Chapter 7 - Sylvia Peppingar

Darkness, deep heavy darkness. Horatio found himself afloat in a dark void. Pain, anguish, anger, regret. Floating alongside him were disembodied emotions. He felt them cry out. 

"Go away!" Horatio lashed out at them, sending them scurrying into the darkness. The darkness took them in, harbouring them when Horatio wouldn't. 

Horatio watched them vanish, tensing at their very presence. Once they left, he allowed himself to relax. He was now alone, him alone in the void. He could feel signs he was still alive, but nothing else, his body was still intact, his heart was beating, but he was away.

Horatio floated until he felt a surface beneath him. He landed. Immediately he noticed another presence above him.

"Hmph." He started towards it.

In the void all Horatio's senses were interlinked. Touch joined with smell and so much more in a thin web. He heard voices call out to him. He ignored them, moving towards the now visible light of another existence.

Margulis' voice whispered to him. It used a calm forgiving tone, coaxing him to stop and rest. Nora called out, asking for him to come and find her. He ignored them, he had to get to the light. 

Horatio stopped, listening closely to the voices. He felt the longing in them. He knew their owners genuinely cared from him. He knew they appreciated him, even though he usually left them in the dark. 

Horatio shook his head, he had done what was necessary. He couldn't do anymore now but that didn't matter, they were better off without him anyway.

The light was closer now, coming from a woman who was walking through a strange building, strong signs of void energy came from it. 

Horatio came closer, noting the way the building seemed to shift periodically, changing its shape and size such that the previous versions of it could not be distinguished in its current form.

"Hello?" Horatio called out. He looked about him, tiny critters skittered about the void landscape. Further inspection revealed that the void plane was a biased mirror of the real world, with real locations bent in strange formations.

Horatio looked back, the woman was now peering through a window at him. The entire part of the building she was in was had turned such that the window faced the ground. Horatio walked beneath it and looked up at the woman.

The woman smiled at him, her jewel-red eyes flashing endearingly. Her white hair made her look like a ghost, or a rabbit. Horatio smirked.

"Horatio?" She spoke, her voice sounded familiar, just like her face.

"You know my name?" He asked

"Of course I do, you don't remember me?" The woman looked dismayed.

Horatio ran his hand through his hair. He felt like he should know the woman before him but he couldn't even remember her name.

"I'm sorry, you sound quite familiar but I don't quite recognise you. Who are you?" Horatio asked kindly, smiling apologetically.

"Me? Don't worry about that, I'm a nobody." She replied.

Horatio frowned, "Well I still want to know your name, I can't be calling you Miss Nobody can I?" He said jokingly.

The woman laughed. "I guess that's true. My name is Sylvia." She looked about the room she was in. "Hold on, I'll come to you" She called.

"No don't," Horatio replied, looking about the voidscape "I won't be able to protect you." He clenched his fist, "I'm worthless."

Sylvia looked back at Horatio, her eyebrows laced as she gave him a confused stare "What do you need to protect me from?" she asked, "There's nothing that can hurt me, I'm not weak." She came through the building's front door. "And don't say you're worthless, you're my adorable little brother, at least that's worth something." She hugged Horatio.

"Little brother? We're related?" 

"Huh? No, but you're the second person in this place so that makes me your senior." Sylvia said sternly.

"O-okay." Horatio agreed halfheartedly. He felt strangely relieved as she held him, as though his sorrows were washing away under her warmth.

"But I want to be more than that, I need to be strong enough to save you," Horatio wailed, "I want to be a hero to keep you safe." He felt her withdraw from their embrace. She hovered pondering over his words.

"I don't get why you're trying to save me, I'm not hurt, am I? You're being strange." Sylvia said. Sylvia shook her head slowly. "But you can't be a hero though, not here. That would be impossible."

"Impossible? Why?" Horatio asked.

Sylvia laughed a mirthless, hollow laugh, she shifted her hair exposing her chest which had a gaping hole slightly to the left, where her heart would be. "You can't save those you've damned," she said, her voice broken, as though she wasn't really talking.

Horatio jumped back, his eyes locked on the wound. He didn't understand, how could he have done this to her, when he didn't even know who she was? He wanted to speak, to deny the accusation, but he couldn't. He knew, somewhere deep inside, that she was right, he had done that to her, damned her to this existence, painfully aware of her own brokenness but unable to do a thing about it.

"Sylvia," Horatio's mouth felt dry, his throat hoarse. "Sylvia no." Horatio fell back, passing through the ground as if it weren't even there. The voidscape moved away as he fell, until he couldn't see it anymore.

Horatio awoke with a start. He could feel Margulis Toldaap nearby. He turned to see her asleep in a chair at his bedside. Behind her was a door labelled 'Medical Bay 4'

Horatio looked back at Margulis and cursed. "Damn you fate, don't give me something if you're going to take it away later." He spoke silently. "I'm sorry Margulis." He sighed and closed his eyes.