[hider=The Dream]
The first thing to greet Seren was the sound of whispering. They were in a playground, of what appeared to be an elementary school. The scenery was simplistic and bland, as expected of a dream. Raphael was little here, maybe 5 or 6, sitting alone on a swing with his head bowed sadly. He seemed so lonely, dragging his feet over the sand underneath him and gripping the swing’s chains until it left marks in the palms of his hands.

Seren’s hearing would tune it, bringing them to focus upon the other children— if that’s what you could call them. In his dream, the other children were malicious smoky black figures with demonic red eyes, morphing and shaping with evil fanged smiles.

“He’s so weird.”
“Hey, don’t say that, his daddy will come after you.”
“What a baby.”
“Can’t even stand up for himself.”

Suddenly the image warped into another scene, filled with screams and shouts of the children. This time Raphael was a little older, and on top of another boy. They were fighting.

[color=gold]”Just leave me alone already! I just want to be alone!!”[/color] 

Another shift in reality brought Seren to outside of a principal’s office, with Raph curled up on one of those cheap blue chairs, his face tucked into his lap. Vaguely and muffled came the voice of who you could only assume was the principal: “Your son has been acting out at school. I’m sorry, but we can not tolerate this behavior any longer. You must homeschool him.”

With a blink, they were now in a young Raphael’s room. There was drawings discarded without care into a trash bin beside a piano, where the blonde boy sat playing. Beside him stood a tall brunette woman, the image of her face scratched out in his mind. “The wrong note again? When will you get this right?!” A ruler cracked down on his knuckles, making the fae boy yelp out in pain, holding his hands. “You’re so slow. What will your father think?”

Everything went dark. An echoing voice cried out familiarly [color=gold]”Just go away!”[/color] A sword, seemingly made of pure light, slashed through the darkness.

As light refilled the scene, Raphael stood as he does now, paralyzed in shock as he gazed down upon the injured woman. Beside him was a pure beauty, a small blonde woman with stunning features but most noticeably large iridescent insectlike wings protruding from her shoulder blades. 

[color=gold]”No. I won’t go back with you. You abandoned me once, you won’t do it again.”[/color]

Raphael ran away, the faerie woman calling out to him silently. He eventually landed upon this very school, collapsing into a sleep. The dream suddenly cut out.[/hider]

[color=gold]”Ah!”[/color] Raph shot up out of his sleep, sweat dripping down his face and panting hard. He hadn’t dreamt about that in so long... The fae boy held his head, in a weak attempt to stop the horrible pounding in his temples. [color=gold]”Why...?”[/color] He asked himself shakily.

[@Metamore]