Into the Ether

The hopelessness seeps through the armor I've molded for myself, it eats away at my flesh as though it were acid.

I'm not returning there.

Escaping thoughts of the past, I feel it pulling me, dragging me back into the darkness. Grabbing the most solid image I can, I escape it before I'm submerged into the depths.

I see a friend, M, I haven't spoken to in a very long time. Make a proposal to him.

"I need your help."

"Ok."

"It's just, there's an issue-- wait, you just said ok?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"Yes."

He touches me on the side of my head and images begin to flicker within my mind.

I see us together, from his perspective. I'm sitting in front of him, talking, when black almost formless figures begin seeping into the space from behind me. I haven't seen them yet but he has. Before either of us do anything I watch as I'm being dragged away, down into the floor, past the floor, fighting against them. He tunnels after, trying to follow.

He pulls his hand from my temple.

"Wonderful! I don't have to explain then."

I just need a quiet, safe place to go over my methods. Being dumped into pointless dream after pointless dream means I waste energy leaving those dreams instead of thinking of a long term plan. The illusions are busy work. I need time, my friend can buy me more time.



He agrees. I head off to resolve the issue. I find a couple friends, one of which is the person I was looking for, Sen. Sen and others are here, in a hotel rooms of sorts. Waiting. Sen gets a phone call, it's time to move.

We leave and as I get downstairs there's a bus waiting. Sen ushers me onto it, I worry I forgot my phone but then as I dig around for it, I hear them shouting at me to get on. I do.

Once my foot touches the platform the bus moves. I struggle to pull myself fully on board. I assumed they'd come with me but they're not. I find a seat.

Looking out the windows it's clear we're speeding. Then we're going faster, fast enough to blur the images. It almost looks like we're in New York. Then the environment changes to more Asian influences. The bus stops. I get off. There are Chinese people nearby. I silently walk past them.

Eventually I arrive in a room, like an observatory. There's a large pole in the middle of the room as well as Sen's ancestor, a Voodoo Priestess I had met a number of times before.

A dead body is moved along the floor, then up against the wall, then overhead, only to be hit by an oncoming object from the opposite direction. The body bounces and returns to the original location. Then another sequence begins, this time the force has more impact to the body.

After the second sequence, lightning strikes the top of the pole, many bolts of lightning. I watch it, trying to understand.

"Don't look at the pole, this part will damage your (she either said mind or eyes)."

Quickly I look away, assuming it was one of those rules like don't stare at the sun.

Soon after this session fades, I'm in the mountains, trying to escape again. The area is too large to explore so I use a method similar to google maps. I drop a pin into a location, land there, observe the routes it leads to, then pick the pin up and redrop it someplace else. There's a specific exit I'm searching for.

Finding the direction I want I leave. I arrive at a lake with a friend. We jump from the top of a waterfall before other smaller issues arise.