章 35: Bloody Future

Twinkling lights scattered across the darkness, like stars floating through the night sky. A large glowing black orb, like a sun the small lights orbited around, stood in their midst. Dark tentacles flowed from the orb, latching on to several of the lights. In the distance, a purple cloud began to flow through the darkness, like a sandstorm cutting across the desert. When the storm hit the first tentacle it shriveled and began to disintegrate, till it mixed and became part of the cloud. Three more tentacles were devoured in like manner, before the dark tentacles began to retreat back into the black orb, allowing the lights to be enveloped by the cloud.

Zi's consciousness drifted through the soul scape looking at the shards of light.

'A shattered soul.' She thought with surprise as she enveloped the lights. Then she glanced at the dark orb. 'And a parasite.'

Zi had a unique innate ability that allowed her to invade people's souls when they looked in her eyes. It was how she was able to break one of the Hunters arms before she was captured, and why they had kept her head covered at all times.

Normally when she invaded, she would cloud people's ability to react, but this was a unique situation. With the two souls in one body, it had created a soul scape, allowing her to enter freely. Also, since Kaleb's soul was shattered, Zi was able to freely read through his soul fragments which were created by his thoughts and experiences. She was able to see sections of his past that had helped shape him into who he was.

As Zi ran through Kaleb's soul she felt a light envelope her mind taking her into a trance.

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Zi was standing on the surface of an endless red sea. Murky crimson waves stretched from one horizon to the other. The sky was a brilliant blue with clouds dusting across its surface. Zi reached down to touch the surface and as a metallic smell assaulted her and the sticky substance clung to her fingers; she realized it was blood!

Just as she was about recoil a hand shot out of the sea and tried to grab her wrist! She quickly pulled away from the grasp but not before she watched the hand pass through her. She quickly flew into the sky. As she floated a few meters above the waves she watched as dozens of skeletal hands broke the surface of the blood. Heads followed their beckoning arms, and she met the hollowed gazes of hordes of human skeletons reaching out toward her.

She felt fear creep into her heart as Zi watched those entreating hands reaching skyward toward her. Blood dripped off their chalk white fingers and slid down their skulls into their empty eye sockets as they tried to break the shackles of gravity that held them bound to their prison of blood.

Zi quickly gained altitude leaving behind that scene from nightmares and glanced around at her surroundings. A twinkling in the distance caught her eye and she quickly moved toward it, hoping to find something other than the previous horrors.

As she approached Zi saw there was a very intense light source above the clouds. That light was so intense that it illuminated though the haze, as if it was nothing but a light fog. It cast a single steam of murky spotlight onto the blood sea.

When she followed that light to the surface of the blood, she froze at the scene that greeted her.

There was the young man that she had just met just above the surface of the blood sea. His eyes were glazed over, as if there was no consciousness behind them, and they were staring directly into the light obscured by the clouds. He had one hand reaching out as if to grab the source of the light shining on him.

Yet holding him back from his impossible goal were dozens of skeletons clinging to his legs. There were so many of them that from a distance it looked like he was standing on a white pillar jutting out of the sea.

As Zi watched, the skeletons slowly dragged the young man beneath the waves. Their hands crawling up his chest and gripping his shoulders, encapsulating him in a white cocoon of bone.

At no point did he fight their beckoning grasps, he just stared lifelessly at the light above him. His hand was still outstretched until she saw his fingers dip below the surface and disappear from her sight.

Then, the whole world flipped as if it was a coin. Zi watched as the sea of blood orbited her until it replaced the sky. Below her all she could see was the darkness of the void and above her was the sea of blood, though the sea gave off a soft red glow, nothing else could be seen. She stood in awe as she watched the waves dance through the glowing crimson ceiling above her. Then she felt a shiver run down her spin as a presence emerged from the void, floating up through the darkness to the bottom of the sea.

Zi couldn't make out any of the features of the spectral figure due to the darkness, but she felt some familiarity with it. The figure reached a single hand that was illuminated by the sea as it neared it. The hand was skeletal! The skeleton hand slowly immersed itself into the depths of the blood. It stayed suspended in the waves for several minutes, then it slowly began to pull back out. As it retracted its arm, Zi saw a wrist in its grasp. Then the wrist was followed by a head being dragged from the bloody ceiling.

It was the young man who Zi had just watched being pulled into the depths moments ago. His eyes were now closed and there were no signs of life in him. The shrouded figure pulled him completely from the blood and held him in its embrace.

Zi approached closer, curious to see if the young man was dead or not. As she neared his face, resting in the bosom of the shadowy figure, his eyes slowly opened wide, and she felt her heartbeat faster. His eyes were no longer hazel they were blood red! As their eyes met, she felt her heartbeat getting faster and faster her breath turning ragged as she felt something building in her she had never felt before.

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She woke up with a start, her heart slowly calming down and her breath returning to normal glancing around the soul scape, her eyes settled on the giant black orb that seemed to be watching her.