Complex Robotics

Pandemonium

Okay, I couldn't leave you like that. So here ya go.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Pandemonium

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I was back in the Food Hall. Lennox, Epps, Jenna, and Sideswipe were all there, laughing and conversing. Strings of sunlight slipped through the blinds on the windows, and the voices of conversations filled the room. As if everything was normal...

I stared down at the spaghetti on my plate, before glancing at Sideswipe again. Lennox had said something, and he was chuckling loudly, his handsome grin curled around his lips as his brown eyes lit with amusement. In fact, everyone was laughing, while I just stood there.

"Sideswipe," I said, "What's going on?"

I was supposed to be in Washington. I was supposed to find my family.

"Sideswipe." I said again, this time shaking his strong shoulder.

He just kept laughing, as if I hadn't said anything at all. I then turned my pleading look to Jenna, who was laughing along with the rest of them. Everyone was laughing, just kept acting like there was no care in the world. It was confusing, it was insane.

"Jenna! Lennox! Epps!" I called their names, waving my arms frantically around their faces.

They just kept laughing.

The laughter started to rise to an unbearable pitch, and that feeling came again. I winced as I felt something brewing in my stomach, like as if I knew something horrible was about to happen. Honestly, this turmoil was starting to become frightening.

"Charlie..." A foreign, deep voice was in my head, and the sudden presence of it was so overwhelming that a splitting headache formed at the spot. I groaned, massaging my temples and trying to shake the dreadful feeling out of my system.

"You are falling into Darkness." The voice suddenly spoke up, much louder then it was before and had my head ringing.

The laughter began to swirl into the ringing inside my head, and I let out an muffled shriek as I slipped from my seat and fell to the ground. But instead of hitting the tiled floor, I crashed through it, like glass and the Food Hall began to disintegrate. The scene of soldiers eating and talking loudly disappeared, until I was surrounded in utter darkness.

This wasn't an ordinary darkness. I was talking 'so pitch-black-I-can't-even-see-shadows' darkness. I was scared out of my mind, fear constricting my chest, and it felt hard to breathe. Whispers ran through the air, but they were talking so fast it was hard to understand them. The horrible feeling in my stomach was so exigent that it was starting to physically hurt.

What the heck is happening?!

"What's wrong with me?" I cried out into the darkness.

"Beware." A voice so monotoned I couldn't tell what gender it was answered, and I flinched back in surprise. "Beware of the darkness...it is coming for you."

My eyes widened. The darkness? What was that? And when did my life suddenly turn into some script for a supernatural movie?

"Only the light can save you now. You must hurry, before the darkness consumes you whole."

The pain in my stomach was becoming agonizing. This was all becoming too much, I think I was going insane. I need-

"Argh," I moaned uncontrollably, clutching my stomach as searing pain throbbed inside of me. My head felt like it was spinning, and the whispers intensified, giving me the world's most wicked headache. I squeezed my eyes shut, and screamed.