Shattering Psyche

Cassius was a man in his late teens. A retail worker who lived paycheck-to-paycheck, with no hope of a better future. He lived in a shitty apartment in New Jersey, where the rent was high and his income was low. Cassius barely could afford rent most of the time, and was threatened with several promises of eviction. He worked his job full time, and knew he couldn't work another, even part time. But that wasn't what worried him.

His parents named him Cassius because it was a strong name, named after Gaius Cassius Longinus, who helped plot Julius Caesar's assassination. They named after a hero who helped stop a corrupt emperor. But Cassius didn't like that. He knew exactly where Cassius ended up when he died. As a man of faith, Cassius knew his namesake ended up in the ninth circle of hell. Treachery. Like Dante's Inferno. But that wasn't what worried him.

What worried Cassius is that he saw things. Mostly in his sleep, but sometimes in the waking world. In school, he studied Latin. To help him calm his nerves, he would associate his dreams with names and draw them. Rough sketches with a mechanical pencil, mostly, but they made sense to him and only him, he thought. He hid them under his bed in a small container, worried that people would think he was insane if they found them.

These dreams started on his thirteenth birthday, when he woke up from a nightmare, telling his parents he saw their flesh decaying before his eyes, in dark crypts. Maggots crawling out of the orifices and pores in their bodies, their screams echoing from soundless mediums. As his vision tunneled in and he felt a chill down his spine, along with two sets of cold hands on his shoulders. And then, Cassius felt his own flesh wither and Decay. Entropis.

Cassius thought nothing of his first dream, as his parents comforted him, telling him it was all right. He only saw flickers of this dream, only because he subconsciously thought of it. Mostly in school it would catch him off guard, but he tried to drone it out and focus on the here and now, where it belonged. The dream became nothing more than a forgotten nightmare within a month, and Cassius's life continued on as normal.

On his fourteenth birthday, Cassius dreamed of his city exploding from an impact of a black and purple comet. Spears of perfect dark rained from above and below, impaling and crucifying all that survived. A complete and utter field of Destruction and scorched earth was all Cassius could see, as he was the last thing surviving. In fact, everyone but him was strung up around him, their bodies mutilated beyond recognition. Exitium.

The same thing happened with dreams, except this one recurred. He dreamt of Destruction and death every night, with flickers of the previous vision of Decay. Cassius begun to think something was going on with him, but thought little about it, thinking he was just going through a phase, like all of the kids at middle school.

On his fifteenth birthday, surrounded by his relatives, his parents, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparents, and the family dog all stared at him. Then their left eyes began to change. The sclera became purple, and the iris became purple. Then he saw purple flame envelop everything. Engulfing the entirety of the house, leaving nothing but burning bodies and scorched earth. The nine eyes stared into his soul. As Cassius clutched his temples, reeling from a massive headache, he felt the cold embrace of the hands he felt during Entropis clasp around his shoulders again. And a new voice spoke. "Little oracle... you dwell in the darkness." The vision abruptly ended, and Cassius' vision returned to normal. Somnovem Dolor.

This time, Cassius knew something was going on. The fact that these terrible visions continued on his birthday, and kept recurring over and over and over again, was not a coincidence. Or maybe it was. This trauma, he thought, isn't going away any time soon. Later at night in his room, when everyone was asleep, Cassius felt a wave of dread and panic wash over him. Sleepwalking, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, lumbering back to his room and locking the door. Now awake, Cassius thought of one thing and one thing only. He cut into his arm, lightly, not to sever a vein or artery, but just enough to let the pain release. He felt good. Very good. The warm red fluid drained his bedsheets and made his arms feel warm, warmer than any blanket could make him feel. After his arms bore no more than five lacerations each, he slept soundly. And when the visions came back, he would take himself to an isolated area and begin to cut once more. More and more until the pain ended. And he liked it.

On his sixteenth birthday, there was no vision. Cassius went outside one day to see the sun not a bright white, but a deep pitch black. The sky was cold, starless, cloudless, and purple fire comets rained from above. They impacted to various places far, far away, further than his eyes could see. But he saw large purple explosions of witch-fire, incinerating and scorching everything within a large radius of the comets' impacts. As the Dark Sun stirred, the cold hands of the mysterious voice placed themselves on Cassius' shoulders, saying, "Beautiful... isn't it, young oracle...?" When Cassius turned around, everything was normal again. Solibus Orba.

Cassius had no idea what was happening to him at this point. He ran back inside to his room, and began to cut more. Again and again and again and again. But this time, it took longer for the pain to go away. He frantically began cutting, until the pain of his lacerated arms outweighed the dread in his mind. He stopped suddenly, realizing what he had done. He tried to bandage up his arms as best he could, but he knew his parents would notice the blood. He knew they wouldn't be back home for a while, so he spent the entire rest of the day cleaning.

On his seventeenth birthday, Cassius woke up with pitch-black hounds by his bed in the middle of the night. Shaped like a mix of Great Danes and Golden Retrievers, the hounds growled when Cassius moved. But these hounds were different than anything Cassius had seen before. From their temples protruded long black horns, straight sort-of like a goat. As one leaped on the bed, growling at him profusely, it tore open his throat without a notice. The other hounds tore into his stomach, his legs, and bit off his arms. Cassius felt immense pain as he was mauled by the hounds, and from the corner of his eye, he saw a tall figure, pitch black robes and skin, its white eyes glaring into its soul, and with slicked-back silver hair, smiling a toothy grin of white teeth. The Dark Hounds tore and tore and tore into him, gutting and maiming him to the point where Cassius was drowning in his own blood, which built up and clogged his throat. And when the screaming stopped, he awoke, and everything in his room was as he left it. He was fine. Umbra Canis.

Cassius didn't cut himself after that. He knew that was a dark road, an escape that would eventually kill him in the long run. So instead, he looked for other ways to hurt himself. He scratched himself with his long nails, stabbed himself with pens, pencils, anything he could find, all to make the pain go away. Cassius knew he wasn't alright. Insane, maybe. But he didn't care. He just wanted the visions to end. He wanted to know who the Man in Black was. God? The Devil, perhaps? A figure from his past? But he knew only time would tell.

On his eighteenth birthday, Cassius woke up from his bed, except he wasn't in his apartment. All he could see was pitch black, and he was cramped. Almost as if he was buried alive, in a Coffin of Darkness. Then he felt sharp pain at multiple points in his back, as if the bottom was laced with spikes. And he realized it wasn't a coffin. It was an iron maiden. A device used to torture people in the medieval ages. Cassius then felt the coffin close, becoming more and more cramped. The spikes on top sunk into his flesh, slowly, painfully. But no one could hear Cassius scream. Inside the Coffin of Darkness, inside the iron maiden, Cassius was crushed and impaled. And then Cassius woke up again, in his filthy apartment, in a cold sweat. Tenebris Loculus.

On that day, he called off sick from work. Cassius knew something was wrong with him. People don't see all these nightmares on a recurring basis, he thought. He didn't know what was going on. His world started to spin around, and his vision became tunneled. He felt starving yet full, on the urge to throw up at any moment. He wanted these dreams to end. And he knew there was only one solution for that to happen: he must end as well.

Cassius took his old knife that he had kept all those years, and laid himself in the bathtub. As he stripped down, he got in, feeling the warm water envelop him up to his chest. And he took the knife, beginning to cut deeper into his arms than ever before. When his wrists were slit, Cassius left the knife on the side, and closed his eyes. The pain would disappear. He would disappear. As his consciousness faded, Cassius slept peacefully for the first time in five years.

Then, Cassius woke up. He shouldn't have, but he did. He was surrounded by purple-colored tall grass, and the sky was pitch black, filled with thousands of constellations and nebulas made of different shades of purple. Is this the afterlife? Cassius thought. Is this heaven, or hell, or purgatory? Where the hell am I? Cassius looked straight ahead, seeing a floating city. Both beautiful and ominous, but exuding ancient malice and enmity. A huge mass of rock surrounded by smaller floating fragments of still large, purple crystals and hieroglyphic runes. Large, bulging purple veins held the city together, pulsing with energy, like a heartbeat, like the city itself was alive.

As Cassius sat up, a familiar voice spoke behind him. "Our grand city of Carcosa... beautiful, isn't it... young oracle..?" Cassius immediately whipped his body around, to look at the figure that was behind him. The Man in Black. He outstretched his pitch-black hand, with six fingers on it rather than five. Cassius simply crab-walked as far away as he could from the figure, stunned to silence. The Man in Black simply chuckled. "Don't be afraid, Cassius... you've simply moved on to the first part of your training." But Cassius didn't want anything to do with this, or the Man in Black. His eyes were locked on to the Man in Black, staring in fear as he slowly made his way towards Cassius, running his hand through the flowing purple grass. All of a sudden, Cassius felt a bump, and he turned to look up at what could have caused it.

Before him was a tall, pitch black man, with silver hair and eyes, and long hair with a beard. He was extremely muscular, wearing similar robes as the Man in Black, but the muscular man wear his more like a Roman Toga. The muscular man looked down at Cassius, then to the Man in Black. Then he spoke. "Marethyu, stop it. You're scaring the kid. It doesn't help that you've showed up in his dreams, making them worse for him. Look, his arms are covered in scars thanks to you."

The Man in Black simply chuckled in response. "Well, Vance, our young oracle needed a little push so that he could uncover the truth. Now, it's time for him to meet the Others." Vance lifted Cassius by the arm, hoisting him to his feet. But Cassius was stunned in shock. "Marethyu, I think you broke him," Vance sneered. "Oh, that... I can fix that." As Marethyu outstretched his six-fingered hand, gently placing it on Cassius's forehead, Cassius felt cold at first, then warm, as if all of the accumulated stress gently left him.

Cassius finally was able to speak now, and felt at peace, despite the two possibly dangerous individuals standing beside him. He had so many questions, but he could only let one out of his mouth. "Who in the fuck are you?" Marethyu and Vance exchanged a look, then turned to look back at Cassius. Then Marethyu spoke.

"Cassius, you are no ordinary human. You are what we call 'Aurors,' or special humans that are born out of one in a billion. You're special, Cassius, but not in the way you think. The Others and I have been trying to find the Aurors across the world, and we can do so through your dreams. And I believe we've found the last one. The eight become nine today, and you will help us achieve Exodus."

Cassius was completely blown away. This Marethyu person was spouting what sounded like nonsense to him, yet it was completely clear. "You see... we're not on earth anymore. In fact, we aren't even in that universe. But we will be, soon. We're just outside the city of Carcosa, our... spaceship, if you will. We want to bring Carcosa to your universe, and then salvation shall be at hand. You get a front row seat for the cleansing of the New Age, and we will perfect the universe, as it was meant to be. After all, everyone is destroying themselves and their planets, but through Exodus, they will simply come back into our new worlds, free from Sin."

Cassius knew they meant genocide was likely at play almost immediately. It felt like some cheesy comic book plot to him. He wanted to back out, but part of him wanted to help them. What has the world done for him? While he suffered, they paid no attention to him. They laughed about their own problems, faked disorders they knew they didn't have but Cassius did, and they constantly pollute and destroy their world for self-gain that won't help them in the long run. As Cassius locked eyes with Marethyu, his intent was clear. Marethyu simply smiled. "Good. Now, it's time to meet the rest."

When the three turned around, a figure floated down from Carcosa, landing on the grass. Vance and Marethyu bowed their heads in respect, while Cassius looked on. The figure was... a child. Half Cassius's height, and a quarter of Vance's. His skin was pale white, in contrast to Marethyu and Vance's pitch-black color, and his irises were purple. He wore black lipstick, and his nails were painted black. The child wore a long-sleeved dark robe, with an open lapel exposing part of his chest around the neck, and his hair was a silver mess, splayed to the sides. He wore a smile, exposing his perfect white teeth, and blinked. Then, Marethyu spoke. "It's good to see you, Mavro. The eight have become nine, and Cassius has agreed to help us achieve Exodus."

The child-like figure, Mavro, simply chuckled as well. Mavro turned to float back to Carcosa, as Vance and Marethyu lifted themselves up too, with Cassius holding on to their arms as they began to lift higher and higher into the air.

Mavro suddenly appeared behind Cassius, whispering into his ear, "Let me show you the beauty of Carcosa." As a strange, otherworldly tune began to fill Cassius's ears, he closed his eyes, and waited for the world to burn.