"What was that?" Rose became fully alert.
Eric and Lucy looked at each other, listening in on the silence. A lifeless wind blew in through the open window, carrying the breath of a sunless sky.
Lucy put down her pen. "What was what?"
Rose tapped her head a few times and massaged her ears. Maybe my ears are ringing? She could still hear the memory of the sound - a high, out-of-place pitch reverberating inside her head. "Didn't you guys hear that?"
"Nope," Lucy said. "What are we supposed to hear?"
"A pitch..." Rose struggled for words. "It doesn't belong..."
Eric smirked. "It's just your imagination. You're bored, and the lack of sun is finally getting to you."
"So what if I'm bored! You keep busy with your fire exercises, and Lucy is happy to read all the arcane books she can lay her hands on. I miss normal people... Almost everyone here at the Outpost is either crazy, broken or just a monstrous human being."
"Not all are human," Lucy remarked.
"Yeah, you know what I mean. Is it wrong to miss interacting with people? I hate that I have to approach every conversation as a potential conflict."
"Come on," Eric said, "without your bubbly - and may I say completely irrational - optimism Lucy and I would be resigned to lead lives as soulless and grey as the sky outside."
Lucy chuckled. "He's not too wrong."
"Aww, you guys... what a twisted, but sweet thing to say. Come here and give me a hug!"
Rose stood up and opened her arms for the embrace - but her hands instinctively jumped up to clutch her head when the pitch returned with painful intensity. She had to make a conscious effort to stop gritting her teeth. "Don't tell me you can't hear that!"
The sound screeched inside her head like fingernails on a chalkboard. It didn't go away, but the pain and confusion slowly subsided as her mind readjusted.
"Is it coming from outside?" Lucy asked.
Rose went to the nearest window, opened it fully and leaned out. Despite the sunless sky, visibility was that of a late afternoon day. "Not sure," she replied without turning around, "it seems to come from all over the horizon."
"Let's find out," Eric suggested.
"Alright." Rose climbed into the window and looked down. Three stories. The drop ebbed and flowed; it pulled on her then pushed her back. She inhaled to quiet the inner warning bells, and jumped - exhaling all the way down.
With a thud!, the grassy ground dented beneath her feet. She fell to one knee and used one hand for balance. Should've been more graceful. Of course, she could have just hopped down like Eric, or floated down gently like Lucy did shortly thereafter, but that invasive noise affected her ability to concentrate.
Flying required a lot more effort than at Dream Camp; it felt less natural, akin to treading mud. If it was the unwelcoming sky, maybe the gripping claws of nightmares people carried with them, or the open-ended ease with which one could lull towards humanity's spiritual sewage, Rose couldn't tell for sure.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
Rose stood up and scanned her surroundings. Naturally, the main building they just jumped out of was behind her, arcing slightly around a ring of trees which marked the origin point of the Pulse. The trees, despite looking otherworldly, felt oddly appropriate. The intricate magic holding this realm together is right here. The smaller side building served diplomatic purposes, and greenhouses with experimental vegetation completed the circle around the ring of trees.
Around all of this: a vast open field named 'Purgatory'. People with lesser nightmare deformations were attracted to the Pulse like moths to a flame, hoping for absolution and deliverance. Permanent residents kept their distance according to the severity of their internalized nightmares, and thus the other buildings were present only at a safe distance, across the green-grey field.
"Anything out of the ordinary?" Eric asked.
Rose started walking into the open. The auditory shrillness diminished, slowly transforming into an oscillating feeling which warned of impending doom. Her steps grew more rapid, but she didn't notice the change of pace - her mind was intent on finding the source of danger before it was too late.
"I don't see anything," Lucy said.
Something is coming. The whole circumference of the horizon was a red zone in Rose's mind, constricting her sense of presence. Soon.
In waking life the sun above and the ground beneath one's feet were a given. At the Outpost, the Pulse served a similar purpose: one knew instinctively which direction the Pulse would come from, at what distance, and how far removed in time.
"Something is coming. Something big." Having awakened from the state of intense concentration, Rose looked around and acknowledged the distance she has walked. Lucy and Eric were with her, with inquisitive expressions on their faces, but not saying anything. "And it's coming soon. Like, in a few minutes."
Eric willed a mid-sized fireball on top of his palm. "If there's a problem, we'll deal with it when it arises." He let the fireball dissipate in a minor explosion.
Rose shrugged. "Wait and see, then?"
Lucy nodded.
The streets in the distance seemed busier than usual. Minutes passed... and crowds gathered. Groups of people started running from the outer end of Purgatory toward its center.
The waiting filled Rose with anticipation. She abhorred boredom, but past experiences taught her the virtue of patience. Hell yeah, I'm more patient now! Take that, old me!
The first few runners reached and passed by the group.
"What's going on?" Eric yelled out multiple times.
A few shrugs were the replies; mostly they just ignored him. Their expressions revealed they were running not because they knew what the danger was, but because of all the horrible things they fearfully imagined.
They are braving the Purgatory out of cowardice.
The runners grew more numerous and aggressive as they passed by. Unlike the first few who had no visible bodily deformations, it got more common to see tumorous growths impeding movement or extra limbs. While the first few kept turning around, fearing what was behind them, the second wave hobbled with wide-eyed resignation, preparing for the painful mini-death the next cleansing Pulse would bring.
People bumped into Rose, accidentally at first, but then they started actively shoving her out of the way. "Hey, watch it!" While she danced around to avoid getting hurt, she drifted farther away from Eric and Lucy.
The thought hasn't even crossed Rose's mind to run with the crowd to greater safety, not even when crowds squeezed together into a unified mass and their fear increasingly took the form of mindless anger.
Their faces are all wrong! Where do they all come from? They're not from the Outpost!
Shoves turned into outright attacks. Deformed monstrosities clawed at her, some successfully, before getting pushed away by the next wave. She saw a pillar of fire to her left - Eric, you can't possibly burn them all - and behind the inferno a small mound the masses trampled over - Lucy's earth-shield spell! Smart.
After a few minor concussions and several scratches that drew blood, Rose had enough. I shouldn't have neglected my training! A nice air-based shield would have protected me... kept me mobile... Now I get the good ideas... Thoughts were a luxury, even ones that took place in the back of her mind.
She hopped upward, to fly or at least float above the deranged mob. Hands with irregular fingers caught her leg and pulled her back. Damn. She saw a shockwave closing in, coinciding with the red zone in her mind.
By reflex, she attempted to teleport away instead, but that attempt failed too. Disoriented and not fully corporeal, Rose drifted through the bodies, unable to find a nearby spot where she could be herself again.
The ethereal contact was yucky and gag-inducing, but worse yet was the mental and emotional proximity. The anguish of all she passed through sought to attach, corrupt, and possess her soul.
Breathing in all of that, the fear threatening her was that of becoming unconscious in the unclean flow, losing direction and just drifting away...
Thanks to the soul-tearing ordeal of nightmare mastery, she recognized that particular fear fairly quickly. In response, she forced herself to breathe in even more, and let go of the need to have a physical location.
Even if I'm not strictly here - I AM!
She reevaluated what was part of her and what was not. Like a shearing wind, she cut away unwelcome attachments, and fought for a space that was herself.
The red cloud was upon her, and the warning bells still rang loud. However, time held no great meaning, and she acknowledged them with detachment.
I remain. I am pure. She found her radiant core to keep her true.
When the pruning reached completion, she opened her eyes and found herself walking on air, slightly above the green-grey grass.
She looked at her hands: These are my hands.
The shockwave of doom shook the reality around her; the shriek was accompanied by illusory images jumping out and returning to the in-between places. They served as mirrors - bouncing the fears of the individuals around and driving the mob crazy, thereby further amplifying the power of the shockwave.
Surprisingly, the masses parted in front of her. The lost eyes told Rose being near her was more than physically painful. They rather pushed against and trampled on each other than suffer her proximity.
Although she couldn't see far, shifting grimaces of pain greeted her wherever she looked. "I don't want to die..." she heard the emotion in words. She sensed a single, faraway entity behind the shockwave - with a grip on life so strong and so desperate that he was willing to bring down his whole realm just to avoid death.
Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen... the Pulse comes.
Rose walked her own path and the danger seemed laughable - so she laughed. Not because of invincibility, satisfaction or happiness. She laughed because everything was so overwhelmingly sad and she knew of no other way to cope. All that infectious fear, all that suffering, and what for... She laughed, creating even more space around herself.
Seven, six, five... You without vision, can't you see there's nothing to fear?
The Pulse finally came; traversing the realm in a brilliant flash of light, impressing upon all the very same point Rose was trying to convey. Instead of semi-telepathic words and projected emotions of questionable coherency, the Pulse accomplished it with the light of forced self-awareness.
The grimaces and the crowd around her disappeared as if they were never there. The momentary blindness passed - with a lemony scent of fresh air and the memory of sunshine on a beach - and she hopped down to the ground.
Not far from Rose, Eric and Lucy stepped to the ground too. The confident, yet otherworldly glint in their eyes mirrored the way she felt. They walked toward each other with overly light steps.
Out of a crowd of many thousands only a few hundred remained, mostly around the ring of trees with the majestic leaves. A greenish aurora lit up the grey sky.
"They would rather endure realm-wide nightmares than cleanse their ego-images..." Eric pondered. "Isn't that strange?"
"It is how it is." Lucy shrugged. "You just described most of humanity."
An echoing wail reached them from beyond, then went completely silent.
"Are we finally done?" Eric asked. "We went through all of this, yet we still don't what caused the chaos."
Once again, Rose's eyes scanned the horizon, and she took a deep breath. It is over. Without something to fight, resist or define herself against, existence seemed light and carefree.
"Whatever it was, it's finally dead now," she said with certainty.
|
