I remembered my last moments in what was my last anchor to reality. I was firing away with my battle rifle when I felt a sudden tug, away from everyone. No one was turned towards me to help, or to hear my attempt to scream for help, drowned out by the yellowish void I was sucked into. I felt as if my body had been compressed into a tennis ball, and then ripped apart into millions of pieces, finally resurfacing as a whole body. I came to my senses in a place I hadn't seen in 15 years. My home. Everything seemed a bit off though, out of place, almost out of focus.

I brushed it aside and looked at my surroundings. everything was bigger too, now that I looked at it. The wooden floors and forest green painted walls of my dining room were evident. I looked down and saw I was no longer in armor, but merely a pair of cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Everything was beginning to seem stranger by the second. I realized now everything else wasn't larger, but that I was smaller, the size of a normal human. And I was wearing what used to be my favorite shirt,a graphic tee with a picture of a Green SPARTAN duel wielding SMG's. I stretched out the shirt and looked down at it. My arms were skinny, not muscled much at all. I slid my chair out and stood up, just as my parents walked in carrying plates and food.

"Food's ready Jordan!" piped off my mom.

I stared at her with a dumbfounded look before sitting back down cautiously.

"Everything alright son? You look like you've seen a ghost." said my dad with a chuckle.

I remained silent as a plate was sat in front of me, piled high with portions of my favorite food. I shook my head to myself.

"This isn't real." I whispered.

No one seemed to notice. I stood from my chair again, both of my "parents" watching me curiously.

"This isn't real, neither of you are real!" I said, becoming defensive.

My mom seemed offended, my father seeming concerned.

"What do you mean son? We're both perfectly real." he said, his eyes seeming genuinely caring.

I balled my fists and closed my eyes and willed it to go away. I pushed the images away to the darkest recesses of my mind and tried to push the fake reality in front of me out of existence.

I timidly opened my eyes and saw the same dining room table, the same walls and shelves. There were no more parents, and everything seemed darker, mustier. There was a certain filth to the air. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet and i remembered. I remembered what happened on this day. I suddenly wished I hadn't willed the first image away. I felt my feet move beneath me and force me forward though I had no say in the matter. I knew where I was going but i didn't want to go, didn't want to relive the events of this terrible terrible day. My feet shifted to a sprint, my arms pumping rhythmically though I attempted to stop them. I couldn't close my eyes, couldn't move my mouth. I was a spectator to my own life, watching the exact events unfold from which had already been unfolded. I busted into my parents bedroom, my younger brother David appearing behind me, his smaller forearm wrapped in my hand. I shoved him into the closet, a whimper escaping his lips before my feet drove me into action once more. I grabbed the black steel knife from my parents bedroom drawer and ran downstairs. I was returning to try and help barricade the door, this is, before I heard a crack of wood and the whirr of a plasma blade. My mind knew what was happening, but my former body didn't so it ran into the room and saw what had unfolded. There, my mother was lain across the ground, slaughtered like a pig. she hadn't even any time to scream. My father was of course out leading the defensive, him being a captain, though this was one of the more unimportant details to me.I felt the knife tremble in my hand and my blood boil all over again as fear slowly shook out of me and was replaced by a violent rage.

My fingers wrapped tightly around the form fitted blade before i grit my teeth, closed my eyes and fought back the tears before opening them once more to see the elite zealot, as I now knew it, with it's back towards me.

I let out a pained battle cry and leaped atop the elite's back. It worted in surprise as I dug the cold black steel into the flesh of it's neck. I twisted and yanked the knife out, covered in purple blood. I was thrown from his back and into the nearest wall, the shelves falling from the drywall and onto the floor below. I stood again, dusting off debris from the shattered sheetrock and charged the elite. He let out a laugh and sliced upwards with his sword, trailing a long, burning scar up my face. I cried out in agony as my skin was seared and torn through, my nose missing a large chunk from the bridge. I felt every feeling of pain without the assistance of an adrenaline rush but my body, seemingly possessed, continued. The elites sword flickered and died and as it struggled to remove the plasma rifle from its holster I charged him. I flicked the knife over in my hand and prepared to swing. I swung upwards, just as I was caught just below the chin by the elite's arm, sending me sprawling back once more. I had expected to bleed by now, I remembered that much. I was lucky, now that I realize it, that the plasma cauterized my wound.

I felt the familiar absence of the knife, being yanked from my hand as I was flung across the room. I also heard the familiar thud of the elite's body hitting the floor as it died from the knife that had been shoved up through its chin. I yanked the knife from the elite's skull and yanked my shirt off. I wrapped it around my face, letting one eye be free to let me see. The shirt pressed tightly against my face gave me some relief but not much. I sprinted back to get David and didn't allow him to see my face. I forced him through the windows despite his cries to wait for Mum. As he plopped to the ground I came out next, rolling into the stepping onto the ground and running through the devastated city, all the way until we found the first pelican evac there was. I could do nothing to ease David's crying as the city turned into a spec behind us.

All this time I was reliving my painful past instead of accepting the sweet lie, I was unaware of the situation I was actually in. In a room, surrounded by 8 filled and 4 unused cryopods not including my own. Out of the 8 that lie in cryosleep, I was one of the only three who seemed pained through the glass. Somewhere not too far in the distance a promethean night let out a shriek.