009 - Chapter Nine

“Get up, Landon!” The voice was high-pitched, most likely female. “You have to get up!”

He couldn't see, everything was just pitch black void. But he could hear the sounds of explosions wrecking the area, he could feel the crumbling, sandy wall on his back, he smelled the burning smoke and sand wafting through his nose, and he could even taste the blood in his mouth. Someone grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to force him up. “Please, just get up!” The woman cried once more.

She was screaming at him. Of course, she was, he was Landon Stonearc, who else would she be screaming at? He got up and stumbled but she caught him. She was stronger than he had anticipated. Holding onto her, he hobbled across the sandy terrain, the sand kicking up onto his skin as he did so.

There was a massive Boom! from the side of them and he could feel small pebbles and sandy debris fall upon him. They kept moving, just putting one foot in front of the other. That'd be the only way they would be able to survive.

What was going on? They had woken up for a morning jog throughout the city before going to hunt down a bounty they had been given. But then the ship had shown up.

Just keep moving!

And so they did, they ran and ran. The explosions were unceasing, the screams of innocent people echoing into his ears. If only he could see!

Anger pulsed through his body, he felt something within him stir. The feeling of something deep and ancient. And then, he could see. They were on top of a building. The end of which was a mere five feet from them. Looking across the landscape, they were on top of a mountain, with one massive tower on top. He could see the sprawl of the sandstone building, he could see them smoking and destroyed. The entire city had been laid to waste.

He looked up into the sky, looking into the ship that had caused all of this destruction. But his eyes didn't fixate on the ship, but on something just behind it. Something much more than just sky, though that was all he saw with his eyes. But there was something else there, he could feel it. Something great, something powerful.

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He focused on the thing in the sky, focused long and hard. And then, he saw it. His heart fluttered, his mind screamed in delusion, his entire soul crushed.

His soul, red, like a heart. The wall was red, he could tell that much. But feeling it felt like nothing he had before touched. Wet, yet stone-like, but also flexible like a trampoline. He looked away from the wall, toward the white door at the end.

Something thumped inside of it. Thump....thump....thump. Slow, steady. Like a heart. But something so much more. He wanted to go toward the door, to see what was behind it, but his body wouldn't allow that. Instead, he took a step away. Then another. Then another.

There was nothing good for him there. Nothing but fear. But he wanted so badly to see it. He needed to. He'd kill for it.

There was a twinge in his shoulder and his eyes fluttered open. The room was dark except for the bright glow of a monitor lighting up his face. He was halfway on his shoulder, that must've been what woke him up. He had had a strange dream, something to do with the golden-brown-skinned man from earlier.

Landon.

The thought made his head hurt. He didn't know what was going on with these visions or whatever the hell they were. He didn't much want to know. He had to focus on the mission at hand, the robber. So first, he had to rest, which he did not feel like he had whatsoever.

He leaned back onto his back, looking up at the rusting ceiling. What was he doing? He had taken up so much risk to get out of the Underground and for what? To sneak around and be a pirate? Hell, apparently he wasn't even a pirate!

But, deep down, he had always known that wasn't his goal. He just wanted to be known, across the vastness of this universe. He just wanted to matter. Whatever it took to get there.

Another twinge in his shoulder. He ignored it, deciding to just go back to sleep. He had paid too much now, there was no going back. And, of course, he'd never willingly go back now.

He didn't dream.