Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 1: Awakening

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My mind struggled to function as I slowly awoke. I felt abnormally sluggish this morning, for whatever reason. I racked my brain for a reason why. Was I drinking last night? I felt like I did whenever I was hungover: lethargic to the extreme.

I cracked open my eyes at last, finally willing to brave the morning. I expected to see my bedroom, pristine and well-kept as always. I expected to see a computer across the room, a bookshelf by its side filled with as many books as I could feasibly shove into it.

But that wasn't what I saw. Instead, the bloody and ripped corpse of several somethings lay strewn about my feet. They looked like no animal I had ever seen: a horrendous cross between a rat and some sort of scaled lizard.

I stumbled back on all fours, scrabbling for purchase as I tried to get the hell away. The beady eyes of the bodies seem to track me as I floundered piteously backward.

"What the hell, what the hell, what the hell!" I yelled, my voice abnormally scratchy. I whipped my head from side to side, hyperventilating in this new situation. I reached a hand to my chest instinctively, trying to calm my breathing and get myself under control.

My hand came back sticky with red blood. A hand that was too small; too young to be my own. Looking down, the realization scared me into a strange sense of giddiness. Blood pooled at my feet, far too much for me to have lost and still be alive.

I blinked. Oh, I realized with relief. I'm dreaming.

I chuckled a bit crookedly at my hand, the situation overwhelming me. I got to my feet, turning about. I rarely ever lucid dreamed, but when I did I felt in control in a way that was impossible in real life.

I scanned my surroundings with an exhausted sweep of my head. I was in a tall forest of some sort. The leaves were mish-mashes of oranges and reds, clearly in the middle of autumn. They stretched far into the sky, masking the sun somewhat from the forest floor. It wasn't quite like a rainforest, but semi-close, I supposed. I was in a clearing of foliage, with only the dead bodies of the rat-lizards to keep me company.

But this doesn't feel like a dream, I thought to myself, beginning to hyperventilate again. The modicum of calm I had managed after waking up was quickly being swept away by a tide of uncertainty. This felt very, very real for a dream. Too real. The scents in the air: fresh soil mixed with the coppery tinge of fresh blood, told of the recent dead. The ambient noise of a forest echoed around me. Crickets, birdcalls, and more whispered the truth of my situation to my ears.

My thoughts were stopped dead in their tracks, however, as the world darkened around me. Deep fog-like mists swirled across the ground, and the world seemed to shrink. My senses felt... muted, for lack of a better term. Dampened by the rushing of something. I grasped for sense, something to keep me anchored as I fought back another panic attack.

Maybe I was high? But I'd never done anything like LSD. I'd heard stories, of course: and this seemed like something only a man on acid would experience. The colors shifting and swapping, the mind showing you things that weren't there. But did LSD show you things that didn't exist? I didn't think so. But I could be wrong. But what would I be high on if not that? I didn't know-

"So you are the one chosen for my Vessel?" a voice asked behind me.

I spun, nearly tripping as I came face-to-face with the speaker. She looked nothing like anything I knew, either, as foreign as the rat-lizards. She was slightly translucent, like some sort of ghost. Her skin was a dark, smokey purple. Hair the color of flame stretched from her head to her midback like feathers, accentuated by a bright orange dress that seemed to float across her form. Her clothes were embroidered with a violet lining that mimicked fire. An outline of pinkish-orange light backlit her like a rising sun, creating a blazing contrast to the darkness around her.