Michael immediately woke up in the white room, void of any doors, windows, or anything that might resemble a feature of a room. It was blank, empty, and seemed to be infinite. He tried to call out to anything or anyone, only to be met with the inability to speak. He began to try and scream as loud as he could, but only silence reached his ears. Michael began to breathe heavily, taking in the emptiness of his surroundings.
Michael sat down on the floor and began to control his breathing, calming himself down so that he could figure out what the hell was going on. He thought about what was happening to him outside of this white room. Distortions, MF, and that strange power that Jeff had. Michael felt as if everything was moving faster than it should have, his life-changing abruptly and suddenly. Michael took the time to gather the information he had at the moment, listing things down in his head, closing his eyes, and thinking. He thought about the dragons, DART, about everything. He came to realize what type of situation he was in, he knew something that not everyone did and that was distortion. He understood that now that he did know, he was never going to escape the grasp of DART. It became clear to him that it was either join them or possibly be executed for knowing too much. It took a minute before Michael concluded choosing the former, mainly so that he could take care of Lucifer. Now thinking about his twin sister, Michael worried about how she was doing now, was she freaking out, or was she calm? He figured it would be that she was freaking out, knowing Lucy, she was most likely having some sort of panic attack trying to figure out what was going on, making Michael, her usual coping mechanism, worried and anxious to get out of this white room.
Michael opened his eyes, a new type of passion in them only to have it be crushed by witnessing something that seemed all too familiar to him, the black smokey figure that was a part of schizophrenia. He didn’t say anything, just watching it as the flames of passion that were in his eyes began to wither away and be replaced by confusion, and fear.
“Hush child, do not fret,” the shadow said, its voice sounding like a thousand voices talking at once. Michael’s eyes widened in surprise, he had never heard his hallucination speak.
“Who are you?” Michael asked, cupping his mouth now realizing he could speak.
“I am your savior Angel of Death, I am here to help you.”
Michael didn’t trust it, not a single bit. “You’re just a hallucination, you’re not even real.”
The shadow stayed silent, its smoky figure drifting and shifting. It watched for a moment before it spoke again. “You do not trust me after I have been there since your birth child? It makes no sense to me.”
“I was diagnosed with schizophrenia because of you, you’re fake, not even real.” Michael was sticking to his story, he had had this shadow around for as long as he could remember, his mental illness being the cause. Although, the more he spoke with it, the more he felt as though maybe it was real.
“Yes, then they pumped you with drugs and blocked off my connection to you.” Now Michael was even more confused. He was in a line of reality and imagination, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. Was his brain making up excuses or was this real?
“Look, I have no idea what you’re supposed to be and frankly, you are just making everything worse for me mentally. I don’t need to deal with a hallucination as of this moment.”
“That man, Jeffery. He has found me and is probably going to do something to weaken my power. He has an ulterior motive and knows you have a connection to me.”
Michael was starting to get angry, balling up his fists and gritting his teeth. “And just what are you?”
“I am a creature of magnanimous desire. I give those with nothing and allow them to do something. I am a god, I am the darkness.”
“That doesn’t sound evil at all and why are you trying to help me?” Ever since yesterday, Michael’s life has been stranger and stranger trying to wrap his head around the world he has been tossed into. He watched the dark figure sway in the wind. The more Michael thought about it, the more he came to realize how he was seeing this “darkness”. His hallucination was always blurry like it was out of focus. Right now, in front of Michael, he saw it clear as day, the smokiness of its body, the way it seemed to drift around like a dyed color that had just been added to water. It looked strange, to say the least.
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“There are many reasons why I want to help you,” The figure said, “The main one being that you are my chosen one, you and your sister. I would have waited until you both were older but it seems you need my help now. That man, Jeff, isn't who he says he is. He is very much in this job for himself, seeing beautiful creatures such as myself as monsters. What he is doing to you now is a very crude and artificial process of the awakening. It’s very forceful and puts a strain on your psyche. That is all I can explain for now.”
Michael listened to everything the figure said. Sure it may have been called the darkness but it seemed to have a nostalgic and familiar feeling about it. “Look, I can wait for answers, I just need a way out of here.”
The figure snapped its finger and a revolver appeared in front of Michael, floating in the air. It was chrome plated on every part of it, the grip made of a black material that looked to be some sort of carbon fiber. It looked sleek, almost futuristic. The same feeling Michael got from the figure, he got from the revolver, reaching his hand out to touch it. As soon as he did, the engravings that laced the entirety of the gun lit up a bright red color, blinding Michael, and making him cover his eyes. The light slowly faded away, allowing Michael to look at the gun again only, it wasn’t there anymore.
Michael raised an eyebrow and looked at the figure, his face saying everything
“The awakening, a process of unlocking parts of the brain to gain access to innate abilities. The space you are in right now is your mind, that machine that they used on you forcing you into your Dreamscape. As I said, it is a very crude process, one must achieve it naturally but, since you are already here, I might as well give you my gift.”
Michael sighed again, more words and terms being thrown at him again, it was overwhelming. Reaching up to his head, Michael rubbed his eyebrows, momentarily looking down at the ground below him. “And why are you helping me? What do you gain from it?”
The figure seemed to waver a little bit, some of his smoky body dissipating. “That is going to be a topic for another day. It seems they are getting close to finding me, so I must leave.”
Michael stood up and looked at the figure one last time. “For some reason, I trust you and I have no idea why.” Michael took a deep breath, thinking about what he had just learned, and smiled. “What should I call you? The Darkness?”
“Yes, call me that. I don’t know if you can comprehend my true name yet. On a higher note, I must leave. It was nice to finally talk to one of my chosen ones.”
Michael wanted to know Darkness’ motives for “choosing him” but felt if someone was getting him out of this dreamscape, he would take it faster than anything. He watched as it vanished, the smoke dissipating and leaving Michael alone in the white and blank room. Michael turned around to see a door behind him. Seeing as it was the only thing in this room that resembled an exit, Michael opened it and walked through it.
———
Michael immediately woke up, taking a sharp and deep breath in as he looked around the room, realizing he was back into reality. He turned to his right and saw Lucifer who looked a little shaken up. Michael was about to reach over to her when he was interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Well well well, morning sunshine.” Michael looked up to see Jeff’s very familiar face, a very wide smile on his face. “Well, the sensors tell me that your MF is very stabilized, especially for both of you.”
Michael gave a blank stare at Jeff, he didn’t know what to think of the man but it was clear to him that he wasn’t right in the head. “Now what, you're gonna force us to be part of your circus?”
Jeff put a finger on his chin, pretending to think before he brought his face uncomfortably close. “Yes you are and to start, we are going to visit this distortion on your land.”
As soon as he said that, a woman in a lab coat walked into the tent with a worried look on her face and a tablet in her hand. “Sir, there’s been a problem. The entity, it’s gone.”
Jeff’s happy expression left his face like salt dissolving in water. He slowly turned to look at the woman, his eyebrow twitching. “What do you mean it’s gone?”
The woman began to visibly shake, avoiding all eye contact with Jeff and looking down at her feet. “Well, while you were dealing with the Keiths, an energy spike happened and all readings stopped. We looked into the sky and saw a dark cloud get up and leave, we tried to get it bu—“
Just as the woman began to explain, she began to choke violently, dropping the tablet and reaching for her throat. There was nothing there that was blocking the airway like an invisible force was choking her. Michael's eyes widened watching the whole thing, making him look at Jeff and see him give a death stare at the woman. It was clear that he was doing something, Michael just didn’t know what. Looking over at Lucifer, Michael saw her begin to shake even more than she already was, she was afraid, really afraid.
The woman began to slowly die, her hands lowering as the light in her eyes vanished, leaving them empty and dead, just like she was. Her lifeless body dropped to the floor, making a loud thud as Jeff turned back to the twins with a smile back on his face. “Well, sorry for causing a scene. I think it’s high time we went back to HQ, I’m sure the other agents would be happy to meet you.”