Somewhere,
Beyond the sea...
The smooth tones of Bobby Darin seem to be echoing in my skull, awakening me from sleep. He seems slow, scratchy, the record's running at half-speed. I behold a tile floor, splattered with blood. I roll over, grunting from a pain in my arm, and spot a pumpkin beneath a wooden overhang.
Somewhere, waiting for me...
How long has it been? I try to think back to the last thing I can remember, but then something is in my head, someone screaming about their horrible face, their horrible, destroyed face, and screeching "Steinman! Steinman!" over and over in my ears. I grab the sides of my head and stare upward, closing my eyes to keep out that awful screaming.
My lover stands on golden sands...
The echoes stop, and I feel like I can breathe again. I open my eyes, seeing just a cloth sheet that forms the roof of this stall. Darin's still playing. I sit up, take a look at my hands, and scuttle backward in horror, slamming into the wall behind me. My veins pulse and glow, electric sparks tipping my fingers.
And watches the ships that go sailin'.
The voices come back, but now - it's my own voice, I recognize it. "I'll never splice. Not for you, not for anyone. I'm not risking my mind for the chance of safety. A revolver's all I need." Something gnaws at my stomach, a craving, a hunger.
Somewhere, beyond the sea...
On top of the counter next to me sits a revolver and a massive syringe, filled with red liquid. I double over in pain, my stomach burning, my muscles seizing.
She's there, watching for me.
I fumble for the needle, and knock it off the other side. I hear shattering glass. I throw my head back and let loose a howl of pain. From the other side of the hall, I hear a hissed "Shut up!"
If I could fly like birds on high...
"What's happening to me?" I croak.
Then straight to her arms, I'd go sailin'.
"Just wait for the pain to pass," the hisser instructs me.
It's far beyond the star,
It's near beyond the moon...
Electricity sprays from my hands, scorching the ceiling above. I hold them as far away as possible, cowering in the face of my own power.
I know, beyond a doubt -
My heart will lead me there soon.
I hear a thud on the floor beside me and a few footsteps. The pain's subsiding, cooling, my hands returning to normal. A woman in a tattered party dress and rabbit mask vaults over the counter and lands, bent-kneed, in front of me. "Nice job wasting all the ADAM, you idiot," she curses through a mouth half-melted. The left half of her lips hangs down over her chin, wobbling as she speaks.
We'll meet, beyond the shore,
We'll kiss, just as before...
"So much for our big catch," she huffs, sitting down next to me.
Happy we'll be, beyond the sea
And never again, I'll go sailin'.
"Somebody ought to shut that up," she complains.
"I'm sorry," I murmur, "but who are you?"
I know, beyond a doubt -
My heart will lead me there soon.
"Dammit, not again," she curses. "I'm your wife."
An image flashes in my mind, a beautiful brunette with bright red lipstick. I take another look at the woman before me, and see that her mouth would be the same shape if it were on right.
We'll meet- I know we'll meet! - beyond the shore,
We'll kiss, just as before...
"How did-"
A loud thud on the wood interrupts me, and she quickly pops over the edge of the counter like a prairie dog. "Oh, God," she whispers. There's a huge cyst on her back.
Happy we'll be, beyond the sea...
"It's Jenny," she says.
"Look, Mister Bubbles, it's an angel!" my little girl exclaims happily. Her voice is wrong. There's some kind of reverb...
And then I remember.
No more sailin'.
The voices fill my head again.
"No! You can't!" I say.
"We need her to save Rapture," a gruff voice insists.
"Don't take her from us!" Janet screams. There's a click, a gun cocking.
"You don't have a choice."
So long, sailin'...
"We need the ADAM," Janet states. "Come on, grab your gun and let's go."
"But she's-"
"Just another freak!" she screams in my face, spitting flicks of saliva on my skin.
Bye bye...
I take the gun and fire one clean shot, directly into her head. The mask shatters, and her blood and brains shoot out the back of her head.
Oh, my captain...
I put the gun to my temple.
This will not be my life.