Alex wrapped his tie around the old man's neck and pulled. Hard. His other hand was shaking so badly he could barely make a fist, but he swung anyway, connecting with the side of the old man's face.
"Stop the car! Just stop the fucking car!"
Blood. There was so much blood. It sprayed across the dashboard, got on Alex's hands, warm and sticky. The old man's nose was definitely broken. Maybe his jaw too.
But he was still smiling.
"Don't worry," the old man coughed, blood bubbling between his teeth. "We'll be there soon."
"Where?! Where are we going?!" Alex's voice cracked. He pulled the tie tighter, using the headrest for leverage. "I said stop!"
The truck kept going. Faster, if anything. The engine screamed.
'He's not going to stop. Oh god, he's never going to stop.'
Alex scrambled into the backseat, his injured foot throbbing with every movement. He kept his grip on the tie and planted both feet against the back of the driver's seat.
"Stop, stop, STOP!" He pulled with everything he had. His arms burned. His hands were cramping. But he didn't let go.
Outside the windows, everything was wrong. The world wasn't blurring from speed. It was just... wrong. Colors he'd never seen before. Shapes that made his eyes hurt to look at.
'I'm having a stroke. That's what this is. I hit my head and now I'm dying.'
He gritted his teeth and pulled harder on the tie.
The truck lurched to a stop.
Alex froze. The engine was still running, revving high and angry, but they weren't moving.
He waited, hands still locked on the tie, listening. Just the engine. Just his own ragged breathing.
Slowly, carefully, he stood up in the backseat.
The old man's head hung forward. Not moving. The tie had cut deep into his neck, leaving angry red marks.
"Oh shit." Alex's hands started shaking harder. "Oh shit, oh shit."
He'd just killed someone. With his bare hands. Actually killed someone.
His stomach lurched and he thought he might throw up.
"I didn't... I was just trying to..." The words wouldn't come out right.
Alex looked out the windshield. The wrongness had cleared but what he saw now was somehow worse. Nothing. Just empty black space. No roads. No lights. No buildings. Nothing.
"Where am I?"
His voice sounded too loud in the silence.
'Okay. Okay, think. The cops are going to show up. They're going to see this and I'm going to prison. I need to get out of here.'
He looked around the interior of the truck, really looked this time. It didn't make sense. From the outside it had seemed normal, but inside everything was wrong. Buttons he didn't recognize. Screens showing symbols that looked almost like letters but weren't. Materials that were too smooth, too perfect.
"What is this thing?"
Alex started pressing buttons. Any button. All of them. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely aim.
Finally, something clicked. The door opened.
He backed toward it, keeping his eyes on the old man's body. That smile was still there, frozen on his face. That horrible, impossible smile.
'Don't look at it. Just get out. Just get out and run.'
His foot found the edge of the door.
And then nothing.
Alex fell.
"No, no, NO!" He flailed, trying to grab onto something, anything, but there was nothing there. Just darkness. Thick, suffocating darkness that felt like drowning.
"Please! God, please, I don't want to die! Not like this!"
He kept falling. And falling. And falling.
His mind raced, trying to understand, trying to make sense of anything. But there was nothing to understand. Just the fall and the dark and the absolute certainty that he was going to die.
Then the falling stopped.
Not like hitting the ground. He just... stopped. Suspended in nothing.
Alex lay there, eyes squeezed shut, too afraid to move. His heart was pounding so hard it hurt. Every breath felt like broken glass in his chest.
'I'm dead. I have to be dead. People don't just fall through nothing.'
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
Darkness. Everywhere. A weird fog drifted around him, moving on its own, like it was alive.
He was lying on something. But when he looked down, there was nothing there. No ground. No floor. Just fog.
"What the hell?"
Alex sat up slowly, looking around. No trees. No buildings. No anything. Just the fog and the dark and silence so complete it made his ears ring.
He touched his face. His arms. His chest. Everything felt real. Solid.
"Am I dead?"
The question came out as a whisper. He was almost afraid to say it louder.
'Maybe ghosts can feel themselves. Maybe that's how it works. Maybe I'm a ghost now and I just don't know it yet.'
His breathing got faster. Shorter. His chest felt tight.
"I can't be dead. Please, I can't be dead." His voice was shaking. "I'm only twenty-eight. I just... I have things I need to do. I can't be dead."
"SILENCE!"
The word hit him like a physical blow. Alex's hands shot to his ears but it didn't help. The sound came from everywhere. From inside his head. His teeth rattled. His vision went white for a second.
"Ah, fuck!" He curled up, hands still over his ears, trying to make himself smaller. "What was that? What the fuck was that?!"
His whole body was shaking now. Not just his hands. Everything.
'Don't look. Whatever made that sound, don't look at it. Just stay down and maybe it'll go away.'
But he had to look. Some stupid part of his brain needed to see what was out there.
He lifted his head, just a little, and looked behind him.
His mind went blank.
At first, he couldn't understand what he was seeing. The shapes didn't make sense. The sizes were impossible. His brain kept trying to process it and failing, like a computer trying to run a program it wasn't built for.
"No." He shook his head. "No, this isn't real."
But it was right there. In front of him. Undeniable.
"I'm hallucinating. I hit my head in the crash. That's what this is." He was talking fast now, the words tumbling out. "I'm in a hospital somewhere. This is a coma dream or something. It has to be."
"Where am I?" The question came out broken, barely audible.
"You are before the Council of Fiction, the Periphery of Creation, mortal!"
The voice boomed through the void and Alex flinched so hard he nearly fell over.
"The council of what?" He couldn't help it. The words just came out. "Fiction? What does that even mean?"
The fog beneath him started moving. Rising.
"Wait." Alex looked down. "Wait, what's happening?"
The fog lifted him up. Higher and higher.
"No, no, put me down!" He tried to find something to grab, something to hold onto, but there was nothing. "Please, I don't like heights! Put me down!"
His stomach dropped as he rose. The fog didn't care. It just kept going.
When it finally stopped, Alex found himself standing on top of a table. Not a normal table. This thing was huge. It stretched so far in both directions he couldn't see where it ended.
"This isn't real," he whispered. "This can't be real."
Then he looked up.
Four figures sat around the table.
And Alex's mind just... stopped working.
"What..." His voice failed. He tried again. "What are you?"
The first one looked almost human. Almost. But it was too big. Too bright. Wearing armor that gleamed like it was lit from the inside. When it shifted, just slightly, the air around it rippled like heat waves.
Alex took a step back. His legs were shaking so badly he could barely stand.
"You're not real. Things like you don't exist."
The second figure wore a cloak made of darkness. Actual darkness. Like someone had cut a hole in reality. Where its face should have been, two eyes burned like stars. It held something that looked like a screen, images flickering across it too fast to see.
"Oh god." Alex's voice came out as a whimper. "Oh god, oh god."
The third one was the worst. It kept changing. One second it looked like a dying star. The next, a teakettle. Then something with too many arms. Then something else. It never stopped changing.
Alex squeezed his eyes shut. "Stop. Please stop."
Looking at it made him feel sick. Made his head pound. Like his brain was trying to understand something it physically couldn't.
The fourth figure had its back turned. It looked old. Human, at least. Surrounded by rings of light that rotated like planets. It was writing in a book, and every time the pen touched the page, Alex felt something shift. Like reality itself was bending.
"This isn't happening." Alex was talking to himself now, trying to stay calm. "This is shock. Or a concussion. Or both. I'm going to wake up in a hospital and none of this will be real."
But he knew that was a lie.
"What do you want with me?" The question came out before he could stop it. Small and pathetic and terrified.
"Audacious mortal!"
The voice slammed into him. Alex's knees gave out and he hit the table hard, hands barely catching him.
"I'm sorry!" The words came out automatically. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean... whatever I did, I'm sorry!"
He didn't even know what he was apologizing for. He just wanted the voice to stop.
"Kneel!"
His body folded. He couldn't stop it. Something was pushing him down, forcing him to his knees, pressing his forehead against the table.
"Okay! I'm kneeling! Please, just... please." His voice broke.
He was crying now. He didn't even realize it until he felt tears hitting his hands.
'I'm going to die here. Whatever these things are, they're going to kill me and no one will ever know what happened to me.'
The beings spoke together. Their voices overlapped, creating a sound that made Alex's skull ache.
"You, in your recklessness, have committed the unimaginable."
"I don't understand." Alex kept his head down, too afraid to look up. "I don't know what you're talking about. Please, I don't understand."
His whole body was trembling. He could feel his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Please, just tell me what I did. Whatever it is, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"You have killed Truck Kun."
Alex's head came up despite himself. "What?"
For a second, the fear was replaced by pure confusion.
"Truck... Truck Kun?" He blinked, tears still blurring his vision. "Like from anime? That's a real thing?"
The absurdity of it hit him. He'd just been chased by a meme. He'd killed a meme. And now he was being judged by... what? The gods of storytelling?
"I was defending myself!" The words burst out before he could think. "That thing was trying to kill me! What was I supposed to do, just let it?!"