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Faerdin -> Through the Haze (2/8/2014 19:02:36)
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Discussion Thread
Through the Haze
A Short Story
All the world was empty.
Dark. Abyssal as the deepest ocean's depths.
Where am I?
Panic weighed oppressively on Penny as her mind fought to recollect the events of the past hour. They did not come so easily. She remembered rising in the morning, brushing her teeth, getting dressed. She remembered asking her eight year old son Michael if he could look after Lucas- the baby in the family- while she ran to the store for some groceries. First blank, then crinkled in disdain, his face was as a mask when he said he would.
He looked so disappointed. It was a Saturday. His Saturday.
It was mommy's, too, she thought.
The sun was still stretching its wings, unfurled in an array of gold and violet upon a dawning sky. A red light blinked across in sharp relief with the indigo of atmosphere. Her hand tightened on the steering wheel. Its knobbly leather was cold to her touch in the absence of the sun, which lay at her back while she continued down the road. The market could not have been much further.
Then there was that man who flagged me down on the road, and... and...
Nothing. Silence reigned. The darkness seemed even blacker as her memories died.
Where am I?
A splash of color unsupported by her distraught mind began to dominate her perceptions. Yellows and violets and greens whizzed past as a fractalized flow of wind. They caught and tore at the edges of her mind, and from that gale came the first sensation to return after an eternity of tranquility.
Pain. Primal, unfiltered pain forced her very brain to throb- like a million pins lancing the unprotected core of her consciousness.
She wanted to scream, but she could not. She could only think through the haze.
Where am I?
She continued down the road. Buildings about her resisted the natural forces of weathering- of the sun's rays, the currents, and the rain- and shone with an artificial glow from their paint, all hues of yellows and violets and greens. A man materialized from the side of the road with an extended hand, clearly asking for her to stop.
Penny nearly kept driving. But her better judgment called for her foot to fall on the breaks.
A suit as black as the night was the man's most distinguishing feature, along with dark glasses that turned away the light of day with the ease of a man sweeping fireflies. His toothy grin did nothing to diminish the imposing figure. "Afternoon, ma'am. Do you know how I might reach Garden Street? I have to meet an associate there."
"Oh, you just have t-"
A prick in her arm caught her off-guard. She looked up into the man's unfaltering smile and continued, "You just have to..."
She never finished giving that man directions. At least, she thought she did not. That poor man.
Another wave of agony. The pins grew cherry-hot and stabbed from all sides. She wanted to scream, but she had no mouth.
Was she even breathing?
Where am I?
The shadows closed in. She would cry, but she had no eyes. Michael... Lucas...
All she could do was think. Think, think, think through the spirals of color that assaulted her unwound mind.
WHERE AM I? PLEASE... PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I AM...
She howled to the nothingness, to the unfeeling void that lay before her. But her pleas would go unheard.
"How is the subject responding?"
"Its pleasure and pain centers appear active. It seems very confused."
"Given their circumstances, I could see that."
"Well... And this is under...?"
"MKUltra."
"Understood."
"Throw that brain out and try with another. Our data is still not complete."
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