Fear is something that many know, it is safe to say it is a natural human emotion, one that we have all felt at some point, unless of course, you haven't. Due to psychological issues or otherwise, maybe you just don't fear.

Fear is the thing that keeps children awake at night, cowering at the monsters they see in the shadows. Fear is the thing that makes things like abandoned schools, and hospitals, so scary. So why is writing it so difficult? Fear is, a feeling, and while the best writers want to invoke feeling, other things do it much better. A tense song, can make one feel suspenseful, a scary image does wonders for enhancing a story. What does one do then when they have neither the talent or the time to use those though?

They could describe it, but, what one thinks is scary differs from what other things are scary. There is another problem as well, the words of a story, to us, are ineffective for the most part. We are just a simple reader. It would be jarring for me to try and make something super scary because well, one I suck, and two, it hasn't been a scary story so far. That's what this prelude is tonight. An actual chapter tonight will be late, but I've spent all day thinking about this, and now, I want to try even if it isn't great.

Big thank you to Hantaros for his comment last chapter, I hope you enjoy.

I woke up again, at the moment in time where I turned to face him.
I was glued to the spot.
I couldn't move, and, my entire body was frozen. It was numb.
The numbness normally was necessary, after all, who wants to feel pain?

But, I just wished, even in that instant I could've felt, something.
Being unable to move or feel wasn't the worst part of it though.
It was, his eyes, like usual they were rainbow, but they wrong.
Two pupils stared at me, they all just stared, eying me with nothing less than pure malice.

I couldn't look away, I couldn't move.
Smoke, rainbow smoke flittered off of him...it.
He breathed once, and then, I felt my body beginning to disappear.
It was normal, it was a simple thing, but in this instant, I could just, feel it.

My body began to collapse into light, and even if it happened quickly, in this nightmare, it dragged.
It dragged on, and on, and on, and on, and until I felt that there was nothing below my neck.
I stared at the monster still, standing there with rainbow eyes and rainbow smoke.
It felt like he was judging me, his smile was calm, and unfeeling, but his eyes hated me.

I wanted to scream but I couldn't, I knew I could, right?
It's only a game, my own, game body doesn't affect my real one right?
I couldn't scream though, because I had already lost my vocal cords.
The rest of my head vanished, my eyes were last, still seeing him standing there and smiling, staring at me.

Amber woke up with a sudden scream, falling out of her bed and sweating as she panted. She gulped, slowly standing up, putting her hand onto her red bed. She slowly sat down, shaking still "Just another nightmare, just, just a nightmare" she said, hugging herself. 

She stood up and went to the bathroom, flipping the lights on as she went, not liking the dark right now. She took out a cup and drank sink water, looking in the mirror. She examined her face and looked down at her body, everything was there, everything was fine. She slowly took the cup back to her bedroom and sat down on her maroon bed, she checked the clock, she still had two hours before they would 'arrive' at the destination. She only slept for one hour, she shuddered and drank her glass of iced bottled water while turning on a TV.

The TV played news first, talking more about Ultima and what he caused to others, but those people were all just cowards, they didn't...feel what she did. She quickly changed the channel, finding some cartoons, it was childish, but harmless.

She watched the episode for a moment before rubbing her head, sighing as she rubbed her head, something was annoying her, but she couldn't figure out what, Instinctively she looked around to see nothing, nothing but the lit room. She turned her head back to the cartoon, only to see it strangely ended. She shook it off and stood up, checking her phone clock, it still said two hours. 

She froze as she saw this, checking and rechecking her phone, it was stuck at two hours. She put the cup of iced water down, staring at it, when was the water iced? When, did her sheets change?

Slowly, a feeling of dread creeped up her spine, and she began to breath heavier, looking around the room again, she didn't feel safe. She rushed out of the room and into the bathroom, locking the door and curling up in it. Everything was fine, she was still dreaming, everything was fine, she was dreaming, still dreaming, this was just a dream, nothing bad had happened.

"Yet" a voice said, ringing in her eyes. "Nothing bad has happened yet, but you just had to think that now didn't you Amber?" it said. 

Amber gulped shaking her head, no, no, nothing bad would happen, nothing bad at all. She got up and panted, looking around for the source of that voice, only for her eyes to fall on the mirror. The mirror showed her, it showed her smiling, smiling at herself. She felt her face, but found her mouth was open, she was still scared.

She blinked once, and it felt like she got closer to it, the reflection got bigger. She blinked twice, and she had her hand on her reflection. She blinked thrice, and rainbow eyes stared deep into her soul.

Before she could scream, she was stabbed again, a hand coming through the mirror. That familiar numbness hit her like a truck, it was worse than being in pain, slowly her body disappeared again, into light, she couldn't scream again.

Amber shot up, and quickly moved to check all the lights and check the time. She took a deep breath when she saw it was one hour, and she stared at the clock. She let out the breath as it changed to show it was fifty nine minutes now. She decided to log in now, and got suited up and into the GC console. Logging into the boat she was met with a sunny sky.

Ultima was staring at her, and his eyes were a deep blue "Ah you, you're awake, no nightmares?" he hummed.