Reaper Society

Chapter 14: Hellscape

The room's not what I expect. I'm not used to nice things, after all; and this room is beyond nice. I press my back to the door and allow my eyes skim over the elegant room. Something stirs in my memories as I note the black and white geometrical figures twisting together in complex lines in place of wallpaper. The floor's a gentle, white-marble and the ceiling is an ever-shifting view of the night sky. Everything is bathed in a soft light from the larger speckles of starlight above.

In the very center of the room is what looks like a bed - but unlike any bed I've ever seen. The soft surface interrupts the white marble in a perfect circle of white sheets. It's as if the bed's literally built into the floor for fifteen feet. My brain's completely frazzled by the unusual sight before me, so much so that I think I may walk back out of the room just to escape it. Process it. But when has running ever done me any good?

Instead, I mentally put on my big-girl pants and take a few tentative steps into the room. Again, that odd feeling of familiarity tickles the back of my mind and I squint up at the endless night sky, complete with gently moving stars and galaxies. I lean back as I get to the center of the room, a literal foot away from the bed in the ground and twist at the last moment so that I go down. In a movie-worthy plummet, my back hits the plush bedding and I let out a very unladylike groan of satisfaction as the mattress seems to gently push back and caress me.

All my once-aching muscles relax at once and the 'thinking' switch in my head flicks into the 'off' position as I stare up at the expanse of space. From here, without the edges of the bed visible - or any furniture really - it's like I'm floating amid the cosmos. An odd feeling rolls through me, making my whole body feel weightless as my eyes focus on a cluster of stars in the very center of the endless beauty above. They remain still, like a fixed point in everything as the sky gently spins around it in an almost imperceptible, clockwise rotation.

Suddenly, I feel as if I'm being draw from the bed, falling upward, and into the pool that is the universe.

And then the stars begin to wink out of existence, and I'm careening towards the cluster of stars in the center. Two similarly sized ones and one slightly brighter one. The breath in my lungs slowly hisses out, my eyes widening as the two stars slowly grow larger the closer I get - taking on shapes rather than turning into mini-suns like I expect. Two figures, dressed similarly, but also in completely contrasting colors- Again, that bone-deep recognition flutters through me, but before I can even begin to process it, everything goes dark.

For a moment, I'm falling into the darkness. Down, down, down I tumble - until I feel something grab me from mid-air. The vice-like grip is all-too-familiar. A chill zips down my spine and ice-cold fear bursts from within.

Heat bursts across my skin, the raging agony of being burned alive setting my nerves alight from one moment to te next. Acrid smoke and the scent of burning flesh and hair fill my senses, making my wide eyes tear with the pungent odor that follows. Screams come at me from all side, their volume different from one sound to the next. And then I can see.

Flat, black eyes. Empty of any and all emotion but glee at seeing me in pain and afraid. The eyes of pure evil.

My terror at the sight short-circuits my brain - and for a moment - the world around me goes quiet. The brief reprieve doesn't last long. Everything smashes back into me after that beat, amplified, this time.

The second my brain pushes the pain aside, another wave crashes into me. When I try to scream, the heat around me seems to rush into my mouth, shoving itself down my throat and burning a fresh path into my lungs. My muscles coil tighter, spasming with the effort to get free of whatever it is that's holding me still. Trying to break through the oppressive heat somehow. Nothing helps.

Already, I can tell something about this nightmare is different. Before, I was here for a few seconds. Just long enough to come face-to-face with those empty, black eyes. But this is so much worse. It all feels too real.

Maybe it is real? A part of me whispers. Maybe I did die that night and now I'm here? Has the last day all been a hallucination? Some shitty-excuse for an escape from this? Have I been here this whole time, slowly going insane?

My inner doubt rises up to choke me, squeezing something in me to the point of shattering- But then, a trickle of something pleasant wraps around me. The briefest flicker of a memory. A face I could never have thought up in my wildest wet dreams.

No. No, there's no way my brain could have concocted something like... I'm not that creative. It's not possible. I'm one-hundred percent sure of that, if nothing else. So this must not be real then. I'm not here. I. Am. Not. Here.

The certainty of that last part fills me with a renewed energy and I shut my eyes.

I'm not here. I repeat the words over and over until the feel of fire licking up my skin disappears, the screams fade, and the smell of unwashed flesh is replaced by clean air. Cool air. I take a deep breath, my muscles relaxing into something silken and plush. The light behind my eyelids feels good, not just in the way that it's not overly-bright, but the actual goodness of it - like it's purifying somehow.

The depressing feel of the nightmare begins to lighten, bit by bit.

I shiver, not willing to open my eyes as I drag in another comfortable breath. My skin's throbbing, from my still-racing heart or the memory of the flames eating it, I'm not sure. Hot tears streak out the sides of my eyes after a moment, the chill of drying sweat feels great against my skin. I take a few more breaths, slowly getting up the courage to peel my eyelids open and confirm what I hope to be true.

I almost start sobbing when I see that I am, in fact, back in my room at Reaper HQ. The gorgeous view of the cosmos gently winking at me from above and rotating as if nothing had happened. The soft lighting that illuminates the geometric shapes that serve as wallpaper are somewhat soothing. Just like the lights, their shapes seem to make the horror show that had been fade farther into my memories.

I press my lips together as my eyes begin to prickle with the warning of more tears, my nose following the sensation a beat later, and I blink fast to hold the blurring wave. A little sound, so feeble and defeated, gets strangled in my throat as I swallow it back.

Buck up, Nia. You're not weak, dammit. That part of me that's tougher than iron speaks. You can't let a little nightmare freak you out. It's the same thing I used to tell myself when the nightmares would get bad and start to screw with my head. It had only happened a few times, but like I used to think: life goes on.

Only...I'm not technically 'alive' anymore, am I?

I sit up, forcing myself to get off the too-comfortable bed, and cross the room to the seam that serves as a door. Asher's warning to me - about getting lost if I left my room - has me hesitating as I press one of my scar-mottled hands to the door.

I shake my head roughly, trying to clear it as I shove open the door. I don't want to be alone right now. After being thoroughly freaked-the-fuck-out by that last nightmare, I just want to be around other bodies - ones without soulless, black eyes.

My door opens silently, but that's not why I stop before crossing the threshold. There're a few Reapers milling through the halls around me. Some shuffle up to similar-looking seams in the walls and wander into what I assume are thier own room. Others are chatting and walking past me, after sparing me quick, curious glance, of course.

But up until now, I wasn't really sure if the last few minutes had been real or not. Not with one-hundred-percent certainty. And now, I'm sure. Relief hits me hard, stunning me into complete stillness as I watch Reapers come and go for a beat.

Then I see a familiar face.

"Hey, Puppy-Chow," Reginal claps me on the shoulder as he bops past. I freeze-up again, staring at the man for a minute. The middle-aged Reaper pauses, looking at my face a little more closely. "You okay, kid? You look like you've just seen a vṛkaḥ." The man's eyebrows dance up and down for a few beats and a laugh bubbles up my throat. I nearly double-over with the feel of it pouring out of my mouth, the half-hysterical nature of it quickly subsiding into my usual sound of humor. And, damn, it feels fucking-fantastic to laugh again.

"Nah, Reg," I finally answer him, wiping away a few stay tears and swallowing the rest of my laugh. "I'm good." And for once, I really mean it.