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// How it all began... 
// Story: Unfamiliar Familiar 
// by Addiccus Phinch 
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I awoke not to the comfort of my bed, or the safety of my room as I would assume. But to a splitting headache and the burning sun blazing in the sky. My immediate thoughts went along the lines of 'holy shit this hurts' before my brain caught up with me, and I discovered indeed that it hurt like the unholy fires of a thousand burning Twilight movies. I quickly rolled over, and let out a mild yelp of pain before throwing my arms over my head. Partially to block my eyes from the light, partially to hold my head together as the sudden movement kicked the headache into full blown migraine.

As I was trying to figure out through the haze of pain whether or not an axe had just been firmly lodged into my skull, I discovered an interesting fact. One that should have been painfully obvious considering the painful sun, but beforehand was preoccupied. It was the dust which currently was shooting up my nose, causing me to cough and agitate my headache further. It made me realize that I was outside...Why the hell was I outside?

It took effort, but I forced my breathing to slow until it reached the point that I was no longer coughing. In turn the agony lessened, and my headache retreated to a manageable level. At that point I almost felt safe to move, but decided against it. instead opting for the gentle safety of the hard earth, and the security that came with lack of movement. 

My brain now in semi-working order, I decided to use its computing abilities to figure out why I had been unknowingly enjoying the great out doors. Mind made up I thus referred to my list of 'What the fuck is going on' That I had complied previously in case of just such an emergency. Why I had such a list, was likely do the paranoia of being the paranoid Schizophrenic which I was. Must have slipped my mind to mention that. Also must have slipped my mind to remember how I got outside with the mega-migraine of murderous magnitude. Copyright pending.

The first and most obvious answer was that had went drinking the night before. The problem with that explanation came from the fact that I don't drink booze. Alcohol worsens my disease, and I have never had a liking for having my mind taken over by a me that wasn't me. Just to be sure though, I adjusted my self so that my hand lay before my face. Exhaling, I then sniffed my breath to in search of the acrid scent which indicated alcohol consumption. To my strange disappointment, i detected nothing but a desperate need of a toothbrush. I mentally crossed "Getting shit faced" of my list, and resigned myself to finding a toothbrush ASAP.

The second item in my pool of potential possibilities (patent pending) was much more likely and much more terrifying. The night before, in my sleep one of the other "me's" could have taken the reins if I had been within a frightening enough dream, and could possibly had taken my body on a joyride. It had happened before, to my chagrin. But I always awoke in a safe environment afterwards, without fail. They never put me at risk, mainly for the sake of their own asses. They were in my body after all, those lovely psycho voices of mine, and what happened to me happened to them. Considering our shared paranoia, it was very unlikely they would just plop me outside overnight. too much risk involved. Also, the headache was something ive never experienced from one of their excursions, only some mild confusion and fogginess the following morning. Becoming slightly worried, I crossed the second possibility off of the list.

This left one final scenario on my list, and honestly the possibility of it being even remotely true terrified me to no end. As this scenario indicated that my disease had reached the point of no return and that I was well, truly and thoroughly fucked. The possibility was simple, and horrifying. I was either locked within a lifelike dream, or hallucinating to such an intense level it was possible to feel full body sensations. I desperately hoped this was not the case, but i could think of no other possibilities, as the previous two were extremely unlikely in comparison and no other explanations could make sense. Even the throbbing headache receded in fear of the concept, and I felt a cold dread take root in my stomach.

Mentally i scolded myself, and reminded me that it was too soon to make judgments. Maybe last night i went out partying (which i don't) and got drugged, molested by bikers, and left out overnight in a park full of wild and ravenous beasts? I found it mildly humorous that i found that preferable to the possibility of finally sinking into true madness.

Well, you can either wallow in your despair or laugh at it. I always chose to laugh, cause if i'm crazy i might as well get a few kicks out of it right? With that thought, my face broke into a rueful grin and i found the will to bring myself to at least a sitting position. an excruciating endeavor it was, I grit my teeth and forced through the pain until I was right where i wanted myself. Sitting flat on my ass, unmoving. A state teenagers generally found themselves in on a regular basis. 

Dow sitting, i had more freedom of movement. I took both hands, and placed them against my forehead, making a visor shape out of them reminiscent to the manner I had seen once in a video game. Taking a deep breath I summoned the two cubic units of courage I had to my name and, with a sigh, opened my eyes. 	

Now when I first had opened them, I had been lying on my back; thus blinded by the sun and the startling blue sky. Now my pained eyes were greeted again with a sky-like blue, but that was augmented with a startling and sparkling violet which filled the center of my vision. I stared, trying to get a better idea of just what I was seeing and then the violet fucking BLINKED and i realized exactly what i was seeing. 

They were eyes. Big Ass Purple Eyes.

That settled it. Stan, I would like door number three;

a.k.a. the one way trip to the funny farm. 

Despite the smart ass comments my smart ass brain, I let out a yelp of surprise and rolled onto my back. This caused a spike of pain to lance through my squishy grey matter, telling it to shut its damn mouth before it caused more problems. On my back, I felt a pebble poking my spine and I ignored it. amazingly I also decided to ignore how much my eyes hurt from the light, and the headache as well. I decided to ignore all this because i realized i had just gone insane, and it didn't matter anyway.

From the corner of my eye, I spied the blue that wasn't the sky come closer. The large purple eyes nearly shining. From what i could make out from my position on my back ignoring shit, there was a strange expression in those eyes. somewhere between excitement, pride and worry.

Yay, my hallucinations appeared to be worried for me. Woo Hoo.

It continued to approach slowly, and I continued to ignore it until whatever it was was standing right beside me. I'm not going to lie, i was curious what kind of crazy creation my crazy conscious had conjured to captivate me, but I had the strange feeling that if i began to look my little grasp on reality would fail and i would fall completely into the hallucination. in layman's terms, I continued to ignore the fuck out of it.

Apparently my insanity did not like to be ignored, and thus it moved to stand over me. I did not make an indication to it, but I felt a mild relief as its large blue form blocked out the sun, which in all honestly had been getting real hard to ignore. Large purple eyes entered my gaze once again, and it became painfully obvious once that they were demanding attention. Too bad for them i was a stubborn son-of-a-bitch that refused to meat the expectations of my particular brand of crazy, and so I kept ignoring it...

...That is, until it spoke. And the words it spoke caused whatever preconceived notions I had to shatter like glass. It was a familiar voice, speaking in a familiar manner. one that I had heard before. With a strange rush my eyes snapped to meet its, and I was able to see its satisfaction in gaining my attention. 

The words it had said, the particular sentence that it had spoke kept echoing in my brain. And in truth, continued to echo for years to come. These words would define what happened next, and would change my life forever. They were simple, a command and a name.

"Look this way Familiar! The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be ignored by her summon!"

Either my insanity had the sickest of all senses of humor, or my life had been turned flipped upside down. 

and last time i checked, my name wasn't Will Smith.

It was Atticus.