บท 457: Mutterings of a Mad Man

He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as frustration bubbled beneath his skin. 

Something wasn't right. 

He knew it, felt it deep in his bones. 

But every time he tried to pin it down, to grasp the source of the change, his thoughts slipped away, replaced by that familiar emptiness.

Then, out of nowhere, a flicker of a memory surfaced.

'Gorath.'

The name came to him like a whisper, pulling him from the fog. 

The planet they had visited just before everything began to change. It had been only a few days ago, though to Alex, it felt like a lifetime. 

Or perhaps no time at all. It was hard to tell. Time seemed to blur together in his mind, like it had lost all meaning.

He sat up straighter, his heart beginning to pound as the pieces of a puzzle started to form in his mind. Gorath… that was where it had begun. 

Before Gorath, things had been normal. 

He had been himself.