As Adrian walked, he began to feel a twitch in the back of his eyes. He knew very well what the twitches meant, after all, he'd been having them for years now. The uncomfortable feeling building behind his eyes was a sign that the hallucinations would begin again, cutting short the brief moments of respite he'd been given.
Despite the knowledge of what would follow the twitching sensation, he didn't change his pace to rush home. Opportunities to leave the house and exist purely in what others called normalcy didn't come often, and Adrian would be damned if he let the visions ruin this one.
Alas, the world is not that kind. Despite his formidable will and insistence on the matter, the visions began within minutes. Buildings changed, not into strange death machines or horrifying beasts, but into other buildings, devoid of anything to peculiar. The new creatures populating his vision, however, were not so mundane. Flying men and giant beasts tore through the streets sometimes colliding with the buildings, other times they would pass right through, as if on some other layer of existence.
'Damn. They're getting worse again.'
The visions had been progressing in intensity since he was diagnosed with a previously unknown form of psychosis at the age of fifteen. He was now eighteen, and the visions were worse than ever.
The truly scary part for Adrian was that the visions were really just the beginning. He had never been able to prove it to a doctor, but odd things would often accompany the visions. Moving objects would have their paths diverted around him, he would move several meters in a single step, things like that. When he brought up these occurrences the doctors assured him that they were just a different manifestation of the visions, but he didn't believe them. He knew it was something more, something real.
Adrian knew when to give up the fight, the visions were starting in earnest now, he'd better get home before the stranger elements of his condition began. He turned on his heel and began walking in the direction he had come, moving fast but still slow enough that he could make sure his steps were the correct length.
He made it to the end of his street before the worst came. As he drew tantalisingly close to the comfort of home, his vision blurred, and he was overcome with the most intense wave of nausea he had ever experienced. The feeling brought him to his knees and his vision went dark.
***
He didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but he knew it wasn't long. He still felt the afternoon sun on his back as he rose from the ground. He took some time to gather himself, checking for injuries or signs of assault. Finding nothing he finally looked around, and the result sent him into shock.
This wasn't his street; in fact, he had no idea where this was. It seemed like a fairly well travelled street, tall buildings blocking his view of the surroundings. The nausea was new, but he'd found himself in strange places before, he knew what to do. After a big flare up, the weirder stuff usually quieted down for a while. That meant he was safe to look around a little bit, and tall buildings make great vantage points to scope out the area.
Ascending the nearest building Adrian spied out across the rooftops of the nearby streets, looking for a recognizable landmark. The only problem was that he couldn't find one, nothing about the surrounding streets looked familiar, not even the buildings on the horizon were recognizable.
"Just how far did I end up this time? It can't be that far, right?" Adrian began to ponder at how he could find his way home before he spotted a police station on a street a few blocks over.
"Bingo." But just as Adrian had resolved himself to head towards the police station, something hurtled out of the sky like a cannonball.
Crash
A man ploughed into the roof right beside Adrian, knocking the boy off balance. Immediately after which, another man landed far more gracefully a few meters away.
"Young man, please make your way down from the roof, this man is a dangerous criminal wanted by the authorities for several counts of assault and attempted murder."
'well, that's new, they don't usually speak. I guessed this means it's gotten worse again doesn't it.'
Adrian wasn't particularly fussed about the two new arrivals, after all they were only his hallucinations, they couldn't hurt him.
But he was soon proven wrong as the criminal grabbed Adrian in a chokehold and pressed two fingers to his temple.
"Move another step and I blow the kid's brains out!" This shocked Adrian, he could feel the man's arm around his throat, the fingers pressed to his temple. It was far more vivid and lifelike than any hallucination previous.
'How bad is it getting, I can physically feel the hallucinations now. Haha, I really am going insane.'
Before his thoughts could move any further, he felt it. The ray of kinetic force that flew past his head, slamming into the criminal's face. And then the kicker, Adrian felt the blood and gore from the exploded head drip down his hair and into his ears. It was still warm; more blood was still spurting from the remaining half of the criminal's head. The body having gone limp, it fell, along with Adrian, into a pile of flesh and blood, making even more of a mess.
That was when he knew, it was no longer a hallucination, this was absolutely real. No hallucination could possibly be this vivid. This was real, absolutely, undeniably real.
"Kinetic, you idiot! You might have hit the kid!"
"Calm down Boreas. The kid is fine."
A woman suddenly appeared from behind the spandex clad man whom she had referred to as 'Boreas'.
"Whatever, I'm reporting you to the board. But before that I have to deal with the kid."
The man ostensibly titled 'Boreas' turned to Adrian and gave a wave of his hand. As if at the man's command a cold wind swirled around the boy and his would-be assailant, separating them and cleaning Adrian of any remains belonging to the criminal.
"Alright kid, I'm going to take you down to the hospital and drop you off. Give them your information and they can check you over to make sure you're okay."
Before Adrian could give a response, the man took him under his arm and began to float. At first, they moved slowly, but when Adrian didn't scream or cry the man sped up. To be perfectly clear, Adrian didn't scream, not because he wasn't afraid, but because the absolute terror of the past minute had left him speechless.
'This is real. I know it is, and that makes it worse. I've seen this stuff in hallucinations, but this is real. I'm screwed.'
When they reached the hospital, Boreas left Adrian in the care of the nurses, who led him to a room where they laid him on a bed, at which point he promptly passed from consciousness, the adrenaline leaving his system.