The Seven: Wanted Dead or Alive
Chapter 33: Waking nightmare
Title: Waking nightmare
Prompt: Armor
Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance, Western, Yaoi.
Word count: 402
Characters: Jakotsu
Prompt Summary: Jakotsu wakes up and realizes what's going on.
Won second place for prompt!
As a strange feeling began to settle over Jakotsu's subconscious, he began to awake; trying to dismiss the feeling so he could return to his slumber. Fortunately, the nagging sensation that something wrong was far too strong for him to ignore and he soon shot up in bed to glance around the dark room. For a moment, he began to think the feeling had simply been in his dream and was about to dismiss it when he notice a strange scent in the air.
Taking a few experimental sniffs, he could sense a memory creeping up on the edge of his mind, trying to remind him of what the scent represented, but it couldn't quite fight its way to the surface. Somehow knowing it was important to figure out what his mind was trying to tell him, Jakotsu forgot about going back to sleep and began breathing in deep breaths; hoping a stronger dose of the smell would speed things up.
Suddenly a flash appeared in his mind; gone as quickly as it had come and only serving to leave him even more confused. Shaking his head, Jakotsu attempted to remove the blocks in his mind that was preventing him from remembering what he was trying to; leaving his subconscious with no more armor to protect him from the pain. As he concentrated on the thought just out of reach, the flash returned and he finally realized it was a bolt of lightening.
As he did, another piece of the puzzle that made up the memory flashed before him in the form of his mother's face and Jakotsu had to fight back the urge to cry. He had not been able to recall her face in years and now it was so clear in his mind as though she was standing before him. Much to his relief, before he could dwell on her for too long, another flash appeared; this time of an old, worn down barn.
Suddenly the pieces began to fit, connecting themselves into a memory he wished to have forgotten long ago. A memory from when he was only four years old. The night his mother abandoned him. The night of the summer storm. The night the barn caught on fire...
"Fire!" Jakotsu cried out before he even realized what he was saying. It was at that moment that he began to realize just how hot it had gotten.