The Recipient | A Path to Carron

Chapter One

"What? Where am I?" Aaron asked the emptiness before him. He knew he was somewhere, he could feel the ground poking up at his knees and his palms. He stood, and it was disorienting. The world around him looked no different, but felt different. There was utterly no light in this world. Will there never be light? Is he blind, or did the sun go out?

"Wait, how'd I get here?" Aaron asked himself. He had absolutely no memory of what came before this. How did he know his name? How did he know what the sun is, or what darkness isn't, but not what came before. Aaron had no idea of who he was. He only knew what his name was and that it is dark.

Suddenly, a light shined in his face. It wasn't just in his face, it was everywhere. It was like the world was painted with the most intense white, and Aaron was just there to experience the blindness. Aaron's ears started ringing, the light became more intense, his head was throbbing. Aaron collapsed to his knees again. He covered his eyes and saw nothing but the darkness of his hands. He let out a scream and he fell to the side and writhed in pain. Finally, his head was no longer imploding.

Aaron slowly took his hands from his eyes and looked around. The world around him was now red. It was like something bled in Aaron's eyes, like his pupils had a red filter, like his eyes were bleeding from the inside. Aaron stood up. He looked around, but nothing physical was around but the floor beneath Aaron's feet, and Aaron himself.

Then there was a deep droning. The world flashed different colors and he heard something beyond the intense stimulation in the flashing and the droning. It was a man, he spoke in broken English, and he sounded like he spent a decade screaming. "Human time over, we end human, but we end us"

And then there was nothing. But it was different from the emptiness. Aaron couldn't feel anything. The ground beneath him was not there, but Aaron did not feel the air against him as he fell. He did nothing but existed.

Aaron's eyes shot back and forth under their lids, watching the colors as they danced across this dreamscape. Red, white, black, red, white, black, what did it all mean? Every once in a while Aaron would feel a pinprick in his arms, a small little pain like an ant biting an elephant, a fly buzzing in your ear. But then the pains stopped, it didn't come anymore. Finally, Aaron was relaxed.

Aaron woke with a start. The lights shone in his face, but it had an origin. Aaron tried to cover his eyes again but his hands were restrained by the strongest of fabrics. He looked around frantically, panicking. A man came into view, his mouth and nose covered with a white mask. He lifted up a syringe and tapped it.

"You shouldn't be awake yet" The man said, "It's time to sleep again"

Aaron wanted to speak, he wanted to scream, plead with the man, "Please don't put me back to sleep" He'd say, "I have nightmares, horrible, horrible nightmares"

The man injected Aaron, the pain was small, but the harm was immense. Aaron clenched his fists and tried to tear himself from his binds, but it wouldn't give. Aaron finally gave in and let himself fall into the gaping abyss before him. The bottomless pit of sleep.

Then, the droning came back.

"You save us" The Man Behind The Droning spoke, "You take us from their clutches, you save us, you kill us" What did it all mean? What were the colors? Who is this man? Who is the man with the syringe? Who is Aaron?

Aaron woke once more, only to find himself sitting in a chair. There was a pain in his head, like someone sawed in and was fiddling with his brain. He tried to stand, but once again, he was bound to the chair. He looked around, only to see the man with the syringe come into view. He had a pad and a pen. Aaron found himself lurching toward the man, like he was trying to get at him. But Aaron had not done it.

"Alright" The man said as he sat in his chair across from Aaron. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Aaron" Aaron spoke, but he didn't say what he'd told himself to.

"Alright, Taut" The man said and jotted something down on the pad. "What language do you speak?"

"English!" Aaron shouted, but once again, his body spoke differently.

"What's that? AKILO? Who speaks that?" The man asked, looking at Aaron.

"What? Listen, I'm not saying that!" Aaron said, but his words fell upon deaf ears.

"What's a recipient?" The man asked, clearly intrigued.

"We destroy human" Aaron's body spoke. "But we destroy us"

"Hold on, slow down, I don't..." The man began.

"I destroy you. I kill you, I eat you" Aaron smiled, he grinned and watched the man look at him in fear as Aaron broke free of his binds. Aaron stood and watched the man try to back away in fear, but he was sitting.

Aaron grabbed the man's throat and began choking him. "I infect planet. Human become recipient. Human time over. Now recipient take Earth" And he bit his neck. He tore skin from muscle, and watched as the man choked on his own blood. Aaron smiled again, he smiled a bloody smile. And it began.

Aaron found himself walking to the tray beside the table he was lying on. He grabbed the knife and made his way to the exit. He later found himself at a lake, holding his arm over it. He cut his arm open and watched as he bled into the lake. "Infect" He said.