Order & Out
Gasping for breath, the searing pain of the light above made my head spin. Cursing aloud a loud banging reaches my ears, my door slamming open, and Nico fell into the room grasping either side of my body and pulling me into a tight hug.
"Your back! Thank the horror's your back!" He exclaimed confusing the living hell out of me as he pulled away.
"What do you mean? Yeah, I'm back... why wouldn't I be?"
"Earl..." Nico shakes his head moving to sit on my bed. "Earl, you have been gone for three days..."
"Wait you mean gone, gone?" I question, panic slowly setting in as Nico nods. "That, that can't happen... I--"
Falling back the world dips away, Nico's muffled shouts disappearing into the void.
~~~
'Sweet love... wake up. WAKE UP.'
Shooting upright the world around me laid bare, dark, a void in fluid motion. Looking around my heart raced in my ears, the ache against my chest a familiar presence.
'Love you need to calm down...'
"Arius? Arius, what is going on? What--" Cold fingers lay against my lips quieting my words.
'Love... you must be more careful.'
"Why what's going on? Do you--" A low growl cuts me off and the bones rattle against the void.
'It is not I...' The rattling of bones quietly dies down and the skeletal hand cups the side of my face. 'Something new, something hungry.'
A light tap to his lips a low roar rips within the void. The skeletal hand pulls away a low curse drops out of Arius voice.
'Listen close, listen clear, this creature it is not of our kind. Human made, it hungers to destroy, you must find someway to stop it before the horrors of this world become nothing more then a fairytale upon dusty pages...'
Another roar, closer, distorted draws nearer. Another tap against my forehead and some distorted words and my body is flung back and with it the world once more.
~~~
Opening my eyes, the prickle of tears rolls down my cheeks as I sit up and wipe them away.
"Are you alright?"
Jumping back my head whips in the voice's direction. "Holy shit?!"
"Sorry, Sorry!" Mariam exclaims, raising her hands in surrender.
"Mariam..."
"Yeah honey?" Mariam sits on the bed, confusion dancing across her face.
"What happened? Where's Nico?"
"You blacked out. Nico came down the stairs in a pure panic and wanted me to make sure you were alive." She explains lifting her hand to check my forehead. "And then your boss called and well, Nico went to go tell him what you both found."
"I-- I must tell them what Arius told me. I got to."
"You ain't going nowhere not until you get some rest and that look in your eyes fade." Confusion hits my face as Mariam gets up off the bed and with a wave of her hand my head feels like a weight has made itself known and before I knew it, I was back out.
I am getting too tired of this...
~~~~
Nico Fairchild
"This can not be happening..." Storming from Briarwoods home and back to the Institute my heart is racing. My name is Nico Fairchild, I am the Head Archivist of the Leviathan Institute and I think the world is about to end.
Swiftly rushing towards the library my hand is already digging into my satchel, fingers running over the papers as my other hand throws the library doors open.
"Hello Nico."
"I'm sorry Jeremiah have no time to talk." I spoke quickly, pulling the hidden book and making my way into the Institute. "ELLIOT! ELLIOT!!" I shouted, rushing up the stairs and into the meeting room. Finding Elliot unmoved, eyes closed with his head back.
Elliot finally looks over exhaustion on his face as he moves to sit up.
"I've heard... Your Fiancé explained before going."
"Issia was here?" I breath out, falling into the chair and running my hands over my face, pushing my glasses up. "This is getting ridiculous."
"Understatement of my day."