Yes University
Chicago, United States
Terra, Gaea Solar system
Neutral Free zone
January 14th 2019
3:25 PM
For the rest of her courses in the early afternoon, Sam took her time to think about the advice Dr. Dingle had given her. Mending the relationship with her Aunt was something that Sam had always wanted. But for some reason, she just hadn't gotten to it. After she was done with her class for the day, Sam decided to go to her dorm. She didn't feel like returning to Henry's apartment to get more of her things as she didn't feel like facing him. Unfortunately for Sam, she had left her room key back in her dorm. She just hoped her roommate was there to let her in. Sam wasn't surprised to see Aria Fields in her black nightgown robe, her jock of a boyfriend propped on the sofa by the tv. It seemed they were watching some kind of movie, and Sam had interrupted them.
"Shouldn't you be at your boyfriend's place?" Aria said. She was right. Sam normally spent most of her time at Henry's place. The few times she was here, Sam had needed essentials like her pills, which Stella normally picked up and shipped over here for her. But those days were over.
"Sorry for the interruption," Sam said as she left the living room to go into her own separate room. Sam froze, looking around the room. The last time she had been here was the night of the incident. Her bed was covered with clothes and piles of comic books. The last issue of the Tower of Fate that she was reading was open for her to see the images that she loved. Sam remembered that she had not finished it and that later issues had come out recently. Sam was a big comic book fan mainly because she loved the experience it gave her and the colors. Sam wished she could pick it up and start from where she left off... But it was the red-stained green rug that she found herself staring at. The memories of that night came rushing back. It had been the anniversary of her Dad's death, and the day had felt so suffocating that she had forgotten to take her pills. The result of that decision was not pleasant. It was not something that Sam liked to look back on. Sam searched her desk, moving aside the ripped sketch papers on it to see if her aunt had sent the new pills. Sam was nearly out of the ones she had left at Henry's place. As she searched for her pills, she checked her phone, and sure enough, there were missed calls from Henry and Stella. Sam deleted Henry's voicemail, and Listened to Stella's. It was the usual. Her being worried about Sam. You suffered a horrible trauma, Samantha. I don't deny that. But I wonder, have you dealt with the traumas? Was that why she appeared weak to Stella? Because she hadn't dealt with the death of her father. Or even her Mother, whom she never even knew. Was Dr. Dingle right in saying that this was all just a result of her not dealing with it? But what about the other one? The things that Sam did not speak of. The shadows in the night that used to frighten her as a kid. The voices and colors that were there, but no one could hear or see but her. Was that all in her head too? This was too much for her to just think about. She had to do something. Her sketchbook was right there in front of her. So Sam did what she always did in situations when her mind felt too crowded. What she was good at? She drew. Sam grabbed her pencils and colors and closed her eyes. And just like that, she began to draw. She kept drawing until she dozed off.
When Sam woke up, she found sketches, dozens of sketches on her sketchbook. It had been a long time since she just sketched an image that popped into her head. Sam looked at the book, and it was the same figure that she always sketched. The golden prince. He was as handsome as ever, with a chiseled face that came with strong and sharp cheekbones and jawlines. Yet there was something about the face that held both youthfulness and maturity combined in one. It might have been the eyes that she had painted a luscious beautiful blue. Sam wasn't sure about the color of the hair. Sometimes she was struck between making it a darkish gold or bright gold. Sam went back through the other ones that she had sketched since her father bought the sketchbook for her. She remembered the story she had made up of the prince who fought monsters to get into a castle to save his princess, but it turned out that the princess didn't need saving. Father had asked her to sketch it out, and Sam did. Ever since then, it was something Sam did to calm herself. Sam was looking through the sketches, yawning at the same time. She looked at the time on her phone and realized she hadn't slept for long. She was tired.
"Maybe I should take another nap," Sam wondered. But then a flash of light came from behind her. Sam turned around to see a black dot. It was literally a black dot like some had painted a dot within the space in the middle of her room. Sam cleared her eyes, thinking she might still be dreaming. And then the dot began to grow, the wind picking up, her wardrobes shaking, her windows prattling. Sparks, golden greenish sparks burst forth and then the black dot became a crystal mirror before her. A long rectangle surface and within the surface was a...
Sam couldn't believe her eyes. She didn't want to believe it. The only thought that came within her mind was that she had finally lost it. She slapped herself. Wake up! Nothing changed. The person on the surface wasn't clear to Sam. She saw black trench coat, with black pants and boots but she couldn't make out the face.
"Who are you," Sam asked. She didn't know why she asked the question but just felt compelled to ask. No answer. The figure turned his body around before facing her again. "Hello. Are you real?" She had to ask. The crystal mirror finally solidified making the face clear enough for Sam to see who it was. She froze upon seeing the person she had just finished sketching appear before her. Sam opened her mouth but nothing came out. He was exactly as she had described him. Dressed in a black trench coat and black pants. His hair was pure gold. He also had bronze colored skin, like he had been kissed by the sun. Her Golden prince. Everything about his appearance was the same. Her hand rose up towards the mirror. She felt an indescribable feeling to reach out to him. To touch him. And he did the same. He reached out and both touched each other. Their hands touched, Sam felt the touch of his skin even through the mirror. She felt the warmth that came off it and then something strange happened. A weird pulse rang out from their contact, spreading past Sam. She moved backwards, tripping on the floor as the crystal mirror shattered, turning into white dust. Sam blinked. She didn't know what to say, or how to feel. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. She had finally lost it. And then a ringing noise tore through her head.
****
People walked by, staring at her, probably thinking she was drunk. Her head felt lightheaded, her stomach grumbled, empty after she had puked her guts. And that was when she felt it again. A splitting headache tore through her head, images upon images flooded her eyes, forcing Sam to let out a scream. Passerby's moved away from her while some began whispering, their phones pointing towards her. But Sam didn't pay attention to them. She was still frozen by the images she had seen. It looked like some kind of fight in an office space. A space that looked familiar. Her sight landed on a pillar of light that had pierced the sky. The pale light pierced through the sky, the shockwave cleared the night sky of the clouds, and yet no one around her noticed it. She was the only one who had seen it. Sam knew...instinctively deep down, she knew that the light was the source of the pain in her head. And just like that, Sam began running towards the light.
The path that Sam took to get to the light was familiar. She had taken one of the redline trains that took her all the way to downtown. And just like she suspected, she ended up in front of her Therapist building. Arriving at the building, a sixteen-story skyscraper located around the South Loop area of Chicago, Sam felt nervous. The pale light was gone, but the pain in her head was still lingering. Sam wondered if the Dr. was in her office. Dr. Dingle sometimes worked late into the closing time of the building, and right now, it was just a quarter after seven, which meant that she might still be in there. Jakob, the security night shift, was not at his usual place by the desk, which faced the building entrance. He normally was there all the time and would let her in those times when she came to see Dr. Dingle late in the night. But this time, he wasn't. Strange. Another strange thing...Sam pushed against the door entering the building. Doors like this one were supposed to be closed around a certain time when most tenants of the building were gone. And then Jakob, with the press of a button, would let her in, but he was not there, and the door was unlocked. Sam shrugged it off, maybe he had left it open for her in case she came. He was kind and considerate. Sam turned to her left to get to the elevator, but then she stopped. The gate bar that needed a card to be scanned to let one pass through was open. Another sign something was definitely wrong and out of place. But then again, Jakob could have left it open for the cleaning crew to get to the elevators to clean. Stop overthinking things. No....No...She wasn't overthinking things. Something was wrong. She could feel it deep within her bones. Her head still felt sore, like a drill was still drilling its way into her brain. She took a deep breath and proceeded to take the elevator to the fourth floor, where Dr. Dingle's office was. She walked slowly to it, wondering what the hell was happening. As she breathed in and out, cold air came out of her mouth. There was a cold chill in the air, a cold that crawled all over her skin like the stampede of tiny bugs. Sam noticed that a wisp of black smoke was coming out of where Dr. Dingle's office was. Was it fire? She ran as fast as she could to the office. The door was wide open, and then the smell hit her. It was the smell of death and rotten eggs. Sam felt her stomach try to empty itself, but there was nothing to empty as she had thrown up everything on her way here. But her stomach still tired no matter how empty it was. She walked into the office, where the smell was stronger. There was no fire but an aura of black smoke hanging around every corner of the office. The calming presence that used to fill the office was gone, replaced by a malevolent feeling that scared the fuck out of her. The office was in disarray, the shelves with all the books broken, the books spread across the floor. Glass from the white chandelier was scattered all over the floor. It felt like a storm had passed through here, large holes filled the room, and long claw marks covered some parts of the wall. Sam felt like there had been some kind of fight here. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Sam was so confused and dazed out of her mind that she stepped on something that felt hard and squishy. She pulled her right leg up and saw what looked like a blackish tentacle, yellow pus flowing out of it and burning a hole right through the floor. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Has she completely fallen off the rails? Was this all in her head? No. This was real. This was reality. She could feel it deep within her bones. Which meant that... she didn't want to think of it. A pale light within the room forced her eyes to land on Dr. Dingle. She was by her desk, sitting on her chair. Her body was laid across the desk. When Sam got closer to her, she could see the blood that was on the floor close to her desk. The blood seemed to have spread from the desk to the floor. She should leave. She should run and get help. Above the body, hovering in the air, was the source of the light that had called to Sam. The source of the pain that was trying to tear her brain apart. But Sam gritted her teeth, enduring it. What was going on? What the hell was this shard of crystal?
"Dr. Dingle," Sam whispered her name. Leave Sam. Get the fuck out of here. But Sam didn't. She had to make sure. She seemed to be just laying her head on the desk like she was taking a nap. But Sam knew that wasn't what it was. She touched her shoulders and pulled her back to reveal her face... "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" And just at that moment, the crystal shard above the Dr. shot straight at Sam's chest. Sam leaped backward but lost her footing as she fell on the floor by a pile of files. The crystal vanished as it entered her body, the pain in her brain exacerbated, flowing all over her body. The scream ripped out of her mouth. The smell of shit and urine didn't help. She probably fell unconscious for a minute or two because the next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor next to the piles of files. A picture got her attention. It was her picture across her name on the file. There were a bunch of other ones, but her's was the only one that was unsealed. Sam turned back to Dr. Dingle, her eyes burnt to the socket, a silver dagger stuck in her gut. What the Fuck had she stumbled onto. She pressed her hand on her chest, feeling to see if anything had happened to her. But nothing seemed to have changed. Sam grabbed her files and ran. The image of Dr. Dingle's dead body burnt into her mind for all of eternity.