Pain and Plans

The pain I woke up to was unimaginable. It felt as if my very soul was being ripped out of my body. 

My screams were detached from reality, and repeated, like an echo. I wasn't even sure those screams were real. The world was a mess of colors, the type of glitchy pinks, yellows, and blues you got from faulty Old World technology. When the pain finally receded and I could think again, I couldn't fathom what the pain was. Moving my body was difficult, but I managed to turn my head to my desk, and laying there was a lone analog watch. 

That's when it hit me. I had been experiencing the consequences of the 4 hour limit. My alarm clock on my bedside table read 8:27. I still had a bit of time before it would be 4 hours since I took off the watch, but even then, I didn't like the idea of risking it. 

I somehow managed to stumble out of bed, falling onto the floor with a dull thud. My legs felt like jelly, so I used my arms to crawl and pull myself into my chair. 

The Timepiece sat on the table in front of me, like some sort of twisted savior. Biting the bullet, my hands moved grabbing the watch-like device and fastening it to my wrist. Instantly, the throbbing pain in the back of my head that I had subtly grown used to stopped, and my legs felt like they were returning to normal. 

"Timekeeper, your temporal field is highly disturbed, please stay still while I attempt to restore it." I never thought I'd be happy to hear the disembodied voice of U27 again, but it's monotone and calm delivery were a blessing now. And I happily obliged the Timepiece's request, staying seated until U27's voice rang in my head once more. 

"I do not advise removing your Timepiece again, the consequences of your next distortion will be far more pronounced. I will be limiting forced activation until your temporal field repairs itself. To speed up the process, please sleep well." It almost sounded as if U27 was concerned for my wellbeing, a laughable thought. 

"Trust me, I don't plan on it..." The feeling of having my body thrashed around like a pinball, yet staying still was new to me, and yet it was the one thing I was 100% sure I never wanted to experience again. Words barely left my mouth in rushed whispers, even talking was still painful. 

What felt like hours passed with me in my chair, staring at the ceiling. A knock at the window snapped me out of it. A familiar head of stark grey hair peered through the shoddy glass, smiling brightly at me. Milky green eyes that seemed to hold the secrets to the universe within them looked on with some sense of glee before seeing the state I was in. Concern replaced the former expression. 

Without delay, I heard the window's latch clicking open and a slight breeze found its way into my room. The entrant crawled in through the window with a practiced movement and landed on the floor of my room with no more than a soft thud. 

It was Marceline, the only person apart from myself that knew the location of my sister and I's house. Marcie was relatively tall, with slender legs and the same unnaturally pale skin all inhabitants of the lower levels held. Her stark grey hair was to her midback with her bangs hanging messily in front of her face. She wore a green headband, complimenting her eyes and earrings made of scavenged stained glass from the Old World. 

She wore an intricate white, black, and green crop top that seemed out of place in the lower levels, with white cargo pants not dissimilar to my own. Her belt held a well hidden knife and some other things anyone in the slums was basically required to have if they wanted to live. Combat boots completed the outfit, giving her a rougher look than one would expect from her. 

"Knox... you look like a wreck." She was right, I probably did. My skin was slightly less pale than most people within the lower levels because I was on the upper level more often than most, but that didn't mean much at the moment. Looking down at my hand, I could see that I was just as pale as Marcie now, if not paler. 

"Yeah, uh, stuff happened, to say the least." My voice was quiet, I could barely hear it myself, so Marcie came closer, observing me with a critical eye I'd never had directed at me. I'd seen her use it on objects and other people, but being under her strange eyes' gaze was uncomfortable, to say the least. 

Telling her about U27 wasn't exactly what I wanted to do right now, seeing as I could barely wrap my mind around it, and I was a part of the whole thing. Marcie was far quicker than me on things like these, but even then, I wasn't so sure about flat out telling her anything. 

"Well, there go our plans for the night." A disappointed look replaced the one of concern on Marcie's face, my complexion must've been slowly returning to normal for her to do that. At least I assumed that was the case. She turned from me and flopped down on my bed, deciding to stare at the ceiling like I was. 

"Plans?" My energy was slowly returning to my body, I could feel the leftover pain start to dissipate as my body adjusted to what had been afflicting it before. Normally, Marcie and I planned together, far ahead of when we would do anything. It wasn't like either of us was particularly busy, or not free often, but it was just something the two of them had gotten used to. So, plans I hadn't heard of? It had to be something interesting. 

"We we're gonna go to The Ditch, but if you're not up for it..." I turned to Marcie and saw her looking at me out of the corner of her eye with a smirk on her face. A sigh escaped my lips. 

"Give me five minutes." The Ditch wasn't something I could just turn down, especially after a long day like this one. "Wait outside, I'm going to tell Kiara I'm leaving." Marcie smiled and left through the same window she'd entered, making little noise. It would be eerie how quiet she was if I wasn't used to it by now, how she did it in those boots? I'd never know. The girl was practically a ninja or whatever they called those old world assassins. 

Giving myself another minute or so to recover, I finally got up and left my room, crossing the hall over to my sister's. Three knocks and a few seconds later, the door was open, and I was standing face to face with the little blonde girl that was somehow related to me. 

"I'm headed out with Marcie, remember-" 

"If someone comes knocking, blah blah blah. We already did this today, so just go, and bring me something on your way back." She shut the door before I could say anything back. Teenagers. Now that business was in order, I went back to my room and left through the window the same way Marcie had, just with a lot less grace and a lot more noise. 

Now, to leave the area.