With a clouded mind and thrashing chest, Leon collapsed onto his bed and shut his eyes, praying sleep would take him instantly.
But no matter how much he tried, the sleep he prayed for never came. The only thing that took over was something he wasn't prepared for, something out of his league.
The sky's small view through his window began to change as tiny golden lights appeared on his skin. Every movement they took was like a signal sent to him from the sky.
Clouds moved in the same shape and pulsed in the same movement. But the only thing that made it different was the moon's color.
"Should I just surrender like they did?" he muttered under his breath as he cracked his eyes open and stared at the amazing display of the clouds in the sky.
"What am I even thinking!" he laughed so loud it sounded as if he was on an isolated island. But his voice didn't sound like one that accompanies laughter; it sounded like one for a distant sorrow.
"How will Lily and Mother feel when they hear I didn't make it out alive?" He inhaled deeply, clenched his jaw, and shut his eyes, letting the inhaled air force itself through his veins.
Everything, every place, and everyone he had met turned into a reel in his mind. They all moved, floated like a rolling movie.
His breathing slowed and turned like a breeze on a leaf when Tiger's face came in.
His chest heaved countless times until everything and every memory vanished, letting the darkness in him swallow him whole.
Then, as he drifted through his own dream, sweat beaded on his skin as he saw two mighty beings draped in long, shimmering white robes standing beside him.
"Who are you?" he questioned in a voice that blasted everything around him, but didn't even move a hair on the beings' skin.
They stared at him like his own reflections. His physical body twitched every time he blinked and saw them still staring, still watching him.
'What's happening…' his thoughts screamed as he lowered his head and found out he wasn't standing on any solid ground. Instead, he was hovering in the air like a bird without wings.
The sweat beading on his physical body doubled, wetting the bedsheet covering him so deeply that it looked as if it were transparent.
Every turn he made in his dream took a change in his sleep posture.
The way he floated wasn't what caused him to wish for solid ground; instead, it was how he saw himself in the beings' eyes.
All actions they did looked as if they were cast out from the depths of a void, while holding the key to death itself.
Then, as the beings tilted their heads away from him, he felt slightly okay. But as he saw himself following them at an unimaginable speed, he screamed.
This time, the tips of the robes covering the beings' legs rose just a little. Yet, they moved without looking at Leon's struggle.
As they reached a radiant, endless land above the clouds, Leon clutched his face in his palm, trying to cover himself from the skin-tearing light.
Slowly, the light dimmed, revealing a giant gate. The angles of the gate itself gleamed like all earthly kings' treasures merged into one.
The gate opened as the beings neared it, letting Leon see something he first thought was just a myth.
There, he saw a vast storehouse of snow and frost, guarded by fearsome beings with skeletal faces holding sickles in their hands.
As they neared them, some stood there like watchers keeping vigil over a distant planet.
Before he could give meaning to what he saw, another gate loomed in front of them and opened instantly. It pulled them into it like darkness swallowing light.
Leon gasped as they stumbled upon a massive ocean, suspended impossibly. It looked as if it had been held back by a supreme being, unknown to any man.
Sweat beaded on his dream body, but on his physical body, the sweat turned into reddish liquid. Blood.
Then, as they surged forward, he saw wild horses harnessing the wind and holding it back as if waiting for an appointed time to let it loose.
The moment they moved past the ocean, a hard, metallic rod similar to that of the platform's ring surged toward him in haste.
His breath snapped as he realized that the one holding it was one of the skeletal-faced beings.
And in its eye socket, he saw a black, starless eye that seemed to be caging Leon's soul with just a stare.
Slowly, it raised one of its bony fingers and traced it across its throat in the same sequence Tiger showed Leon at the arena.
Everything in the dream crumpled like a sheet as he launched forward, gasping for breath.
And when his vision cleared, his heart froze as he found himself sleeping in a flooded bed.
And at that same time, he saw a leg standing beside his bed. As fear dwelled inside him, Leon raised his head slowly, hoping it was just a trick played by his eyes.
Just as his gaze reached the waist, he swallowed hard upon seeing something that looked similar to the things on the beings he had seen in his vision.
With slight hope and a trembling mind, he continued tilting his head. The moment his eyes reached the face, his heart stopped as he saw a grim face.
With a trembling body and bone-shaking legs, he surged toward the light switch and flipped it.
As the room brightened with the light, he realized the person beside his bed was no other than Mr. Lee.
Leon's heart hammered as his mind replayed the terrifying cosmic dream, the rod, and the grin he saw in the darkness.
To find Mr. Lee standing there calmly under the light was a shock he hadn't had before. If he had had a heart problem, it would've been his last day on Earth.
"Sir… I…" he tried to speak, but his voice came in a raw, stammering sequence.