I jerked awake to the sound of a scream piercing my eardrums. It was my own. Sobbing, I sat up. I was shaking and breathing heavily as it replayed in my mind. As tears continued to well up in my young eyes, they burned as I held them back. Despite the attempts, the hot water slid down my cheeks, though it felt cold on my burning face. I felt a stare burrowing through me. It wasn't a bad one, but a worried one. I didn't take the time to even look at her face, instead running out of the room and to our parent's room.

The creaking of the wooden floorboards with each step made it feel like a kraken was gripping and squeezing at my sides. The feared, cold sensation felt like it was trying to drag me back into the darkness. It still felt like I was in the nightmare, like I was spinning and the walls were collapsing. Sprinting to the side of their mattress, I grabbed my mom's hand, burying my face into the quilt as I continued to sob into her. She jumped awake, first startled, but then concerned about me. She sat up and wrapped her arms around me, curling her tail around my thighs and pulling me onto the bed. I sat between her legs for only five seconds before hugging her and sobbing into her again. I wrapped my tail around her, and she wrapped hers around me. With how big the fin on her tail was, it was like a shield protecting me. She gently asked,

"What's wrong, Rory?"

I sobbed out,

"Bad vision."

She sighed. It had been a while since I had a nightmare this bad.

"Well, it's all fake. You know?"

"There was a lot of b-blood,"

I paused to breathe and sob at the same time. I sniffed and continued,

"a-and a purple ghosty."

Mom patted my back and reminded me,

"Cozmo, ghosts don't exist. That's what humans believe. We're reincarnated, remember?"

I sniffled again, but answered honestly,

"Yes."

"So, the ghosty wasn't real, was it?"

I nodded, understanding my mother's logic. We stayed silent for a few moments. She was warm, and the only other noise was my dad's snoring. She finally asked,

"Ready to go back to bed now, sweetie?"

I thought and nodded, despite the pinch in my stomach telling me to stay there. I slowly stood back up, looking back at the doorway. Worried eyes stared through mine once again. My mom ordered,

"Sellina, go back to bed. Cozzy's fine."

A faint, "Okay", was heard from my four-year-old sister. I slowly walked towards her, dragging my hand and tail-fin along the edge of the bed, pausing for a brief second after letting go of it. I then sprinted to Sellina, grabbing her wrist and running back to our room like a bear was chasing us. I stopped in the middle of our room, and let go of her. She flashed yet another concerned look towards me. She turned the tendrils on the top of her head on, so they gave off a gentle, yellow light, thanks to my mother's genes. With her young slur present, she asked,

"Rorzo? Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine. Just had a bad vision."

She sat down on the edge of her mattress, and patted the space next to her to invite me to sit with her. I decided to go sit next to Sellina, despite the late hour. She was only four, but asked with her curiosity piqued,

"What was it?"

I sighed, wanting to go back to sleep but not willing to make my sister fussy towards me tomorrow. I explained,

"I was in this big gray room, with a bunch of tabletop things sticking out from the walls. They held things on them too."

She gasped in awe,

"The tables were on the wall?"

I chuckled, and corrected,

"No, the sides of the table-tops were attached to the wall."

"Oh."

"There were a bunch of humans."

I didn't want to explain further. She was only four. Her eyes widened slightly, letting her pupils shrink out of concern. She grabbed my arm, and tugged on it.

"And what happened? Tell me, tell me, Cozmo!"

I drowsily smiled at her with a look that said "just because I want to doesn't mean I should". I sent some of my energy to my tail orb to make it glow a light yellow as well, matching Selina's antennae. I did this, because I had a fear of the dark my whole life. I wanted to feel safe if I was going to revisit the terrifying dream I had.
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-Ryzo POV-

That fear still had its grip on me eight-hundred and seven years later, but now I had a tool to fight it: night vision. Standing at the doorway of the storage room, I stared at Socks, who was just as terrified as the rest of us. He turned towards my direction, wiping off an ink-black, slimy splotch of Gulvic's vomit off of his mouth. The only ceiling light in the room was dim, accompanied by the low hissing from the circuits. Apart from that, my eyes were the only things lighting the room. I remembered back to how I got here.

After Ally and Joocie ran upstairs, I began to search for Gulvic. I started by following his footsteps and walking forward. I stopped after only a few steps before I went any further, because there was another doorway on my right, past two poles that were placed to support the ceiling's weight. Seeing my struggle, Meme dashed through me and turned toward me, making me jump. He whispered,

"I know where Gulvic went,"

My eyes widened as he continued,

"Follow me."

I stayed silent and nodded. We quickly went forward through the first doorway. Walking into the room, I had déjà vu from the nightmare that haunted me from all those years ago. It was the room with the shelves. It was where the purple ghost floated in the center. If I remembered correctly, it had a red smile plastered across its face accompanied by two red, beady dots for eyes.

Meme turned left and flew down the hallway parallel to the first, and then turned another right. He paused as he peered into the room. I stayed a few feet behind him, as he gestured to do so. Meme, needing to rip his eyes off, I assumed, a corpse, suddenly flew back towards me. He whispered,

"Come in after me in about fifteen seconds."

I nodded again, keeping silent. He flashed me a nervous yet determined smile, and phased through the wall. I slowly walked to the corner ahead and raised my tentacles, ready to turn into the room and fight. I heard nothing but Gulvic's voice and Nadwe's panicked breathing.

3.. 2.. 1.

Eagerly looking into the room, I saw Gulvic with one white, X pupil, and the other a light pink. He was staring at the wall, looking stunned and frozen as if he were paralyzed. I looked at Meme, and he had his hand gestured toward the back of Gulvic's head, as if he was drawing out all of the knowledge that the infected had stored in his mind. I wasn't sure what he did. I only understood that Drulvic rushed out as soon as my thinking actually registered. After checking to make sure no one was majorly hurt, which Nadwe, Blaza, and Tbh weren't, I followed Drulvic through the halls.

After making two right turns, I saw black sludge splattered against the right wall, still dripping and sliding down. Prying my eyes off of it, I walked into the doorway. The shiver down my spine made my tentacles rise in defense. Socks was standing right where the purple ghost floated in the dream. It obviously had to be a coincidence, but it still freaked me out.

Socks' eyes were glossy, and I couldn't tell if it was from just throwing up or if he was actually getting emotional.

Was it because of Drulvic? Why would Socks be affected by him, though?

Either way, he clearly didn't trust himself to even be around me. I frowned and let my eyes fill with sympathy. I might not be able to know exactly how he was feeling, but I still felt the general sense of fear rushing through him. Though he didn't want to be near me, he stared back at me, silently begging for some kind of answer on what to do.
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-Dino POV-

Before I could touch the doorknob, I was startled by the rapid stomping of Tbh, Blaza, and Nadwe up the stairs. Nadwe looked beat, and so did Tbh. Blaza simply just looked anxious. Ally breathed in a small gasp and asked,

"Are you three okay?"

Blaza answered,

"Gulvic kinda threw Tbh around a bit,"

Tbh rubbed his own shoulder, blood smearing across his fingers. Blaza continued,

"And then Meme flew in and—"

Oof blurted out,

"Wait, Meme flew?"

Blaza visibly realized the mistake in his wording. My eyes darted at him, anxious about how he'd explain. Blaza stuttered,

"O-okay, there's a lot of explaining to do."

Ally looked at me, regret visible in her heterochromic irises. I bet she saw my messages after the fact. Blaza continued regardless.

"Socks took a weird medicine that Meme made, which got him possessed by a thing called a hybrid. We named him Gulvic, who killed Muffin and Meme, and infected Laff with another hybrid named Ryzo who shot Woolf—"

TBVG interrupted,

"I didn't understand about ninety percent of that. All I heard was Socks, Meme, and kill. Slow down."

I heard Joocie mutter,

"Muffin, Meme, and Woolf are.. dead?"

Tbh nudged Blaza, and announced,

"But, there's no need to panic!"

Oof raised his voice,

"What the hell do you mean? How are we supposed to stay calm when two of our closest friends from highschool are apparently dead?!"
——————————————————
-Woolf POV-

"Gosh dang it- DINO OPEN THE DOOR ALREADY."

"Woolf, they can't hear you whatsoever."

We've been flying for hours, only to get back at the base at about seven o'clock at night. I glanced at Muffin after he spoke. His green eyes were starting to get duller the longer he held the tearglass. The only person that paid any attention to us was Nadwe, who stood silently across the room in the midst of the adults' loud talking. I angrily let out a sigh, opening my eyes only to stare and bore a hole through Dino's head. Ready to punch his face in, I pounded on the glass door, effectively making all the physicals look in our direction. Muffin glared at me, and thought, 'what do you think you're doing?'. I replied,

"I'm trying to have them let us inside, what else?"

Dino, finally turning around towards the glass, opened the door for us. Brisk air followed us inside as Muffin immediately glided to Tbh, who was startled by the golden artifact suddenly being placed into his hands. He stuttered,

"W-why am I the one who has to?"

Nadwe answered,

"Because you're the one that knows the most?"

Tbh shot back,

"Just because I had the book doesn't mean I immediately know everything. For the record, you have your own book of notes too."

"Well, you're an adult."

"I'm nineteen."

"Exactly, you're an adult."

TBVG interrupted and shouted,

"Someone just do something about it already!"

Dino frowned, getting annoyed about their bickering. His thoughts spoke,

"If we don't get moving soon, we'll all be six feet under."

He breathed in to speak, but before he could, Tbh was yanked back into the hallway and down the stairs. Of course, it was Blaza that did it. The rest of us, which included Muffin, Nadwe, Dino, Ally, TBVG, Oof, Joocie, and myself, just stared at the doorway.

To break the sudden silence that fell over the room, I flew in front of the television, which was mounted on the wall to the right of the door we came through. My reflection was me, but in my ghost form. I sighed, knowing the physicals couldn't hear me, and that I'd be back in my physical form sooner than later. That was my hope, at least.

I looked away from the television, and only saw Nadwe looking up at me once again. My attempt to break the silence failed. It made sense, since the gray tints of my spirit weren't as visible compared to Meme and Muffin's brighter colors. I asked the fifteen year-old,

"Could you tell the rest to stay in this room? Me and Muffin are going to follow those two into the basement."

Muffin perked up upon hearing his name, and blurted out,

"We are?"

"Well, if you weren't planning on it, too bad."

Nadwe chuckled at Muffin's response, and nodded. He announced,

"Okay, the ghosts have asked us to stay up here in this room."

Joocie slowly sat down on the couch and breathed in, the straw in his head swiveling as he sighed,

"I have so many questions."

Nadwe stated,

"I promise we'll get those answered.. at some point."

After everyone understood, I grabbed Muffin by the wrist and flew through the floor, down into the basement. Muffin, forgetting we could fly through objects, let out a small scream before silencing himself after-the-fact. I rolled my eyes and broke into a laugh, as well breaking my stoic and serious facade. Muffin smiled back at me, happy to make me laugh a little. I whispered,

"Okay, where are we heading."

Muffin answered,

"Well, I assumed we'd go toward the group of people over there."

He paused, gesturing to Tbh, Blaza, and Ryzo crowding a doorway to the storage room. My eyes widened at the sight of seeing them all alive, despite seeing two of them not even ten seconds ago. Muffin then deadpanned,

"But, I don't know. Just a guess."
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2339 Words
YOU JUST GOT COZZY'ED AHA!
Half of me is saying this chapter is not one of the finest in the story, but take it either way :)
HOLY CRAP ONE MORE CHAPTER AND THEN PROLOGUE