New Elysium: Weapons of War (Book 2)

A Time To Love Part 1

There's something inside you that isn't right
There's something that haunts your dreams at night
There's something that you have lost
And you're bringing it down
You're bringing it down
On top of us
Starset - Bringing it Down

"A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. "
Ecclesiastes 3:8

~ ~ ~

Existence...

Awareness came and went in the blackness, there was only the sensation of being, but beyond that... He had no form, no body, nothing through which to interpret the impulses he was feeling...

He simply was...

Cogito ergo, sum... He knew it meant "I think therefore I am," but he couldn't remember why he knew this, or where he'd first learned it...

He only knew that he existed but beyond that, he couldn't explain what that meant any more than trying to explain why he was aware of it...

Who am I?

The question came and went with his awareness, sliding in and out of focus. Sometimes he heard voices, muffled and distant. They triggered sensations within him that he often couldn't define at times. When he reached for them they scattered, leaving anguish in their wake.

The flitting touch of skin against his fingertips(did he even have fingers?) not sure whether they were real or just a memory... Only the strange feeling that he yearned for that touch... Craving it more than anything he'd ever wanted in his life... Odd, when he couldn't pinn down who or what the touch belonged to.

The fleeting sensation of a warmth pressed against (his?) body he couldn't quite grasp, only for the touch to vanish when he tried to turn and reach for... Her?

A voice that comforted him in the darkness but he couldn't quite make out what they were saying to him... Or even who it was... He struggled to put something, a name, anything to the... Sound?

The scent of hair against his nostrils, that was what his mind told him... It was her against him... a scent that made him want to wrap his arms around her... Who was she? He fought towards the answer, struggling against the blackness that was everywhere. A brief flash of blood, shouting... and... the memory fled from his grasp faster than he found it. He nearly wept.

Where was she?

He couldn't move...

If you die, I'll never forgive you...

He experienced pain, a searing that wrenched up inside of him. More painful than anything, it was wrenching him towards existence, even though he tried escaping it. He knew his time was running out... He had to save her... he was so close to picturing her face, she was important to him...

Who was she?

He tried and struggled for a way out...but he couldn't grab ahold of anything... There was nothing but the searing pain entrentching it's way throughout his being. If this was existence he wasn't sure he wanted it. But it wouldn't release him, no matter how much he fought.

And then... His eyes opened.

Abruptly, he was standing in a darkened alley. Neon lights lit up the area around him. He inhaled smelling the acrid stench of an overloaded trash bin and stale homeless bodies. He wrinkled his nose at the smell but a sense of familiarity with this place resonated within him. He knew this place...