Bab 10: ch 10: Sweet Dream
Miss Maria managed to somehow beat me when It came to cleaning her plate of canned food. she even started eyeing my plate which I silently edged closer to me. Soon as she knew I noticed she looked at me disapprovingly as I moved my plate a tad bit closer. "I'll ask a friend of mine to teach you some combat skills tomorrow after all I can't have you getting killed by a painter or someone else before finding Marco" She said plainly as she got up with her empty metal plate in hand.
Seeing her leave I quickly grab my plate and tilt it sending the little food I had left on it into my mouth. "what's a painter" I ask curiously as I grab my empty plate and follow her into the hallway. "trash who prey on people at night and paint with the blood of their victims and don't dare show themselves during the day or they might just be cultists." She said casually as she turned around to grab the plate out of my hands before walking up the stairs; I stood in place still processing her words. "If I remember right the guards found a freshly dried corpse in the middle of the road next to the general store." She said before turning around and saying that I could use Marcos's room for the night.
"You want me to go with you? The painters probably won't attack if there's more than one person" I say as she stops to consider it for a second before declining and continuing.
I thanked her for the generosity and headed to the room, soon as I got in I closed the door behind me. I sat down on the old bed which creaked a little under my weight which I flat-out ignored. I sat there pondering what to do next as I rested my hands on the bed slowly inching back. I turned my palm up as my ghost materialized beside me, its eye a little red but it was probably already like that.
"You know you don't need sleep right." He said questioningly as I laid down on the bed, feet hanging over the end. "Why is that?" I asked as the ghost flew around getting in my face before narrowing its eye as it took a long and hard look at me. It leaned left and right as if contemplating whether to answer me until it started looking around the room before edging closer to my ear. "The traveler has made a lot of enemies and not that many allies. It's directed my brethren and I to construct our risen without the need to sleep." It whispered.
"But can I still sleep?" I asked with a confused face. "You technically could but the effect is barely noticeable according to a couple of ghosts I've talked to." He said as I nodded with my eyes closed trying to go doze off into dreamland.
After a while, I fell asleep under the watchful eye of my ghost who hadn't disappeared yet. it stood motionless in the air as it simply watched, It did cartwheels in the air as its eye flickered between blue and red momentarily before changing back to red and disappeared.
..???the next day??????
I found myself on a desolate sidewalk enshrouded by darkness. I lit my arms on fire to give myself some light only for a newspaper to hit me right in the face. I stopped the flames on my left and pulled the newspaper off. It didn't seem to have anything of importance on the front page but it did have one thing the date. which read October 13 of 2009.
As I flipped the newspaper to the second page a single street light up ahead lit up. As the first form of light, It immediately drew my attention away from the newspaper. I couldn't see anything beyond half a meter of the street light and it didn't help that the light flickered for a good 10 sec before turning off for good. I looked back at the newspaper and the first section talked about the deployment of a new variant of the war satellites which included an experimental weapons system called the rods of god.
The space below that section showed a picture of 6 serious-looking old men in suits sitting around a glossy wooden table. The table was curved like a C with multiple versions of what seemed like the same flag in the background. Below that picture, a small paragraph that I quickly skimmed through was bashing this federation for breaking the 1967 outer space treaty. "what the fuck even is that?" I asked aloud as I reread the paragraph just in case I missed some context. "It must mean something, what is it referring to" I muttered to myself only to be interrupted by the sound of a radio out in the distance. I could hear someone say something but I couldn't quite make out what it was due to the distance.
I walked towards the sound of the radio in hopes of making out what that person was saying only for a muzzle flash to break the dark night. A couple of bullets hit the cement just in front of me which made me stumble back and onto the ground. As I stared at the smushed bullets in the ground I thought to myself ~is this how it ends? Killed in some random place only to be remembered as just another number to be added to a statistic~
A flashlight shining on my face snapped me out of my stupor. I raised my hand to block the light which allowed me to see only one guy with a flashlight in his left hand and his other on what looked like a pistol. I remained motionless as we observed each other in silence until he shouted "raise your hands in the air and don't move."
The man then leaned to his left and with his right hand pulled the radio up to his mouth. ~He might execute me, I need to get away ~ I told myself as I contemplated what to do as he tried using his microphone. Only to somehow managed to fumble and break it after multiple attempts at turning it on. He quickly flashed his light on it which gave me enough time to make a run for it.
As I take off down the shadowy sidewalk I hear him say "target is on broadway avenue heading north" to who I assume was his partner through the radio. After a couple of minutes, I looked over my shoulder to check and see if I lost him only to see a group of soldiers in black tactical armor giving chase. ~shit~
I quickly entered a dark alleyway littered with trash. After running straight for a while I finally came to an intersection in the alleyway but my choices were gone as soon as I saw flashlights straight ahead and to my right. As I ran down the narrow alleyway I stumbled over an old homeless guy that was lying on the floor. I quickly got up but the homeless guy held onto my leg. "Please spare some change for me sir I beg of you"
"Let go of me! I don't have any change!" I said loudly whispering to the homeless man.
The flashlights were getting closer "You people always say that and I know you do" the old man said as he tightened his grip on my leg. Seeing the old man unwilling to let go I knew what to do for the sake of time. "I'm sorry old man" I said apologetically as I lit my right arm on fire and grabbed his face with the most force I could muster. He shrieked as he tried to move my arm with one arm and held me with the other. "Just let me go!" I said
"No, I got a son to fe-" he tried to say as my flames melted his face which made his hands lose their grip on me as he dropped dead. I tried to sneak away stealthily as some soldiers can and inspected the inside of a trash can a couple of meters away from where the old man was laying. They pulled out a kid wrapped in a blanket that looked like the old man. "I'm sorry kid" I whispered as I took one last glance at the scene with regret.
As I ran down the street a bright red hand opened the door of a tall office building to my left. I looked at it hesitatingly and would've ignored it if not for the people using a floodlight to search the street up ahead. As I ran up the stairs to the door held open by the red hand, a flashlight focused on my back.
"there he is, don't let him get away!!" The soldiers yelled as muzzle fire lit up the night. Bullets lodged themselves into various parts of the building as windows shattered and sparks lit up the night as they hit the metal door which I quickly slammed close. It instantly made their voices disappear all at once as if they never existed in the first place. The peace and quiet was very much needed after being chased down for so long. I eventually slid down the door, leaned my head back in relief and rested my eyes for a couple of seconds.
I don't know how long I was out but when I opened my eyes I found myself sitting beside a cloaked four-legged insect and a large humanoid creature covered in stony armor similar to that of a knight. The only creepy part about it was the 3 glowing green eyes positioned in the shape of a pyramid which didn't have any form of protection. The insect's mandibles were very intriguing and strangely interesting to watch as they moved. The insect itself slouched in its seat as if bored occasionally glancing at the knight which stood motionless like a statue until it glanced at the insect.
The insect immediately started pointing towards a massive empty seat across from me and started mocking whoever was supposed to be there. It started with air quotes and slowly devolved to the point where it got on the table and seemed to be imitating a fat guy. As the insect continued its taunts the knight just rolled its eyes in annoyance before dozing off and closing its eyes. It was pretty amusing, to say the least, or at least it was until my chair gave out and sent me tumbling to the floor just as I blinked. The next second I found myself standing in the middle of a dirt road surrounded by trees whose bark was a decent shade of red. "It seems I'm not alone" I said aloud as I stared into the veil of shadows where numerous small and big eyes glare at me from a distance. They all had one thing in common though they glared at me as if I just ate their dog in front of them without offering them any.
I tried backing up while keeping my eyes on what ever was watching only to hear the rattling of chains as I do to which I quickly glanced down. They wrapped around my limbs yet strangely didn't come close to my torso. I heard something shuffle about in the bushes occasionally snapping a twig or two. I quickly look up and search for whatever made the noise.
All of a sudden the dirt path was illuminated by a red light that seemed to come from the sky above. As I looked up I heard what sounded like a wolf's howl. Yet the red orb seemed to disregard the howls as it continued descending brightly. As I watched it descend I found my hand started shaking a little but ignored it to observe the orb. I soon came to regret my decision as My entire arm was spasming out of control at an ever-increasing frequency. I tried holding it down, yet it did little for me as the eyes got bigger and much much closer to me.
They started filling my vision slowly encasing me even as I twisted and turned in my chains they were simply unavoidable. I could see nothing but eyes. eYeS. EYES! EYES!!!!!!!!!! EVERYWHERE!! I closed my eyes in an attempt to avoid them only for me them in be ever more present in the darkness. A massive red eye stood above the rest in terms of size and color, I watched as it slid around like an eye in an eye socket as rings with weird symbols written on them seemed to phase into existence. The eyes seemed to welcome this change as they repositioned themselves onto the rings.
After the eyes settled in the rings, the middle of the massive eye was cut and rows of razor-sharp teeth moved in. "Hello Adam" the eye spoke in a horse and broken-sounding tone. "Open your eyes and I will give to you the knowledge that you have lost for a cost, keep them closed forever and perish for disobeying your god. The pieces are nearly set, will the choice to move them be yours or will it that honor belong to another? But do be warned of the others dressed in red for that shall be just the beginning of your test"
Orange cracks started filling the darkness and rapidly approached the red eye and its rings. It watched as orange cracks started climbing up the rings toward the eye, Its gigantic red eye took one last look at me before finally closing it just as the cracks reached it. It showered the area around it in orange as it glowed bright orange and pulsed lightly for a couple of seconds. I looked at it confusingly as it stopped pulsing and turned completely orange, as it stood in place I stepped towards it and marveled at its height. It seemed to have scales that sat between the eyes on its rings, I tried feeling a scale that was close to the ground only for it to combust and start making everything else explode in what seemed like orange dust. Just as the dust was about to hit me, I heard the call of a rooster and was pulled away by something, I just didn't know where so I finally opened my eyes.
I shot up from the bed, eyes as wide as a dead man, I looked around only to see Marco's stuff littering the room. "Just a dream Adam. Just a very bad dream" I told myself as I steadied my breathing to calm myself. I got up and walked out of the room just as miss Martha opened her door. "Good to see you up and ready to get trained.
"I'm always ready ma'am" I said with a fake smile as I move to the side and gestured to the stairs. She simply smiled as she walked past me and went up the stairs. Soon as she did my fake smile disappeared and became a frown as I simply stood there with a frown on my face. "Are you coming Adam?" Miss Maria asked from atop the stairs. I quickly put on a smile again and said "I'll be there in a second" as I started walking up the stairs.
.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone