No Dogs Allowed

Flicker

She(ty for reading! u r very appreciated :D this chapter goes all over the place you see so if it seems a bit crazy, know it's because i write this with my mind in, like, four different regions)

"Echo.

"Echo.

"Echo.

"Yun."

I take a breath. It's all water. Bubbles pop against my molars and take them out like torpedos to my gums. Everything is cold. Everything is so cold I swear I'm burning up.

I say, "Yes?"

Fingers pry open my eyes. There's a glare in my eye, a white beam that threatens to strip my cornea to bleached shreds. I crack my jaw open to scream and feel the skin rip like parchment, my masseter snap like strings. The water is iron. The water is gone. The light goes with it. A woman peers down at me, crinkles her nose, takes a metal scalpel to my tongue.

"No good, no good," she says. Her face is soft. She's blurred like an abandoned oil painting. "It's not even alive."

I cough. I sputter. Something about waiting. The world is steel cold.

Fingers reach down, take my tongue right out of my mouth. Their knuckles knock my jaw crooked and take my incisors out. Clatter. Shatter. I close my eyes.

"Broken thing," she scoffs. "No one took good care of this one. Look at it! It's not even alive." The bite of a knife is at my chest. "Live a little, Eko."

I'm at a stadium. Only one light works, a starlight in the midst of the swimming shadows. I gasp for air. I run for it. Something wet squelches under my feet. I look down, only to see seers. Eyes on eyes on eyes. Some silver. Some green. Some black. All staring.

"Don't look," I plead.

"Echo?" I don't know where it comes from. I don't know where it goes. "Echo? Hey, you! This is closed! Get the fuck off my track!"

I run faster. There's a racer waiting under the spotlight. At one point, they're in pitch black leather. At another, they're in purple silks. Closer, they're in a yellow suit. Facing them, they're in a T-shirt and jeans. I skid to a stop. There's smoke. There's light. But there's shadows shadows shadows.

"I think it's closed," I say.

"That'd be obvious," they say. They take their helmet off and throw it to me. I catch it and clutch it too hard, crushing the face shield in until the glass breaks like candy bark. Elias frowns. "What'd I tell you about that? Watch the hands. You're so strong! Banhyang. Where's your heart and soul at a time like this? Hey!" He grabs me by the neck, fingers closing around my windpipe, his thumb pressing my larynx into my brain stem. "I'm right here."

"It's not real," I tell him, matter-of-factly. "It's not real."

"Says who?" Kane takes me by the back of my head, fingers tearing at my hair, scraping at my scalp. He wrenches my head back until I'm bending backwards, looking up. "Say it."

"It's not true," I say, closing my eyes. "It's not true."

"Hey." Kane wrenches my eye open. His face is his face until it's not. Mercy smiles brightly at me. Fangs. Tongue. Lips. Blood. "Banhyang. Tell me the truth, then?"

"Stop," I wheeze. I grab her by the hair. "There isn't one."

"Exactly. Être honnête." She lets me go. I fall forward. I fall into the eyes. Falling, falling, falling, falling—

Hands catch me. I take in a breath. It tastes like iron. Potent with it, really. I look around but find blackness. I gasp. I say, "Hello?"

"Echo?"