(17.1) Illusions of the Past

Fremont's eyes shine with black and white swirls, spinning ever faster and appear to grow larger with every rotation.

Aki's mind burns. The world feels like it gets further and further away. A vignette of darkness quickly encompasses her vision.

Flashing reds, blues, and greens trail from what remains of her vision.

Ghostly images threaten to form all around her. However, just as they begin to take shape, they shatter into brilliant glassy fragments.

Yet at the same time, a series of colours and numbers scatter as well in contrast to the fantastical walls.

"Glass? Digital data?" Pain arcs through behind her eyes.

Burning sensations tear at her head.

More images attempt to form and meet the same destructive end.

An indiscernible voice speaks but the words are too garbled to properly understand.

No, not garbled. The language is sometimes understandable and other times unintelligible. As if Aki is gaining and losing the ability to understand this particular language.

She grits her teeth, the pain is beyond incredible, especially when she attempts to look away.

Aki then tries to close her eyes or ignore the sights before her entirely but every attempt leaves her facing another foggy vision too blurry to discern or outright incapable of shutting away her vision.

The smell of incense and leather fills her nose. Aki staggers, her hand smacking into cardboard boxes. Paper rustles and boots clatter to the floor.

"I just finished stocking those!" Speaks a garbled voice. "Or are you retaliating just 'cause you aren't happy I didn't do it earlier, manager."

Sarcasm drips heavily from the speaker's voice. Turning to look at the one talking to her, Aki finds a person so blurred, their features are too indistinguishable to even call human.

A red shirt? Or is it a jacket? Slacks and boots, perhaps? A name tag attached to a… a lanyard?

What's more, she has no idea where she is. Perhaps a store? Colours splash together as the features of the environment crack like glass and reshape themselves at even intervals.

Pain grips her head as Aki tries to make sense of her environment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to knock it down." Aki hears herself speak. Her voice sounds different but unmistakably hers all the same. "I'll pick them up but an accident doesn't give you an excuse to lash out like that."

Her body moves on its own to pick up the fallen merchandise with practised efficiency

 "You were an hour late to your shift and were even dodging your tasks earlier. I'm trying to help you keep your job but I'm not your mom. You have to be responsible for yourself at least that much or else you'll get fired."

"Oh yeah? You think so?" The woman scoffs. "That's abuse of power, threatening to fire me like that."

Aki sighs, and turns to look at her employee again. "I'm not threatening you. I know you're struggling but I can't protect you if you keep trying to take advantage of me and the other employees. I just want to help."

The woman huffs, her voice garbling even more as she yells and makes a move. "Don't patronise me kid, I'm older than you! Just because you're the manager for some goddamn reason doesn't mean I should take this kind of disrespect!"

"Stop with the yelling!" Aki shouts back unintentionally.

Glass shatters and colours explode outward.

"Woah, chill, dude." Someone laughs. They pat her shoulder in a friendly way as they speak. "I'm sorry, maybe I went too far, huh?"

Aki is no longer in that store but sitting on a flattened stone overlooking a deep, forested valley. Glassy veins intersect her vision, somehow converging to make a lovely sunset full of vibrant oranges and deep, forested greens.

Next to her, the person with the husky voice clears their throat and waves out at the view.

"Well? Regret hiking now?"

Aki rolls her eyes and grabs her belly. "Exercise junkie. Unlike you, I haven't worked out since high school and you decided to take me hiking like this?"

"Hey, you're the one that wanted a break from work and get outdoors for a bit." The person pulls up their scarf to stave off the wind and adjusts their coat.

They lean back and lock eyes with Aki, a mischievous look in their eye. Though she can't see it, Aki just knows her friend is giving her a shit-eating grin.

"I meant like, a walk in the park, not camping and hiking!" She tries to wave her arms around but is too exhausted to really move so she settles for sighing in annoyance. "Also, when you said you'd fly me out to you, I thought of a different state, not a whole other country!"

"Technically three countries since we did all this hiking."

"Oooooh!!" Aki claws the air in frustration, causing her friend to laugh even more.

Colours shift and vibrate. The glassy fractures in the environment split and break apart as Aki reclines onto her back.

"I swear, I thought I was gonna die half the time." Aki closes her eyes.

Glass shattering echoes all around and the feeling of a bottle fills her hand.

A salty taste touches her lips and an iron taste lingers on her tongue. Tears stained her cheeks after crying for so long.

She's holding a broken bottle of alcohol. The glass she was going to pour it in lays on its side after having rolled against a small rectangular device.

Cellphone.

Pain arcs once more and the ever-growing fractured glass spiderwebs even more.

On the screen of the phone is an email and a pop-up notification of a message above that.

___

{Babe: I can't keep arguing with u. Everythings my fault to u but never…}

{Evening,

We regret to inform you due to several complaints from anonymous employees and a decline in work standard, we will be letting you go.

You have our best wishes in your future endeavours, ⬛⬛.

Sincerely,}

___

A tear falls on the screen, obscuring the last part of the mail.

"But you're the one that was cheating…" She whips the bottle around and throws it at the wall with all her might.

The sound of the glass breaking melds with the sound of even more breaks. Colour explodes again and splashes all around her.

Her head spins even more, combining dizziness and pain as more images threaten to form. For a moment, she sees and smells the stench of the changeling and the blaze of the burning marketplace.

Aki struggles and bites her tongue as a final ditch effort.

She screams in pain. In anger. In frustration. 

"OI! Quiet down in there!" Shouts a gruff, tired voice.