“Arrrrrrrkaaaaayyyyy!”
The voice had been taunting him for hours. Ever since Arkay had woken up from his temporary coma, he’d been hearing this weird, disembodied voice. It was driving him insane, yet whenever he asked any of the other Ksa, none of them knew what he was talking about. Eskay suggested it could have been a side effect from his deep sleep, and had given him some soup to help Arkay sleep better, but nothing had helped.
“Aaaaaaaarkayyyyyyyyyy!”
How many hours had it been? Five? Six? Seven? Twenty? Arkay was tired of it. All the voice did was say his name, like some sort of Deitic begging him to answer. Arkay was always taught that he should ignore weird things in the back of his mind that wanted to interact with him, and now was no different.
“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkay.”
His current scenario reminded Arkay of something. Years ago. Nearly twenty years ago. A story he was told by an older Ksa. Aress, the S-Class leader, and a juggernaut of a Rethan. At least, back then he was. Arkay was still a kid back then, everyone seemed huge and imposing, even though in reality, it was just that Arkay and his friends were all kids, not fully grown.
“Arrrrrkayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?”
Whenever Arkay thought back to that story, it always sounded silly. Back then though, it terrified Arkay. The idea of someone getting inside your head and making you do things outside your control. Bad enough with a normal Rethan, in all their heavy armour. Even worse when the controlled is a kid with the ability to warp the world around it.
“ARKAY!”
Arkay leaped up in a panic. That voice wasn’t inside his head. And something was touching him.
“Arkay! I’ve been calling you for five minutes!” Veekay exclaimed, his hand resting on Arkay’s leg. “You always answer first time. Were you really that exhausted?”
“Sorry brother…”
“Do I need to get Eskay to check on you? Are you getting deep sleep lapses from your CST?”
Arkay shook his head, then yawned. “No, brother… I was… just trying to ignore this voice in my head. Eskay thinks I might have some residual coma voices in my head or something.”
“You’re hearing things?”
“Yes.”
Veekay tutted. “There’s not much we can do about that. Standard procedure, I guess?”
“That’s what I’ve been doing…” Arkay wanted to change the subject. He hated talking to others about his ill health. “Why did you have to wake me up?”
Something lit up in Veekay’s eyes. He’d just remembered his reason. “Oh! We have great news!”
“Really?”
“Yes! Deekay found a bottle earlier. Had pen and paper in it. And a note. We tracked down its source. The Θ-Class guys worked out where we are and we’ve established communications with them!”
Arkay blinked. “Really?”
“Yes!”
Arkay allowed himself a small mile. “That IS good news. Bet Arksi is pleased.”
“He’s over the moon…” Veekay paused. He looked up and down at his brother. Arkay was clearly still exhausted. “Tell you what, you go back to sleep. You need your rest.”
“Let me know if anything else happens.”
“Will do! You sleep well!” Veekay grinned as he pranced off.
Arkay sighed, knowing that he was alone with the disembodied voice once again.
“Yeah… Thanks…”