Chapter 8
Nightmares
"Uh... uhhhh....."
"D?" The symbiote said turning to the hybrid. "Are you awake?"
D was lying on his side facing away from where the goblin stood. It watched the dhampire stir and shutter, then fall silent again.
A small door opened and a little anthropomorphic cat with bird wings stepped out of the object lift with a plate in her hands. "Lunch." She said, looking over at the symbiote, then at D. "Shall we wake him?"
"Nah." The symbiote said, bored. "Just set it on the table."
"It will get cold." She stated as she walked over to the side table by the bed and sat the plate down.
"He won't care."
She turned and began to leave.
"Ohhhhh...... uhhhh..." D shivered in his sleep again.
"....Is he alright?" She asked.
"Yeah... he's fine." The ghost said and watched her leave, then turned to look out the window again.
"Uhhh... ahhh....."
"Cut it out. You're getting annoying."
"Uh.... Aagghhh!"
It turned and flew over to D. "Wake up!" It said shaking the dhampires shoulder. "Wake up!! Wake—GYAHHH!!!"
D's arm shot up and hit the symbiote in the nose. The ghost flew across the room and hit a decorative gong in the corner of the room, causing a loud PANG to echo throughout the room and halls. D, however, had still not awakened. The symbiote got up and growled in frustration.
Suddenly, Dracula burst through the door, with a nurse behind him, and scurried to D's side. He placed a cold cloth in D's burning forehead and attempted to console the ill hunter. "Be still, my child!" The vampire said grabbing the arm that was being flung around. "You are safe!"
"Ahh...! Ronan...!!"
The symbiote and his king looked at each other. That was a name they hadn't heard in several millennia. Dracula turned back to D. He placed a hand on his sons shoulder and squeezed gently. "Haaaaghhh!!"
Suddenly D sat straight up in bed, throwing his hands over his face and digging his long fingernails into his delicate scalp. He was panting with shaky breaths and a cold sweat trickled down his brow. The dhampire stayed that way for a moment then dropped his hand into his lap.
"...D?" His father said reaching a hand up again.
D rose his eyes and his face flushed red with embarrassment as he noticed his fathers presence. He turned his head away, letting his long brunette locks hide his pale face.
Dracula struggled to see the hunter's eyes through his thick hair with no success. The dhampire rose his hands again and placed them on his cheeks.
"D?"
"Go..." The hybrid said.
Dracula touched D's shoulder, but the dhampire pulled away.
"Leave me!"
The vampire blinked, then slowly got up and left the room with the nurse following him.
The symbiote floated up to the hunter. "...Are you alright?"
D lowered his hands and glanced up at the ghost, a look of striking realization in his eyes.
"It's from stress." The nurse told Dracula as they stood outside of D's bedroom door. "He's under a lot, I think."
The vampire king opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted as the door behind him swung open and an arm reached out to violently push him aside. He caught his balance just in time to watch D scamper down the hall, a robe thrown around him that he hadn't even bothered to tie.
"D! Wait! Stop!!" The symbiote said as it darted off after the dhampire. "It's too dangerous!!!"
Midnight had come. The summer night was humid with sickly, damp air that was as pleasant as soggy bread. The symbiot sat on the sill of the bedroom window idly staring out into the gardens, his eyes fixated on the forest below. Its tale twitched with the anxiety and curiosity that still bothered him after D had left him hanging for so long. He asked one question: if not the barbaroi, what were they then? D had stopped speaking so suddenly. Not that he hadn't done it before, but this time it seemed strange and unlike the dhampire. The symbiote had asked him several times to answer, but nothing came. D seemed distant and chillingly unraveled until he got into bed and fell straight to sleep. It made the ghost wonder.