Author's Note: I wrote two very different versions of this. In fact I wrote one, misplaced it and began again only the second time it was completely different. This is my second version. If you read my first version you will notice my main characters are COMPLETELY different. (e.g. hair color, attitude, EVERYTHING) *Hehe* So I decided to post them as separate stories. This is deeper, and darker, the main character is lost and confused and well… sarcastic. Humor is more sarcastic type. For a story with a more shounen ai, funny-humory, the hero in the other version is innocent, blunt, funny, and confused in some ways. I recommend that one as well. Heck, even if you prefer this one I recommend checking that one out at least to just see how completely different it can go. It's titled My Sacrifice. Thanks to all who reviewed. Thanks for all advice. You guys are great. You ROCK!! J

Lightning flashed in the distance. The earth gave way. Pain and pleasure warred within the creature. Brilliant green eyes slit like a cat's flashed from the shadows. A roar pierced the cold night air echoing above the sound of rain and thunder. Hands curled into claws reaching up towards the darkened heavens. There were no stars tonight. Creatures where born from the Ether of all creation on nights like this. Nights like this opened gateways. Nights like this let the magickal happen. Dreams, hopes, fears, nightmares could all take form tonight. On this night... a beast was born, the lock was broken, the door was open… not to be shut.

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Shadows and light warred on the both sides of his closed eyelids. Outside a night with a full moon, wind shaking the barren trees outside his window casting shadows of grasping talons, snatching hands across his bed.

Inside… a dream stirred within his mind. A nightmare of a creature with brilliant green eyes that was so hungry it wanted to devour everything in its path as it stood and roared a battle cry blinking its cat like eyes as it stared at its body in wonder… and later disgust. The laughter of a mad man rang through the cold air casting clouds of steam to blanket a city… no a world… then it went beyond until many planets went dark. The light seemed to be absorbed by a living shadow… A distant part of his mind wondered how it had gotten this far. Then he wondered how it had spread and as if to answer him small patches, small swirls of energy appeared on the first world and ever subsequent world. Lighting up like small galaxies… it was like the swirl of the Milky Way he had seen in General Science but… purple and then blazing with other colors. Then one by one they went dark. And he felt something… a sadness, it reminded him of when he was little and he had realized that it was his birthday and he had no one to remember it much less celebrate it with him.

Then he was somewhere else. He looked down his feet had sunk at least an inch in red sand, sand that reminded him of the baseball park he had played in when he was younger. Even more bright red then his hair got in the summer sun. He wiggled his toes and could feel it gently sandpapering his skin. A small whirlwind blew the sand. Sending tumbling in a small dust devil away from him and as his gaze followed it he noticed that he was in a desert… red sand dunes for miles and past them a mountain range of bright red sand and beige swirled sand stone, past that mountains and past that a sky different from anything he could remember. Brilliant purple churning with dark vibrant blue, angry violet red, flashes of green and yellow lightning with clouds of dark fog as brilliantly colored as the sky churning around swirling in intricate pattern enormous. When he looked above him he could feel his stomach drop and his throat contract so he could barely breath. A vortex was above his head darker then the rest but as he watched it brightened and then went black, a starry sky very much like the ones he saw from the roof of his home only he didn't recognize any of the stars… not at first. But for some reason he couldn't understand when he recognized the stars they filled him with dread.

He felt himself walk towards the center of the swirling vortex above him. He couldn't stop himself he took the next dew steps that carried him to the center of the ring of wind and stood looking up facing the eye of the storm. He felt his arms lift up spread, he heard his voice even though he knew he wasn't breathing and then felt the world freeze. Everything stopped. The storm above him like a solid object instead of twisting air and water vapor even the dark reddish brown hair that fell in front of his eyes froze mid fall and then a scream tore through the air making him want to fall and pull his hands to cover his ears. The pain and rage in the cry shook him… and then darkness.

Michael sat up suddenly and found that the silence and terrible darkness had not infolded him. He had been dreaming. He sat there panting trying to catch his breath. Trying to get air in his protesting lungs. His throat felt dry, hoarse and tight as though he had been screaming. Maybe he had. He ran a hand through his dark hair and found it soaked with sweat, "fuck." The sound of his own voice reassured him.

He looked around and found the cold darkness trapping. Normally he appreciated the silence of not having a roommate but now the silence felt oppressive. Quiet and darkness surrounded over him like a jail cell. He hopped out of bed wrapping the sheet around him as he went. He turned on the lights and in every room he went through and then turned on his radio and TV and the heater determined to make the house as bright and warm as he could in hopes of warming the chill that seemed to have arrived with his nightmare. He lay on the couch as some lady tried to sell watchers an edible hair removal product and accessories; he snorted softly shacking his head before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.