Headphones | An Original Story

0.8 - Gasoline

{(still) Ronan}

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We ran and ran and ran through the desert-like terrain, breathing in the unclean air, hoping it wasn't filled with chemicals, and never looking back.

There was one particularly large hill that I decided to go towards first, still dragging a seemingly lifeless, zoned-out Calix behind me. She kept stumbling, like she wasn't paying attention to the fact that we were literally running for our lives.

Except, were we? We didn't know where we were, and who knows if Kallistrate was even telling the truth? Maybe it is all in our heads, like a dream, and Kallistrate was our minds' way of telling us to wake up.

I shivered, but I gave up on the thought. There was nothing I could do anyways, if we actually were dreaming, so I dismissed the thought.

As we climbed over the hill, my legs began to burn with exhaustion. I pulled Calix up the hill, because she seemed to be losing all of her will to move at all at this point. My feet were sliding over the hard surface of the ground, because, even though it was solid, it was covered in sand, like when you stay at a hotel near the beach and the hardwood floors are coated in a layer of sand.

As we reached the top of the hill, I could finally catch a glimpse of what the actual Netherworlds were like.

I sucked in another breath. This was even more impressive than when I opened the door to get out of Kallistrate's castle.

I could see the desert-like landscape for miles. There were lots of hills that were partially obscuring my view, but I could see most of the land. The sky was violet, like Kallistrate's hair and features, so I figured that the atmosphere changed with her attitude, along with her appearance. Little black dots were sauntering around through the Netherworlds, no doubt the "creatures" that Kallistrate described, but I couldn't tell what any of them were from how high up we were.

I turned to Calix and realized I was still holding her hand. I almost pulled away, but she didn't seem to mind.

"We have to go," I choked out, but my voice came out in a whisper and got caught in the wind. I wasn't sure if she heard me.

"Calix, we have to get through this. We have to wake up from whatever nightmare this is. We have t--"

I was cut off by a blaring alarm ringing in my head. The "Inside," Kallistrate called it.

My first thought: Not this again.

My second thought: Holy crap, this hurts!

Again, just like in the castle, my head was aching, and a song was playing, louder than I could handle, making my ears feel like they were bleeding.

"You can't wake up, this is not a dream, you are part of a machine, you are not a human being..."

My eyes burned like they were on fire, and I couldn't see anything. My insides churned like they were going to explode. I felt sick.

"You're forgetting why you're here. You've discovered the Netherworlds," Kallistrate's voice rang through my head, embedding her words into my skull, "but now you have to survive it."

I wanted to scream at her, "I haven't forgotten why I'm here; I don't know why I'm here," but I couldn't speak.

The song and her voice faded away, almost as quickly as they had come, but I kept my eyes shut. As I came back to consciousness, I felt something hard and sandy scrape my back. I flinched.