He had been walking down a near empty main street, it shone from the rain and the reflections of the streetlamps overhead. It was raining rather heavily and seemed as if it had been for quite some time. The rain beat at James' face as it were some kind of punishment. His clothes were soked to the extent where one just stops caring about the rain because you cannot possibly get any wetter. He came to and intersection, and like the rest of the roads he'd passed, it was empty, lifeless, deviode of any human activity. Lights came from varying directions and colours. The ground in the middle of the shineing black street before him shone with the refracted green light from the traffic light above it. James was standing in the light of a scrolling marquee that told him of all the investment possibilities that awaited him at the bank. Streetlamps provided iscolated islands of light upon the darkened strech of road until it disapreared miles away, out of sight. He crossed against the light and sudden felt overwhelming dread wash over him, like a sixth sence had suddenly become attune to some looming danger. Not taking this feeling lightly he quickly scanned the surrounding area to see the cause of this sudden flux of aprehension. When he looked to his left, he saw it. Several feet away, just outside the orange glow of the streetlamp two bright headlights shone. But to James, these were no headlights they were the eyes of the demon that had always been silently following him. He didn't see this car upon approching the intersection, nor did he hear the engine until he noticed it lying there in wait. He somehow knew who this was and it wasn't a major surprise to see it there, almost as if he had expected to meet this "car" here. For all James knew, it was a car, but the way those headlights stared into him was beyond any thing he'd ever known. It reved it's "engine", but the sound it made was like no other. It was like a metalic scream, it cut into his conciousness and made him stumble in his spot. Before James could regain his balance the demon charged. James didn't see it well because his vision was still off from the demon's scream and the heavy rain didn't help matters much. It hit him, hard. James was flipped on his side and hit the creature again. He rolled up the "hood" and fell rather hard upon the back end, rolled again and hit the pavement with the burning spite of the demon. As silently as it had appeared, it was gone. James heard no trail and saw no evidance the beast had even been there. Not even a tail light. The only reassurance he had was his body that was unable to move. He tried to lift himself up, but he was badly injured. After about a minute of lying there trying to regain himself, James noticed the discolouration in the puddles of water around him. He was bleeding, a lot. The streets were as barron now as they were moments before the beast had shown itself. He could hardly move himself. There was nothing he could do to slow the bleeding. He tried to call for help, but his voice was nothing but bubbleing and sputtering. James coughed and spit a mouthfull of his own blood onto the pavement in front of him. He stoped for a moment and watched as it mixed with the rain and diluted as it spread. James noticed he was getting weaker now. He lifted his head one last time and looked for anyone, any sign of anything that could serve as his salvation... nothing. With that, James lay his head down in the puddle of rainwater and diluted blood and quietly died.

With a start, James woke up sending his cat into a state of shock as it ran full throttle out the door and down the hall. The sound of trampleing cat feet doplered until the only sound was his heavy breathing and the tone from the TV that told him it was the end of the programing day. After an expirance like that one would expect their heart to be pounding and to be sitting up in bed, gasping for breath in a cold sweat, but James was rather calm. He was unable to fall asleep again. He rolled over and saw the red lights of the digital alarmclock against the darkness. 5:23 turned to 5:24 as soon as he turned his head. He'd have to get up in an hour regardless so insted of fighting to fall asleep again, James took an early morning strole to the coffee shop.

James walked in and the bell above the door rung and startled him, it had been so errily silent the entire walk there. James shielded his eyes when he came in, it was still early and his eyes had yet to adjust to the bite of flaurecent lights.

James sat in his normal seat hunched over his coffee thinking over his dream, how vivd it was. In a twisted sort of way, he enjoyed the whole ordeal. It was like dying, but being able to go back before it happened and not dying and continueing on.

"'mornin' lad!", James heard from the door of the coffee shop. Jack had once again shattered the beautiful silance. James nodded in recognition.
"S'whut'r you doo'n up so early?", Jack pryed.
"Had a bad dream, couldnt sleep...", James said sounding alot like a child.
"Awwww poor kid! mommy make ya feel all betta?", Jack said in a mocking tone.
"Fuck off..."
"'arsh words, der lad. C'mon, tell ol' Jack whussamatta", Jack said pulling up a chair, turning it backwards, crossing his arms and resting his chin on the back of the chair.
"You know full well whats the matter", James said trying not to make eye contact.
Jack was silent for a second until he perked up. "ohh, that eh?"
James nodded.
Jack began to chuckle softly to himself.
"What the hell are you laughing at?"
"You! I canna believe yur still lementing o'er that!", Jack was laughing slightly louder.
James said nothing, but looked down into his coffee.
"'avnt yuh learned a goddamned thing? Can't yeh take an 'int?"
"But..."
"But whut? 'But whuttabut whut they say'? Der all fulla shite. Lissena me, I'll tell ya whus real 'round 'ere. 'oo'd possibly know you betta den me?"
James opened his mouth to speak, but nothing. he couldn't say anything in his defence.
"Yuh just like whut dey say 'cause it's prettier, right? Life ain't allays pretty y'know. Sumtimes yoo'll get fucked ova, and there wont be anytin der to e'en out deh score and yur stuck in deh red. Dats when yoo've gotta say to yurself: "Diss's gotta mean sometin". Y'know whutit means? 't means twasn't ment to 'appen so bugger off!"
As hard as he tried against it, Jacks words were sinking in... fast. They were starting to make some twisted kind of sense.
"Well? I've been tahkin' dis 'oll time, whuttaya got tuh say fer yurself?", Jack scolded as he sat up from his hunched position.
James really didnt know what to say for himself, Jacks words made more sense than anything anyone else had been saying, which was terrible. James friends had said such sweet words to him, words that ment so much to him. They were always there for him, they believed in him. But latly, he had been iscolated and pushed people away.
"C'mon! ammeye talkin' to a wall 'ere???"
James didnt know if he should denounce Jack or to thank him for his advice. So to avoid making a decision, James silently stood up, nodded a goodbye to Jack and left the cafe with his coffee in hand. and brooding thoughts on his mind.

He walked away from the dim light reflecting on the wet groud surrounding the cafe and headed towards the lake again. It was much darker than usual, there was no moon to light his way. he got to the lakefron and leaned on the guardrail and dropped his head. It hung from his shoulders dangling above the water. After a few minutes of the repeated sound of waves against the breakers he began to slowly slip into dream again. He invisioned a women standing in a black plain reflected in the eyes of some unholy beast.

The beast stared her down. It was more powerful than she could ever hope to conquer. Skin of glossy obsidian that shimmered and mocked the slight slivers of light that penetrated the darkness that surrouded her and housed the demon. It's eyes were a red that was never duplicated anywhere in reality, they left a short glowing trail as they moved through the black void. It spoke in a low raspy tone through it's dripping teeth and sharp tounge. It spoke words of hate, mocking her own words burried deep in her past. It's movements were slow but stealthy unless it WANTED her to know where it had gone. She moved akwardly away from the voice in the darkness as she tripped and stumbeled along the spongey floor, it's consistancy, that of cold flesh. There were no walls to provide back cover, no corners to cower in. Only the endless void. Chattering voices and reminicant sounds filled the air when it wasn't speaking. She fell and continued to scuttle backwards as to keep a safe distance from the beast. No matter where she went, it was there. Waiting for her to turn and look it in the eyes. It would tell her the words she didnt want to hear, but couldnt block the sound. There was no point in running, where would she go? This chase would continue forever. she couldnt win on her own. The beast was in his element and thus had the upper hand. She stopped backing away from it and lay there awaiting the inevitable. The beast's arm rose and she could see it siloutted against one of the few slivers of light. The arm was unnaturally long and the hand was a twisted mass of bone, claw and ebony skin. Tiny hair like tenticals were like a bracelette around it's wrist. They writhed and whipped at nothing as the hand rose. The beast let out an unholy cry and struck. She braced herself and was ready to take the punnishment she had brought upon herself. But, nothing. The sound of tearing skin and spilling blood was there, but no pain. She looked up to see the siloutte of someone vaguely human between her and her curse, clutching it's chest and it's head hung low. The beast was stunned it's attack had missed it's mark and tore through one who had no involvement in the situation. The figure of the man fell to one knee. When it's knee his the ground, it made an audible spash in it's own blood. The beast wouldn't make a sound, the voices that surrounder her were silent. There was no movement, no sound, no time. The beast reared back and screamed, head shakeing violently as his voice shook the void it had created. Chains burst out of the back of the beast and wound around him repeatedly. More chains broke it's skin and wrapped around it violently, dripping as they tightened their grip. Eventually, the massive beast fell onto it's back and screamed louded than before, it knew what was coming. It shook violently trying in vain to free itself from the shakles that bound him. Like a bolt of lightning, a pike burst through the "ground" and through the chest of the demon. It let loose the most uneartly of sounds as it arched it's back. The sound eventually faded into a slight gurgle as blood filled it's lungs, it went limp and died. She went to the body of the figure that took her pain upon itself to save her, the face and body were too mangled to make any assumptions of it's identity. His blood eventually leaked from his torn abdomen as liquid light. It spread across the fleashy ground and made it fade away. The light spread across the entire void and she found herself standing alone in the middle of an empty street. Alone.

With that, he awoke back to the guardrail and the lake. The sun had begun to rise ever so slightly. He could see a distingusihable glow inbetween the buildings on the horizon accross the lake. It took him a second to realize where he was again. He checked his wristwatch.

3:56p

The batteries had obviously died or at least failed. It surely wasnt 3:56.