Julia tapped her fingers to the beat of the music, letting the old school rock get her heart pumping. The radio hosts brightly chirped up to announce the AC/DC track they had just played as the music faded. When they started babbling about their topic of the moment, her interest quickly died—wanting a traffic report far more than any desire to buy into their distractions.

“Which route do I take out of this bloody traffic jam? Damn Parramatta road, you are a goat track just pretending to be a road.”

Her eyes flickered over the red traffic lights before weighing up the sheer volume of cars ahead of her. As usual, impatient drivers had moved into the intersection, trying to kill all hope of getting closer to home on the next cycle of the lights. The sensible drivers weren’t turning into this ongoing mess. Instead, they zoomed through the intersection as if they were glad to have it behind them.

Looming overhead, the clouds of ash that had started weeks ago blotted out a lot of the summer sky. The whole thing looked freaky with sunlight shifted into eerie tones of you-are-all-fucked. Some bizarre hellscape had taken over the sky above Sydney, engorging it with black and grey clouds. What sunlight did filter through was otherworldly, enraged tones that distorted everything in sight.

The afternoon heat radiated in through the window, making her wary of touching it. Her AC was fighting a losing battle, yet no way could she roll down the windows. The constant ash clouds filling the air didn’t make having them down a tolerable alternative. The driver’s side window was radiating heat like a plate on a BBQ, and she wasn’t even out near the fires with her insane brother and cousins.

She admired their courage, but what they did was insane. They were volunteers, yet the effort had been a constant unforgiving slog. Week after week, the fires still raged, and bills mounted, yet the politicians waffled and refused them financial aid. She hadn’t told Mal about paying some of his family’s bills. When he discovered what she’d done, they would have a discussion. His wife Sally had enough to worry about with him at the fire fronts. Sally had looked sick from stress when Julia had found her reviewing bills. As Julia had paid them online, she thought Sally would faint from relief.

Tired of the announcer’s babble, she reached across to hit a new station on the radio. Her hand had nearly reached the seek button when her world tilted. Dizzy, she felt the car lurch and had enough focus to grab for the handbrake. Yet focusing on avoiding an accident didn’t help her regain control of the vortex surging within. The world wavered as a sudden rush of strange sensations shifted around inside her. It seemed reality had thrown her into a spinning amusement ride, and it wasn’t the fun kind. The shifting pressures rammed against her mind, and her body became distant, divorced, drifting out of control. Thoughts swirled as pain spiked between her eyes, and eyes suddenly light-sensitive let daylight burn its way through her brain. The heat pulsed in her flesh, feeling as if it would rise through her body to boil her brain.

The sensations spiked as she finally yanked on the handbrake and distantly heard it click into place. Her foot slipped off the brake as she tried to clear her head. Struggling, she slumped against the wheel. The idling car shifted slightly against its leash but remained safely behind the line. Acid rose in the back of her throat, the taste and sensation making her gag before a solid Darkness smashed into her mind.

Then she was suddenly floating within that very darkness, shrouded by its essence. The absence of pain as sudden as its onset made her gasp with relief. Yet fear flooded her as no feeling of air entering her lungs followed. The darkness itself was a paradox. The force of its emptiness pushed tight against her, yet with no sense of physical pressure on her skin. That absence was making her feel like she was drifting in a clinging bank of fog. One that supported her, yet cocoon-like, restricted all her attempts at motion. She felt like her body should flail about, but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t even twitch.

Then text messages started popping into her mind’s eye. It was like the worst advertising pop up spam; never-ending over the browser of her mind’s eye. They didn’t pierce or do anything to illuminate the darkness. Each seemed to tag memories as they catalogued her life, and the invisible force’s review pressed into her.

Achievement Unlocks

Damned. - (Just that, Damned. By someone, or something, with significant power. Not that knowing who is responsible would help you now.)

[Race Changed: See ‘Profile’ for outcome]

Purity. - (Died a virgin with a large [600+] positive Karma rating)

[+1 Stat Bonus]

Jaded Purity. - (Prerequisite met: Purity. Situation: Cheated on after engagement announced.)

[+1 Stat bonus]

Defiled Purity. - (Died a virgin, through the action of an evil force)

[+1 Stat bonus]

Forever the bridesmaid. - (Always the bridesmaid gold edition. Having been a bridesmaid over five times but not married)

[Get a life, wait... yeah, it’s gone]

Selfless. - (Took action to prevent injury to others while you were in great danger)

[+1 Bonus Stat]

Please Sir, may I have some more? - (Acquired a wage raise from a miser)

[+1 Bonus Stat]

Gainfully Employed. - (Having had full-time employment for greater than five years)

[+1 Wealth option unlock - option negated because of Curse]

Greater Tertiary Education Achieved. - (Completed and passed, with distinction. Three (3) or greater years of Tertiary education.)

[+1 Stat Bonus

+10 Knowledge Skill Bonus

Class options unlocked]

Sock your body. - (Martial Arts Training - Full Contact - Black Belt)

[Additional class options unlocked]

[+2 Stat Bonus]

Solo Feline Care. - (Knocked back a one-night stand, with a 10, yeah, well, he was at least an 8. Not just ice cream involved, in the self consoling that occurred that night.)

[+1 Stat Bonus

Note: At least you got 1 (or more) stat bonus]

Unlucky in Love. - (Having 30 or more bad dates)

[Nothing unlocked, just learn to make better choices]

Brain Bleaching Required. - (Encountered significant other engaged in coitus, not with yourself, obviously)

[+2 Stat bonus

Additional Bonus Conditions met:

1) Did not injure any involved party

2) Destruction of property impulse resisted (Action withheld: Keying Car)

+3 Willpower Bonus - Should have been only +1, additional bonuses provided, because of your now ex-friend being the one in bed]

WHAT THE HELL!!!

The list continued to scroll through her conscious mind. Picking up speed as it ran back through the course of her life. Message after message tripped against her mind like a woodpecker hammering away for bugs. Their contents varied, yet all were a persistent mocking commentary on her life’s events regardless of what was in her control.

Well, fuck you very much!!!!

So much for getting my life flashing before my eyes when I died. Instead, I get a load of tweeter posts. All she had received were degrees of nasty commentary on various moments in her existence.

[Planar transfer beginning]

Cold stone underfoot was the first sensation that Julia suddenly had as the whispers began around her. Spectral hands caressing and clawing across flesh, yet a lashed out fist found nothing to strike. Spinning around, the air against her skin wafted chill menace and spoke of her vulnerability. Unsure how or when it had happened, it was clear she was naked. Hands grasping again felt as if they were driving inwards through flesh and sent her leaping from their touch. Stumbling momentum pressed bare chest against stone, as hands forced her flat.

Kicking out yielded no impact, yet the hands released her. The stone pressing into flesh mocked her with its sturdiness while her foe remained untouchable. Eyes seeking desperately against the darkness, the bitter odour of fear rose in the air with her sweat. A whisper came close, echoing the previous attack and sent her retreating from a presence in the darkness. A glimpse of dull light flickered in the corner of her eye, highlighting a tunnel in the dark.

“Fuck Off!!”

Snarling solved nothing directly. Shifting her balance, Julia pushed off hard and dashed for the opening. The unleashed rage sent adrenaline pulsing through her veins, pushing back the fear trying to slow limbs already gaining speed. Flesh slapping hard against the stone underfoot, she raced forward, clawed fingers lashed at and brushed her shoulder-length hair. Running without support certainly wasn’t an issue with her lithe build, but the stone was merciless underfoot.

“Mine.”

The whisper sounded female, possessive and sultry, its tones clear even though it was so faint. The presence again made itself known as hands grasped at thighs from behind. Fingers of hard bone and sinew dug hard enough into muscle, leaving pain in their wake as racing strides broke her free. Hand slapped against stone as the glimpsed passageway turned into truth. The light was dull and distant, but the corridor ahead hinted at passage. Hair brushed down against her shoulder, the sound of a snick, and the motion carried the strand away, cascading down her back.

*Clang*

Stone underfoot vibrated with the intensity of the sound of metal on metal. The shifting force staggered her momentarily against the wall, and cold burnt along the skin. Again hands delved into flesh, chilling and grasping within. Struck by the fleshless pressure, Julia rolled forward before rising to run again. The rough stone scraping skin, whole and wounded alike, the body's messages ignored with her priority—survival.

Get out of here J. Ignore the pain run!

Forcing her breath into familiar patterns, she leant into the motion as legs and arms pumped in time. The air that hadn’t come in the darkness rushed in her throat. Stale and soured with sweat and fear, it still fueled the fire of her flesh. Heart pumping with anger and fear sent blood rushing as flight reactions kicked into force. The whisper came again but sounded fainter as if it had lost ground.

There wasn’t a hint of sound, but a shift in air pressure was enough warning. This time, as metal rang against metal, she kept her balance as stone rocked and danced underfoot. The voice's scream was unmistakable through the impact, causing a reflex shifting jink across the passage, even pushing for more speed. Air snapped past her, and fire streamed along her skin as blood flowed down her arm.

Run!

Speed born of desperation, lightened limbs, heartbeat racing, she powered into the waiting darkness. The dim mocking light flickered as if cloaked by something overhead. With no choice, Julia did what she could and ran. Each flicker of light came into existence. She checked her course and ran again. Years of training helped her persist through her body's desire to rest. Not knowing if this was hope or folly, yet the passage continued ahead. Metal sang out, and darkness clung like a second skin. Despite that, Julia ran.

Within the darkness, forms flickered in and out of focus. Outlines of doorways appeared but vanished a panicked breath later, mocking echoes of hope trying to draw attention and cost momentum. Yet while the passage persisted, she ran. The whispers behind turned angry as the ringing metal seemed to drive their source into confusion and rage. Still, she ran. Ran even as the presence in the air about her clawed and clutched. The darkness swelled and gained a near physical presence while the sound of that hammer drove deep into her Soul. She didn’t know why, but it reminded her of a smithy, solid, trustworthy as it called to her again—Julia ran.

I will get out of here!