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The night engulfed Dashuan in its inky ebony blanket of monastery, pulling him into the profundities of respite.
As his sanity drifted off finally, fragments of remembrance began to link, composing a dazzling dreamscape that hauled him back to a time he'd long endeavored to omit.
He was only a decade old again, miniature and skittish, clutching his mother's soft hand for dear life as they walked into a featureless onyx-colored building.
His father's optimistic presence loomed behind them protectively clutching a pistol, a hand on Dashuan's shoulder as they passed a police officer on the sidewalk outside the destination they sought. The sign above the door read "Dennis Wallace Community Center" its friendly font at odds with the knot of anxiety in Dashuan's tiny belly.
"It's okay, baby," his mother beamed, squeezing his hand tightly. "My Father told us about this place!"
Yet, something felt off.
The people inside were too enthusiastic, their smiles too broad.
As they were ushered into a dimly lit space in the back corner of the building's winding coffee-colored hallways, Dashuan's concern only grew.
The ambiance felt stagnant, domineering, arrested with an energy he couldn't name but instinctively feared deep down inside.
A man in faded red robes stepped forward, his face hidden in the shadow of his cowl. "Salutations," he intoned, his voice transmitting shivers down Dashuan's backbone.
"You've taken the first step towards true understanding."
What happened next was a blur of motion and terror. Hooded figures emerged from the shadows, grabbing his parents. Dashuan screamed, reaching for them, but strong hands held him back. He watched, helpless, as his parents were dragged to the center of the room.
"The sacrifice must be made," the robed man declared. "For the greater power, for the ascension of our chosen one."
From the corner of the tiled chamber, a boy arose from a cushioned chair. He looked to be about Dashuan's age, but his eyes were a cold green pigment and completely empty.
As he approached Dashuan's now struggling parents, his hands began to glow with an eerie green light that overtook all sight.
"No!" Dashuan screamed, fighting against his captors.
"Mom! Dad!"
The boy raised his ashy hands causing Dashuan's parents to go rigid; Their eyes dilated in repulsion as their sacred blood began to seep from their pores and orrifeces, defying not only gravity but human sanity to swirl around the boy in crimson streams that were lapped up by the boys agape drool covered maw.
Dashuan's father managed to turn his head, locking eyes with his son one last time as the air misted with his essence. "Run, Dashuan,"
"L-Live!" He choked with the last of his power.
As the vitality dehydrated from his parents' shriveling bodies, Dashuan caught a glance of the boy's face.
An eye-creased smile almost ear to ear, a face of pure ecstasy as he absorbed the stolen life force.
The picture burned itself into Dashuan's mind, a moment of unimaginable horror frozen in time that would never leave.
With a jolt, Dashuan snapped awake, his heart thumping in his chest aching.
The cornfield came into focus around him, the stalks wavering gently in the pre-dawn breeze. It took him a moment to recollect where he was and for what reason he was not home, tucked in bed.
As his senses returned, Dashuan became aware of a heat in his hand.
He looked down to find his bruised fingers intertwined with those of the female Aberrant he had rescued. The realization made him yank his hand away reflexively.
The sudden movement roused the woman.
Her uninjured eye fluttered open, cyan irises quickly focusing on Dashuan with a mix of confusion and irritation.
"What do you think you're doing?" she required of him, her voice hoarse but aggressive; a tone that made the hair on the back of Dashuan's neck stand to a point.
He stammered, caught off guard. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--"
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"First you 'save' me without asking, and now you're taking..." She paused as she sat up quickly.
"privileges while I'm unconscious?" she continued, pushing herself up to a standing position. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
Before Dashuan could formulate a response, a scream pierced the air.
They both turned to see the jet's pilot, still fast asleep but clearly in the throes of a horrid nightmare. What was more surprising was the fact that he had, at some point during the night, curled up against Dashuan's back, effectively spooning him; in need of some sort of security after the day he had.
The absurdity of the situation hit them both at once.
Despite the tension of the moment before, Dashuan found himself slightly chuckling. To his stupefaction, the female joined in, her laughter a melodic middle harmony to his deeper tones that was a welcome surprise.
Their delight was short-lived, however.
As her laughter faded, the woman's expression hardened.
She turned her gaze to the still-sleeping pilot, and Dashuan saw a dangerous sparkle in her eye of electricity.
"Well," she said, her manner callous, "might as well take care of our little problem here."
Her hand outstretched towards the pilot. The air around her fingers began to shimmer with an air-rippling vibrancy.
"No!" Dashuan hollered, his muscles moving faster than thought.
He interposed himself between the woman and the pilot. The blast of energy she had intended for the soldier instead tore through the cornfield behind them with a shaking detonation, leaving a wide swath of destruction in its wake; almost like an inverted lightning strike that was not fully parallel.
The clangor and impulsive action finally roused the pilot.
He sat up, his blue eyes wide with terror as he took in the scene before him. The destruction of the cornfield, the two Aberrants standing over him--It was too much.
He scrambled backward, hands raised a clasped fashioned like a prayer to the heavens.
"Please," he implored. "Don't kill me. I have a family, I was just following orders. Please!"
Dashuan felt a spasm of sympathy for the man.
He turned to the woman, his expression pleading. "We can't just kill him," he declared. "He's not a threat to us now."
The woman scoffed. "We're not human," she said matter-of-factly, her voice tinged with bitterness that told of a lifetime of hardship. "There's no point in pretending otherwise...They wouldn't show us mercy, so why should we?"
Dashuan stood his ground, almost scoffing at the objection. "Because we're better than that. Because EVERY life matters, Human or--"
For a long moment, the woman stared at him, her expression unreadable.
He spoke again, shaking his head and staring at the trembling pilot. "Human or not!"
Then, with a sigh, she lowered her discharging hand. "Fine, have it your way." she stated.
Relieved, Dashuan again pivoted back to the pilot, who was still cowering on the ground in the fetal position. "You're, uh, safe," he articulated softly.
"We're not going to hurt you--I promise."
The pilot nodded frantically from between his legs, clearly not entirely convinced but willing to seize at any hope of survival.
Dashuan's attention was drawn back to the woman as she began to speak again, her tone businesslike.
"Since you seem so interested in my affairs," she said while tenderly touching her ruined eye socket with two fingers.
"I might as well tell you why I was in the city yesterday. The head of the RedRevolt team that attacked the mayor? He was actually a government agent, trying to lure me out. So I showed up and... handled the problem--then; you showed up, AssHat."
Dashuan drank the plain announcement, trying to act as if the insult did not sting from the stunning lady before him. Before he could develop a response that wasn't stammered half-cocked ridicule himself of her rash way of handling threats, the woman resumed speaking.
"Anyways, I need to get going. I'm already very VERY late for an important meeting." She glanced at her shoes, dusting them gingerly. "This is a bit of an inconvenience, but I've dealt with worse." The Other now motioned to her unopened eye that had been pierced in.
Without another placating word, she turned and quickly leaped into the air, her form becoming a speck in the distance as he heard her land far off.
Dashuan stood there, torn between staying with the scared pilot and following the mysterious lady.
His curiosity and unease won out.
"Stay here," he told the pilot, unable to keep a hint of humor from his voice given the man's obvious terror.
"We'll... figure something out when I get back, don't tell anybody about this either."
With that, Dashuan took to the sky, racing after the woman. He caught up to her just as she was descending towards a lonely gas station nearly seven miles out, the only sign of civilization for a distance.
As Dashuan landed beside her, he saw her rifling through the store's meager offerings, grabbing snacks and booze seemingly at random and delighting her greatly.
"What are you doing?" he questioned, though the answer was quite obvious.
She glanced at him, her expression defiant yet playful if not for an unmoving frown. "What does it look like? I'm hungry, and I don't exactly have a wallet on me."
Dashuan hesitated to respond, then reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a crumpled wad of bills-–All the money he had left on him.
Without a remark, he stepped up to the counter and paid for the items the woman had taken; even if a little short.
She watched him with a mixture of surprise and something that might have been grudging respect.
"You didn't have to do that," she expressed as they stepped outside biting the top clean off the top of a pilfered beer bottle and chugging it down.
Dashuan shrugged, trying to evade her piercing glare.
"Maybe not. But it felt right, I guess."
As the sun began to peek over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold, Dashuan was pummeled by the surreal temperament of his situation.
Here he was, standing outside a gas station in the middle of nowhere with a lady who had nearly destroyed a city, paying for stolen snacks with the last of his money from the job he would never be able to see again.
The thought of money suddenly triggered a memory, and Dashuan let out a groan.
"Oh no," he moaned, rubbing his temples on both sides with his calloused fingers.
"What?" the woman asked, pausing in her annihilation of a bag of spicy chips.
"I just remembered," Dashuan puffed between rotations of his hands, his voice tinged with a mix of satire and resignation. "I left the stove on in my apartment. I was making my S.B.B. when... well, when everything happened."
The woman stared at him for a moment, then spoke up, twitching her head as she lifted a crimson eyebrow. "The fuck is a S.B.B."
"Signature Breakfast Burger--cookin' on max too, charred special; I like to think."
The Other burst into laughter.
It was a genuine laugh, free from the irritation and wrath that had stained her words before.
Despite everything, Dashuan found himself joining in honestly in return.
As their giggles faded, Dashuan was attacked by the finality of the ending moment.
That forgotten burger marked the obliteration of the ordinary life he had spent years crafting. There was no going back now, no pretending that he could return to his same old routine of slinging hot pig flesh at the stadium.
The woman seemed to sense his thoughts. "AssHat, " she said, her tone softer than before. "Life's never going to be the same for you; you should have stayed home yesterday."
Dashuan nodded, a mix of emotions agitating within him.
Fear, excitement, uncertainty-- and underneath it all, a growing sense of purpose that burned past all of those former misgivings.
Whatever came next, he was confined to face it head-on.
As the new daylight pushed upward, Dashuan and The Other stood side by side, an unlikely pair united by circumstance and their shared status as Aberrants. The highway ahead was uncertain, fraught with peril and challenges Dashuan could scarcely imagine.
Yet, watching the sun rise over the Kansas plains, Dashuan felt a glimmer of hope bubbling inside.
His normal life might be destroyed, but a new chapter was just starting.
Dashuan glanced at The Other beside him, and couldn't help but feel, for better or worse, they could be in this together now. The memory of Dashuan's nightmare lingered at the edges of his consciousness, a reminder of the past that had shaped him and the challenges that lay ahead.
With one last look at the rising sun, Dashuan steeled himself for whatever.
I won't fuck this up...I promise…He thought to his racing mind.