Sleepless

[_______________Kioko]

Sharle, please switch to my secure connection located at 0000.

[AdriaanBlackwind]

(Delayed attempt at a halloween story)

The faces from Blackwind's memory tore at him in his dream. Sleeping restfully most nights atleast, but recently there had been dreams, they were building up to something. They all had an orange glow, the facial attributes of people seemed to be cut out of the flesh. People he knew.

"You're so childish dad!"
"Stand straight soldier!"
"Hi Black!"
"Whenever I am weak.. you have given me strength.."

But it was the night of halloween which would have its signifcance.
The voices were torn and screechy, and everyone were dressed in a robe, holding a scythe.
All the people he knew from the past, barely remembered, or those close to his heart appeared to join together, and the figure of Jack, Uncle Pumpkinhead grew from them all.

"Adriaanadriaanadriaan!"

Jack flew at Blackwind, but straight through him. Blackwind held around his chest in a groan, then silence. The surroundings were unknown to him, but there was a black fog everywhere.

"What do you want?"

Jack came from behind, flew through him again, his scythe held high.

"Adriaanadriaanadriaan!"
"What..?"

The pumpkin flashed at his left at a distance, then right, left, center, everytime closer untill it flew through him the third time.

"Youareoldenoughnowadriaanandwedontcaregetouttaher eYouareoldenoughnowadriaanandwedontcaregetouttaher eYouareoldenoughnowadriaanandwedontcaregetouttaher e!"

Black groaned and fell back sitting on the ground. Sand, desert sand, pearly white.

"What do you want, Jack?" He stood up again.

Jack came out of nowhere, tearing through Black's body again.

"Youyouyouyouryouryourmemoriesmemoriesmemoriesarea rearemineminemine!"

Blackwind woke up, he was already sitting in his bed at his Jobe Harbour lowcost apartment, sweat dripped from his forelock.
"What the hell was that all about.." he mumbled to himself as he walked up to the mainrooms, rubbing his forehead.

"Adriaan.. Damn..." Black rubbed his sleep out of his eyes, took a left in the mainroom to the kitchen unit, pouring a cup of coffee from the insta-coffee machine.

Out of nowhere there was a sick laughter of children, more or less distorted, and it was sinister..
Black looked around as he sipped the warm cup, instantly choking and coughing from the content. He looked in the cup and threw it on the floor and it went crashing. The cup was filled with small, living, stuffed teddies. It was them laughing.
As the cup hit the ground and got crushed, a huge teddy slowly grew from the contents, filling up most of the mainroom of Black's apartment.

"What the hell's going on?!" he shouted at it, running down to his bedroom.
In his bed stood Jack. Black gasped and tried to stop his running, but got drawn to the floating pumpkindhead.

"MINE!" the pumpkin cried and sweeped his scythe at Black, a clean cut dividing his head from his body.

[Missice]

i said it before...

That voice really freaks me out!

shivers with goosebumps all over

[AdriaanBlackwind]

Black sat up, gasping for air as he held his hands around his neck. Catching his breath again he looked around. He was still in bed, but he wasn't too sure if he was awake just yet.

Jumping up rushingly, pulling on his armor and holstering his pistols, he runs outside, past the bench outside his apartment, down the ramp, past the luxury apartments and to the Jobe platform. From there, going through the door to Borealis.
The grid wasn't far away. The skies of Rubi-Ka was black and gloomy. The grid gave out its recognizing sound as Black materialized into the grid, instantly coming out again at Meetmedere.

"You want a piece of me Jack... Now where are you.." Black whispers into the wind of the desert and starts his slow and soundless steps into the heat.

His pistols were at the ready, caressing the handles, knowing Jack could jump out of anywhere. There wasn't a slightest hint of the suns. Walking in the desert, Black couldn't see much more than a few feet ahead. Though, there was no wind, no storm, just a darkness, a veil of fog - without the fog.


"Adriaan..." The whisper came from nowhere. Black stopped instantly halfway into a step, didn't move, just listened. Silence. Disturbing silence. Black carefully planted his foot down in the sand. It was like stepping on broken glass - with the sound a hundred times amplified.

"ADRIAAN!!!" Black grit his teeth together and stood still, his heart racing and his eardrums pulsing from the scream and the sound of the sand beneath his feet.

"Where do you think you're going Adriaan?!!" He felt something grab the back of his neck, it stung him and his bare flesh felt as if it would rip off as he was tossed back. The sand shattered as he landed. He screamed, but that didn't help. His ears felt like they would burst. Every slight, single, innocent sound was all too loud.
He clenched his hands at his ears and curled up like a baby, shutting his eyes, trying not to breathe too loud.

"Trying to run away?! You little freak!" A pain in his stomach, physical pain from a kick. He gasped and opened his eyes - Nothing there.
"Go to your ****ing room and stay there!" Something grabbed at his upper arm, it burned, as if a fist of lava held him. It was dragging him across the sand. He couldn't help but to scream from the pain.

The veil appeared to lighten. There was something... He couldn't quite comprehend what it was. Something tingling at the back of his head, wanting to break out. He fought it. Taking everything so far into account, it couldn't be anything good. But it kept pushing, insisting, breaking, tingling, caressing.

He laid still, silently on his back in the sand. He felt beaten. Unable to move. Just laying there, wanting the pain to stop, wanting to run away, wanting to die..

[Missice]

{omg! OMG!! Encore!!!!!
Who is it? His mother? A cruel adult from childhood?
Keep going Cham, this story is great!}

[Khayyin]

(god damn nice work! couldnt stop reading hehe)

[AdriaanBlackwind]

It was his favorite place in the whole wide world, he was safe there.
Nobody could hurt him.
Nobody could reach him.
There was only his thoughts.
His faint breathing.
The wind outside.
The stars.
His favorite moon, the small purple one.
He held his warm blanket so tight, wrapped into it, feeling it around his back, immobilizing himself, like being back in the womb, like a close hug from someone he didn't know.
It had to be from someone he didn't know. Everyone he knew...

There were steps. Those terrible steps. He knew those steps. Strict and angry steps. He held his blanket tighter. Wishing those steps didn't come through his door, but he knew they would. They always did. Pain was coming, screams and shouts. He laid so silent he could, holding his breath, maybe the steps wouldn't find him.

The steps found his door, the door reacted, opened.
"GET THE **** OUT OF BED!"
He gasped, there were only a few steps to his bed, he felt the stinging hand at his neck as he was violently pulled out of bed, blanket and all. The nails of the hand dug into his neck, he was a feather, thrown through the door like stone.

Black forced his eyes to blink. Pumpkin breath. Jack was too close, Black couldn't focus. Jack laughed his sinister self.
"HeeheeheeheheheeheeheeeHeHEEHEeheeheEHEeeheHEHEEE HEHEHEEHEEHEE!!"
Black was lifted again, Jack held him high and threw him across the desert. He hit a wall and fell to his stomach.

They were teasing him, just like everyday. Cruel words from big kids, across the road from the window.
"Pumpkin man! Pumpkin man! Pumpkin man!"
The man just walked up the pathway to the door.
He stood there, as he always did, when he could, and greeted him home.
The man opened the door and came in.
"Good day, father, how was your day?"
"Hello son." The man hanged his jacket away. "Is your mother home?"
"No father." He stood at attention, looking up at the man.
Then he saw it, the man smiled. He saw them again. Those steel teeth.

Black raised his head, Jack came flying. Black flung up in the air as Jack flew over him at high speed, high up in the air, time stood still. Air never hurt much, the soft touch of it felt healing. He closed his eyes.

He held it so close.
A tear fell to it.
He was tired.
There was going to be no more.
He couldn't take that no more.
He had it all arranged.
He felt the cold nozzle to his jaw.
There were no fear.
Things would be good once it was done.
He smiled, of all things.
He closed his eyes.
His short, thin fingers all wrapped around the handle and trigger.
Steps.
Those steps again.
He opened his eyes wide.
The door flung open.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
The steps stopped.
He sat still.

Black opened his eyes, he was still in the soft embrace of the air. He began to fall. He could cast a nano and fly away. Feathers. No. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He let it come.
Thump.

"Adriaan... Wh..What have you done... Ad.. ADRIAAN!"
He grit his teeth, still sitting still, staring, pointing the nozzle forward.
Click.
Click.
Click.
There were no more. He was paralyzed in the motion.
She fell on the floor before him. The one who gave him life. All those few years ago.
He stopped his fingers, he willed them to stop. He still held that big, blue gun in his hand. It was heavy. Planting his feet down on the floor, he looked down at her. He knelt down for her.
She was finally silent.
There was no more screaming.
No more nails.
No more shouting.
She was no more.
He caressed her hair.
He finally could.
He laid the big, blue gun down.
He slipped next to her. Her arm around him, he laid close. His forehead touched hers. He felt at peace with it. She was still warm. Her deep red blood warmed his skin when he held around her. His pain was over. The hug put an end to it. Peaceful.

Black got slowly up to his feet. Wobbled slightly. The skin at the back of his head was sizzling with heat. He didn't care. He looked before him. Jack was there. Holding his scythe, hovering before Black. His eternal grin on his orange head, but there is more to people than just a grin. His grin was final.
Slowly, Jack flew to Black. He pulled something out of his robe and handed it to him. Black took it.
It was one of those.
The teddies.
It could only really mean one thing.
Black looked at Jack.
His grin wasn't eternal after all. His scythe hanged low. Black knew him now.

"Remember the path behind you. What lies behind you shows how you found the morning of the next day. Yesterday is why you're here today. Blackwind, son, a dark past may be behind you, those are things you can't have undone. But you are here today, and there is no darkness around you, anymore. Be proud of yourself, son. I am."

With that, Jack floated away, slowly fading into the darkness of the fog. With it, the fog faded, the sky was blue again, the sun shone.
Black looked at the teddybear. Old, rugged, its button-eyes popping out.
Childhood memory.

He whispered into the wind.
"My name.. My name is Adriaan."