Lunch was great! So full of fun and joy, and friends! Terra and Aqua even joined after the picture too, but that only meant Ven getting his face shoved into the plate of food he’d finally gotten. He knew Terra was sus. Should’ve seen it coming that he was the impostor.

As for the rest of classes, well he kinda slept through them. It was hard to stay awake when a teacher was doing their job. Ven was told later by Ruby that Luxord threw quite a few playing cards at his sleeping form. He didn’t remember any of that. Honestly, the rest of the day was a bit of a daze. He really should’ve slept apparently. Maybe next time so no staying up with Futaba.

Actually, now that he was home, it seemed like the perfect time to sleep, leaving him clocked out on the couch like a slobbish drunk, arm lazily draped over the side and all. Matir even needed to squirm her way out from underneath him.

“Ven, don’t squish mama cat.” Terra scolded. In rebuttal, Ventus reached up for the hearing aid and plucked it out, blindly dropping it onto the coffee table across from him all whilst keeping his head down against the cushions of the couch.

“Mama’s safe, Terra, don’t worry.” Aqua chimed from the kitchen where she began getting food for said cat. “Take Ven to rest up in his room. I heard he slept through most of his classes after the shine of school finally dimmed for him.”

“You think he’ll be up for meeting new people tomorrow?”

“Is that really a question, Terra?”

“Right, it’s Ven. He’s always willing to meet new friends. He must’ve been really tired then if he couldn’t do it today.”

“Well, he didn’t sleep at all, and his medicine typically knocks him out anyway.”

“Right...” Terra replied a bit solemnly. His gaze roamed to the sleeping body of their brother. A common sight if only thanks to his habits and medication. “Isn’t there a way to make him stable and alive? Sure there are bursts where he’s awake, but usually he’s either asleep or nodding off.”

“Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about that. We’ve gone through countless medicines and honestly, not many of them worked. His symptoms look to be driven by stress, and no matter how happy he looks to be out of the house, he’s going to be stressed about a new environment. Even then, he still hallucinates at home because even here is a stressful environment for him.”

Terra gritted his teeth, hands clenched so tight, his skin whitened. “It’s all that asshole’s fault then! If it weren’t for him and everyone keeping Ven inside, he’d be fine!”

Making her way over to him rather than the feasting cat, Aqua held up two open hands and motioned for him to calm himself. “Terra,” she hissed in a hushed tone, pointing off to the slumbering child. No doubt he was already drooling all over the couch. That aspect she sighed with defeat over. “Take him upstairs and we can continue this talk alright. It would be bad if we stressed him out even more.”

“It’s alright, he took his hearing aid out.” He assured. Still, Terra donned a smile and to avoid a drooling mess on his shoulder from the boy, picked him up bridal style. He didn’t wake in the slightest at the sudden movements. Unsurprising though. Even without the lack of sleep, he’d be hard to wake. Maybe he should get him an energy drink instead of sending him to bed so early. This would only disrupt his sleep schedule after all. Or no, who was he kidding, Ven would still have to be woken up later on.

“Start dinner and I’ll be down to help you.” The elder boy instructed with an easy-going smile. Aqua gave a playful salute back, heading once more to the kitchen while Terra proceeded upstairs with their baby brother.

---------------------------------------------------------------

He wasn’t sure how long he’d slept, but by the time he’d woken, the house was silent and dark. It would be creepy if he wasn’t used to being awake at such a time. Also the silence wasn’t exactly new since he’d deafened himself. Nothing his trash hearing aids couldn’t help, leaving him to reach for where they were usually set on the nightstand. They were there. That was good. Even with them on it was still silent. Perfect. Waste of time.

Still, this wasn’t good. At this rate, he’d be tired for school again. Leading for him to snuggle back up in his blankets. Cozy. Seemed like Terra took his shoes off for him. What a pal he was.

Ventus snuggled against the blankets, burrowing into them for warmth and burying his face in his pillows. They were a bit moist, but he rolled over to spare him that fate.

“Ventus.”

He groaned, “Not right now, mom.”

“Yes, right now. You need to stop it before it’s too late. You need to heal, not be destroyed again.”

“I know you say you’re my mom, but I really never have any idea what you’re talking about.”

“Outside. Listen to the earth. It will tell you.”

“What? You want me to go outside to get kidnapped? That’s not very good parenting.”

“Ventus!” The familiar voice shouted. As if on cue, a flash of lightning struck. All he saw was the flash behind his eyelids, but the roar of thunder was so threateningly close. Even he could hear that, though it was faint for him. It had to be close if he could hear it though.

Regardless, the sound got him up in an instant, panic beating heavily against his chest. His breath quickened and eased within moments as he looked through the dark for who spoke to him. Who was he kidding though, it was his cat.

A sigh escaped him. He was probably just hallucinating again. He rubbed balled fists at his eyes. Woken by hallucinations, yippee. What time even was it anyway? A quick look at his phone showed it was 12am. This time a groan left him and he fell back against his bed. A bed that was suddenly very hard.

Ventus grimaced as he tried and failed to get comfortable. Impossible. It was cold, hard, and breezy. Breezy? He brought his head up, eyes begrudgingly opening to take in the sight of his backyard.

“Did I sleepwalk again?” He grumbled to himself. Once more he rubbed for the sleep from his eyes. Ventus pushed himself off the ground and moved for the house.

“4 2 6 2 10 5 1” A distorted voice sang behind him. So close to the door, but still, that’s nothing he’d ever heard before with Matir or the sins. It wasn’t an all encompassing voice either. There was a source. Didn’t Matir just have that too though? Was he losing it?

Nevertheless, Ven turned to find the culprit only to see nothing. Odd. Maybe he was hallucinating after all. Finding naught left him turning back to the door. He tried the handle to no avail. That was also strange. The door had to be locked from inside, so apparently someone locked him out after he slept walked out. That wasn’t very nice.

Well at least he had his phone right? Patting himself down, he found that no, he did not in fact have it. Of course not. Why would a sleep walker have intelligence or foresight. He couldn’t help but bring a hand up to smack his palm against his head.

That’s okay, his window was usually open so he just had to scale the house a bit and crawl in like a spidermonkey. Easy.

Moving back if only to stretch out his arms, he cracked his fingers as if he was about to perform an impressive break in.

“4 2 6 2 10 5 1”

Again with that song. How was it even a song? They were just numbers weren’t they? They seemed so familiar though.

Regardless, he turned almost with dread as anxiety and fear washed over his body. His movements were stiff as he practically looked over his shoulder to see the five glowing colours in the woods connecting to his backyard.

He understood immediately, he was being hunted. How did he know that though. What was this? Why was he so afraid of things that probably weren’t even real? Oh wait, he always was with new things. Or well, it was hit or miss. Sometimes he was fearful, others he took it like a champ. No real rhyme or reason to it apparently. Maybe it depended on his mood.

The glowing moved in closer then, uncaring of his thought process, and forming into bodies and patterns. A shriek escaped him. It wasn’t his own but it came from him. It was a girl’s though. And without his permission, his hands banged on the glass doors before him and frantically tried the door once more. It wouldn’t open and those people were closing in.

That’s when he noticed it. His reflection. It wasn’t him, but instead that of a young girl, possibly his age or younger. She had on a filthied and torn white nightgown, long orange hair, and blue eyes. Her feet were bare and pricked and bloodied as were her arms and hands.

“4 2 6 2 10 5 1

I told you not to play my game.” The voice sang again, this time much closer.

He turned around to see them more clearly. Five coloured and glowing outfits, all with their own themes.

The one that stood out the most rode a board that glowed a bright neon green on its underside. It hovered above the air. The rest of that one was covered much like the entire group. The face mask they wore bore an orange jack o’ lantern smile while their sleeves were adorned with green glowing vines that lead from their shoulders to their fingertips. The rest of them was covered and hidden in black clothing.

The next one was much the same, black hood up to obscure their visage. This one’s mask was a neon pink stitched cat face while their sleeves were blank but their hands were decorated with pink glowing paw prints and claws.

Much like that one, there was one with a silver wolf’s mask, and just like the cat, their arms were blank, leaving just the hands for the silver paws and claws.

Then there was one with a purple glowing witch’s mouth. Purple runes lining their sleeves and swirls accenting their hands and fingers.

One more after that. This last one had teal gills on their mask and scales running up their arms. Nothing appeared on their hands this time though.

“Marvelous everyone, you managed to corner her.” The voice was masculine, clear as someone emerged from beyond the rest. He held a camera, and his outfit was nothing like the rest as it wasn’t black nor did it glow in any way. “Now, Strelitzia, if you’ll come here, we’ll be able to do this the easy way.”

A shriek escaped through Ven and he turned back to bang on the doors again. “Help me!” The girl’s shrill voice shouted. Ven knew no one would hear her though. Everyone in his house wore earplugs if only because he kept people up at night playing instruments in the hallway. But if he was the girl known as Strelitzia, where was his body? He should be able to wake up right? Or was he too tired.

Wait, this had to be a dream then. He was sleeping. Of course. There was no way he was suddenly some girl named Strelitzia.

Why did that name sound familiar though?

“4 2 6 2 10 5 1

Now you’re

GONE!”

The distorted voice screeched. He held his hands up to protect his ears from the painful noise, face scrunched with dissatisfaction.

“Well?” The one with the clear voice groaned, “Get her.” He said as if that should have been obvious. The group moved passed the apparent leader, maneuvering around the in-ground pool while the jack o’ lantern masked on hovered over it with speed he couldn’t match. He tried too, tried to run around and to the front of the house.

There wasn’t a way out of it, the jack o’ lantern one intercepted him before he even had the chance to move.

“4 2 6 2 10 5 1

I told you not to play my game

4 2 6 2 10 5 1

Now you’re

GONE!”

So they were the one singing. Creepy, but why’d such a weird song seem so familiar?

“Great job, Jack, you caught her.” The ringleader praised him with his seemingly sarcastic tone. “Now let’s finish the job.”

Up close, the man’s appearance was prevalent. Black hat with red ribbon and feather. Orange hair that swooped over one eye. White petticoat and silver scarf, black pants and shoes, and a black cane with a red tip. He kinda looked like a mob boss.

“Witch, Siren, you’re up.” The leader snapped his fingers.

"With pleasure." A different voice cooed, same type of distortion as Jack's.

The ones with the runes and scales moved towards the cornered boy, he shivered from both the cold and fear. They grabbed either arm despite his protests. He was stronger than that, but supposedly being a small girl, his original strength was for naught. He still fought with all his might. This may be a dream, but he’d be damned if it ended this badly. It felt so real too. The cold night air, their harsh grasps. Everything made him feel like he was truly there.

Try as he might, Ventus was dragged off by the purple and teal figures. He struggled against them, but they were too much together, and they brought him towards the family’s pool. The pair kicked against the backs of his knees, forcing his bare and frail legs to fall and scrape against the ground. Ven’s arms were pulled back while two hands were placed on the back of his head. He strained to keep himself up, but they pushed against him, slowly lowering his head towards the water. It was tough, too much so, but he fought as hard as he could against them. Even with his attempts, he still found his head being submerged.

Ventus screamed into the freezing water, bubbles surfacing from wasted air. They didn’t let up even as he struggled. Or no, they did. He was allowed to pull his head out, splashing water all around as he gasped for breath. How long had he been under before that?

“That’s good, keep her like that for a moment.” The leader mused, camera aimed directly at Ven’s suffering. Dream or not, he could swear he could feel how cold the water was and the lack of air. “That’s enough. Finish her off.”

Just as he’d regained what air he’d lost, his head was dunked in once more, a shrill scream breaking through the air as he was thrust back into the water once again. Ven struggled to pull himself up, kicked against them even, at least until his legs were held down. He couldn’t get out of this. It was terrifying even for a dream. His lungs burned and froze all at once. He felt like he was dying. He could practically feel the tears slipping from his eyes and getting lost in the water.

Terra. Aqua.

Help me!

He couldn’t think anymore. The intense pain was fading just as his vision had.