The Pain of Loss

[Nox]

The image of his mother flickered again. She had returned to packing. He remembered standing near her. The memory of that day haunted his every night - tonight was no different. But yet it was. Nox's recollection in the dream world was not what it was but he felt different - something was different.

The woman didn't sound afraid when she spoke. Nox couldn't help but frown, she didn't know what she was doing. "Suit yourself, but stay behind me."


He wasn't sure what he could do against them. A stray thought passed his mind, he'd never been able to move before. Again that nagging feeling that this isn't how it was supposed to be.

The hounds flickered closer again. The first howl sent shivers down his spine, the now powerful memory of the smell of sulfur permeated the dream air. He A second then a third howl echoed in the space between reality and his dreams.

The image of his mother turned around again at the last howl and looked afraid. Nox hadn't noticed when the dark dog with glowing red eyes stepped between him and his mother - where had it come from?

Fear paralyzed his mother he could see it in her eyes when he look at her ashen face. The dog started to pounce but Nox hurled the flaming sword at the dream dark hound and it ripped through the air and the dark hound a like. The dark hound spurt into nothingness once the tip of the flaming blade touch it. The sword continued it trajectory and impaled his mother.

The image clutched her chest and blood poured through it. Nox was frozen in fear in the horror of what he'd done. The world flickered again and there was not one but three dead bodies bleeding on the stones of what had once been a nice cabin up in the woods somewhere. It was a mix of the place Aurora's body had been found and the old place they had used when they had first learned they were reborn gods. Why here?

Nox fell to his knees in despair...