“What the fuck....?”

I was just confused, plain and simple. I’d opened my eyes a minute ago, and found myself in this big, empty... room? I couldn’t tell, honestly. It was completely black all around, and I couldn’t see any walls, or a ceiling, hell not even a floor. I was pretty much just standing on nothing.

“....”

I froze and stared ahead. I could have sworn I just heard... something. I had no idea what it was, but I definitely heard it.

“....”

I felt my eye twitch slightly at the sound. Whatever the fuck it was, it wasn’t nice.

“....”

“What the fuck is....” I stopped mid sentence as I felt myself walking forward. “What the fuck am I doing?” Trying as hard as I could, I couldn’t stop myself, and I just kept walking through the empty, black space.

“....”

There it is again, what the fuck is it? I jumped slightly, still walking, as I was startled having heard my thoughts echo around me, even though I didn’t say them out loud. “What the fuck is going on?”

“...!”

I closed my eyes and grabbed the sides of my head, “Gah, what the fuck!?” The sound, which I still couldn’t identify, was a lot fucking louder, and it felt like my eardrums were.... “What the... fuck...?” I stared down at my hands, having pulled them away, finding them drenched in blood. Frantically reaching at my ears, I felt that they were covered in the stuff as well.

What the fuck is this!?

“Ah, what the fuck!?” I closed my eyes and grasped my head again, as my thought echoed through the space again, only this time it sounded both incredibly loud, and really muted and distorted as well, sounding much deeper than before.

I opened my eyes and looked down, as I felt myself walking even faster. Sure enough, I was walking at least twice as fast as before, and I could see that large bloodstains were leaking down from my head to my body, covering my clothes in blood, and leaving a trail behind me.

“...!”

“God dammit, what the fuck is that!?” I shouted, pretty much almost crushing my head with how I hard I was trying to block my ears from the sound.

-Crack-

I opened my eye just slightly and looked to where the sound came from, and what I saw made me open my eye fully, staring at what had just happened. A large “piece” of whatever the fuck the space was made of had a line of red cracks going through it, and it started to fall apart.

-Crack-

More cracks appeared all over the place, quickly appearing and spreading across the space. That’s when I noticed that they weren’t just spreading everywhere, they were spreading to the space in front of me, and I could see that I was approaching them fast.

-Crack-

I stared in horror at a larger piece that fell away. Behind the black... wall that made up the space, was a giant swirling mass of black and red, that started to come into the space as more and more pieces fell off of the wall.

“What the f- aah!” I grabbed my head and started screaming as I ran forward. A strange, evil sounding screech just started up from fucking nowhere, and it felt like someone was stabbing the insides of my ears with hundreds of needles.

“...!”

The unidentifiable sound was even louder now, and mixed with the screeching it sounded like an audible version of what Hell probably sounds like.

“Gah... what the f- ah!” I cringed and arched forward a bit as the black and red stuff from outside reached me. As soon as it touched me, the scars on my body, wherever it touched, suddenly split open, and blood started pouring out of them. The worst part was that I could actually feel it.

Then, the stuff touched my left eye socket, and I screamed in pain as I could feel blood start to gush out of it and fall down my face, followed by several other scars opening around it.

“F-fuck- ah...!” I screamed again, this time in pain and fear, as the stuff touched the burn scar on my right cheek, and I felt it light up. It didn’t light up in pain, though, it actually caught fire, I could feel it burning my face.

“...!” I couldn’t even make any words as the stuff hit the huge burn scars on my back and left shoulder, as well as the numerous other scars I had on my body. Somehow I was still running, though I realized I had passed the “wall” long ago, and I was just running through an endless cloud of the black and red stuff.

“...!” Every last one of my scars was open and bleeding, and any burn scars I had were on fire, and the stuff surrounding me just made them hurt even more. I couldn’t tell if I was crying, or just bleeding from my eyes, but it was probably both by this point.

“....”

Without warning, everything stopped. I stopped running and stood still, the black and red stuff disappeared, the bleeding stopped though the scars were still open, the fires went away, and I was left in complete blackness again.

“....”

I heard the noise again, and I walked forward against my will. I then looked down at the floor, still without control of my body, and I saw something sitting there. On top of a probably foot-tall wood podium was a small, white wooden box. The box was stained with fresh blood, as was the podium, and the entire thing was bound in large, rusted chains and padlocks, which were covered in blood too.

“...!”

For whatever reason, I started to reach for the chains. I don’t know why, but I could tell that wasn’t what I should do, that something bad would happen if I did anything to them, but I still had no control over my body.

“....”

What...? I didn’t flinch at that thought, as it didn’t echo like last time, thankfully. But aside from that, I could have sworn I heard something that time. It sounded like a voice, but I couldn’t make out what it said.

“...!”

Again, I heard it, but I still couldn’t make it out. It was just loud enough, now, for me to tell it was a voice, but quiet enough that I couldn’t make out what it said.

My hand was just inches from the chains when a loud, maniacal voice screamed from the box, “DO IT!”

“Don’t!” I was suddenly pulled back from the box at the shout, and instantly everything around me changed, and my open wounds closed.

Looking around, having fallen on my ass, I saw that the blackness of the space was gone, and instead was replaced by white. I looked down, and instead of the small, chain wrapped podium and box, there was a table and two chairs in front of me.

I heard a male voice say, “Here, let me help you up.” A black gloved hand appeared in front of my face, attached to a black sleeved arm. I blinked, then grabbed the hand, and I was swiftly pulled to my feet.

“Thanks....” I said, looking from the hand, up the arm, and to the person it belonged to. It was a man, with tanned, dirty skin and a brunette beard and long hair of the same color. He was wearing a black hat, sunglasses, and a black coat, pretty much covering everything except his nose.

“No problem.” He let go of my hand and walked over to the far side of the table, sitting in the chair and motioning to the one in front of me, “Pleases, sit. We’ve got one or two things to talk about.”

“Al... right.” I sat down, staring at him cautiously. For whatever reason, I got a really weird feeling from the guy, like I should know him or something.

“Long story short,” he said, getting my attention, “this is a dream.”

“Uh....” I stared at him blankly, “I’m actually not surprised.”

“Hm,” he chuckled, “I knew you wouldn’t be. But, more seriously, I’m not part of the dream. I’m real, more or less.”

“Uh....” I gave him another blank stare, “Okay, now I’m surprised.”

He laughed again, “I knew you’d be surprised about that, though.” He shrugged, “It’s not that hard to explain though. It’s just a few runes placed on your head, connected to ones on my physical body’s head, linking our minds together.” He sighed, “I can’t really get into the details of how that works, honestly, I’m not good with that sort of thing, I just applied the runes and hit the “on” button, as it were.”

“Oh... kay.... I’ll just take your word for it.” I frowned and stared at him and asked, “So... what is it we need to talk about? Who are you, anyway?” I should probably be more confused and questioning what’s going on, but I’m dead, in a world that doesn’t make sense, I’m in love with a sentient pony, and I’m currently in bed next to my own clone. I really don’t think I have a right to question things anymore.

“My name,” he said with a nod, “is Ultimatum. I’m sure Death told you about me?”

My eyes widened in surprise, “Wait, you’re that Ultimatum guy, the one that found the Nobody!? I-”

“Aon Duine.”

“I- what?” I stared at him, confused.

“Aon Duine, her name’s Aon Duine.” He said, sounding slightly upset.

“Um... how’d you know that? Or, how come she didn’t tell us?” I asked.

He shrugged again, “She probably just forgot to tell you.”

“I... okay, but where’d she even get that name from? I didn’t think they named the clones back... there.”

He waved a hand, “Forget it, it’s not that important. What is important has to do with that box you saw earlier, and it’s what I wanted to talk about.”

I stared at him, scratching the side of my head in confusion, but I nodded, “Alright, go on, I guess. I’m listening.”

“I can’t divulge too much about it, unfortunately,” he sighed heavily, “but I can say this; do not, under any circumstances, think of, or consider anything regarding what that box is, what it’s there for, or what’s inside it. It will only end badly for you.”

Well that should be easy enough. I mean, I could tell that box was something bad, and I wasn’t exactly wanting to open it. Actually.... “How do I do that?”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“Well...” I looked around the white space, “I didn’t exactly know about it before, but it was still there, and I couldn’t exactly control myself at all, until you came in.”

“That’s actually pretty easy,” he said, catching my full attention, “because now that you know it’s here, you can block it from your mind. It was simply presenting itself to you for the first time, and because of that, it had total control over what happened; Hell, it will every time it appears. But, now that you know it exists, just don’t think about it before you sleep, or if you ever end up like this again, where you’re able to think clearly in a dream.”

“Can... can I even do that?” I honestly don’t think I have the mental control or capacity for that sort of thing.

He smiled, reaching over the table to give me a pat on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, it’s a lot easier than you think. I had to do something a bit similar... well okay, it was a totally different situation, but I had to block a few thoughts nonetheless. Trust me, it’s pretty easy to do.”

I stared at him for a few seconds, considering what he said. I wasn’t sure if I could really trust him, Hell I’d only just met the guy! But... he did find the clone, and brought her to Death to make sure she was safe, and he stopped that... whatever the hell that box was..... Yeah, I think I can trust him on this, at least. I mean- wait. Holy shit, I think that’s the first time I actually fucking thought of something rationally. Jesus Christ that’s weird.

I nodded, “Alright, I guess I can do that, if it’s easy like you said.”

He grinned in response, “Good on ya.” He gave my shoulder a few more, oddly reassuring pats, then leaned back and stood from his chair, stretching and saying, “Well, I think it’s time I get out of here. I should let you get your rest; plus I’m needed back at my workplace. We, and by we I mean “I”, have a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it.”

“Alright....” I stood up as well, and stuck out my hand, “It was nice meeting you, I guess, and thanks for the help.”

He smiled softly and grasped my hand, giving it a firm shake, “Nice to meet you too, and no problem.” Still holding onto my hand, he started to fade away, right before my eyes, “I’ll see you sometime later, Sarah. Goodbye.”

“Bye....” Just as I said that, he faded completely, and I let my arm fall to my side. “Well then,” I said, rocking on my feet and swinging my arms back and forth, “should I wake up or-”

        “Oh.” I found myself staring up at the ceiling, in my bed. Apparently it wasn’t my choice to wake up after that. I yawned, “Well that was weird.”

Looking around the room, I noticed it had gotten dark outside, as the window was open, giving me a clear view of the night. I just stared out the window for a few minutes, not really thinking anything, when a whimper from beside me, on the bed, caught my attention.

“What the...?” Looking down to my side, I saw that the Nobody... Aon Duine was her name, was curled up beside me, and seemed to be crying in her sleep. Guess I’m not the only one having a bad dream....

I sighed, staring down at her, then layed back down next to her, pulling the blanket up and wrapping it, and my arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to me, her head pressed up under my chin.

I yawned again, chuckling slightly, “Huh... reminds me a bit of when Mary first came back....”

With that thought in mind, and with... Aon Duine lying next to me, no longer whimpering, I slowly fell asleep again, hoping for no more nightmares.

Next Chapter: As the World Turns- Act I, Pt. VII: But I wish it would stop, and let me off right now Estimated time remaining: 23 Minutes