[center][url=https://fontmeme.com/the-beginning-after-the-end-font/][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/240305/02b69d1d51e1695b027de59966d8fb34.png[/img][/url][/center]
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[color=608da2][center][h2]A Dream Within[/h2][h3]A Dream Within[/h3]
A Dream Within[/center]
[i][b]A Dream . . .[/b] Surely, it had to be a dream. You're not supposed to feel pain within a dream though, at least that's what people always say. Maybe if I was heavily lucid I could hallucinate the pain? But, can you fall unconscious in a dream? If not, then am I dreaming now or did I fall deeper into whatever realm I was in? If the first layer had animals and animal-people and weird mirrors, then what's to animals that animals are to humans? Bugs? Bugs are animals too though, so maybe bacteria? Will I be a deer talking to an amoeba and have a bunny-virus ally to help fight a spider shadow-puppet? That's stupid, I'm stupid for thinking about that.[/i][/color]

Then there was light, and a room, and belongings within the room. A simple living room with worn-out furniture and stained carpet, a man's voice coming from an adjacent room, sirens from outside getting closer. Fubuki sat, much smaller than he remembered being, on the floor. His head barely peered over the coffee table he was next to. He stood up and it was evident that he had been de-aged to about 8 years old. He approached the sound of his father's voice, the dark room filled with nothing but his voice and two silhouettes. Father was pacing back and forth on the phone, the other figure was on the ground, motionless. The sirens were right outside, and other people stormed in before snatching up Fubuki's smaller body and moving him out of the house. He felt empty, confused, and disconnected. This wasn't an experience he remembered having, and he doubted he'd remember this dream once he woke up.

Then the police car dropped him off at his house, and he felt excited to see his mother again. Fubuki noted that at some point he had put on his schoolbag before watching three men leave his house. He assumed they were likely friends of his father as men often came and went to talk to him, although his friends were often rude and loud. He went inside, the house was cold and he heard rasping coming from the side room. [color=608da2]"Mom?! Are you sick again? Do you went me to get you some cold medicine?"[/color] the boy shouted with no response. His body went cold, his mother would always get on to him for shouting through the house but she was silent. The rasping continued.

[color=608da2][i]Mother left . . . Remember? She left us, and the house has been empty ever since. Who is that rasping in the house then? A street bum who broke in?[/i] "Mom?"[/color]

Fubuki approached the room, opened the door, and stared at the floor. He couldn't see anything, a black rasping blur was all that existed on the ground. His gut sank as he tried to process what he was looking at. Then, Father burst into the house. Drunk, shouting, angry. He came into the room and lost it. Father shouted at Fubuki to get out of there and don't come back in. He ran, trying hard to remember what he saw. He couldn't see anything, gods why couldn't he see anything. He ran out of the house as sirens rang in the background.

Then he ran out of his room, crying and panicked. His mother came over to hold him and calm him down. She sung softly and stroked his hair until her warmth reset his system back to normal, forgetting what he had seen. Or, [i]not seen[/i].

[color=fdb0c0]"Are you okay my dear Fuyu? Did you have a bad day at school?"[/color]

Fubuki couldn't remember anything. He felt scared, as if he knew something bad was about to happen. He tried to push that out of his mind, he was just glad to be with his mother again. There was a knock at the door, his mother went to go answer it but Fubuki pulled at her clothes to stop her. He was too small to do anything, too weak to pull her away. She opened the door, three men pushed it open and forced their way in, his blood froze. Every inch of him told him to run, but he couldn't leave his mother behind. Everyone was led into the side room, but Fubuki was pushed out. He banged on the door, helplessly, doing everything in his power to get the door open. There was arguing, and a scream, and a . . .[h3][center][b]BANG!!![/b][/center][/h3]

Then Fubuki's eyes opened, awake.