8th May, 2010
The space in which Anathkash Dakari sat was a perfect example of abject squalor. The floor was strewn with empty food cartons, sheets of paper and various items of clothing, all black. So dense was the layer of dark attire on the floor one would be forgiven for thinking there was a black carpet down. Sadly, the floor was unadorned by any such luxury. It was almost a shame that the walls were not in a similar state of misleading disarray, though were Dakari's litter able to defy gravity then they may well have been.
Dakari lifted his pen from the page to appraise his work - perfect, by his own estimation. The strange glyphs he had inscribed upon the thick writing paper were known only to him, and with that there was no fear of anyone getting their hands on the specific instructions provided by Mister Ravion. Were that to happen before his task had been completed Dakari could potentially be in a lot of trouble, not just from the law, either. Should an agent of the Betrayer learn of Mister Ravion's plans before its execution...
It didn't bear thinking about.
The bearded man ducked under the sloping roof as he slid out of the tattered office chair at his desk and plunged into the duffel bag on the floor, adding plastic bags filled with miscellaneous junk and yet more clothing to the eighty-something square feet of black debris around him. Once the perfunctory distribution of the bag's contents ceased, Dakari then turned to the mattress at his right and flipped it onto its side. One of the floorboards beneath yielded to his touch, allowing him to reach inside to withdraw a heavy cloth bag that clattered noisily as he placed it down beside himself, allowing the mattress to hit the floor with a soggy thump.
Dakari smiled. This was exactly what he needed.
-#-
Date unknown
I made it.
His mouth echoed the words in his head, though no sound escaped his lips. The wanderer didn't want to speak too soon, though the relief made celebrating his freedom at the top of his lungs a powerful temptation. He settled for not coughing up so much dust his lungs came out to visit.
The wanderer realised that there wasn't too much to get excited about. There was every possibility that he'd simply traded one exhausting prison for another, that he'd stepped out of the dusty wasteland and into a tarmac wasteland instead. Beneath his feet, the sturdiness of asphalt felt unusual after becoming accustomed to the sandy dirt he'd been walking on for what felt like weeks.
Solid ground. What a peculiar thing to miss.
No crunching of bones with every step he took, no more did crowds of the dead gather around to watch him struggle, to watch him suffer as he dragged himself step by step towards what he could only assume was his goal. The uncertainty was what he hated the most; not knowing where he was going, nor what he'd find when he got there was frustrating, more so when even getting there was such a monumental task.
This was the next leg of his challenge. As with all things in his life, he would see this through to the end.
He resumed his journey.
-#-
9th May, 2010
Sleep had crept up on Dakari in the usual swift, unexpected manner that it saves for those who do not seek it. The candles on his desk had burned away to nothing, and so when he awoke he did so to complete darkness. The hard floor beneath him felt unusually cold, he observed as he lifted himself from it, wary of banging his head on the sloping ceiling. Completely disoriented, Dakari reached out but felt no ceiling, no walls and no furniture. A cool breeze washed over him and with it came the sinking feeling of dread - he was not where he thought he was.
Fumbling in the darkness, Dakari withdrew his cell phone from his pocket and switched it on. He was not surprised when the device displayed no signal, though it would do as a makeshift torch. In front of him he discovered some sort of metal barrier, fastened to the ground by steel and concrete. Painted lines alongside it suggested that he was on a road. Confirmation of this came in the form of a set of headlights illuminating the whole area around him, a large vehicle heading towards him. Dakari blocked the light from his eyes with one hand, the other waving to catch the driver's attention.
The lorry sped past on the other side of the barrier, the driver grinning wildly at him as he passed by.
With a sigh, Dakari brushed his greasy hair from his face and considered his next move. His surroundings were so surreal he didn't believe he was really there, but the dirt from the ground he brushed off his face was remarkably vivid.
The screech of tyres along the road snatched his attention. He saw another set of headlights blotted out by the lorry as it smashed through the barrier and into the path of the other car.
Impact.
Of the headlights he'd seen, only one remained and it spun in the air with the car to which it belonged before slamming into the ground and rolling onto its side.
Dakari ran towards the commotion, but deep down he knew there was nothing he could do. The orange glow of flames from the car guided him along the road as he jogged towards the wreckage.
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you
The sound of the car's radio reached Dakari's ears and he instantly recognised it from a dream he had thought nothing of weeks ago. The relevance of all this was still unknown to him, but what he did know was that three people were killed in the crash - a young couple and their baby son. Four, counting the pregnant woman's unborn child. As Dakari approached the upside-down old Escort, he could hear a baby's cries, weak and desperate, but the boy was alive in there. He sprinted the rest of the way, sliding down beside the car and looking in through the windows.
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live--fzzzt
The radio died. With it, the baby's cries ceased. Dakari frantically aimed the light from his phone into every nook and cranny in the stricken car but it was completely vacant. No baby and no parents. No corpses; nothing.
This had to be a dream.
"YOU!" roared a voice from the darkness.
Dakari leapt to his feet in surprise, his phone doing little to reveal the identity of the shadow looming over him. An unseen kick sent the phone skittering into oblivion; a second attack, aimed at Dakari's head was telegraphed by instinct and deflected. The young man darted back out of reach and awaited the charge. It came, but with minimal warning; his attacker driving a shoulder into his gut and lifting him into the air with ease, though Dakari was able to land on his feet instead of being slammed onto his back. Two savage knees to the face sent his attacker reeling, though he didn't wait to come back for more, landing a fist in Dakari's face. A second, swift though it was, was too predictable for the expert martial artist. He caught the fist and stepped past it, smashing his attacker in the face with an elbow-headbutt combination.
He heard the man flop to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Had I not walked a thousand miles I'd have fucking killed you by now," the assailant growled from the ground, spitting somewhere.
"But why? I don't even know who you are," Dakari replied, confused as to the identity of the stranger.
"I forget, you don't see as I do."
"What do you want from me?"
"What do I want?!" the man shouted. "I want revenge! I was in control until you interfered, until you fucked everything up for me! You and that fucking book, you wouldn't leave me alone..." A long sigh came from the ground where the man still sat, seething with rage. "You were the death of me. And I'm going to destroy you. This is my last task, I know that much. I've come all this way... just to see you die."
"Wait! What book?"
"What do you mean, 'what book'? The book you shoved in my face day after day, the book you had sent by the crate-load to my home. I'll never forget the sight of the damned fucking cover, thanks to you," he growed. "It was the book you wrote... Shadow Crusade."
The recognition that had lurked on the horizon of Dakari's understanding finally dawned. "But... you aren't dead!"
"Fuck you! I've seen the world that we're destined to visit once we're gone! I've seen the nightmares that wait for us on the other side of existence and let me tell you - they aren't pretty. I - FUCKIN' - DIED!"
"But... you..." Dakari stammered, struggling to find an explanation.
"But me WHAT!?" the stranger spat.
"You're still alive... I... I couldn't get through to you in time before... before..."
"Before what?"
-#-
Anathkash Dakari lurched into the waking world, the familiar surroundings of his loft room all around him, tears streaming down his face.
"Before the prophesy came true," he whispered.
