Dream sequencing.

The choices were all tempting, but gaming instinct pushed him to settle on the one bonus with unlimited uses. Increasing the rate at which he gained experience would help him get more powerful spells, as well as more health and mana. He selected Knight's Oath, and the window vanished. It was replaced by an achievement.

Achievement Unlocked! - "Decisions, Decisions"
Select your first variable reward.
+1 Intellect

Well, more mana was certainly welcome. John dismissed the achievement popup and leaned back in his desk chair. The day had been exhausting, to say the least, now that weariness was settling into his bones. He needed rest, and his bed looked awfully inviting... The rest of his tasks, like fixing his armor, they could wait until the morning, couldn't they?

John got out of the chair, stumbling over to his bed and falling into it, further scattering the messy pillows. He grabbed the closest one and dragged it under his head, then reached over to flick off the lights. Several of his interface windows still hovered around, but John couldn't muster the strength to will them closed. Right now... he needed...

In the dark of night, a gleam of metal flitted through the quiet neighborhood. The object paused at the Newman household. It hovered soundlessly near a window and emitted green line of light. The laser swept up and down, searching for something. After several seconds, it moved to the next, avoiding any lit windows or signs of movement. Eventually it stopped outside John's window. Green beams swept the room, and upon finding John, the drone began to record.

Hello, I walk into empty...

Next time, kiddo. See me when you've done your homework.

...hallways tell me, not to hurry...

A thousand, thousand doors. One opens. Full of eyeballs. Another opens. Blackness spills out. Another... and another... and another. Mirrors, silence, a deluge of starving need, all-consuming desire. Burning, blazing, infernal, immortal, brilliant, entangled. Extinguished. Sated.

Hungerconsumefeastdevoureradicategulpingestravageannihilategorgedestroyfeedobliterate.

...caution sends the signal not to...

Time, infinite, instant. A blink. A century. All of everything ever, stretched thin like butter over bread. Just a thin line of reality-unwoven, a ticker-tape of billions of lives lived, over, yet to come. Burning candles, momentary flashes of life. Once and future, past and present, impossible and possible, what is, will be, could be, won't be, shouldn't be...

Breakunraveldissipaterewritefractureevisceratestopreversestartrefreshshattererrorerrorerrorerrorerrorwrong.

...look around the bend and single...

Gasps, moans of pleasured pain. The strangled cry of orgasm denied, thumps of a headboard, fingers digging deep into willing skin, drawing tiny beads of blood and whispered fervent worshipful names. Lust incarnate, twined bodies, gyroscopic motions, featureless faces. Pornographic truths and fictional fantasies. Arms, drawing one in, to be part, to be another in the mess of throbbing heat.

Joinmeldfleshtouchfuseorgyuniterapecopulatereproducepairweaveinterlace.

...out the shadows, whisper through the...

Come. To the mountains. To us.

...twisted corners, waiting silently for hours...

John stood in an empty room with vacant, featureless walls. It was absolutely, overwhelmingly silent... so quiet he could hear his own breath. He took a step, the noise echoing in his close confines. Unsettling. Drawing a calming breath, he approached one wall and felt it out carefully. Concrete... or something similar. Every surface was the same, only shadows differentiated the ceiling from the walls from the floor from the walls... The room was lit, but with a light that had no source.

He walked to another wall, running his fingers along it. More of the same, empty space. He knocked against it, but no sound came out. Not hollow then. Where was he? Observe.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

What the...?

John couldn't remember. How did he get here?

A noise, scraping against stone. He whipped around, but there was nothing. Only a chair, sitting in the center of the room. John turned back to his examination. What was he so afraid of?

It was just a chair.

His heart beat faster.

Just a chair.

His heart skipped a beat.

A..

Chair.

John looked in panic at the emptiness in the heart of the room. Had there been something there? Why was he so afraid? Besides, why was he still here?

He turned back around and opened the door in the wall, stepping out of the room into a lush jungle. No birds sang, no sounds whispered through the air save the ever-present rain. It poured down and spattered against the covering of leaves above him. There was a path before him, so John followed it. Why not? Clearly it was here for him.

The trail led past a great, gnarled tree, whose many branches reached up past the green roof of the jungle and into who-knows-where. John liked the tree, it was intriguing. He stepped over a root and reached a split in the path. Where to go now? Both were obviously here, but... one was better. Right?

"John..." a female voice called weakly from the left branch.

He turned towards it, following the faint sound of his name through the brush and hanging vines. Something about all this felt familiar, had he been here before? Why was his heart pounding? His boots caused little splashes as they trudged through the mud. The ferns were dyed a darkening crimson. Water dripped off them in a shower of red.

John pushed through a curtain of ferns to enter a clearing with a stone pillar in the center. Glistening rubies of all shades were embedded within it and cast a red haze across the grass. There was someone lying in it a few feet away.

He froze. It was Erica! He ran across the clearing to the prone girl's side, kneeling in the muck. Instantly, his clothes began to stain red from the light... or the blood. She was dying, injuries overwhelming her, and John could do nothing. He looked around frantically, trying desperately to think of something. Anything! Nothing.

30/500
24/500

Second by second, her health dropped, plunging towards that absolute, unavoidable zero. His fingers pressed to her bloodied side. Pressure, pressure could stop the bleeding, he just needed to... his hands were ripped away, pulled back by invisible **** to his sides. Erica coughed weakly, breaths coming in ragged bursts.

22/500
17/500

John was frozen, his body unable to move no matter how much he struggled, no matter how much he wanted to scream, no matter how much his eyes burned with tears. The crimson stains soaked into his fingers, his skin. Everything that was John Newman.

3/500
2/500
1/500

0

...watching every move and shiver, with eyes that glitter...

John woke up to the sound of his phone's alarm, gasping heavily. Vague, hazy images of his dreams lurked at the back of his mind, quickly burning away with the fading haze of sleep. The room was still dark, the sunlight only starting to peek over the horizon. He rolled over and stared dully at his bedside clock: 7:20. Right... he'd set an alarm before passing out, to finish the things left over from yesterday.

Pulling himself out of bed was absolute agony, with the warm sheets threatening to reclaim him at any second if he let them. Yet, he persisted. There was work to be done and a new day to face.

Love...