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The sand was rough and cold beneath her skin, as it always was when she laid down on the Margin for a couple hours of sleep. Aqua had to wonder, how much time was she really spending asleep? For all she knew, it could be seconds… hours… days… She would never know. Time flowed strangely in the Realm of Darkness. Seeing as she never aged, she had no clue how many years were passing in the Realm of Light.
Shifting slowly, Aqua felt the beginnings of sleep overtake her mind. Good. She longed for the fuzziness. The thick blanket of darkness on her consciousness, leaving her to revel in her dreams. Dreams were her only escape from this hell she was living. Her memories lived on in her dreams and she took comfort in them. There was the only place she saw Terra and Ven and their master again. The only place where they were smiling and laughing, as they did in days long past.
This time, she didn't dream. She woke with a start, eyes flying open to what felt like someone breathing down her neck.
Her body wouldn't move, no matter how much Aqua attempted to struggle.
She shut her eyes, hoping that she was just dreaming. It was all still a dream.
Opening them again, she saw a dark shape was behind a rock, eyes glowing in the little light. Golden eyes.
No, they were more yellow than gold, an animalistic color. She knew those eyes. They haunted her nightmares and waking terrors, always hiding in the shadows.
Vanitas never came any closer.
After shutting her eyes again and trying to wake herself up, she opened them to see that the creaky, malformed Unversed-master was indeed closer.
With each time she opened and closed her eyes, he was getting closer and closer, his body getting more and more defined. Distorted.
The final time, he was in her face.
His grin was spread unnaturally wide, the skin at the seams frayed and tearing, resulting in blood starting to seep down porcelain skin into the black material ending at his neck.
Aqua could feel his breath on her face, smell what seemed like rotting flesh… Vanitas was dead. Not just in the spiritual, broken heart sense. His body of darkness was decaying, and it had followed her here to Hell, in all of its misshapen perversion.
The terror, not only visible in her eyes, was felt throughout her body, leaving her stunned and anticipating what he could possibly do to her.
All Vanitas did was laugh.
It was a blood chilling cackle that sent her heart to her feet. He was going to kill her. She knew he was going to kill her.
Aqua would die in the Realm of Darkness with no one to remember or mourn her. She would die at Vanitas's sharpened teeth, tearing her throat out like some wild animal.
She shut her eyes once more, shaking. She was able to move and push out with her hands, attempting to get away from her killer.
There was no collision of flesh and fabric.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw that there was nothing there.
No one was there.