An everlasting nothingness enveloped Andrei, stretching out in the endless confines of his mind. It gave itself shape, feeling. There was a dull droning, the beating of this place's heart. Golden weeds sprouted from the ground, and concrete solidified in the cracks around the plants. Graffiti coated the walls of an alleyway, and a closed door sat at the end of it, behind Andrei. He was familiar with this place... but not the feeling of loneliness. What had caused it? He dwelled on the question as it rang out in his mind, then he remembered. He remembered back to the time when he had finally given in to his demons... since that day, he hadn't heard the whispers. So, what had called him to this place?
He took a step on the solid ground, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dim blackness that was the void. The sky overhead was a static void of black and white, like an old television, and for a moment it hypnotized him. Before he forgot what it was that he was doing, Andrei stepped forward again, focusing on the world outside of the alleyway.
It was a street. Barren and empty. A green street sign directed nobody in particular to nothing in specific, the words written on it unintelligible. As he roamed the streets, he could feel his breath slow in the wind. The droning of the endless nothing became drunken and uneven. The street was quiet in comparison, a cold, inviting casket.
He blinked, and suddenly his feet had carried him to a house at the end of the street... this place made no sense to him. Andrei shook his head, then rubbed his palms against his cheeks... Sighing, he stepped up to the strangely familiar home. As his fingertips glanced the doorknob, he felt a spark, and a light filled the window beside the door. "Wha-?" He asked.
Static noise replaced the droning ambience... a graceful sound which relieved him of the tension as it grated against his ears. Blue light filtered out of the window and into the void like a beam of hope. He peered into the house, and saw the silhouette of a figure sat, legs crossed in front of an old television. Something about it, the house, and all of the grey, meaningless decor inside of it, brought him back to a time that he couldn't remember.
Andrei stared into the house quietly, his eyes drifting from the small silhouette to that of the television. Before he could even register, a tear had formed a steady stream from his left eye to his chin, and when he felt the chill of the void on the salty droplet, he leaned on the siding of the house. Something heavy weighed down on him, and as the siding creaked, the silhouette looked back at the window... Now, a crimson-black line separated the figure from the television. Yellow eyes stared back at Andrei.
A chill ran down his spine. Warmth filled him, and the surroundings of the house. For a moment, he could've sworn that a ray of sunlight had shown into the living room from behind him, but when he turned around, there was nothing. Looking back into the house, he saw that it was empty. He clenched his fist, suddenly angry, as though he had just lost something important. He felt like screaming and yelling, like he could punch a hole through the wall that he had been leaned up against.
A tear broke from his other eye, and he tried to yell out in his rage, but he couldn't. Choked up on the thick nothing that was the barren everything around him, Andrei turned away from the house, his head hung as he stepped down, and down, and down one last time. Three steps that had given him a sense of deja vu.
Back on the street, he wanted to wake up. To the Guild he had been welcomed into, to the friends that he had made... but that was all gone now, wasn't it? He had ruined his chance with the Guild, a sinful hero... and that had made everyone hate him, made everyone believe he was nothing more than a machine built for indiscriminate war. That was what he was... that was what they all were... even Scavver, who had tried to save him with his last ounce of sanity.
Then, a crimson-red light gave life to a whole new feeling in the street, and the alleyway which Andrei now stood in front of. He didn't dare turn around. A clawed hand rested on his shoulder... had he given up? He couldn't even tell as he glanced at the scaled fingers, and the large, burly arm that it belonged to. He was still here.
"You fought well, for the whelp that you are..." He said. Ra.
Andrei realized now, they still were not one another. No longer hanging his head, he raised it, and he felt as Ra stepped back. His breath was ragged now, realizing that he had most likely nearly lost whatever humanity he had restored with the Guild... that was it, right?
Suddenly, he felt like there were a million questions. What had happened, why had he changed? Why of all people was it Andrei that could revert from his manic, Chimera-infused state. Before he could ask, he stumbled on his adrenaline-fuelled, unsteady feet, and could feel himself falling backwards.
Then, Andrei woke up.
YOU ARE READING
CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD
Action- BOUND THE WORLD - After falling from the sky in a blaze of glory, without so much as a memory to his name, and cleaving a path through the whole of the Tokyo Dead Zone with the discovery of his nature as a half-human half-Chimera, a monster from a...
