A/n: Please enjoy this preview of me story to come out throughout October. I will do my best to get it done before Halloween, but for now, here is a small taste.
Preface
The mind is a wonderful thing.
By both humanity's standards and those of the entities on the inside who actually knew how it worked, it was a marvelous system wholly designed to keep the person to whom it belonged, safe and sane. In most cases it was a clean, flexible system that managed to adapt to and comprehend the world around, while simultaneously building up the human's mental strength and endurance, and handling hardships better and better as time passed. No matter what the person went through, the workings of the mind would deal with it appropriately and the person would, given time, bounce back.
That was the ideal. That was the plan.
It worked, in part, because most people never pay witness to something truly terrifying; something that would send ripples too deep into the mind for any mind worker to properly contain, that would spread to the outer edges of the vast mindscape, and then slowly, tauntingly carve a path of horrendous decay back to the center, from the outside in.
But of course these were freak incidents. Hardly ever happened; couldn't happen to them.
It could never happen to Riley.
III
"…police are at the scene, there seems to be a number of casualties…"
"—nowhere to be found. Authorities are asking everyone to—"
"Ma'am, could you tell us what exactly you saw?…"
"Sir—sir? Could you and your family please come this way?"
"…ah…yes, yes. C-come on, you two. Let's go."
"Someone call for backup! There's…shit, there's nothing we can…"
"…Honey—oh, there was so much blood—"
"I know, I know, but it's gonna be okay. We're going to be okay."
"Has anyone seen my son!? Please…"
"Riley? Riley, come here, sweetheart. That's right, stay close."
"You're alright, Monkey. You can keep moving forward, right?"
"Please! Help! My wife isn't moving!…"
"Sir, please, we should move quickly."
"Just keep moving."
"Riley, sweetheart, please look at me. Please? Let me see your face, hon."
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die, help me, I don't want to die…"
"Riley? Riley!?—"
"—evacuations are underway. Reports of upwards of forty people have been sent to the hospital to be treated; it is unclear just how many—"
"The last reports from the scene leads to believe that the casualty count is still rising steadily, and now is at—is…oh my—"
"…it is impossible to tell just how great a toll this will take on the city, and the survivors."