Taipan // Doctor Strange

Chapter 3

NEWS!!!!!
ABOUT HALF WAY THROUGH CHAPTER FOUR, I WILL BE SWITCHING PERSPECTIVES AND WE WILL TAKE A TRIP INTO ALARIA'S MIND.
WE WILL SEE HOW THAT GOES 🤔

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!

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It was late by the time she left her apartment the next day. There were so many documents online that she felt as though she had already discovered all that she could. And yet there is still that one ring that Jonathan Pangborn had.

How she was ever going to get that, Alaria wasn't quite sure; but she stepped into the cold air nonetheless. With the sun beginning to set over the streets, the only people she saw walking about where those leaving work or the homeless that had none.

"Can I borrow that ring" she had asked in lieu of a hello, watching the man appear in his doorway after her repetitive knocks. Jonathan stared at her blankly for a moment, something inside her, he could already see, was off.

"Absolutely not," he said with conviction, beginning to again shut the door on her. Alaria was too deep into a research to stop this now, she wanted or needed to know- Which of the two she wasn't quite sure.

The idea of going insane scared her, and two days ago, she was afraid that that might've finally happened. After all that she'd done, it would've fit the bill. And yet here she was- discovering that there was a reason behind what she saw and who she had seen. Did Jonathan really expect her to drop it so quickly?

Humans were nosy creatures.

And still the man continued to shut the door, Alaria felt her hurt sink- having to listen to the soft click of it's locking. She stood for a long while contemplating over what she should do. Should she return home and do more research, she was sure that she would only find the repetitions of what she'd already read. It was now time to explore the possibilities that she had learned about.

A deep ache set into the pit of her chest as she walked back the way she had come. It felt as though a pair of hands were squeezing against her lungs, only slightly suffocating her so that she was aware of its incessant feeling. With the extreme discomfort, Alaria felt a twitch within her fingers; the need to move them arising every other moment as she began absent-mindedly tapping her legs while she walked. She had never noticed such a habit before..

Now, when she returned home to her rundown place, she lied on the old bed against the far wall, a dreadfully anxious emotion keeping the pace of her heart a bit more rapid than usual. Still, her eyes closed, and Alaria found herself in a sleep that was filled with everything she had read.

An uncountable amount of dimensions within the universe. Some too complex for a human mind to imagine.

Alaria stood before a deep blackness, a cold creeping temperature setting her limbs into a slight shiver. Unwilling to move, she watched as the black seemed to move- a lighter shade of the same color coiling together and moving as though a snake in the sand.

In a moment, the woman could see that it was indeed a snake; it's smooth, thick body slipping back and forth from blending with the color it was against. Its smooth head shimmered against whatever light was allowing Alaria to see.

Slowly, it began to change in to the color of dark sand, a pale yet contrasted tan with black markings running along its back and growing to completely cover its head and red eyes. The brown color held a deep crimson within each scale, reminding Alaria of a fire that had yet to be lit; heated embers against the dark sky of its skin.