There's something on my mouth.
It won't budge.
My legs feel like tree stumps,
something just whirred.
Theo slowly opens his eyes. The world is soft and sunny, like a sun faded photo of a midsummers afternoon. A familiar road looms far below his gaze.
Hoshi Academy.
The soft surroundings has been donning a glowing crimson.
A sharp, stabbing pain has wedged itself into his heart. Twisting, turning, yanking, stabbing.
Twisting. Turning. Yanking. Stabbing.
She was there.
Anguishing, screaming, decaying. Staring. Piercing his heart. His eyes melting to freedom from the confines of his skull. His skin decaying. Bones burning. His soul, his brain rattling against his skull. Twisting, turning, yanking, stabbing. A deathly high pitched wail.
THEO!
Foreign, invading, intruding. Deeply masculine.
Theo has been running. Theo is running.
There is no ground in front of him.
Theo slammed on the brakes.
A inchworm's breath lay between life and death. He has backed away and gained breathing room, the fading hues shifting in his vision.
His heart pounding in his chest.
His lungs gasps for air.
He wasn't gasping, breathing, nor functioning.
Theo is looking down.
These things are too large to be considered limbs. Too big, too bulky, too metallic. Pure chunks of iron, whipped into shape as if to display the hubris of mankind in a grandiose fashion against the natural order. They are not smooth, not aerodynamic, not ergonomic in the slightest bit. Instead, each surface looked like someone pelted it with rocks. Then cast into a fiery inferno and stretched to its absolute limits, only to be recompressed.
The joints of this monstrosity jutted in and out like twisted daggers, and bent so smoothly that the only explanation for it is the most evil of black magics. They bent, they flex, they feel. Theo can feel the breeze drift across the surface of the cold steel. The gravel beneath his feet shifting under his weight. The hairlessness, the chill that would bring goose bumps.
THEO!
GO TO HOSHI ACADEMY!
Red.
Tugging, pulling. His legs moving along the road.
The road does not bend nor turn, only leading straight into the academy. To those old worn iron gates. Theo did not stop.
They tore apart like a paper mache, like the tearing banner on the finish line of a race. They crumpled to the ground.
Screams, a lot of screams. Curdling, squeezing upon the veins in his arms. His legs. His stomach. People, bodies. None moving out of the way. Theo did not stop. The doors of the front building put up less resistance than the gate had. Pillars, beams, stairs, students all in the way. All crushed.
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Alarms wailed and sirens rang their tears. A security team appears in his way. All crushed.
The sky rains blood and the earth demands more. Each step further blurring, further distorting.
The Pavilion, crashing down.
The Cafe, crashing down.
The alleyway, the door closed shut. The familiar stairwell. The chambers, filled with people.
She is there, she is dead. She is screaming, panicking but dead. Her expression is sealed. Her eyes bearing the eternal realization of fruits, pleading mercy and rescue. All crushed.
Ripping, tearing, crushing.
The school is paid.
The abomination is gone.
Suddenly, smooth jazz. A muffled piano sending notes bouncingly in the background. A familiar table resting comfortably. A familiar booth, familiar boundaries and edges in an empty abyss.
A cat in a suit staring, searching. Looking.
Screams tearing at his eardrums, trying to rip them apart. Blood clawing at his eyes, grasping for his sight.
The cat's face shifting in the booth.
Lily's face. Blood spewing out of every orifice. Eyes, screaming into his existence.
Then, gone.
The cat came back,
"Do not be afraid".
Who are you? Where am I?
What do you want from me?
"Do you want to try again Theo?"
A small cup was materializing beneath the paws of the cat, filling with a smooth liquid. A familiar stench has been wafting towards Theo's nose.
What is he saying?
"Yes or no. Tick tock."
"What do you mean?"
"Choose. Try again or perish." Sipping like a distinguished gent, the cat has drunk the coffee.
"What do you want from me?"
Disappearing, fading, dissolving. Starting from the empty cup and spreading to it's paws. Fading, a hollow suit frozen in place. Mixing, the abyss overwhelms all.
"Yes or no"
Theo, we should say yes. Returning, a familiar masculine voice.
Who are you? Echoing, bouncing far outside the bounds of self.
I'll tell you later.
"Yes." His voice rung a touch deeper.
Swallowing, devouring. Starting at his feet, the feeling of a thousand mouths gently tugging at each atom. Too fast, Theo is gone.
Warmth, light, sound. Air conditioning attempts to run anything past a third of a fourth of a fifth of full blast. Wheezing.
Home. Peace, the chorus of blissful birds.
What?
Gripping, squeezing, clutching and gluing to the steering wheel. Pale, fragile yet has been binding tighter.
Theo, get out of the car.
Poking in, like a semi-distant voice from outside a window. Faint.
What's happening? How can I be here?
Hands, releasing. Feeling. Searching. Pulling and tugging open a phone, the date flashing bright like a shining spotlight,
3:33pm, March 26th.
Closing, stepping out. Moving, feet guiding limbs towards the prison of mail. Opening, reading.
> Hoshi Academy of Fine Arts
>
> 3434 Toshi Court
>
> Boshiland, HI 3000
>
> March 1, 20XX
>
> Theodore Barnes
>
> 460 Willowhaven Drive
>
> Boring, ST 49951
>
> Dear Theodore Barnes,
>
> Congratulations! It is with immense pleasure that we extend to you an offer of admission to the Hoshi Academy of Fine Arts
Shaking, dropping, backing away. The letter slowly drifting to the ground, has landed neatly facing up on the concrete drive.
This can't be.