((Author's Note: Events here take place in the aftermath of ?Howl of Misfortune?))
"Get away from me...Leave me alone..." He waved them off, all of them. What could they do to help him? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything was messed up, and now he was there, kneeling in the ring, covered in blood, surrounded by it. It looked like a massacre. And it was all his fault.
His knees shaking and unsteady, he rose, away from them, towards the back room of the Outback. His left hand slipped on the knob a couple of times, leaving streaks of red on the handle, before he finally managed to get it open. He slammed the door behind him. There was a window towards the back of the room, a small office that Jay didn't even bother to examine in his haste to escape. He lifted it up, then removed the screen, and stepped outside into the night. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he started running away from the building. He needed to leave. He needed to leave now.
He could feel the city sleeping, the heartbeats of dreamers throbbing in his pulse. The restless dreams of thousands of humans, elves, dwarves, and countless other species, calling towards him. He ran blindly, paying attention only to what was in front of him, what he might have to dodge, where he might have to turn. This late, there were few people out, not that he even bothered to look in their direction. He was covered in blood, scored heavily across the face with claw marks, and his right arm was screaming at him with each jarring foot step. Finally, he stumbled across a tall tenement apartment complex, a couple of blocks from the Inn. It was rather nondescript, a tall rectangle pushing into the air, walls white-washed, balconies studding the sides and covered with laundry hung over the wrought iron railings to dry. Jay swung around towards the back of the building, looking for a back door, an emergency exit, anything. He found one, a white door with flecks of paint missing, revealing the metal used to make it. He gave it a tug. Locked. Perfect. He shut his eyes, focusing on the portal. He wasn't looking, and everyone in the area was asleep, but if they had been looking, they might have seen the bright white light spilling out under the door, before Jay opened it and stepped inside.
He kept sprinting, now through a forest so thick and overgrown with skyscraping trees that it blocked out all sun or moonlight. Jay couldn't tell what time it was, what with the green canopy of leaves above him. He heard the howls and screeches of creatures hidden within the branches, but nothing deterred him from the rough dirt path cutting through the heart of the woods. Fast as he could, he put one foot in front of the other, not really sure when or where he'd emerge from this dream. A quick thought, and his hair and clothing changed to his normal Dreamwalker gear: a solid black sweatshirt, khaki cargo pants, and dark black hair. His mind then wandered back towards the duels, simultaneously searching for an answer and castigating himself for what had occurred.
His eyes bulged out of his head. The world was a dim grey fog with smears of red on the periphery of his vision, and couldn't hear anything beyond the roaring in his ears. Poppy was no longer in front of him. It was her. The woman from his nightmare. She wore the crimson dress loosely on her malnourished frame, the knees jutting out far too sharply from her frame, the neckline cut into a V. Far from flattering, it called further attention to how withered and wasted she looked, bones far too visible beneath jaundiced skin. He couldn't tell if the darkness under her eyes and on her lips was makeup or decay, but the thinning wisps of black hair that came down just into her blood-shot, dark eyes seemed to suggest the latter. She grinned maliciously at Jay, then beckoned him with a bony finger forward. Soon, he heard her voice purring in his head. It made his skin crawl.
?Jay...I'm going to kill you. Right...now.? Without a warning, Jay sprung forward and threw a crushing left-handed jab. She vanished right as he thought he'd struck her, and he heard laughter behind him.
The dream was a brown-green blur, of swaying trunks, gentle breezes, the dirt beneath his feet giving him little support as he bolted through the forest. Where was the door? How was he going to get out of here? His lungs burned, the lactic acid in his legs making each stride he took more and more of a chore. He suddenly pulled up, as something appeared in front of his eyes. An arch, made out of gnarled and knotted wood, arcing across the pathway. Hung below it was a sign, the words written in illegible gibberish. Yet, as soon as Jay looked at it, he knew what the words were meant to say. Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here. Without hesitation, Jay trotted through the arch, ignoring the stitch in his side.
He tackled the woman and pinned her to the ground, her cackling assaulting his ears. Her skin was sandpaper rough, and he could feel her weak wrists struggle to escape his strong grasp. With little warning, Jay drove his forehead straight into her nose, and the laughter stopped. There was a bright flash of light. A different voice filtered into his ears, small and weak, coughing and sputtering as if choking on some liquid. ?S-stop...? Jay hoisted her up by her shirt, fist cocked back to strike one more vicious blow, and the fog was burned away from his vision. It wasn't...her anymore. It was Poppy. He saw her face, coated in blood, and dropped her back to the mat. He didn't have time to feel sorry. The werewolf came right after him, and they fought.
A blur. They exchanged blows. His cheek was slashed open by claws. He punched and chopped the werewolf in the snout, feeling the satisfying crunch of a broken nose. Soerl backed off, and once Jay realized he was no longer in danger, he sank to his knees, bawling into his bloodied hands.
He returned to the physical world with another gust of wind and flash of white, staggering out of the doorway of a building across the road from Candy's. He had nowhere else to turn, and he hoped that she wouldn't think him monstrous, like everyone else at the Outback probably did.
"Get away from me...Leave me alone..." He waved them off, all of them. What could they do to help him? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything was messed up, and now he was there, kneeling in the ring, covered in blood, surrounded by it. It looked like a massacre. And it was all his fault.
His knees shaking and unsteady, he rose, away from them, towards the back room of the Outback. His left hand slipped on the knob a couple of times, leaving streaks of red on the handle, before he finally managed to get it open. He slammed the door behind him. There was a window towards the back of the room, a small office that Jay didn't even bother to examine in his haste to escape. He lifted it up, then removed the screen, and stepped outside into the night. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he started running away from the building. He needed to leave. He needed to leave now.
He could feel the city sleeping, the heartbeats of dreamers throbbing in his pulse. The restless dreams of thousands of humans, elves, dwarves, and countless other species, calling towards him. He ran blindly, paying attention only to what was in front of him, what he might have to dodge, where he might have to turn. This late, there were few people out, not that he even bothered to look in their direction. He was covered in blood, scored heavily across the face with claw marks, and his right arm was screaming at him with each jarring foot step. Finally, he stumbled across a tall tenement apartment complex, a couple of blocks from the Inn. It was rather nondescript, a tall rectangle pushing into the air, walls white-washed, balconies studding the sides and covered with laundry hung over the wrought iron railings to dry. Jay swung around towards the back of the building, looking for a back door, an emergency exit, anything. He found one, a white door with flecks of paint missing, revealing the metal used to make it. He gave it a tug. Locked. Perfect. He shut his eyes, focusing on the portal. He wasn't looking, and everyone in the area was asleep, but if they had been looking, they might have seen the bright white light spilling out under the door, before Jay opened it and stepped inside.
He kept sprinting, now through a forest so thick and overgrown with skyscraping trees that it blocked out all sun or moonlight. Jay couldn't tell what time it was, what with the green canopy of leaves above him. He heard the howls and screeches of creatures hidden within the branches, but nothing deterred him from the rough dirt path cutting through the heart of the woods. Fast as he could, he put one foot in front of the other, not really sure when or where he'd emerge from this dream. A quick thought, and his hair and clothing changed to his normal Dreamwalker gear: a solid black sweatshirt, khaki cargo pants, and dark black hair. His mind then wandered back towards the duels, simultaneously searching for an answer and castigating himself for what had occurred.
His eyes bulged out of his head. The world was a dim grey fog with smears of red on the periphery of his vision, and couldn't hear anything beyond the roaring in his ears. Poppy was no longer in front of him. It was her. The woman from his nightmare. She wore the crimson dress loosely on her malnourished frame, the knees jutting out far too sharply from her frame, the neckline cut into a V. Far from flattering, it called further attention to how withered and wasted she looked, bones far too visible beneath jaundiced skin. He couldn't tell if the darkness under her eyes and on her lips was makeup or decay, but the thinning wisps of black hair that came down just into her blood-shot, dark eyes seemed to suggest the latter. She grinned maliciously at Jay, then beckoned him with a bony finger forward. Soon, he heard her voice purring in his head. It made his skin crawl.
?Jay...I'm going to kill you. Right...now.? Without a warning, Jay sprung forward and threw a crushing left-handed jab. She vanished right as he thought he'd struck her, and he heard laughter behind him.
The dream was a brown-green blur, of swaying trunks, gentle breezes, the dirt beneath his feet giving him little support as he bolted through the forest. Where was the door? How was he going to get out of here? His lungs burned, the lactic acid in his legs making each stride he took more and more of a chore. He suddenly pulled up, as something appeared in front of his eyes. An arch, made out of gnarled and knotted wood, arcing across the pathway. Hung below it was a sign, the words written in illegible gibberish. Yet, as soon as Jay looked at it, he knew what the words were meant to say. Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here. Without hesitation, Jay trotted through the arch, ignoring the stitch in his side.
He tackled the woman and pinned her to the ground, her cackling assaulting his ears. Her skin was sandpaper rough, and he could feel her weak wrists struggle to escape his strong grasp. With little warning, Jay drove his forehead straight into her nose, and the laughter stopped. There was a bright flash of light. A different voice filtered into his ears, small and weak, coughing and sputtering as if choking on some liquid. ?S-stop...? Jay hoisted her up by her shirt, fist cocked back to strike one more vicious blow, and the fog was burned away from his vision. It wasn't...her anymore. It was Poppy. He saw her face, coated in blood, and dropped her back to the mat. He didn't have time to feel sorry. The werewolf came right after him, and they fought.
A blur. They exchanged blows. His cheek was slashed open by claws. He punched and chopped the werewolf in the snout, feeling the satisfying crunch of a broken nose. Soerl backed off, and once Jay realized he was no longer in danger, he sank to his knees, bawling into his bloodied hands.
He returned to the physical world with another gust of wind and flash of white, staggering out of the doorway of a building across the road from Candy's. He had nowhere else to turn, and he hoped that she wouldn't think him monstrous, like everyone else at the Outback probably did.