Hybrid: The Awakening

Chapter 14-Asher

Date on Earth: Friday, October 6th

Something pulled my arms as we moved through the forest. Everything blurred into a green mess.

I felt myself start to hyperventilate. Ginormous shadows grew out of the ground. Pulling on me in every direction. Digging into my skin. Turning my insides cold as they wrapped around me.

I fell to my knees, covering my head with my arms.

"It's not real," I repeated to myself. "It's not real."

A distant voice spoke to me. "Hold on there bud," it said. "Let's get somewhere safe first." I was lifted up as my eyelids started to droop. Continuing the chant, I tried to focus on what had just happened to keep my mind off of the snake-like shadows.

If the whole escapade hadn't been a hallucination, then we'd barely managed to escape the ship before the ramp had closed. I had fallen face-first onto the grass as another wave of nausea came crashing on top of me.

Then, we got bombarded by purple blasts from two huge guns on each side of the spaceship. I tried crawling away, keeping low so I didn't get hit.

After that, everything was pretty much a blur. All I could remember was somebody taking my arm and a voice constantly reassuring me, telling me everything will be okay.

I could also recall a bunch of monkeys carrying daggers and pistols while charging at us. Although that was most likely a hallucination.

Hopefully.

I felt us coming to a stop and attempted to open my eyes. But when I opened them, all I was met with was trees.

"Tristen?" I called shakily. "Diana? Tesha? Where did you guys go?"

"We're right here, Asher." A cold hand was placed on my thigh. Catching a glimpse of the hand in the corner of my eye, I immediately recoiled.

The skin was scaly and green, with long sharp claws. It dug its nails into my leg and I screamed. I followed the arm up to its face. The creature barely had a face, the smallest eyes peeking out from behind its hard scales.

"Asher, it's me," the voice said as I backed away slowly, hands in front of me protectively.

It's just a hallucination, I told myself. It's just a hallucination.

But I had already lost all sense of reality.

"D-don't come any closer!" I yelled, feeling for my stick.

"Asher," it said forcefully. Behind it, more of the dark shadows formed, slithering like snakes on the ground.

"Please," I begged. "Please don't hurt me." The shadowy snakes crawled up my legs, turning everything it touched into ice. I curled up into a ball, wrapping my arms around myself.

I was cold. So cold.

Ice crystals formed on my eyelashes. My fingers and toes went numb, turning black. The shadows grew, shifting and covering every part of my body until I couldn't see a thing. Couldn't feel a thing.

Did I even exist?

Soft sobs were the only thing I could hear, echoing in the never-ending abyss of darkness. It was just me. All alone. With nothing but my own dark mind.

Hopelessness drowned me, sucking out every bit of life.

Air. I need air.

I tried taking deep breaths, but nothing entered my lungs. Just darkness. Pure, empty darkness.