Chapter 77: Alex (Part 4)
“Hey!”
The blaring melody of a drum thumps as an echoing voice repeats itself.
“Hey!”
The drumming stops, and I savor the fleeting peace and quiet. Shifting my gaze from the afternoon sky to the pleasant, vibrant meadow before me, I find tranquility in the steady breeze. The marigolds were swaying to the wind’s tune, the beautiful yellow flowers stretching as far over the horizon as my eyes could see. Tilting my nose toward the sky, I take a deep breath, thoroughly absorbing and relishing the smell of the fresh air around me.
Falling back against the hill, I rest my hands behind my head as I stare at the sky, watching the cirrus clouds pass. I started playing a game where I tried to guess which shape the clouds were taking. I don’t know how much time had elapsed since I began playing... it might have been only a few seconds, or maybe it was a few hours before the sky deeply rang my name.
“Alex!”
As the sky said my name, the passing clouds all came together, combining into one. I watched curiously to see what shape it would take, but as it molded into form, my chest compressed, and I felt like I was about to throw up.
It was a bumblebee.
Zzzz!
Immediately sitting up and flashing my eyes to the right, I spot a bumblebee crawling atop a marigold. My face slick with sweat, I shoo the bee away. Pushing my hair back as I drag my hand along my scalp until my hand is on the back of my neck, I begin scratching, zoning out as I try to erase the two sights I had just witnessed.
“Alex!”
Feverishly shaking my head back and forth, I pinch my arm to make sure what I’m seeing and hearing is real. My brows knit in confusion as I feel a sharp prick, and I’m now questioning if I’m imagining that pain or if it is also real. My right arm then burst into flames, the violent wrath of the fire forcing out a scream of agony as I attempted to wave my arm around in the air, hoping the movements would miraculously put out the fire.
“Are you there?!”
Gradually, the fire ceased, but my arm wasn’t let off the hook that easily. Dark, hashed burn marks were riddled along my wrist, fingers, and forearm, scorching to the touch. I covered my mouth with my t-shirt as I very softly tapped one of the marks, the delicate contact emanating a sharp influx of pain, making my face scrunch and even momentarily generate tears.
ZZZ! ZZZ! ZZZ!
“Alex! Wake up!”
The meadow that boasted its’ sublime beauty only a few moments ago had transformed itself into the devastating ruins of my house, showing the aftermath of that dreadful night. The sky went grey while the marigolds had vanished and were replaced by hundreds of bumblebees buzzing around, unable to find a source of nutrition. Suddenly, they all turned in my direction, zipping toward me at a speed and mass my eyes couldn’t keep up with.
Shrieking in fear, I quickly shielded my face with my arms and shut my eyes, knowing I could not avoid the incoming swarm. I waited. And then waited longer. Trembling from head to toe, I realized after a while that I wasn’t feeling any pain, nor was I even surrounded by annoying insects. Instead, the bees had shot past me, whirring in a large group behind me.
“Alex! You need to wake up!” yelled the voice from the sky as I turned around, oddly curious about why the bees had gathered where they had.
And that’s when I saw a single marigold leftover that had already been sapped of all its nectar and pollen. The bees buzzed off, scattering in all directions. I approached the wilting marigold that once portrayed such life and beauty. Plucking it out of the ground, a single bee crawled into view on the top of what was left of the flower, desperately trying to find any nutrition that may be left.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Alex!!”
But there wasn’t anything left to be found and consumed, and the black and yellow insect slumped over on top of the flower, no longer able to sustain itself.
A tear shed down my cheek as I dropped the dead flower back on the ground.
“Armaros here. The pure and kid have been dealt with…”
“Wake up, Bee!! You have to wake up!!”
Turning back to the flaming rubble of my destroyed house, I see the man responsible for killing my mother and sister standing out in the open.
It’s… my fault…
His golden earring glistened in the sunlight, and my mouth crinkled into an angry scowl, fuming at the unknown man.
It’s my fault they’re dead!
“Wake up, Alex!!”
The drumming returned, this time much more forceful than before.
“Understood. I’m on my way. Over.”
My legs were already set in motion by the time my mind had made the decision. Lunging my right fist at the man with as much force, frustration, and vigor as I could muster, my scowl became uglier as I passed through him. Whipping back around and preparing for another attack, I realize the man is standing as still as a statue, watching me with an icy glare, a scar ripped across his face. Noticing a gun was now clutched in my right hand, I lifted it in his direction.
Pull the f*cking trigger!!
I hesitate, but remembering what happened, I don’t hold back this time.
“Hang on, let me try something…” a differently toned voice says from above.
The drumming stops as the bullet strikes the man in the head, but instead of inflicting a wound that I was hoping would be fatal, the man disappears, and the bullet clashes with a glass mirror, making a loud crunch noise. The man's silhouette reappeared on the other side of the mirror, untouched and still staring at me, expressionless.
Furious, I charge at him, bellowing a livid roar as I fire the rest of the bullets, emptying the rest of the magazine into the mirror. With each shot, the mirror cracked and tore away at itself more and more, leaving behind just pieces of itself and the murderous man behind it, only fragments of his face and body visible.
“This’ll work, trust me.”
Reeling back my arm, I thrust a fistful forward at the man, but an invisible barrier thwarted my attack as I tried to insert my fist into the mirror to connect with the man on the other side. I then felt two sharp jolts of heat and electricity on either side of my temple, making me stagger back and clutch my head in agony.
“Again! Do it again!” says the original voice from the sky.
Glaring back at the man in the mirror, I notice something different this time. His gaze had slightly dropped, his mouth had tilted into the most obscure of frowns, and his eyes had grown weary. But most importantly, he was moving. He had brought a hand to his face, his fingers tracing the scar from top to bottom and then back again.
“He’s waking up!”
Only when the man noticed that I was observing him… did he drop his hand back to his side and tilt his head up, matching my gaze again. At first, I wore the same angry scowl, bearing my fangs at him. But then, something surprisingly struck me this time as we locked eyes. While it possessed traits of both, his tired expression didn’t want forgiveness, nor did it show pity. It was a broken countenance longing… for acceptance.
“One more!”
As I feel another jolt of electricity surge through me, the picture my eyes were seeing swiftly vanishes, disappearing as a dark, shrouded void surrounds me. I then felt the wrath of a splitting headache at full force as fragments of light began to crack into this bleak abyss.
***
Waking up in a cold sweat, I grip the bedding beside me as I sit up screaming, a multitude of senses and emotions crashing down and overwhelming me.
“Alex! Alex, are you with us?” asks my father while my eyes dart around in a frenzy before rolling back into my head. “Zeris, we’re losing him again!”
“Working on it, Kane!” replies Zeris, a man I have only spoken with a few times.
The frantic clacking of a keyboard supplied an unpleasant background noise that didn’t make my headache feel any better. Another quick shock of electricity suddenly courses throughout my body, this one much weaker than the others. Hearing the wheels of a chair roll on the floor toward me, a hand grabs my arm. A needle then punctures the inside of my elbow, making me wince as an unknown fluid enters my body.
“There, it won’t be long now,” says Zeris, my father huffing in acknowledgment.
“I’d wake him up myself, but you know how it is with these mysterious serums the scummy government proctors out. One mistake and I could do more harm than good,” says my father.
“He should be coming to any moment now,” replies Zeris.
Despite my body screaming at me to not move or talk or do anything, I bleakly open my eyes, immediately regretting it as more tremors of pain radiate from my skull.
“Dad… sir. What happened? Where are we?”