Chapter 3: It Is Already Done
Ragnar woke up with a hard jolt. His cheek made a wet, sticky sound as he pulled it off the plastic keys of his computer keyboard.
For a second, he did not know where he was. Then he felt his heart pounding very fast.
The bad dream. The big, empty blackness. The deep voice. The words that felt burned into his mind.
"It is already done."
He squeezed his eyes shut tight, wishing so hard that it was just a bad dream.
He told himself it was a crazy nightmare that came from eating too many cheap noodle cups and not getting enough sleep.
A bad dream, that’s all. He opened his eyes and looked around his messy apartment.
Everything looked the same. The pile of dirty clothes in the corner had grown so big it was starting to look like a strange piece of art.
The air in the room had a soft, strange glow to it. The little bits of dust in the air were dancing in the light, like tiny, shiny bugs.
Wait.
Ragnar blinked. Then he blinked again. The glowing shimmer in the air was real. He could feel a low hum, like the sound a giant power line makes, coming up from the floor. He could feel it in his feet and in his bones.