#anf018

Absolute darkness. No sound. It was as if darkness itself encased Matt, locking, fastening him to a seat he can’t even see. He let his guard for a second, yet again, and something else jumped him. Whatever it was, it probably wants him dead like everything else on this planet up here.

Perfect.

He mentally berated himself. If the new terrifying news wasn’t awful enough, now all this. He would lean forward, if his restraints allowed.

Flick. Voom. Light immediately filled the room, stinging his eyes. It was completely white. Black strips ran along the walls and floors into a ceiling that vanished under the intensity of the beaming lights. There was no bulb or fixture providing the irritating radiance. All the brightness that destroyed the once shadowed room came from above, within the ceiling. Matt’s eyes slowly acclimated to his new environment. Ropes of a substance he had never seen bound his arms and legs to a free-standing chair fixed to a metal base in the center of the room. Struggling made the ties hum electronically.

Then came the voice. It sounded like a group of voices, men and women, booming in unison. The center of the light faded in and out, rhythmically imitating speech.

“We’ve been meaning to speak to you.”

Matt snapped his head up to the light. “Uh, hello?” He answered in his best Ownage Pranks impersonation. The chair snapped upward as if something quickly lifted Matt while he was still on it. He passed the main orb of white light, and lurched to an instant halt. Yet, the makeup of the room did not change, save for the blurs from the purple lights blinking in the lines along the walls.

“First off, ever heard of direct messaging?” Matt groaned, reopening his eyes.

“Ascendancy deficient,” flashed a blue sphere. It made Matt jump. “Critical flaw.”

“Flaw?!”

A red orb roared like fire. Its voice was mixed with a bass growl and peaked randomly

“TrraAItoorRrr! YooUuu fooRrgoT-t uuU-uuSS!”

Matt leaned to the right as much as he could. The voice beat against his ear. Thankfully, it was shoved away by a yellow globe.

“So this is how you spent your time?” A condescending, nasally, fairer-pitch interrogated him. It scoffed. “No, you just abandoned your job, didn’t you?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Matt shot back.

“Your loyalty is outward. I always knew you’d betray yourself.”

Orange flickered before Matt could reply. “There IS no book! No child is-is no. No, can’t look, see. No page- no book there is no book NO!!”

“Saw dem purty peepul too!” A Green cloudy ball uttered an ugly laugh and burped. Light just burped.

Whiteness overtook them all, swallowing them back into itself. Matt winced. The unified being called out again.

“You could not escape being here.”

“Wanna bet?!” Matt struggled to summon Sword to his hand, but the restraints tightened around his wrists and ankles. A clamp came down on his throat, gagging him. The bright thing moved closed to Matt, ever calm.

“What,” Matt writhed. “No… purple?”

“Junpei is one for another time. We called out to you. Take part.”

The light moved like a vapor to Matt’s face. He slammed his eyes shut, but that didn’t stop it. It slunk underneath his eyelids. The shock threw Matt backward, his agony bounced around the space. The force of his squirming threw off his gray fedora.

“You’re stained of them. The ones you brought from the world below. They are here, aren’t they? The One Rule, broken. But you know, don’t you? You could never be like any of the below. You tried. That’s why you escaped here. Why you made this. Made us. Your mistake was not foreseeing the rest of the Echelon.”

“Eche...lon…” Matt gasped between strains.

Echelon concluded. “Will you fix the aperture?”

White gas exited Matt’s eyes and mouth. His body leaned forward. His hat was picked up and set on his head.