The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

"Twenty-Eight" (Draft 2)

They were calling him. They called his name, the voices so clear through the darkness. And then Morpheus saw a blinding light, and he felt warm. He felt very warm, and he felt safe. The light was so very bright, and it was all around him. He heard singing. He tried to open his eyes. His lids felt heavy. His body was aching. This was too cliché and too uncomfortable to be heaven.

He managed to move the fingers of his right hand with some effort. "His hand moved!" said one of the voices. Morpheus tried to place it. The words were American, but the accent was strange. The h's weren't quite dropped and weren't quite made something hard like a Ch. And the vowels were not pronounced exactly like they were by Americans. But he was pretty sure it was a Vampyre speaking, they had a resonance to their voices that wasn't Human or Angel, a specific timbre.

"Murph, can you hear me?"

It was Julien. Morpheus tried to speak his name, but he couldn't quite make himself speak. He tried sending the images to Julien, huddled in the darkness, the cold things.

"He hears!" Julien said.

Morpheus could just about feel Julien's hands on him.

"Is he hurt?" There was definitely something unique about that voice, like someone had learned to speak in one country and then been taught another language and picked up some of its sounds before learning to speak American. It was a pretty voice, boyish, but low.

"I don't think so. All those weird cuts he had are healed. He needs time. It took River a while to wake up. Get a blanket from inside."

Morpheus wondered where he was. It was very warm, outdoors he was sure. He felt like he was lying in the sunlight. The music was an old Depeche Mode concert disc and came muffled from the direction of Morpheus' feet.

He felt them lay the blanket over him. He hard Julien say, "Do like this," and then two pair of hands rubbed him gently through the blanket to warm him. They knew he was cold.

Morpheus took in a breath and shivered.

"That's good, huh?" said the one that was not Julien.

Morpheus took in another breath. He caught a faint scent of chlorine. And then he thought that just maybe he might have somehow come to Karachi.

He thought of the facade of the villa and he sent the image to Julien.

"Hmmn? The villa? Yes, you're at the villa. I wish I knew what to do, Murph, I'm not even sure how you got here. It was strange, I woke up from a nightmare and found you in bed...after you'd left for London."

"You were covered in slime," said the other.

"Yes, it was strange, you were covered in this sort of grimy film, and you had cuts all over you. We put you in the bath right away. We found River and your Djinn. River wasn't slimy, but he was stiff and unconscious like you. He woke up when David put him in the sun, so we brought you out here..."

The other one was named David.

"It's fucking bright out here, Murph, I hope you appreciate this."

Morpheus tried to speak again, but he only managed a mumble.

"He almost said something," David said.

Julien lifted Morpheus to a sitting position and supported his back by pressing a hand against it. He breathed on Morpheus' eyelids to warm them, and then he wiped at Morpheus' face with his fingers. "Can you speak yet?" Julien asked. "Are you going to be all right?"