Usually sleep was not something Scar thought much about, it was merely the resting period after the day had ended, but the odd dreams he had been having recently had not only changed that, but it had started making him weary of going to sleep.
Scar groaned as he roused from sleep. He immediately snapped awake when he noticed that his surroundings were not the same as when he had fallen asleep.
The entrance to his cave no longer led to the outside, but a narrow dimly-lit tunnel. Wearily Scar got up and began walking down the tunnel.
'another dream...' Scar thought, how were they so lifelike? He stopped up and put his paw against the tunnel-wall and felt the coarse texture earth on his paw. If it was not for the strange environment Scar might actually start believing this was real.
The dark lion continued along the tunnel until he saw what seemed like a cave room ahead, but he was unsure as just past where he could see the tunnel ending there was a wall of impenetrable darkness. Just looking at it gave the dark lion a horrible feeling, like there was something inside hungrily looking back at him.
'this seems less of a dream and more like a...' "nightmare" a whispering voice finished Scar's thought and it sent chills down his spine.
"Who is there!?" Scar yelled demandingly into the darkness. The dark lion scoured the darkness for any sign of a presence, but the blackness gave no signs away it hid anyone.
Then he saw it...it was like a faint red firefly inside the darkness, but for some reason looking at it filled him with dread.
A sinister chuckled echoed through the tunnel "You know me well. Better than anyone, afterall..."
Scar lost all his bravado and felt the blood in his veins turn to ice as his mysterious stalker stepped out the darkness. It was a lion, a dark lion like himself. In fact...he looked almost just like him, except for one area. Where he had his scarred eye this lion's eye socket was black with only a faint, yet somehow piercing red light coming from within and the area around the eye had no skin or tissue, showing bare bone, making it look like something had violently torn out this twisted doubleganger's eye.
Scar's trademark was still present, but it was instead cut into the bone leaving two jagged black rifts from his eye into the bone.
"...I am you" the nightmarish version of himself said with a dark sinister smile.
Scar did not know what was going on, but just the presence of this twisted reflection filled him with absolute terror.
"why are you backing away?" the nightmare's chuckles echoed hauntingly through the tunnel.
Scar did not care about the taunt, his entire being screamed at him to get away from that thing as if it was death incarnate. Scar turned about and bolted down the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry him, but even as he rushed down the tunnel it felt as if the nightmare's dreadful presence was slowly getting closer.
Scar dared a cautionally look over his shoulder and his heart almost stopped in sheer terror. The darkness his nightmarish counterpart had hid in was catching up to him, moving like water being forced down the narrow corridor.
With more adrenaline than ever pumping through him Scar sprinted faster than before and within moments he saw his cave come into sight. The light there was stronger than the tunnel and he hoped with all his soul that it would ward away the darkness.
He was almost there, but he could feel the ice cold darkness just at his heels. The cold from the darkness crept up his tail and began creeping up from his lower body, the feeling was only briefly agonizing, followed by numb cold. 'is this..is this how dying feels like?'
Just before the darkness could fully catch up with him Scar set off with all his remaining strength and lept toward the cave, managing to enter it just as the darkness had reached his midsection.
The dark lion tumbled as he landed from his desperate leap and just as soon as he came to a stop he quickly snapped toward the cave entrance. The darkness had halted just beyond it's opening.
Scar panted quickly as he felt his heart thunder against his chest, was he safe?
His breathing stopped as his dark double stepped into the cave from the darkness.
"what is the matter? Can't face yourself?" it laughed maniacally as it took deliberate slow steps towards Scar, savoring his fear.
Panicked Scar stood up and nearly fell back again in exhaustion from his desperate sprint. He felt so cold still...was this the end?
"A weakling like you should just perish!" the nightmare swiped his claw down at the unsteady dark lion. In response Scar lifted his left front leg to block the strike, screaming in pain as crimson red was spilled as it's claws tore into his limb.
"Weak! You were always weak!" it yelled.
Something inside Scar snapped "I AM NOT WEAK!" he roared as he pounced toward his dark double.
With a gasp Scar opened his eyes, through his cave's entrance he could see the sun beginning to rise. The dark lion regained control of his breathing and his heart slowed down again as he realized it had just been dream and he was now awake.
"humph, what was I ever afraid of?" Scar stood up, but felt a sharp pain shoot through him from his front left leg. He laid back down again and examined it. He felt terror creep into his heart again as he saw bloody claw-marks adorned his limb.
Scar's mind raced to find an explanation other than what it seemed to be. 'I-I must have scratched myself while I was asleep' he made up an excuse for himself and got up and headed toward Rafiki's tree to have it patched, ignoring the small voice in his head that said the markings was sharp as if from a quick swipe and that no matter how, he would not be able to inflict such a wound on himself.
