Neon Red [Order The eBook] [Zayn]

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(DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. It's important to remember this is all totally fabricated, embellished, and exaggerated for entertainment purposes.)

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There stands a door that I was yet to consider

But the locks are all melting and the colors are convincing me

Words on the gate reading I'll make this all go away

Just walk through me to the silence

Roland Faunte| Levers

A small weight landed at the center of my chest. My eyeballs rolled around behind my lids. There was only a fleshy red veil, backlit by the sun. Sharp grit beneath because all the moisture had receded into my skull. I couldn't tear up if I wanted to. My was body devouring every drop of moisture there was to spare, leaving my tongue and nostrils equally as dry. These hills were bone-chilling. An alienating sort of cold, the effects of which were as mental as they were physical. Almost like I'd wandered out into the furthest reaches of our solar system, lost among the frozen and godless planets there. Like I'd been blown out of an airlock without a spacesuit, doomed to drift alone into the perpetual nothingness that awaited.

I lifted my head incrementally until I could see what had landed on my chest. A massive crow watched me in return; its black, saber-like beak glinting in the light, prepared to rip into my flesh. Two ebon eyes darkly revealing my fate. All I saw in that tiny reflection was a cadaver eaten away by the elements and left undiscovered for years. With a disgusted cry, I sat up and shoved the bird away, frantically wiping my arms and chest free of any undetectable residue. Only then did it dawn on me that even the local wildlife thought I was deceased.

What was happening, exactly? Where was I? What had I been doing? Did anyone know I was here? Instinctively, I reached for my phone, unsure of who I might've called, but was reminded with a brain-cleaving jolt of reality that I'd left it behind. Then I remembered I'd been away with Harry at a remote oasis in the mountains, which might prove to be a fatal trip if I didn't find my way back to him. There was no way he'd run across me out here. I had wandered into the middle of nowhere, even taking a few turns off the main road. 

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! It was getting dark too. My teeth wouldn't stop chattering. The constant, uncontrollable tremors felt like a seizure. Clambering up onto my hands and knees, I steadied myself and prayed for strength to rise. I just needed to make it back to the main road, and maybe by morning I could hitch a ride out of here. I told Allah that if I had ever meant anything to him at all, he wouldn't forsake me here. That he would give me the energy I needed to pull myself up by the bootstrings and get on with it.

Stepping out on faith, I planted one sole firmly to the ground, then hoisted myself up with a loud grunt. Almost there. I let the momentum swing me forward, stumbling my way back towards the road. Now I realized my grandad hadn't manifested to steal my soul, but to encourage me to press on. It wasn't my time yet, and I'd be damned if I let anyone or anything convince me of the contrary. As I staggered back towards what I took to be familiar territory, something about my body still wasn't right. My equilibrium was shot to hell. I had no idea which way I was moving. I felt top heavy as fuck; head and shoulders insisting on outrunning my feet. Everything else in between, the arms and legs in particular, were totally unruly. I stumbled on a few more pitiful yards, finally making it back onto the main road before my legs gave and I teetered unbendingly, like a falling tree. My system was so depleted I couldn't reach out to break my fall. My skull knocked against the earth, setting off a storm of shimmering white flashes.