ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 66: Visions

Chapter 66

Visions

Thursday

Time Until Integration: 1 Month, 29 Days…

Sweat poured down Luke’s head as he found his body tossing and turning all night. His mental attributes were low, very low compared to what he needed to do. That was part of why only now in his dreams could he truly begin to see the visions that were laying out before him.

His mind was a jumbled mess of nonsensical warning messages and locations. The first vision that he remembered seeing was work room related sign. It was one from the factory that his parents would take him to as a kid. There on the wall was a sign that read Days Since Last DUI Accident: then there was a scrolling number. Only this time the message had changed.

Days Since Last Necromantic Encounter: 2.

Instantly he knew the message was about Alexa, and her visit to the hospital two days ago, but he couldn’t quite understand why he was seeing the message. Then the message changed again.

Days Until Next Necromantic Encounter: 4.

From there his visions got even weirder. First he thought he saw the Necromancer, a woman with sultry looks and caramel skin who walked with a hypnotic swagger that drew attention to her hips. Then when he looked up, he saw that her eyes had gone red and dark magic cascaded from her lips. He half expected his sister to be there, to be the target, but she wasn’t anywhere to be found. Suddenly he remembered that she was still gone, still in the dungeon. Fear welled up inside Luke, until he found his very soul being ripped apart by necromantic energies.

Panting.

He awoke in a cold sweat, only to find that he was alive.

Looking at his watch, he saw the message related to his sister.

Mr. Mackie (3:17): Alexa Thyme arrived safe and sound at 2:31 AM.

Seeing the message, Luke let out a long sigh of relief. She was safe. Logically he knew that was part of why he had been having such bad dreams.

Looking at the time, he saw that it was now just 4:47 AM. He thought about waking up, at calling it a day, as he knew he wouldn’t be able to get much quality sleep even with the hour or so he had remaining before it was time to get up and get ready for class. But he had been up late last night, there was the party, then the fight, then the constant questions. First the questions were by the TSI, then school officials, which was where Mr. Mackie swore, he would text him to let him know of Alexa’s status.

Realizing it was likely best if he try to go back to sleep, even for just an hour he closed his eyes and collapsed back into the cold wet sheets. Making a mental note to wash his bedding before tonight, he tried to go back to sleep if only for a moment.

He was out almost instantly.

Rather than being immersed in the realm of calming blackness. He was once again thrust into a realm of visions.

Now that he knew his sister was safe, he began to see her fighting for her life. She squared off against dragons, elves, and orcs. He watched as she caused devastating wave after devastating wave of attacks against the dragons. Making sure to cast spells that went wide and also took out orc and elven forces that threatened to assail her tiny fort in the woods.

Looking at the battle, Luke swore it looked so real, as if this had to be something to remember. A message to warn Alexa about, about a future battle where she would have to fight for her life. Not that she had much to worry about. At least not while the dragons still came. First the black dragon was cut down by ten large blades of magical energy. Next came the ice blue dragon who looked to be friendly to Alexa. Or at least the way it cut through the back ranks of the elves and orcs seemed to be helpful. Still Alexa slew the giant ice dragon as well.

Then his perspective switched.

He saw similar battles happening all over the world. Mentally he saw how every dungeon was hosting one such battle. In some the dragons overran the battlefield easily. In others dragons were not present at all, meaning the orcs and elves only had to face off against each other.

There was a lot to take in. Time and time again he saw how by the end of time either one army stood victorious, or in cases where the battle was too evenly matched, the portal to escape just closed. The portal closing seemed to be the exception, not the rule, as many times Luke saw one army exit the battlefield victorious.

Then as soon as the last army of orcs left the dungeon, Luke saw blaring alarms going off in different cities around the world. The monsters that had been released from the dungeons all seemed to declare war upon the world and began storming the world in force. War erupted, as supers and modern technology went off against monsters that long ago learned to control kinetic forces with their minds. It was a slaughter as elven warrior witches directed armies to storm capitals. Large brutish orcs stormed cities, shrugging off small arms fire like they were pebbles being thrown by a strong breeze. Then finally, most devastating of all were the dragons who burned and destroyed everything within sight to make nesting lairs. Panic filled the streets, as emergency broadcast systems that had not been tested in decades came to life and blared out warnings for people to evacuate.

AHHNGGKKK! AHHNGGKK! AHHHNGGKK!

Suddenly, Luke realized it was not an alarm from a city, but rather his own personal alarm clock going off. One letting him know that it was now time to get up and get ready.

Blearily Luke slowly rose to first a sitting position. A shiver escaped him, partly due to the cold sweat that still poured down his body, and partly due to the images that even now seemed to be burnt into his brain.

“Just a dream.” Luke muttered to himself.

“Hmm?” His roommate Frank muttered in his sleep. Looking over, Luke saw the boy, then relaxed as it was clear that his roommate was still sleeping.

This was of course Luke’s first alarm, which meant he had two more that would go off before he would need to run to get ready for school. Still, he didn’t want to risk another episode like the last one. The potential for thirty minutes of actual sleep while tempting, was not worth another one of those crazy dreams.

“Just shower and go to class.” Luke thought to himself as he decided to do just that.

A short time later he let out a sigh of relief as he had finally managed to melt away the mental layer of freezing ice that had permeated his body.

“Ah man, did you use all the hot water?” Frank asked as Luke left a steamy bathroom.

“Sorry.” Luke said, actually meaning it, as he looked and realized it had been a long but needed shower. Getting ready, he was just about ready to call last night one of the craziest dreams he ever had. Dreams that were so crazy that he didn’t even want to acknowledge them, for fear that they would come back another night to plague his sleep once again.

Of course, all that changed when he walked out and saw the students all staring forward at the center of campus. Looking forward, Luke saw that the school had put up large sculptures on the lawn overnight. While the campus hadn’t done anything for Halloween, it seemed that they had already put up a giant ice sculpture on the lawn.

The pragmatist in Luke wanted to argue, why does everyone insist on forgetting Thanksgiving.

Just as he made his way forward to ask someone that very question, his eyes went wide as he realized this wasn’t a lawn sculpture. The ice figure that resembled a large thirty-foot-long dragon frozen in ice, that wasn’t a sculpture. Worse, there were more figures that could be made out the closer he got.

Police line tape seemed to quarantine off the area that immediately surrounded the dungeon entrance, along with a good portion of the eastern campus.

Looking at the figures, he both knew and couldn’t help but look at the details on the ground.

Moving forward, Luke looked on in horror as his dream had come to life. Did I do this? He found himself wondering, as he looked on at the mess. It was a war, that much was for certain. The only thing that was missing was the little fort that Alexa had been using to hide herself in.

But the bodies of the slain enemies seemed to give a distinct outline of the fort that Luke had imagined in his mind. Even the way the dragons seemed to form a perimeter around the area where he knew Alexa had been standing seemed to be a testament to the scope of battle.

“What happened?”

“You didn’t see the news?”

“The news?”

“Yeah, Ariel Canter was doing a video wrap up of the assault that happened here last night, when she was talking about how that Alexa chick went missing. Then right as she was talking about it, boom a white light happened and boom there was Alexa and then these bodies just started appearing. The whole thing was super cool.”

“Oh Ariel Canter, she is so hot.”

“I know right.”

Two boys spoke to each other, but their words seemed to make no sense to Luke.

Pulling out his phone he began typing in the key words.

Ariel Canter Halloween News…

As soon as he got that far, a list of ten different threads and options came up. The first one was a video link that happened to show the time. Luke watched the video first on mute. The video was just as you would expect, a news reporter standing in front of police tape.

Then as soon as the clock in the bottom right corner changed to 2:31 AM, there was a flash of light, and then Alexa appeared covered in blood with multiple gashes in her leotard. Then Mr. Mackie just appeared, though given the fact that dead dragons appeared a moment prior, Mr. Mackie’s appearance was nothing.

From there, Mr. Mackie looked around, then seemed to instantly find Alexa. Grabbing her, he picked her up and as soon as she faced the camera there was a bright light similar to a burning halo over her head for a second. Then they were both gone.

Seeing the video and Alexa’s state, Luke instantly felt panic rise up in him. As he immediately began hitting both the call and track function on his phone.

Calling.

Ring.

Luke looked down at his phone to see that the tracker was close. Turning around he saw his sister standing right behind him.

“AH!” Luke screamed, as his sister still had no concept of personal space.

Alexa just looked at him for a moment, then stated, “you called.” She said, as she held up her wristwatch and hit the end button.

Seeing that Luke nodded, then took a second to compose himself.

“Yeah, I…” He trailed off as he didn’t quite know what to say. Did he just come right out and say he had a dream about this? He knew he wasn’t supposed to talk about his visions, but those were for the future, right? This was clearly something that already happened, which means he couldn’t change this, even if he wanted to, right?

Shaking his head, he just looked at Alexa, then looked for any signs that she was still injured.

“You are okay, right?”

Alexa nodded.

“Would you tell me if you weren’t?” Luke asked.

Alexa paused, then answered truthfully. “Likely yes, though I would make sure you didn’t tell mom and dad.”

“Mom and dad?” Luke asked, then slowly recognition filled his eyes as he realized what that meant. “They are coming?”

Alexa nodded.

Sigh.

“This is just great.” Luke said, as he mentally tried to go through what to do.

“Hey did you hear?” This time a female’s voice carried over the maelstrom of people talking, as two girls hurriedly walked to class, while gawking at the dragons and bodies.

“Hear what?”

“Dragons, just like those have come out and are wreaking all types of havoc in Canada.” The girl said, pointing over her shoulder to the ten dead dragons.

“Dragons?”

“Yeah, you can check it out. There are videos and everything.”

With that the two girls walked past Luke and Alexa to stare at the new lawn ornaments that resembled a civil war reenactment gone incredibly wrong.

“Students. We ask that you all begin going to your classes now, while this area is still being investigated.” Ms. Peacock began speaking. Her voice sounding oddly musical as Luke found himself suddenly wanting to go to class.

Snap!

Alexa snapped her fingers in front of Luke, gaining his attention.

Luke blinked for a second, before shaking his head. “What was that?”

“Mental compulsion.” Alexa said, her own voice sounding oddly musical as well.

“You are immune?” Luke asked.

Alexa just pointed to her Mind Shield tab on her psychic side. Seeing that Luke nodded. “Right, because of course you would also be immune to everything as well.”

“We should go though.” Alexa suggested.  At that Luke paused, but ultimately decided it was best to go along. While he had managed to shake off the effects of mind control this time, he wasn’t certain if he would be able to do so again.

Also, he found that he really wanted to see Julie.

As they walked, Luke remembered the odd sign, and then the ensuing battle with the female necromancer from his dream.

“What are you doing on Monday?” Luke found himself asking.

“Going to class.” Alexa answered seriously, her eyes never even turning to look at him.

“Right, dumb question. So, you aren’t planning on being in a dungeon on Monday?” Luke pressed, remembering that one detail from his dream.

“No.” Alexa said, this time she did look at Luke. As she did, a weird expression filled her face. “Did you have a vision?”

“Avision, no. Multiple visions all night long, yeah.” Luke admitted.

With that Alexa nodded to herself.

“They were about this, if that is what you were thinking.” Luke said, mainly to himself as he knew Alexa wouldn’t ask.

Alexa just nodded again.

“You aren’t even going to ask?”

“No point. You will either tell me, or you won’t.”

“Yeah, well I saw you, fighting against all three armies.” Luke said, casually.

Whoom.

Before Luke knew what was happening, Alexa had spun around in front of him, and had a hand on his shoulder. This was her serious expression. Seeing this, Luke’s eyes went wide as he saw his emotionless sister, staring with her cold blue eyes into his own.

“You cannot tell anyone about that. Do you understand.” Alexa said.

“They had it on camera. They saw you appear.” Luke protested.

“Right, but they didn’t see me fighting off against all three armies. They can assume or infer what they want from that, but they do not know. It needs to stay that way.” Alexa said, her voice oddly musical while still being cold. Sadly, the new voice just seemed to cause a sheen of ice to form for the second time that day on Luke’s back.

“Yeah, okay.”

“I mean it. No one, not mom, not dad, and definitely not Mr. Mackie.”

“Mr. Mackie?”

“Promise me.” Alexa said, holding out her pinky.

“Holy shiza, you are serious about this.”

“Like a heart attack.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t tell anyone about the dream. Not mom, not dad, and not Mr. Mackie.” Luke said, as he held up his pinky and shook.

This was their bond. Before Alexa could tell people’s emotional states thanks to the system, she had to rely on certain bonds. Over the years, the two had made it a thing that when Luke made a promise with his pinky he was serious. That was how Alexa first found out some of her friends from school weren’t actually her friends. At first, she didn’t believe her brother, but then she began to watch for the signs of insincerity that her brother spoke about. Only after she took the time to watch, did she see how those girls truly were.

Luke was right, but she had a hard time telling truth from lies, especially at first. That was why they came up with the sacred oath of pinkies. While the pair had long since grown past the need to confirm sincerity with simple gestures, the simple act of a pinky promise did do a lot to confirm their bond with one another.

Luke was about to ask more questions, when his thoughts were interrupted.

“Hello there Alexa.” A sweet-sounding voice rang out. Upon hearing the voice Luke turned to see Sarah Stevens, a rather cute if slightly older girl striding forward. Though the girl was what caught Luke’s attention at first, his gaze soon shifted to the hulking brute of a warrior who seemed to walk as a reverse shadow over the girl.

Alexa turned from Luke, making sure to glance down at their her pinkie that was still interlocked with Luke’s, before breaking the connection and turning to face the new speaker.

“Hello.” Alexa said.

At that simple acknowledgement Sarah’s face beamed brightly.

“I saw the news. I hope you are okay?”

“Hello, I am well.” Alexa said, as she shifted her weight slightly. This was the same movement Alexa always gave when she was about to brush someone off. However, this time something odd happened, for rather than walking away, she paused and locked gazes with the girl who seemed to shiver slightly under the sudden intense pressure of her gaze.

Curiously, Luke looked on, as he saw his sister turn to face the Prime Minister’s daughter head on and speak.

“I was just thinking about you actually.”

“Oh really…” Sarah tried to say but was cut off as Alexa just barreled through her thought.

“I was thinking I should give you a check up this afternoon during extras. That is if you wouldn’t mind?” Alexa asked, though the second part of her comment went towards the large hulking guard who stood behind her.

“Oh, I would love that.” Sarah said, turning to her guard and nodding emphatically.

Sigh.

Luke saw the moment that the guard seemed to give into Sarah’s request. That was it, the sudden breath and relaxing of posture was enough to let Sarah’s face beam into a giant smile. “Oh thank you, thank you.” She said to her guard giddily. Then regaining her composure slightly she turned to Alexa and seemed to squirm excitedly for a second, before she forced herself to stand still while answering, “We gladly accept your invitation and will meet you there.”

Then there was an awkward pause.

Luke feeling the tension that both he and the guard were seemingly feeling, felt it was up to him to break up this meeting.

“Right, so thank you for that, but I think we need to go before we are late for class.” Luke offered.

“Right, you should go on as well, lest you are late as well.” The large security guard stated.

Sarah just pouted for a half second, before regaining her composure. “Fine. It was really lovely seeing you again Alexa.”

Alexa nodded.

The lack of a verbal response seemed to dampen Sarah’s mood slightly as she began walking away.

As they walked away Luke and Alexa both began walking to their first class, only to be stopped.

“Wait. I don’t know if you have heard or not.” Sarah called out to the two of them.

At that, Luke and Alexa just turned to face the girl.

“We might have a request to ask of you…”