Juncture 5.2

Bullshit. There was no way I could go on another assignment so soon after this one. Whoever was giving out these missions was clearly doing something wrong. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally fatigued. I couldn’t do it.

I tore open the envelope, tearing off a piece of the paper flap that kept it closed. Inside it was a small folded sheet of lined paper. As I spread it open it became apparent that the note was hand-written, not typed. It was also noticeably old, yellow spots beginning at the corners of the paper and spreading inward in splotchy lines.

I wasn’t willing to put up with this right now. I folded the paper and shoved it back into the envelope, crushing the paper slightly. I tossed it on the floor next to my bed, and then flopped myself onto the bed.

I was asleep within minutes, and eerily vivid dreams weaved and bobbed in front of my eyes. The first one, as I recalled it, consisted of me standing in the center of an apocalypse. Blood-red stone and fire was hailing down upon my head, and everything in the distance was consumed in flames.

I was in a glowing-orange cage, and when I tried to touch it I burned my hand. Just on the outside of my enclosure were a group of devils encircling the cage. As I walked up to each one in turn, they spat angry words at me, gibberish, but invective nonetheless. Their skin was crisscrossed with lines of black, as if their skin was molten lava.

The next scene was a familiar one; I was walking in the middle of a rainstorm, the cold chilling me to my core. As I walked, I heard a noise behind me. I turned around, only to see a car rushing toward me. As it got closer, its front bumper split, revealing sharp, jagged teeth. I turned to run, but the car was too fast, and I saw the teeth close in front of me.

For what felt like a while, I was stuck in darkness, but to me it didn’t feel like normal darkness. It was almost like some sort of advanced darkness, thick and heavy, holding me in place. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. I could barely think. I turned my head, only to feel part of it stay in place.

I was falling. The odd darkness passed in thick wisps and clouds, to be replaced with an expansive skyscape. I managed to flip myself toward the ground, only to see a vast ocean quickly closing in on me. As I was about to scream I landed in the water, sending bubbles careening upward behind me. I felt intense pain where I landed, spreading from my right shoulder all the way down to my hip.

It was getting darker again, and as I fell further and further, I realized that my eyes were closed. I opened them.

I was on the floor next to my bed, and the lights were off. I groggily sat up and the same pain I felt in the dream hit. I had fallen off of the bed sometime during the night, and pulled some muscle in my side.

I got back on the bed, being careful to not exert the side of me that was catching on itself, and laid down facing the ceiling.

Another mission?

I couldn’t do it yet. I knew that. I would talk to Dierdre in the morning.



(Author’s note: I apologize for the lateness of some of the previous chapters, and the length of this one specifically. I’ve been on holiday, and travel has been a reoccurring theme. We should be back on schedule with an extended chapter on Thursday. Thanks.)