José and Eliana were deeply asleep, embraced with love. However, an invisible shadow slithered in the room, its cold presence seeping into the air. From the darkness, a mocking laugh whispered in José's mind, like a distant echo that grew clearer by the second. Lucifer was there, slipping into his thoughts, enveloping them in a suffocating fog of despair.
José's Nightmare
The night breeze brushed his face as he ran through a park bathed in the silver light of the moon. Eliana was a few steps ahead of him, her crystal-clear laughter floating in the air like distant bells. Her figure radiated a warm, almost unreal glow, but when José reached out to touch her, something changed.
Her body began to glow with a blinding intensity until it transformed into fragile crystal. A second later, the sound of a brutal crack tore through the silence.
—What's happening? —José asked, his voice trembling.
Before his eyes, Eliana's fragments fell to the ground in a shower of bright shards. A muffled scream filled the air:
—JOSÉ! —Eliana screamed in desperation.
The crash of the crystals against the ground echoed in his chest, but the horror was only beginning. The immaculate shards began to stain red, oozing a thick, crimson substance that seeped into the earth.
His breath became erratic. His hands trembled. When he looked down, his skin was covered in blood.
—Murderer! How could you kill your wife? —César growled from the shadows, his silhouette distorted with rage.
—You killed my cousin! You're a monster! —Liz exclaimed, her eyes glowing with fury.
José felt the air leave his lungs. Something cold and heavy pressed on his fingers. He looked down and discovered he was holding a sword. The blade gleamed under the moonlight, stained with the same red that covered his clothes and hands.
With his stomach twisted in fear, he raised his gaze. On the ground, among the blood-soaked crystal shards, Eliana lay motionless. A deep cut ran through her chest, draining the life from her body like an hourglass teetering on the edge of the void.
—No! This can't be real! —José whimpered, terror choking his throat.
A deafening roar echoed in his mind, a reverberation of guilt and despair that dragged him into an unfathomable abyss.
End of the Nightmare
He shot up, gasping for air. The air burned in his lungs, and his skin was drenched in cold sweat. His heart pounded wildly, as if trying to escape his chest.
For a moment, fear consumed him completely, but when he turned his head, he saw her.
Eliana slept peacefully beside him, unaware of the nightmare that had devoured him. Without hesitation, José wrapped his trembling arms around her, clinging to her warmth as if it were the only real thing in the world.
—I promise I will always protect you —he whispered into her hair, his voice cracked with anguish.
From the shadows, Lucifer watched with a satisfied smile. He had planted the seed of fear in his heart, and he knew that terror would slowly consume him.
José didn't realize it, but with every desperate heartbeat, he drifted further from his purpose. He had lost his mother… and he wasn't willing to lose Eliana. He would do whatever it took to protect her, even if it meant descending into darkness.
The path before him grew blurred, shrouded in mist. But one thing was certain: his battle had not yet begun, and the whisper of his worst fears guided him… by Lucifer's hand.