Eden Book 1: Trapped in a Nightmare

Chapter 1

Jasper felt his heart racing in his chest, fear pounding through his body for the first time in months defeating the sorrow. He wasn't scared for himself of course, but the boy behind him. He was innocent after all, probably had someone out there who would miss him the same way he missed his family. The brunette put an arm out, shielding the younger man with his body, eyes scared by determined.

The man in the doorway didn't move, at least not toward him. Instead he backed out of the room and looked down the hallway, toward the hospital's main area. Jasper could hear policemen yelling, jumping at the gunshots that followed and watching in astonishment as the hooded man seemed to literally vanish a second to dodge them. It looked like a video game glitching out. Jasper rushed to the door to look, amazed more than anything. And for only a second he glimpsed the mans face, the scars across his chest where the cloak was open, the ones on his features as his eyes met that of the twenty-eight year old. There was something chilling about them, a burning fire of hatred, but something more to them than that. The golden hue held intelligence, curiosity, and...deep sorrow.

And then he was gone, flashing down the hallway and killing the officers in single, quick blows. Jasper's breath caught as he watched the man blatantly murder three people, their blood splashing across the tiled floor. The man seemed to look at the security camera a minute and the next he was just gone. Leaving silence and the smell of fresh blood behind.

Several minutes passed before Jasper noticed Leslie's panicked mumbles behind him, taking a deep breath and reaching back to take his arm. They couldn't stay there. He pulled the albino boy with him toward the main hall, hoping to find more officers or at least someone else to help. Walking around the pools of blood to reach the double doors to the reception area, stopping short when he saw the mess. Everyone was dead, corpses and blood everywhere. The brunette choked on the smell, swallowing hard not to throw up last nights dinner. "C-come on Leslie, this way..." He murmured, trying not to let his voice shake. Had that man from before done this? It seemed so surreal. All of it.

None of this seemed possible. His abilities seemed unreal. What was even happening? Had he fallen asleep and this was some weird nightmare? Or maybe he had died and this was his hell? There was only one way to figure it out of course. He pulled Leslie with him toward the storage room, rattling the locked door and pouting. Even the window the nurse stood behind was locked tight with one of those metal gates. He had no idea how to break in! He needed his shoes and his things! Determined not to leave without them.

"Open now..." Leslie said suddenly, making the brunette look up from where he had been glaring at the floor and their bloody footprints. "Huh?" His eyes were wide and excited a second later as he moved to the door and went in, pulling Leslie with him, not noticing anything strange about him. Not noticing the lack of twitching and mumbling. No, he was unaware as the whitette stared at him with narrowed eyes, watching as he searched for his backpack and shoes.

Jasper scrutinized the contents to be certain everything was inside, letting out a sigh of relief as he slipped the strap of the courier bag over his shoulder. Kneeling down he slipped on his shoes, tying them and turning to Leslie who ducked his head and fidgeted. "We should get you some shoes too..." He mumbled, looking around for anything with the younger mans name on it.

"What are you two doing in here?!" Jasper jumped, letting out a shocked sound as he whipped around to see Jimenez in the door. This was the first he had seen the man since he arrived at Beacon. "Oh, nevermind, come, quickly now!" He said, grabbing Leslie and putting an arm around his shoulders to lead him out. Jasper didn't want to follow, he got the strangest nagging feeling not to and an even stronger protective urge over Leslie when the man touched him. He saw the whitette shaking when he did. But without knowing what else to do he did as he was told, following the man down another hallway, passed more corpses and out into a parking garage. There was an ambulance waiting for them there with an officer at the wheel, "Hurry!" The man called and waved them over.

Jasper climbed into the back with the other two, a woman already on board that he did not recognize nor talk to. He kept his eyes on Jimenez, pushing his bag farther behind him in hopes he would not try to take it. But the doctors focus seemed to mainly be on Leslie at the moment. They pulled out of the garage, the officer speeding around to the front of the building. The brunette let out a frightened noise when he felt what he thought was them hitting something, only to realize, when they stopped, it was an earthquake.

'What the hell is fucking happening right now?' His mind screamed as he pulled his knees to his chest and curled up in a ball right there, a panic attack setting in as he grabbed at his short hair and whimpered. They started to speed away, the ambulance almost falling into a bit of the collapsing earth, Leslie letting out a distressed noise as they sped down the road. After awhile the ride seemed to settled out, Jasper rocking a little as he tried to calm down. Desperately wanting to pull out one of his blankets or even the stuffed rabbit to hug, but resisting in case Jimenez noticed and tried to take them.

"Leslie, please calm down." Jimenez was saying to the younger man, one of the officer's calling out and asking if everyone was okay. The woman replying, "We're fine, just a few bumps is all." She said, smiling a little at Jasper who looked away from her. "Once we're far away we'll be fine." Jimenez said in a reassuring sort of way, though it sounded like he was reassuring himself and not those around him.

"Fine...fine..."

Jasper lifted his head, freezing when he saw the man from before. He was there only a few seconds, such a short time the brunette thought he imagined it. And then Leslie was shouting 'Fall!' The ambulance swerving, causing them to topple. Jasper hitting the floor hard, grabbing his head and curling up. And then they were falling. His body weightless a moment before the world went black.