Nightmare Gallery Ch: 4

Walking down the long hall way, Sesshoumaru tried to go back up the stairs after getting the rose, only to find that the staircase had disappeared while he was getting the rose, or, it had disappeared after he got off the stairs and wondered down the hall. Either way, he didn’t have a way to go back and now he was forced to walk further into this nightmare. Looking at the rose that he had tucked into his pants pocket, the youkai wondered what he was to do about it… He knew that he should just throw it away, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to do that for he felt his own energy within the rose… there had to be something wrong with him to sense that…

Shaking his head, the youkai had to stop thinking like that. There wasn’t anything special about this rose, there was nothing about it and he knew it. Looking forward, the young man saw the doors that lingered on the walls of the hallway. Was one of these doors a way out? He couldn’t really be sure though it wouldn’t hurt to try to find some way out of here right?

Walking to the first door that was closest to him, Sesshoumaru grabbed the knob only to be shocked as soon as he touched it. It wasn’t enough to hurt him but it was enough to cause his arm to go numb for a few seconds. Rolling his eyes, he walked to the next door, wanting to see if the next one would at least lead him to an exit from this hell hole. Sadly, the next door exploded and sent him flying with the door, of course slamming into him. ’Why did that hurt me?’ thought a confused Sesshoumaru, he pulled back his jacket to reveal an unharmed blue rose and sighed softly in content… wait why did he even care about the stupid rose in the first place?

“I am only causing an inner turmoil… nothing more.” He mumbled to himself before he shook his head and walked through the doorway. It made things easier for him to get through since he could keep pushing himself to go forward. Yet, he didn’t know what more could be seen in this place… nor did he really care for that matter.

From what he could see though, it just looked like an empty hall. Not really much to look at, it was just greyish black walls and nothing more. “Some gala…” muttered Sesshoumaru before he looked forward. As he walked though, he couldn’t help but wonder more and more about the rose and of course the weird pain that he had gone through just moments ago. How could he have felt any kind of pain in the first place? Most of all, why could he still sense his own life within the rose, was there more to this rose than he thinks or is this all just in his head? No, this couldn’t be in his head, for this was all just a lie and a dream. Perhaps he is just in the normal gallery and he had passed out or something or maybe, he was still in his bed sleeping peacefully.

That would be something he would rather happen… there would be no way that he would accept that he would have passed out if this had happened. Growling softly, the youkai refused to believe that he could have passed out or to even accept that it had even happened in the first place. He wouldn’t have that kind of thing to taint his honour as a youkai. The thought of Inuyasha finding him passed out sent chills up his spine, though not the kind you would get with fear. Far from it, more along the lines that he was so angry that his anger could not go any hotter, but went colder if that made sense.

Shaking his head, the young man knew that he would have to hurry up and leave this empty hallway. It had nothing here, and it bothered him to see such an empty hallway. To him, every hall, no matter where it was, had to have something. Like a window or some kind of picture or painting. Either way, there would be something on the wall or he knew that it would be the way it should be. At least to him anyway, though that could mostly be because he grew up around art and valued it in any shape or form.

Looking up, Sesshoumaru was surprised that he didn’t see any kind of sky light… was this place underground or maybe it really was nothing more than some kind of dream… ’I may just need to keep going through with this dream just so I can get out of here sooner…’ thought Sesshoumaru before giving his head a small shake.

Looking ahead, he frowned a little when he saw a weird looking door. It was blue as the sky when the sun was up high. Did that mean that this was the exit? That would be interesting if that was the case but either way he knew that he would have to be careful since he still had that weird feeling about this place… like this was some other kind of world that was created by some kind of unknown power or strength of will. He couldn’t really be sure what it was, but what he did know was that he would have to stay on his toes with this place for now…

After all, when in an unknown and new location, you need to be careful no matter where you are. He had to be on his guard, if only he had his sword with him but at the very least he had his claws… “What is with this place anyway?” asked Sesshoumaru, not really expecting any kind of answer in the first place.

He reached the door at long last, and reached for the door knob. Though, as soon as he had grabbed it, the door had flung open, though not like the last one had. No, in fact this one had been opened from the other side for something had thrown itself at him. From what he could make out of his attacker, it was… ’A woman in a picture frame?’ It was, a woman, the upper part of her body sticking out of a golden frame, she wore a blue dress and had bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She had thrown herself at him and tried to attack him by swinging her arms. For a painting, it was strong as any demon he had ever faced in his entire life.

The woman in blue let out weird grunting sounds, as if she was trying to grab at something though he couldn’t be sure what it was. Not as of yet anyway… either way, he knew that he had to push her back with all his strength but damn it, she was strong. “Get off of me!” shouted Sesshoumaru using his youkai strength to throw her off of him before jumping back up onto his feet. This was not what he had in mind when he had walked through this place. Okay yeah he wanted to see art but art that came to life!?

Before he knew it, the woman in blue leapt at him once again and tried to grab at him, as if she was after something on his person. Whatever this thing was after, he didn’t know but he wouldn’t let this person have it… wait, could it even be considered a person? Nah. Growling darkly, Sesshoumaru swung his claws at the woman in blue hoping to scare it off though it seemed that she… it… was braver than he gave credit for she kept on trying to attack him for some kind of item on his person. This was not going down very well… he should have won by now.

Rather, the woman in blue seemed to be using more strength, to the point of it matching the power of a full youkai. How is that even possible?! There is no way that some kind of painting like this could have any kind of demonic energy and yet here it was, proving him wrong. Shaking his head, Sesshoumaru lifted his leg and kicked the woman in the face, hoping that would shake her off or at least get her to leave him alone. So far that did little to no good for it seemed that she only bit his ankle causing him to slam his leg into the walls, hoping that would get her to let go of him. Damn it! What was with this thing in the first place?!

Before he knew it, the woman reached out at him, trying to grab at something once again. Was there something on him that it wanted? Whatever it was, it had to be important or it was after it for another reason. He didn’t know nor did he really care about what it wanted only that he wanted the stupid thing off of him before it ruined his pants!

Growling darkly, Sesshoumaru spun around to build up momentum and slammed his leg into the wall one last time, causing the creature to fall off and land on the ground unmoving. Was it dead or simply knocked unconscious? It had him curious for he knew for a fact that it couldn’t have killed a youkai if this thing, of course had the power of one but did it also mean it was a youkai? He walked over toward the creature, careful to make sure that if it made any sudden movements, he would kill it without a problem. He just had to be careful was all and of course be prepared of the whole thing.

Carefully, very carefully, Sesshoumaru examined the creature, wondering what it really was. There had to be something special about the whole thing though he didn’t know what it was. To him, all it looked like was a woman crawling out of the painting and nothing more… was it some kind of spell or perhaps it was all just part of his dream. He didn’t know nor did he really care. Tilting his head, he had to admit for a human, she was beautiful but not enough for him to really feel sorry for her.

Her blonde hair covered her face so he couldn’t really make out any details only that to him, she looked like a normal human woman that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. Not a very large crowd anyway so the best bet is to just finish off the creature before he continued on with his journey. Standing up, the youkai held out his claws as he got ready to strike but before he could the young woman-looking creature jumped up and swiped her hand at him.

Before he could react, Sesshoumaru saw her rushing off in what looked like she was crawling. Guess without having legs that was all the creature could do but either way, she was fast. Tilting his head at the retreating creature, Sesshoumaru checked his body to see if she had placed anyone on him or if she had caused him any kind of damage that would require him to rest in any way…

“Wait… the rose is gone…” Sesshoumaru said with a frown. That explains the weird feeling of his life moving through the area. Shrugging to himself, the youkai didn’t really think that it would have mattered much to him anyway, nothing worth his troubles to try to find the rose in the first place.

“May as well keep walking.” He said to himself before continuing down the hall. Now he could go back to his quest to get the hell out of here and make sure that he would have this place wiped from his memory and nothing more and nothing less. As he walked though, Sesshoumaru couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease and… lifelessness if that was possible. It felt like he was empty inside, like there was something wrong with him and there was just something wrong in general though he didn’t know what it could be.

Soon, he started to feel pain in his chest. Odd, he shouldn’t feel any kind of pain like that, let alone in his chest… Stopping for a moment, Sesshoumaru placed a hand over his chest, right over his heart before shrugging it off and started to walk on forward once again. Only to stop when he felt the pain starting to worsen. What was wrong with him? How can he, the great Sesshoumaru feel a pain that was unknown to youkai? Gritting his teeth, the silver haired youkai felt the pain spreading all over his body, feeling like his body was being run over with a steam roller over and over again for months.

Vision started to blur, the pain was becoming unbearable and it made him want to vomit what little he had in his stomach at this moment. Breathing deeply, the youkai leaned against the wall, hoping that would support him until he could get further away from this hall, thinking that was the cause of the pain that he was feeling.

No wait… did it have anything to do about the… no that’s just silly! It wasn’t possible and it broke the laws of physics and he knew that! Yet, that was the only thing that he could conclude to be the problem of his pain. Gritting his teeth once again, Sesshoumaru fell to his knees before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and that was when his world became dark…