The darkness (closed)

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Ember did her best to calm Austin down while Seth raced off to fetch some medicine. "It's alright, Austin, you're safe now" Ember said softly as she gently rubbed his back in a comforting manner. Seth arrived with some pills, and a glass of water. "Austin, who were you?"

"Haemon..." Austin cleared his throat, his voice shaking as it emerged from his own throat. "Haemon Donnelly." Austin's voice was stronger now, but it was still shaking, as was his body. He drew his hands down his face at last, his heart still racing viciously in his chest and his head still pounded. After a moment of rubbing his face, his hands returned to holding his head and casting his eyes into darkness once again, the light harshly stabbing into his eyes and making his head pound more than it already was.

"The vampire? You're lucky you didn't suffer any long-term damage" Ember said with a sigh. Seth handed Austin the pills, as well as the glass of water before he went off to close the blinds, and dim the lights.

The glass of water shook in Austin's hand as he quickly took the pills into his mouth and raised the glass. The water was cool to his pallet and washed the medicine into his system quickly the second he swallowed. He drew his tongue across his lips for a moment, his eyes staring down at his knees with his hair falling forward, casting a shadow onto his face. "I saw something different this time," he said quietly, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. "Blood everywhere and...and a hidden blade...." His fear returned with a new vengeance. The way his voice shook hinted at something. Perhaps the hidden blade had struck out at him in an attempt to wound him. Or maybe it had intended to kill...

Austin gave a soft cry, his eyes closing tight while his free hand went into his hair, gripping at it tightly while the glass in his other shook, the water trembling in its place.

"Haemon Donnelly was a legend in his own right. The blade may have been meant to wound, or kill, but I can tell you that he didn't die" Ember said softly as she took the glass from Austin, and set it on the table. "You wouldn't be here if the Assassins had tried to kill him."

Austin couldn't help but force out another nervous chuckle from his throat. He remained silent otherwise, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. His head still throbbed, but that was to be expected. The medicine he'd taken hadn't yet kicked in but it would with time. After a while, he swallowed the saliva that had built up in his mouth and raised his gaze to stare up at Ember as best as his pounding head would allow. "H-he was confronted by someone," he managed to say shakily, doing his best to calm down without much luck.

"The words...oh God!" Austin cried the last two words quietly in an attempt not to draw anymore attention to himself while his face got buried into his hands again, fingers grasping hard at his hair as the words spun around in his head.

"We all have the occasional bad apple in the family, Austin. While he meet your standards as a Donnelly, he always treated women properly. I think it's best that you only use the Animus for about half an hour at a time, with an hour break between." Ember started to work on the Animus to try and figure out what went wrong.

Austin managed to breath out, his breath shaking in his throat. His heart rate was finally lowering and his head had stopped the worst of its pounding but that didn't stop what had been said to float through his mind like a bad dream. "I'm...I'm hungry," he managed to say with a sniff, though he kept his head in his hands.

"Come along, Austin. I'll fix you something to eat. Nothing quite like a hearty Irish meal" Ember said with a soft laugh. She knew what he was going through, she had suffered the same after a particular session in the Animus with Elizabeth. She became someone else for close to a week. She had lived the lives of all her Templar ancestors, so she knew how they thought.

Austin moved off the recliner and stood to his feet, his legs shaky. Swallowing, he breathed out again and rubbed his hands across his face and through his hair. After a moment, he took a step toward the door that led out into the rest of the house, away from the Animus and away from whatever nightmare had taken hold of him as he was pulled unexpectedly out of it.

Ember led Austin down to the kitchen where she pulled on an old apron. She looked at the recipe book that her grandparents had sent her for her twenty-first birthday, and a tear rolled down her smiling face. She immediately set about making a typical Irish stew, and some champ.
"I know you're American, but just give this a try" Ember said as she handed Austin a can of Guinness.

Austin took the can from her and stared at it idly for a moment before he cracked it open. It sounded like any can would when it got opened, except this one wasn't pop. He gave it a quick sniff before he drank some of it and swallowed. He stayed idle for a moment before he took another drink. "Good, for an Irish drink." He said, his voice holding barely any emotion. He ran a hand across his face again and shook his head before he took another drink from the can.

"Aye. It's certainly not the same as American beers. Then again, I've never really been one for beer. I prefer rum, or whiskey" Ember said with a laugh as she checked on the stew.

A smile cracked upon Austin's face, his gaze dropping to the floor for a moment. He wasn't one for drinking or smoking and yet here he was, enjoying an Irish beer in London away from his home. The smile soon faded from his lips, replaced with the idle look he'd had since he'd been pulled out of the Animus. The medicine was helping his headache at last, the pain dulling to a soft throb. Austin took a drink from the can Ember had given him. Despite the headache beginning to dull, it still throbbed and every once in awhile, Austin would lift a hand to rub at his temples with light fingers. He didn't understand. "What went wrong?" He asked softly, raising his head to look up at Ember as she milled about getting the stew ready.

"To be honest, Austin, I'm not entirely sure. It could have been a glitch in the programming. It's complicated for me since all of my ancestors live inside me. If I had to take a guess, I'd say it sounds like Haemon is extremely powerful, trying to contact you, or a little bit of both." Ember tasted the stew, and added a can of Guinness to the mixture.

Austin shivered and dropped his gaze again down to the floor, the can of Irish beer in his hands. Why would Haemon be trying to contact him? It didn't make any sense. But neither did the two images he'd seen so far. He went to take another drink but this one tasted slightly like blood, almost making him dry heave. Austin quickly swallowed the beer and set the can down onto the counter rather quickly, bending over with a deep breath entering his lungs. His arms shook and his stomach turned violently.

Ember's eyes widened when she saw Austin and how ill he looked.
"Oh no you don't! Not here" Ember said nervously before she dragged Austin over to the sink. She had gone into full on sister mode.

Austin barely noticed when Ember pulled him over toward the sink. The taste of blood filled his mouth and almost made him completely sick. "I can taste blood," he managed to whisper before a dry heave racked through his body and made it shiver. Very little came up with the next heave, mainly saliva and the beer he'd drank a bit of. Black dots swam before his eyes for a time before they were swiftly replaced by blood filled visions and the cries of men being cut down. Austin slammed his eyes shut with a quiet gasp of fear.

"Yeah, Haemon had an admittedly strange diet" Ember said with a laugh as she rubbed Austin's back in an attempt to help him. "You're going through a mild version of what I went through with Elizabeth. If things get any worse, I know exactly what to do. I'll be here for you, Austin."

"Th-Thanks," Austin managed to breathe as a dry heave wracked his body. Nothing came up this time and he spat out some saliva into the sink. His arms shook and his stomach protested rather angrily. He took a deep breath, as deep as his body would allow, and exhaled quietly, his breath rattling in his lungs. "Are you watching the stew?" Austin managed to tease, spitting out another batch of saliva that tasted like blood.

"Oh shit" Ember said with a laugh before she raced over to the stove to check on the stew. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the stew was still alright. She gave the stew a taste, and added some salt. Ember rummaged around in the medicine cabinet, and handed Austin some pills. "This will help with the nausea."

Austin took the bottle from Ember with a faint smile of thanks before he unscrewed the cap and took out a few of the medicine. He breathed out for a moment before he popped the medicine into his mouth, ran the water and drank a handful of it. He made certain the pills would go down before he swallowed and brought some more water to his mouth before he shut it off and hovered there for a few more minutes. The funniest thing was that he'd never gone through this before and it made him laugh a little.

Ember looked at Austin, and chuckled softly.
"You're actually taking this rather well. I mean, you're still you. I wasn't as lucky. Took me a week to get back to normal" Ember said with a sigh before she began to mash the champ.

"I may still look like myself," Austin managed to mutter, turning his gaze slightly to look at Ember. "But I definitely don't feel it." When he turned back to the sink, his head began to throb again and he immediately closed his eyes tight. In the silence of his own mind, the words told to Haemon by the Templar rang out loud and clear. They grew in volume until his head felt like it would explode. His lips parted and what would have been a raging cry of pain came out as a cry that sounded more along the lines as a gasp.

Ember took everything off the heat, and set them aside.
"Austin, you need to calm down. If you pay attention to Haemon, he'll take over. Think of Sam, if he's in there with you, he can help you." Ember dished up three meals, and sent Walter to find Benjamin. "Look, I'll get into the Animus later. You can watch everything on the monitor. Hopefully we can figure out what went wrong."