Chapter 70: Red Sun

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She drifted through the haze in her mind, this darkness didn't terrify her. She felt safe, at peace, in these moments she could pretend everything was okay.

But...

There were times when the haze didn't shield her. Sometimes, she would become lucid, and the haze would show her things in those rare moments. This was one of those times.

Her eyes slowly opened to the sea of dark gray fog, its warmth comforting her despite the fear she felt deep inside at what she might see.

The haze shifted, taking on shapes around her. It was strange, normally it parted and she saw things through a window... As she continued to watch the swirling haze, the scene resolved itself into the shape of a flat platform area.

A vague outline of two people could be seen on opposite ends of this platform and every few seconds the outlines would suddenly shift to new positions as if the figures were moving and interacting. Then for the first time ever, the sound came from the haze, and she was shocked. Never before had the haze produced sound. Yet... it wasn't coming in clearly, she could only hear bits and pieces. Random words or sounds faded in and out as she watched the scene play out, curious what it was she was seeing.

The sound of steel meeting steel rang across the haze.

A grunt.

"It would ..... that I was the one .... in the ..."

A cry of alarm.

The sound of something slamming and a car alarm blared out.

The hazy scene ended there, collapsing in on itself, but before she could think about what she had seen, it reformed into a different scene.

It was similar to the one before but instead of a square platform, it was a long flat rectangle. It looked like a street, the surroundings clearer than the figures present in it. The figures were so hazy, indistinct, stretched, and close together that she couldn't tell if she was looking at one or six people.

" ..... with me! Don't leave..... I ... live ... you...."

Once more it collapsed and reformed, and this time she felt a tingling all over her body, and she was speaking. But... she wasn't speaking, the haze was, but she heard her own voice. The new scene showed a moderately sized room, with several people on one side, while a lone figure stood in front of hazy doors.

"Of course I love her... She has done so much for me, but I owe HIM a debt that I can never repay. This was not an easy choice, but he bid me stop you all. I won't kill any of you, but neither will I let you past me... I'm sorry..."

The scene faded once more and it dissolved into an odd configuration, the scene was very blurry but she could make out jagged points within the scene. Then from the center of the scene where a small flat area was located, a figure materialized, its fist raised high.

"You goddamn fool..."

The words were soft and she felt her heart hurt when she heard them. They echoed across the hazy expanse until they faded away...

Then that scene collapsed and she felt the haze calm, her lucidity faded and she welcomed the warm embrace once more. Her dreams were strange, this one especially.


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Okimi went to her office door and hesitated. She looked down at herself but decided she looked disheveled enough as is and opened the door slowly. She poked her head into the room and saw Eri sleeping on her cot, curled into a ball and wrapped in a thin blanket.

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