Measures: Page 2

I suppose that's not quite accurate. Really, I was more... pushed. Samara's binding spell was canceled, and her other spells sent me flying into the chaos.

Like the worst headache you could possibly imagine, my mind was shattered, for lack of a better word. Each fragment, dragged into a different world. Suddenly, all of my senses were filled with the sensations of rapidly shifting dimensions. The roar, the mental static of it was so strong it snuffed out any resistance I put up against its onslaught.

Each reality took up a small sliver of my perception. Like cracks spreading across ice, only to mend and allow for new fractures to form in their absence. It was madness. There was no order, no pattern, no rhyme or reason. It was just information, flowing around me like an unstoppable wave.

Here an there, I caught glimpses of the worlds my mind briefly inhabited. Most of it was mundane. People living their life, oblivious to their role in my anguish. A boy with a dog, a group of fish in a pond, a thin man in dark clothes standing in the desert. I saw these flashes of peoples lives, but mostly it was just noise

I covered my ears, but it did nothing. The roar of thousands of worlds thundered inside of my skull. I'm not sure whether or not I was screaming. It was insanity. Any though I might have had was instantly eviscerated by the noise. But deep within my mind, a quiet thought **** itself to my consciousness.

"Focus, Valentine!"

That's what Lexi would say. Long nights reading through rituals and enchantments and auras, and she kept me on task even when my mind would wander. She definitely saved my ass back in Forester's classes, and maybe she could save my ass there.

I grit my teeth and fought against the madness. What was it Samara had said? She was telling me to look for something. I fought against the vision of a young girl in a rain storm, pushing through to try and remember what she said.

I took a deep breath, concentrating on my memories despite the roar around me.

Magic. She told me to find a world with magic. The truth of my situation dawned on me. If I was going to get out of there, couldn't just ignored it. I had to use the chaos. I returned my attention to the fluctuating spider web of realities. Immediately, I felt the strain of being pulled in so many directions.

"Focus, Valentine!"

I **** myself to concentrate on the snippet that briefly filled my field of view. I saw a burly bearded man sleeping on a boat. I pushed that scene away, letting another one take it's place. This one was some kind of alien animal digging through the dirt. Again I moved on. With each passing one, the task of managing the noise grew easier. The roar never died down and the mental toll never eased, but it became more bearable in a strange way.

After maybe a dozen planes as mundane as could be, I found something. The snippet I saw showed a primitive war, fought by knights and... Monsters? Icouldn't quite tell what they were. But there was one thing that really caught my eye.

Some kind of hero, unleashing a brilliant beamof light at a huge monster. It was a little archaic but it was magic. I crossed my fingers, begging to the gods that Samara knew what she was talking about.

I focused on that world, desperately keeping it from slipping away. I willed it to grow, pushing away the other visons, until it enveloped me completely. The roar faded, and it was replaced with a gentle breeze. The faint smell of grass filled my nose. I opened my eyes, taking in this new world.