The day's rolled by one by one. Despite that, Barb never left his side, always seated on the chair next to his bed. The only couple of times that she had ever left his side was to either to go to the toilet or go outside and grab a quick bite before heading back. Many doctors and nurses that came by to check up on his health would ask her to head back home, but she never replied to them. Her eyes looked grim and hollow, as if her happiness had been taken away from her.

Twilight and the rest of the gang had been worried sick about her, persuading her to come back even for a short period of time. But Barb would merely shake her head and firmly told them that she would be staying put. She did not want to leave. Even if they force her to leave, she would still come back.

He layed on his bed, as calm as can be, no signs of emotion of his face. No smile, no frown, nothing. He just looked...gray. It's as if his colour has been taken away from him. And worst still, when asked about his condition, doctors merely gave a shrug in reply, saying that it was a miracle that caused him to be still alive right now. For all they know it, he could be in a coma for the rest of his life. That tugged at her heart. Just the mere thought of him not waking up, trapped in a neverending dream state and unaware of his surroundings...It was horrible. She shook her head and pushed those thoughts aside. When there was hope that he would live, there must be hope for him to wake up.

Sooner or later, as the days went by, the numerous times of her staying up extremely late has taken a toll on her, causing her to enter a state of drowiness. A moment later, she was swept up by her fatigue as sleep overtook her, with her eyes closing shut, as if a bag of lead was placed on her eyelids. She drooped forward, her head now placed on his lap. She could feel her surroundings grow numb, as her consiousness dimmed down.

And thus, she truely fell asleep.

...

That was, only for what seemed like a moment. She had somehow found herself falling asleep and forced her body to wake up, causing her to jolt upwards. She yawned before looking around, her eyes suddenly filled with horror. The place where she was at the moment was definitely not the hospital. It was obvious enough as it is. What hospital has trees growing inside of it? Massive oak trees towered above her as bushes and smaller plants dominated the rest of the area. There were fungi growing about, fireflies in the air, illuminating the area and....

.....

...A red trail of some sort. It looked fresh, and seemed gooey. As if...it were blood. Barb shook her head and forced herself to think logically. This has to be a dream. There was no other explenation. She had fallen alseep due to being tired and had somehlw found herself in her dream world. Well, she thought, if this truely is all in my head, then I am in control. Thus, she imagined the area in front of her to shift into a more pleasant look. And not with the sight of the red trail.

She closed her eyes and then opened them again. No change. This caused her to worry. Surely she was in control? No one was messing with her via magic before, as far as she knew, so why didn't the area change? And more importantly, why did the trail grow...larger? Instead of what was a small line of oozing red substance, it was now more thicker. She tried to change the scenery yet again. Eyes closed, eyes opened. No change.

Except, the trail grew larger again. Barb stepped back. And suddenly, the trail moved forwards towards her. It moved again, this time making a faint sloshing sound. It moved a third time and now, to her utmost horror, a hand emerged from the red trail, which had opened up, causing it to look like a huge gash wound of the ground. She felt sickened, disgusted and more importantly, terrified. She tried to scream, but couldn't find the voice to do so. The hand slowly moved forward, an arm now emerging along with it. And soon, to her horror, a figure rose up from the gash on the earth and stood up, facing her. Barb took a few steps back, unable to convince herself that it was him.

But it was him. He looked to be the same as when she had first seen him after her rage subsided. All bloodied, wounds and slash marks everywhere. But what made him extremely gruesome to look at was that his neck was slashed across, blood oozing out profusely and his skins had been forcefully ripped off of him, making him look like a walking bag of mere flesh and bones.

"...B..a...rb...Wh...y..?.." The figure asked, its voice sounding exactly like him, exept sounded as though he was in excruciating pain, which by from his looks, he was.

"...No...No...No...Nonononononononono..." Barb denied the fact that it looked so similar to him. But she knew, it wasn't him. "Your not real....not real...NOT REAL!!!" She shouted, her face now wet with her tears that were running down her face.

"...Look...Look wh..at th..ey did...to...me" It then raised a hand towards her and took a step forward. "...Help....m...me...It hurts..." It begged, its voice quivering with fear.

"...Get away!! Your not real!! Stay away from me!!" Barb screamed before letting out a huge ball of fire in its direction. The flames torched everything in front of her in a huge spectacle of green flames. She stopped a moment later, panting and taking a step back. The smoke that had accompanied the flames had then died down, revealing the same figure unscathed.

"...Y...ou did...this...t..to...me" It said in a sad voice, slowly limping towards Barb who was shivering in fear. "...Wh...Why d..idn't you h...help me..?...You left...me there...to...die..."

"No...no..no..no...no...Please...make it stop...make it stop...make...it stooop..!" Barb shouted as her head hung low, her hands gripped around her ear so as to block anything that was being said by it to her. She was shaking in fear, her face extremely wet from the tears she had shedded. She was sobbing, begging for this nightmare to end. She felt a sudden change in the breeze and as she looked up, she had been given a view of its face. Exactly the same as him, but his flesh was showing, rotting, with holes here and there showing the skull inside of him. Its eyes were charcoal grey and hollow, no signs of life left inside.

It looked at her for a moment before tilting its head. "...This...is all...your fault" It accused her, pointing a rotten finger towards her menacingly. "....I...D..Died....For youuu.....Sacrifised...m..yself...." It moaned in a horrific manner as blood dripped down its charcoal eyes.

"Pl-Please....Go away....Pl-Pl-Please...." Barb quivered pathetically as she backed away from the hellspawn. Her eyes were now misty red from the crying she was doing at the moment. "...I'm...s-s-so sorry...I'm...just....please...." She tried to say vocalize her thoughts, but words failed her at the moment.

And then, another terrifying thing had occurred. As she was backing away from the demon, a loud howl pierced the dark forest which sent even more shivers down her spine. Her eyes dilated as she looked around and found many green, glowing pairs of eyes staring her down. The eyes were all behind the creature, slowly walking forward until they were next to it as if it were their master.

"....Sl...ay....her...." It commanded, its finger glowed green for a moment before all the wolves crouched and pounced into the air.

With whatever sanity was left inside of her, screaming for her to stand up and run, her body couldn't comply. She was too stricken with fear for any of her limbs to move at all. She had felt hopeless at the moment. However, she didn't intend the wolves to maul her, and as such, she took a swig of air and breathed out a huge cone of mystic flame in front of her, torching whatever was in front of her. The wolves didn't stood a chance against the intensity of her flames, burning into piles of ashes and dropping down onto the floor.

And yet, as before, the creature remained, slowly walking forward inch by inch in an agonizing manner as the trees and bushes around it were scorched to nothing. Barb, whom was already tired from her breakdown and from using her fire, stopped moving back and began to let fate do its job.

"Please....No...." Barb wheezed out as she sniffed a couple of times.

The creature was soon in front of her and now, she was able to see it more up close than ever. The gore that was dripping out of it was still fresh as blood oozed out from all of its wounds. The face that it bore was pained, its eyes were now dripping with blood and its jaw severely cut. Though, his face still remained burned inside of her mind and it broke her heart seeing that face full of death and despair.

"...Die..." It spoke a single word. No emotion lingered behind it as it raised its hand high in the air, contorting into a large, shard of bone, before quickly bringing it down and striking her in the chest.

"Haaaahh!!" Barb had sat upright and inhaled sharply, her eyes dilated. She quickly turned her head and looked around, finding herself in a dark room full of medical equipment, a table, chairs and a small vase with a rose. She patted herself, bring her hands all around her body and her face before sighing in relief.

A dream. No. A nightmare. That was what she had just now. Nothing but a brutal nightmare.

Her body drooped as she laid her body back down on whatever she was lying on. It was soft, and comfortable. She turned around and had remembered.

She was lying in the same bed with Mike. Just next to him, as his broken body was still being hooked onto the giant machine next to the bed. She sighed, closing her eyes and calming her senses before opening them, finding the calm and sleeping face of her friend next to her. After being so concerned with his well being, she had decided to sleep in his bed when her body couldn't handle the days past with no rest.

She inspected him carefully and was glad to find no patches on his face nor his upper torso. Perhaps the nightmare was too much for her to handle that it had an adverse effect on her. She gently took one of her hands and placed it on his cheek, feeling the warmth that had radiated from it. She smiled sadly before her eyes started to water yet again.

"Mike...I'm....I'm so pathetic..." Barb softly spoke, wishing he could hear her voice and comfort her. But the wish never came, only receiving soft 'beeps' from the nearby machine. With nothing more to say, she placed her head on his shoulder and cried into his hospital gown, her hand that was under the covers gripped tightly onto his hand as she soon fell asleep into a dreamless state.

Though, what she had not realized was that the very had she was gripping hold onto had faintly clenched onto hers.

Author's Note

What's this? A surprise update?

YOU BET YOUR ARSE YOU'RE RIGHT!!

(Surprise, surprise! Sorry for the long wait!)