[Mkguild] A Day In The Life I

[christian okane]

You'll always find someone at night on the MKGuild IRC channel!

 

Chris

 

 

 

From: mkguild-bounces at lists.integral.org [mailto:mkguild-bounces at lists.integral.org] On Behalf Of Jack Moore
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 9:39 PM
To: mkguild at lists.integral.org
Subject: [Mkguild] A Day In The Life I

 

AN: I am horribly depressed but I'm trying to send this out. I'd love to speak to anyone out there.

 

A Day in the Life

            

"I hate this place." The male said. I heard him and could see him from my place in the crowd.

 

            A falconry glove? I frowned. Why would a lizard need that? Scales on his face said he'd be a lizard and his common gold eyes proved it. Mine were a vibrant blue. That's the advantage of being a Sailfin Lizard; you have beautiful sapphire eyes.

 

            My name is Janelle. I am a corporal in the Metamor Keep Watch, one with unique gifts and decent observation skills. And this was the first time I saw James, when he was James.

 

            But that's not the story I want to tell. Instead let's talk about the second time and the day it happened. This story is a single day in my life, one I hope you will find entertaining my dear listener.

 

            I ask before we proceed to pass no judgement. Our lives in Metamor Keep are hard enough even without the judgement of others. Just remember, everyone I tell you about is real. Their lives, their hopes and their fears are real, but I only get to see brief glimpses of it.

 

            We must remain unbiased when we approach an event. That is the nature of justice and of the Watch.

 

***

 

            This place again.

 

            I stood up. It was dark. I could see.

 

            The edges of the walls glowed a dull white. There seemed to be nothing above me, just an eternal void. Looking up at it, I felt my feet begin to lift up. "No! No! NO! I'm not floating! I'm on the ground!" I closed my eyes. "This is the ground and I am not floating." I opened my eyes.

 

            Still on the ground. I let out a sigh of relief. "This is where I'm in control. I have control here."

 

            "Do you?" A chill ran through me. I forced myself to walk down the hall. The air stuck to my scales and pulled each one upward. It stuck in my nose, my lungs burned when trying to breathe.

 

            "Is anyone here?" The words fell to the ground like stones in water. The air thickened, but I pushed myself forward. The walls were formless, endless. Where did the floor meet them?

 

            I could feel the floor under my feet but my tail wasn't dragging on anything. My tail is the size of a log. Why isn't it dragging? I looked up again. The eternity had grown a little closer

 

            The air needed to be forced apart now by my body. But I could see something. A dull glow that was gaining brightness; a light in the distance. Every time I had this dream the light appeared now. "I need to get to that. Got to get there."

 

            My mind returned to my early days in the Watch when I was still on my feet after twelve hours. Little water, lots of running and burning muscles. But the end was in sight then.

 

            The only thing in sight for me was the light. It winked in and out, the air wanted to choke it. My muscles screamed for me to start. I never got to where I was by being sensible.

 

            "Stop Janelle." I froze. "You can't undo this if you make it."

 

            "What are you talking about?"

 

            "Turn around Janelle. Go home." The voice came from where I stood. Not under me but almost echoing from the same space.

 

            "I have to move." I growled. "I've got to reach the light."

 

            "Do you know what you're doing? You have to stop." I started walking again. Like I was up to my waste in water with rocks around my ankles. I stopped again, coughing out thick air.

 

            "This isn't right. This isn't-

 

            "No it's not." The voice returned. "Go home." I looked around. 

 

            "That's not it either. The problem is what is holding me?" It yanked on my scales, each one individually. "It's the air...but not the air? Something...it can't..." I could see it now.

 

            Hands, hands made out of air and darkness were gripping me. Thousands of inhuman hands trying to hold me in place. I screamed; it didn't pierce the wall.

 

            "You can't escape us all Janelle."

 

            "You couldn't save us." Another voice.

 

            "You can save yourself."

 

            "Let go of me!" I took off into a run. Now they pulled harder on me but my blood rushed through me. I felt them pulling on my scales, my fin, my nostrils and my jaw. I swung my arms in a futile attempt to pull free.

 

            "Stop yourself Janelle!" The three became one, joined by thousands of others in a damned chorus. "Turn around."

 

            "I can't!" The pain was overwhelming. I pushed foreword. "I have to know what's in there. What is past the light." They gripped harder but it didn't matter. I was going foreword.

 

            Left. Thud. Right. Thud. I couldn't breathe. Could barely see. I kept going anyway though.

 

            "We will stop you." The dammed chorus shouted. "We will turn you back."

 

            "No you...won't." I grit my teeth and pushed. "I have to save them!"

 

            "Why Janelle?" I fell into a pant. "You couldn't save us. You can't save everyone." They were right. I knew it of course.

 

            "But that doesn't mean I can't try." I said. "I can fix everything. I can change this! I swear to Eli I can change this." Change what? What am I doing here?

 

            The hands fell away. The voices went silent. And again I was alone. I crossed my arms around me, trying to hold on to any heat I still had.

 

            "I don't want to be here." I looked foreword. The light glared at me, begging me to move. "I...have to do this." the light shone brighter. "I have to." I took off running into it.

 

            "I have too." It consumed me. "I have to save-

 

****

 

            -I...I..." I pulled myself up onto my knees. "I'm...alive." I lay on my bed, as I always do, on my side. It's the only way to sleep with a massive sail fin tail. My only bed sheet was kicked off as always.

 

            The room was silent except for the sounds of gentle snoring. My son Kaysar, never disturbed by the nightmares of his mother.

 

            "Same nightmare." I swallowed. "Why don't I remember?" I whispered to myself, mindful of the other sleeper. "Why don't I remember?"

 

            The stone floor is always cold but when you are a reptile it hits you like an arrow. I brushed it off. The tiny window (the only one in my dwelling) showed the sun beginning to rise. 

            

Time to get ready.

 

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