The Killjoy from Yesterday

Chapter 2- The Veil between Dreaming and Reality

Cassadee woke up, terrified and breathing heavily. She was back in her bedroom, in her and her boyfriend's apartment. "It's just a dream," she said, "It's just a dream. I'm not one of them." Staring in the mirror, she saw regular old Cassadee Barnes; Dark brown hair that brushed just above her shoulders, matching brown eyes, pale skin, and freckles splashed across her nose and cheeks. Remembering what happened in her dream, Cassadee yanked the sleeves up on her grey nightshirt. No scars. Suddenly, a faint groan came from the other side of the bed. Her boyfriend, Mikey, reached out for his glasses and propped himself up on the bed.

"Cass, it's 3 in the morning. Are you okay? Did something happen?," He asked groggily.

"N-no." She stammered, "It was just a nighmare. We were Killjoys or something and they were torturing me, but I can't rememer why. But then you and some other guys came in and helped me break out. Then I woke up." She explained, pulling her sleeve back down. "Just go back to sleep, I'm okay. I promise."

The two laid in bed for the next half hour, silent. Cassadee tried to drift back to sleep since both of them had to go to work the next morning. The familiar hum of cars outside and the early morning/late night sounds of Battery City lulled her into the reassurance that it was all a dream, that she was home with the one she loved. She heard Mikey humming softly, an old song from the days before BL/Ind took over. "We're going down down in an earlier round, and sugar we're goin' down swinging" The song played out in her head as she let a dreamless sleep overtake her.

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The next morning, their alarm went off at its usual time, 6:00am. Cass went and made coffee while Mikey went and got ready for work. "You sure you're okay?" He asked, grabbing one of the multiple identical grey mugs out of the overhead cabinet, "You looked pretty freaked out last night."

Cassadee laughed, "I'm fine Mikey, really. You don't need to keep worrying." She was dressed in her ususal work clothes, grey pants, a plain white blouse, and a plain lab coat with her ID card clipped onto the breastpocket. Her hair was tied up in her usual ponytail out of her face. She checked her wrist one more time out of pure instinct, remembering images of the guy who tortured her in the dream. The faint scar of a tattoo she had that was removed a few months ago traced her wrist, but no cuts.

Mikey looked in the kitchen clock and realized they were going to be late if the two of them were going to be late if they didn't leave now. He grabbed his BL/Ind badge off the counter and the two headed out of the apartment. Cass did a last miute look and saw both their pills on the counter. "I'll be fine." She thought. "It's just one day."

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The walk to work felt different than any other morning. Both Cassadee and Mikey were more on edge than normal. It wasn't just that they were on edge, they felt alive, as if they were had adrenaline injected into their systems. Cassadee saw people staring straight ahead with blank expressions, sometimes she caught glances of people staring at her and Mikey. She looked over herself to make sure the tattoo on her shoulder blade wasn't showing, but then she realized that they were staring at the bold black X on Mikey's sleeve. She remembered that he was one of Better Living's top exterminators and everyone knew it because of that X on every shirt he owns. But he didn't act like the rest of the high security clearance, douchebag, trigger happy gunslingers though. He became an exterminator after his older brother was taken by the Killjoys. Cassadee worked in the weapons division, working on new weapons for both the Exterminators and the Dracs.

Thoughts of that dream came back to her again. It all felt so real. She subconciously checked her arm again. Still no scars. But then a thought crossed her mind that put up a few red flags, "How did I even recognize Mikey in the first place?" That guy looked barely anything like him. Killjoy Mikey had bleached blonde hair, his skin was tanned from living in the Zones, wore a pair of worn leather gloves, and there was something about him felt different. He wasn't the Mikey who she knew, but the Mikey she remembered. Before the bombs, the fires, the wars, Better Living, even the pills. The other three Killjoys also seemed familiar to her. The short one had multiple tattoos and a purple halloween mask looked scarily similar to Frank Iero, who was also an Exterminator. The other one that had the afro and mirrored glasses, she almost thought for certain was Ray Toro, one of the office workers in robotics that she ran into now and then. But the red haired one set up several red flags in her head. He was Party Poison, the deadliest Killjoy in the Zones. Mikey had dealt with him once several months ago and he ended up with one totaled bike, a fractured wrist and broken leg. He's been on office work ever since. But now that his leg is fully healed, it's only a matter of days, two weeks at max, until he's at least back on surveillance and she guessed about a month until he can go back out into the Zones.

Cassadee snapped out of her mind as she collided straight into someone. Papers flew everywhere. "Oh my God." She said, scrambling to pick up the scattered papers. "I'm so sorry. I was't watching where I was going. I'm-"

"It's fine." The guy said, straightening his glasses and helping Cassadee pick up the remaining papers. "Hey, you're Cassadee Barnes! I've seen your work and am a huge fan. I'm Jack, Jack Carraway." He said, exending his hand.

"My work?" She shook his hand. "I'm just a weapons tech."

"I mean your music." He said, "Before all this." He gestured toward the enormous black and white BL/Ind logo painted on the side of the building. "I used to go to a lot of your shows."

Cassadee was a bit confused at first, but then understood what he was talking about. She used to be a singer before the Helium Wars, playing shows at as many local festivals and live music nights as she could. She still had her guitar hidden in the back of her closet. Not even Mikey knew about it. "Uh, thanks. I've got to go. Maybe we can talk later. Lunch?"

"Yea, that's great." Jack said, flustered. Suddenly, his face suddenly became blank, staring off into space.

"Hey," Cassadee said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Are you okay?"

Jack looked directly at her. His expression became very seroius. "Alkaline." He said, but it wasn't his voice, it sounded like the Party Poison that was in her dream. Cassadee jumped back in alarm. "You have to wake up. Please. It's unreal to see you like this. It isn't you. Please wake up. We all need you back. Kobra needs you back. I need you back." Jack's face went back to its flustered expression. "Oh, uh-sorry, I'm a bit starstruck. I'll see you later." He dashed off into the sea of workers.

"Who was that?" Mikey asked.

"I have no idea." Cassadee responded. 'That was really weird.' She thought. 'This whole day has been weird. It's probably nothing.' She shook off her thoughts and headed through the doors into another boring day at work.