I awoke, drenched in sweat. I could still see the bright lights whenever I closed my eyes, almost as if the light had been burnt into my eyelids.
How could I be getting close now? I am only a lowly Dark Lament research technician, working in with a team of 5 others under the Necanthrope "Leech".
I go to work as if nothing has happened, though as I step into the lab, Leech smiles at me at points at my worktop, where a prototype Dark Lament drug injector sat, along with 20 vials of White Noise. How did he know?
I cannot concentrate on my work. Each time I close my eyes to formulate my ebb abilities I see columns of bright light, within which are faces, whispering at me.
During my lunch break I sit at my worktop, head in my hands, trying to decide what to do. Do I give in to the voices and enter the White, only to re-enter this world as one of those monsters. Or do I use the injector in front of me. Silence the voices with this drug?
The choice is quite simple. I pick a vial of White Noise, a deceptive name since it is a thick black goo, and roll it around in my hands. I quickly insert it into the injector and press it against my arm.
I feel the goo spreading through my body and when I close my eyes I no longer see the light. A smile spreads against my face. A smile that when I re-open my eyes, I see is also on Leechs face.
Evening comes, and so do the voices again. One second I am fine, the next I stumble to my knees as the voices scream in my head. My dingy downtown apartment seems much brighter than normal but I daredn't close my eyes because I know the light behind my eyelids would be even worse.
I inject myself with White Noise again, though it is less effective this time and I can still hear the voices whispering at the edge of my consciousness.
I had arranged to meet some friends for a drink in a local bar. I step out into downtown and get absorbed into the crowd of people travelling through its depths. The evening is pleasant, though I don't concentrate on the conversations. The TV above the bar is showing an interview with a Necanthrope Union that have just lost a member on a BPN. I cannot hear the words, but I am sure that the Necanthropes are staring directly at me and talking to me.
Weeks pass and I become a White Noise addict, taking it every hour to lessen the screams to meer whispers. Every night as I return home, I sense the lingering feeling of Necanthropes in my apartment.
One day at work, my concentration laspses because I recognise one of the voices screaming in my head as being my mothers. I calculate a Red Thermal ebb power instead of a Blue Thermal power and the prototype in front of me explodes, showering me in shards of science friction matter.
I know that I am bleeding and I am vaguely aware of Leech lifting me off the floor and placing me on a anti-grav trollery. As I pass into and out of consciousness I see concerned faces of Necanthropes looking down on me, and I hear a voice asking me something. I mumber something unintelligable and feel a sharp pain in my chest before the world around me erupts in white light.
"This is Daniel O'Crow, reporting for Third Eye News.
Today, the Necanthrope Union known as SFAQL gained a new member known as Splinter. Splinter replaces Immagin, who died during SFAQL recent and succesful BPN to Cannibal Sector 1."
Comments to dUm