cascade | kotlc

38. Dawn Rises After Dusk

tw: bl/od, scars

The numbness is numbing.

No thoughts. No feelings. No emotions.

No space. No time. No nothing.

Just empty space, forever and forever, extending everywhere.

It was so everywhere it didn't even need a where. Not even a when.

That was how every it was.

In the mindnumbingly numbing every, Faye opened her eyes.

It was every. Every. So... every.

She could still hear. Someone stomping down a hallway. Gunfire. The screams of men as they were wounded and died. The striking of a blade against a stone wall. Fistfights.

A voice. The flickering of a forcefield. Another gunshot.

Screams. More screams. Another desperate scream.

Screaming, screaming, screaming every.

Commands. Orders. Choices no one wanted to make.

The flickering of a forcefield, again.

Then water. Water everywhere. No- not everywhere. Every. The rushing, the falling, the cascading of water, every.

Screams, of course, and water, more water, a downpour of streaming water. A waterfall, every, followed by more and more water.

Grunts, shouts, echoes. Sinister laughter. A beam of light striking water and refracting into dust, water, water, every water, water every, every every. Water.

Water, water, water.

Waves. Undulations. Splashes.

Ripples. Showers. Rainfall.

Every, every, every.

Voices, panicked, hurried, frustrated. Voices, determined, uncertain, reassuring. Voices, demanding, insistent, heavy. Voices, fearful, furious, final. Voices, exhausted, tired, empty. Voices, every, every, every.

The water stopped, then started, stopped, then started.

Water rose as a sphere, plugging the rift, Faye saw. Or she thought she saw. But there was still water every. Water every, water every, water, water, water.

Then water ran over her, and she was awake again.

-

"You're awake," June whispered as Faye's eyes fluttered open. A smile had traced its way onto June's lips, complemented by her dark, shoulder-length hair. She looked especially beautiful under the soft glow of the candelescent lights.

"I am," Faye agreed, yawning somewhat like a cat. Her hand found its way around June's arm, and she held on tightly, pulling June toward herself.

When June didn't say anything, she raised an eyebrow.

"Tell me already," she ordered. "Let me guess. The activator's permanently fixed into my back, and I'll have to live with resin injected into my body from now on. Hooray."

"That's about right," June admitted, folding her arms over her lap as she sat down by her bedside. "Hey, at least most people won't be able to see the area."

"Show me a picture."

June nodded, pulling out a page from a journal out of the folds of her silken skirt and holding it up. Faye tilted her head, studying the paper.