Silver Canvas [ON-HOLD]

Chapter 1- Rough Night

The reality of life is that it can be that it can be very surreal.

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"ENOUGH!" A male voice echoed through the pitch blackness.

Small spheres of white light, around fiftteen in all, popped up floating scattered across the black expanse, weakly illuminating the place. Two humanoid silhouettes took form, facing each other ten feet apart, standing on a marble-like floor colored jet black

The floating spheres began to gather into the sillhouette on the left, turning him into a faceless, featureless glowing man, casting a radius of white light seven feet around him. The black figure to the right produced branches of lightning from his body, crackling like a human live wire. The floor shook violently for a second then it turned a dull grey color.

Shortly after, a crack showed up in the floor between the two, from which a third figure rose up. This one's body was glowing a violet color, featureless and faceless as well. A raw and frightening power emanated from him, prompting the two other figures to back away. The man turned around and tilted his head. A short horizontal purple line appeared right where his mouth should've been. The man made a smile with it.

"Hello Dane," he spoke in a raspy voice, without moving his purple mouth. "Do you understand all this?" he took three steps forward.

"I hope you do."

The bright white man on the left suddenly shattered like glass, all the shards of white disappearing as they fell to the ground. The surging man on the right exploded in a nova, then disappeared.

"Watch and wait." The violet man glowed incredibly intense then exploded in a great flash of pink.

Only a pitch black expanse remained.

A floating mass of smoke appeared in the middle of the place. It glowed a dim blue. It gave off an eerie aura which crept across the seemingly endless void.

"You, loser... kill... you... save... me..." an angry, hazy, and inhuman voice came from the smoke.

"NOWWW!!!"

"WHA!"

Dane woke up with his heart beating like crazy.

It was all a nightmare.

He lied back down again and stared at the red ceiling of the brown walled room, trying to catch his breath.

The sun wasn't up yet. It was a fairly cold August Monday night with soft breezes blowing through the overnight inn room's screen window every once in awhile. Dane didn't mind it, atleast he didn't need to open the electric fan tonight. He looked down at the still open laptop atop a wooden table at the foot of his bed. The rendering application was still open, with a 3D Eiffel Tower model in progress colored blue from the tip to the midsection then gray down the rest. He checked his phone beside his head pillow and saw it was 2:42am, that made him feel mad at himself. It was like every other week's quota to have that same flashy dream that woke him up with a heart attack everytime. He wasn't sure where it was all coming from but the most probable cause could be all his stress looking for Michael.

Every morning he's either got to go to work or find leads on his brother. He barely has time to actually just sit down and chill with his family. Add to that the government's witness protection program which limited extravagant trips to just anywhere beyond coffee shops within Metro Manila.

Sure it was about to end after investigations down at the San Andres Sports Complex were finished, then he could go wherever and whenever. But for the meantime it's a real nuisance.

Right now he decided he needed to get some shut-eye. I've got the time so I'll be productive, that's one of his mottos. A shooting job was scheduled tomorrow and he was not keeping his model waiting for a tardy, worn-out, eyebag-heavy photographer. He closed his eyes to sleep...

Riiiing...

"Oh come on!" he checked who was calling.

PLM Norman Linan

"Norman?" He stared blankly at his phone for a few seconds, wondering if a new possible lead on Michael might've been dug up. Excitement flooded his tired mind. Norman always had the juiciest bits on this case. He guessed it was an urgent message so he swiped his thumb on his phone to answer the call.

"Hello? Norman?"

"Dane bro, cancel or delay your appointments for tomor- uh, I mean today," he sounded serious.

"Oh? Why?"

"We've got a solid clue..." Norman chuckled, which just confused Dane. "of your brother."

Dane's eyes widened. "Solid? This is what I've been waiting for! Wait what's so funny about that?"

"You see, our source is a guy who actually caught footage of Michael prancing around the golf course of Intramuros four months ago," that gave Dane goosebumps.

"The funny part? Well, the dude's IPhone which shot the scene fell underneath the bridge going to Puerta Real, y'know the one with the smelly pond underneath?"

"There?!"

"Iyyyep! It was kicked away when he took too close a picture of a kalesa's horse, I don't know. He didn't bother to get it right after since it was second-hand anyway, that didn't make sense though. Weird dude."

"Where'd you get this guy anyway?"

"I've got some practical social media sources. He's a Chinese tourist. He's got no problem with us taking it, he deactivated the phone's sim already. Let's just hope no scavengers have found it yet."

"Eh, I guess my model's sched could be negotiated. So I guess we'll be going to the old city tomorro- I mean later." Dane rubbed his face with his hand, exasperated at the thought that it was now 3 in the morning and Norman doesn't sound like he'll be stopping any time soon.

"Yep! Bring Tony too. You know he needs a break from house duty. Poor guy."

Dane sighed. "Ok bro. I need to sleep now."

"Oh, no don't sleep anymore. We have to go now while there aren't any pesky guards around yet."

"You serious? Can't this wait till sunrise?"

"Dead serious bro. You wanna find Michael right? So let's scoot!"

"Ugh, fine whatever. I'll be there a-s-a-p." Dane yawned.

"Alright. I'm already on my way. Wake Tony okay?" Norman dropped the call.

"Norman, that kid." Dane scowled. That dude was really frisky but responsible, to a fault that is.

He lay back down and put his phone beside his pillow. He stared at the strangely cloudy pinkish night sky through the screen window, it reminded him of the violet man in his dream.

Dane hasn't actually told anybody about the nightmares yet. Work kept him too occupied to really just sit and do real talk with anyone. But the dream now was much more vivid and it gave him a bigger spook, somebody had to help him with this. He decided to tell his best friend about it later.

He picked up his phone then went through the contacts.

Riing...

"Um, hello?" a girl's voice was on the other line.

"Uhh hi, wait who's this? Where's TK?"

The girl didn't reply.

"Oh wait, Alora it's you! Where's you brother?"

"Oh kuya Dane! Sorry I didn't recognize you, your number hasn't registered yet. This is my number now, kuya Tony gave me his sim."

"Oh ok. Is he home? I gotta talk to him. And why're you still up by the way? Don't you have classes?"

"Oh, I've got homework to do, don't mind me kuya. Kuya Tony said he was off to your place."

That just puzzled Dane. He hasn't even invited him yet and it's still in the middle of the night.

Just then the door bell rang.

"You are under arrest Mr. Randelo!"

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