As a warning, i was in a really depressing mood when writing this, so don't let it make you sad! I don't want that to happen, so heads up :)

'Asking please, as colours fade, I need to breathe, before I turn the world to grey' ~ Human Interaction by Tonight Alive

 Groaning lowly while stretching his limbs, Archie stumbled out of his bed and into his en-suite bathroom.

Pushing his head up to face the mirror, he gasped in shock. His reflection screamed a loss of control. He looked almost unrecognisable.

Granted, the nightmares were recurring again; he had not had a decent night's sleep in days. The weird thing was that the nightmares always contained the same daunting characters: two middle aged men, coated head to toe in undeniable mischief. These men had no names, as they never did seem to name the other. One look at them and you would know that they were up to no good.

In the nightmares, the two men would always mess about, nothing too serious. But things would always take a rapid turn for the worse. They'd start shouting, taunting, sneering. At each other. Aggravation and hate would be lit in their wittily blown eyes like a forest fire, flames dancing wind, spitting with everlasting venom.

Each night a different outcome would occur. And the burning screams would stay vividly printed in Archie's memory.

When he woke up, he could sometimes taste the bitter, burnt ashes that fell on the floor after the inevitable squabbles. When he woke up, he could always remember in gaudy flashing images what he had previously witnessed in his sleep. Always.

Archie knew that this wasn't supposed to happen.

The things that occur in his dreams surely couldn't come across like they actually took place; the thought itself was highly illogical. But these were not just ordinary 'bad dreams'. They were nightmares. And it was their job to make a withering mess of the one they were set on controlling. Keeping this in mind, so far, they have done a pretty damn good job.

He had managed to avoid rocking up at work the past few days, always listing the several excuses he had learned to love. Although, time was cutting short and one way or another he had to show up again, or suspicions would rise. Well, assuming that they hadn't already rose.

The toll of the problematic case also didn't help with his unease towards the modern world.

Thirty minutes later, Archie shrugged on his coat and was throwing on a pair of brown boots before heading out the door. The town was unnaturally quiet that morning but he didn't think twice over it. As he strolled past multiple well known shops on the high street he turned a corner through a dingy path, entering a place he found most comforting. It was nothing special, but held a significant place in his heart that no amount of class could waver.

To most this spot would be suited to someone of the lower class; very poor people with no respect brushed on them or the homeless. Definitely not for someone who was respected for being an agent and a part of the higher class. Cleaning the single bench scattered carelessly on the muddy ground he sat and thought about what qualities he had to offer to the world. Nothing came to mind.

Not many people knew of this growing depression, as when you first meet him, Archie will come across a happy and sociable young man. But deep down anger bubbled and self-hate pulsed through his veins. Because of this, his depression grew on him.

His past ruined him. The strange thing is that no-one knows what happened. He had made up a fake childhood, said that his entire family was killed in a faulty aeroplane crash; he had no living relatives left.

This was only partially true; he still had many more distant family members living and breathing like the earth itself.

There was just no contact between them.

Pushing himself of the bench and away from the serene comfort of uneasiness, he walked, shoulders hunched due to the nippy cold, into a not-so familiar pharmacy.

Scanning through the thick shelfs filled with drugs of all sorts, he tried to single out the one he was looking for. After a while he soon enough gave up. The lack of sleep was affecting him in ways he couldn't cope with physically.

So he decided to create small talk with the pharmacist instead; in hopes of getting aid with his particularly easy search.

"Good morning miss, how are you?"

Clearly startled, a young girl turned around to face him and immediately registered to herself his fatigued features. She had to be careful with this one.

"Good morning to you to sir." Suddenly, a light frown creeped up on her young features.

Quickly glancing at the cream coloured clock, camouflaged alongside the walls, she continued.

"It is very early in the morning sir, and it's a Sunday. I don't mean to disrespect but shouldn't you be enjoying some sleep right now?" A miniature glare was thrown at her.

The second the words left her mouth she tutted, to herself, for being so stupid. An apologetic look was tossed back at Archie.

"Oh dear. I'm very sorry, that was quite silly of me. I'm guessing you're here to buy some sleeping pills? Please, don't hasten to correct me if I'm wrong."

"It's alright dear." He said, forcing out a small smile. It made him feel a little less dead inside. Then he remembered the task at hand. "Ah, yes, can I please get a large pack of sleeping pills, preferably to last me a month or more? I don't really care about the price." Fishing out a few crisp notes and some mislaid change; he placed them onto the counter and shoved his hands back into his pockets in seek of some warmth.

"Certainly, I'll be back with you in five minutes."

She came back with a few small boxes and started to cage them in a solitary plastic bag. Noticing this, he interrupted swiftly,

"Oh, you don't need to bag them miss, you know, being eco-friendly and all that..."

A humorous chuckle came from the girl as she smiled fondly at him. It was unusual to see a customer as awkward as him. "You are quite the character sir, you know that right? Although, what I'm wondering is, why are you here?"

Noticing the offending look spread all over his face, she mentally face palmed and scolded at herself. "No, I'm sorry." She laughed lightly, "I didn't mean it like that. It... it came out wrong."

Archie glanced at her expectantly, his tiredness gradually fading away.

"You," she sighed heavily, this was harder to do than it sounded, "You come into this worn down pharmacy and the first thing I notice is that you don't belong. You look high class, you speak high class, and you seem to be very well educated. But you don't radiate high class. Why? Because I can see beneath your barrier that you don't want this 'high life' that others would kill for."

"You," he paused to look at her, really look at her, "you are one smart young girl. Tell me, what's your name?" Archie realised how weird that sounded out loud and rushed out a few more words. "Don't worry; I'm not some paedophile or something, I just want to know."

She grinned happily in achievement. "My name is Oriana. But you can call me Ronnie as that's what I live by."

"Okay. Ronnie." Archie repeated, testing the name on the tip of his tongue.

"My name is Agent Penski. But you can call me Archie."

"You're an agent? That is so cool," she exclaimed exaggerating the 'so'. "I'm guessing you're an FBI agent then?"

"Yeah, it's a really fun job but I haven't been turning up for a while." Archie didn't know whether to carry on talking to this nice girl or to end the conversation. He didn't want to be so sociable at this time of day without a cup of tea. I kind of miss giving Alan his herbal teas now.

"Oh, why?"

Feeling that she was being a bit too forward with someone she had just met, Ronnie reassured Archie by waving her hands in his face. She could tell he had no intention of opening up.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Archie. I'll understand. Sorry for being too straight on," she mumbled sheepishly, "it's basically my job to listen to people's problems all day."

"It's alright Ronnie, really."

Suddenly, an interesting thought came to mind.

"Ronnie, do you have an adult 'round here? Aren't you a bit too young to be working here? Alone?"

She visibly stiffened. A black cloud passed over her eyes as they darkened dramatically. But it went as quickly as it came.

Indignantly she lifted up her nose and mumbled softly. "I'm nearly 18."

Smiling to himself, Archie acted like he didn't hear. "I'm sorry, what? It's too noisy in here, I couldn't hear you." Ronnie sent him an unimpressed look, the only noise present was the fan whirring in the background.

"I'm nearly 18." She repeated.

"Ah. But you're not 18 yet though, are you?" he grinned cheekily, his mood the best it had been in days. It was ironic how his mood improved from talking to a stranger. He hated talking in general.

But the joy soon faded as Archie stepped forward and looked at her intensely.

"That still doesn't answer my question. You are 17 therefore underage. You shouldn't be working at a neglected pharmacy by yourself. It's not safe."

Shooting him a glare, Ronnie pushed towards him the boxes of sleeping pills and the accurate change.

"That'll be all. I hope you have a lovely rest of the day. Goodbye."

All the previous happy moments went tumbling out the window as Archie muttered back 'good bye' before walking out the pharmacy. What's the point in socialising and opening up to people if you get treated like gum stuck on the bottom of your new shoes. Archie felt like he shouldn't have even bothered.

But he couldn't help but wonder about why she reacted the way she did. Ronnie was obviously trying to hide something. Also, what a bloody hypocrite. She was oh so eager to listen to my troubles but, when it came to me questioning, she turned a cold shoulder.

What's happening round here?

Archie spent the rest of the day just lazing about at home. He vowed to go to Headquarters tomorrow so he could carry on working at the case he tried to put off for so long.

The case, on a whole, was not going so well. Alan and he got a long extension of 4 months to figure out what was happening. When they told the chief about their theory, he thought they had lost the plot and were unable to work maturely. A demon creature? No, it couldn't be.

After hours of presenting the data, evidence, files and reports they had stacked up on a table corner, the chief couldn't say no. He had to give them a go, even if it meant denting the reputation.

In all honesty, Archie thought to himself, I don't think Chief likes Detective Roberts at all. He chuckled bitterly. Just like me against the world.

On a lighter note, Archie also wondered about what had happened to Alan in the past few days. Usually Alan would call to check up on him from time to time and ask about the case. But he hadn't. And that worried Archie deeply. He decided that if Alan didn't show up at work tomorrow, then he would go over and see what the problem was.

You're just being paranoid. The inner voice inside of him spoke up. Maybe he's sick. But that was no reason at all to blank Archie out like that. The only one, who vowed to always have his back, lost a lot of valuable trust.

Simply Archie knew nowadays how valuable trust was in this twisted society. It was easy to manipulate and almost impossible to regain. But what Archie didn't know was the vented and caged feelings inside of him will soon take over his life.

They will take him done, and with him, the whole world.

Extending his neck clockwise to look at the time, he realised it was almost half seven. He had had a small dinner of a few leftover pizza slices and didn't really feel like having much more.

While getting ready for bed, he remembered the sleeping pills he had purchased earlier in the day.

Squinting at the box, he proceeded to read the instructions. 'Take 4 pills per night' was printed in bold letters near the top of one of the sides.

He frowned. Archie was sure you were only meant to take 1 or 2 a night. He knew they were strong and highly addictive. But again, he didn't take much notice of it and gulped them down.

Waiting for the effects to start rolling in, he lay down in bed to think. He tended to do that a lot. Thinking. It was a good, and depressing, way to pass the time.

Out of nowhere, a bright light suddenly beamed in through the curtains, blinding Archie momentarily. On the beam of light, a mismatched-in-colour- box fell out his window.

Blinking, he cautiously jumped out of bed and walked over to the box. How could a box fall out a closed window? He was hallucinating, he was sure of it. Taking 4 sleeping pills was dangerous, even for someone was insomnia and deviant nightmares.

Archie suddenly had a burning passion to touch the box. A raspy voice, located in the back of his head, was urging him on.

In a cliché world, the box would burn under his touch. But it didn't. A frozen sensation rippled through his body as his fingertips grazed the painted wood.

The box didn't open magically. It didn't move by itself. It just sat there and Archie eventually gave up on it. He was too tired for once to question the abnormality of the situation.

A pain promptly seared right through his head.

Stumbling into his bathroom, his head was pounding and the pain moving in aching circles.

Grasping onto his toothbrush, he urged himself to brush his teeth. The endeavour was thru agonisingly slow. Once he was finally done, he gripped onto the sink's edge and faced the mirror.

Similarly to that of the morning, he staggered back in shock. A hooded figure faced him instead of his own reflection. I have to be hallucinating this time, he reassured, trying to calm his racing heartbeat.

The figure in the mirror cackled diabolically and started to speak.

"Hello, Archie."

Widening his eyes, he raced to the door and to his dismay it had been jammed shut.

"You- You don't get to call me Archie! Only my friends have the right to call me Archie." He knew he looked like a freaked out kid right now, but he didn't care in the slightest.

"Oh, your friends?" the tone mocked amusement and Archie could just imagine him lifting up an evil brow.

"Archie," he carried on, enjoying the fear radiating off Archie's sweltering skin, "may I remind you, you have no friends. You have no one in this world. Not even that lovely little girl from the sorry excuse of a pharmacy."

Feeding off the evident shock caked onto Archie's face, he continued happily. "Yes. I do happen to know about her. You even told her to call you Archie, remember?"

How does this psycho even know all this?

The reflection sighed playfully, "ah, 'psycho'. My most favourite word." He stiffened and his red eyes glinted with mischief.

"You must be wondering how I know all this? That sweet little girl in the pharmacy was my gift to you. You could, in other ways, say that she was me." His eyes glistened menacingly as he stopped. He grinned at the horrified look occupying Archie's emotions.

Archie looked like he was close to passing out.

The 'demon creature' tutted impishly. "Didn't your mummy ever tell you not to talk to strangers? Oh, that's right, you have no mother. You have no father, no family and no friends. You see Archie; lonely people like you don't deserve the gift of life. You ruined life for others as a child, and now others will ruin life for you. I'll leave you with that thought, sweet dreams, Archie."

And with that he walked away, reaching a point where he was barely visible in the mirror, as he turned his head and smiled.

A creepy, demonic, scary smile that Archie knew he had not seen the last of.

~~~

Hi guys! 

yeaaaaahh, i know what you're thinking, what the hell has she wrote? it is sucky and doesn't really make sense and has made me depressed but since you love me and all, you will forgive my for my professional suckiness :) hope youve had a great half term, and just incase you were wondering here is a picture of Archie's boots down below somewhere...

yay new multimedia feature, i love those boots,

~whosperfect_