Chapter 4: Are you awake now?

Huh?

My eyes open to the feeling of being nudged. A grainy voice announces the next stop over the subway speakers, garbled and incomprehensible.

I lightly wipe the drool from my lip, looking at the tunnel lights racing by.

I guess that was all a dream.

"Are you awake now?"

I turn to the voice, belonging to the only other person in the subway. A man with a peculiar face.

Black tendrils wriggle along the surface of his flesh, interlocking and extending from a glossy eye. A keyhole is hidden in its iris.

Zac.

I smile at him, lightly rubbing my eyes. "Hey Zac. How long was I out?"

I look down at my hand, spotting a black d20 ring spinning eternally on my index finger. The ring he had gifted to me as a part of a matching set, meant to complement his white ring.

The subway doors open as the rain drizzles onto a concrete path. A flickering lamp post illuminates the trail ahead, leading deeper into a forest of trees.

I turn back, only to find an urn where Zac was sitting.

Zac's urn.

I pick up the container before stepping outside, making sure to look both ways. Warm drops of water splash down onto my cheeks, a slightly salty taste accompanying them.

A cold chill nibbles at my cheeks.

Shadows dance at the edges of my vision as I tread through the forest path. Ahead of me, I can make out the sound of bleating.

Out from the brush comes a small herd of goats, trotting across the path ahead of me. Following them was a large humanoid creature. Long curved horns jut out of wild locks of hairs, an intense gaze staring back down at me.

Wolfgang.

"Hey Wolfgang!" I wave towards her, although I quickly get distracted by a goat that trots up to my hand.

"Are you awake now?"

"Mhm!" I playfully wiggle one of the goat's ears with my finger. "Hey, I had this weird dream earlier, and you were in it! You had this sword, and-"

I look back up, only to find Wolfgang and her herd disappearing back into the brush across the path. "That was weird. When did she get into shepherding?"

I continue down the winding road, lightly stepping over vines that writhe over the floor, keeping them from wrapping around my ankles.

Soon, I finally emerge from the forest trail, coming to the edge of foggy lake. The rain falls past the surface of the water, continuing on into the gaping darkness.

The urn crumbles within my grasp, turning to shards and sand, falling into the endless abyss. Gazing within, I see my reflection.

I see myself.

Drowned in the waters with Zac, our rings spin eternally.

His ring transforms into a pure marble band, the numbers flashing by in a diamond.

My ring twists and warps as black tendrils grow a bulbous eye.

Ichor limbs sprout from my finger, wrapping around my arms and pulling me deeper into the water.

My arms are heavy, struggling to swim to the surface, my legs kicking at an unknown thing hidden in the darkness.

I watch the rumbling sky where something else moves past the storming clouds. Giant tendrils glide through the air, flashes of lightning revealing what lies beyond.

An unearthly eye stares back down at me. The eye of something forgotten.

"Are you awake now?"