March 9th, Undecim's Journal

           Undecim returned to her bedroom after she relieved herself. Soft relaxation music played from Undecim's computer speakers, it was difficult for her to sleep without sound so she always left her computer on. She shook the mouse to check the time. Six o' six in the morning, she could get two or three more hours of sleep. Undecim minimized her music program and took a moment to smile at her wallpaper. It was a screenshot from an episode of Sparkle Savannah, where Nirah the lioness and Leon the lion sang "This Love Tonight" under a waterfall during a season finale. It was a song that Undecim held dear to her heart for years, she wished to know what it was like to feel the emotions Nirah and Leon conveyed in their duet. Undecim crawled into bed and cuddled up to her plush animals, she closed her eyes with a relaxed sigh.            Undecim sat up in her bed and questioned whether she was awake or asleep. She spun around to face her computer monitor when her music came to an abrupt stop with a thump, it seemed the computer had shut itself off. She assumed that it was trying to install an update, though reloading her programs again would be inconvenient. Undecim pressed the power button and waited for it to boot up. The loading screen was absent and the monitor remained black, tension generated an unusual sense of dread as the machine whirred softly.            A horrifying image on her desktop replaced the fashionably cute lions from Sparkle Savannah. In the right corner of the image was a grey spectral face with a wide smile and black hollow circles for eyes. Behind it was an autopsy room made up of digital noise, it lacked proper gradations and the only colors it consisted of were black, red, yellow, and white. Butchered bodies lie on the tables under an intense lamp light with a severed head on a shelf. The speakers vibrated from the sound of a gale through a forest, the volume threatened to blow them out. Undecim fell back on her bed with a scream and the computer shut itself off again.            Undecim shifted to slide off her bed and a masculine hand grabbed her arm before she could move. Nobody was present when she looked back but she knew it was a silent warning from Satanael. Undecim ignored his attempts to protect her and rushed to the tower, she unplugged her external drive to protect it from a potential virus or a hacker. The machine booted itself up when the plugs were pulled from its ports. Undecim backed away and watched with dismay. The desktop returned almost instantly with a different image that did not consist of colored noise. The face from before dominated the foreground as it had done previously, behind the stranger was a dark forest with multiple bodies hanging from branches with nooses fastened around their necks. The computer shut itself off within seconds of viewing the image.            The girl managed a breath as she trembled. Again the machine lit up as it whirred to life and displayed an image faster than it had the past two times. It was a marred face with bulged eyes obscured by digital distortion, it stared at Undecim as though it were attempting to express its pain. Undecim wanted to press the power button and force the computer to restart but she could not bring herself to move. The next cycle brought up a sketch of Satanael that Deca made in her year. Undecim felt a sense of comfort in seeing his face rather than the malicious specter that appeared in the previous images. It was a short-lived reprieve as the forest image replaced Satanael without warning, a loud gale piped through her speakers and fear took hold of Undecim once more.            This time an instant message box appeared before her with text from an unfamiliar user named OverDosekills1852.

OverDosekills1852: OverDose knows.....

           Before Undecim could even begin to question it, another text came in.

OverDosekills1852: bye.

           Undecim woke with a gasp after her computer shut down in the nightmare. The red numbers on her heart-shaped clock read eight o' two. Her family members were still asleep and she was too afraid to lie back down. Undecim got out of bed and gave her computer mouse a quick shake, relaxation music played and her usual desktop image with Nirah and Leon was present.            "Thank God." Undecim sighed. She convinced herself to lie down and go back to sleep.            Undecim sat up in what felt like her waking life. "I'm glad that was a dream," she said as she looked at the digital clock. The time read eight o' seven, it felt wrong but she chose to ignore it. Undecim approached her computer and it turned itself on before she could touch the button on the tower. She backed away, eyes wide with disbelief as she choked back tears. A flurry of graphic, gory images flashed before her eyes as the computer reset itself at unnatural speeds. It flicked between a pure back screen and random imagery until it halted on an image of a skinned, pixelated face.            An instant message box appeared:

OverDosekills1852: do you like what i've done?

           Undecim could not bear to look at the text for too long. She clicked on the username and it took her to a profile page, but all it offered was a single name. Joshua. No surname, no state address, no age, no About Me page, just Joshua. The computer shut off seconds after accessing his profile.            Undecim woke once more. She felt a sense of freedom once she realized it was nine forty-five. She hesitated before checking her computer and struggled to let her shoulders down when her normal desktop appeared. Undecim steeled herself against the chills that came from remembering the nightmare and began to write it down on a dream pad stored on her external drives.

———————————  Art by @princesslovelydreams

Read the Prologue for The Inner Council: Dream Journal here: https://www.wattpad.com/578277660-the-inner-council-dream-journal-prologue —— Nueve smiled at Ten and opened her mouth to speak but a chilling gust of wind circled around them and brought about an ominous silence. The two girls took a slow turn in unison to face the vortex. The silhouette was no longer suspended in the middle of the cave, she now stood behind the dimly colored veil. Her head tilted to the side and her entire form twitched in an unsettling manner, she never made a sound. Ten and Nueve remained silent and felt disturbed. The inability to see her face bothered the girls more than her strange movement. “E-Eleven?” Ten choked out. The figure’s head snapped back into a normal position and she stood stock still. Tension dragged on for a short period of time before the girl slipped her right leg through the vortex, her clothing was not expected by either Year. They saw a black and white stocking and a black platform boot with multiple straps on the front and side, the girl revealed her full appearance once she was freed from the film. Her skin was as white as a Japanese yūrei, she appeared to have hollow eye sockets with darkness oozing from them but they turned out to be markings on her skin. Small symmetrical crisscross patterns formed and bore a loose resemblance to cracks from a distance. Her hair was darker than Ten’s and her naturally kinky curls were in better condition compared to the other two. Her fingernails were long and pointed like claws and she wore a black dress with a zipper on the front, complete with a spiked collar around her neck. Ten and Nueve stared at the girl with their jaws dropped. How could such a monstrosity rule the new year? It could not be, but the number marked on her forehead made it clear this was indeed Eleven, the new Council Girl. The three women stood still and watched each other. Ten could hear Gale’s muffled voice nearby and paid close attention in an effort to hear him clearly, his speech about the highlights of her year was almost through. Ten forced a smile. “Uh, hey there. How you doin’, girl?” Eleven continued to stare. A smirk formed, but it seemed she was hesitant to smile. The girl tilted her head to the side with tensed shoulders, she forced a full grin that exposed a mouth full of needle-like fangs akin to an angler fish. Nueve and Ten noticed she did indeed have eyes. Eleven’s black sclera matched the dark markings of her eye sockets, but her dull red irises gave off a soft glow. Her focused gaze made the girls feel like she was staring into their souls. Ten averted her eyes to the ground. “I don’t believe this.”