Twenty-Sixth Post.

A girl was screaming in the blackness this time, I woke up from my dazed state and stared into the emptiness surrounding me. The pitch intensified and I ran, no pain was here, leg not injured, spine, shoulder, it did not exist here and I really didn't care to know why. I just ran towards the voice who began screaming incoherent words before becoming muffled. A whirring came to life followed by a small humming, the muffled voice shrieked a few times before the screaming began again. I kept moving until I hit into something solid, and then all the lights just turned on. Whiteness engulfed my vision and I found myself standing in a bright hallway, far too white to be real. The tile beneath my feet was uncomfortably cold, the ceiling stained in some spots. Hard to focus when the screaming was going on, I looked to what I ran into and found it was a door, a thin window ran vertically down it.

It was strange, I couldn't see through it all too well, had to stand on my tip toes to see through the window fully. Within the room was a tilted back chair, a young girl strapped down with a mouth piece keeping her muffled. Her brunette hair pulled back, eyes wide and wildly looking between the people in white. I recognized what was occurring here from previous studies, Electroconvulsive therapy. I yanked at the handle of the door but it wouldn't budge, I could hear them starting for another round. The girl's screaming began again and it only served to raise my adrenaline. Fucks sake, I couldn't stop shaking.

"What are you doing out of your room?"

A voice came from the right, I looked up to see a tall man, face covered by a white surgeon's mask. I was frozen against my better judgment, my feet wouldn't move and my skin tingled with a fear I could even describe. His head tilted while awaiting a response but nothing came forth. All I could hear was my breathing which only grew louder as his hand reached down and grasped ahold of the fabric I wore. The moment he began dragging me away from the door was the moment I left first person and entered observer mode, watching as my childhood self was pulled further and further down the bright hallway.

"What you're feeling now is just going to get worse."

I looked to my left at the Caged One, she looked younger than how she usually appeared. Her hair was lighter, the dirty blonde mine used to be in the past years before it darkened, her eyes were a blue-grey, a color that mimicked fathers when they shifted through the color cycle. Her lips curved up into a secretive smile as she walked right by me and headed down the hall, following the dream child.

"It's only just beginning."

"What is just beginning, exactly?"

"Your life."

I looked at the door where the unknown girl was, through the window I saw an empty room. The building had fallen into silence, shutting down bit by bit. The Caged One's figure slowly began fading into the brightness; the white gown she wore began merging into the whiteness, becoming one with it.

"You really should wake up."

I watched as she gave a careless two-finger wave before the blackness crushed the dream, or memory, or whatever this was. Standing in the hollowness I felt no peace. I collapsed, sitting with my knees propped up to my chest, fuck sleep... It would seem this was not going to be a restless waste of time.

----

And then morning came hours later, and I was right. Exhausted and not rested in the least, I fell into silence most of the day. Healing up fine, Mystery's remedies for the bruises and scrapes Tzamain gave me helped a lot. My leg is healing, slowly but hell; I'm not going to complain as long as I can still use the damn thing.

Decided it was high time Mr. Sunshine got a bath, too. I headed out to get some stuff we could use at the house and passed through the ward Mystery had put up. Immediately beginning on my usual path I was just barely out of sight of the house when I came across something most unflattering. Directly in the center of my usual walking path was a stick standing vertically, and upon that stick was a decaying head. Let me clarify... This head was from the missing body of my doppelganger. To put it simply when Mystery and I hid the body to deal with securing the unconscious Mr. Sunshine it went missing, I mean, we assumed it was an animal since there are some hungry bastards (and the Jersey Devil). When no news came up it was a relief to know a person didn't find and take it, so we were left to assume it was a hungry critter.

This was unexpected and disgusting. Her decaying face, well, my decaying face stuck on a branch. Looked like something out of a bad movie. So... I did what any half-sane person would do; I walked up, pulled out the stick, and headed back to the mansion with it. I stepped inside the ward and called Mystery out only, really not wanting Trinity to have to see this. Mystery was none too pleased; we looked at the decayed head and could see that shoved within the mouth was a folded piece of paper. I felt myself scowl as I tugged out the paper, laying the stick and head on the ground. Unfolding the paper I read over what was said, I'll write it out here for you guys.

Th3 1u<k\| 0n3s DI3 Fir7t

If you guys haven't guessed yea, it's no doubt Prosper. Looking over his blog it pretty much just clicks. I shoved the note into my pocket and decided to dig a hole within the ward to bury the head. Nothing would get it now, it could just fade and cease to exist.

So... Eventful sleep, eventful day, I got the supplies for bathing Sunshine. Going to see how that goes tomorrow. Need to think about the dream part, take some time to process it later.

Stay safe.

-Shady