Chapter 39: Reality
No POV:
The forest stretched in all directions, barely visible in the suffocating darkness.
Axel moved cautiously through the darkness. Dead leaves crunching under his feet...
"Where am I?"
He couldn’t see the moon but up in the sky there was a faint light. The dead glow barely scraping the top of the trees above him.
Were they even trees?
Well, whatever it was, it sure looked like it.
"Hades? Where are you?". He called out. Hearing no response, he spoke again. "C’mon this isn’t funny how do I get out of here?"
**CRUNCH**
He heard a noise in the distance. Follow it, he quickly but cautiously moved forward. The air was thick, breathing was relatively difficult but if he found someone, maybe he could find a way out of this place...
**CRUNCH**
**CRACK**
He stopped. It sounded like something was breaking...
Looking down, he froze in his steps.
"Bones..?"
Littered all around him, were bones.
We’re they bones?
He couldn’t see the it clearly but from what he could tell they were something akin to bones... As far as he could tell anyway...
**THUD**
"Uh—!"
He trip on something. Bending down, he placed his hand on where he had almost fell. When he did, his eyes widened...
The thing was soft. Very soft..
As if he could squash through it if he applied enough pressure.
The putrid odour filled his nose.
This was definitely a dead body...
"What...."
Adjusting his awareness, he realized that he was surrounded by them. Some of them were losing an arm,
Others losing a leg.
Some even loosing their heads...
"What’s happening.... Why am I here..."
**CRUNCH**
**CRACK**
Peering into the darkness he saw something... Something unsettling...
A figure sat eating a corpse, it’s sihoulette was of darkness, his face barely visible...
The only thing Axel could make out was the cyan colored eyes and exposed teeth that bit into the neck of the corpse in front of it.
Then their eyes met...
His heart hammered in his chest.
Petrified, he stepped back. Hoping that whatever was in front of him didn’t notice his presence.
However, he was too late...
The figure lunged at him with terrifying speed...
Axel took to his heels... He didn’t know where he was but he kept running, trying to escape whatever was chasing him...
The figure growled. It’s voice sounding very close behind him.
Axel ran as fast as he could. His heart hammering, adrenaline rushing through him.
Soon, the figure caught up to him..
It pounced on Axel bringing them both to the ground.
"Agh—!" He fell, tumbling across the dirt beneath. Sticks and stones cut his skin drawing blood and bruises...
"W...Wait! Please!"
He wasn’t even sure the figure understood English but he had to try...
However, the figure just growled and brought itself close to his face staring deep into his eyes.
Axel was terrified.
Was this the end?
Was this how he as going to die?
Thousands of thoughts went through his head. He didn’t want to die.
He didn’t want to die..
He didn’t want to die....
He didn’t want to...
"Arrgghh!" The figure disappeared into black mist. Flowing into Axel through his eyes, nose and mouth...
The sensation was horrifying.
It felt like he was being burnt from the inside.
"Arrr...Arrrghhh!!"
The darkness flowed towards his mouth. Solidifying into a kind of mask on it—two jagged rows of teeth formed right after.
His eye color slowly changed. The pain was unbearable. Veins stretched across his face, engulfing him in burning pain... Soon, the darkness spread over his body. His arms, legs and torso were screaming in pain.
"ARRRGHHH!!!!!"
Soon it covered his face...
.
.
.
.
.
"NO!"
Ax shot up from his bed. His mind reeling from the nightmare he had.
He was drenched in sweat and panting like he ran a marathon...
"Ghk—"
Flashes of his dream lingered. They started to replay in his head.
It was making him sick...
"Urrgh..."
He let it out. Blood pooled from his mouth and onto the bed.
Even though he held his hand over his mouth the quantity was enough to leak through it...
Letting the rest of the blood fall on the bed, he let out a shaky breath.
"It was a dream.... Just a dream..." He muttered.
Remembering any moment from that dream made his skin crawl.
His mind drifted to a specific moment...
When the creature looked him straight in the eye...
"Nyroth..."
That was the only explanation to all of this. The color was a dead give away...
Cyan... The same cyan color that he had come to hate.
The color reminded him of everything he wanted to keep buried...
[We’re going to need new sheets...]
"Ohh... My bad." Walking towards the bathroom, he muttered: "I’ll get that done..."
.
.
.
.
.
Walking towards the kitchen, Milley came running towards him.
"Big brother!" She said as she flew into his arms.
"Ohh hey Milley. Good morning." He replied flatly. His voice was hollow. Almost devoid of emotion.
His eyes were sunken and unfocused, the tiredness was visible.
Milley titled her head. "Big brother... What’s wrong?"
"Ohh... Nothing. Just... Had a rough night." Came his reply.
Milley looked at him for a long moment. Then she jumped down from his arms. "Okay.." Then, in a lighter tone, "It’s breakfast time! Let’s go!" Saying that, she ran towards the kitchen with Axel following sluggishly behind.
~~~~~
The rest of the morning was quiet.
From dining, to Hayley explaining what his next exercise would be.
He hoped he wasn’t giving too much away and was actually relieved that no one asked him about it.
But a part of him wished they did... He wanted them to ask how he was doing... He wanted to at least try to tell people what he had been going through.
But when no one did. He actually felt... Hurt?
Well, not like it mattered. It’s been like that for as long as he could remember; no one really cared whether or not he was dying inside. And him thinking that it would be different now turned out to be only something he dreamed of.
Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to truly express how he was feeling...
Well that’s what years of isolation would do to you...
In a nutshell, he was actually thankful no one asked.
That was a painfully calming reality...
.
.
.
.
.
On his way to the training field, he stopped in front of a window and starred at his reflection.
He was a mess....
He looked like trash. Even though he spent almost an hour in the bath.
"C’mon man, chin up! It’s your problem. Deal with it! No one’s coming to help ."
He slapped both hands on his cheeks. "You got shit to do."
"Axel."
Hearing his name, he flinched...
"Uhh hey Hayley... You need something..?"
Hayley walked up to him before continuing. "No, I was just coming to check if you’re ready for today’s exercise..."
"Ohh. Th—that. Yeah... Of course! I’m ready." He stuttered. After a pause, he asked again... "Uhhh what are we going to do anyway?"
Hayley raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t I tell you? You weren’t listening were you?"
"Ohh you did?" Then, realizing she must have told him but he just didn’t pay attention, he said again. "You did..."
Hayley crossed her arms. "Are you okay? You’ve been acting... Off."
Axel froze. He wanted to say it. He wanted to tell her that he was in fact, not okay.
He wanted to say everything...
"I’m fine... I just had a rough night." With a tired smile, he replied...
Hayley stared at him for a long moment before walking off, with Axel following behind her...
"I was saying that for your endurance training, we decided to swap Vax out..."
"Ohh really?" He didn’t expect to hear that..
"Yeah I figured he wasn’t the right person for the job." She said as they approached the field.
"Well, who did he get replaced with?"
When they reached, his question was instantly answered.
Looking forward, he stopped dead in his tracks.
What he saw caught him by surprise....
Comments