A Midnight Mind

Chapter 12: Stafford

"Wake up!"

Ethan flinched awake with a loud snort and fell off his chair. When he jumped back to his feet, heart pounding, he saw the voice came from Neil. And he wasn't alone.

An unfamiliar woman stood next to him. She might have been in her early thirties, with the straight posture and angular features of a knife. Her hair was a wild mane of tight curls and she wore a businesslike dark pantsuit and horn-rimmed eyeglasses. 

She looked down her nose at Ethan as though unimpressed with what she saw. Both she and Neil held long streaks of dizzying darkness, like black holes in the shape of swords. 

"Did you seriously fall asleep?" Neil asked.

"Shut up," Ethan replied groggily. He knuckled his eyes to rub away the sleepiness, but every time he opened them his vision blurred again.

It was the swords, he realized. He couldn't focus on them, even by squinting. The best he could make out was that the "handle" of Neil's weapon looked like it came from a medieval broadsword, with a cross-guard and everything. The "blade" was about the length of Ethan's arm if his hand were open flat, but it was made of some kind of dark void. The woman's own weapon had a slightly longer and narrower point, like something a Musketeer would use.

When Ethan looked away from them, he had blind spots in his vision in the shape of the blades, but his vision was overall less blurry. He then noticed his bedsheets were shifting between being made and being messy.

"We're in the Worldmind," he said.

"Yeah," said Neil, smiling in relief.

"Wait, what time is it?"

"Midnight," said the woman in a strange monotone.

"Exactly midnight," said Neil. "Sorry I'm late. We were--"

"It's not important," the woman said. "Have you seen the rogue projection?" Her dark eyes were as hard and cold as her voice.

"N-no," Ethan said. "Uh, I'm not sure I was actually..."

"Asleep?" the woman offered, her face expressionless. To Neil, she said, "Didn't you say you warned him?"

Neil pressed his lips together and said nothing. Ethan felt like an idiot, but didn't know what to say other than, "The rogue guy must not have shown up. I mean, it's midnight and he's not here, right?"

The woman faded and flickered out of focus, making her look almost ghostly despite her dark skin. A moment later, her astral projection became solid again, and she said, "It's two minutes past. Going by Neil's stories, it seems this 'rogue guy' is long gone."

"They're not just stories," Neil insisted. "I've seen him. Ethan's seen him too."

They both looked at Ethan expectantly. He was reminded of the same scenario the day before when he was confronted by Neil and Violet. Even when the answer was obvious, he hated being on trial like this.

He nodded in confirmation. "Twice now. Last night here, and the night before on a train."

"A train?" the woman asked.

"I'm new in town."

"And you arrived on a... train."

"Yeah, at the VIA Rail station in the city. My uncle drove me the rest of the way to Shirewood. Is that a problem?"

She frowned. "Does the rogue projection speak or do anything when you see him?"

Ethan folded his arms across his chest to keep from rubbing his neck. "He... on the train, he said he needed help. That someone or--or something was after him. Then he started grabbing my throat. Choking me.