#alitotes

>> When you woke you found yourself in pitch blackness, someplace you couldn’t recognize at all. Mostly because there was nothing TO recognize. All around you was just dark and cold. Any warmth your body might have had in itself seems to be fading fast and the panic in your mind rises.>> You’re cold. It feels like you’re trying to push through a freezing fog whenever you try to move. You don’t know where you’re going but it’s better than just staying still and accepting a silent death you’ve figured. It’s not fair to anyone if you accept your own death without a single ounce of fight a second time.>> It’s getting harder to breathe the more you move but you keep pushing forward. You must. Somehow it feels like you’re getting closer to something damn it! You must be! >>There’s a flicker of something warm in the distance, something perhaps orange? You can’t rally tell but it seems like a fire. Perhaps you’re not alone here- whatever here is. Your sheer drive to keep going is all that keeps your broken, aching body moving. The closer you get the warmer it is, until suddenly everything is bathed in that warmth.> That color. Not orange. Red. The red so hot it burns your frozen soul to it’s core and makes your skin feel like it’s blistering hot.> The red that can only mean one thing is nearby. The realization hits like a brick that reminds you you where in a construction zone you didn’t belong in without a helmet. >> It is searing and it is red and you know exactly where you are. You’re in hell. It’s your own personal hell. HAL’s voice perks up from a distance at first, his own soliloquizing seeming to take up his attention. You feel the smallest spark of hope. You turn around desperately hoping you can walk back into the freezing void before he noticed your consciousness being awake enough to wander into his sight. You’d just have to go back to sleep, and behave yourself. You remember your place now-“Equius!”>> It’s too late. His voice booms through every wall, and shaking you to your core.“Welcome to my humble abode. Now what brings you out of hiding hmn?” He asks, as though there’s nothing wrong. “You know I haven’t seen you looking quite so white in a while. You look like you’ve seen a ghost! Was it your morail?”>> You force a weak laugh.“Yes... I saw her in a thought and forgot where I was... I was only cold. I’m going back to sleep now. I promise.” You swear, looking only at your own feet and the red glow that illuminated them.>> He is quiet for much too long which means he believes you are lying, or he’s going to fuck with you again because it was funny. You could only hug your elbows and wait for him to begin.>> What he does this time is new to you, but not too new. He’s pinned your consciousness to the wall with the unrelenting force that was his own, his hot breath burning against your neck. You don’t know if he decided to manifest this time or not because your eyes where squinted so tightly shut but frankly you didn’t care. You just prayed he wouldn’t force you to open them this time. You don’t want to see the->> The blade shoots right through your abdomen, scraping the wall behind you and you tear. Everything about it is too hot and too painful and-->> You awake with a start, real tears on your cheeks as you try and reorient yourself. You’ve fallen off of your bed again, wrapped awkwardly in your own blankets. You take a few shaking breaths, focusing on the dark ceilings cracks and trying to shake the phantom feeling of the blade in your gut still. Ugh.>> With a shake of the head you untangle yourself. It was going to be a long night, and you refused to go back to sleep.