Nightmare

[Brother…]

Daimone stopped walking and turned around. Did one of his brothers call for him? Dimly noting he was in the woods, he walked towards the source of the voice.

[Brother…]

[I'm coming], he told his brother. The connection was too weak for him to recognize which brother it was, and he hurried on. The glow on a familiar lake through the trees up ahead caught his attention, and he walked into the clearing, expecting…

"Mother?" he called out.

Her face was shadowed, but he knew it was her. She was waist-deep in the lake, pale and naked, turned away from him. Her long, dark hair was drenched. It hung heavy and scattered like crisscrosses all over her back. She turned at the sound of his voice, and he felt sick when he saw her swollen belly.

[Brother…]

The connection came again from within the pulsating belly, weak and quiet. He automatically recognized it as Ellerslie's and stepped towards them.

"D-Daimone…?" his mother rasped. He stopped, tears blurring his vision. How long had it been since he heard her voice, since she called his name?

Tears rolled down her shadowed face, and he reached out for her. In an instant, her back arched and she screamed out as a bump appeared on her belly. No, it wasn't a bump, Daimone realized, puke crawling up his throat as the bump deflated. It was—

His mother screamed again as a small hand pierced out of her belly, and Daimone had to cover his ears. He was paralyzed with horror, but he couldn't turn his eyes away. A small body was trying to crawl out of the small hole it had made, and it took a while for Daimone to realize his mother was no longer screaming.

The stomach fell open with a sickening crunch as if invisible hands had ripped it apart, and the thing crawled out. Bloody, long hair clung to its face and body, and he watched as it crawled up his mother's chest until it finally reached a breast and suckled on it.

It wasn't Ellerslie. But he recognized the connection as Ellerslie's. But it wasn't—it wasn't…It was…

The little girl called Darrow smiled at him, nipple still between her teeth. [bRoThEr], she called. [bRoThErBrOtHeRbRoThErBrOtHeRbRoThErBrOtHeR—]

===================

Daimone lurched to a sitting position, gasping hard. The thin sheet of blanket clung to his sweaty body, and he shoved it off, trying to remember the dream he had just woken out of. His heart was shuddering and he had severe chills running down his back. He hadn't had a nightmare in a long time, and he wasn't going to ignore it.

But he couldn't remember. He couldn't fucking remember. He grit his teeth together and hit the wall behind him in frustration. The entire house shuddered, but he didn't care. The face of the little girl they had met just hours ago popped into his head, and a shudder ran through his body. He didn't know why though. He clenched his fists.

But he would find out.