Four Painful Years

>Ignore. You're hallucinating. Pretend you didn't see that.

Try not to stare at the sky island for too long.

You don't have to try very hard. As soon as you rub your eyes and blink a couple times, it's gone. It was probably just a little light blindness, that's all. Yeah! Nevermind the fact that the pharmacy was actually pretty well-lit. These things just kind of happen, right? You guess?

Sort of...?

Either way, this is exactly the kind of stuff you've come to expect from your tendency to see things that aren't really there. Well, maybe not floating islands, but things like that. The increased severity could have something to do with how close your painkillers are to wearing off and the amount of stress you are currently under. Or maybe all that rapid movement finally caused something to break up there. Welcome to Bonkersville!

Whatever. Hallucinating or not, there's a maniac trying to kill you.

Actually? Go to a bar, let's drink.

... There is a maniac... trying to kill you.

As much as you could go for an entire bottle of spiced rum all to yourself, you think the literal actual murderer will have to take priority for now. Something really did break up there!

Stupid god damn wrinkly bag of wet neurons!

>Take a second to gawk at the stuff you can now perceive and ponder what the medicine you were taking made you miss before.

There's nothing. Nothing at all. Hallucinating, remember? You round the corner of the intersection.

A three-headed cocker spaniel rears up on its hind legs and barks at you in tri-toned stereo. You understandably flip the fuck out and do a sort of one-legged bunny hop away from the offending party of pooches. Its owner, the jogger from before, apologizes and assures you that he's friendly, like all dog owners do, but something's different. Fizzing in and out like a colourful static on either side of her head are these fin-like ears. You stumble back and blink extra hard.

Nothing. No fins, no extra dog heads... nothing. Just a regular dog and a concerned lady in a tracksuit.

You turn around to flee and run straight into a bush. You scream as hundreds of glowing eyes flick open to stare at you from the gaps between the leaves. A swarm of winged creatures explodes from the foliage, buffeting you backwards before they fly away and disappear. At this point you're sprinting towards the warehouse. Can't get there soon enough.

There's that weird bird again, but this time its weirdness is leagues more apparent. It keeps fizzing out like that lady's ears, flipping back and forth between the form of a crane and that of a big red thing with long feathers, gleaming in the sun and smoldering like it's on fire. You'd almost think it was beautiful were not a completely unnatural monstrosity that you will avoid at any cost.

After running for what seems like hours through what feels like a particularly cruel nightmare, you reach the back entrance of Grosvenor Storage &...

... Grosvenor Storage, Warehouse & OffWorld Freight!?

Not only has the sign changed, but the warehouse looks different, too. There's an extra bay door up there next to the sign, possibly connected to the second level. There's no ramp or anything. The only way a vehicle could receive anything through that door is if it could fly. A wave of blunt pain washes over your brain. You feel a migraine coming on...