Etched In Their Minds

Sedecim: En(d) Of Delusion

To be or not to be? That is the question, whether to ride a potential ship of fated catastrophe, or to take immediate action and flee from the storm that mayhap eviscerate the vessel.

-fate-

{Sorry, i got too much work}

Isaac's message was read by Ina and she immediately felt sad. After a sigh, she replied with a plain okay.

{Actually, i have something to say}

Isaac hesitated to type out his thoughts, but he already sent the previous message, so he had to be brave and follow up with his intended message.

{I need some time alone. I need to think for a bit}

Ina's eyelids slightly widen, then she had a sad smile, then frowned at the message.

{Oh ok. I understand}

{Glad you do}

Isaac and Ina switched off their mobile phones and stared into space for a bit.

Then Isaac continued his work and Ina went to prepare for a collaboration stream.

-egg-

His eyelids opened and Isaac found himself in an unfamiliar place. The surrounding was a mixture of unusual things.

For example, a table made of sea shells, a hwarang statue with two ravens on its shoulders stabbing a heart made of books with a khapesh, a windmill with a fan made of yellow cows with small hurricanes for eyes, a patch of orange flowers with tiny shark heads attached to them that were munching on deer antlers, a naked muscular man with fourteen abs kissing a clock, a human skeleton head with a miniature-sized moon on its head, a path of tiny pebbles that had two tiny pairs of human arms on them pointing upwards, a half-machine half-tree thing dancing on top of an X symbol drawn with purple blood, a dozen chickens with huge eyeballs that dragged on the ground when they walked, a statue of a knight with a lobster head proposing to an unbelievably ugly demon statue, a floating portrait of a giant eyeball and a man licking it, and much, much more weird things and creatures.

[What... the fuck...]

He looked around, but only became more confused as he saw more bizarre things even in the far horizon of the huge plain grass field he was standing at the center of.

"To be or not to be? That is the question. Right, Isaac Daniel?" An alluring woman's voice from above asked him.

Omega descended from a book with dozens of arms attached to it and was floating above the ground.

Isaac was baffled at the dream he was having. He only stared in silence, not being able to say anything appropriate for the situation.

"My name is Omegaα (Omega alpha). I am an acquaintance of Miss Ninomae," she announced.

Isaac nodded with the most confused face he ever had.

"Hey," Omega called.

After a few seconds of silence of Isaac not responding, he finally gave up and opened his mouth to talk.

"Yes?"

"Persevere and think carefully. Please," she said, seemingly pleading but with a flat tone.

"Um, what do you mean?" he asked.

"Shut up," Omega said.

Isaac's head recoiled back from the unexpected answer. He looked towards the left and right and saw everything with a head or eyes looking at him. He whipped his head back towards Omega and stared at her.

"Look at the ground and memorize that symbol." Omega said in a straight tone. Her way of talking was always straight to the point and blunt.

Isaac bent his neck downwards and saw a simple star symbol. The one that every kid and their moms drew on a sheet of paper or on a wall.

"That is the Mark of Azathoth."

"...Mark of what?"

Isaac thought he didn't hear correctly, so he asked for confirmation.

"Mark of Azathoth."

"The dumb omnipotent god, Azathoth by Lovecraft?"

"He is not dumb, and was not created that person," she said expressionlessly.

[...This is one fucked up dream.]

"Anyway. Draw that symbol with your blood when Ninomae is gone."

They stared at each other, silent for a minute until Omega spoke up again.

"A quote from a person I cherish; Communication is the essence of life. Wether you choose to exploit that fact is your judgement."

Isaac's eyes dilated at her words. A realization hit Isaac. Something so obvious was forgotten by him. Something that was taught to him by his late ex-fiancee and one of the wisest people he knew was actually forgotten by him.

In a baffled and sad state, Isaac slowly moved his head down until he could no longer see Omega. She just stared at his head and turned into blocks of crimson ice.

After she was gone, Isaac stood there with his head down for a few hours. His eyes were wide, his body was stiff and his heart was beating faster than normal.

The illusion of him being a perfect boyfriend or husband candidate for many women was shattered instantly. He didn't even exercise the basics of a romantic relationship. However, he was too late. The gears were moving, the end was near.

-land-

Isaac's eyes slowly opened, then they fully agape after a few seconds. 

Laying on his back, he stared directly at the ceiling and tried to remember his dream.

[Fuck, what the hell was that.]

He only remembered seeing some very vague scenes, like a shark chewing on something, a random windmill in the middle of nowhere and floating triangles. Everything else was either forgotten or only remembered in vague pieces.

-number-

While Isaac was dreaming, Ina was suffocating. She squirmed in her bed as she couldn't take nor release a breath. It felt as if her neck was being choked by a thick rope.

Panicking, she tried to materialize her book, but nothing appeared. Her panicked moving caused her to slip off the bed and collapse on the floor.

The blanket was still around her as she tried crawling towards the door and ask the others for help.

She couldn't make a single sound, she couldn't even blink. Before she could lift herself to twist the knob, her eyes rolled back and her whole body became limp. She fell to the ground, this time not moving at all.

-nightmare-

Plop, a water droplet dropped into a small puddle underneath a pipe. A rat ran across from one side of a wall to another and entered a hole. A cat jumped into a trash can and searched for edible items.

Sounds of footsteps came closer to her. She sat on the dirty floor while hugging her knees. Her head felt tired, so she rested it on her arms.

When the footsteps stopped, a sword penetrated into her head and she immediately lost consciousness.

-hymn-

The sound of rustling grass beneath a tree attracted the attention of a little girl.

She peeked from behind another tree and saw a squirrel walking out of the grass and on to a rock.

The girl stared at it as the squirrel appraised a book on the rock. The book was purple, and had a weird cover.

The modified Kitab al-Azif.