David’s world went to shit quickly. The second Trial was just hours from starting, but he hadn’t slept in almost two and a half days, and the one time that he did pass out left vivid handprint-shaped bruises all over his body.
No, if David slept, then it would get him.
Things went downhill shortly after the second day in the Rest Area, although David could still laugh at the irony of never being able to rest here, even if he could never laugh at anything else again. At first, the only abnormality that David saw was dark shadows darting around his vision, which he naively chalked up to the stress from overcoming his week in that zombie infested wasteland. However, those dark shadows never went away.
They would appear constantly down hallways, peeking through doors, in dim corners and it invaded everything that David did. He felt like something was constantly watching him, judging him, and if he let up his guard for even a second then something terrible would occur. He thought these visions would go away, and they did, but what replaced those shadowy visions was infinitely worse.
The shadows were nothing compared to it.
It started to stalk him on the night of the second day. At first, David couldn’t make out the figure haunting him. He could barely make out the outline of a pale shape, inhumanly lanky with distorted features of the thing, and it would always, always dart away from his view when he gathered his courage to take a better look at it.
Oh how he wished he never tried to peer into its horrible visage.
David quickly noticed a sickening pattern. Every time he would doze off, even a little, the figure would be ever so slightly closer to him. It was almost imperceptible at first, but that had changed when fatigue finally got to him and he slept for a few hours on the 4th day. That was something he would regret for the rest of his life.
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On that night, David was plagued by visions of such enormity that he could scarcely fathom the images flashing through his head. He knew that whatever he was dreaming was trying to tell him something, but he could not recall the message.
What he did remember was the lanky figure approaching him as he was lying on the bed, trapped in his own body. It’s eerie smile, too wide for any human to have, was filled with shadowy teeth, and he knew that if he did not wake up then, he would not make it past that night.
He felt cold, deathly hands caress every inch of his skin, and it was through his sheer force of will that he managed to awaken in time. Those hands had left their mark on David, and he didn’t think the bruises would ever disappear.
Now, every time he saw the figure, it would be almost within arm’s length, just perhaps a set or two closer and it could reach him. David had to be vigilant to make sure that never happens. But even his enhanced nerves were on the cusp of giving out. He had to sleep.
Lately David’s had a lot of time to think. It was all he did now, back against the corner in his dorm, always peering out into the darkness. He wondered why he was the only one who was plagued by the figure. What did he do wrong?
Then David had an epiphany, a revelation sent from the deep recesses of his sleep starved brain. It was because of that man. Ever since he took His money, things have gotten worse and worse. But the more David thought about that man - no, that Being - the more he understood. Yes, and in the deepest depths of David’s psyche he understood a primordial Truth.
The Truth.
The handprints on his body started to morph in front of his very eyes, and in David’s new Sight, he saw that they were not scars but a Prophecy.
A Prophecy that was his destiny to spread.
David laughed.
Yes, David knew what he must do.
He must spread the Truth to all his fellow kin, not as the Aspirant David, but as the Prophet.
David smiled, and for the first time in a long, long time, he allowed his eyes to close, and he embraced oblivion.
The Aspirant David slept, and something else entirely Awoke.