This Isn't Your World

Chapter 17

Api never thought he would ever feel such exhaustion. The world he previously knew was in flames. All it took was one foolish thought, one phone call, and his world collapsed, taking him down into fire.

I'm done, Api thought, grabbing at his hair, knees folding tighter to his chest. I'm tired.

It all started with a dream, a sliver of hope. Chains of events and butterfly effects paid off, which led to countless sufferings and everlasting scars. Petir was traumatized by the unknown. Daun had her leg cut off. Angin was on anti-depressant medication. Tanah and Cahaya were still missing.

And Air? He has no idea how the girl copes with it. Or maybe she didn't. She never opened up to him about her distresses.

In the safety of his room, he curled up tighter on his bed, and cradled himself to the comfort of his dreams.

If only they were dreams at all.

* * *

In his nightmare, everything started perfectly. He was still hopping to school cheerily, already excited for the day's training. He would probably fall asleep in class, then look for Air during recess because he'd used all his lunch money on protein shakes or gym memberships. He hadn't met Tanah nor anyone else, but life was perfect in its own way.

Then he met Tanah in the distorted gym, but his hair was white and eyes burning red. Instead of talking to Api like he had in the past, Reverse Gempa replaced Tanah. Api tried to escape from the weight-lifting sets, but his body was fastened onto the bench.

He squirmed and desperately tried to free himself, but invisible forces held him down. As he watched, Reverse Gempa summoned his rocky fists, and slammed down onto his chest.

The floor beneath him shattered into an endless hole, and he fell into the darkness. The bench disappeared into thin air, and he fell on his back onto the cold, hard ground.

Groaning, Api sat up and blinked, touching his chest. His chest was pristine and clean, but the throbbing didn't subsite. From above, a beam of light shone down with the size of the broken hole.

He looked to the front, and he saw someone else. He saw a hand sticking out from the ground, in appears what to be black slime. Solar, he recognized the pattern of the glove that wrapped around the hand's fingers.

"H—Hold on!" He scrambled to his feet, tripping on his toes. He staggered over to Solar's hand, but the moment he stepped out of the light circle, the ground turned to slime, eating his feet up.

It wasn't painful, but with every step he took, the deeper he sunk. Api groaned, each step more difficult than the last, the consistency resembling hardened glue. He struggled to pull his legs out each turn, and when he finally got to Solar's side, he was waist-deep into the ooze.

Api clamped his hands around Solar's and began to pull. The more he pulled, the deeper he got. Face puffing red with effort, body sinking deeper, Solar's body finally emerged, skin purple and flesh rotting, the scent of putrid flesh hitting Api's nose.

With barely enough time to scream, pairs of invisible hands grabbed Api's ankles beneath the slime, and pulled him under.

His body phased through the slime, the absence of oxygen surreal. He tried to inhale different times, but the slime stopped any sort of air from entering his lungs.

His lungs began to burst, his heart pounding like gongs in his chest. As he began to succumb to the darkness of his mind, his body arched forward, and suddenly he was in a hospital room, staring at two different scenes playing out side by side from the window.

On the left, he saw Angin on the building's roof across the window. There were a heap of bodies behind him, unconscious and disarmed. Was this before he was admitted into the hospital? He looks fine, Api noted.

As Api watched, Angin stepped closer to the edge. His body fell forward and plummeted towards the concrete ground with a solid crack.

On the right, he saw Daun falling through the edge of a cliff, just right by the ocean with the waves beating against the cliff walls. The building on the cliff collapsed, the explosion having sent Daun off the edge.

When Daun fell to the surface of the ocean, what greeted her wasn't water. There were sharp, jagged rocks littering the surface, and her left leg impaled horrendously by one of the stones. She fell into the ocean, unconscious and most of her left leg torn off by the rock.

Api's eyes were wide through all of this, his legs turning to jelly. He fell to his knees, a scream shaking his body and lungs. He shook his head wildly, crying and sobbing as he witnessed the horrific moments.

I want to wake up! Let me wake up! He begged, but there was no one there to hear him.

He cried in silence for moments, and he eventually calmed down. Just a dream, he told himself. I'll wake up anytime soon. He turned around from the window, and he saw the hospital bed was occupied. He stood and stared at the face, unconscious and serene.

Then a hand shot from the sheets and grabbed his throat, holding him in place and crushing his windpipe. The patient's eyes opened, and they were blood red and dead.

"You will never escape," Halilintar said.

Api blacked out.