Chapter 23
Dashed found himself lying on the ground in a strange room, it was thick with a mist, the mist was a corroded orange color, it just seemed…unclean. The room itself was circular and extremely massive, it could easily been two or three acres wide, it was lit by a dozen lights all barely able to shine down a dirty light that made it hard able to see. He looked down and observed the pattern on the floor. The floor looked like a massive spoke, but it only had three legs, each perfectly spread apart. All three spokes looked the same, a covering of darker orange on the outside, a middle of an evil red, and a black thin black stripe going down the middle. Each spoke led to a door, each one was pure steel and it appeared that there was no way of opening them. Each one had a different symbol on it, the first one he saw and a pair of fox eyes, the second one had a paw on it, the last one had a…certain part of the male anatomy on it. He looked up and saw there was no ceiling, only a black abyss that swallowed up the top. The walls were the color of aged concrete and on them were pillars of rusted metal. The most disturbing thing about the room was the pillar of black smoke that surrounded the very middle of the room, it was about ten feet in diameter and it seemed to be hiding something. The pillar was swirling and churning for some unknown purpose, Dashed got the feeling he was going to find out what was behind that wall of smoke, and he didn’t exactly like that idea. He knew he was back inside his mind, but this time it was different. The only way to describe it was a lucid dream, but in a way it wasn’t, he knew he was dreaming, but he couldn’t do all the things he could normally do in a dream, such a fly or create things out of mid-air, or push his finger through his palm. He was limited to what his body could do in reality although he had one big advantage to last time he was here, before whenever he would go into a memory he would get lost in it; this time he was in control and that alone could make all the difference.

All of a sudden one of the doors screeched open, he put his hands to his ears but it didn’t help drowned out the noise. After the screeching ended he looked to the source and saw the door with the paw on it opened up. He swallowed and walked towards it. He carefully approached the door, there was a strong cold wind blowing out of it and there was a slight hint of sulfur in the wind. It was complete blackness on the other side and Dashed swore he heard voices on the other side of the door. He got to the very edge of the door and got on his hands and knees. He tried placing a hand on the floor of the door to get a better idea of what was on the other side and didn’t feel anything. He put his hand lower and lower until he discovered that there wasn’t a floor, it was a straight pitfall into who-knows-what. He stood up, took a deep breath, spread his arms out and fell forward. As he fell he could feel the coldness covering his body, his extremities were going numb and his eyes stung from the wind. He looked down and saw a strange redness that was growing and growing, he didn’t even have time to think as he noticed the temperature rise quickly. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw that there were flames at the bottom of the pit, he tried to grab onto the walls around him only to realize that he couldn’t move. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable burning, he waited and waited, and waited some more before yelling, “Come on how long is it going to take?”
“What are you saying? We’re there.” a pretty voice beside him said.
He opened his eyes and found himself in the passenger seat of a two door car, he looked to his left and saw Olivia. She was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and was a pair of blue jeans. He looked around and saw that they were there. Finally after months of waiting the comic convention came to town and they had VIP passed thanks to Olivia’s dad. He smiled at Olivia knowing there was no place he would rather be. He got out of the car and walked towards the convention center. Olivia walked up to his and held her hand. He had a slight feeling of unease though, he didn’t know what it was. It felt like there was something he was supposed to do, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember what it was. He walked down when he heard in the back of his head, barely audible, “Remember Carla, don’t let her down.”
Dashed shook his head and thought, “I’m going to need to get a stronger dose of meds, that damn voice is back again.” as he walked into the convention center.


What will happen? Will dashed remember why he's there? Will Carla end up killing him? When will he wake up? and most importently...WHY DON'T i HAVE ANY PANTS ON!?! To find out tune in next week on The Wasteland