Content warning!! -- Death.

A door. Val could see now, but his vision was blurred by darkness and distorted by the things that can't come to be. The ominous knocking echoed inside his brain; along with the long, low-pitched clangs of humongous church bells. The door was all in his field of view. His heartbeat was calm now. He reached for the door again and shivers crawled up his spine, making each hair stand up straight.

Incoherent shouting blasted all about, and the bells grew deafening alongside the screaming. Through his distorted perception, he could tell that the shadow looked human. It was flailing its arms frantically, and the screaming intensified with each passing moment.

Red and white flames then erupted from thin air behind the shadow, and they made their way inside the room. The floor gave way under him. Val screamed too and felt as his jaw opened larger and larger until it ripped itself off his face.

***

A scream in the dark. Val was now sitting upright, clutching his chest, cold sweat dripping off his face and covering his back. He gasped for air, getting his hair out of his face.

He got up and washed his face again, looking at the mirror. His olive-grey skin glistened yellow in the mirror.

Val went back to the couch and dried his face with his jacket before throwing it on his shoulders and donning his sword. He sighed and went to the fridge. The cool air felt good, after all, the atmosphere all around that level was heavy and suffocating. He grabbed a box of milk and the jar of pickles on the far corner. He drained the pickles on the sink, gulped down some milk and went to the couch. Once there, he went through the pickles and the milk in no time. It was an awful combination that he regretted from start to end, and it triggered a heavy nausea; but he forced himself to be calm before going out for a walk on the upper levels where the cold wind whipped mercilessly.

The walk was long, and there were many stairs, but he finally reached the upper levels. The air felt lighter and the thermometers all played limbo there. He leaned against the railing and stared beyond the muddy grey mist blanketing the levels below, only split every once in a while by a lone hovercraft exiting the depths. The lights and shades distorted the world both above and below, the wires turned to cobwebs, the people into ants and the mist into a cascade.

Then, that loathsome ring again. Val sighed and touched the earpiece with his finger, grunting into the mic.

"Val, there's a-" The Handler started.

"Get to the point." Val moved away from the railings and started walking.

"-Very well. You'll meet with a courier in an alleyway somewhere around the 15th Southeast, LV15. Ask for a bucket of elbow grease to whoever you see there,"

"Got it," Val said, before hanging up.

He moved down from the 20th Level to the 15th, sticking to the shadows as always. Where he felt oddly safe. The atmosphere got heavier. He liked the cold better.

The alley was mostly empty. He looked up and saw the city was still awake, though the sounds were oddly muted from where he stood. The wires cut across the shiny – though gloomy – landscape. The occasional hovercraft breaking the mist had become more frequent as the night grew old.

"You got elbow grease?" He heard behind him. Val flinched. In a flash, he had already spun on his heels and the katana had flown out of the saya and onto the floor. Val cringed, and he felt worse when he saw Vic standing there in front of him, smirking as always.

"Laying off the caffeine would do right by you," He said, watching Val put the sword back in the saya with his left hand.

"Why are you here?" Val grumbled.

"To help you out," Vic said, nodding at the other end of the alley.

Val had a hundred questions in his mind, but he kept them to himself. Vic had proven himself to be trustworthy, or so would Val like to think. He felt calmer when Vic was around. He also liked to think that Vic was someone he'd known before his memories were stolen; not very likely, but it was a possibility.

They kept walking down the alley, until they spotted a figure leaning against the wall. The thin silver string of a cigarette and its twin red light faded from the figure's hand and into the night. Val breathed in deeply before exhaling and approaching the hooded silhouette. He was assuming it was the courier.

Val realized Vic was following. "Stay please, I'll try to make short work of it," He said, as softly as he could. Vic nodded and froze in place.

Val breathed deeply before approaching whom he assumed to be the courier. Eyebrows met, instinct made him think a thousand ways the encounter could go wrong.

"You got elbow grease?" Val asked timidly. The person exhaled a mouthful of smoke before addressing Val.

"Here. Tell the Handler it was all me, I'm fucking done with this shit." The courier tossed a briefcase at Val's feet. Val nodded and picked up the briefcase. He faced Vic and waved the briefcase triumphantly.

"Nice!" Vic said, grinning. However, Vic's grin shifted onto a grimace. Val's smile broke as well.

"What- No, Get back!" Val heard behind him. He then regretted turning around in response.

A humongous mechanical blur with dozens of legs had swept down and gotten to the courier. A gunshot rang in the night, the cigarette fell, and the courier was now nowhere to be seen. They'd been yanked upwards into the gap between the buildings faster than Val could process. He'd frozen, cold sweat running down his back as shivers climbed upwards. The world had lost its light, and he didn't know how to react, or what to think. How to feel. He lost his sense of self.

Val was now stumbling rapidly, behind Vic, who was dragging him and shouting something Val couldn't understand. His breath was ragged, his eyes teared up. Vic kept shouting and running, eyes as wide as his.

Val lost track of the events, all he could think was the courier's fierce – though hopeless – struggle. Then a voice broke his thoughts.

"He disobeyed my orders 7 minutes and 33 seconds prior. Remember this, I don't take kindly to rebellion,"

Val's heart was now beating in his throat. He felt like a child in a nightmare. And as in nightmares, every choice you make is the worst one yet.

Vic stopped at the bottom of some stairs and prompted Val to hide underneath. He obeyed without question. He tried to recover his breath silently, but it was no use. He was too noisy.

"What... the hell- the hell was that!?" Val hissed between pants.

"Don't know! let's wait it out and then get somewhere safe," Vic muttered, smashing his words together. He leaned back against the wall, Val grabbed the sword and kept watch.

"Fuck it's cold," Vic said.

"Well I can't change the weather," Val said. Vic chuckled, and Val cracked a smile too.

Vic peeked out and gave Val the thumbs-up to leave.

"You had more nightmares?" Vic asked, as they crawled out.

"Yeah,"

"What happened in them?"

"The shadow looked like a person," Val said flatly, resuming the walk.

"What else?"

"Bells. Big, loud bells,"

They walked aimlessly. They were now somewhere in level 14.

"Did the figure threaten you in any way?"

Val thought for a bit before answering. "No, but there was a lot of shouting,"

"I got something, wanna hear?" Vic said, putting a hand on Val's shoulder.

"Shoot,"

"It's likely that the bells were an alarm. The figure shouted no? Maybe there was something going down, and they were there to get you out," Vic explained.

Val looked at the ground and at Vic. He was met with a warm smile. "You're right. That does make sense,"

The Handler gave Val another address and they went there. They didn't know what the package was supposed to be, and Val didn't want to know. The Handler hadn't given him specific instructions not to take a peek, but he didn't feel like risking getting yoinked by a giant spider/robot/thing. The delivery went smoothly, he left the briefcase by a corner in the shadows, and they'd turned tail running as soon as they heard a patrol flying by. They were somewhere around Level 13 when Val finally let out the courage he'd been saving up all night.

His lip twitched, and he stopped. "Hey, I um- You wanna, you know, wanna crash at mine?" He asked. Val sighed mentally as he awaited a reply.

"Sure! I'll follow you," Vic replied; the smirk turning into a genuine, warm smile.

Val's arms shot up triumphantly, earning a chuckle from Vic. They took an elevator back to Val's level and settled back at home. He listened to Vic talk about a couple of topics he didn't understand, but he listened anyway. They got to Val's place and he unlocked the door. He entered first and grabbed the box of milk and empty pickle jar.

"Come on in," He said, as he put the jar in the bin and the box in the fridge. The kitchen and living room were right by each other, a door for the bedroom and bathroom. Vic closed the door behind him and moved to the living room.

"Sorry, I didn't plan on anything and I've got nothing. Let me see if I can whip something up real quick," Val said, motioning Vic towards the couch.

"I'll help," Vic said.

Val stared at Vic before sighing. "Alright... Thank you,"

Val searched around in his kitchen, though the only thing he could find was mayonnaise and canned tuna.

"Not much to do around here," Val muttered. "Help me drain this in the sink, please,"

Val handed Vic the canned tuna and opened the mayonnaise himself. He looked around for silverware and found a drawer full of it. He got a couple of spoons and saw Vic return to the table with the drained tuna.

"Look for some bowls too, please," Val said. When Vic brought a couple, Val divided the tuna as evenly as possible before tossing a spoonful of mayo on it and mixing it up. The result looked unpleasant, but he wasn't going to turn up his nose. The texture changed, and the tuna was now a sort of paste formed with the mayo. Val got up to get a glass of water for each.

"Sorry, I got nothing more," He said, apologetically.

"Don't worry, I really appreciate you inviting me to your place," Vic replied, grabbing his bowl. Val gave him a spoon. "Thanks,"

"Dig in," He said, shoving a spoonful of tuna into his mouth at the same time Vic did. The taste wasn't too bad, but the tuna was dry and cardboard-like. He kept eating. The meal was silent, Vic didn't say much at all.

Val was worried he might not like the food, if he were to call it such a thing. His stare was full of thoughts Val couldn't fathom. They finished the meal around the same time, and Val grabbed the bowls.

"You can go watch something, I'll join you in a bit," He said, dumping the dishes in the kitchen's sink. Vic opened his mouth to object but ultimately obeyed. He went to turn on the TV and see what was up on there.

Val let the tap run and felt the refreshing cold water gliding down his fingers before getting to work. Luckily, he still had plenty dish soap. The cold of the water and the foam of the soap were like a sky he'd never seen, unravelling, forming shapes he couldn't remember. And down it went, down the sink, into the guts of the city.

He finished washing the dishes quickly, and joined Vic on the couch.He leaned on the opposite side. Vic had put on several movies from a certain spy of ancient times, and Val was amazed. He watched as the spy risked his life over and over stopping chemical weapons and terrorists, dismantling international criminal conspiracies, and narrowly escaping death again and again. Midnight came, and Val drifted off to sleep right there and then. On that couch, watching movies with Vic.

***

Aight! That's another chapter up and done. Sorry it took so long, I'll deliver the rest in a timely manner.