OVERRIDE

Chapter 5: The Price You Pay

Where am I?

I slowly opened my eyes, unable to see in the dark, blurry surroundings before me. My vision finally began to clear as my body rose up on it's own. I was in a dark corridor, the only light coming from small exit at the end. As soon as I noticed it, my body started to head in the light's direction, like another force was controlling my movements.

Not long after something flashed by me, an image I couldn't quite make out. It was like a cue, signalling me to move faster. I ran. I ran endlessly, the image flashing by more and more, bringing a blinding light along with it.

It haunted me.

That forsaken symbol. That cursed mark of Blacklist. I remembered everything. They were the ones who brought me here. They killed me. But where was I? If it was hell it sure didn't feel like it.

The mark began to pulsate, burning into my mind for eternity.

"Who do you hail?"

It whispered to me.

"Who do you hail?"

Again.

"Who do you hail?!"

The words repeated over and over again, sounding more menacing each time. They were in my head. I was falling, suffocating in its presence. It was driving me insane. Or maybe I was from the very beginning.

Then, everything stopped.

I had reached the end of the corridor, what I'd thought to be the exit. There was no light. There was no escape. Only an empty mirror.

"Love," a voice whispered out. A silhouette began to appear in the mirror, the emotions welling up inside me as it formed into a still very much alive Ixel.

"Ixel..." I reached out to touch the mirror he was trapped in as he raised his hand to do the same. I felt his presence, his smile, his love. My fingertip made the slightest contact with the mirror's surface as I looked down at our hands.

"You, are the one who's trapped, love," I quickly looked back up at Ixel after he spoke, only to find him gone.

Now, I was face to face with my own twisted, demented reflection. My eyes were black, my skin mottling as the veins within it glowed blue. I looked sick, diseased,

Infected.

"Who do you hail?" I spoke out, not able to control my own words anymore.

The mirror cracked as my reflection disappeared, shifting into something inhuman, something evil. A black apparition took it's place, with a smoke around it so thick simply looking at it made me choke.

I acted against my will, reaching out to the cracked mirror as the apparition did the same. Before I was able to touch it, the apparition's cold, ghastly arm shot out towards me, breaching the mirror barrier. It snatched my hand, yanking me to it's side with a blood curdling scream.

I collapsed after coming through, falling on the ground with the apparition nowhere in sight. I instinctively turned to run back towards the mirror, towards safety, to have it shatter completely as I touched it. My chest grew heavy as the air suddenly thickened, the very ground beneath me shifting. Breathing.

Alive.

It tightly grasped my ankle, attempting to pull me into it. I yanked free, only for it to take hold of me again. It began to crawl up my skin like insects as it pulled me under. I frantically brushed them off. The nanites. Those bugs that continued to plague me.

They swarmed over me, crawling into my mouth and nose as I sunk. I felt them moving inside my body, consuming my lungs, my blood, my mind. I couldn't breathe, and in a panic I raised my hand, knowing no one would grasp it.