“Kurwa, Kurwa, kurwa, kurwa ! !”- Lukas screamed as he rag-dolled uncontrollably through the clouds at a disorienting speed.
The man fell rapidly, the sickly pollution sticking to him and making him cough and wheeze, his arms wobbling and flopping as his brain tried to orient itself. He screamed obscenities at the obvious trap he walked into.
*Ah shit! Of course, the fuckers would push me, their “hatchling” out of their nest once they deem me ready to go into the world…aaaaaah!” he screamed at himself mentally.
Luke did not let panic get to him, he went through much worse in the last months than this, after that one plane shift through Butcher's Wounds nothing could disgust or terrify him more.
Collecting himself, his arm closed over his chest. Diving like a rocket straight down he was lost in deep thought.
*How the fuck do I slow down to land and not make a show out of it?” He pondered tapping his chin as gales whipped his body.
He spread out his telekinetic pads along with his arms, forming parachute-like wings that stopped his tumble and allowed him to glide slower, still at breakneck speeds but at least remaining control of his direction.
As his descent split the filthy clouds, creating a scar that opened up the curtain of vapor and allowed the sun to shine through in weak pillars of light as his body accelerated and howled in the air.
The whole body became covered in a thin film of shining, gray energy to block air, bugs, and particulates from distracting him. A cowl of prickling static covered him head to toe.
He glid downwards, with the wind howling like a hundred angered banshees in his ear, the vibrations shook his body, and even while slowing his descent he could recognize he would not survive the landing.
Flapping the telekinetic wings threw him into another tumble and mashed his intestines together.
With blood vessels bursting in his nose, he rebalanced himself and recast the construct.
The ground was getting closer.
The building's roofs starting to be visible.
They started getting closer.
Whistling winds around him became quieter, closed off by his mind. He focused, and he FELT a nudge, a pull in the right direction. His instinct was screaming at him, guiding him into a path of survival.
He could feel his mind tremble as the Void heeded the Call.
Slowly, surely, he tamed the mad river or icy water that was this power and flooded the surrounding cowl that clad his body. The static intensified and crackled as it inched from his head towards his legs. The area it covered distorted, and started shimmering, blinking.
His body lost all control and returned to uncontrolled freefall as all of Luke's attention focused within.
The skin around his closed eyes turned pitch black, with pulsing dark veins surrounding them.
The call from within told him what to do.
A pulse was released, the emptiness between what exists heeded the call and returned to him.
As the noise of the city assaulted his ears his mind returned to reality, his eyes opened the moment his body smashed into the top of the building, hitting it at a 45-degree angle.
A quarter of the roof disappeared soundlessly. No dust, no noise, no sprayed flesh or ichor.
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Just a shimmer that died down within a blink of an eye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the riverbank next to the house, Luke shared with Lettuce, a shimmering distortion started forming in the air, floating 3 stories above the river bridge where he used to spend evenings with a cigarette and a beer, reminiscing about the time spent here with her.
The sounds of quiet waters rustling and flowing downstream were interrupted by a huge crash, the reality itself spewed out bricks, glass, and dust like a shotgun blast would. Tumulus waves and splashes of water rose from the impact. A moment behind them Luke's body shot out like a cannonball, at an angle, into the river.
With the same speed as before he Fazed, he hit the surface of the water on the river and limply began to bounce off it like a skipping stone. The water and sky blended into one as he was losing momentum and rapidly flipping on the water.
After god knows how many skips, the river started bending. With enough momentum lost, he crashed into the grass-covered ground and dug deep into it. The earth shot everywhere around him, and waves of water followed. As they settled, what lay in the crater was his body, mangled but unbroken.
He spasmed uncontrollably, his nervous system in shock and his mind unable to cope with the travel through Nothing. His back arched as all his muscles tensed, only the back of his head and the soles of his feet. His arms clenched closely to his body with fingers rapidly extending and clenching and his eyes were now white, with the rest of the void slowly receding behind them as they rolled up into his skull.
After some moments passed, his body relaxed, dropped with a hollow THUNK into the ground and he finally managed to release the breath trapped in his hurting chest.
He looked out of his hole and saw a familiar kind of bird sitting on a Willow branch, observing him.
He smirked through pain and showed it his middle finger, after which he dropped back into the ground and started heavily breathing.
He could feel the tug on his mind lessening, retracting backward into the depth of his being.
“Thanks, buddy, you saved me again” he whispered to himself.
He lay there until his body flushed out the adrenaline and energies, and his mind settled the trauma and broke it into manageable parts to process later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What followed his return from the Sky Nest was a quick tour he had planned beforehand. He had to make sure, to check if everyone was safe.
He stepped into his apartment, and what welcomed him was people foreign to him. Unknown couple, sleeping peacefully in Lettuces' room. He gazed at them from beyond the Veil, and wordlessly, he left the house after checking his room.
He left the apartment and for the next few hours, he just wandered around the city until the evening sun started shining into his eyes, blinding him.
He went to where Bubbles worked before his disappearance and as he saw her behind the bar, smiling and cheerfully laughing with some clients behind the bar, a stone dropped from his heart.
(Kamień spadł mu z serca- a Polish phrase meaning he felt relief or tensions dropped)
She was safe.
He pulsed his magic at her, to make sure that nothing bad was there, no curses, no spells, nothing clinging to her or within her body.
Then, he Gazed at her, through her, just for a second, or even less.
She snapped and looked directly in his direction. Her silky black hair moved with a wave motion behind her head and her stare pierced Luke deeply.
Something that shouldn’t happen, happened.
He panicked, shutting it off immediately, he looked at him for a moment and returned to her work, seeming confused and laughing it off.
Luke remembered he was still invisible to Normals and smacked his forehead and laughed.
*Jeez I almost shit myself, that was weird” he thought to himself.
He turned around and walked towards the doors of the bar, trying really hard not to look back and not to drop the smile he forced on himself.
He stopped his hand slowly rising to the door handle. Slower than he wanted to.
Determined, he rapidly grabbed it smashing the metal knob, and exited before his will crumbled and left his dear friend without her ever knowing he was there.
What followed next could only be said to be extremely lucky considering Luke's history.
He found Cupid in the first place he looked for, he looked a bit thinner and a bit meaner, certainly more high than what Luke remembered. But was clear of the spiders, and didn’t react to the Gaze.
On a whim, Luke returned to the district his house used to be in and checked the shop where Lettuce worked last time, he entered the gates and looked at the night shift restocking the shelves.
He went to the workers-only area to take a piss, he knew this was a different plane of existence and he could relieve himself anywhere he wanted, and that broccoli rack was looking appropriate for it but he wanted to remain at least a bit of civility.
As he opened the bathroom stall, he saw something that brought tears to his eyes and made him almost piss himself.
His dearest friend was sitting with his pants down, snorting a line of the phone showing some Japanese cartoon characters naked. With a beard like a homeless person and a straw up his nose, he split his focus between the animated women and snorting the crystals.
Luke started wheezing and grabbing his stomach at this.
That was his friend.
The one he loved like a brother.
The fucking idiot.
As he wiped his tears and gave the man some privacy, worrying what he will see next he pissed in the other stall and waited for him to come out.
After about 30 minutes of Luke playing with the mirror and making it bend a act like a liquid, his friend released a pained and tired groan that almost scared him.
Then, the sound of water flushing could be heard and the idiot in question left the stall happy and content.
As he washed his hands, Luke repeated the process he did with Bubbles. A pulse of magic showed nothing out of the ordinary, yet, when he Gazed, Lettuce tensed up.
Now, Luke didn’t let go of the gaze and could feel and see the inklings of Void that rubbed off on Lettuce.
His Void.
He wasn’t infected, thankfully, Luke could feel a lump in his throat when he thought he would be responsible for that.
It was more like…
“Like a piece of me is stuck,” he said to himself.
“Lukas?” Lettuce asked and started looking deeply into the mirror, where the reflection of Luke was.
He panicked, shutting off his power and darting out of the toilets as his friend was asking himself why he just felt like he was there.
Something stirred in Luke. He didn’t know what to think of it.
So he did what he knew, grabbed a pack of smokes and bottles of brandy and whisky into each hand, and left the shop without any more surprises.
On the steps in front of the shop he downed half of the whisky in one gulp, with a loud:
“AAAAAAGH” his face scrunched, and after some coughing, he cloaked himself in distortion and with a lit cigarette in his mouth, went off to the last place on his list.