Fallen

Chapter Two: Strange Winds (Lucian POV)

Everything is dark. I laid down for just a second, but I must have fallen asleep. It's weird. My world is already encased in an endless stream of nothingness, but I can still feel my body as it sinks into the covers. There's this cold static feeling drifting over me, sending me further into the void, falling faster and further asleep. Yet, my mind stays active. Not even in sleep can I find release.

Color seeps into my vision. A dazzling array of greens and yellows paint the world around me. I see myself storm down a cobblestone path. Walking diligently with no purpose. Confidently, but with no direction. I tread far into the cedar forest where the old campus buildings rest, overtaken by its woods. Thorn-bushes clawed up the sides of the neglected buildings that seemed to sink into the ground, while thick bounds of vines spanned across the ground, digging at the walls.

As I approach the buildings, the thin walls reverberate the empty classroom drivel.

This place. It's similar to the old campus buildings, but something is not right. The halls are empty but someone is there. Up, high above, watching from an open window. A curtain, white as a cloud, reaches through the frame as if it's calling out for me, only to disappear and crumble down into the pavement. Dispersing into the dust. It clouds around me, forming an impassable fog that seems to shift and turn, caving in over itself endlessly, creating distorted figures peering through.

I make out faces. They're children. Can't be more than seven years old. I feel like I've seen some of them before and just as I recall where, their mouths hook up into a smile. It seems as if they are saying something to me but their voice is lost in the wind. A wind that stirs the figures together, tumbling in circles around me, gathering speed, entrapping me in a cold and lifeless vortex of gray.

Paper starts to gather in the mix. There's documents and reports of unsolved kidnappings, disappearances, murders, case after case after case. It's endless, the pressure tears me apart, stabbing through my skin, clawing for my blood.

My throat burns dry as screams thrash against my skull. The noise is so deafening. It's suffocating. Choking me out in the open air.

Through all the chaos I feel myself falling apart at the seams, but it all stops, slowly dissipating as my ears catch a small but distinct voice calling out for me, pleading.

I can almost make out what he's saying- just whose voice it is, when suddenly my eyes snap open and the old pale ceiling of my room comes back into view.

A name lingers in my mind, resting on the edge of my lips.

"Amon."

Who is that? The name seems so familiar, so natural to say, but at the same time a cold sense of dread pours over me.

I pull myself up to the edge of the bed. He's probably just another victim I've read about. Another case to be worked. I'm making a difference. I just need to keep moving. I won't allow another to meet that fate. Like you did.

She comes back into my mind: A small slender girl, paler than a paper, more fragile than a feather. She walked through a field of yellow flowers, covered in long white hair and worn bandages. The pollen stains on her gown was the only color she held.

Her eyes sunk down her face, held on barely by dark black bags. They were still and lightless, but she stared intently at something in the distance.

I felt it was the only thing she could see. The only thing keeping her going. I had no idea who she was or how she ended up this way. She looked around 19 years of age yet her body was on the brink of collapse. It felt unnatural. Something was off, more than just her complexion, but I couldn't place it.