Darkness Banished

I was tagging along with my best friend (Kira), who was on her way to a photo shoot. I was sitting one seat away from the window, and she sat in the window seat one row behind me. We chatted throughout the ride and once in a while I'd turn in my seat to face her. Her boyfriend was standing in the aisle, holding onto a metal pole for support, and was coming along for the ride to keep Kira company on her way to work.

At our stop, before we exited the bus, Kira hugged and kissed John, her boyfriend, I waved goodbye to him, and then bus and he were both gone.

Kira and I started walking aimlessly around town / a train stop, hoping to find a rental car, or another bus or SOMEthing to help us get the rest of the way to her shoot. After a few minutes of walking towards our destination, and Kira starting to get antsy, John showed up to surprise Kira, and put her to ease, and took us to another bus. We both felt relieved and in good spirits!

I can't tell where Kira and John were during this bus ride, but we were all together (and this is where the details are faded and hazy). After striking up a new conversation about something that happened to me, or something I'd dreamt(?), John looked at me and said "Oh, yeah, that's (some fairly long gibberish word)". I made a surprised and inquisitive face, and Kira asked, "What?". He repeated the word and went on to tell us that it was the name of some entity/substance/spiritual thing related to health that is rare in certain people - only a select few are affected. Kira asked him a question about other possible "things" that may be out there, and he said that she had something that was a light, guiding, and jovial thing. Kira and I were beside ourselves with this new information and were excited about there being more to the world around us, and I was impressed that her boyfriend was intune with this part of our world. I wanted to know more!

Suddenly, looking forward out the front windshield of the bus, I noticed the air outside the bus filling with little fluttery black sooty things that were spreading when hitting the windshield. I wasn't nervous, but was definitely a little confused. No on else seemed to notice this stuff outside the bus. I started to shift in my seat to get up, but realized there was nowhere to go. I settled back into my seat, and accepted that we were surrounded, and because no one else witnessed or reacted to it, that I had to face it, and there was something calming about it. Kira was concerned at my slight attempt at getting up, then changing my mind, and made a look of stern perplexion. I wanted to explain more of what I was seeing, but I felt there was no point.

Within the next few minutes of the bus ride I started to feel like I was slowly hollowing out, and got very very cold. I hugged myself and hunkered forward in my seat to hold in whatever body heat was still inside me, but I started to shake and felt very fatigued, clammy, and ill. I felt like my skin was becoming pallid, and my body was starting thin out uncomfortably - though on the outside I looked fairly normal, just a little pale and unwell.

Kira asked if there was something she could do, but I couldn't think of a remedy for something I didn't understand, so I just tried to hold myself together and be calm, not worry - this would pass.

John immediately knew that my body was being enveloped and overrun with the entit(ies) he had mentioned earlier, put his hand on my shoulder, reassured me, and started to recite a passage in an unheard of language  in a firm voice. I felt more relaxed, but was feeling colder and colder, and was having a hard time holding on to consciousness.

We are no longer on the bus. I think we were half trying to jog, and half trudging because of my condition and needing assistance with walking - under bridges and through alleyways. I was fading in and out, so I let my legs buckle under me and slid to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. At this point I am no longer in my body but am watching. Both John and Kira lay down on the ground on either side of me. I'm sort of straddling the ground on my stomach, turning to my right, where Kira is lying with her arm over me, and John is on my left, half over my back because he's taller and covers more space, and is wearing a large black trenchcoat which he opened and covered over me like a blanket. I'm safer, warmer, and more comfortable, but I can only wait for the "thing" to pass, and I'm half believing I will pass away like this, and instead of afraid, that makes me feel calm and okay - or, I will make it out of this alive, and thankful.

I started to fade in and of awakeness at this point, and the rest is hazy - but I felt warm, and happy to be with Kira and her boyfriend, and okay with whatever was to come.