I lean against the wall and take yet another deep pull from the almost empty bottle of beer in my hand. An untrustworthy warmth had started to spread throughout my body, drowning out the irritating buzzing in my head. I know that I should not be drinking on the job, but who was going to stop the owner's son? At any rate, it was these petty rebellions that allowed me to keep some sense of being in control of my life.

Still that is a lie was it not? The only reason why I can get away with what I am doing is because of father's influence. A regular employee would have been disciplined a long time ago for stealing the stock and drinking during opening hours. Father snarls threats at me through his letters and sister scolds me over the phone but the evidence is clear. I can rebel because father allows me to. Somewhere in my heart, I had already understood all of this a long time ago. So why am I thinking about all this now?

Its because of the nightmare from a week ago, the week when I received father's latest letter. Father as usual was demanding results from me and saying that he managed to track down a genius tutor at Unity College that could apparently turn a failure like me around. I was to present myself at the College starting from next month. It was the continuation of the same story that had played out countless times in Neo-Cardiff. So in celebration of the good news, I took a few drinks during my break and got hauled up to the drunk tank upstairs of the bar.

It was in the drunk tank that I dreamed.

I dreamed that I was embarking on a mission, no an adventure. I was provided with weapons, powerful weapons that I never told anyone about, not even father. The drunk tank was no longer the bare room that it had been, but turned into a place of learning and training with all the necessary accouterments. I had a companion as well, a black stallion, that would whisper secrets in my ear as I rode against the wind to battle a great evil. I took heart when the stallion told me that I would not need magic to complete my quest and that my victory would save the world.

On the back of the stallion, I arrived at a heavily guarded fortress. There I was forced to fight and to kill. I used my weapons to raze the fortress to the ground. And I nearly died at the hands of the guards during my escape. The fire, the blood, it was absolutely terrifying. The pain of my wounds, it all felt so real. I thought I was going to die. When I managed to reach the stallion who was waiting to take me away from the inferno, I felt the greatest sense of relief ever.

But that was when the nightmare truly began.

The stallion carried me back to the bar and told me that my wounds would not kill me. It told me that my adventure was over and that I would be able to go back to my regular life. I pleaded with the stallion to take me with him, away from the bar, away from magic, away from father and sister. The stallion merely bid me farewell and galloped away into the night. I was drawn back towards the drunk tank and saw it changing before my eyes, back into the familiar bare room. And there I was trapped. For eternity.

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.....

The last of the customers leave as we prepare to close for the night. I cleaned the place up in a daze, still thinking about the nightmare and finally understanding what I needed to do.

But did I have the bravery to do it?

I nod to myself. Whether I had the bravery or not was irrelevant. There was only one course of action open to me, to avoid the future I believe the nightmare was trying to warn me of. I could not put this off any longer.

"Is the manager coming in tonight?" I ask Maria.

"No. He should be around tomorrow though." She responds distractedly, preoccupied with calculating the evening's take.

That makes things somewhat easier. I am afraid that I would not know how to respond in front of the manager and wind up changing my mind. I take a pen and a sheet of paper and quickly write my letter of resignation. Giving it a once over, I sign the letter and place it in a sealed envelope.

Passing the envelope to Maria, I ask, "Could you pass this to the manager then? I may not be coming in tomorrow."

Maria nods and wishes me goodnight. I exit through the front door and hail a self driving cab to take me away from the bar for the last time.

.....

I get myself comfortable after I punch in my address into the console provided in the cab. Perhaps this was something I had been building towards for some time. All my mail was sent to the bar because I never told the family the address of the flat I was staying at. I was unconsciously already making preparations to strike out on my own. As for work, I heard that the Legion was looking for support staff ever since they began seriously expanding into the districts. I should be able to find something even as a mundane human. Doing something like that would also piss father off mightily, I think to myself with a smile.

No. No more petty rebellion. No more being chained to the past. My adventure starts now.

My life starts now.

All of a sudden, the cab veers onto the coastal highway and starts to accelerate rapidly. The dashboard lights up in an alarming red informing me that the cab's navigational systems are malfunctioning. I punch into the console the command to signal an operator at the company's office to override the cab's AI but all I get is an error message and the cab speeding up even more. The cab's radio activates on its own accord and begins to hiss static menacingly at me.

My eyes find the cab's emergency stop lever where the handbrake would usually be. Pulling the lever would mechanically lock down the brakes, making it a last resort option in an emergency. Without any hesitation, I pull the lever.

And it disconnects completely from the lever well.

Impossible. There is no way both safety mechanisms in the cab would fail simultaneously. My thoughts whirl as the cab guns its engine one final time and swerves towards the safety barrier by the side of the highway.

The momentum sends the cab plowing through the barrier as the windshield cracks and the engine block is obliterated. I am thrown against my seat as the cab flies briefly through the air before plunging into the dark sea. The lights on the dashboard begin to flicker erratically as water floods the cabin.

I desperately try to open the doors to escape but to no avail. I futilely beat my fists against the windows as the radio mocks me. And soon, the only thing that I can do is to hold my breath as the radio hisses in triumph.

My lungs burn. My vision blurs as darkness begins closing in. As my consciousness begins to fade, I see a figure approaching me from the distance.

The black stallion. It has come to take me away.

I hear a voice just at the edge of hearing. I strain my ears to listen, to listen to whatever the stallion is trying to say to me. My mouth involuntarily opens and as the water rushes into my lungs, I finally hear it.

"Awaken, Transmigrator."