I am waist-deep in an immeasurable expanse of water. Stranded in the middle of nowhere. The sand fluctuates and moves underneath my bare toes. Water bestirs and digresses from its balanced serenity. Becoming restless and agitated. Crashing against my frame, splashing seawater. There is no land for miles. Neither are there any giants around to masticate my flesh and swallow my bones.
Reven and that mysterious being are not here either. And there is no evidence around to suggest that what happened between them had actually occurred - except for the sky.
Even so, it's enough to make someone doubt such a surreal experience.
The somber, ashen firmament perpetually spirals as lightning furors and strikes indiscriminately within the aerial rotation. The joyless rays of the dying sun meekly shine in the eye of the spiraling mass. My drenched clothes stick to my salt-soaked skin, and the unpleasant taste of sea salt overwhelms my taste buds. Then a tsunami rouses and rears up. It sweeps under the composition of clouds as it curves forward. Engrossing me in its monstrous shadow. Then the fore of the epic wave crashes down upon me. It's ruthless, current drags me under; tossing me around like a ragdoll.
All of my self-control is made ineffectual. The saltwater stings and blurs my vision.
Eight red eyes open and glow as unfocused smudges of bleeding paint down within the abysmal depths below. Ensnaring me with its bright, intense stare. Entrancing me. Reeling me closer...
An intrusive draught strokes my skin. Ice bites down on my spine and coccyx. A hard pressure swells at the back of my skull, and my teeth chatter as I shiver from head to toe. I open my eyes and squint at the fluorescent, luminous halos above me. I blink, and neon rings are imprinted into my retinas. I cannot move. All I can do is breathe and blink. To my right is a crooked shadow edging along my vision's periphery, awkwardly moving back and forth from a large vacant cylinder.
Wait – a cylinder?
I can't turn or angle my head to see what's happening. My freedom of movement has been removed, and I am completely paralyzed in position. Then a recognisable pair of sable eyes comes into view; that unforgettable emotionless gaze.
No.
Please god.
I'll accept anything.
Anything!
I don't want to die – not like this.
Not as her lab rat. Laid nude and vulnerable for those eyes to behold. I cannot escape them. She grabs my jaw and turns it from side to side. The prickling hairs on her long fingers rasp and itch my cheeks. Providing a skin irritation.
Stop analysing me.
I spit in her face, but she does not react. No retort or grimace. And continues to inspect my face as though nothing happened. While she is distracted, I search through my psyche. I still can't sense his presence. I
I'm so bloody stupid, of course I wouldn't be able to, he is fucking gone.
Dead.
My mind feels empty without him. I strangely miss it. I suppose during our time together, I didn't realise how much of an extent I had grown accustomed to our profound interconnection.
I don't know how I'm going to get out of this predicament – alive.
She releases my jaw and slinks out of sight. An unperceivable acuteness – a sharp point lightly scrapes down from my upper arm to my wrist. Then the disconcerting sensation withdraws and moves to my right calf muscle, traveling up to my thigh. I tense up and hold my breath, dreading it from advancing any further. The sensation recurs in my calf again. It's frigid point prods my bump-riddled skin as though she is testing the delicacy of elasticity.
All I can do is wait and anticipate the inevitable. I grunt as the sharp tip finally pierces my skin; a rough, chilling pinch that quickly subsides into a flushed numbness. The resound of a delicate chink has my undivided focus. It's as if someone is laying out fine silverware on a dining room table.
A soft, feminine hum sings into my empty communication channel, creating a new unwanted telepathic interlink in Reven's place.
I am a door that has been left wide open. She is monopolizing and taking advantage of my mental vulnerability, as I am powerless to respond in kind.
"The functional and the functionless. The animate, and the inanimate."
To her, my situation is merely child's play. Dignity has no place here.
"All of my subjects serve a purpose despite their bodily status. Whether it is permanent or impermanent, knowledge can still be extracted from them," she elaborates. Telepathically speaking into the channel. Her tone is devoid of emotion.
"The vessel is a composition of genetic code. In the beginning, these pieces of data were raw and unfiltered. Unseparated. Unperfected. Then they were modified and edited through genetic manipulation. They became unified, concentrated, and impeccable. Altered and improved to an adequate standard. They were also given a reasonable and sufficient level of intelligence. You are nothing more than a begotten fruit from a genealogical tree of tampered specimens, and a species that was created to live in a false reality. One that did not evolve on its own; certainly not according to nature's wish – not until they were one day abandoned by their own architect."
Ice brutally plunges into my neck. I grunt again. She hums contentedly into my psyche. She knows I can hear her – perfectly.
The sick fuck.
The slow retraction of penetration from my neck is bone-chilling and prolonged. Impaled by actuality itself. A scream of a banshee rips from my throat as high-pitched screeching metal rattles me to the core, and drilling perforates my eardrums. I cry out to the halos above me as the deliverance of agony overrides years' worth of rationality and hurls me into a nonsensical storm of unformed thoughts; thus, my consciousness slips away into darkness once more. Floating aimlessly within a bottomless void.
Light hits the watery veil above me. I swim up to it and breach the surface. I gasp for air. A natural reflex, since oxygen is purely nonexistent in dreams. Logic and realism do not apply here.
I push through the placid waves, keeping my head above water. I set my palms face down on the surface and use my upper body strength to hoist myself up. I kneel on the water, inducing ripples. Expressing the natural motion and fluidity of the element as it reacts to the slightest movement. The waves ebb beneath my knees, not dousing them, as though there is a sheet of durable glass between us.
There are eight red eyes below the waves, staring back at me. Paying me another visit. The mantis resumes her humming. It echoes throughout my inner world, trembling the oceanic tranquility. My journey so far has proven to me that extraterrestrials did, in fact, play a key role in the early evolution of mankind. We didn't simply evolve from apes as Darwin's theory suggests. I want to know more. More answers. I need more clarity.
And there is a specific question I am burning to ask.
"Why did you murder him?"
The shadow residing deep beneath the waves continues to spectate me in absolute quietude. No response. No reaction. Is it deaf or simply ignoring me? I slam my fist down on the surface, producing more ripples.
"ANSWER ME!"
Say something, dammit. Anything...