Stage 1-R - The Fear

It was the loud crack of thunder that woke Joshua that night, making him shoot upright in an instant and as he struggled for his every breath. For several long minutes, he sat there and fought to regain his breath again, until another thunderous crack drew his attention to the window and to the water droplets that splattered against it and then trailed ever so slowly downward.

Panting, still, with his heart pounding against his ribcage to accommodate the heavy gulps of air, Joshua ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself down by murmuring out loud, just to fill the quiet of the room itself: "Just a dream… it was just a dream…"

But the words that were spoken in his 'dream' still echoed through his head even now, because he knew it was more than just a dream…

Your city is corrupt, Composer!

When he could finally control his breathing again, he allowed himself a sigh of relief. 'It's fine… it's fine… He's dead now, anyway… He has no more power over me…' he told himself, forcing himself to believe those words.

As he lay back down, turning onto his side away from the window, he allowed another small sigh to fill the room before he shut his eyes, completely ignoring the thunderstorm outside.

As another bolt of thunder ripped the sky asunder, dark eyes slid open slowly, lazily, before their owner sat up on the bed, silent. Once awareness had fully kicked in with the individual, a hand was lifted and opened, in which rested nine small magatama charms, each a different color, but all the same size.

The other hand was lifted and then turned, as a series of magatama markings surrounded the wrist, in such a way that they were all locked together. They looked like a bracelet of some sort, but when a thumb was smoothed over them, there seemed to be a small indent in the skin there. And as the charms in the other hand were held to the marks, it became clear that they were the same size.

The discovery caused a small tilt of the head, out of curiosity, and then one charm was taking between calloused fingers and brought to the marks.

"Ichi…" murmured a soft, husky voice, as the charm was pushed into the indented skin. When the fingers moved away, the charm now seemed glued to the skin. Then the second charm was held up. "Ni…" That one stuck as well. "San…" As did the third. "Yon…" And the fourth. "Go… Roku… Nana… Hachi… Kyuu…"

Once the last charm was in place with the quiet utterance, there was a pulse of energy along the skin that caused a jump. And then the charms shifted to "unlock" from each other, and just as suddenly, there was another presence in the room… nine of them, in fact.

"…Heheh… Yes… you're all here again…" said the voice as the nine presences surrounded the owner, not out of malice, but out of respect. "So it's time… finally." A cold, quiet chuckle followed the words, an icy grin splitting open the face of its owner. "You had better prepare yourself, Composer… I'm coming for you…"

to be continued

A/N: Now some of you may be wondering "What the hell is THIS?" Well, THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the REDUX version of this story that I'm currently working on. The first two Stages (at this point) are already posted on AO3, which is where I'll likely be migrating to in its entirety before long. If you're curious to see what's changed during the rewrite, go ahead and look me up on AO3. My handle's still the same, so it shouldn't take you too long to find me.

See you lot there.