I snapped my eyes open, feeling the imnse regret and sorrow streaming through , only to be t with utter darkness.
Not knowing who I was, whether I was Kennith Howard or Kenneth Howard, if I missed my childhood friend, or if I was currently inside this center with Henry, I didn’t know if my arms had mutated into giant deford ones or if I was still human.
I couldn’t distinguish where my body started and the outside world ended.
Eventually, I found myself in front of the table, inside the black space in my mind. On the table lay the violet, shimry coin, still without any motif on it, yet the surface of the table had changed.
Carved into it was the simple silhouette of a giant.
Spellbound, I grabbed the coin and flipped it. It floated in the air, twisted and turned, until it landed in my hand. I was unable to see what was on it when my whole being was sucked into a vortex.
********
I opened my eyes and found myself sitting in the back of a Jeep, the wind whipping against my face. The desolate landscape around was made up of rocks and trees that seed to reach the sky.
In my hand was a machine gun; my clothes were military-style, and behind us was a caravan of cars. Beside were other soldiers, looking at the landscape as the cars raced to sowhere.
I wanted to vomit my guts out because everything around felt so real and was moving so fast, and I still felt the backlash from the ti jump. The speaker inside my ear suddenly transmitted a strange voice.
"We are nearing our destination. Rember to kill the target upon sight. No hesitation. That bastard had butchered three of the remaining five cities!"
The soldiers around cheered, raising their weapons. I just watched everything unfold, searching in my mind for the coin. Yet there was nothing; the table wasn’t there, everything was gone. I was only human at the mont, with no sign of any ability in .
Helplessly, I couldn’t do anything at that mont; I couldn’t go back now. The vehicle stopped near a destroyed shed, in a place where the forest had beco thicker. The ground was covered in moss, and we couldn’t see ahead because of all the trees and the uneven earth.
The soldiers in the sa car as sprang down, everyone wearing military helts, so I didn’t recognize a single person. I followed them and jumped to the ground, still feeling a bit floaty. "Team one, storm the house; team two, back them up," Ca the command through our headphones.
I followed the guy in front of ; at the end of my line, apparently I was in group one. I looked at the destroyed shed, asking myself if that was our target, but it apparently was not.
We sneaked over a little hill, and then I could see a villa, partly destroyed with trees growing through it; nature had apparently taken over.
The closer we got, the more the different teams communicated through the headsets, but also the louder the music beca from inside the mansion. It was so opera mixed with techno, an overall crazy soundtrack for both killing and getting killed.
What the fuck am I doing here?
I followed the guys in front of , hiding between trees, then moving forward, then hiding, and so on. Again, feeling for my coin, I found none.
Finally, we were in front of the villa’s entrance, the music deafeningly loud, when the first soldier noticed the door wasn’t locked and easily pushed it open.
He bellowed nas into the headsets, telling each person where to go. Seeing that one went to the left, one to the right, and one straight ahead, I figured that I should go upstairs.
I didn’t quite get the nas, and even if I did, I surely would not recognize them.
So I did just that and walked up the stairs, feeling unreal, as if I were inside a shooter ga.
I moved like I saw the other soldiers doing, always checking where I would step next and looking for any danger around, with my machine gun ready to fire at anything.
I nearly thought so zombies would spring out at any mont, but besides the loud music, there wasn’t really anything.
On the first floor, I checked a few rooms, finding nothing as well.
When I pushed open the next big door, I found a tall man with long black hair dancing to the music, but not only out of tune; it was jerky and jumpy, as if he were on drugs.
Not sure what to do, this guy hadn’t done any wrong, and I didn’t even know who the bad guys were in here.
Most of all, because I sowhat felt familiar with his back, I didn’t shoot.
Circling him, I found myself face-to-face with a dancing Henry in a sowhat see-through long morning robe.
"What the fuck?" The music was too loud, but I knew that guy must have spotted ; he just ignored .
I gripped my helt and pulled it down, seeing Henry freeze before he straightened up.
His face was unreal beautiful, while his blue eyes had taken on a silver-white color.
"What are you doing here?" He mouthed to , his lips and tongue looking especially red.
"And you?" I scread against the music. Before I could react, his body disappeared, leaving only shadowy smoke behind. In the next mont, he was right in front of , clutching my jaw and bending down to say in my ear,
"Don’t touch the water."
I looked at him in bewildernt, seeing that his silvery-white eyes were glazed over; that guy was clearly on a trip.
I was ready to give him a beating when I heard gunshots—multiple gunshots—and saw Henry stepping back, continuing to dance, only now his robe started to take on a red color.
Turning, I found that the other soldiers had co in and had shot him.
My mind turned blank when I saw Henry starting to bleed more; his body’s movent began to turn slower, and finally, he started to fall.
My body moved before I could register anything, and I caught him, turning my back to the soldiers to shield him and feeling the bullets penetrate my own body.
I saw a mirror across from , near the windows.
This wasn’t my body.
This was Harry, the Glasses Guy; only his eyes had turned bright red.
User Comments
0 comments from readers