“You have come,” A voice echoed thru the hollow passageway I walked. It was cold and dark, not to mention damp and unpleasant; it was surrounded by stone wall and seemed to never end. I had been walking for some time now, I don’t know how much. “Keep going,” The voice echoed once more, “You are almost there.” The voice had been sounding every while since I had set foot inside this place; however it was that I had come.

It was all the same, stone walls covered by damp moss, no light and cold air, until… I jumped back, my paws had touched water. I stepped once more and saw that it was indeed water, icy-cold water. I passed thru it quickly and came to the end of the line: A deep gray stone wall just like those around me. I stopped, there was nowhere more to go, I though about going back but then I saw something change in the wall before me.

The gray stone seemed to melt into water and then freeze like ice as it resembled a perfectly clear mirror. I stared at myself in the mirror. I was still wearing that collar I had found in the darkness. I tugged at it how I had done before, it didn’t move. I tugged again, this time harder, it still didn’t move. I tried several times to remove it but I couldn’t. Time after time I failed until I gave up. I sighed and looked into the mirror once more, still me. Or was it me?

A look of horror spread thru me in the mirror as blood begun to fall from my head. First it was just a small trickle of it, but then it begun to grown until all my face was covered in red blood. It fell down my head, it reached my arms first, until it went down to my body and back paws. The blood stopped. It fell to the floor and seemed to stain the mirror with dread. Suddenly my tail lashed in the mirror and it went black.

I opened my eyes to come face to face with myself. Just like me, as if I still stood in the mirror. But there was one small difference: The other me had been stained with blood. I seemed to stare into nothing with horror and dread, and, was that regret? I don’t know. But I knew something was wrong. When I lifted my paw, the other me did as well, when I put it back down, so did the other one.

For some reason I wanted tor run, run for my life. It was very dark and I had a feeling something terrible was coming. As if the other me had read my thoughts, it frowned and placed one paw on the collar it whore tightly around it’s neck. I wanted to take it off. So I tugged once more, but this time, the other me didn’t. It shacked its head and smiled. I realized in that moment that I could not take it off. What did it mean? I had to know.

Yet I swallowed my words as I saw what that meant: I could only stare in fear as the other me became my worse nightmare. He became smaller, his fur changed from orange to yellow, and everything else changed into something completely different. I saw into red eyes and red eyes saw into me. It was him, face to face, I knew who he was. And I wish I didn’t. He smiled a final grin and placed his paw on the collar once more, “No matter what you do, you will never escape me,” He whispered, “Because I created you and will always be a part of you, Daichu.”

I woke up with a shock to discover it had been a dream. And not only that, I had trashed in my dream and discovered the horror the nightmare had wanted to show me: There Ruby lay in to floor of the cave, bleeding and panting from a gush on her stomach. I could not believe it. I first did not know what I had down, but I soon found out as I stared at my blood-stained paws and gasped. H-Had I killed Ruby? No, she was still alive, but I had hurt her. I had to do something, I didn’t know how to care for a hurt friend so I did the only thing I could think of.

I ran outside as quickly as I could to look for help. If I didn’t soon, she would be dead, and it would be my entire fault. I had never felt more horrible in my life, or had it? I couldn’t remember. I just ran, following a blinded hope. I tripped on a stick and fell to the still wet floor. I had to get up, I had to get help. But I couldn’t. I felt a great pain in one of my back paws and couldn’t move. I had failed. Ruby would die, and it was my entire horrible fault. Or so I thought as a somewhat familiar voice reached my ears and someone hovered above me.

“Think he’s dead?” Asked a voice, it sounded like a male yet not as strong as a full grown adult would, “Of course he’s not!” Came another one, this one was harsh yet feminine. “What do we do?” Asked the first one, “I think he’s hurt, can you carry him?” Answered the second one; “Sure,” was the last thing I heard before my mind closed and once more it all went dark.

=============================================================

In some part of the forest paws rushed, four large ones and two small ones, and as the rain fell once more, they reached a large cave with a startled yelp from the larger one. Placing the one carried one the floor, the little one ran towards the pool of blood around a hurt Espeon. “She’s still breathing; I think I can save her.”