Ride or Die

The ceiling pulsed.

Faint, at first. Like the heartbeat of the house itself. Then stronger. Wavy. Like it was breathing.

 Akira blinked. Once. Twice. The edges of his vision shimmered. A warm haze began to settle over everything, smoothing the sharp corners of his thoughts like fog blanketing shattered glass. He exhaled, long and slow.

The weight on his chest loosened slightly. The pounding in his skull gave way to a strange, almost euphoric emptiness.

He then felt his mouth go dry. No saliva being produced. He could feel his tongue in his mouth. Thick and alien, like it didn't belong there. Every swallow felt like dragging sandpaper down his throat.

He grabbed a water bottle that he kept near his bed just for when he gets high. 

The plastic felt too smooth in his hands, the crinkle of it exaggerated as he twisted off the cap and began drinking.

Akira sat up slightly. His limbs lagging behind his thoughts. "Man this shit hits hard."

A faint ringing danced in his ears like wind chimes in a storm. The silence around him was loud now. Too loud. He pressed his palms against his temples, trying to steady the storm behind his eyes.

The blood vessels in his eyes expanded giving it a bloodshot hue. 

Voices floated through his mind. Not real ones, memories maybe, echoes of the past.

"Akira, can you help me with my homework?"

"You work too much, you need to rest."

"We're still a family, even if your father isn't here anymore."

His heart pounded faster. Too fast. Or maybe the seconds were stretching. It was hard to tell.

His lungs felt heavy, but the euphoric feeling calmed his nerves.

Akira stumbled to his feet, gripping the edge of the dresser for balance. The plush toy from his sister's room stared at him from the bed, its stitched smile wider than he remembered.

"You judging me now too?" he asked it, swaying. "You think I'm weak?"

The toy said nothing.

He grinned at it, teeth clenched tight. "Didn't think so."

Akira then grabbed the toy and lifted it up high in the air and smiled at it. "I'm on cloud nine, motherfucker."

"Hey," he whispered to it, almost laughing. "You always wanted to sleep in my room, huh?"

"Do you want to get high too. I'll give you some." Akira asked.

The toy didn't answer. Of course it didn't. But for a moment, Akira imagined it did.

"No. No . No. You're too young bud. Come to me when your older." Akira chuckled.

He stopped laughing and looked dead in the eyes of the plush toy. "Promise me, promise you won't leave like the others." He began shaking the toy gently. "Me and you. We're ride or die."

He began laughing hysterically. "Don't betray me ever. That would hurt me and ...make me sad."

Akira looked deep in the plush toy's eyes. Locked in and mesmerised.

Then a shadow enveloped the plush. "Brother." He tried grabbing it but it was too late. "Come back. Don't leave me."

His room began to shift. The familiarity of his surroundings disappeared, and with it came growing unease.

He felt himself falling. Almost like his body betrayed him.

His vision blurred and then darkened.

He forced his eyes open. What he expected was to be his room was, a strange environment.

The sky was blood red. The ground had a pink-reddish hue and was soft yet hard at the same time. Around him were several structures. arches, bridges, walls. washed in a creamy white with a faint yellow tint, weathered but still gleaming. The structures were sheathed in a pinkish cover.

The ground beneath him trembled softly, like a living thing. As he bent down, his eyes caught a tangled web of wires, their faint pulses throbbing in time with his erratic heartbeat. The wires wove through the earth like veins, alive with a strange energy that both fascinated and unnerved him.

Behind him was the unmistakable sound of a drum. The drum beats were loud and distracting. He hesitated to turn around. But he did.

Before his eyes, lay a somewhat cone-like shape with a broad rounded top tapering to pointed bottom. It trembled. The walls surrounded it contracted rhythmically. Inside, he saw valves opening and closing. The valves were like gates that separated the four chambers of the cone-like shape.

Akira took a step closer and peeked inside. He saw a red liquid gush inside the shape. Travelling through the valves and pumped out the shape into the wires beneath him.

Something tapped his shoulder. He instinctively turned around.

It was a person.

The figure looked like him—but colder. Paler. Eyes empty, like mirrors turned inward.

Akira stumbled back. Falling down onto the complex shape behind him.

The figure approached slowly, towering over Akira, who was now curled into himself.

The shape behind him spasmed, faster and faster. It's speed increasing as Akira's own heartbeat began to pick up the pace.

It was like a machine gun. Only difference is that the heart didn't run out of ammo.

The doppelganger reached out. Grabbing the giant heart. 

The heart stopped, all movements ceased. Akira had a sharp pain in his chest. It felt like his heart itself got stabbed and punctured.

The surroundings began to decay.

The yellowish-white structures began to crumble. The wires on the ground severed and shrinking. The ground contracted and relaxed many times, simulating an earthquake.

 The mirrored-eyes of the doppelganger met Akira's. Akira saw himself. Scared, lonely and pathetic.

The blood red sky cleared behind the clone.

And from it, emerged a giant.

The plush. Towering.

Its stitched smile had inverted. A jagged frown. Disappointed. Judging.

Akira gasped. His hands found the heart behind him and he began to claw at it. Desperate to revive it.

The plush began to talk. It's voice low and menacing contrasting it's cute and innocent appearance. "You said we were ride or die."