Bridge Jumper Comes Back To Life For Help: The Century Curse

024

The constant of the dripping water continued in the darkness. But the sound of footsteps descended towards him, while a beam of a flashlight swung around the room. Ian felt dizzy, his mouth and wrists still burned, if he stood now, he knew he'd collapse. It was clear he was in some sort of basement, but the blurriness coupled with darkness made it impossible for him to understand any details. But suddenly, a new sensation struck, two gloved fingers on his neck.

"This girl, you must go with her," Ian heard the voice, that same mellow looking woman whom he left behind in that dreamscape. However, this time it was as if she was speaking from within his head. The sensation sent a familiar feeling of tingling across his brain, similar to those caused by autonomous sensory meridian response.

After the fingers lifted, there was a tug on his wrist, then a tug on the other. Ian felt as the ropes slid off his wrists and heard as they hit the floor. Someone stood in front of him and their long sleeved arm slid under his armpit, around his back, and helped him stand. It felt like he was drunk, like he pissed himself, and threw up all over his shirt. He wanted to sit on the stairs, not climb them, but the helping hand kept him elevated.

It wasn't long before he felt the cool breeze of the outside. Each step grew increasingly strenuous, demanding all of his remaining strength. Ian knew he could pass out at any moment, causing a whole lot of trouble for the one carrying him. But would that be a good thing or a bad one?

"A car. She's going to lay you in the back seat," Astuo, her voice, her presence was still with him. Even though he had enough sense to know she wasn't physically there, he could feel her hands on his shoulders, like he was giving her a piggyback ride. As she spoke, the sound vibrated his brain, but her breath, he could feel it flipping his hair against his earlobe. Similarities began to manifest in his mind, comparing the aura to that of a leach.

Sure enough, he slammed down on a nylon car seat like she'd warned. Ian attempted to move his eyes, even an inch to get some idea of detail in his vision. But nothing, nothing but the sound of a car door slamming and the urge to spew his guts. The eyes he possessed in his skull felt no longer his, or at least, he no longer held sole ownership. The car jerked as it took off down the road, and in the moment, Ian could do nothing but pass out.

Ian's body felt weightless as warm liquid surrounded him. Opening his eyes, he saw her again, that black haired green eyed girl he last met in the hotel. However, this time, as he laid in the warm liquid, floating along its surface, she hovered above him. She resembled someone laying on their stomach while propping their head up with their bent arms and hands. To him, it seemed like an extremely uncomfortable position.

Surrounding her was nothing but darkness, the opposite of the realm he'd been in before their first encounter. "What is this place?"

"This place? It's your mind, not a representation of it, just a lobby of sorts. All humans have it, but not all can access what's after." To Ian, it seemed as though Astuo was honestly bored, but it seemed that way back then too after they'd copulated. Maybe it was just the way she was, and he couldn't judge her for that.

"Wait, I've never seen this place in my dreams. Why am I seeing it now?"

"Are you displeased with me? Though our connection is weak, I still have access. I've activated this place for us to talk face to face while you're unconscious. We must talk."

Even though this place was of a mental state he had involuntarily constructed, his nervousness still rose to his throat. This woman may seem like she held no ill will, but he truly knew nothing of this being or her people.

"Can I be trusted?" Only now, he started to comprehend the mental link, the connection she kept mentioning. "I share the same concern as you, though reading your mind, I'm aware of this situation now. The smell of death was not of you, but of a friend who harbors someone of the same nature as myself. You seek to free her of this individual."

"If you can read my mind, why did you want to talk?"

"I ask you again, are you displeased with me? As I said before, our connection is weak, but I can still see information in the forefront of your mind. This girl, Diana, her predicament, is the easiest to pluck from your hippocampus."

Swaying his arms in the pool like liquid, he stared at the girl, her eyes unwavering from his own. His mind immediately flooded with all the memories he shouldn't show to her. Telling him such a flaw in her abilities only made him weaker to it. But her face remained disinterested, as if she either had no reaction from his thoughts coming forward, or that his immediate thought of helping Diana was strong within him.

Astuo, laying her chin against her now folded arms, "your wish, I can help you. But we must meet with this girl. Then, I can converse."

Abruptly, the water swayed, his body flipping up right in the bottomless pool of his unconscious. Ian sunk down to his neck, the instinct to swim, activating. He looked around before realigning his site with Astuo, who still seemed unfazed.

"Astuo, what's going on?"

"Obvious. Your body's being moved from the car. You're being carried into an apartment."

Splashing around in the water, he began to panic, looking for any semblance of an exit. "How do I get out of here, Astuo?"

"Do not panic," she replied, calm as ever. "You will wake up naturally as you would before I arrived. She will help, not harm."

"How do you know that?!" He shouted at her, confused by her seeming like she could read others minds as well.

"Trust me instincts, Ian. We are together now."

The darkness, the manifestation of his mind, disappeared. Then, sunlight filled the room, as he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.