been too long since i've slept

[wheyoftheadept]

 

Lift the bar on the final door, and a reeking blast of foul magic hits you.  The scene is a warehouse, huge and brightly lit; at the center, a frozen tableau.  There’s a circle of bodies on life support, eyes open and staring at the ceiling, linked together by tubes through which living blood flows.  A portal is opening in their midst, shimmering in a thousand impossible colors.

They are surrounded by a dome of magic.  Inside that dome, but not the circle of sacrifices, is Saturday.  Her sword is in her hand.  She’s screaming.  Beside her, a short, stout woman works frantically at a flat, hand-held computer.  There’s a detonator between her teeth, and the side of her skull is shaved to expose a datajack.

Saturday is screaming because the insects have hold of a tall orkish girl, and there is a knife at her throat, and as you step forward the scene comes to life and they draw it across her throat.  The skin parts and the blood runs out; Saturday’s making a sound like nothing human, throwing herself sword-first against a barrier that will not break, and then the woman at her side spits out the detonator, holds it up, and the world explodes.

“Oh, god, this place fucking would,” a different Saturday complains from behind you, and the scene resets.