I jolted upright, tearing myself from the dream. I immediately clutched my stomach, doubling over as I coughed and retched. My lungs burned with every uneven breath. My throat was sandpaper-dry, while cold sweat slicked my brow and mingled with the tears streaming down my face. I was freezing. The shimmering heat that had surrounded me was gone. It was snapped away and replaced by a hollow, biting chill. It had felt like a chasm had opened up inside my chest, a deep, dark void that nothing could ever fill.
I looked down, only to see something that would fuel my confusion. As I turned my arm, there on my wrist was a mark, an old looking symbol, one that made my head and stomach churn some more. Was this some kind of joke? Some cruel fantasy? The mysterious symbol, no matter how much I rubbed at it, just wouldn't go away, and this frightened me. I dashed out of my bed, and stumbled into the washroom, stubbing my toe against the door in the process. The pain I felt when I did so, reaffirmed to me that was reality, and that I think scared me even more so.
I stood trembling in front of the mirror.
I lifted my head, to see my reflection stare back at me, and to my surprise, seeing my figure in the glass did not give me comfort, it only gave me more tiresome and frantic questions than answers. White tears streaked down my face, down my cheeks and onto the floor. I got closer to the glass and examined my complexion. Why were my tears as white as paper...?
For awhile, I just laid in the washroom. I was unable to formulate a singular proper thought or do anything worthwhile. I felt like a void. I was overblown by that feeling of gasping for air and the more I kept looking for breath, the more I was deprived of it.
What do they even call that..? Asphyxia?
The walls seemingly kept closing in on me, but in the state I was in I couldn't tell you if that was reality or fiction.
Could you call that claustrophobia?
Regardless, I laid there, suffocating lifelessly on my bathroom floor.
I think I slept for a good while. I don't remember how long it was, but it didn't matter, for some reason the feeling of suffocation had decided to leave me, and for that I was overwhelmed with relief.
However, that didn't excuse the oddity of the odd black mark on my wrist, and the white tears, when I cried.
I surmised that it that might have something to do with the nightmare.
But even thinking of it like that, seems far fetched and it was my complete speculation.
I would try to go along with my day, I would brush my teeth and shower, still rubbing at the mark to no avail.
I would even find it difficult to eat. Ignoring my hunger, I would leave my apartment.
Upon closing that door, you would always get an almost instantaneous whiplash of the city.
It was a bigger town, one that people would flock too after leaving the countryside in hopes of a 'better' life. As I walked, the outdoor world was keen to meet me as I was harshly greeted by the brittle evening air. Many cars would pass, and my nose would cling to the smell of the exhausts. The cracks in the sidewalk spiked at my feet like always. The towering structures above me were built of brick and concrete. They seemed to lean inward, taking every bit of the afternoon light and casting the sidewalk into a twilight. As I reached deeper into the cities belly, my own would start to rumble.
Instead of just going for a walk to ease my mind, I changed course to go get something to remedy my hunger.
The screech of an elevated train overhead momentarily drowned out all my other thoughts as I turned a corner, and it was then I could hear the throbbing noise of a local bar. The neon signs flickered, illuminating my face and I shuffled past many figures that were huddled near the entrance. Many were dressed in dark clothing, smoking under an awning and just by the thunderous rattling I could bet that some type of rock band was playing in there tonight.
It was then that I paused at a crosswalk as vehicles whipped back and forth. My eyes drifted down to my pocket to check my phone, and there to my side was a black cat. How did this little guy sneak up on me..? The cat was so calm. It sat upright and completely focused on me. I must admit it was unnatural in the way it stared at me with its amber and gold eyes, unblinking. There was something about it that, when I held its gaze it felt powerful.
The way it would tilt its head so curiously while still holding my gaze made me feel it's intelligence, as if it were pondering about me as I thought about it. It was then that I had a silent acknowledgment with the creature almost as if it was supposed to take me somewhere or show me something. Unfortunately, just as I shifted to reach out and pet it or give it a soft word, it simply vanished.
In a blink of eye.
I could swear, it was a sudden, dark ripple, dissolving instantly down the side street and disappearing behind a rusty dumpster without a sound. That same moment the walk signal appeared, and the beeping of the device seemed to bring me back to reality.. but what was that?
Trying not to think about it to deeply I kept my gaze low, trudging along slowly across the crosswalk. My destination was dead ahead.
But as I finished crossing....
I saw a figure...
I saw a woman, her hair thrashing in the wind..
I could swear to you, I saw a woman so clearly at the sheer edge of a thirty-story rooftop and she looked as if she was playing with her life. She balanced precariously, perhaps just a few feet from the drop, and the way she held her arms out, stiffly away from her body gave her pose a terrifying sense of purpose.
For a moment, I stood in shock. Time seemed to slow, and the street noise sank into my subconscious. A cold dread gripped my chest.
For some reason, I could see her so clearly, and I desperately wonder why no one else could.
She gazed at the dark above and then at the light below. Surely, she wasn't admiring the view. To me it seemed more like she was thinking of surrendering to the void. It was too high up though, the immense height made it impossible to really discern her expression. But something about the stillness of her posture made it look less like standing and more like a final act.
So I waited no longer. I started running towards the building. Before she would make her decision, I'd make mine.
I would run, no, sprint with all I had. I weaved through remaining traffic lanes doing anything I could to cover the distance to the lobby door. Just as my hand reached the entrance of the building and the door seemed inches from being thrown open, it was then I realized I was out of time.
The woman had shifted.. she simply just leaned backward with deliberation. She didn't stumble or struggle, she simply gracefully launched herself into the void.
In disbelief a sound came from deep within my chest. "No!" I threw the lobby door open.. but my eyes still fixed upward and in an utterly purely instinctual reaction..
I spread my arms open to catch her.
The fall was impossibly long and slow, it was almost as if it was a drawn-out spectacle against the twilight. Her body moved with the elegance of a deep-sea diver, making the plummet seem beautiful. Her expression, visible for a brief moment.. softened into a serene peace, her eyes closing, a genuine smile curving her lips. Her hair caught the last sliver of the sinking sun, shimmering like dark silk unfurling in slow motion, giving the devastating descent a surreal, watery beauty.
I was but a passenger. I was useless. I shut my eyes, bracing for the impact of her fall. The impact was inevitable.
And then..
A burning sensation erupted on my wrist.
The mysterious mark was glowing. A sound that pierced my eardrums combined with the heavy smell of sulfur ripped through the air. From my hands came fire and smoke, twisting into an impossible object.
In a blink a large four post bed with a thick mattress, and all manifested completely out of thin air.
My mouth hung open in awe, staggering backward just as the bed dropped with a loud thud, cushioning the woman's fall a mere split second later. She landed with a surprised oomph into the massive mattress, the momentum of her speed absorbed by the sudden landing.
What just happened..?
For a moment, I don't even think she clocked what had just happened either. She just laid there, alive and staring up at the dark sky and then down at the plush bedding beneath her.
All I could do was look at my hands blankly for a moment, eyes wide as could be, and I mustered everything to say "A-Are you okay?"
"Of course." She said, looking rather calm.
Her expression turned quite perplexed as she rolled in the bed to turn to face me. "That was fun I guess."
"What? What do you mean?"
"It was just a little jump I suppose. I wanted to be a bit of a daredevil you know? Feel the rush in my body? In my hair? Thanks for all the dramaticism though. You made me feel like a movie star or a damsel in distress or something.." She would turn her gaze to her nails, her short, black bob shaking as she did. She put one leg over the other, she was really carefree about this it seemed.
What was she saying? Have I gone mad? Did I not just watch a woman seemingly fall to her death from a thirty-story building?
"..And what's with the bed?"
"Uhh.. I was trying to save you .. and... then my wrist..." I was a complete loss for words, it was just too much to process all at once.
"Huhhhh? Dude are you fucking with me? You are a homo sapien yes? You can totally see me, so I don't understand what you are say- oh-!" She broke into a laugh on the bed.
"OHH are you new? Oh my god, you are totally new aren't you?" she stood up.
"Homo sapien..? New?" New? What the hell is this woman saying.
"Yeah! A new dormant. Ah geez, it's been so long since I've met a newbie."
"Dormant..? Lady, can you please say something that makes sense?"
"Look, you don't even need me! It'll be fineeeee, someone can teach you the ropes, you'll get settled in, yadayadayada badabing badaboom.."
"I don't understand. Get settled into what?"
It was just then I noticed something supremely odd, people were reacting to me and the mattress, but no one was reacting to her.
"Why is no one...?"
"..Reacting to me? Cloaking. I took a Cloaker before this."
"Cloaker?"
"A cloaking pill, makes the homo sap- I mean humans unable to see you. Wow, you really are a wittle babeh dormant fetus."
I gave her a glare.
"They can still see you, this bed and mess you've made though. And better yet, my cloaking time ends soon anyways. We should run." She giggles.
Its then I realize.. I did cause some damage here to this building.
"O-Oh shit.. it was an accident.. I didn't mean.."
"Oh hush. Just.. you know what, here." She hands me a small white pill.
"Is this... Tylenol?"
"No, a cloaking pill. Now swallow that and-"
My stomach rumbles.
"Dude. Are you hungry?" She stifles a laugh.
"Possibly." I swallow the pill, and it brushes my tongue for a second and I choke at the taste.
She laughs and her expression softens. "You know what newbie, maybe I will take you in."
"Take me WHERE bro, WHERE? What is wrong with you? Why won't you answer any of my questions..?! And I have a NAME too you know?" I spat.
"All I can say is.. you'll see." She chuckled some more. "But fine, I'll bite, what's your name my fledging dormant?"
"Kano."
She smirks and walks in front of me, putting a hand on her hip. "Yurine. Yurine Hyacinth."