Nightmares - Adventures of The Three Wings (#1)

Cain

Dan pulled into the parking lot, and I took over the driving, manoeuvring him into an empty parking space. There were plenty of those, the whole damn lot was empty. The only reason I didn't let Dan park himself was because I was in a rush, so maybe later. There were few lights, just the moon in the sky, Dan's headlights and a couple of street-lights. There seemed to be some kind of gas in the air, possibly smoke. It blended in with the darkness, so I didn't pay it much mind.

Even inside the car, I could hear the distant roaring of a dragon. This certainly got me out of my Jacob-caused stupor, as I knew that if there was an angry dragon on the loose, I would be the one to stop it, or him, from hurting anyone. Slinging my power removal device onto my back, I leapt out of the car, and ran towards the maze of streets beyond the car park.

Once I entered the darkness of the streets though, all sounds ceased. I could no longer hear the dragon's roars. In fact, I couldn't even hear the breeze in the air. It felt very lonely.

"No matter," I muttered, "That's what the earpiece trackers are for!"

I brought out my phone, and checked the trackers. My heart skipped a beat as I saw something that shouldn't have been impossible. The map was blank. I couldn't see where Janar was, nor Jacob. Thinking that it was a bug, I reached in with my power and forced the software to register the trackers.

Nothing happened. Sure, the software responded, but nothing changed. I was breathing heavily now.

"No, no. It's fine," I reasoned, "This is just a crutch after all, I have the power to do this myself."

I channelled my senses outwards, using my nature and technology powers to feel through any nearby pieces of technology, or bit of nature that so much as imitated a DNA sequence. But moments later, I felt it. Or rather, felt the lack of anything. It was as though my powers had stopped working.

Panic was definitely setting into my heart now.

"Hey guys?" I called into the earpiece. There was no response. I tried again, over and over to no avail.

It began to dawn on me that I was truly alone. And there was no way to know why. Reasoning escaped my mind, and I began wondering why I wasn't getting a response.

"No, perhaps it's just something jamming my powers for now. I have to go search for them!"

Steeling myself, I took a good look around me. The street itself wasn't anything fancy, barely enough space for two cars to pass by and no pavement. Walls lined the streets, marking out the area where the street ended and the buildings began. Those buildings appeared to be residential, as I could see frequent windows, curtains, and beds. But no lights were on, and clearly not even copper wires had been installed, since I couldn't sense those. So these were apparently empty, yet fully constructed. I began to run, calling out into the air, "Janar! Jacob!"

I ran through the streets like that, calling for my friends over and over. Each corner that I turned revealed more empty street, and each empty street somehow felt lonelier than the last. That was it, the thing that shook me to my core. I was alone, truly alone. Not in the way I isolated myself within the Tower X, knowing my friends were close. No, I felt alone in the same way I felt once my parents had forgotten about my existence. And particularly in the same way as when Peter had left me in a jungle to die.

But still I ran on, hoping to defy that loneliness. Fearful of what would happen if I stopped moving.