“--This isn’t right...it can’t be…”

Porter was suddenly greeted with a sight of infinitely vast vantablack nonexistence. He couldn't feel anything. He couldn’t even move.

“Just a moment ago -- I was home, right?”

As a guy who was normally social and had the experiences of any extrovert, weird situations were his forte. Even so, what Porter found himself in was completely different -- something endlessly beyond his comprehension.

“--What the hell…?”

For a moment, Porter believed it to be the coldness of death.

------------------

----

----

“Huh…?”

Before Porter was able to fully grasp his surroundings, they changed right in front of his eyes. The dark void began cracking open, as if it was old pavement. 

Creases of bright white began slowly oozing its way into view. The white was almost comforting to Porter, as if it was calling to him.

----

----

As white began filling his entire point of view, Porter heard a muffled voice yelling nearby him.

“Arlo! Arlo, you alright?!”

It was hardly audible, though it was something that caused his attention to shift. Before this, he couldn’t even make a noise himself, let alone hear any.

“Arlo…! Arlo!”

Before he knew it, his vision was returning to him, just like normal, though what began to fill his view was the complete opposite of normal.

“This must be a drea--” Porter said, being cut off by the startling change of scenery.

“--Huh?!”

---------------

----

----

With nothing but a gasp, Porter had found himself in an entirely new world.

----

----

The deep, masculine voice that called out radiated all around the new setting Porter found himself in. 

Porter found himself right in the backseat of a moving car, one with incredible speed. It looked like a coupe, and the max speed on the speedometer broke 390 km/h.

It looked like km/h, atleast. Porter couldn’t even find somewhere on the car that showed a way of measurement.

Instinctively, Porter’s head shifted to look outside the tinted window to his right.

What he saw was a beautifully lit city of blue, shining with all sorts of neon lights and arrangements with a dark, polluted night sky.. 

Dark, tall buildings with beautiful white support structures circling around them, and a setting that’d make him think he was in a futuristic utopia filled his field of view as he looked to his sides. 

Each car looked like a slim supercar, and hovered off the ground at a similar height to regular cars, though it was impossible to deny that none of the vehicles had wheels. Each car looked wildly different, each with varying colors and sizes. 

Pedestrians walked as you’d see in any other city, though they wore nothing that resembled clothes he knew. Everyone wore black masks, and dark techwear style jackets that looked heavier than anything Porter had ever worn.

What immediately struck Porter as weird was that everyone practically looked the same. 

It was something eerie to Porter, nobody had individuality. Coming from a world like Earth, all Porter thought about constantly was how to stand out, looking ‘cool’ in his own way.

--

Porter took a look at the weird interior of the moving car.

It must’ve been what was inside all the other otherworldly vehicles, it was way too complex-looking for his Earth’s standards.

‘This has to be some crazy fucking vision…’ Porter thought as the vehicle sped on the road, not paying any mind to anything that may be in its way. 

The oddly shaped vehicle was racing in unpredictable turns and curves that’d make Porter think he found himself in a wild car chase he had no business being in.

The man who once spoke before was seemingly beside Porter in the backseat, tall with long, spiked brown-grey hair sat in utter displeasure as he looked desperately out of the window he sat beside.

While the man was on his mind, Porter’s priority was finding out what the hell had been going on with him. He found himself ignoring the man, even if it caused him to grow more concerned.

‘--Wait, my clothes, too…!’

He looked nothing like anyone else he’d seen in the city prior, his clothing looked like he was from the slums with worn out, rotten brown leather Porter would easily be able to tear off. He had what looked like black jeans as pants, and simple black boots. 

When Porter looked down at himself, he immediately realized that he had the same shotty fashion style as the man before him. It wasn’t what he was dressed in before any of this happened.

 --Though, Porter wasn’t even bothered. To him, it was all still a dream.

--

“Arlo! Speak to me!”

With a quick look, the man noticed Porter’s movements. He stammered at Porter, speaking with great passion as his bloodshot eyes widened with shock.

“Uh… who’s Arlo? Hello…?”

“Shit. The Bliss Domain must've done something to you. Just stay back Arlo, your body is weak!”

The man had short, brown hair with shaggish spikes that didn’t look groomed. His face was one of a middle aged man with wrinkles and slightly faded green eyes. Bloody cuts and scars tore through his cheeks. 

Porter’s overall disheveled appearance from his perspective made it seem that whoever’s body he was in was related to the man.

-------------------

“Hayes! From behind! It’s found us!”

The driver of the speeding car yelled, not taking his eyes off the road as he quickly gave the man information in a concerned, yet stern voice.

“Dammit! Just head for the Bliss outskirts!” The man loudly retorted.

He gave a signal with his left hand, pointing all five of his fingers toward the northwest direction from them. Drips of sweat and blood ran down his face.

‘This man responds to ‘Hayes’...?’

In the moment, Porter realized he was armed. A small pocket knife was in his pocket with a white circle symbol that had a large ‘X’ shape overlapping it on the handle.

----

‘...If this is a dream, this won't hurt.’

Porter swiftly pulled out the knife, pointing the blade to his upper arm. 

He wasn’t worried, but the ‘dream’ felt so real that he just had to find out for himself.

‘--Let’s see.’

With a quick swipe, a thin layer of Porter’s skin tore open as the blade pierced it, met with the dark red color of blood slowly dripping out of the cut.

‘…’

‘Ah! Shit. Yeah...okay...This can’t be good. I’m not even in my own body…’

Porter realized that he physically didn’t feel like himself. It was as if only his consciousness was transported, detached from his original body.

“Stop the vehicle immediately!”

As Hayes yelled, the brakes brought the car to a roaring stop. It was an action that nearly threw Porter out of his seat from the sudden jerk.

“Arlo, stay back!”

‘He still calls me Arlo…’

Even before the car could come to a full stop, Hayes immediately leaped from his seat, soaring out of the car. All while doing so, he quickly grabbed a sword he’d kept beside him from the back seat. 

Hayes pulled out a weapon he had kept below him in the car.

“It’s caught up to us! Get down!”

In the middle of the beautifully lit street, Hayes stood filled with visible rage.

He barked orders at everyone in the city, yet nobody listened to him. Each pedestrian stared directly at Hayes, giving an eerily neutral smile at him as he stared the imminent danger head on. 

As soon as Hayes could process his current fate, the ‘It’ that Hayes had to have been talking about turned from a corner to see him. 

With immense speed, the creature made itself clear as day. Her tar-black appearance met with her outrageous height that rivaled mid-size buildings struck an unforgettable sense of fear and dread in Porter that made him want to call out to Hayes to run.

It had the appearance of a woman, though one that had been distorted. She had a rectangle body-type with no arms or legs and a mid-range chest, though with no distinct facial features.

The creature was a disgusting tar black color, and looked like its body was oozing a sticky liquid from all over.

As it eyed Hayes, the creature’s eyes flashed a deep crimson red. It looked as if the creature had just honed in on it’s target.

“--Get ‘em, Phoebe!”

“Fuck those bastards up!”

“Their entrails won’t be salvaged!”

The pedestrians chanted in favor of the creature in front of them. Their neutral smiles turned into menacing grins and cheers.

The pedestrians in the city gathered in the area, chanting these words as they viewed the experience. They came together, surrounding the creature and Hayes with euphoria, as if they were watching a show.

The creature quickly shrunk down in size and height, though still being taller than almost everything around her.

An arm-like limb with no hand, nearly as long as a lamp-post extended out from her side, and picked up a large surrounding car by curling the arm around it in her grasp, directly staring into Haye’s eyes as she did. 

She did it so gracefully, as if picking up such a heavy item was no problem at all.

‘I have to do something, right? I have to be some kind of hero...right? Why else would I be summoned here?’ Porter ignorantly contemplated to himself, staring in utter shock at the horrid view.

Porter could barely move. For some reason, he felt physically weak, despite not doing anything. He felt as though his body had the strain of a man who’d spent an unforgiving day laboring away.

‘Hrgh...I can’t have this guy dying. I must be able to feel the physical trauma this damn body has.’

With a loud, piercing roar, the creature threw the car directly toward Hayes, giving no remorse to him or anything nearby. 

“Holy shit! Hayes!”

Porter’s world felt silent for a moment. He felt shock, fear, and anger but couldn’t do a thing..

“Haaah!” Hayes shouted with resolve.

Hayes raised his sword, staring directly at the car in the air. His eyes flashed a menacing aura of burning dignity and anger, while his brows arched with harsh resentment.

The beautiful sword’s blade resembled a mirror. It reflected his face and the glowing blue lights around him.

--

--

--

As the car hurled toward him, Hayes did not point the sword at the car with the blade toward it, rather he held it sideways.

The car met with the side of the sword. Despite how the situation looked, Hayes was in complete control. The sword glowed a bright white for a split second, splitting the car in half  immediately.

A shockwave blasted from the impact site, shattering nearby windows and cracking building foundations all from a single flash of a sword.

Hayes gave a confident aura off, though his face looked as though he was barely able to stand with fear.

As the creature retracted her arm, her size and height returned to what it was before.

“I...can't just keep sitting here!” Porter yelled quietly to himself.

With no weapon, no armor, and no plan, Porter opened the car door and jumped full force out into the street.

“Hayes!”

Hayes starred in utter shock at Porter, as if he committed a grave, life risking mistake so easily.

“What the hell are you doing, Arlo!?”

Without words, the creature took its eyes off of Hayes, causing the red to fade away. It moved closer, causing even Hayes to take a huge step back.

“Arlo…?” The creature spoke in a deep, almost alien voice that hardly resembled a woman. 

As she said his name, she stared directly at Porter. He stood, paralyzed with fear as he stared at her towering size, and her  fierce look.  

The creature simply looked down at Porter as her eyes returned to the dark, crimson red that they were before.

----