Everything was black. Pitch black darkness.
A stuffy void with red skeletal figures in the distance. Cackling, hissing threats, glowering with burning eyes.
And Tenth was all alone, forced to run for his life in that eternal emptiness. Claw and bite marks were all over his body, while the vital blue fluid ran down them. They stung like hell, but he couldn’t afford to tend his wounds. Those monsters were persistent… and ravenous.
How did he end up there? Was that a nightmare? If it was, then why couldn’t he wake up?
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
But his pleas were absorbed by the darkness.
A clawed tendril struck him from his side, making Tenth shout in pain. He stumbled and rolled down an invisible hill, feeling thorns embedding themselves into his pelt and skin. Burning ache spread in his entire body, making him feel dizzy and sick.
Then, he hit the bottom of the hill, shuddering violently as his body felt like an incandescent charcoal.
“…Did thou really think thou could run forever, foolish lad?”
Tenth winced and lifted his head, fighting hard to hold back his tears and a scared shout. Something similar to a vine wrapped around his neck, making him gasp in shock and thrash around wildly, trying to slip out of that bind. However, all that accomplished was to make the coil tighten further, to the point that he felt like suffocating.
“Thou art mine now.”
Tenth moaned in distress, still trying to get away before it was too late. Before… before
he could finish what he started years ago.
“It is pointless to resist. Thou knew this was meant to happen.”
A maniacal laughter resonated inside Tenth’s skull, who winced and redoubled his efforts in trying to free himself.
“Hmph. How pathetic. There is a reason I never saw thee as my son.”
There was another laughter, more demented and hysterical, and Tenth could feel that his father was smirking. He didn’t dare look into those eyes, lest his willpower abandon him completely.
“Well! At least thou hast some ‘friends’ that could keep thee company.”
Tenth shivered. Something about the way in which his shadowy father said those words made his blood chill instantly. Soon enough, he knew why.
There were swords embedded in the distance, covered by snow and cinder. Tenth’s eyes widened as he realized where he was…
Clawed paws. Thorny vines. Burning metal. And then, shadows emerged from the graves, with their eyes glowing with a dark light and their bodies flickering with dust and static. They all glared at Tenth and shuffled forward.
“Curse!”
“Plague!”
“Monster!”
“This is all your fault!”
Tenth began crying, holding his paws on the tendril around his neck.
“It is your fault that we died!”
He couldn’t handle it anymore! With a strength he didn’t know he possessed, Tenth yanked himself free and bolted toward the darkness.
I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—
But his run was cut short as something wrapped around his paws, making him fall with a loud thump. Tenth grunted and tried to get himself free, when the coil wrapped around his muzzle.
It was… a red soul chain. And it was dragging him toward a hole. Toward his own grave.
He began screaming in anguish and terror, imploring for his comrades’ forgiveness. But his words ended in deaf ears, drowned by the cackles around him.
Soon, he was no more, buried into the dark earth…
———
Icetales bolted awake, screaming his lungs out. He thrashed in the bathtub, unable to stand up as the entire bathroom was covered in thick ice. After seconds of fruitless efforts, he decided to just lie inside the tub and take a few deep breaths to recover. He was shaking! He was shaking so much!
The Ninetales rubbed his face with his tails… except that there was something different with his tails.
They were gone, replaced by some blue haze.
…Haze?!
His heart skipped a few beats and his breathing became even more shaky.
“N-no… No!”
Icetales dragged himself out of the bathtub with his claws — when did they become so sharp and long?! — and crawled toward the mirror.
A charred fox with purple pelt, a burning mane on his head and icy eyes…
Icetales howled in terror and smashed his paw into the mirror, shattering it in countless of silver shards.
“It is not happening! I-it is not—”
“Oh, but it is…”
Icetales froze.
No. No. No.
“This is what thou art, after all. It just took a while to reveal thy nature again…”
No! No! No!
“…A beast.”
A dark smoke seemed from underneath the holes of the door, accompanied by the rattling of chains
.
There was a chilly howl that pierced the night, and then nothing. Only darkness.
———
“…So, even that didn’t work at all, huh.”
Petram was walking by himself, looking at some of his notes. Many lines were covering entire paragraphs, which were filled with activities that a “grown-up” was supposed to do. He crossed the last line: listen to vintage music.
“Man, that was sooo boring! I wonder what people find so good about that pain for the ears…”
In his wandering, Petram had reached the beach, which he realized only once his paws sank in the sand. He blinked and looked around the place, bewildered.
“Oh, wow! That stroll took me quite far from home, huh?” He took a few glances around the place. “Well, while I’m here, I may as well take a look around…”
And so he did, looking for some familiar (or even not familiar) face.
