Snippet #1856335

Garrett heard a piercing scream coming from his son's room. He hastily entered, checking the cradle. Inside, his child was writhing in anguish. Garrett moved to pick the infant up, but just as his fingers brushed across his son's skin, the baby's arm crumbled into dust. soon his whole body collapsed into a fine gray powder leaving Garrett grasping at ashes.

Garrett woke with a start, his alarm clock blaring in his ear, he slapped a hand down to silence it.
With his other arm he brushed aside the beads of sweat accumulating on his brow.
For a long while he just lay there, breathing steadily before finally deciding to get up.
He rolled off the bed with a crash, as he had not noticed his legs were still entangled in his bedspread, after a few moments he rose, staggering in an 'eyes-half-closed' stupor, he eventually reached his sink cleansing his face and neck of perspiration.
Garrett grabbed a small bottle and shook a small circular yellow pill, with an engraved smiling face, from it. He grimaced but threw the pill into his mouth and swallowed it before cupping his hands under the faucet and gulping down a few mouthfuls of water.
< Good morning Garrett. Sleep well? >
Garrett replied out loud to the disembodied voice as he slipped off his current clothes and began dressing,
"Good morning to you too Pathosis." Not answering the question.
He slipped on a worn but clean pair of tan slacks.
<Oh, what an endearing name you've given me.> Pathosis giggled, the sensation was odd and very difficult to describe, for some reason it reminded Garrett of orange jell-o.
Garrett sighed as he pulled on a patched brown jacket and headed towards the door, "What do you want now?" he asked warily.
<Well, now that you mention it, I was wondering if I could go for a walk>
"No." Garrett said firmly, "I've got something extremely important to do today and I can't have us rampaging through town."
<Oh, right your 'super villain audition' is today isn't it, honestly, why does everything have to be so organized can't we just have fun? >
Garrett scowled "I thought you were the one who suggested I join them, 'Just think Garrett, you'll have a job again, yeah it involves thievery, dishonesty and maybe even murder...but a Job Garrett, one step closer to living a 'normal' life.'"
Garrett thought for a moment over whether or not to bring his gun with him. He slid it into his shoulder holster just in case.
< That's not how I sound!>
Garrett headed down the street to where he was to meet up with his evaluator, bickering silently now, it wouldn't do him much good to be thrown into some insane asylum.