This all started, when I took HPL-0717, Figment. I could feel it. A bruised purple light blazed in the darkness behind his eyes. Kayden jerked. That, whatever, is inside me! He tried to steady his breathing, and felt the world.

“Don’t run from that which is a part of you,” Astrad breathed words distant and contemplative.

A part of me, he thought with a frown. That is how I know about Chris, Sheila, and Brian. They’re dead! Through lips press thin, a small scream slipped out. It killed them! Kayden gripped his chest, but his body shook, tears slipped out.

“Take control, Dreamer,” Astrad urged, though voice visibly weaker.

“I want to see Jillian,” he begged, and imagined her face.

Kayden seized her memory, when there was hope, future brighter. He had recalled those days, when Jillian was quick to smile. The scent of vanilla brushed over the air, perfume gentle. It mixed with the chemical splash of dish soap, which was an approximation of a meadow. Dishes clattered, sound sharp, and were soon accompanied by the silverware. The ever present decay had been swept away. Balmy day outside was kept at bay by the air conditioner, which hummed at a low drone. Kayden straightened, as the weight was lifted from his shoulders. He now sat; wood of the chair was comfortable. With the salty taste of bacon and eggs was black pepper, his mouth began to water. Just like every morning before work, he thought. The smile, tentative at first, grew a little more firm.

“Work that rough last night?” Jillian asked. “Are you awake?”

Kayden opened his eyes, teased by her voice. A sob slipped out, when he saw her good health. I thought she was on the couch, he thought, but it fled before he could grasp it. “Jillian,” he breathed, and tears burst out. She had recovered from the drugs, which had savaged her body.

“Yeah,” she smiled with a chuckle though frowned.

“I,” he swallowed. Whatever was happening, he knew, it was great to see her healthy again. “I missed you.”

“I came over this morning to talk to you,” Jillian’s smile faded.

“Anything,” he beamed. “I’ll talk about anything! You look amazing!” he laughed, and wiped away tears. Finally, he thought, I helped. Someone I love is happy!

She blushed, “thank you. I have you to tank for my recovery. That time in rehab got real bad.”

“I’m sorry,” he reached for her hand.

She took his, though after a hesitation. “I came over to talk to you about something…important,” Jillian’s eyes slid away from him.

“Anything,” he smiled. It has been a long time, he thought, as the weight lifted from him. So sudden was his misery lightened, he choked back more tears. I thought it’ll never be better! I knew if I worked and planned enough, things could finally turn around.

“I don’t want to get back together,” she looked away from his broad grin, for it was terrible in its hopeful relief.

Kayden’s smile froze, faltered, but he forced it to remain. He blinked, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she let go of his hand.

“It, we were happy together,” Kayden tried to hold her hand, but she withdrew.

His eyes wondered from her, for the room’s brightness had dulled. Cracks had formed like wounds gone gangrenous. Little white worms spilled from them with little screams. Smell of the food had soured. Bacon was burned, meat rotted, and eggs had turned minty green. They stared up at him with twin eyes of malignance. Despite the cloud of decay, sheen of tacky sugar covered the skin. He wiped at it, though it was sticky and greasy.

“That was a long time ago,” she frowned, eyes sparkled, “a lot longer ago than you think.” Jillian crossed her arms, and red lines, thin as razors, raced over her skin.

“Things can be that way again,” he pleaded.

“Kayden, Honey, you have this…need,” she turned eyes away. “You saved me, and you try to save everyone.” Jillian looked at him, “you’re so focused on everyone else, and you never live your life.”

“You’re my life,” he scowled, “all I’ve done was to help you.” He studied her face, but refused to look at the flesh that peeled from her arms.

Her eyes looked through him, lids heavy. “You know we can’t be together,” her skin shifted. A bruised purple spark danced in her eyes.

“Why,” he asked, but cut down a memory, before it could flower.

“Because, I’m dead,” she said, lips slack.

Jillian’s body was lifeless, except for eyes that held an alien light. Veins wiggled free of flesh to pull her up like a marionette. No blood fell, though the tang of an abattoir filled the room. Flayed skin spread from her thin body like great wings. Light lit veins. Tugged up from the chair, her head lolled forward, but eyes rolled towards him. Strings of flesh hooked into the floor and ceiling, which made a crimson web work. Kayden reeled; hands went to his face, though his scream came out as a thin whisper. Jillian’s stomach opened to unveil a maw filled with fangs, tentacles reached out for Kayden. He screamed as she pulled him into the infinite abyss, which swirled where her heart rested.

Through the chaotic dead space of the mad cosmos he tumbled. Cancerous nebula swirled. Fragments of sane reality floated, disconnected though still real, from infinite worlds, and had fallen to machinations of insane truths. In the beginning of Order, there was the Word, but it forced sanity begot an antithesis. As the Word gave meaning and structure, its opposite wailed in hate, so desired to be all and nothing. If it could be all, this madness knew, it could be empty. About Kayden, the revenge of the boundless bedlam spread out without measure. Forever it stretched, for many possibilities had fallen to the predations of Outer Gods. Kayden screamed, and the cosmos laughed.

He slammed into the muck, and mud splattered up. Upon a chunk of earth, the Blackberry Bog of his mind drifted through the endless dead lands of this mad realty. He looked at Hooper’s Cherry, which squatted, rusted to the frame, but its radio flared to beleaguered life. The song of a great pretender resumed from the beginning. Lights of the dash flickered with the hateful laugh of the corrupted star systems. He coughed, tasted pennies, but forced himself to move. Andre’s head breached the swamp’s surface. All the years in the mire had mummified the corpse. Sunken eyes, gimlet with bruised purple light, peered between patches of slimy hair. His smile was adorned with green fungus, and a leech spilled out, where a tooth had been. Cloths clung to the skeletal frame, stained to a midnight hue. This time, Kayden knew, his brother wanted to catch him, but for a lot more than just a word.