Ashley's Chronicles: Dream Diary

It was a few minutes after Pyra's first date- or was it the second…?
Who's keeping track anymore, honestly. What was supposed to be a cute date with her new boyfriend, Clash Kopis, resulted in her soul being diagnosed with demons and darkness. Clash was understandably upset - his girlfriend was possibly in danger and neither she nor he had any clue as to what was wrong.
However…
Pyra had her own concerns. Not just her soul being… corrupted. She honestly, genuinely felt okay. At least- as far as she was concerned. Actually, on second thought, no. The thing that had her concerned was a very likely consequence of her soul's corruption.
She had a bizarre case of amnesia that affected her memories of her past lives as a phoenix, and she had no clue until now when it was thrown into her face. It felt like a void in her head, eating away at her brain, causing her a headache as she became concerned with what was missing. It frustrated her to no end - it was like tip of the tongue. Something was there, but what?

Pyra sighs, holding her head with her left wing, walking drunkenly down the sidewalk. Eventually, her wing falls down to pinch just above her beak, feeling great tension there. Now that she was away from Clash, she was perfectly fine about openly showing discomfort. She just wants to get back to her apartment as fast as possible.
If only she could just close her eyes, pass out, and appear in her bed. Sadly, of all the powers she could have gotten from the superpower lottery, teleportation isn't one of them. She doesn't even have a Chaos Emerald to make the trip easier, and her mood is so shot that she's scared she wouldn't be able to focus on flying.
She eventually comes up to a familiar apartment building, and she takes a deep breath.
Not much further to walk at least.
A few more minutes pass - into the door, up the elevator, the same trip she's done countless times before. After going to the third floor, she walks to room 313 and tries to open the door.
Locked.
She knows she doesn't have the key, so in frustration, she bumps her head on the door.
"Who's there? Pyra?" A familiar voice rings out. Pyra can't help but smile upon hearing it. With her right wing, she taps the door hard in a rhythmic fashion.
Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock. Knock knock.
Shave and a haircut, two bits.
After a couple of seconds, she hears the door unlock and she backs away as her sister, Julie, opens the door.  
Pyra looks down to Julie, smirking softly though clearly exhausted. The chubby kitten smiles back at first, holding her hands together in front of her red shorts, but she suddenly feels something's off, and her thick, long, fluffy tail begins flicking around in light anxiety as she pouts.
"What's up? Are you okay? Did he do som-"
"I'm fine, he didn't do anything bad. I think we - as in, you and me - need to talk, though." Pyra interrupts as she walks toward the door.
Julie stops her from entering, causing Pyra to groan. "About what?"
"About me, in private, please let me in."
Julie sighs, stepping out of the way and holding the door open for Pyra.

The living room of their apartment is fairly plain and small - the apartment itself was fairly cheap, and neither had done much to make it look nice aside from keeping it clean, which was mostly Julie's work.
As Pyra walks in, she looks in Julie's bedroom for Sonya, their little red and blue Chao that Clash had recently got for them, and sees them sleeping.
Aw…
She kinda wants to pet them, but she doesn't want to wake the little baby up. They've recently got them a couple of toys to play with, all mostly plushies which litters the bedroom, messily.
Shortly after, she makes her way to the couch and flops onto it, leaning back and trying to close her eyes to rest a little.
"So, you wanted to talk?" Julie snaps at her, understandably concerned.
"Y- yeah, sorry…" Pyra opens her eyes a little - even the dim light in the room is blinding to her due to her headache. "So… Clash and I had our date, and it was pretty nice, but…"
"But?"
"You know how he has soul-based powers?" Pyra asks, looking toward Julie.
Julie has to think about it. "Uh… yeah? He let me see his ghost friends, I think? Did Kane do anything?"
"...no?"
"Surprising-"
"W- whatever, let me get to the point. Clash, after I asked him to, looked inside my soul. All he saw was darkness, and some weird Nightmare demon at the center of my soul."
Julie's ears fall even lower than they normally do upon hearing this. "I… Hm- yeah, that's definitely not good."
Pyra scoffs at her sister's reaction. "You think? And honestly, that's not the worst part."
"Oh dear."
"I'm a phoenix, when I die I'm reborn from ashes, that whole thing. As it turns out, I'm supposed to remember my past lives. So why the hell can't I?!"
Julie looks away, tightening her fists as she tenses up. She isn't sure how to handle this, she can barely parse just how serious this is supposed to be. "W- well… What if this is your first life? I- I mean, I've never noticed anything wrong-"
"Julie."
"What?"
"Todd found me in a pile of ashes during one of his nightly walks. Why was I, a little baby bird, in a pile of ashes in an alleyway?"
Julie almost gasps, she hasn't heard that name in more than a year. After they left Sapphire Bay, they hadn't kept in contact with anyone associated with the royal family. That, plus the irrefutable proof that something fishy is going on is… intense, for her. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then walks over to the couch and sits down beside Pyra, hunched over with her hands clasped together. She brings them up to her mouth as she stares forward, then brings them back down to her thighs while shaking her head. Pyra extends a wing, rubbing her sister's back, though she's getting a tiny bit irritated by Julie's silence and… somewhat bizarre reaction.
"We… might need to get you a therapist-"
"A… what?"
"You know, a psychologist? Someone that can help you through your strug-"
"Julie! I'm not crazy, I probably need an exorcism before I need to be psychoanalyzed!"
Julie stares at her with aggressive seriousness. Pyra realizes she must have said something wrong.
"It's wrong to assume therapy is only for 'crazy' people, that it's a bad thing! But fine- whatever. I was just thinking of something to maybe help."
Pyra puts her face into her wings and rubs it, groaning loudly. "Chaos… sorry, yeah, I'll admit that was wrong. I know you're trying to help, but like… I need answers and maybe some emotional backup from my sister?"
"I- I know, it's just… I don't have those answers. I don't know what to say or suggest…" She responds, calmed down yet clearly down about the whole ordeal.

The room sits in silence for a few minutes. As time crawls forward, Pyra becomes more and more on-edge.
"...you died in an alleyway in Sapphire Bay?" Julie suddenly breaks the silence.
They blink in response. "W- what? How am I supposed to know that?"
"...Pyra, you're not that much of an idiot-"
"Hey!" She snaps back.
"It's pretty fucking obvious, hun. You were born in an alley, so you died in an alley, unless the ashes got moved somehow. All that matters now is how you died. My guess? A murder."
"How do you figure that, Miss Smarty-Pants?"
"It's an alley. If you die in an alley, you're either homeless and not in good health or you just got mug...-"
Pyra's eyes shoot open wide as Julie's voice fades out. Deep breaths, breathe in, breathe out. Please, calm down…
An image flashes through her mind of a large, green porcupine with a shit-eating grin and evil eyes towering over her with a jagged knife coated in... green slime? Towering over her in an alleyway.
She's had recurring nightmares of being murdered in an alleyway, but she never paid them much mind. It never clicked for her like it just did.
She feels a touch on her shoulder, and she lunges off the couch while flailing her wings around in a panic.
"Woah, Pyra, woah! What's wrong, are you okay?!" Julie panics in response.
"Fuck, jeez- I forgot you were there… Chaos damn, don't touch me like that!"
"I was trying to see if you were alright! You were scaring me, wouldn't respond for a good few minutes."
They blink, squint their eyes, then shake their head as if shaking off what they were about to say. "Whatever- okay, I've had a nightmare of dying in an alley once. Think that could mean anything?"
Julie is a little taken back by this, but in the end, she snaps out of it and thinks for a moment…
"I mean- yeah? Maybe… I'll be looking into the possible murder from 20 years ago tonight, definitely, but I have a suggestion."
Julie walks over to a backpack resting on a counter by the TV and pulls out a notebook, before walking over to Pyra and handing it out. "You should probably start keeping a dream diary."
"A dream diary…? How the hell do I do that?"
Julie stares blankly at her in annoyance, before shaking her head and lightly bonking her in the head with it. "You write in it about your dreams. You know how to write, right?"
Pyra narrows their eyes at Julie before snatching the book away from her. "Yeah, I know how to write. Tell me, when did you get a stick up your fat ass and how do I get it out? I really don't need this."
"When you came home and told me your soul was messed up and that you had amnesia. I know you're upset, but at the same time I feel you're not taking this seriously enough."
Pyra just sighs and sets the notebook to her side. "Get me a pencil or whatever for when I wake up then, cause I'm going to sleep now." At that moment, she lays down and stretches out on the couch, opening the notepad and putting it over her eyes to shield them from the light.
"Alright then. Have a good rest, Pyra." Julie says with a light, somewhat relaxed chuckle before walking off to go find a pencil to slip into the rings of the notebook later.

Pyra lays there, taking deep breaths. She slowly tries to clear her mind, but her head continues to hurt, even if it's just a small pain in the back of her mind… When she finds she can't force her mind to be clear, that she can't just try to clear her mind, she simply starts to focus on ignoring it, and on her breathing. She rolls onto her side with her beak pointing toward the back of the couch, and the notepad falling off her face into an awkward position.
She decides to pick it up and put it behind her on the floor, much to Julie's annoyance. Julie decided to hold back from lashing out at Pyra, however, since she agrees that they really don't need it.
For a few minutes it seems so hard to sleep, she wants to just slip away into darkness.
Then, suddenly, everything goes black…

Well, this is my first entry since Julie gave me this notebook. I'm not sure if I should be surprised or not, but before I went to sleep I was talking to my sister Julie about a recurring nightmare I had in the past, and I had it again. I guess thinking about it is what caused it.
In the dream, I'm walking through Sapphire Bay at night. I walk past many old buildings, some I recognize, others that were torn down at some point or replaced... I also walk past many alleys, and as always, I pass by the same alley, and I get aggressively pulled in and thrown to the ground. This green, hulking mass of porcupine towers over me, brandishing a jagged knife. The porcupine cuts himself, and his green blood oozes into it... then he swings it at me.
And I wake up.

I always noticed I feel huge in the dream. Like-
I'm not thin, I know, but like- I mean bigger than Julie, even. There's this cat that lives out in the Mystic Ruins, I never met him but he seems nice. Apparently he's a friend of Sonic's? But like, when I say big, I mean THAT big, it feels weird?
If this really is a past life, was I really that fat? I never put this much thought into it before, weird... Then again, this isn't the only dream I've felt like that. It's so dumb.
Well, anyways, I mean... Another thing that I could say is that in a lot of my dreams, I feel very out of body and uncomfortable? I still like passing as tough and badass, but after Julie came out I found I liked how I visualized myself as a girl? And now in my dreams I can definitely feel it, I'm uncomfortable in dreams where I'm masculine. It just kinda sucks to be reminded of that shit. Fuck man...

I don't have much else to say. I'm pretty sure this isn't the last time I'll have this dream, but for the purposes of this dream diary it'd be dumb to keep covering the same nightmare over and over, so hopefully next time I write it'll be something positive. Maybe Julie's right, and this'll help with my phoenix junk.

Sorry for not keeping up with it, Julie. I know you're reading this - you're the one who asked me to do this, but hey, I'm not the writer of us two. Besides, I haven't been remembering most of my dreams recently, so there wasn't much I could do.

Still, uh... Holy fuck.

I just had a bizarre nightmare last night that I was walking down some stairs in what looked like an... old temple, with two other birds I couldn't remember the names of. One was a cardinal and the other was a... white falcon? Or hawk maybe?
It felt oddly familiar, but I really shouldn't be surprised. Guess in a past life I explored temples like some kind of archaeologist.
Well... The three of us get to the bottom of the stairs, and the two other birds start putting these purple spheres into a door. I know I've seen them before, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what the fuck they were called.
This sucks.
The word 'feign' keeps flashing through my mind, but I don't know why. Doesn't really... make sense.

Anyways
With the stones placed in a ring around this "door", I stick my hand out... and the last thing I saw before I woke up were dark clouds covering my body, tearing at my feathers, and a dark face staring back at me.

When I woke up, I felt like I was paralyzed in bed and I was intensely panicky about the darkness in the room. It kinda reminded me of what Clash told me about with my soul - was that a Nightmare? Is that what was in my soul? I just know I didn't like it.

So I had a weird dream just now.
It seemed to be like it was after the last one, but it felt different in some way...? 
I was fighting a demon-possessed wolf dude, I was a monster hunter apparently, and I was surrounded in a deep purple smog that cleared up to reveal an old, destroyed school. Like, really old. It felt like I was back in the medieval era or something, maybe it wasn't even a school, but it didn't look like a church or whatever. 
It didn't feel real, not in the sense that I was dreaming, but instead that I kinda got this 'context' that I was sent into a "Nightmare Realm" by this demon. 
I was fighting alongside another figure, that looked like a purple version of myself. They seem... Familiar. 
I don't like them. 
Still, in this dream this dark me tagged-in to fight against the demon. 
However, they were losing, and whenever they got hit, I felt severe pain. It was so bad that I couldn't move... The last thing I remember before waking up was this demonic wolf holding my purple copy down, and... trying to tear its flesh off. After what felt like minutes of excruciating pain, everything became foggy and fuzzy, and I woke up finally. 
I've still got a small headache from it, though I'm not sure if it's because I napped too long or not? I feel kinda sick and it's like...
11 at night after what was supposed to be a nap...?
I don't think I've had this nightmare before. I... think the wolf was named Zero? I can't help but think of the purple figure as a "Demon Pyro" for some reason, but that really doesn't feel right. 
Hopefully it means nothing. I don't want to think about it.

Whoops.

Julie kinda jumped my butt for not writing in the journal for a while, saying I'm not taking it seriously enough.
It's my soul issue, damn it! Who's to say these dreams even mean anything?
I mean... they clearly do, but that's besides the point. I really haven't been remembering most of my dreams anyways, and whenever I did I just... couldn't think of what to write.
Whatever, I'm writing now, better put it on the paper before I forget.

It's pretty simple, admittedly. I was in an old city that kinda resembled Empire City in old-timey movies or stuff set back then? Point being that it was a while ago. I think I was on the run from someone or something, but everything was really chill at the time.
There was this blue... werehog? Were they a wolf, a hedgehog, a... I don't know. Clearly they were a monster, and though them being a monster was on my mind, I couldn't help but think "friend" just looking at them. I remember talking to them, they seem really nice but I can't quite remember what we were talking about. Food I think? Had we just ate or were we about to go eat somewhere...?
Didn't matter, I guess. This werebeast had a glider of sorts, and for some reason we both started flying.
And that's the thing, the dream ended shortly after this? But it feels like the best dream I've ever had. It felt really nice. They were releasing sparks - cause they could do that apparently - and I boosted through the air with my flames. We circled around one another in mid-air, putting on a show for the people beneath us.
It was like a fireworks show, sparks and fire throughout the sky. It was... awesome.
Afterwards, it suddenly got really cold, and that's when I finally woke up...

Now that I think about it, that werebeast in the dreams reminds me a lot of one of my friends... And looking back on thay dream, I've got a feeling we weren't just friends.