He was exhausted, the kind of exhausted that didn't let you sleep, but had you lying in the dark with your eyes staring up at the ceiling wondering when you would finally fall asleep. He had been very busy these last few months. First there had been the war and then there had to prodigum and then there had been the hybrids, which was an entire can of worms he didn't even want to think about.

Maybe if he got up, walked around for a bit, and then lay back down he would be able to get back to sleep.

He stood light spilling in from the window, a blue emission nebulae and it's distant star beyond. The blue light should have been soothing, but when he looked down at his body he was caught by the way the light hit in sharp contrast against his scars.

On his knuckles and the back of his hands, in intervals up his entire body where the steel eye armor had been.

Against his stomach where the drugs had been injected into his veins.

In the blue light it seemed as if they all glowed in a pale silver. He ran a hand over his chest, where the scars were most visible.

He would have gotten up, but he suddenly didn't have the strength to do that.

He was so tired, he just wanted to sleep, but instead his eyes moved to tracing the scars tracing their way up his legs and thighs

He rested one elbow on his knee and dropped his head hand absently rubbing the spot where his leg had once been. Cold air washed over his back, making the hair on his neck stand up and goosebumps wash over his skin. He lifted his head to look at the spiraling nebulae outside.

He didn't want to think, he just wanted to sleep, but for some reason, on this night it was all piling up. Alone, in his room mind weakened by exhaustion and stress he found himself slipping into places he knew he shouldn't.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Why don't you go sit with Adam.

But he's so.... Weird

He rubbed his temples.

Welcome to Anin boys. I hope you're ready to make history as the first to wage war on an alien planet.

He stood paced two steps forward, and then two steps back before taking a seat again.

You have a choice, men. You can go home, no one will blame you, no one will judge you.

With shaking hands, he brushed fingers back through his hair.

You may guarantee your lives... but if any of you men wish to stay, there is more you can do, and together we may win the war.

He growled in frustration dragging his fingers down his face.

I'm worried about him, he just isn't himself.

He clutched handfuls of his hair as if trying to tug the memories and thoughts from his head

He was never good at being alone.

With a cry of frustration and despair he rolled onto his back eyes squeezed shut as if he could force the memories out of his head.

I'm sorry captain, but Cosmic hysteria is not something that can be fixed. He will likely never be the same again.

"Please, just stop." He moaned quietly, "Just stop

My name is Captain Adam Vir, my best friend is.... Is...

"Please just stop." He squeezed his eyes closed even tighter resting his head in his hands groaning in frustration. He tried taking deep breaths, tried like he remembered the doctor teaching him so long ago, but he just couldn't focus.

He's no friend of mine!

It wasn't your fault!

Promise you'll let me do this.

Just one more time!

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!." Knuckles and fingernails dug into his scalp as he ran his hands down his face, "Please just stop!."

He rolled onto his stomach face buried in the pillow hand clutching at the rumbled sheets. The memories came longer and louder until he was tossing and turning just trying to drown them out, he sat up, stood up,paced around and then sat back down again. He ran his hands through his hair over and over and over again until the palms of his hands were numb.

Sitting down he rubbed at his chest over and over and over again rocking back and forth. Darkness washed all color but the blue light of the nebulae from the room, so he couldn't see how the skin turned red under his hands worked raw by his desperate fingers.

He lifted his head again staring across the room to where a full-length mirror hung by one wall. He could see his staring shadow hunched on the bed and in the darkness. He went to turn his head away, but a flash of bright blue caught his eye.

He lifted his head staring into the mirror again, but saw nothing so lay back on his bed hands covering his ears eyes squeezed shut.

They were eating each other.

His body went cold. His mind went clear. He tried to block out the image, the image of that face looming at him from the dark, a face he still saw in the mirror sometimes, a reflection of his own hubris, what he could become if he weren't careful.

Someone he should have saved

Someone he murdered.

Bright blue eyes, hair that was falling out, sticking out in tufts from the bruised scalp and graying skin, that wide gaping mouth with only half it's teeth. He rolled onto his side curled in a ball.

If we had only been a few days earlier.

The guilt, sharp and petrifying rose into his body. He could barely move, barely think, curled up head in his hand.

And that's when he heard it: a soft thud from the other side of the room.

He stopped in place body suddenly on full alert. His heart was pounding, and he was sitting up back against the bed frame. He had been shocked out of his stupor from earlier, but into something much much worse.

He looked around for his prosthetic, but saw it sitting across the room on the little table.

A soft scraping noise, like something being dragged across the floor.

He sat up even further hands clenched into fists.

"Hello! Hello is someone there?""

Thud, scrape.

His voice quivered, "guys I am seriously not in the mood for this so, so just knock it off.

Thud, scrape.

"Guys seriously fuck off! I am not kidding, I will fucking deck you."

Thud scrape.

It was right at the foot of his bed now.

He looked around for anything to grab, anything at all. His heart was hammering inside his throat.

A dark shape against his white sheets.

A hand reaching over the edge of the bed skin bruised fingernails shortened to ragged. It clutched the covers.

He pulled back pressed flat against the wall one foot the only purchase he had on the bed.

"Help." But his voice was lost as a dark, round shape was silhouetted against the dim blueness. His breath came in short ragged gasps as another hand grasped onto the covers.

"Help!" But again his voice was cut off

He didn't understand.

It pulled against the sheets clambering closer turning so it's face was highlighted by streaks of blue.

His entire body went numb.

Bright blue eyes stared back at him from a hollow sunken face,bruised skin and a gaping black mouth.

It moved slowly dragging its legs up onto the edge of the bed.

"No." His voice cracked

"It... it can't be you.... I.... I killed you."

Captain Everett Malaney stared back at him head tilted mouth open, wide blue eyes shot through with red.

The cannibal.

"You aren't real." He said, "You can't be real."

The head cocked to the other direction.

"Get away from me!"

The blue eyes narrowed, and then the creature rushed at him scuttling up the bed like some sort of horrific spider.

He screamed, and then it was over him, their faces inches apart.

He stared into those wide blue eyes.

It opened its mouth, ready to consume him.

It leaned in closer.

He pulled his head away.

"I forgive you."
He froze looking up at the creature through one squinted eye. The blue eyes were unchanging, still wide and bloodshot, though, something seemed off."

"What?"

"I said, that I forgive you."

"F-forgive me?" He choked out

"Yes." Its eyes grew sad, "You have to let the dead rest, Commander. What you did for me was a mercy. I and the rest of the crew were gone long before you arrived. There was no saving any of us."

A sad sort of smile, a cold hand resting on his shoulder, "Stop blaming yourself."

"But I."

"Shh, listen to me. We were trapped in that place, trapped in our own minds until we went mad." I will pay for what I have done, but you cut my suffering short." A hand rested on his cheek, "You saved me, and for that I want to thank you."

"B-but why now I... I don't understand.... Why are you here."

"Because commander you have been dragging me around with you." The other hand to hi shoulder, "So please, just let me go so I can finally rest."

"Dragging you around I, but you haven't.... Come before?"

"Haven't I

A cold darkness seemed to settle over him, ad his heart continued to pound, "What do you mean?"

"When was the last time you looked in a mirror commander, or stood alone for a moment."

She shivered seeing those blue eyes staring out at him from the cold glass.

"I know you felt me there, I know you saw me. Now I need you to let me go. I am not meant to be here, just like they were not meant to be here." Sounds echoed inside his head, Everett leaned closer, "Leave the voices of the dead commander, let us leave our echoes as memories."

"I... I want to.... But I. I don't now how to let go?'

Another sad smile, "That is why I am helping you, and that is why I am saying I forgive you, and I thank you for what you've done for me. So please, go."

"I...."

Everett held his finger to his lips and then lead back slowly scooting away back over the edge of the bed until he sunk out of sight.

Adam lay there back against the wall trembling uncontrollably for what felt like house as the slow dragging noise receded into the darkness. He sat there for what must have been hours before he plucked up the courage to clap his hands together and turn on the light expecting to see something, but saw nothing.

He sat at the edge of the bed in the very dim light.

A sound.

He turned in ear and horror as a grey hand reached itself around the side of his door.

He almost screamed as a shadow cut towards him in the darkness, looming over him.

Hands gripped his shoulders.

"Adam!"

The voice cut him short, the silhouette coalesced. Two gold eyes peered at him from the darkness.

Sunny looked down at him with concern and confusion as he began to shake uncontrollably.

"Adam are you alright, what happened."

"Something was here." He stammered.

Sunny stiffened, her golden eyes narrowing as she spun in a circle ready to fight. He was thankful for her immediate response, no skepticism as she turned the room upside down searing through the closet and the bathroom and the cupboards and drawers.

He sat on the edge of the bed arms wrapped around himself still shaking.

When she found nothing she turned to look ac at Adam in confusion and consternation, "Adam there's nothing here."

His head swam a little, but with the shaking and shivering came... Something else. There was fear yes,but there was also, relief?
The sensation was so overwhelming that, he thought he was going to be sick.

Sunny stared in confusion as the man dropped his head into his hands shoulders beginning to shake.

"Adam what's wrong."

She walked over Sitting next to him hand on his shoulder as he continued to shake quietly.

Adam?'

"N-nothing, n-nothing's wrong>"

She tilted her head in confusion.it sounded like he was smiling, but also sobbing at the same time, she couldn't understand it, and no matter how much she pushed he didn't speak further. Eventually he grew still and silent sagging against her in the half darkness. She held him up with one arm worried he had passed out or been drugged or something.

But when she looked he appeared to simply be asleep.

She shook her head in confusion staring down at the upturned room.

What could have caused all this. His soft breathing was the only sound inthe room.

She held hi where he would be comfortable head looking down at the bedsheets where they sat on the edge of the bed, and absently smoothed out a mark in the cool sheets, where someone's hand must have gripped in order to bunch it up in that way.

She smoothed out another mark a foot or two behind her.

Hopefully this would be the end of it.