Eli awakes with a start, a breathless gasp bursting violently from his lips as the memories of blood and mangled flesh remain ripe within his mind. He trembles, the fear of reliving the nightmare, this time without the protection of absolute calmness, filling him with panic and terror. In the nightmare he was the one that held the gun. He was the one that mowed down the men and women without listening to their cries or pleading. In the end, he was the one that put a bullet in his brain, unable to withstand the guilt of committing such a meaningless crime.

He raises his hands to his face. His fingertips are cold, like solid ice. His back aches from sitting against the wall all night and his limbs feel stiff and immovable. Peeking through his fingers, his eyes fall upon the black case. It lies horizontally against the floor, covered in a thin layer of dust that must have appeared while he was sleeping. Even a glance at the guitar conjures the screams of the damned, so he immediately looks away, instead directing his gaze to the bed, where he sees similarly tired eyes looking back at him.

It seems Audrey has just woken up, as her tired eyes stare uncomprehendingly at Eli. Her confusion as to what is happening is obvious at a glance. That, or she’s been awake for a while now and is confused by his sudden violent awakening, but he immediately discards that theory simply based on the fact that he’s still in possession of the guitar. Looking away, he glances towards the window, only to see the icy gray of morning just beginning to rise. Based on how late he arrived last night, he can only guess that he’s gotten less than three hours of sleep. Stifling a yawn, he straightens his back, gesturing towards the guitar with his stiff, delayed hands. A smile curves his lips upwards in an expression of pride. The look is oddly saddening when paired with his bone weary face.

“I got your guitar back for you, Audrey. Sorry I didn’t wake you up, I kinda fell asleep as soon as I got here.”

Exceeding Eli’s expectations, Audrey doesn’t react. Instead, she simply stares blankly at him, her confusion only growing and growing. Feeling a bit awkward, Eli raises a pale hand and scratches his head, his tangled mess of hair knotted and clumped together. With all the running around he did yesterday he’s exceptionally dirty. He’s sure he doesn’t smell the best either, so he makes a note to take a bath after he finishes up with this. Despite his seemingly relaxed thoughts, doubt is constantly growing within Eli’s churning brain. Audrey’s unwavering eyes scrutinize his every movement. Her face is entirely lacking in emotion, not even the faintest glimmer of gratitude can be found within the depths of her gaze. All of a sudden, her voice whispers from her lips, a horse croak that rings with disbelief.

“What have you done…?”

“...?!”

Panic fills Eli’s face as confusion surfaces within his eyes. He watches in shock as Audrey’s face scrunches up, her trembling fingers raising to press against her temples. She sits up. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut a few droplets of tears trail down her cheeks. Her expression warps into one of pain. Silence reigns supreme in the small bedroom, but to Audrey, her world at present sounds like the echoes of a warzone. Sirens blare in her ears, the incessant ringing drawing out her thoughts, leaving only terror in it’s place. She shakes her head, trying to escape from the piercing sounds of gunfire, of the bug-like buzzing of planes, of the soul grating screams of hundreds. The ringing has never once sounded this distinct and vivid.

She stands. Her body wobbles, incapable of maintaining its balance. She collapses on the bed. Eli dumbly notes that her wrinkled clothes are the same as yesterdays. More tears stream down her cheeks as the pain becomes unbearable, the noise grows louder and louder with every passing second, like a rising tide. Panic swiftly mutates into desperation as her body instinctively jolts upright. With staccato footsteps, Audrey escapes, almost tripping over the sprawled Eli in her frantic movements. Her eyes are wild with fear, the memories of the various events in her past rearing up once again. She knows by instinct at this point what these sounds mean. She may not understand the situation, but those sounds hold only one truth.

Danger! Danger is coming!

A future filled with pain and suffering is on the horizon, that much can be discerned from the sounds of war that rip through her mind, pushing her to the brink of insanity. Eyes white with fear she rushes down the hallway, footsteps banging harshly against the floor in a lopsided pattern. Audrey flees like an animal. At present she’s nothing more than a creature of instinct, a scared little girl that grew up relying on this power of hers with an almost religious devotion. More than anything else, she trusts this ability of hers. It is a force that has been with her since her birth, guiding her down the path that avoids immediate danger. Far from thinking about the outcome, whenever such a sound arises, the thing she must do is give in to her instincts. Especially so when it’s giving such a vivid warning.

And so, she runs.

She careens down the stairs, nearly twisting her ankle in the process. Falling to the ground, she catches herself with her hands. She pushes up to right herself with hurried, disorganized grasping, only to trip over her own legs with a heavy thud. Behind her, she hears Eli gasping behind her as he drags his exhausted body after her, bafflement written in his expression.

“Audrey! What’s wrong?!”

Rather than answer him, her response is to flee, to escape the cage that confines her, to rid herself of the deafening ringing, to shut her mind down and give in to her terror Despite her intentions, however, all she can manage is a light whimper as the madness steadily draws nearer, like the ticking of a clock, pinning her to the ground in pain. She doesn’t know when the future will arrive, she’ll never know for sure, but going by the sheer loudness of it, she guesses there’s less than an hour until her world erupts into agony and chaos.

“T-There’s not enough time! There’s not enough time!”

Her screeches of pain and terror shock Eli to his core. All he can do is stumble down the stairs, tripping down them in his rush. He flies forward from his momentum. His foot fails to properly catch itself, causing it to bend painfully as he crashes headfirst into the wall. Eli cries out in pain, which only heightens Audrey’s panic. She finally manages to get to her feet, at which point she bolts to the door. With no other option, Eli desperately lunges, arms stretched out, fingers splayed.

“Ugh!?”

Audrey tilts backwards, her shirt pulling against her throat, causing her to let out a strangled cry of shock. Her legs fly out from beneath her. She violently crashes to the ground, landing on her back. Her breath gets knocked out of her and she lets out coughing gasps, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes red from fear as the pain continues to grow. It drills into her head, leaving her wailing in shock as the knowledge of the future begins to eat away at her mind.

“AHHHHHHHH!”

Terrified, Eli hurriedly lets go, worried that her fall might have broken something. His heart pulses unpleasantly within his chest. He tries his best to do whatever he can to provide for the ones he cares about, injuring them is the last thing he wishes to do. In the face of Audrey’s screaming, Eli remembers his desperate mind as he attempted to strangle his mother to death. It’s that very same pained wailing of despair, of a mind pushed to its absolute limits, that now rings in his ears. His insides squirm. Forcing down the sickening revulsions, Eli tries his best to remain as rational as possible, incapable of being truly calm but trying his hardest to not slip into absolute misery.

“Audrey! What’s wrong with you?! What’s wrong?!”

“AHHHHH! WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHYYY!?”

Far from receiving an answer, he’s left with even more confusion. As if capitalizing on his moment of inattention and shock, Audrey scrambles to her knees. She chews on her lips until they bleed. Anything to simply draw her mind away from the knells of insanity that blister her brain and swell her spirit. She doesn’t bother putting on her shoes as she crashes into the door, trembling fingers scratching at the locks. Just as Eli is struggling to his feet, his face contorted in pain, the door opens with a vicious yank. In the blink of an eye, she’s gone. Vanished like a puff of smoke. A magic show with an audience of one.

“...”

Dumbfounded.

“...!”

Terrified.

“?!”

And most of all, concerned.

“Audrey!”

Once again, he tries to follow after her. His screams of pain burst instinctively from his lips as he steps forward only to collapse to the ground in pain. With how violently he fell, there’s a possibility that his ankle is now broken. At present, however, his own pain doesn’t even register as anything more than a warning. He scrambles forward. His body scrapes against the ground as he crawls to the door. Reaching the cracked door, he yanks it fully open, hoping with all his heart to see Audrey waiting for him at the gate, a playful smile on her lips. Instead, all he sees is an empty street, completely void of human life. The fog is rather heavy today.

It is then that he hears the low hum of an approaching plane in the far-off distance.