Aeon: The Chalice

Chapter 1: Moments Away from the End

An apocalyptic landscape: collapsed buildings, craters, dead bodies, and a doomed sky. Everything seemed so familiar yet so distant. nothing is real, everything is fake. Who knows. It's everything and nothing at the same time. It's iffy, like Mara's vision right now.

All the corpses in front of her give her a sense of familiarity but she wouldn't be able to tell you who they are. She can't visualize their face, it's all foggy and impossible to decypher. This situation is stressful. Ringing starts to make her head hurt.

A once lifeless body is given the opportunity to live again:

"Mara! please! stop this!"

Stop what? What did I do?
The blurred face wouldn't stop begging Mara to "end" whatever she had started, but even she was confused. Mara had no idea what the girl was talking about, and this ringing in her ear was gradually worsening.

"I don't know how! I don't know what you want. Please just leave me alone-".

Before she could finish her sentence, a sharp pain traveled through her body. Like an exposed nerved being pulled. She fell down to her knees, screaming in pain, holding her head whilst covering her ears. Her hands feel wet. She quickly removes them to check. They are covered in blood. How did she not notice? Actually, she was covered in blood from head to toe. With everything happening around her, she simply just hadn't noticed her self. Now she had fallen into a fœtal position, holding her stomach trying not to throw up from the pain. Blood started spewing from her ears, eyes, and lips. She has never experienced pain as striking as this.

Then, nothing. Darkness. Oblivion. Whatever lies beyond the universe. There was nothing else left in the world but her, not even the common five senses. no sound, no sight, no touch, no smell, no taste. nothing.

5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

"Mara wake up" said a girl as she shook her up.

Has she been sleeping? Did she die and come back to life?
What's going on?

"What's going on?"

"Shhh! we're in class right now"

"Olympia?" asked Mara as she touched the girl's face with her hands. Just to be sure, she checked if her hands were still covered in blood. They weren't thankfully.

"What are you doing, stop that!" Olympia proclaimed, pushing Mara's hands away from her.
Mara took some time after waking up to realize she was in class. The teacher wasn't paying attention to Mara and her friend, he seemed so focused on his teaching. You could tell he had a passion for his job. Be careful tho, sometimes you don't notice it when kids sleep in your classroom.

"Did you have your nightmare again?" she asked as the class was ready to head to the next period. Everything is going so fast, wasn't she just waking up a bit ago?

"Uh yeah, I just fell a sleep a little I guess" she stammered.

"Ok well you should talk to the nurse about it." said Olympia, her comforting hand on Mara's shoulder.

"Yeah ok I will."

"Right now."

"Right now?" she echoed.

"Yes right now, P.E. can wait" Olympia repeated herself. "I'll tell the teacher you're at the infirmary don't fret."

Mara nodded and went on her way to the nurses office. Just right down the hall.

One foot in front of the other.

One step, two step, three.

"So you said you were still having the nightmare?"