Ulysses AU

2

(Alex Kapranos, 1:40 AM): I didn't know where I was. I had been sitting here for at least an hour. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anything. I tried crawling around, but there were what I assumed were glass shards sticking out from the walls and floor. The darkness was causing me to hallucinate, and I didn't like it. I saw a tiger. It kept coming back, and I didn't know what it wanted. Late nights bring the worst out of me.

I hoped Nick was safe. I couldn't stand thinking about him being hurt. But still, somewhere inside, I knew something had happened to him. Something horrible, something worse than what had happened to me. Still, I hoped he was okay, I hoped that he could handle whatever happened to him. He never handled injuries well. He's cried over cute cat videos. He once broke down because he got a paper cut and it hurt too much for him to handle.

I decided to search for a door. The walls felt like concrete. I tried to break all of the glass spikes, but I only broke a few of them. I eventually found a door. It was wooden and I was able to open it easily. Strangely, it wasn't locked. The bright lights of the outside made me dizzy. I blinked a few times and it appeared that I had been locked in a back room of some sort of tile and flooring store, which was weird. I then remembered the time I got lost in the spooky back area of one when I was a kid. It was dark, but lighter than the room I was locked in. It looked like a creepier, nightmarish version of the place I got lost in as a kid. The graffitied faces were everywhere. Their eyes seemed to follow me. I hoped Nick wasn't here. But if he did happen to be here, I hoped he wasn't hurt.

And then I saw something that looked like flashing red eyes. I would have thought it was a smoke alarm or something, but there was nothing there. Just these flashing red eyes. I ignored them and continued looking for anything to give me hints about what was going on tonight. I had walked down three of the aisles of construction supplies when I saw a faint purple glow coming from around the corner. I ran to see what it was, and I was greeted by a small orange cat with glowing purple eyes.

"Hey there, little kitty!" I patted the cat's head.

"Stop that! It's time to get real! There's this kid back here, and he looked like he was dying! So obviously, I tried to heal him, but I didn't have enough power. You have the tiger!"

"What? Who are you?"

"Nutmeg. Nutmeg the cat!"

"Can you take me to the kid you tried to heal?"

"Of course!"

Nutmeg led me down a few dark corridors. Her eyes led the way. They were like headlights in the darkness.

"Here he is." She whispered as I kneeled down to the slumped figure's eye level.

And obviously, it was Nick. And he was bleeding. Bad. His entire upper body was sliced up, but I didn't know why.

"Nutmeg... What happened to him?"

"He told me he felt too much pressure inside, like something was clawing at him. So... He tried to get it out. He just... Sliced into his chest... With this huge saw... I don't know why... He must have been possessed."

"It must have been--"

"Don't you dare say it, dude. He can hear you."

"Well, I know this kid, and I need to get him bandaged up."

"There's a first aid kit over there on the wall!" Nutmeg shined her purple eyes on a red box hanging on the wall.