AN: For a friend. The first in a notebook I hope to be brimming with fanfictions soon. Here's to hoping this gets a
title some day. Also, please excuse any misspelled words or grammatical errors; I'm afraid WordPad doesn't have
spell check.
Untitled #1
After the game, almost everything had gone back to normal. But Dave had changed. He couldn't sleep anymore. Countless nights were spent wide-awake, staring at the wall or ceiling through tinted glass in hopes of falling back into a sleep undisturbed by nightmares.
It never found him.
He lie there, night after night, heart pounding, body feeling like it was still in LOHAC, heat burning up his spine in a feverish conquest. Fire, heat, is was everywhere, sufficating him. God, why was it so hot? No matter how low Dave cranked the AC, the heat was always there, smoldering at the edges of his being until he was whittled away to ash. And the nightmares were definitely not helping. They were all red. Shades of it burning and dripping and searing together in a mottled slurry of blood and fire. Who's blood? He had no clues. The roaring of flames was punctuated by gunshots and scream of agony.
And ticking. Always ticking. The ticking of time wasting away as the screams got louder. Closer. That dull pulse was always ringing in one ear, a constant reminder eating away at the back of his mind. Where were his time-tables anyway? They could stop the ticking; stop time completely. Maybe then he could finally rest.
But his time-tables were gone, and so he spent dusk to dawn escaping his nightmares in the waking world.
In contrast, his days were just about the same as ever in his tiny Texas appartment. He and Bro still had weekly hashrap battles on the roof, which he could never quite win. The house was still full of those creepy-ass puppets and his fridge full of a cascade of swords. He still owned at video games and he never stopped making music; though the turntables didn't feel quite right after his escapade in Skaia and they probably never would. Everything was new and different, but still somehow the same.
So, shades protecting his eyes from the brightness of the new world he helped create, Dave dove headfirst into his second chance at life. It would never be quite the same as what he had before, but he wouldn't have it any other way.