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Final Cosmos

作者: DonKane

章節 1: Prologue

"Order is absolute, for even Chaos is Order.

What is Chaos if not the absence of Order.

What is Chaos if not the categorization of un-Order.

There's an ultimate truth when it comes to reality:

There's that which is Order, and there's that which is un-Order,

Yet even this binary design of reality is a byproduct of Order.

Is true Chaos even a possibility?"

-quote from the ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ Manifesto

Cee couldn't sleep.

It was one of those nights when she really wanted to get all the sleep possible, and she was even tired; she knew she was dreaming, yet she was also awake and irritated. Terrible night.

"Fuck this i just wanna sleep. Why can't i sleep. Fuck you brain let me sleep!"

Was she too tired? Was it nervousness? She had an important presentation at a meeting with some firm clients in the morning, that's why she wanted to get proper rest, but she just couldn't fall asleep. It went like this until the crack of dawn, when a chilly breeze pushed open one of her windows. "I need to get up and close it, huh?" she thought to herself as she was slowly falling into deep sleep.

Cee was lost both in thought and in person. She was floating about, sometimes walking on a hard path, sometimes swimming, sometimes she would let it carry her. A red mist, blowing in all directions like a violent storm, yet it was gentle and slow. She saw her hair stretching in front of her and all around her, and her hair melted and fused with the mist. She saw the the wind carrying it around was like a fire, a tornado of flame. She reached out to grab the fire, and as it was shaping around her hand it froze over. In the silence of this world, her slow breaths were all she could hear, then an otherworldly beast shriek broke out and echoed all around her.

'"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

She put on her coat, grabbed her keys, and stepped outside in the cold winter. As she walked on the snowy alleyway, the dead silence on the street reminded her of her dream once again. She grabbed the door handle to her car and it was frozen, so she had to pull again harder.

On her way to work she kept switching between channels on the radio. She wasn't in the mood for any of the music on right now, so she tuned into one of the news station and lowered the volume. Her mind kept going back to that eerie dream she had. As she was watching her hand weirdly freeze over as it was being enveloped by flame, she recalls hearing the yell of what could've only been a beast. It was as if a bear roared with the sound of giants pieces of glass breaking, booming like thunder. The sound echoed and folded in itself, and she could feel it passing through her, shaking her from her inside outwards. She felt as if she was about to explode. When she looked over to see where the sound came from, a clear pathway appeared through the fiery mist and she could see everything so vividly. It was big and distorted. It looked like a horse the size of a house. It had dozens of legs in different shapes and sizes. In place of it's head was the torso the shape of a human without any arms, but it was strong and upright, it's color was something indescribable, it looked like a hues of bronze and a black-ish yellow, though there was something otherworldly about it, like a color that shouldn't exist. It's neck was long and twisted around itself, covered in black fur and golden feathers, and in the middle of it's forehead was a hole from which a yellow gooey liquid, and black tar and blood were spewing. In front of the creature stood a human figure, disguised in shadow, dressed in what looked like a raggedy black suit, holding in it's hand a huge twisted spiral that looked like it was made from a diamond in thousands of colors. The human figure reached it's other hand out to the neck of the beast, and as it touched it, something akin to a black plague, a giant thorny vine was spreading through it's body. Smoke was coming out of it, and the beast was screaming in pain again, but the scream didn't sound as agonizing as the first one. Actually, Cee noticed she couldn't hear the beast at all. She looked at the human figure again and saw that now it was looking at her too. It felt as if it had the face of a human, the face of a man, but she couldn't see it. It was weird. It looked as if a dark distortion was covering his face like a curtain. She could feel his deadly gaze. The man was both staring at her and staring through her. The last thing she remembers is the flame storm rapidly moving around her and enveloping her before she woke up.

A truck honk brought her back to reality. "I can't get distracted like that, focus on the meeting." The car clock was showing 9:47.

"A woman's body was found near the river last night.."

Cee moved her hand to turn up the volume. She could hear the truck honk again, though this time it was more persistent. It kept getting louder and louder. Her hand seemed to move slower and slower too, as if time was stopping. The honk got deafening and an annoyingly bright, white light was blinding her. She closed her eyes.

After just a moment passing, she opened her eyes, and there was complete silence. The white light was all around her now, but it wasn't as impossible to look at. It took the shape of a thick fog, like a liquid flowing between layers of dark space. She felt herself floating backwards. She looked down and saw the white veils passing through her body as if she was immaterial. Below her she saw what looked like an old, narrow stone path that led into a weird black light. She saw her legs on the path and felt that she wasn't floating anymore. Cee's legs moved instinctually, and as she was approaching the light, she couldn't tell whether everything around her became darker or she was just closing her eyes.

'"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Cee finally woke up after her alarm rang off for the 4th time, the sunlight lighting her room through the open window, and it was already 9:30 am; her work meeting was set to start at 10. She started getting dressed with whatever she could grab that would somewhat fit together. Her mind was still fuzzy thinking about the dream she just woke up from. She had dreamt about a terribly creepy man and some weird beast screaming in pain. Then she woke up, went to work and died. Then she was in this weird space floating and she woke up in her bed.

She put on her clothes, grabbed her keys and went out to her car. The door handle was frozen so she had to pull harder. On her way to work she was still disturbed and confused by her dream, her mind was fuzzy. "Was it really a dream? It felt so real."

Cee knew better than to believe in superstitions and stuff of that nature, but just in case, she took a different road to work today. As she was lost in her thoughts, she overheard the radio so she moved her hand to bring the volume up.

"A woman's body was found near the river last night.."

She heard a loud car beep coming from her left, annoying like an insect buzzing in your ear. She turned her head to see what was going on and everything cut to black, like a scene change in a movie.

Cee opened her eyes and she was floating around in an endless white smoke. She saw a stone path leading into a weirdly dark light. She followed the path and everything cut to black slowly again.

'"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Cee finally woke up after her alarm rang off for the 4th time, and it was already 9:30 am. She didn't think about the clock anymore, or her job.

"That wasn't a dream."

She sat petrified in her bed. The sunlight was shining brightly through her window, and she covered herself from head to toe, yet she never felt colder in her life. She was shivering in cold sweats.

After what seemed like an eternity, she looked at her phone's clock again. 9:32.

She got up and started getting dressed, but on her way out she didn't grab her car keys anymore.

"If i really died, i don't know. It has to be a dream, but even then, maybe it's like a sign.. maybe i shouldn't take the car today. Even if I'm a little late, and it's a super important meeting.."

As Cee was thinking to herself walking down the snowy sidewalk and ready to cross the street, she suddenly heard a familiar voice, blasting like music from a car in the summer.

"A woman's body was found near the river last night.."

The news came from a car, and it indeed had it's windows down. It was followed by the same honk. The same blinding light. The same eerie space, with the same narrow, stone path leading to the same weird, dark light.

Cee woke up again, her alarm going off for the 4th time.

"I just have to find the right way to get to work, huh?"

She tried to walk again, but she slipped on ice and bashed her head. She tried to ride her bicycle, but she was hit by a car again. She tried to take a street circling the neighborhood. A rabid dog attacked her. She got hit by a car again, had a heart attack, was struck by lightning, was robbed and killed, attacked by a couple that confused her. She tried to take a bus, but the bridge collapsed under it, thought before it did, the she could hear the same news anchor broadcast the same message as before all the other times she died:

"A woman's body was found near the river last night.."

She woke up yet again and felt defeated. No matter what she did, no matter what she tried it always ended the same.

"Fuck it, I'll just stay home."

Weirdly enough this was the first time she had lived so far. The clock showed 10:29 am. Her phone kept vibrating but she knew it was from her work, so she kept ignoring it. It wasn't even fear or shame, it's just that her life was too fucked up right now and hearing her bosses yelling would be nothing more than a mild annoyance, a slight irritation that she just didn't wanna deal with.

Another 2 hours of sleeping in bed, falling in and out of sleep, ignoring calls, shivering. She kept thinking about it, everything that had happened to her in the last few days. Were they days? Is it the same day? Sometimes she'd let paranoia creep in on her, thinking that she's not safe even at home. Maybe the house could trample down on her, or some random burglars could break in and kill her. She would cry. After a little time she'd brush it off, and the paranoia would go away for a little.

But above all, it was 1 thought that preoccupied her mind more than anything else, always finding a way to pull itself back in her thoughts. That dream.

Finally Cee decided to get out and go downstairs. It wasn't that her fear or anxiety was gone, but her stomach was starting to growl. She went in the kitchen and started scrambling around, thinking about what she should eat. She poured milk in a glass and microwaved it. Can't eat with cold milk. She cried a little. After somehow managing to stop herself with a deep sob, she took the bowl out and poured some cinnamon cereal in.

Cee sat on her couch covered in the softest blanket she could find around. After a couple more sobs, the woman managed to pull herself together and found some strength within. She turned the TV and starting going through the channels while slowly eating her cereal. She paused on a random news channel.

"A woman's body was found near the river last night.."

This time she choked on her food.

Cee felt despair. She had a horrible morning, over and over again. She didn't know how to deal with anymore.

She decided not to go to work, and she decided she won't watch TV either, nor stay on her phone or listen to the radio. She won't pick up calls either. It was as if she caught a paranoia virus, she wanted to avoid anything.. anything where she could heard those words again. She read, she meditated, she took a long bath, she cooked lunch and dinner. The day went by terribly slow.

At least Cee decided she should try to go outside. It was 9:20 pm. She put on some thick clothes for the cold, grabbed her headphones and headed out. She decided she'd take a walk around listening to music. This way she could avoid hearing that news broadcast at least, maybe it had something to do with that. She shivered just at the thought of even approaching her workplace or going in that direction, so she decided to take the river bank.

It was foggy outside, but she didn't mind it. It gave her a sense of intimacy, especially with music playing in her headphones and the warm street lights around. Finally she had some freedom, some peace of mind after what was it even, hours, days? Did all that time even pass if it kept resetting for her?

As she was walking down, past a couple of trees she saw a dark figure, in a place where no light from the street lamps was reaching. It shook her at first, but she quickly returned to her senses. "It's just another person enjoying a walk, nothing more." As Cee kept walking she noticed the figure wasn't moving at all. It was simply standing still in the dark. Her legs kept moving forward but now she started getting scared. The lights around her started slowly getting more red-ish, and as she was walking she could hear her own breaths getting slower and slower. It was as if time itself was slowing down.

She could see the vapor forming in the cold from her breaths intermingling with the dense fog. As she kept approaching the figure, strokes of the red light started to finally unveil his face. Or at least what should've been his face, though she couldn't see it. It was like a weird blur, a dark smoke curtain covering it. At the same time it felt as if no curtain was there at all, nor his face, just bottomless void. If it was, Cee was staring right into the void, and it was staring back at her. It was the same man from her dream, from the first dream. As she glanced at his hand, she saw the first sparkle of the horn as it came out the shadows and it was revealed by the light, and that was the last of it.

"A woman's body was found near the river last night around 9:47 PM. There are multiple burn marks on her face, especially around her eye sockets. Her eyes are presumed to have been gauged out. There was a quite weird vine-like structure, black in color, that grew in her chest. The police are investigating a murder, though there are no witnesses or suspects as of yet. No details are yet given about the woman's identity."