74: DEADLY RIGHT HOOK

It’s almost like swimming; just like swimming.

I’m swimming in dreams; I try to grab at the portals and gateways to other worlds, other realities, but it’s like trying to catch a specific droplet of water in a cold, deep swimming pool. Reality fills my lungs like chlorine.

My eyes flutter open.

Above me is a chandelier; unfamiliar, golden, it’s bulbs gleaming like stars. I have never seen that chandelier before. Not once in my entire life. I’m sunk in a sea of soft white sheets, and I cant quite feel my hands because they’re buried so deep beneath the softness.

And then a man’s face looms into view above me, blocking the chandelier.

I scream, shooting out of bed; electrified, my right fist tightening, my arm swinging the punch carelessly out of my panic. But it makes blunt contact with the guy’s jaw and pain spreads like molten lava over my knuckles.

“God of chaos!” The guy swears, reeling back as he cradles his jaw, working it like it might've been hanging off the hinges. He chuckles