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Sleep finally takes him: his alien body is tired, heavy, sinking slowly into the arms of Morpheus and aided by a cocktail of drugs to relax, soothe, and sedate.
He lies curled in on himself a heap of scales and spines, monstrous and sleepy...
And he dreams.
In his dream, he is human again, like he used to before his accident, before his life was heavy reinforced glass, cold tiles, and ruin.
He finds himself in an empty world. Everything is stained blue, like winter mornings before sunrise.
The joy of being returned to his old body quickly passes the torch to deep unsettling dread.
He has been here before; he knows how this dream will go, and it makes him attempt to swallow the heavy lump forming in his throat to no avail.
He lifts his gaze to the landscape, watching how it stretches far into the horizon then fades into cold mist on all edges, leaving him feeling uneasy. He knows he shouldn't look, but his body follows the script.
The ground below is dark, its still surface a blackened mirror.
In it, he can see his reflection—still human, that's a relief—things are as they used to be; he’s still himself, with all his small scars and imperfections.
A movement catches his eye.
Under the surface, something shifts, Something dark, and blue.
He can't avert his eyes as the creature slides effortlessly through the mirror-like surface—a crocodile through water, turning directly under him to stare.
Six glowing pearlescent eyes in the dark waters line up with his own two.
Blair can feel his heart drum against his ribs as panic starts to creep out into his bones.
One step, he moves back, and the creature moves with him. Like a mirror.
Another, and it stretches out towards him.
When he staggers backwards, it follows; he lifts an arm to his throat, it mimics.
But when he looks down at his own arm he can see dark blue scales start to mottle his flesh and sharpened nails rip at the skin of his fingertips as the dark blue spreads like a rot upon him.
His vision doubles and triples before focusing yet again on the large claws where his fingers used to be, and as he turns his palms over, a second pair of hands show themselves, fanning out slowly below the first as if they had always been there.
His knees buckle, spine feeling like it could burst out of his back at any moment, and maybe it does? He closes his eyes tightly, a small hope that maybe if he focuses hard enough, maybe he can will himself to wake up? To no avail.
The sharp pain of predator teeth bursting from his jaw fills his mouth like bile, splitting his face as he tries to vomit, but nothing save a gasping whimper can be pulled out of him. His entire body aches and pulses, tense and hot like a fever, his own sweat making his skin burn.
His eyes open, turning down to the creature in the waters again, but now it looks so human, so unsettlingly familiar, so like him—but it's an empty husk.
It’s something dead inside, and desperate.
The sense of dread intensifies as the human shape is suddenly pulled violently down into the depths, vanishing completely in the darkness.
Driven by panicked instinct, Blair lunges after it, his monstrous body pushing through the surface, making it tremble for a split second before it breaks and he falls into the deep dark waters.
He wakes with a start in his sweat-soaked bedding, still monstrous, still covered in spikes and armored skin, six glowing pearlescent eyes welling up with tears. And when his breathing finally settles down and the panic fades, all he is left with is the intense nausea, the feeling of dread, and the slowly fading blue landscape of his dreams.