Moonlight Sonata

18. Respite

It was getting late again and I still couldn't sleep. My eyes kept glancing out the window, expecting to see monsters and demons crawling up the sides. No, those were in my own head, clawing at my eyes and trying to escape. My hieroglyphs glowed faintly, acting like pools of water against the walls, casting shapes and lines that continually writhed like snakes. Thoughts about what I really wanted out of everyone here filled my head to the brim, and I was scared of what they entailed.

I began thinking about the Oracle. I didn't know who he was or what he even wanted with me, but PASCI seems to have employed him to do some of their dirty work. He didn't have any qualms about it, it seemed. I wonder if he voluntarily joined them or if they offered him a deal.

"They offered me the same thing I offered you."

I bolted upright, pinning myself against the headboard as I whipped out a gun. I aimed into the darkness, the shapes outlined by the moonlight. A figure stirred and I aimed it at his head in response.

"Get out of my head," I snarled.

"You leave it wide open, my dear. Your thoughts trail out of your ears like ants from an anthill." His voice appeared by my side and I swung my gun around in an attempt to aim in at him.

"Why are you doing this to me?! What's so special about me?!" I hissed.

"You're the key to unlocking The Necromancer's mind," his whisper traced my neck and I recoiled in disgust, "and he's the one we're really after."

"Who's we?"

"Well, not PASCI, if that's what you think." Oracle chuckled. "There's more dangers than just them around the corner."

"Like who?!" I demanded, my hand still wrapped tightly around the gun.

"The Skull and Bones are under new management," he grinned from the darkness in front of me, "and that management is far from human."

"So they're trying to capture us?"

"They've been following your friends as they destroyed facilities, picking up whoever they could. They don't want to be free, no, no...they want to rule this country, and they think your dear friend Necro could be of service." He paused. "At least, I believe so."

"Facilities are being destroyed?" I asked quietly.

"Why, haven't you seen the news?"

The room was quiet after that sentence. I could tell he was long gone so I lowered my gun; he was toying with me, and it was getting me real mad, I'll give him that much. After a few moments of telling my heart to cease its pounding I pulled myself to my feet and snuck through my room, my gun still at my side just in case those friends of his might've been waiting outside. The stairs were silent as I stepped lightly, padding down to the bottom and taking a look around. Everything was empty and quiet; the clock read four something in the morning and I felt incomprehensibly tired. Still though, I turned into the living area and fumbled for the remote in the darkness, finding it and flipping to the channel I knew kept a constant stream of news for the nation. Right there in bold letters were the words "Country Under Attack". A woman on the screen was talking about a group of attacks on different government facilities, accompanied by satellite photos that seemed to show inhuman figures attacking the area.

"This footage is from a former CIA base in New Jersey. Many have claimed photoshop and altering, but on multiple eyewitness accounts from civilians and government personnel alike, the footage has officially been claimed as real. All of those who reside in areas close to the locations of the attacks, we urge you to stay indoors and stay safe."

The screen flipped to a poorly shot video, seemingly of a man filming his son playing with a toy airplane outside of an airfield close to dusk. Suddenly he lifted it up and focused it in the distance towards a large building that was blotting out some of the sky. The sound of an explosion could be heard before the man picked up his son and took off running towards the building. After a few short minutes of him sprinting and his son asking what was happening, he stopped on the outside of the fence and held still. People in PASCI uniforms were shooting at other human figures, including one...familiar to me. A lanky man flipped a tank with his tentacles, and it went tumbling towards the line of agents. Ritter's face was torn by an inky, goopy smile as he let out an unearthly scream of war. A small humanoid scrambled up his back, wearing a bulletproof vest and combat boots; she launched herself over his head with the help of his tentacles and barreled into an agent, ripping his head from his shoulders in a bloody mess. Lily's hair was braided and tied with plastic cherries, now drenched with blood.