking? Weird... Ah! I need to hurry. Or sis will get mad at me."

After eating breakfast, Thomas and his sister quickly left home to go outside. They were going to their usual meeting place. When they arrived there were already three other kids waiting there.

"Did you sleep late again, Thomas?"

A girl with red hair asked him with a sharp look. She was Evelyn, his crush. Thomas' face quickly turned crimson and averted his eyes.

"Anyway, now that Bale siblings have come we can go."

A girl with green hair said with an excited smile on her face. It was Amelia. The one friend who is hyperactive and has a deep love for adventure. She was a little tomboyish but nonetheless a pretty girl.

"Alright, let's go!"

Hannah, big sister of Thomas. She was as excited as Amelia. She and Evelyn were one year older than the other. They were basically the big sisters of the group. Hannah was the most adventurous person in the group. While Amelia might have a deep love for adventures she was scared the have adventures if she was alone. On the other hand, Hannah liked the jump on them at every chance she had. It didn't matter to her if she was alone or not.

"Hey... Can we... hold hands again, Tom?"

The last person was Aria. She was shorter than the rest of them. She had blonde hair and green eyes. She was a shy and cute girl. At every chance, she gets she would stick close to Thomas. Aside from Thomas, everyone in their group knew that she had a crush on him.

"Big sis Evelyn..."

"You can call me Evelyn. It bothers me if you talk to me like that."

"But sis said that I should call you big sis... just like I call her."

"Your sister just wants to satisfy her ego."

"Hey!"

"Shut it! Anyway, what you wanted to ask?"

Thomas swallowed the salvia he had in his mouth. He was just going to ask a question but when he saw her eyes he become nervous. He didn't know why but he just become nervous.

"Err... I heard from my sister that you have a younger brother... If it's not a bother, can I meet him?"

He wanted to learn more about her. And to him, the best way was to befriend someone close to her. But his sister would just smile at him without answering whenever he asked her a question about Evelyn. Then he thought about her brother. He heard from his sister that she had a younger brother. Her brother should know even more about her compared to his sister.

She smiled at him. Her smile caused him to blush. Whenever she smiles like that he would forget everything and he would just be mesmerized by it. Seeing this Aria pouted and pinched his side.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Nothing. I just feel like it."

"Feel like it... what?"

Evelyn giggled seeing them. Of course, she was aware of Thomas' crush on her and Aria's crush on him. She usually watches them like a big sister. But over the years she felt like joining them would be more fun.

"Oh? You want to meet J-"

At that moment everything went dark. Thomas looked around but couldn't see anything. There was only the darkness. Moments later he heard a voice.

"I'm sorry, Thomas."

Along with the voice came unimaginable pain. He felt that someone was ripping his heart out. And he kept hearing the voice. It was constantly repeating itself. This voice was unfamiliar to Thomas but familiar to Oscar.

"Grandpa!"

Oscar jumped out of his bed. His clothes were sticking to his skin because of his sweat. His eyes were bloodshot and the veins on his head were bulging. He put his hand on top of his heart. It was beating without a rhythm.

"W-what w-was that?"

His breathing was irregular too. He clenched his clothes. He tried to shout but he choke on his words. His head was spinning and he felt numbness spreading over his body. He desperately calls out.

"Kairi... help...me..."

His left arm glowed with blue light. Water come out from the light and took the shape of a human figure. This figure gradually turned into Kairi. She had a one-piece dress that had seashell designs. Her long and pointy ears twitched and she looked at him. Her body was just like a human except for her ears and gills on her neck. She hugged Oscar from behind and patted his head.

"It's okay. You just had a mild panic attack. I'm here with you. Everything is going to be okay."

They stood there like that for a half-hour without moving. When he finally calm down he once again fell asleep not being able to fight against the fatigue his body accumulated. Kairi gently put him on his bed. She had a troubled and worried look on her face.

"I can't understand what's going on. He... doesn't have nightmares. If so I would be aware of this. But, then what he saw... I didn't see it but I was observing his dreams. He didn't have any tonight. Then... what did you see, Oscar? Was it... a memory?"

Kairi couldn't help but worry about him. His mentality was getting unstable in recent days. She wanted to help him but she didn't know what was the real cause. Maybe it was because of him being close to death or problems of spirits getting worse. After all he just lost a friend today.