Quintus Crossings - Story I: Jason - Emergence Arc

Chapter 3: The Chick

Jason slumped, avoiding the puke before him, the cold sand sending a shiver through his body. The chick's strange swirling blue lights grew smaller above him.

"The fuck just happened?" Omar murmured.

"I'm dreaming," Michael said, his breathing rapid. "That's the only thing that makes sense. I'm in a very strange dream. Yeah. That's right. A very, very strange dream."

Jason brought his gaze back to them. They sat in the sand, looking around.

"This isn't a dream, Mike," Jason said.

Jason's breathing was slow, his mind fuzzy. Somehow, a glowing blue ghost haunted his apartment. There was a literal ghost in his apartment. How could a soul not go to the afterlife? And she had power. One second he was in the living room, then he was being squeezed through something, and now he was on a beach. Was she a demon of some sort, sending Jason and his friends to an unknown location to torture them, playing it off as a game? It didn't seem like something a demon would do, but she surely wasn't an angel. What are you?

"Or maybe we're tripping on something," Michael said. "Someone could've spiked our soda. Omar! Did you do this?"

"One, you're stealing my joke, bro," Omar said, grabbing a handful of sand and letting it stream between his fingers. "Two, this isn't how trips work. I've never felt like I've been teleported somewhere. And trips don't take this long to happen. When would I have spiked our soda, man?"

"Thanks, Omar," Jason said, glad that at least Omar was able to keeping a level head.

Jason frowned. How was Omar able to keep a level head?

"Besides, there's a lack of dragons and pink elephants, so even if this was a trip, it's pretty lame." Omar turned to Jason, his smirk fading. "We here because of the chick?"

Jason froze. Omar believed him now? Jason nodded.

"How the fuck can you say that?" Michael shrieked. "There's no such things as ghosts! And even if there were, I doubt they could teleport people places!"

"Do you wanna go to an N.A. meeting after this, then?" Omar said, smirking again. "That'll be great for roommate bonding."

"Fine, we're not high!" Michael yelled. "That means we have to be sleeping. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Then wake up," Jason said. He wanted Michael to be right. He wanted all of this to be some fiction his unconscious mind concocted while he slumbered. That wasn't the case, though. There was a ghost in his apartment and it had sent them... where? The thought turned his stomach. "Wake up, and then wake me up. I want out of this, too."

Michael froze, then closed his eyes, contorting his face. He shook, his face changing shades

"Constipation looks good on you, bro," Omar said, snickering.

Michael released his breath and glared. "How can you be calm right now?"

Omar shrugged. "We're here. Nothing more to it than that."

"That's not an answer!"

Jason struggled to stand, his knees buckling under his weight. "Listen, I know this is weird, but we need to keep it together and figure out what's going on. Besides..." Jason froze at a sight in the distance. "Uh, guys?"

Omar and Michael followed his gaze. Pinpricks of light shone far across the water, but they were getting bigger.

"Is that a... ship?" Michael asked.