There he is sitting in the tavern. Zane is an 18 year old Protogen soldier, freshly discharged after a year of service with his then boyfriend Kaine. Kaine is a Skulldog and the two met on a mission and aren’t on a date but are there staking out a hit. They’re about to steal some supplies and are playing Robin Hood. “Stay focused boney” says Zane. “Shut your screen and you focus Z” says Kaine with a grin. The two have a strong bond but trash talk more than a politician. The delivery shuttle comes into view a few minutes later. “There it is,” Zane says. “The hunt is on sexy,” Kaine said. The two sneak over and ambush the people using stun batons; they drive it away soon after. “ That was so damn easy!” Zane says as he gives Kaine a kiss. They drive to the ship and load up and are careful because of rumors of extra dimensional beings in the area. Apparently they cause horrible hallucinations. “Hey Boney be careful if the space wraiths show up” says Zane Kaine replies “ya right sure I’m so scared” the two have a strong sexual attraction but romantic not as much. They love each other, but bicker and tease to a point where they end up fighting a lot. Overall though, they’re a good couple. They lift off the capitol city planet on Zane’s new ship, and that’s that. “Alright set coordinates to Alpha 18 dash 1” Zane tells his navigation system. “This was so easy Z what’s gonna go wrong?” asks Kaine “you worry too much honey” but during their discussion off the wraiths an intruder alert light goes off…. Zane’s fur bristles and his ears perk up. Kaine’s do the same. Zane feels a rush of dizziness and when it clears he’s alone “ugh what the hell…? Wait, where are you Kaine?!” Looking around he sees minor differences, panels being on opposite sides and buttons now different colors. He notices his own colors are inverted. “What the fuck? Ugh, computer, where are we? What’s going on?” “I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOUR QUESTION” responds the ship. “Um why the help not? What System are we in?” He asks “WE’RE IN THE OTHER REALM NOW SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF CAPTAIN ZEDD” responds the ship in a now distant almost drugged sounding tone. Zane walks up to take the controls and the vary space is pink and the stars are yellow, almost gold. “What the hell…?” He flies away and starts to go towards the nearest planet. “Hmm let’s land I guess” he says to himself. He lands on the neon planet with pink sky and black plants with glowing patterns in painfully bright colors “what in the name of hell is this place?” Jungle sounds and laughing almost like the Koroks from legend of Zelda are heard and the world starts to spin and Zane collapses from the headache and ringing. SYSTEM REBOOT GOOD MORNING ZAN3 “Woah…” he looks around and is in an abandoned city surrounded by hooded figures. “Aigh back off! Where am i? Where’s my boyfriend? Where the hell am I, you freaks?!” They all laugh and close in revealing tentacles for arms and hold him down causing him to white out again. He wakes up again soaring above a mountain. “Ack!” He realizes he’s being carried and guided by a winged being with horns and feathered wings. Half black, half white. “Who are you?” He’s filled with a feeling of both calm and dread. “Shush, I am the tour guide” he looks away and drops Zane into the ocean. He realizes he can breathe and looks around seeing glowing sea creatures and is swallowed by a giant fish with orange stripes. He wakes up again this time to the sound of flames seeing the unspeakable horrors of his friends and family dead and burning and standing above them is a demon with horns looking like a corrupted version of the one from before. All he hears is screams, and is impaled with a trident and passes out again…. Blackness, nothing but blackness… “I’m dead. I’m sorry I failed you Switch…” well, a few minutes later after wandering around he finds a doorknob and opens it. A blinding light appears and he’s in the clouds. He sees winged people and a pleasant feeling. He hears something in his systems “not your time.” He drops through the clouds crashing to the ground below and blacking out. He wakes up on the ground in what looks like a yoga studio or something. Wooden floors, and a full length mirror. A reflection of himself “uhhh what?” He tests it and it’s a mirror image that’s his inverted colors and he’s back to normal. The face contorts into a sneer, and it tackles him. He wakes up in a forest of giant mushrooms, with animals with skull faces everywhere. “Now what?” He hears someone whisper run and not thinking twice he runs away but runs into a mushroom and the spores hit him knocking him out. Once again he wakes up this time in a pool of blood. The blood is green instead of his normal blue. “Oh shit! Oh god almighty!” He sees the victim which is a large green plant-like being that says to him “wake up, Zane. The wraiths, they did this, it’s fake! WAKE UP!!!!!!” The thing pierces him through the chest with a him causing him to scream in pain. “Aaaaaaahhhggghh!!!!!” “Zane! You’re alive! You scared me… you were blacked out and I woke up a few minutes ago. The cargo is gone but I’m just glad you’re ok” says Kaine. “Kaine…? What happened…?” Zane asks. “I don’t know, we blacked out. Can we get out of here and forget it happened?” He says with a shaky voice. “Ya… let’s get out of here.” the two do just that, and never speak of it again. Upon checking the ship's log they found out they never left and then woke up in their home. The log scrubbed clean, except the backup which proved it wasn’t a dream. The cameras went out and a frame before that a shadow knocked them both out. The two vowed to never speak of it again and even more mysteriously the client never contacted them again about the delivery that never showed up. The two would wake up from nightmares regularly and would comfort each other, but never speak of what they saw, but it’s most likely they saw different things. Kaine, who was already a bit of a bitter and angry person, sometimes got even more aggressive when he thought about it. Zane uses it as a tale of the dangers of unknown space. “The Wraiths are confirmed to exist. They’re a sentient species who can be in the vacuum of space and attack anyone who’s in their territory. They give horrible hallucinations, and leave PTSD that can last for years. Their culture, biology and history is unknown and they’re best avoided.”- Species of the Galaxy Out of all the discoveries Zane and his family has made, they're one of the worst; he's lucky to have survived it. Zane gets stoic when he brings them up. Like a grizzled sailor like Captain Ahab he tells the tale from memory and gets a shell shocked look on his face from it. If you’re ever flying near the planet of Kavos, Beware the space wraiths and the madness they cause. If you survive, you’ll be scarred, and the alternative…. Beware. Hey guys, Zane here. Hope you enjoyed this kinda experimental story I’ve done that’s sci fi and horror. I’ve been super anxious recently and this came to me from anxiety, and I just started typing. And yes Zane had a boyfriend before Frankly. Unlike Frankly, however, Kaine is just a character I created. But Frankly is my actual boyfriend 💚 anyway peace out guys and gals! <3