I hate screaming. It’s noisy and intrusive. It’s shocking and terrifying, sharp and haunting. At the moment, it’s all I could hear. Ever since I delved into those blazing eyes and emerged from the darkness, only to realise I was dangling right back in the jaws of hell, my village burning around me, the shrill cries resounded in my ears. I had struggled hard against the illusions of my mind, but returning here made me lose all sense of control, and my grip on reality slipped and I fell into a decadence of terror. I felt like a fever had suddenly grasped me, my body igniting and a throttling pain gripping my head. No matter how hard I tried to scrunch my eyes and block it out, the flashback all carried on around me, although somehow something was different. It was as if once I had passed through the abstruse being I was still on a kind of journey. The village passed me by, albeit much slower than before, as if breaching the black abyss of his eyes was more like crashing through a liquid vortex. However, I started to get an inkling that this was not truly my memory. I was here once, I knew that, and I felt like I was there right now, but it wasn’t right. The atmosphere didn't sting my eyes and heat didn't sizzle my skin. I felt inexplicably disattached.

Finally the edge of the village was upon me, and I could see just how the charcoal cloud that engulfed my home had extended across the sky. I could see robed and hooded men with cloth wrapped over their faces; standing. Watching.

I saw a flash of a grey emblem on the sleeve of one as he lazily let his torch lower at his side. The Authorities. They're part of the Elites, I'd know that symbol anywhere. The rank most ruthless, hearts turned to stone, any feeling long stamped out to cope with the atrocities they so willingly commit for their master for the sake of loyalty and being in so deep there is no turning back. My blood boiled with anger and hatred. I tried to scream at them to do something, but they couldn't hear me. Not that they'd care.

As my vision became clearer after having been shrouded in soot, one of the figures crouching down drew my attention to the scorched ground. There were bodies. I watched, aghast, as the Elite loomed over the collapsed form of a woman, her long black hair obscuring her face. My throat stung as he took her roughly by the waist and slung her over his shoulder. Her hands swung limp at his lower back. Briefly, I caught a glimpse of the palm of her hand. What I saw made me clench my fist protectively over my tattoo. She was like me. One small part of me prayed her dead, as I knew there was only one fate for her alive in the hands of the Authorities.

Her arms were crackled and sooty. Her hands were so scorched it sent my imagination whirring, wondering what she must have done to become so burned. I wondered if my arms looked like that once.

My dream took me onwards from the scene of my clanmates being taken away and time lapsed across the plateaus, before my eyes. I watched in awe as the shadows of the land below stretched and shortened, nights and days passing me by. I was lifted as if weightless high into the sky, the world blurring below. The air cooled my flushed cheeks and ruffled my sticky hair. I could feel my heart thump with my whole body. Grey clouds formed around me, swirling into shape as time slowed again and finally dusk shadowed me. As if caught in a storm, wind howled around me, sparks igniting and thunder rolling. The powerful weather set my heart racing- in such an arid expanse, it was a rare occurrence and I'd never seen anything like what was going on around me before.

Veins of intermittent light pulsed and slowly I realised they were creating a formation, using the clouds as a sculptor would mould clay. As soon as one image was created it began to degrade and another began to form. The thunder created began to sound as if it were a booming voice, as if I were inside a God's mind, listening to it think.

I felt my jaw slacken as I witnessed a colossal eye come into being, detailed and a glorious sight to behold, so huge before me I felt like a mouse in a giant's world. I recognised it as the piercing gaze of the man on the throne. I don't think now that I'll ever forget it. A gust of wind made me shield my eyes, and when I looked back the grey had shifted to a new scene, displaying a place I'd never seen before. I hadn't much time to comprehend the scene before it changed again, and my expression sobered from bewilderment and curiosity to a heart-clenching sadness. A girl, backed into a corner, hugging her legs with her forehead rested against her knees, shackles around her wrists and ankles, straight hair drooping down her sides.

The clouds again shifted, but the previous sight lingered in my mind. I felt like I was missing something, but my attention was lost.

The swirling mass around me condensed from clouds to a solid slate grey and my feeling of suspension was lost as if I had been set down. I was in a room- the air was still- one so vast and uniform I couldn't tell where the walls began or ended. I felt a chill wrap around my feet- shocked, I looked down to see the grey swallowing me, creeping up my body as I stood. I wanted to panic, but the calm way it slipped over me soothed me and I did nothing, against my better judgement.

The chilling grey spread right across my body and I could feel it slick over my face, even my eyes were glossed over. From that moment, for the first time in my dream, I felt disembodied, as if I had suddenly separated from my flesh. This new perspective enabled me to see what was going on, and it was nothing but strange.

I noticed there was another ghostly figure floating not so far from me. The translucent being had a blue hue, and the same aura I remember feeling at the very beginnings of this ridiculous nightmare. Imperturbable. Except now, at the considerably closer proximity, they took shape. They didn't pay much mind to me, as if used to me. Strange. I couldn't recognise them as anyone I knew. I wondered how I could dream of someone I'd never seen.

Rather than ogle my company longer than I already had, I turned my attention back to the scene unfolding below. I was jarred to find my body was invisible now that the floor had disguised me, not a shadow of me in sight.

There was a new presence in the room. I have no idea how or when he appeared, but he was there, tall, austere, arms crossed and shouldering that huge fur. In contrast to before, he couldn't see me or even the other presence, even when I tried to catch his attention. His eyes were fixated forwards, in the direction of my hidden body.

It was strange that the only colourful thing in the room was also the most intimidating. I noticed little things about him that I hadn't before, like the rings on his fingers and the intricacies of his clothing. His hands fisted into balls and I could see his knuckles strain his skin white. A curious darkness began to amass behind and around him, eyes blazing burnt gold. Smoky tendrils curled from the growing mist, stalking forwards in short bursts. The yellow taint in his eyes gleamed when my figure was blackened and discovered, but his satisfied smirk fell to shock when his conjure discovered a second figure.

I snapped my gaze up to the only other presence in the room- deep down I was anticipating it, but I was still quite taken aback to see the being nonplussed by the happenings below. It wasn't hard to deduce the second body belonged to him. I just couldn't figure out where he came from.

“What?” The utterance made me turn away from my fellow disembodiment. The long hairs of his fur robe were trembling at the tips on his shoulders. His smirk had turned to a snarl, his shrill voice laced with seething anger. I had no idea what made him so, and even though I knew we were separated somehow it was still frightening.

“I'm in the depths of his mind. Why are there two?” He roared, clawing at the air in the beginnings of a fitting tirade.

The tendrils swirled around the two figures, as if trying to pick which they want. Eventually the mass began to focus on my body, and I felt a tingling sensation on the scalp of my head as the spindly magic tried to sand away the grey covering me, starting from the very top of my head.

I was feeling more than uneasy as my cocoon was chipped away at, but barely the tips of my hair were revealed when a burst of bright light further disfigured my dream and seemed to completely baffle the man with amazing eyes. He turned away and shielded himself with the fur, my image of him warping as my dream fell apart, the light brightening until I couldn't distinguish a thing any more. The last thing that resonated within my mind was the bellowing voice- "You know who I am."

I choked and gasped as I felt as if I'd been slammed back into my body, eyes flashing open to blurry surroundings. I tried to calm down as I realised I was back in reality, lying on the floor of Zelo's room, but I only ended up panicking again as he was sat on me with one hand over my mouth and another pinning one of my wrists to the ground.

I blinked rapidly and looked up at him for explanation, only noticing I had been struggling when I stopped. He was glaring at me, lips pursed into a thin line and worry creased into his brow. “We gotta go,” He deadpanned. “There's no way it's safe here any more.”

Dogs barked in the background, activity stirring in the village. I let my eyes roll into the back of my head as I realised I'd gone from the pan into the fire.