《Child 423 (Twelve Monoliths Book III)》


 Origin Point

    0


    </a> What specifically makes a hero? Is it the sole act of saving another person from tragedy? Can a hero justify villainy through external heroism? Can a villain redeem truly terrible acts through heroic actions? I think about these questions a lot. I think a lot of people have their own opinions on these questions, too, but to be a bit blunt I don¡¯t think their opinions are worth listening to unless they have personal experience in the subject. Too many people talk from an outside perspective and claim the holier than thou attitude which poisons our world more than it ever should.


    I think a hero¡¯s greatest virtue lies in the strength of their core values. Stray and suddenly the shimmering hero status fades away like a blanket of ashes snatched by a stray gale. The focus required separates the great from the average. So, what do I think about the questions above? Any two-bit shmuck can be at the right place and time and be considered a hero by a few people, but they are only such by chance occurrence. These people who take the credit of luck and call it effort¡ªthey aren¡¯t heroes. A hero doesn¡¯t passively hide under the comfort of convenience¡ªthey tackle the front lines; throwing themselves into direct risk for the sole purpose of bringing others out of said risk...most of the time, anyway (we¡¯ll get to that.) A hero understands how the game is played¡ªhow the mythical force behind the curtain operates all of the little bells and whistles of the world. A hero makes a choice. Thought it was anything more? Are you disappointed? You ought to be, the world doesn¡¯t hand you favors; it hands you choices.


    I¡¯ll admit I am pretty bad at seeing patterns until they¡¯re long established. I guess by the above definition that would make me a poor candidate for being heroic. Would the outsiders call me a hypocrite at this statement alone? I¡¯m afraid I think so. So, I am one of those stumblers, but I guess I haven¡¯t fully explained what makes me an exception rather than the rule. A stumbler who falls into the role of being a hero so frequently and consistently it rounds back around and becomes not-stumbling. It becomes choice through continual act of being choice less. Imagine a one-hundred person tournament of rock-paper-scissors. Now, I know you know this game, so I don¡¯t have to waste time explaining it. A tournament designed specifically around a game of chance, and yet at the end of the tournament there is a single person who manages to beat the odds and pick the winning hand every single time.


    Now, a hundred may seem big enough, but imagine a game of a thousand people¡ªten thousand¡ªten million¡ªbillion. Someone is going to end up winning every single time, sound crazy, right? Now, life isn¡¯t perfect, and I¡¯m not the person who wins every single time, but I¡¯m one of the few who has made it at least to the semi-finals.


    My life has been riddled with all sorts of hints that have become clearer in hindsight¡ªthat just slipped by in initial review. It¡¯s the choices that I make that keep me up at night more often these nights. These choices that make me a hero, and the ones that made...me...


    choicechoices


    (god, talk about an awful day.)


    Now that I¡¯m thinking back more on it, Flintstones might have been showing reruns that morning.I think I just had problems pronouncing my l¡¯s


    Ted Koppow¡¯s


    ¡°


    ¡°


    atweren¡¯t


    had


    Ted Koppow. I


    corrected


    wasBecause Karl understood.


    She always said that to herself quietly, inside her mind.Always stressed.Them¡¯s the breaks. No dinner tonight. Them¡¯s the breaks.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    <sup></sup>clicked


    terrified


    least


    on top


    She was always worried about something.


    Don¡¯t you dare open this stall little bitch it¡¯ll be the last thing you see.


    you shouldn¡¯t be in here


    top it. You¡¯re free. Nothing can


    ¡°


    I deeper


    thathad

 Daniel Aldoun | 423

    4


    Daniel ¡®Danny¡¯ Aldoun brought down a fist into the bathtub that splashed an arc of water high above his head. He laughed and brought a second fist down just beside his leg and a second column of water erupted. His freckled face stared at him from the mirror beside the tub; a soapy hat of bubbles coated his head. His chest tightened in one gust of wind that crawled up his spine.


    He was far away from me¡ªDanny was still back in New York. I could tell that immediately. Danny didn¡¯t know it, but he was actually in the apartment next to the one that I grew up in. Good old Perennial Complex Room 28B. Of course, that apartment is long vacated now¡ªand I¡¯m now in Colorado and have been since I¡¯ve moved out of Mom¡¯s spot in Utah when I was eighteen.


    Danny felt the sudden chill in the air as I felt my way around his mind. He stopped breathing for a second and his eyes widened as he sat still in the tub¡ªI could tell he was trying to listen for the sound of the ghost that had entered his bathroom. I made not a sound. He noticed that his hair stuck up from the water and while normally it would make him smile, today it didn¡¯t. He only stared at himself for a moment longer before his eyes began to grow like pale moons on a starless night. A tear started in his eyes and all of a sudden he was crying. He didn¡¯t even fully understand why.


    Danny was beginning to miss nap time from school when things were quiet, but not the scary quiet that filled his tub. They were the kind of quiet that brought about good dreams and the promise of snack time right after. Now, all that was in his mind was a sharp coldness that brought both of his hands down quickly to his right leg. Danny squeezed the tiny foot submerged in the water and twists it until the tears turned to whimpered sounds.


    He screamed. It sounded...relieving. I can¡¯t begin to express how it feels to say that. No matter how much it hurt¡ªhow much he wanted to let go his hands wouldn¡¯t obey. It was the first time I heard a child¡¯s bones crack so clearly. Any other times I saw kids die it was usually too noisy to hear anything substantial. I wasn¡¯t really listening out for it then, mind you, but now it was almost like a drug. Take a hit, never quit.


    I grabbed his feet harder and with a force stronger than a boy his age could ever muster. His wail overpowered the cracking sound and...to say it all went to shit would be an understatement. Danny¡¯s mother would soon slam the door open open to tell the kid to just shut up before noticing the bathwater dyed crimson.


    She¡¯d be too coked out of her mind to have noticed her own boy¡¯s ¡®suicide¡¯. Danny twitched in the tub before the light left his eyes. His foot was at a bad angle and the bone tore through the skin. My invisible hands crawled all the way to his brain and slammed them down. He could still see in his final moments.


    He could still feel, but he couldn¡¯t scream any longer. He felt an immense pain from his foot until it was no longer there. His foot had been disconnected from his body as I tore it with immense strength. He couldn¡¯t begin to fathom what had been leaving his body until his mind began to flutter. His last thought was how at the very least he could have nap time forever now.


    I sighed with a sense of relief as the deed is done, waiting for the water to leave my senses and return to my body. A whole minute passes in silence and a sense of dread I¡¯ve never felt before climbs up the boy¡¯s unresponsive spine. I was still in the tub. This was different...the boy was dead¡ªthere was no other energy left in his body. There was no doubt about that. For some reason I wasn¡¯t back in Colorado. I never expected anything like this to happen because it never did happen. Anytime a host died I went straight back to¡ªThe author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The door burst open just as I had thought. I just didn¡¯t expect to be here when she did. His mother clutched a Jack Daniels tight in her fist (I was close) and was about to yell when she saw Danny in the tub. His eyes were open and looking at her because I was looking at her, but not for that fact this boy would be dead. Still, his mother screamed the same and called for emergency services just the same. I was still inside Danny as the paramedics entered the bathroom fifteen minutes later and dragged his body off on a stretcher. I dared not move. I was awake when they brought him into the hospital. I was awake when his legs were operated on¡ªno amount of sedatives could bid me unconscious¡ªbecause I wasn¡¯t physically of his body. I stared at the doctors as they operated. I could tell they were scared¡ªthat they¡¯ve never seen anything like this. I knew that feeling, but I didn¡¯t tell them that. I sat watching as they fixed my damage.


    When the surgery was finally finished I felt tired. I had resigned to the fact that I wasn¡¯t going to be returning to my body anytime soon. It was a new situation, but one I would have to deal with. Even if Danny was dead that only meant he needn¡¯t fight with Danny¡¯s will until he made it back into his own body.


    I realized I didn¡¯t know when I was...back when I was younger I traveled to people who were close to me temporally, but as I grew the variation grew larger. I could be anywhen. I didn¡¯t think to check Danny¡¯s memories when he was alive¡ªI didn¡¯t think I¡¯d need to. I rested Danny¡¯s head back and closed his eyes.


    ~...~


    Dreams are nice because they¡¯re not real. It feels different when I¡¯m dreaming than when I¡¯m inside someone else¡¯s head. I can¡¯t control anything, and I get to watch my subconscious do all the work. It¡¯s a fascinating thing. I¡¯m always thankful when a good dream comes around. I see a girl with shoulder length black hair sitting on the side of a country road. She looks to be...teenage? Maybe a little younger? I can¡¯t really tell. She looks like she¡¯s been thrown through a washing machine that used rocks instead of soap. Bold blue eyes looked to the sky as a car approached in the distance and the world melted into strands of light that flew up toward the top and bottom of the universe. All at once it began to vibrate as a melody began to play slowly and smoothly. The strands of light twanged like guitar strings as the notes echoed through the now-dark atmosphere.


    Stars are painted into the sky and as if by a painterly stroke the scene changes and a cliff side enters view. Two figures shrouded in darkness sit out among a city down at the base of the cliff and talk about things I don¡¯t understand. I understand the word collapse but that¡¯s all I get out of the strange tongue they¡¯re speaking in. As soon as one of them leaves the other begins to glow a bright white light. Everything then is filled with the white.


    ~...~


    I feel an awful aching in Danny¡¯s side when I wake. Still in the damn hospital bed. Light spills into the room through a crack in the drawn blinds. I can do little but lie still. The silence rings in my ears. It has been a very long time since I¡¯ve been able to hear silence¡ªthat I¡¯ve been able to sit and stare, and then I lick Danny¡¯s lips as a thought begins forming.


    I have been looking for a way to stop my mind for as long as I can remember. Any way that could keep me in one place...and I think that it has found me. Danny isn¡¯t here anymore, but I still am. I can use this opportunity I¡¯ve been given to live the life I haven¡¯t been able to. There were a few problems. I didn¡¯t know anything about Danny¡¯s life. The kinds of things that were expected of him¡ªhe¡¯s young, sure, but not young enough that I could make a smooth transition. He¡¯s nine years old; enough time to have imprinted a certain personality and history with those around him. Claiming that as my own would require a lot of careful note taking on my end. Second, I still don¡¯t know when I am. This is a small hurdle, but one nonetheless. The last thing I can consider a problem is Danny¡¯s mother. From what I know she¡¯s big on the bottle and doesn¡¯t seem occupied with staying with her son in the hospital.


    All obstacles, and all will need plans to overcome. For now, I think I hear the doctor¡¯s shuffling outside. I don¡¯t want to talk to any of them yet...not yet. Now I will sleep.

 Back to School

    5


    You never expect just how long the recovery process is going to take until you sit through each and every day of it expecting it not to last another minute. The year in-between the fatal tub accident and now has been...tougher than I imagined. I didn¡¯t really know what I was going to do if the doctors pronounced Danny dead on the table. Surprisingly, they didn¡¯t. I somehow kickstarted his heart back into motion, but he doesn¡¯t seem to be anywhere inside here.


    Both of his legs were tough fixes¡ªif I¡¯d known I was going to be in here long term I certainly wouldn¡¯t have fucked them up so bad, but as all things do with time they started to heal. The shock of the situation was enough of a cracked whip to get his mom off of the bottle enough to support me through the physical therapy


    It took six months for both legs to heal and even then I couldn¡¯t walk without a slight limp. I didn¡¯t learn much about Danny in this time period¡ªnothing important at least. I learned Macaroni and Cheese was his favorite lunch food, but fuck all if that matters. I didn¡¯t need to learn much so far, thankfully. The doctors I¡¯ve seen all seemed to agree that I should go through counseling. Apparently Danny¡¯s mom passed me off as a psychotic breakdown due to untreated psychosis¡ªan excuse bold enough to not get me placed in the foster care system. The counseling was a time sink¡ªalthough it did mean I didn¡¯t have to go to school until I was cleared.


    Now, I pretty much came to accept my circumstances pretty early on in the whole process¡ªabout a week in Danny¡¯s body after his death was all I needed to convince myself things weren¡¯t going to be changing. Sure, I¡¯d been in bodies for longer¡ªmuch longer¡ªbut never cold ones. So when I have the chance to relive a life stolen from me by everyone else, you bet your ass I¡¯m going to do what I can to enjoy that time. School is not time I enjoy, so I did my very best to prolong my sessions with my counselor. Eventually the ruse was up, and he cleared me for a return to school the following year; a fact I was more than vocal about. Unfortunately for me, very little ten year olds like school, so such vocal complaints are a norm.


    In the time since the tub accident I¡¯ve actually grown fond of Danny¡¯s mother. (Not in that way, sickos.) She¡¯s got a dependence problem, but it¡¯s not so bad when she¡¯s putting that attention into me¡ªit takes focus away from the drinking. She reminds me of my own mom in a way¡ªso I can¡¯t say that a part of the attraction comes from missing her. A part of me wishes I could tell her my real name and just go on fully pretending this was the life I¡¯d lost, but I knew that wasn¡¯t going to be possible. So, I hiked up Danny¡¯s identity and kept it wrapped around me like a jacket.


    Come September 4th, 2022 I was setup to return to Queensbury Intermediate School. It was a strange building compared to most other schools I¡¯d known about in my time. It was a separate building entirely for the fourth and fifth grade before middle school. The school I had gone to in Utah went straight through from elementary to middle. Danny missed out on his fourth grade year by my breaking of his legs¡ªmy legs. I had to get used to calling them mine, Danny isn¡¯t here anymore. Thankfully that works in my favor. I don¡¯t have any clue of how he acted in school or who his friends were. Starting from scratch from the fourth grade was fine by me. Life goes on, so they say.


    6


    I woke up that morning from a dream more vivid than I recall having the past few months. I saw myself as I was but a young boy of five watching television in the room very next door to where I lived now. Except, instead of Flintstones reruns on it was Voltron, and instead of the Chernobyl accident interrupting my cartoons it was a bombing of the white house. I woke up easily enough. It should have been a dream to put a chill up my spine, but it got me thinking more than anything.


    I don¡¯t put much stock into dreams meaning anything per se, but what they can do is give ideas that ya¡¯ might not be consciously thinking about and that¡¯s exactly what happened that morning of the fourth. That dream reminded me of some stories I read about parallel universes¡ªworlds that are different but similar¡ªa lot of the core parts that make up a world are exactly the same with just a few alterations here and there. The sky¡¯s blue for an hour longer or a different mascot on a bowl of cereal at a certain time. Or the white house getting bombed instead of a nuclear reactor exploding.


    It certainly gave me an interesting idea¡ªwhat if I wasn¡¯t visiting other whens, but other wheres? Not just geographically, but spatially? What if I wasn¡¯t traveling through time exactly, but these alternate worlds? That could explain the very first experience where the Russian man wasn¡¯t at the site of the explosion before I interfered...and then he was. It is a possibility that I¡¯m somehow entering people¡¯s minds in alternate realities, but I couldn¡¯t hazard a guess as to why this was happening anymore than I could guess why I was being sent at all.


    If this was the case, then it would mean that these alternate realities were existing on different time frames¡ªor at the very least don¡¯t have a common starting point. When I entered Danny I was far from my own time...but that might not be so true. It¡¯s possible I¡¯m exactly synced up with my old time.


    Or I could be thinking too much into this, which is entirely possible. It wouldn¡¯t change too much about my circumstances either way. I let the thought fade to the back of my mind as I unraveled the blanket from the bed. Danny¡¯s body was smaller than the average ten year old¡ªthin frame with skin taut to the bone. Sure, my stunt with his feet wasn¡¯t helping much, but he was scrawny before I came into his life. I don¡¯t know which made me feel more off balance, the weight shift or the broken legs.


    Either way, it took a lot of getting used to. I stood up straight and walked across the room¡ªa small space with posters of horses lining the wall. Danny must have sure liked them¡ªthere wasn¡¯t anything else that told me anything about the kid. All it means is I have an easy mold to fill, and that is a-okay with me.


    I¡¯ll admit I was a little more than nervous stepping out into the living room that morning. I had a paranoid sort of feeling that everything was going to go wrong. How could it not with everything considered? Either Danny¡¯s mom would recognize me not as her son or I¡¯d be yoinked back to my own body just like that after all that time. Eh, sorry pally. Big man upstairs was going to bring you back earlier but he fell asleep on the sofa, what a lug!


    Thankfully, it was just that, paranoia. I walked out to a bowl of cereal¡ªCap¡¯n Crunch¡ªI personally didn¡¯t like it, but Danny seemed to love it. I¡¯m glad he felt me breaking his legs, the twit. I offered up my biggest smile as I swallowed the first spoonful.


    ~¡­~


    The bus stopped with a slow agonizing sound that nobody else was worried about. It whined and cried until it let out its final gasping wheeze. It stopped right across the street from the apartment complex¡ªa spot I was more than familiar standing by myself. Danny¡¯s mother seemed to understand this subconsciously as she closed the door behind me when I stepped outside.


    Now, I know some of you might be gasping and sayin¡¯ something like ¡°oh my god what mother would do that to a kid?¡± and to that I say, ¡°New York kids are something different.¡±


    I don¡¯t know what it is about the state, but kids from the big apple seem to have this natural toughness to them. A sort of leg up in the street smarts¡ªspecially kids from the city. I dunno, maybe it¡¯s something in the water. Whatever it may be, it¡¯s true.


    While street smarts may not have saved Danny from his bloodbath (literally), he certainly would have been able to make it onto the bus across the street by himself. Hell, I wouldn¡¯t doubt he¡¯s been to the arcade a few blocks over by himself. Mrs. Aldoun may have been an irresponsible drinker, but in normal circumstances, Danny would have been perfectly fine in the tub all alone from age....hmm I¡¯d say five up.


    The bus brings back a bad smell¡ªnot foul in odor...but in memory. I remember the first time I stepped onto one of these cans the kid I ended up sitting next to crapped his pants as soon as he was out of his mom¡¯s grasp. I guess the New York rule doesn¡¯t apply to everybody.


    Thankfully the smell of crap was absent even if the eyes of every kindergartner I could see was just on the edge of creating that smell. I chose a seat in the middle of the bus. It was empty so I slid in and took in a deep breath. The windows had started to fog up from the chilly weather outside. I took my finger and drew a circle with little legs coming off each edge. It almost looked like a little ant. A wave of nostalgia hit hard as I remembered all at once the kinds of doodles I made on these same kinds of windows. Crazy how little changes in almost forty years.


    The ride was a short one. I lived only a few blocks from Queensbury School. If drawing on the chilled windows was a wave of nostalgia, seeing the school grounds approach was a tsunami. The two story building was an anomaly for the district, as the three other buildings¡ªused for elementary, middle, and high schoolers grades respectively¡ªwere all wider than they were tall¡ªonly using different floors for the basement level. The Intermediate building was the only one two stack up a second floor. By comparison it looked like a castle compared to the other buildings.


    The bus slowed to a halt¡ªstill crying its final noises as it had done so. Once it stopped the driver of the bus¡ªan overtired looking woman of about fifty with the kindest eyes I¡¯d think I have ever seen. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± She said, more than a bit redundantly. ¡°I¡¯m going to have you guys leave off here by grade. Reminder this is for the fourth and fifth graders, if you¡¯re below that you¡¯re staying on here so I can swing you around to the elementary school.¡±


    I looked to my side to see a kindergartener kid blowing a breath of relief as his time had not come yet. The bus driver steps out of her seat and down the steep steps to the ground below, motioning for the rest of us to follow. I glance at nails faker than a Californian sun tan. It makes me think back to when I traveled to Jeanine Laury. She was a forty-something mother of two kids-at-home spending their overnight trip at school in Vegas. I was...god must have been twenty-three at the time and more than comfy at my mom¡¯s place in Utah.


    Jeanine stayed far longer than she should have¡ªshe was one of those people with extraordinarily strong wills. Extremely stubborn, too. I remember every time I tried to get her to leave she¡¯d tap her nails across the table one at a time¡ªthe clicking sound they made will forever be etched into my memory. She¡¯d click and clack and go, ¡°Y¡¯know, maybe one more, sugar. Just set me in for one more round,¡± and would continue until she joined thirty-seven other occupants of the casino she was in on the obituary page that next week. A gunman with a hedonistic and sexist agenda came storming through and shooting up as many women as he could darn well aim his gun at.


    All in a second I¡¯m back looking at those same nails leading us off of the bus and I wonder if it¡¯s a sign that we were all being lead to the slaughter like cattle. We were cordoned off by assigned classroom numbers alongside other cattle gathered by different buses and bus drivers. When the sorting was all through I found out I was going to be in room 234 with Mr. Anthony Krest. Fun fact, some thirty years ago I had class with a Mr. Zachary Krest¡ªperhaps the father of this new teacher. Or perhaps his alternate universe identity.


    The thought crept back in like a snake, never fully letting go of the suggestion, I tucked the implication away in the rear end of my mind. We were led inside the building¡ªthrough a copious amount of security checkpoints and metal detectors. Schools in America aren¡¯t like they used to be. Some wacko could get his hands on any number of weapons and slide right in and make those kids look like the shredded women from the casino. I should know, Jeremy Higgins saw that personally when I came to him when I was twenty five.


    Mr. Krest¡¯s room however looked just how I remembered it. All classrooms in this building looked very similar to one another, so even though I¡¯ve never been in this room specifically, it definitely led to an air of familiarity. ¡°Hiya, you guys!¡± A mid twenty-something Anthony Krest called out to us as we were all standing without purpose in his room. ¡°My name¡¯s Mr. Krest, kind of like the face cream!¡± Face cream? Where I¡¯m from he would have made a toothpaste joke I¡¯d think. I¡¯m going to chalk a tentative point to AU. The joke gets laughter from the other kids around me. I try not to stick out so I offer a chuckle as well. Mr. Krest smiles a toothy grin and cocks his head to the side¡ªhis profile is sharper than I initially expected. He definitely didn¡¯t have any relation to Zachary Krest unless the mother¡¯s features were as wolf-like.


    ¡°Here¡¯s what we¡¯re going to do.¡± He begins, ¡°Let¡¯s start off class introducing each other and one thing about yourself that you like. We call this an icebreaker.¡± Oh God. I despise ice breakers in every scenario they¡¯ve ever cropped up in my life. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m subjected to a fate where I have to repeat this suffering. ¡°I¡¯ll start.¡± Mr, Krest walks over to his desk and grabs a plush baseball, fondling it in his hands. ¡°Like I said, I¡¯m Mr. Krest, and I like baseball. My dad used to bring me to ballgames all the time. Now¡­¡± he looks over the classroom. ¡°You,¡± pointing to a girl on the far end of the group¡ªthe loner if I could call anything.


    ¡°Uh...my name is¡­¡± she trailed off and grabbed for her dark hair. Biting her lips she took in a deep breath. ¡°My name¡­is Ellie. Ellie Parker. I like animals. My mother is a vet and we have two dogs.¡±


    Mr. Krest smiles, ¡°Well hello Ellie. I like animals too. Are dogs your favorite animal?¡±


    She shakes her head slowly, ¡°N-No, I like zebras.¡±


    ¡°All right, well enough. Next,¡± he nods his head.


    A boy with thin glasses but a hefty upper body nodded. ¡°I¡¯m Benjamin Hartford but please call me Ben. My Dad¡¯s a football player, although I¡¯m more into baseball.¡±


    ¡°My man,¡± Mr. Krest smiled. ¡°What team¡¯s your father on?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d rather not say,¡± he fashions a weak grin.


    ¡°Ah, a Giants guy then. Don¡¯t worry your secret¡¯s safe with me,¡± he flashes a sly grin, setting the baseball down beside him. ¡°Alright, who¡¯s next?¡±


    A blonde girl beside Ben perked up her eyes. She had long blonde hair and looked to be as thin as Danny had. ¡°Stacey Callabahn, sir.¡±


    ¡°Hello Stacey, what¡¯s one thing about you?¡±


    ¡°Oh if I had to say just one thing¡­¡± Stacey began, as if asking permission to drone endlessly about herself. ¡°I wanna be a doctor, but I don¡¯t think I want to be a people doctor.¡±


    ¡°So like Ellie¡¯s mother? Like a vet?¡±


    Stacey frowned, ¡°I don¡¯t think a vet could do what I want to.¡±


    Mr. Krest shared a look of confusion with the rest of the class. ¡°What you want to do? And what would that be?¡±


    Stacey¡¯s frown deepened. She crossed her arms close to her chest and pouted her lips out, ¡°Nothing, never mind.¡±


    A curly haired boy practically jumped in front of Stacey with his hands on his hips and beaming a boastful smile. ¡°I¡¯m Mark Terry! Unlike Ben I¡¯ll say it loud for everyone in the class. The Giants S-U-C-K. I know this because I¡¯m a fan of the Patriots, and they¡¯re gonna take the Superbowl no problem!¡±


    ¡°Well hello Mark,¡± Mr. Krest said. ¡°Mighty big fan of the sport, do you watch it every Sunday with your Dad?¡±


    ¡°Sure do! My Mom watches with us too. She¡¯d be mad if she was here right now and you said that!¡±


    ¡°Ah...haha, yes, your mother too. It sounds like excellent family bonding time.¡±


    ¡°Ooh it is! We go all out on the food and we¡ª¡±


    ¡°Mark you¡¯re taking up everybody¡¯s turn,¡± Ellie said, not louder than a whisper.


    Mark looked at her accusingly and then back to Mr. Krest, thinking for a moment, he took in a deep breath, ¡°andweeatitallinthelivingroomandbythetimethefoodisallgonethegameisdoneandwearelaughingathowfastweateitall.¡± He finished in one mad dash to the end of his thoughts and was breathing heavily as Mr. Krest¡¯s eyes landed on mine.


    7


    ¡°How about you, sport?¡±


    I take in a deep breath, ¡°Hello, my name¡¯s Danny Aldoun. I like horses.¡± As soon as it left my lips I felt like locking my mouth shut. Why¡¯d I say that? Sure, Danny would have said something like that...but you aren¡¯t Danny. Now how are you going to follow up on this?


    ¡°Ah, animal lover like Ellie, huh?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yeah. I uh, like the way their mane looks. I also like...I like comic books,¡± I said, trying to save it. Was I into them at his age? I don¡¯t remember. I think so.


    Mr. Krest nodded, probably chalking me up as a special case already. ¡°Okay, what kind of comics? Do you have a favorite?¡±


    ¡°Mine¡¯s Superman!¡± Mark Terry yelled.


    ¡°Superman¡¯s lame,¡± Ben added. ¡°Try someone like Moon Knight.¡±


    ¡°Mine¡¯s Flash,¡± I add, shrugging my shoulders.


    ¡°Ah, I had a feeling it would be. Mine¡¯s The Flash, too,¡± Mr. Krest added. ¡°Flashpoint is my all time favorite comic, even though I don¡¯t read them as much as I used to I always return back to Flashpoint.¡±


    He must be talking about some newer issue stuff. Like him I haven¡¯t been keeping on the stories as of late. I only said it because he ran fast and that¡¯s cool.


    ¡°What¡¯s Flashpoint?¡± Ellie asked.


    Mr. Krest¡¯s eyes swung over to her and smiled. ¡°You all know The Flash, right? I don¡¯t want to spend too long or confuse anyone. We¡¯ve got a busy day today as it stands.¡±


    We all nodded. ¡°Excellent. Flashpoint is the story of what happens when The Flash runs so fast that he ends up traveling back in time to the moment his mother was killed by his arch-nemesis¡ªReverse Flash. He manages to stop his enemy and changes the future. Unfortunately, when he returned to his own time he realized he had changed more than just the event he directly interfered with. That one tiny change had snowballed into a mountain of different things¡ªsuch as various members of the Justice League being in the center of a global war among themselves. Now, does anyone know what the common term is for this kind of situation?¡±


    The others around me all put their hands to their chins in an effort to think up the answer quicker, but it came to me real easily. ¡°It¡¯s the butterfly effect, obviously. People write about it all the time thinking they¡¯re original.¡± Mr. Krest seemed surprised. It definitely didn¡¯t sound an answer a ten year old would come up with. ¡°Uh...at least my Mom says so. She told me about this one book that she read about two kids who met at a carnival or fair or something like that, and that meeting point in time was just like that moment you talked about with The Flash.¡±


    ¡°Ah, the crux of the butterfly effect, yes, very well done, Danny. A Crux in this case is a focal point that everything else centers around. In The Flash¡¯s case the crux of his timeline is his mother¡¯s death, so Barry must go back in time a second time and stop himself from changing the past to correct the present. And for this...other story, it¡¯s something similar I presume?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Yeah, like I said. Butterfly Effect stories all turn out the same in the end. Boy gives girl a present and because of that the earth blows up fifty years later.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well it sounds...interesting.¡±


    ¡°Eh, I¡¯ve read better.¡±


    ¡°Well, thank you very much for sharing Danny. Before we get too caught up in our story let¡¯s move on, shall we?¡± I¡¯m caught in my thoughts...where did that come from? I hadn¡¯t read any book like that. I haven¡¯t read any books in the last...what, twenty years? I don¡¯t even remember the last one I did read. Curious and curiouser.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Evan. My Mom said not to tell people my full name until I knew them well, so I¡¯m Evan. I like roller skating.¡±


    ¡°Hello Evan,¡± Mr. Krest began. ¡°I see your mother taught you well. It¡¯s okay, you¡¯ll get to know everyone here in due time. How about you?¡± He pointed to the next girl beside him.


    ¡°Hello, my name is Sable Grace. I like to read. I hope we can talk about the books on the summer reading list at some point today, if possible.¡±


    ¡°Hello Sable, and might I congratulate you for being the brave soul on reminding me on the summer reading. We¡¯ll take a look at that once we¡¯re done here and I¡¯ve assigned you your seats.¡± Sable nods and readjusts her wide frames with a grin.


    Summer reading...aw damn it. Now I¡¯m really in for some hot shit.


    ¡°Hello,¡± a girl beside Sable calls up. She¡¯s got dark brown hair tied up into a ponytail. ¡°About assigned seats, would it be possible for Stacey and me to get a seat next to each other? We¡¯re best friends.¡±


    ¡°Well, hello, that sounds like something we can do. And what¡¯s your name?¡± Mr. Krest asked.


    ¡°Anna Jordan. My Mom also told me not to tell people my full name unless I know them, but Stacey¡¯s here and I know her.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯ve said. Okay Anna, I can put you next to Stacey. What¡¯s one thing about yourself you¡¯d like to share?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Stacey¡¯s friend.¡±


    I could see the light behind Mr. Krest¡¯s face die just a little inside. He swings it back into motion and turns to the final child beside Anna. He¡¯s a larger kid with freckles dotting his face. He had been rolling his eyes throughout the rest of their introductions I was thinking they¡¯d roll out of his head.


    ¡°I¡¯m Jimmy Dent. My dad¡¯s in the hardware business, nothing too exciting to see.¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯d disagree my friend! Hardware¡¯s a very important job. It¡¯s quite the foundation for most everything else.¡±


    ¡°Funny joke.¡± Jimmy said, humorless. Even though he was sarcastic it sure got laughs out of the other kids. Mr. Krest joined in too, unaware he was the joke being laughed at.


    ¡°All right, well now that we¡¯re all acquainted I¡¯m going to go over the assigned seats...starting with Stacey and Anna up here by the smartboard.


    </a> ~...~


    I was seated in a four square with Ellie, Ben, and Mark. We were closest to the door. Now that the introductions had settled Mr. Krest took spotlight at the front of the room. ¡°Now, I want everybody here to know that this is going to be a fun year. We¡¯re going to do work, but we¡¯re going to have fun doing it. I know that sounds like the furthest thing from the truth, but I¡¯ll try to show you in these next few months.¡± He smiled. ¡°First order of business will be letting everyone know what our week is going to go like.¡± He pulled out a marker from the tray of the smartboard¡ªa digital blackboard it seemed. He wrote out MONDAY on the top left side and underlined it. ¡°So today we did our introductions¡­¡± he writes, and then crosses it out, ¡°...so next up we¡¯ll lightly touch on the summer reading. If you didn¡¯t get to it that¡¯s fine, we¡¯ll all discuss the plot as a group and we can move on from there. The finer points we¡¯ll get into later.¡±


    I felt a relief in my chest.


    ¡°Once we¡¯re done with that we¡¯ve got some math on the table, an unfortunate part of life, but I brought some markers and dry-erase boards so we can have a little enjoyment with it. Then we¡¯ve got a break scheduled for about fifteen minutes where you can talk among yourselves. Then we¡¯re going to do some cursory history to go over what we¡¯re going to be learning this year¡ªthis will be the driest part of the day, but I¡¯ll try to lighten it up with my charming personality.¡± This got a few giggles around the room. ¡°And then we¡¯ve got science, not too bad for a first day, huh? Then after this we¡¯ll discuss where art and music fall into place¡ªand for those of you who have signed up for band or choir we¡¯ll talk about that too.¡±


    All in all it seemed like an easygoing day. I nodded as everyone else seemed to. I mean, I¡¯m sure I could teach the subject as well as he could, but to be honest a lot of what we see I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve long forgotten in the mental waste dump that is useless information that the brain chooses to let go of.


    Mr. Krest finishes writing on the board the topics for the day and I see he¡¯s also left room for the other days of the week. ¡°We¡¯re gonna cross off our list as we do each task. If you¡¯re really inclined to not enjoy yourself you can think of it as a written clock ticking down until you¡¯re out of here, but until then we¡¯re going to start up here.¡± He sets the marker down in the tray and walks over to his desk and grabs a book off of the top. ¡°This, this is...¡±


    8


    ¡°...The Eye of Amnael.¡± Mr. Krest held the thin book up for everyone to see. Mr. Krest looked over all of us, ¡°Now, this story was written by Ryan Geever when was only a young adult. Does anyone have a guess as to why Ryan Geever chose to name the book this way? Feel free to use details from the book if you want to.¡±


    There...was something weird going on. I rubbed my ears to make sure I wasn¡¯t missing anything, but they seemed to be fine. Every time he said the author¡¯s name it was just...blank. And nobody else thinks it¡¯s weird. It¡¯s like the words themselves have been stolen. And just what is this...Eye...of Amnael? Just what kind of cultish name is that for a book? Ellie¡¯s hand shot up, but not before Sable¡¯s. It was like watching a bottle rocket, one second it was down and then the next it was up. ¡°Ah, yes, Sable?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s literal. I would say the narrator is the mysterious Amnael and he¡¯s following the protagonist through the different lives.¡± Different lives? That¡¯s a bit strange.


    ¡°Okay, that is definitely one possible interpretation. Ellie, you had your hand up next. Did you think of anything different in regards to the title of the book?¡±


    She blushed a little at being picked and let her hand fall beside her quietly. ¡°Well...I just thought that maybe it was...I dunno, maybe like¡­ maybe William felt guilty about what he did?¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    This froze me to my chair. A story about a character named William living through different lives?! What were the chances I ended up in a classroom learning about a book like that? I¡¯d say astronomically low, but I think it¡¯d even be lower than that. I raise my hand, ¡°Uh, Mr. Krest I¡¯ve been out of class for a while and don¡¯t seem to have that book you all read over the summer, could I see one?¡±


    Mr. Krest looks taken aback, ¡°Well, I mean, sure, you can take mine. Just next time wait until Ellie¡¯s done with her answer, okay?¡±


    I nodded slowly, mouthing an ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± in her direction. I don¡¯t know if she saw it. I don¡¯t know if she personally felt hurt by my outburst, but at that minute it didn¡¯t matter. I needed to see just what the fresh hell was in this book.


    Mr. Krest walked over and set the book he was holding onto my desk. I look at the cover and see the title just as plain as day¡ªbold white text on a black background:


    At the bottom the author¡¯s name is blank. Mr. Krest¡¯s voice was drowned out as I opened the front cover. There were thirty-one pages in all and it absolutely floored me as I skimmed through them. It was thirty-one pages that exactly matched my recent recollection on my life thus far. The beginning started with my time in New York with my mom...it even listed my name in full. The only thing that was strange was that it didn¡¯t list Danny¡¯s name in the final pages...it only called him the Boy. I wonder¡ª


    ¡°Danny?¡± The voice cut through the hazy thoughts and I looked up. Everyone was looking at me. Mr. Krest smiled small. ¡°There¡¯ll be plenty of time for you to catch up, for now we¡¯re up here, okay?¡±


    ¡°Oh...yeah, sorry.¡± I said, folding the book closed.


    He nodded and continued. ¡°Yes, so I was just saying how that was also a valid viewpoint from Ellie. It¡¯s actually closest to the actual truth, it¡¯s not too long a story, but it tells of a boy who¡ª¡±


    ¡°Who saves people so much that he misses out on his own life. He gets tired of it all and is willing to try anything to change his situation, so he ends up taking the life of the four hundred and twenty third person...a child.¡±


    Mr. Krest¡¯s eyes opened wide, staring straight at me. ¡°Y-Yeah. You got that from the few minutes you were skimming through that?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°No, I heard about the story somewhere before. I didn¡¯t know it was the one we were reading.¡±


    ¡°I...I see. Yes, that is just about right. The story ends on the cliffhanger of the boy in the bathtub. Nobody really is supposed to know what Ryan Geever intended to happen afterward¡ªwe can only use our own logic to make our own ending.¡±


    Ha. ¡°Nobody knows¡± he says. As if it isn¡¯t the story of my life. I know. Somehow this author knows where I¡¯ve been and why I¡¯ve done the things I¡¯ve done. And now we¡¯re discussing the morality of my life in a fourth grade classroom. I must be dreaming. But I wasn''t dreaming. The time for dreams was over. It was time for questions and answers. There was a big problem that blocked his path. There was simply nobody around that could possibly answer the questions he had.


    ¡°This kind of ending is ambiguous, it leaves the idea of the story in the reader¡¯s mind like a gift,¡± Mr. Krest continued. ¡°However, sometimes ambiguous endings do get clarification by the author after the completion of the book. Some distastefully will spat out the answer in an interview or press conference, while others may just take to social media to proclaim all that is in their heads. The situation we have here is much different than that, however. Ryan Geever isn¡¯t a very public person, and as far as we know this is the only novel he¡¯s written. However, the interesting thing is the only presence he¡¯s made in the public eye was a post on a public forum stating that there was going to be a followup to the Eye that took place in an underwater amusement park¡ªmost likely modeled after the Cressfall Resort.¡±


    Cressfall what now? I...I¡¯ve never known anything like that...so this creepy writer now says that he¡¯s got a follow up to my life? How is that even possible?


    ¡°So it seems then that we may be getting the answers we¡¯re looking for after all, but that¡¯s outside of the scope of today¡¯s talk. I just wanted to throw it out there as a nod to those who may have liked the more abstract way this story came together. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be picking it up myself, but I¡¯ll definitely check out the wiki online after to see what he had in plan for William¡¯s character.¡± Mark raised his hand in the air. ¡°Ah, yes Mark?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it. Is William a good guy or not?¡±


    ¡°Well it¡¯s obvious not, he killed a kid,¡± Ben argued. ¡°How could anyone that do that be good?¡± I cringed as he said it.


    ¡°Well, I mean he saved a bunch of people too,¡± Mark argued back.


    ¡°What if one of the people he saved went on to cure cancer?¡± Sable asked. ¡°It surely would be worth it for one person to die for the sake of millions. That¡¯s simple math.¡±


    ¡°But what if another one of those people ended up becoming the next Hitler? That¡¯d cancel that out, right?¡±


    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± Mr. Krest interrupted. ¡°I think before this gets too crowded we¡¯re going to end off with this. I don¡¯t think we can properly tell what kind of person William is based on these short snippets of his life, but from the parts we have seen, it isn¡¯t easy to assign a black or white morality to him. It¡¯s easy enough to call him good or bad, and you¡¯d have evidence for both. I¡¯d say it¡¯s a good lesson to all that morality comes in all different kinds of shades and colors, and that situations might need a bit more time to properly classify.¡± He clapped his hands together. ¡°And on that note, we¡¯re going to transition into something a bit more concrete and factual¡ªmath.¡±


    The class groaned, but I sat silent. My brain was moving at a breakneck pace trying to keep from bursting out in class. I couldn¡¯t pay attention to anything he said for the rest of the day. My body seemed to move on autopilot until I regained myself as the bus dropped me off. I walked inside of the apartment with a hollow piece moving in my chest and closed the door to my room without a greeting to Danny¡¯s mother. She didn¡¯t seem to notice, she was fast asleep on the couch.


    I sat on Danny¡¯s bed and held his hands out in front of me. They had been my hands for almost a full year now. There were certainly times I had to remind myself that things weren¡¯t changing here now and that this was now my body and this was now my life...but it never really hit me the severity of my actions. I had ripped a boy¡¯s soul from his body¡ªtorn him from his life completely just so I could have it. I¡¯ve been hiding behind an excuse to justify my actions.


    I stare at the hands of a ten year old boy. An intense wave crashes into my and my eyes sting with tears. A boy. A boy. I took the life of a boy. He was just a damn kid. There was a terrible secret I kept deep below since that day I came into this body, but I think the secret had been growing ever since I entered Toni Matterson¡¯s body. When she was lying on the ground after the train crash I felt that lust inside her. The desire for blood anywhere it could come from. That depravity that came from her forced isolation and slavery. I understood why she felt the way she did and did my best to keep her from killing herself with that lust. I...I don¡¯t think I came away from that untouched. I don¡¯t think I came away from any of them untouched.


    My heart was tainted by that blood-lust.


    When I was breaking Danny¡¯s legs I felt a warmth in my body and a joy I hadn¡¯t felt in a very, very long time, if at all. It shot pure adrenaline into my brain and comforted me in a warmth safer than any blanket. Obviously I knew murder was wrong, that¡¯s why I tried as hard as I could to save the lives of the people I encountered. But saving them didn¡¯t make me feel anything that mattered. Sure, I felt like a hero and like I was some big shot who had this power that nobody else did. I felt like I was doing the right thing, or at the very least what God would have wanted me to do. But what did that get me? I lost my life¡ªliterally. What I said in that classroom today was the truth...It just got to be too much caring for everyone else. Way too much. That¡¯s why I moved out of mom¡¯s place and into the apartment. She was diagnosed with cancer then and...I just didn¡¯t have any care left for her. I wanted to, I really did. It just emotionally exhausted me each time I went out.


    I tried killing myself twice, but twice I eventually persuaded myself that by doing so I¡¯d be condemning all those other people to die. My will was swayed by that reason and that reason alone, I stayed alive for those other people. They just kept coming and coming, more and more each year. I got so tired. So tired. Why didn¡¯t anyone care about me? And when they did, why did God take them away? When I came to Danny I made a decision. I was going to care for me. I was going to kill each and every single person I came across and be done with it. I¡¯d return back to my body with little to no interruption. But then I got stuck here, and now I don¡¯t know what to do. Even when I completely give up God finds a way to fuck with things. And now I cannot forget Danny. I can never forget Danny.


    9


    I had the worst sleep of my life. I dreamt about wringing Mr. Krest¡¯s neck and watching his eyes explode as I broke his esophagus. I felt every second of it and woke up exhausted. School passed by in such a blur I couldn¡¯t keep focused. They talked more about the book on my life. Nothing of substance came of the discussion except another argument on morality. I had a feeling that this would be a recurring topic throughout the year. The only part I participated in was in trying to probe more details about the author. Danny didn¡¯t have a computer at home so the internet wasn¡¯t an easily available resource to me as it was for the other kids in class.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a bit tricky. He has no known publicists¡ªpeople who make statements for him. Address records lead to wild goose chases, and his family is either in hiding or passed away. He¡¯s not the only writer to hide his identity, see J.D. Salinger for example, but he¡¯s one of the most known in recent times. People all over the world have tried to place different strange books under his pen and pin it as a pseudonym, but as of the current time no current confirmed aliases match his style.¡±


    A recluse who¡¯s only written one confirmed book and it just so happens to be about me...excellent. Meaning exactly zero leads I can follow as the only clues I have I know about. I sigh and nod my head. And then I remember a note he made yesterday. He made a forum post. There was one confirmed online presence by this guy...it¡¯s a long shot, but it¡¯s the only one I have. I must find out how he knows so much about me.


    Once break time came around I got up from my seat and walked over to the computer stations set up in the back of the classroom. There were four altogether lined up side by side. Mark usually dashed to the computers first thing as well. He was in a mad race to good off on computer games. Beside him sat James uncomfortably. He disliked sitting next to Mark, but also disliked being in any of the other two seats as the chairs each had their own wobble to them. I sat in the chair on the end furthest from them and logged onto the computer¡¯s guest account as quickly as I could. These breaks were incredibly short as it was. I didn¡¯t need loading to be all of it.


    ¡°What¡¯s got you in such a rush?¡± James asked.


    ¡°Trying to find that forum post that Mr. Krest talked about yesterday,¡± I said. ¡°Either of you know which forum it was on?¡±


    ¡°Why are you so obsessed with that writer? Swear we could¡¯ve been done with that lesson ten minutes earlier if you didn¡¯t keep bringing him up,¡± Mark scoffed.


    James sighed. ¡°It isn¡¯t like that at all,¡± James sighed. ¡°He would have just filled it with some other pointless nonsense. Besides, those games aren¡¯t even that fun anyway so why are you in such a rush?¡± We both could see Mark was practically rapping on the keyboard trying to get the computer to respond.


    ¡°Gah shut it. I just need to see if my score¡¯s still there.¡±


    ¡°Doubt it will be, Evan goes on there at recess and he¡¯s pretty good at it from what I hear.¡± He turns to me, ¡°I think he posted it on the writing subreddit. Mr. Krest doesn¡¯t know online lingo so much so he calls everything with people talking a forum.¡±


    What¡¯s a subreddit? Looks like Mr. Krest and I are in the same boat. Ah well, I can just google it at least. It takes a moment to get a hang of Reddit. I¡¯m not a computer savvy person in the slightest, but I can work my way around a browser. I find the writing subreddit and instantly am floored by the dozens upon dozens of pages linked by aspiring writers looking for advice or criticism. None of the posts seem to have anything to do with what I¡¯m looking for, but then I find the search bar at the top of the page. Whew. I type in the name of the book. All kinds of different posts come up, more discussion threads of people guessing its origins or talking about the subject matter. But at the very bottom is a post with a lock beside it. ¡°You cannot reply to this post, it has been locked.¡± greeted me as I opened it up. I read with an intensity that has never been matched.


    ¡°Hello, my name is Ryan Geever. You can choose to believe me or not. The name isn¡¯t a household one so I hope you will think I am not impersonating to claim fame. I¡¯ve come here as I¡¯ve used this page often for advice in my own writing. The result of my labor is the book some of you have read, ¡°THE EYE OF AMNAEL¡± is now released and I wanted to talk a little about it. I don¡¯t get this opportunity often, but I wish to share that fans of THE EYE will be happy to know that I¡¯m currently writing a sequel called ARK OF GLASS. I cannot give much away concerning the plot I¡¯m afraid, you¡¯ll have to wait for it to come out for that, but I do have some fun goodies to share with you. First of all is the logo which can be found right here: https://tinyurl.com/ARKOFGLASS</a> (I¡¯m using tinyurl here so this post can stay somewhat clean.)


    Also, I can say that the setting of the novel is going to primarily take place in an underwater amusement park and is going to expand greatly on the reasons why William can do what he can. I know a lot of people have commented on this. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve been watching all of your discussions. I won¡¯t leave you hanging. You won¡¯t have to worry about the length, either. This is going to be a full blown novel. With that my time here is up. I¡¯ve got a lot of rest to do and friends to see before I continue. Research requires dedication, fellow Redditors. I hope you enjoy what I have to show. With many thanks, I have one final message and the recipient will know exactly who they are¡­You are not the only.¡±


    He...he is talking about me...he must be. But what does he mean? You are not the only...the only one like this? There are others? God, talk about adding layers onto his already pounding questions. If there were others like me, doing what I was doing...did it really matter that I was? What if I was saving other people just so one of those others could do what he did to kill them? What if my actions were worthless in the end? These questions continued to swirl in my head for the rest of the day. I didn¡¯t sleep that night. I was too afraid of what my dreams would be.


    10


    On Wednesday morning Mr. Krest dropped the bomb that we were going to be having our very first field trip September 21st. A part of me knew what he was going to say before he even said it. ¡°We¡¯re going to be traveling to the Cressfall Resort so we can examine the area and use that for our project on The Eye of Amnael¡ªa prediction paper on the fate of old William Wallace.¡± It was poetic, really, just how things were playing out. You couldn¡¯t write it to be more perfect¡­except that you could.


    The surge of electricity that filled the room was bombastic. I wished I could have shared in it. The others around me were excited about such an early field trip this close after summer break. I was excited, at least in part because I had a feeling deep down that this Cressfall Resort has the answers to the questions I¡¯ve been looking for, but a part of me felt...anxious. I felt like something was about to turn horribly, horribly wrong, but all I could do was smile and wait. Wait until the answers come. Only a little over two weeks before everything would be clear.


    My mind got out of the gutter it was stuck in once gym came around. We were learning basic exercises to try at home and I felt a whole lot better. Keeping my body in motion kept the thoughts away. I sat next to Ellie. Out of all the people in the class I liked sitting next to her the most. Not in the romantic kind of way, I¡¯m still thirty-nine in the mind, but she didn¡¯t ask me why I didn¡¯t talk much. She didn¡¯t talk much to the others either, so we had a silent sort of agreement and it was nice.


    Of the ones I liked to talk to Anna wasn¡¯t so bad when she was alone. She was nice enough, but a bit grating when she was with Stacey. Stacey was annoying even when she was by herself. I think she¡¯s the dominant personality of her friend group so Anna becomes annoying to match. I like Ben too. He¡¯s a soft-spoken kid that does sports. Smart, nice looking. I would have loved to have been friends with him back in my old body. I would be now, but something about all this yells in my ear to not make any close relationships with anyone. Evan wasn¡¯t so bad either. He kept mostly to himself. I guess his friends were in another class so he wasn¡¯t much a fan of making new ones here.


    Unfortunately, there seemed to be an equal number of bad eggs as well as good eggs in Mr. Krest¡¯s class. The kids I couldn¡¯t stand to be in contact with...the ones who I would have prayed to not be paired up with if I knew God listened to me. Sable was probably the least offending of them. She was a know-it-all and made sure that everyone knew that she was the smartest around. If I really wanted I could have her head spinning by the things I¡¯ve learned through the years. That would ruin my disguise far faster than anything else, so I hold back and just let her live out her role. It¡¯d probably backfire during high school anyway.


    Mark was a pain, there wasn¡¯t any going around it. Everything he did was in service of a laugh or for himself. He back-talked Mr. Krest, asked irrelevant questions laced with innuendo. The worst kind of class clown is an annoying class clown. It didn¡¯t help he played sports and could toss Danny¡¯s body like a javelin. He¡¯d definitely grow up to be the meathead jock that pushed kids like me around.


    And then there was James. He was...just unpleasant. He probably faced copious amounts of ridicule for his body size (and for that I pitied him), but he took the shame that he felt and fortified a grand wall that guaranteed that nobody would like what they saw should they choose to peek behind it. He was crass and a lot like Sable. If he knew he was right about something he was sure to flaunt it, but not because it made him feel smart, because it was an attack against everyone else.


    </a> ¡°I saw you looking up that writer,¡± the voice next to me said, not above a whisper. I turned to Ellie sitting by my side. Her face was expressionless, looking at mine.


    ¡°Uh, yeah. I just thought it was strange that nobody knew anything about him.¡±


    ¡°I thought it was strange too.¡±


    I struggled to continue the thread. ¡°I....yeah.¡±


    ¡°Did you see the phrase repeated on the bottom of his post?¡± This raised my eyebrows. ¡°You saw the post too?¡±


    ¡°I looked at the post after you did. I was at...my home.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you saw the weird phrase he had there? Yeah, that is strange.¡±


    ¡°It repeated.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I stop stretching my calf and turn closer to her. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t see¡­? How...strange.¡± She returned to her stretches, and I to mine. It repeated? No, I¡¯m quite sure that it only said it once. I¡¯ll have to make sure I¡¯m not being messed with. Very odd for her of all people to bring it up. Although I guess she¡¯s seen me be so carelessly frantic about it I guess if I was in her shoes I¡¯d do the same thing.


    Once gym was over we all filed back into the hallway toward Mr. Krest¡¯s room. We talked about the Native Americans during our social studies period. It wasn¡¯t anything I hadn¡¯t heard before. Sable raised her hand for every question with Ellie raising hers for a few of them. Mark blurted out his side comments to each point he thought would be good for a joke. He thought a lot of it was a joke. Mr. Krest excused himself to refill his coffee mug as break rolled around. As the door closed behind him I made a quick effort over to the computer and snagged the seat I had taken yesterday.


    ¡°Um, excuuuuuuse me you¡¯re in my chair.¡± Mark hissed at me in a disgruntled voice.


    ¡°You sat over there yesterday,¡± I told him with my eyes not leaving the computer screen. I logged into the guest account and headed to the browser icon.


    ¡°Yeah but this is my seat today¡­.why aren¡¯t you looking at me?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m very busy. Buzz off.¡±


    Mark¡¯s face contorted like a lemon were sprayed into his eyes. ¡°I am not a bee!¡± He yanked me off of the seat and I slid so far back I slammed against the heaters by the windows.


    ¡°Ow you sonnova¡ª¡± I caught myself just in time, I grit my teeth and stood up.


    ¡°You¡¯re looking up that writer again? What, do you have a crush on him or something?¡±


    ¡°Fuck off, Mark,¡± I say, reminding myself Mr. Krest isn¡¯t around. I take the seat he sat in yesterday.


    ¡°Oh, big boy using the big words now, huh?¡± He cackled,


    ¡°Oh come off it Mark,¡± Sable said. ¡°I¡¯m curious about him too. Doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯s homosexual.¡±


    ¡°You can just say gay. Nobody¡¯s going to think you¡¯re stupid for using the easier word,¡± Mark called back. He looked over at me, ¡°Aw, come on now. You¡¯re gonna infect the computer with your homosexual.¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t how computers, nor homosexuals work in the slightest. Don¡¯t worry, everyone thinks you¡¯re stupid.¡± I said, opening Reddit once more. I scroll and search up the book and find his post.


    ¡°Well listen here tough guy why don¡¯t you¡ª¡± Mark started to get out of his chair and walk toward me until he saw my screen. He stopped mid-sentence and his hands fell by his sides.


    ¡°YOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOUARENOTTHEONLYYOU¡±


    ¡°What is...this?¡± I sit back and refresh the page, seeing if my eyes are just messing with me.


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s...creepy,¡± Mark said.


    ¡°Who changed it?¡± I asked. ¡°Yesterday it had that big paragraph of stuff talking about the sequel.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Mark said, yanking me up by the collar of my shirt. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t change the pounding you¡¯re getting.¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡± my voice cut out as his hand clasped tight on my dick. He yanked hard down and grinned tight. ¡°Not so full of your words when you¡¯re led by the leash, huh?¡±


    ¡°Hey Mark, cut it out.¡± Ben sat forward. ¡°That¡¯s not cool.¡±


    ¡°Not cool,¡± Jimmy laughed. ¡°You¡¯d call a murder scene not cool.¡±


    Ben shook his head in irritation, ¡°You know what I mean!¡±


    Mark squeezed tighter, ¡°Nah, hahaha. You may be older chump, but you don¡¯t sass me. My father was army, my brother is navy, and I¡¯ve been doing special kind of training you could only dream of.¡±


    ¡°Mark, come on, cut it out.¡± Ben called, standing now.


    ¡°Yes Mark, I think it¡¯d be best if you ceased,¡± Mr. Krest crossed his arms. ¡°It¡¯s like I¡¯ve got Samuel in my class all over again.¡±


    Mark¡¯s face twisted, but lessened, and so did his grip. He dropped me back on the ground and sighed. ¡°To the principal¡¯s?¡± He asked.


    Mr. Krest nodded, and he shuffled off, but not before shooting me a devil¡¯s glare. Mr. Krest walked over to me, ¡°Do you need to see the nurse, or do you want me to call your parents?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°No, no I¡¯ll be fine. Just need a second for my stomach to stop feeling so tight.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I wasn¡¯t here to see the start of it, what happened?¡±


    ¡°Mark was being Mark,¡± Ben started. ¡°He was being a bit mean about the computer seats and Danny was just standing up for himself.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I see, thank you Ben. Well, I¡¯ll do better to not leave you guys unattended. Although I don¡¯t think Mark will be rejoining us for quite a while,¡± he said.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±


    He shook his head for a second, but stopped. ¡°His older brother was the same way. I could see him getting suspended from this, but you didn¡¯t hear that from me.¡±


    Suspended huh? Well it¡¯d do my jolly old soul some good to balance the class more in favor of folks I like seeing. I nodded and took my seat back beside Ellie.


    ¡°Did it hurt?¡± She whispered.


    ¡°Yeah, a bit.¡±


    ¡°But you didn¡¯t cry,¡±


    ¡°No, boy¡¯s don¡¯t cry over stupid stuff like that.¡±


    ¡°I would have.¡±


    Sure enough as that day passed Mark was suspended for a month. Normally it would have been just a two week suspension, but since he made it a case of sexual assault on top of just battery it doubled his sentence. Even I could tell he wasn¡¯t going to be a happy camper about that when he got back in. Hopefully things would have sorted themselves out here before then...whatever that meant.


    Ben sat next to me on the bus ride home. I learned that he didn¡¯t live too far away from me¡ªonly a couple of blocks down the road. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Mark was a jerk. Normally he channels his focus into being funny and he¡¯s pretty harmless, but sometimes if he¡¯s just the right amount of mad he ends up turning mean.¡±


    ¡°Mr. Krest said his brother was like that too, was that true?¡± I asked.


    Ben dropped his shoulders, ¡°Yeah. I used to hang out with him all the time the past few years. He¡¯d come to my house and I¡¯d go to his. He was pretty much the spitting image of his older brother. Their dad¡¯s real sergeant like¡ªlike they¡¯re in the army all the time at home. Super strict. Kinda glad I¡¯m not seeing him as much even though I do miss the days when Mark was a bit nicer.¡±


    I sat back in my seat and nodded. Yeah, I knew a bunch of kids like Mark growing up. It wasn¡¯t so much an excuse why kids acted out, but the tendency was that who parented them had a huge part to play in how they¡¯d treat other people. It brought a vivid memory of...of the first boy I killed.


    I shook the thought out of my head and stood up as it was my turn to get off the bus. ¡°Hey, um, thanks for standing up for me,¡± I said. It sounded like the thing to say in the situation, but Ben didn¡¯t seem to hear me. He was lost in his own thoughts. I didn¡¯t try again and walked away, off of the bus. The day of truth was coming closer each moment that came.


    11


    Wednesday passed easier than I would have thought. Mark didn¡¯t show up to class. Nobody wanted to bring it up either so we collectively moved on from the whole situation.


    We talked more about the book, but it wasn¡¯t anything I didn¡¯t already know from my own experience. The rest of the day until our break went in one ear and out the other. I was so focused on checking back on that page that everything else just seemed to slip away. When I finally got around to checking it out there didn¡¯t seem to be any changes. A bit disappointed, I asked Ben about it, but he didn¡¯t seem to know heads or tails about it, and nobody else seemed interested enough to offer anything that could help, either. Unfortunately I did to ask Jimmy next. He was the one who let me in on the subreddit after all, so it seemed that he would know most about it. He was confused when I told him what it showed.


    ¡°That kind of thing can¡¯t happen. The thread was locked¡ªnobody could add or change anything on it. You must be lying.¡± He shut down the conversation real fast.


    My only other lead was Ellie. I didn¡¯t ask her before because she¡¯s been a bit weird about the whole situation. She tenses up. It makes me suspicious, but I have nothing more than that to go off of. But what was I suspicious of, really? Was it possible that I was just over exaggerating things because I¡¯m worried about this writer? Was it possible she was just curious and that¡¯s it? I...I didn¡¯t think so. I feel like there¡¯s something more to this...more to her in relation to the writer. I think she knows something. You are not the only¡­could she be like me? How would I figure that out? I need to keep an eye out. I can¡¯t let myself get drowned in the questions or out myself as some nut job in front of everybody. I¡¯m so close, I can feel it.


    12


    I remember watching a show when I was a little younger. The protagonist was a little like myself now, actually...in situation at least. He was transported to a different dimension and had to figure out how to co-exist there with the almost-the-same-but-not humans. That was at least until the final episode that revealed that his existence in the parallel universe was at the start a stain on the universe itself.


    His existing there caused time and space to distort all around him. Natural disasters became more frequent; days slipped by past his notice. It all came up to a cliffhanger as his friends he¡¯d made in the new world wondered if they should kill him to save their world. The plot point never got resolved, and I never forgave them for such an awful ending. I couldn¡¯t help however attribute the story to my own life now. What would happen if I really were in a parallel world? What if everything begins to tear at the seams because of my being here...or even worse. I¡¯m caught up in it because of these supposed others that are like me. I shook my head, there were too many things to worry about, too many possibilities. I just had to wait.


    Thursday creeped by. I didn¡¯t pay attention to anything in class. My mind continually kept filling like a basin with anticipation and dread. The next week passed in much of the same way. It just...kept...crawling¡­


    The night before the big school trip I was absolutely restless. I hadn¡¯t slept well since I started school, but this night I wasn¡¯t going to be able to get any. There was too much riding on this trip. Something had to give. I¡¯ve gotten nowhere. I feel like an infant who has tried to make the empire state building with just three legos by his side. I¡¯m missing some seriously crucial pieces and have exhausted use of the ones at my disposal. I¡¯ve kept an eye on everyone¡ªafter suspecting Ellie I wasn¡¯t going to let anyone get the slip on me, but as far as I know everyone seems...themselves. I¡¯ve talked with Ben a lot and he says that Ellie¡¯s normally quiet. I think I¡¯m just making myself see things. All of this stress is getting to me, I know it is. I have to keep hoping that things will turn out okay.


    The morning came slowly. The sun creased the horizon and painted the sky a bright crimson. I sat up feeling like a zombie. My body moved to the dining room on pure will alone. Danny¡¯s mom greeted me with a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. She was doing a lot better this past week. She didn¡¯t call into her work any¡ªfrom what I could gather she was a secretary. Dangerously close to what my actual mother worked as. She was normally out before I got up, but today she was here, and that was when I found out she¡¯d been laid off. Almost...had been doing better. She was trying to find new work, but I swallowed the food and drink without a second word.


    I greeted Ben as I get on the bus. He had gotten his hair cut the previous night and I can say he definitely looks a lot better with it. I am sure that whoever he dates throughout high school if any would prefer his hair short. I genuinely hope he finds that special someone.


    ¡°You excited?¡± He asked as I sat down in the seat across from him.


    ¡°More than I could ever express.¡±


    ¡°So you really think something will go down here?¡±


    I...slipped. A little. I needed someone to talk to or else I was going to go crazy. It was right at the tail end of last week...so I guess I lied before about it passing like normal. I didn¡¯t tell him everything, god no. I just told him that I had a vested interest in the writer because of the Reddit post. I lied a little bit about the post saying my name in one of the edits. If I didn¡¯t add that bit of information he wouldn¡¯t have cared to talk about it past the first minute, and I couldn¡¯t so much tell him why the initial post was so important to me. That¡¯d risk everything. So, as far as he knows this writer name-dropped me specifically in a mysterious update to the post that happened before the whole YOUARENOTTHEONLY nonsense. Normally I wouldn¡¯t be able to get away with this sort of lie¡ªposts can be backtracked¡ªbut we¡¯re dealing with a nine year old here. I felt safe in the lie.


    </a> ¡°Yeah, I do. You said his post was the same until last week, right?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yeah according to Mr. Krest.¡±


    ¡°Maybe...we¡¯ll see him doing research at the Cressfall? I mean it¡¯s obviously where the setting is based off of.¡±


    Ben shrugged his shoulders. ¡°I dunno. I guess it¡¯d be neat to see things that people would read about later on.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess that¡¯d be cool,¡± I said.


    The darkness kept the cold air close to our bodies as we filed out into the building to Mr. Krest¡¯s room. The bodies all shuffled in anxious to start the first field trip of the year. I took my seat as attendance started up. When Mr. Krest counted us all present we stood back up and formed a line out of the door.

 Mark Terry’s Big Plan

    13


    That little shit thinks he¡¯s so tough. My hands are working autonomous as they cock the hammer to my father¡¯s service pistol. The weight feels just right in my hands. I remember the day he first showed me how to shoot. Last summer I was tossed out of bed and dragged to the shooting range. My dad has enough connections that they didn¡¯t care I was so young. It was Sam and my Dad there that knew everybody.


    I was given a pistol and shown how to load it. I followed his instructions to the point. I knew if I didn¡¯t I¡¯d get smacked. He had me shooting and reloading, again and again.


    ¡°You¡¯re not going home until I see some good shots from you. It took Sammy all day to get it right. We¡¯ll sit here as long as it takes,¡± he told me. The other guys my dad knew left and then it was just us. Hours passed, I still hit about as many shots as I missed. And each one I missed Sam shoved my back against the wall.


    ¡°Come on. Just make it already.¡± I fired the gun. It missed the target completely. Another shove.


    ¡°Come on boy,¡± My dad said. ¡°You¡¯re not going to earn your keep firing like that.¡± I shot another, it grazed the target¡¯s torso.


    ¡°That was just as pitiful.¡± I took a deep breath and held the gun in both of my hands. I pulled the trigger and watched the hole emerge from the target¡¯s forehead. ¡°...manageable. Hit another five just like that and we¡¯ll see about getting some food.¡±


    I fired the gun, missing it completely. The day stretched into forever as finally I hit six shots in a row. It was eleven at night and my big reward was a big mac from McDonald¡¯s. I sat down in my bed until the next day came and we started it all over again. Ever since then every weekend is spent with my dad and brother shooting until I make six shots in a row, then ten, then twenty.


    It¡¯s been two years since then, and now they¡¯re not satisfied until I can make a hundred shots in a row. They don¡¯t mind the prices, the army¡¯s kept my dad well paid. I¡¯m sure I could hit two hundred now if I so chose, but the thought of missing a single shot and starting all over wasn¡¯t pleasant in the slightest. That¡¯s why the gun I¡¯m holding now excited me a whole lot more. I only needed to make a few shots and that was that.


    That stupid motherfucker Aldoun got me suspended. All because he couldn¡¯t take a few jokes and took my seat. What a pussy. My dad wasn¡¯t happy when the principal told him what happened. I wasn¡¯t happy, either, but he was more than not happy.


    ¡°Have I taught you nothing? You¡¯re going to stain my name with this horseshit...just like your brother did at your age.¡±


    I rubbed my face where the headache was still settling. It was sore, but would be fine in time. The pistol felt heavy in my hands. The house would be empty until Dad got home from work later in the day. Sam was out at a friend¡¯s place for the week so the only other soul inside the house with me was Ruger, the family pit bull. I didn¡¯t care much for the mutt. He always scratched at the door and whined. I hated taking care of him. I held the gun up and pretended like the dog was right in front of me, but then let my arm fall.


    No, the dog was annoying, but it didn¡¯t deserve to die. I slid the pistol into my jeans and lifted my sweater over the top. I made my way out of the front door. Sam¡¯s truck was parked in the driveway. He usually stole a ride anywhere he needed to go, and let me say I¡¯m more than thankful for his laziness.


    I open the front door and pull the seat closer to the front. Now it¡¯s my turn to be thankful for my dad¡¯s alcoholism. Because of his stints at the bar I learned how to drive. Sam was still away for the navy, so it was just me and Dad. He¡¯d bring me along to sit in the car and wait for him to stumble out to the passenger seat and he¡¯d just tap the console twice and say, ¡°Alright that¡¯s enough.¡±


    Now ain¡¯t it some irony that my dad gave Sam his own truck to have as a present. I sit up in the seat. I¡¯m big for my age, but I¡¯m able to just reach the peddle with my foot with the seat propped all the way forward. Sam always leaves the key in the ignition, says he isn¡¯t afraid of anybody stealing the truck because they¡¯d get cold lead shoved promptly up their ass. I personally would think if someone was able to get away with a truck a single pistol wouldn¡¯t do much to scare them, but hey, it¡¯s his truck. And now I¡¯m taking it. Ain¡¯t it funny how life works out sometimes?


    I turn on the ignition and throw the truck into drive. The gun is now touching my bare skin. I¡¯m shaking as the potential quivers against my body. It¡¯s time to rock and roll. I¡¯ll make this stupid field trip one that nobody will ever be able to forget.


    14


    </a> I was surprised to see what looked like a party bus sitting out in the school¡¯s parking lot. It looked to be twice as large as the normal school bus that I was used to. We never had the money to spend on buses like this when I was these kids¡¯s ages. I had actually never been on one of these kinds. So when I stepped on board I was shocked to see that the seats were able to recline, and not only that, but there were screens built into the back of each seat. ¡°This...is crazy,¡± I said, looking down the aisle.


    ¡°Keep it moving,¡± Mr. Krest said from behind, ¡°...we need to get everyone inside.¡±


    I nodded and fund a seat near the center of the bus and sit down. The seat is a bit rough and uncomfortable and it only slightly reclines, but it beats the normal seats by a long shot. Everyone else finds a place to sit and Mr. Krest begins reminding everyone about the schedule, as if it¡¯s hard enough to remember.


    We¡¯re leaving here at eight in the morning and traveling all the way down to the Miami coast. We¡¯ll be there after a day of travel where we¡¯ll dismount and spend tomorrow at the park, then come back up Sunday just in time for classes to resume Monday morning.


    Everything seems fine until Anna¡¯s piercing scream shakes us all. I turned back to see what could have caused such a primal sound. She¡¯s breathing heavy and looking at each of us.


    ¡°Is...is everything okay?¡± Mr. Krest asked.


    ¡°Y...Yeah...¡± Anna said, looked over one final time and then sat back down next to Stacy. How odd.


    ¡°Okay then, we¡¯ll try to keep it down for anyone who decides they want to catch up on some sleep. We¡¯re going to be heading out now and we won¡¯t be stopping for another three hours. Now does anyone have to use the bathroom before we take off?¡± Nobody raised their hand. ¡°Okay, looks like we¡¯re good to go.¡± Mr. Krest nodded at the bus driver.


    This sounded like the perfect time to catch some sleep before we got there. I¡¯m sure as we get closer I¡¯m not going to be able to sleep a wink. I closed my eyes and drifted off.


    15


    I found their stupid bus. It wasn¡¯t hard. I drove by the school and managed to see them just as they were leaving. I had to take a detour on Aviation Ave because there was a state trooper lounging about. I am not letting some dumb ass cop stop me from this now.


    I found them again easily enough. I caught up to them on I-87 headed south. The rear end of the bus doesn¡¯t leave my view. We¡¯re driving together down the interstate for thirty minutes when we cross the final exit headed toward Pennsylvania. The gas in the truck is nearing its end. Dad always kept two canisters in the back of his truck for an emergency, but I¡¯m going to run out of those before we even come close to Florida. I have to think of something that will keep me on my path. God, think dumbass, think. And a terrible idea comes to me, but it is the only one that will work. There is no turning back.


    16


    I¡¯m in total darkness. The depths of my slumber have brought me to a void where no light has ever known. Sometimes I call this void my heart when I¡¯m feeling particularly edgy. The truth of this void is the darkness that I find myself in ever since my first encounter in someone else¡¯s body. It was a darkness that frightened me at first. It took control away from me and that was the thing I was most close to.


    As the years went on I became less afraid of the darkness and grew to use it to my advantage¡ªfor the advantage of those I tried to save. I tried to tame it as if it were a pet that had stumbled into my life. For a short time I felt like I understood the beast and it understood me. We had a sort of pact that we both honored. I gave it control and I helped whoever it was I could.


    But that day I entered Danny was the day I broke that pact. The darkness abandoned me except for these dreams. This afterthought of a vengeance that it harbors against me for betraying it.


    If I was an optimist I¡¯d say this darkness was my good nature. It was my heroism and my heart¡ªthe idea that I could make a real difference in other people¡¯s lives, but that darkness didn¡¯t ask me to be its partner. It didn¡¯t ask me to take control. I never broke a pact because a pact was never formed. I was taken again and again without my consent for the benefit of other people to experience trauma again and again.


    It was too much, and the darkness asked for too much. And now that I have broken free from it I fear that if I act as I always acted the darkness will find me and take me back under its wing. I cannot let that happen.


    As I stand here in the darkness I see two figures slide into view. They are Ellie and Anna, but why? I don¡¯t get an answer. The both of them grab for their throats as pieces of them begin to rip apart into the darkness. They both reach out for me, but I turn. Behind me stands a gigantic wall of light. I start to walk closer to the light. Behind me there¡¯s a scream that sounded similar to Anna¡¯s, and I turn to see Evan yelling and reaching for his own throat.


    I¡¯m shaken awake as the sound of his screaming carried into the waking world¡ªhe was really screaming. Mr. Krest had dashed from the front of the bus to his seat just behind mine. I tried to turn around but with how awful my sleeping position had been it really wrecked my back.


    ¡°Okay Mr. Parker, you don¡¯t seem to be hurt in any way, don¡¯t go scaring the class like that again or we¡¯ll have to call your parents to come pick you up.¡±


    ¡°I...¡± Evan blurted out. ¡°I don¡¯t...understand.¡±


    Mr. Krest sighed and stood back up. ¡°Everything¡¯s fine everybody. Continue as you were. About ten minutes until our first stop.¡±


    We came to a stop at a small rest area near Lenox and I head off the bus to stretch my body. The others follow behind with Ben coming closer up to me. ¡°God help me I¡¯m not built for anything longer than a two hour car ride.¡±


    My back cracks and I turn to him, ¡°Chin up. We¡¯re not even a quarter of the way there.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t remind me.¡± He stretched his neck. ¡°Hey, wanna come get something from McDonald¡¯s with me?¡±


    The thought terrified my older self. Just thinking what one of those greaseburgers would do to my body almost had me saying no straight away¡­but I didn¡¯t. ¡°Yeah, sure. Sounds good, let¡¯s go tell Mr. Krest.¡± We did and he told us to make sure to stay with the buddy system, whatever that was. We went inside the rest stop and all kinds of people were walking past us. Nothing like a universal need for junk food and to pee to bring a whole bunch of people together. There was three people standing in line at McDonald¡¯s, so we stepped in right behind the old man at the back.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    ¡°Kinda weird what happened with Anna and Evan, don¡¯t you think?¡± Ben asked. ¡°Well, I mean Evan would totally do something like that so I guess just Anna.¡±


    I shrugged, ¡°I dunno, maybe they¡¯re just not used to being away from home this long. Evan did seem a bit off during his episode.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah you were right in front of him, yeah?¡± He looked to me.


    ¡°Yeah, he seemed really out of it. Does he...¡±


    ¡°Does he...what?¡± Ben asked.


    ¡°Smoke anything? Do anything like that?¡±


    ¡°What? No, not as far as I know. I¡¯m not an investigator on his life but I don¡¯t think so.¡±


    ¡°Right, okay,¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah, then I have no answers. It just seemed strange was all. Once we get to the park things should even out.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, if we get to the park. It¡¯s gonna be Christmas by the time we finally get there.¡±


    ¡°Oh quit your whining,¡± I grinned a look as I nodded to let him know he was next up at the register.


    He looked over and when he saw the others had already been taken care of he jumped a little. ¡°O-Oh yes.¡±


    ¡°How may I help you, pumpkin?¡± The middle aged woman behind the counter asked.


    ¡°Uh, yeah can I have a double cheeseburger with no pickles and no mustard?¡±


    ¡°And hold any of the flavor, too,¡± I chimed in. The cashier chuckled and gave me a look that I would have taken to be suggestive if I were as old as my mind.


    I carried my bag back to the bus and climbed back inside. The smell coming from the bag was enough to remind me just how hungry I really was. I hadn¡¯t eaten much this past week and the burgers in the bag were a grim reminder of that. I took the first out and noticed grease caked the outside of the wrapper. This kind of thing probably would kill anyone with a trace of high blood pressure. It didn¡¯t look like the way all the commercials paint the burgers as¡ªwhen do they ever¡ªbut I have to say it tasted so...good going down. I felt the potato chip effect start to kick in and I wolfed the burger down in four bites.


    ¡°You¡¯re gonna be hungry again in a few hours if you waste em all like that,¡± Ben said, taking a smaller bite out of his burger and then sipping his coke.


    ¡°Yeah maybe I¡¯ll just eat myself into a coma and then will wake up when we get there.¡±


    He grinned and took another bite. I grabbed my second burger out of the bag and began to unwrap it. As I turned around to look I saw Anna asleep in her seat. Stacy was sitting beside her, munching on some chicken nuggets.


    ¡°Psst, Stace,¡± I called over.


    She looked over to me with a nugget half hanging out of her mouth. She let it drop into the container and wiped her lips, ¡°Uh, what?¡±


    ¡°Is Anna okay?¡± I asked.


    She looked at me with a strange look, and then resumed eating her chicken. ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s fine. Just tired.¡±


    Ben stood to look over my seat then sat back down, ¡°Evan¡¯s out cold too. Seems like we¡¯re good.¡± I nodded, and turned back around and took the first bite of my second burger.


    17


    The bus took off from the parking lot just as soon as I coasted in. It has gotten dark out and my gas reserves are running low. I can¡¯t go much farther in this stupid truck and definitely won¡¯t make it to another rest stop.


    I¡¯m not giving up¡ªnot in the slightest. I know my way forward. I¡¯m eyeing a truck that just pulled into a parking space just beside mine and cannot believe my luck. I throw open the truck¡¯s door and bounce out onto the pavement with the gun gripped tightly in my hand. I fire twice and catch the mother and father in the head. Their heads fall as the life leaves them. There¡¯s screaming coming from the inside¡ªand I know there¡¯s a kid in as well.


    The mother falls out onto the ground when I open her door. Their daughter stared at me with abject horror. She tried to scream once more but my next shot tore through her face and splattered her blood across the back windshield. I shoved the father¡¯s body out of the driver¡¯s seat and turned on the engine. Good, their gas is almost nearly full. I should have a long time in this truck before I have to ditch this for another.


    I had to keep my ammo in consideration. I had a box of thirty-six rounds and now three of them were gone. I stuffed the box under the passenger side seat and then dragged the daughter¡¯s body out of the back and onto the pavement. I had to hurry as someone inside surely had called the cops by now. My plan was to not be here when they were.


    I backed out and pulled back onto the highway. I¡¯m coming for you.


    18


    My back didn¡¯t feel right until the bus stopped for the last time. It was like an ache that would be forever fused to my spine based on how long it persisted. Of all the things to get flashbacks of my old life back pain was one of the least exciting ways.


    I opened my eyes as we parked and the coast out of my window. It must have been sometime early Saturday. I don¡¯t remember anything I dreamed about in the times in-between. I¡¯m thankful it wasn¡¯t any more of that nonsense with the others here...and I¡¯m doubly thankful that it wasn¡¯t anything relating to Danny. I don¡¯t know if I could stomach another guilt dream.


    Mr. Krest led us off of the bus and when we were all accounted for he nodded briskly and stood straight. ¡°Now I know you¡¯re all tired from sitting for so long, so you can rest assured we¡¯re all going to be doing some walking to keep ourselves moving. We¡¯ve got a ten minute walk to the entrance to the park where I¡¯ll go over a bit of the park¡¯s history and then we¡¯ll head inside. From there we¡¯ll begin the tour and at about ten-thirty we¡¯ll break off from the main group to go find our lunch reservations. That¡¯s about...three hours from now. Everyone okay with that?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not too particularly hungry right now anyway,¡± Ben patted his stomach.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s because you ate two rounds of fast food, of course you¡¯d be full,¡± James said.


    ¡°You¡¯re just jealous,¡± Ben grinned. ¡°You regret not picking any up and I told you that you¡¯d want some.¡±


    James looked away. ¡°It¡¯s disgusting anyway.¡±


    ¡°I do not think it is bad,¡± Ellie said. ¡°A little greasier than I would like, but it definitely fits the atmosphere.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s gross and good at the same time,¡± I chimed in. ¡°I don¡¯t regret getting it but I feel I might in twenty years.¡±


    ¡°Yes yes we can continue this conversation as we start walking now,¡± Mr. Krest said.


    They did continue, and I didn¡¯t offer more than my single comment. I was too focused on Evan. He seemed especially out of it since we had gotten off the bus¡ªAnna seemed to act more normal, but Evan was still looking around all paranoid like.


    We reached the entrance to the park which posed its flagship mascot Marina the dolphin on a gigantic sign out front. The pink anthropomorphic creature had a smile as big as the sign itself and held one fin out in a sort of thumbs up.


    The wind started to pick up as we stopped and huddled together in a group as Mr. Krest began to tell us all about the Cressfall Resort. It was a long winded speech that boiled down to two ex-marine biologists getting the boot from their job and grasping onto any employment opportunity they could get. Eventually they settled on this¡ªthe job they ended up sticking with. The park is only a few years old now, but plans for its creation have apparently been on the tables since the early 2000s.


    The entryway is a door that leads to a tunnel that extends about a hundred feet over the ocean which is supposed to lead to an elevator that goes to the true entrance of the park. I looked around and everyone looked normal, even Evan seemed to have calmed down. I smiled and felt more at ease as we walked inside.


    19


    I¡¯m so close. The police know my face, my dad called in the stolen car and they found it immediately. The trail¡¯s been obvious but I would have thought I would have had a little more room. The bus made a final right turn before parking.


    I¡¯m on the news back home, and the homes of the cities I¡¯ve passed along the way. Twelve of my thirty six bullets are gone, and I¡¯ve been recognized twice at gas stations. I see the bus as I come closer off of Drift Avenue. My face fills with a wicked smile and a warm chaotic laugh fills my chest. Finally. I have finally made it. I have twenty-four shots, and I¡¯m not going to waste a single one. I want them all to have two each¡ªone in the face and one in the groin. If they live that then I¡¯ve still got the gun to beat them with. They aren¡¯t going to ever fucking get the chance to smile again. Not to laugh at my expense. Not to live their shitty fucking lives.


    I throw my head back and the laugh explodes out of me. I don¡¯t immediately notice the crackling around me. The sound crackling in the air gets to me too late. I look out in front of me and then I see it out on the horizon¡ªjust about the only thing that could steal my attention away from the bus. It looked like a bomb. And for all I would know in the few moments that existed in my life that was good enough an explanation. I didn¡¯t need to know more than that because I wasn¡¯t going to be around for more than that. There was a sudden warmth and then a blinding light.


    20


    The receptionist at the front desk wore a blue wig that made her look like she was trying to be an anime character. Who knows, maybe she was¡ªmaybe the Cressfall had an extended universe with a show and games for all I knew. She was leaning over the counter scanning papers in front of her, only looking up after a minute of silence to notice we were here.


    ¡°Ah, yes how may I help you today?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Mr. Krest smiled, ¡°We¡¯ve got a 7:45 reservation for the tour and lunch package.¡±


    ¡°Name please,¡± she said, without a question mark.


    ¡°Krest and the Queensbury School District.¡±


    ¡°N-New York?¡± She eyed Mr. Krest.


    ¡°Y-Yes,¡± he nodded back.


    She looked at us kids and then back up to him, ¡°Furthest I went for a school field trip was the local museum. Lucky you guys.¡±


    ¡°Yes, well the budget has been allowing for more¡ª¡±


    ¡°Steph!¡± The receptionist called out to the back, ¡°We got your 7:45 here.¡± She turned back toward us, ¡°She¡¯ll be right out, is there anything else you had any questions about?¡±


    ¡°No, not really,¡± Mr. Krest said.


    ¡°Excellent. Thank you for having a nice day at the Cressfall, where we always work hard for your smile,¡± and she gave a smile that couldn¡¯t have been more forced. The worker named Steph came out from the back who was wearing a similarly-anime-styled wig but this time in Marina¡¯s pink. She was holding a notebook under her arm and looked at us with a smile.


    ¡°Welcome everyone to the Cressfall, where I¡¯m sure the views will take your breath away faster than the water will! Hahahaha that¡¯s a joke everybody laugh I¡¯m paid to make these.¡± I made an awkward laughing sound that joined the chorus and the smile kept going. ¡°Okay, now if you¡¯ll just follow me we¡¯re going to head through this tunnel where we¡¯ll get to experience the elevator ride down to the park. Has anyone here been here before?¡±


    Ben raised his hand, ¡°My mom took me for my birthday two years ago.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so we¡¯ve got a return visitor, and what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Ben.¡±


    ¡°Well Ben I hope I can make this time just as good as last time. Now everyone come follow me and we¡¯ll get this journey started!¡± We started to walk behind her and passed the receptionist desk where the worker there resumed her perusing of papers in front of her. Ellie bumped into me from behind and I turned toward her.


    ¡°Hey...what¡ª¡±


    ¡°Close your eyes.¡± She said. ¡°When we get in the elevator just do it.¡±


    I turned away and shook my head. Close your eyes? What¡­? The glass elevator opened its doors and Steph walked inside first, beckoning us to follow along. Mr. Krest shooed us in and he stepped in last. The doors closed and the elevator began to descend. The walls were made of an extremely durable glass so we could see underwater all around us as we went further down. Schools of fish of all kinds and colors darted past the glass. I had never seen anything like it in my lifetime¡ªeven with my power. If I looked up above I could see the sun overcasting the water...but then suddenly the spot the sun hung in started to grow. I squinted my eyes trying to get a closer look at it when the elevator stopped with a sudden jerk.


    ¡°Ow, someone stepped on my foot,¡± one voice called out.


    ¡°Ah geez sorry about that,¡± another called back.


    ¡°Can you please get off of me?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t touch there you perv!¡±


    ¡°Sorry I literally cannot help it right now!¡±


    The confusion began to grow as Steph¡¯s voice grew louder than the rest, ¡°Okay okay now! We have to stay calm, we just ran into some difficulty with the rail systems, we¡¯ll get them back on and we¡¯ll continue our descent.¡±


    I was still staring above at the growing orb in the sky. The sun which looked like the size of a volleyball had grown much, much larger. And then suddenly the sphere broke and everything around grew a bright white shot out from every direction. Before anything else my hands reached up to my face to shield my eyes. There was another rough metal sound and the elevator began falling again, faster than it was before. Everything was going wrong. There was a loud crash and I was thrown off my feet.

 Collapse

    21


    The wind carried a sadness that it could not speak of throughout the coastal air. This sadness came from the east¡ªout on the top of Mount Sinai. A teenage girl sat with her legs dangling over the side of the cliff¡¯s face. She wore a Nasseu Middle School jersey and her reddish-brown hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes glowed with a red-gold hue and all at once it was clear that they were not her eyes. They lit up brightly as a smile crossed the girl¡¯s face. ¡°This world does have some gorgeous sights.¡± Its eyes scanned across the valleys below. ¡°I¡¯d like to remember this view¡­¡±


    A figure obscured by darkness stepped out behind the girl. It almost looked like a large bipedal reptile. Long skinny legs that led into a thin slimy torso that ran all the way up to the gecko-like head. ¡°You always were a sight seer.¡±


    The girl looked back to the creature behind her, and another smile crossed her face. ¡°Ormus.¡± She looked back to the sunset she had been staring at previously. ¡°It¡¯s a beautiful place.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re going to ask me if I miss it?¡± Ormus asked.


    ¡°No, not that. Forgive me for not being so predictable. It is more like...I do. I¡¯ve been remembering more as the time passes. I want to know how much you remember.¡±


    ¡°I thought it would be something like that.¡± Ormus said, his expression remaining the same.


    ¡°You always shrug it off. I¡¯m really curious.¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s to come with time. I only remember what I¡¯m supposed to remember.¡±


    ¡°Right. You know that answer makes it hard for me to believe you don¡¯t miss it, right?¡±


    Ormus grinned what little he could, ¡°I just do what I¡¯m told. It¡¯s much too bothersome worrying about all the rest.¡±


    The girl nodded, looking back toward the sands below. ¡°Father asked me to send for you.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Hm, curious then that we¡¯re only talking now because I sought you out.¡±


    The girl shrugged. ¡°He also sent me out to start the collapse. And both of those things seemed like a lot of work so I wanted to take in the sights before I did either.¡±


    ¡°The collapse? I...see...¡±


    The girl looked back at Ormus, ¡°If you want to see her then now would be the perfect time,¡± Issachar said. ¡°She¡¯s very smart you know. I think you¡¯d be proud.¡±


    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t. It¡¯d only bring trouble. I¡¯ve got more than enough on my plate from Father. I¡¯m being sent to 423.¡±


    ¡°With Sakonna?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s finished up there now. I¡¯ve got someone I¡¯m scheduled to meet there.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± The girl said. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll get started on here which should line up right on time with your job there.¡±


    ¡°Issachar.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°Thank you...for keeping an eye out for her.¡±


    Issachar nodded, and then turned back toward the world. ¡°I think she loved this girl.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Ormus asked.


    ¡°Yeah. She¡¯s not going to forgive us.¡±


    ¡°You mean me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, pretty much.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing that can be done about it. I¡¯ll go see Father now.¡± Ormus vanished as quickly as he had arrived. He definitely remembered more than he let on. Issachar sighed and sat out looking at the sun set for another hour. There was a warmth that covered the girl¡¯s fingertips.


    With the power given to me by my Father, I shall connect the core of every single existence in this manyverse. I shall condense and collapse them into one single existence. I shall collapse everything into one. The stage shall be set for the show to begin. As the girl¡¯s fingertips began to glow a bright white the stars themselves began to move the slightest bit, and then faster, and then faster. It started to look like a whirlpool of glowing white lights that moved in sync with the light on its fingers. Up above the universe sat a collection of several million different-but similar universes; lands of light¡ªLuxmund. Each of them encapsulated their entire growing half of the Manyverse. Luxmund and its many selves on that particular moment began shifting, seizing, vibrating, colliding. Collapsing.

 The Cressfall Resort

    22


    Feeling returned to my body slowly. I tasted dried blood and realized my upper lip had been bleeding. I slowly opened my eyes to see I wasn¡¯t in the elevator any longer. I was lying on the ground just outside. In front of me was a hallway entirely made of the glass that the elevator had¡ªDarkness filled the outside. I didn¡¯t see any fish swimming around.


    There was a wet feeling and I turned slowly to see that the others were piled on top of each other in the elevator, unconscious. The elevator had been hanging on by one of its four railings attached to the top. Any more structural damage and the whole thing would have broken off and sank to the depths with us inside. I was still worried¡ªit was wet...why was it wet? The park was supposed to be protected from the water, right? Just...what the hell happened?


    I got the answer to one of my questions when I looked back at the elevator more closely. It¡¯s supposed to fit perfectly into a slot in the glass wall so that when it opens up it makes a perfect seal to allow us to move from the elevator to the lobby without bringing in any water from the outside.


    Since the elevator was hanging on by only one of its rail connections underwater it fit into the slot at an angle, and water was now spilling into the lobby floor from both underneath and above the cracks. This was a dumb idea. God this was such a dumb idea. Okay, focus. I just have to wake everybody else up and...and I don¡¯t know but it¡¯s something. That stupid author can wait.


    I stood up and felt a weakness in my knees almost send me back down immediately. I looked down and saw my left leg was bleeding. I think I scraped it against the ground as I fell. Picking myself back up was hard, but I managed to bring myself over toward the elevator. Mr. Krest was the closest one to me, so I bent over him and began shaking him. He was out cold.


    ¡°Ellie, Ben, come on, one of you get up.¡± I kept shaking. Nobody woke up. Breathing, just not waking. I stood back up and cursed the whole way. Not even the worker Steph was stirring. I gotta go find someone else who can help them out.


    I stopped dead in my tracks. Look at yourself. You¡¯re playing the hero again. Was a year¡¯s freedom too boring for you that you had to go jumping at the chance again? I looked down to my hands and stared deep into them. You¡¯ve been so adamant about defying your fate that you¡¯ve circled back around to following it. And now you¡¯re just a shitty hero alongside a shitty anything. Why don¡¯t you just give up fighting and return to your role?


    My...role? Is that all I am to be? Forced to be the hero no matter whose face I wear? No. I refuse. I refuse to crawl the path that has been carved out for me, because crawling is giving up. I have a purpose. I have a goal, and I am not letting this cycle continue to get in the way of that goal.


    I look toward the entrance of the park and then back toward the elevator. Sorry guys. In another life I would have not stopped until you were all safe¡ªI would have considered you friends. But I¡¯m not Danny Aldoun¡ªI don¡¯t know if I can even wear my own name anymore, I still have to find out why that author knows it.


    I nod my head to them as if they can see it as a formal good-bye and begin walking closer inside the park. The pain stung at first but gradually grew more tolerable the longer I walked.


    23


    </a></a> The Cressfall Resort was nationally lauded for the atmosphere they provide guests who often travel across the country and sometimes even across the globe to visit their glorified fishbowl Disneyland. There aren¡¯t any rides at the Cressfall that are particularly unique or exclusive that other amusement parks wouldn¡¯t have. When you come to the Cressfall you come for the experience of doing all the things you could do above land, except that it is underwater and twice as expensive.


    When I stepped past the ticket gates at the front of the park I was not filled with a sense of childlike glee or anticipation at the multitudes of group happiness around me. No...I wondered why there were so many dead bodies.


    24


    I passed the gift shoppe that¡¯s stationed right next to the entrance / exit of the park¡ªno doubt some marketing scheme to entice children to drag their parents for one last purchase before leaving the park. That was when I saw the little girl younger than even Danny lying down on the ground.


    She was wearing a t-shirt of one of those animated monsters that are on the TV so often...Poke...man? Mon? It didn¡¯t matter but in that moment it seemed to. I could tell she was dead right away¡ªthose eyes couldn¡¯t belong to anything left alive. They seemed like they¡¯d exploded out of her head and leaked down her cheeks.


    I took a hesitant step closer and bent down over the child¡ªher dark hair was matted with a thick dark coat of blood, but it didn¡¯t seem to be hers. She wasn¡¯t near anybody else, so she must have died here on the spot.


    I stood back up and walked down the avenue as I passed another small gift shop. I stopped and rounded back to the window when I saw the face of the employee behind the cash register buried face first into the machine. I stepped inside and noticed the acrid smell immediately. This body was left to cook. The vic was late teens and also had dark hair almost like the young girl¡ªbut of guys it was a common enough color, most likely just coincidental. I picked up his head by the back of his hair and saw his eyes were blown out just like before¡ªthe fluid dripped onto the counter.


    I dropped his head down and it hit the corner and fell down onto the ground. ¡°Jesus.¡± None of the others in the elevator were like that...but what if they would? Ah fucking damn it I¡¯m going to go back to check them aren¡¯t I? Well...I¡¯m convincing myself now that I no longer have Ben to relay dumb ideas off of. Ahh fuck.


    I turn out of the gift shop and head back up round near the ticket booth and back to the hallway where the elevator rested crudely in its slot...only this time things were different, but not in the way I¡¯d expected them. There were a few bodies missing¡ªthe pile was smaller than when I had left. Ellie, Evan, and Anna were nowhere to be seen. What remained¡­


    Chunks of glass had been broken somehow from the edge of the elevator that had not fit quite right and were protruding from the chests of the remaining. Steph the worker, Mr. Krest, Ben, Stacy, James, and even Sable. God, kid¡¯s so quiet I forgot she was even in this stupid class. Oh well, so much for breaking out of your awkward phase.


    Well now things just got a whole lot more interesting because these people were all still alive when I was here not a few moments ago, and now some are...well they¡¯re somewhere. Looking at how the glass was broken I highly doubt any rumbling shook them around enough to accidentally puncture each of them perfectly in the chest like that, so the best explanation I can think of is that one of them¡ªor maybe all of them¡ªsomehow managed to break off pieces and do the deed themselves. Or maybe one of them did it and then stabbed and hid the others. Or I dunno. All this is really guesswork on my part.


    The water was now flowing faster through the hole caused by the broken glass and mis-fitting elevator, it turned a minor issue into what looked to be a very serious possibility of us drowning in here. Calm down. You¡¯ve been through worse situations than these on a monthly basis at this point. This is nothing.


    I just had to find the missing ones and either ask them what happened...or take matters in my own hands and defend myself if necessary. It¡¯s just like any other time. Except I knew that it wasn¡¯t. I had no clue what would happen if I died in this body. I couldn¡¯t rely on past experiences when Danny defied every single one of my rules.


    You¡¯re no nice boy.


    The thought flew into my mind and instantly dragged out a bloodied and beaten memory¡ªone I thought long locked away. My mother passed to lung cancer and I left her dying as I moved into my new apartment. I fought with her that night I moved out. It was over stupid shit¡ªit always was. I didn¡¯t have enough in me to be what she needed. I couldn¡¯t be her hero.


    We screamed at each other and I felt that prickly sensation behind my eye-lids. It was the same kind of burning slowness I felt when I was inside Toni Matterson. I saw a vase she kept on the windowsill and couldn¡¯t get the feeling of smashing it over her head out of my head. I screamed louder because I wanted it to stop and I wanted her to stop, but not in the way my impulses wanted her to stop.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    So I got her to hate me. I said hateful things¡ªthings I knew would cut her deep down so I¡¯d feel guilty enough to suppress that blood lust. It worked. I saved you Mom. Then you died a week later thinking I hated you. I tried to be your hero but it didn¡¯t work. That¡¯s why I can¡¯t be a hero anymore. If doing the right thing is that bad then I don¡¯t want any part of it.


    I¡¯m going to be me. And someday I¡¯ll be okay with that.


    25


    The bodies I had seen before were undisturbed on my second run through. I passed on the gift shop to avoid the terrible smell. The park opened up considerably after the lines of shops. Attractions littered every inch of the park¡¯s length. A crowd of ten people lie on the ground scattered in front of me. I walk slowly over to them with my breath held. Each of them is just like the others I had seen. I don¡¯t recognize any of them, so I move on deeper into the park.


    In the distance I catch a glimpse of a figure running and instantly I have a lead. Someone alive. I have to find them and figure out what is going on.


    I ran as hard as I could given the circumstances through the main square and passed over the bodies that remained. I was taking the steps up to the ferris wheel when I caught another glimpse of the figure. It was the mascot of the park¡ªMarina the Dolphin. The person was wearing the mascot¡¯s suit.


    They cocked their head and held their fist out in the same sort of thumbs up pose I saw on the sign out front.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked.


    The person in the suit shrugged their shoulders and motioned for me to come closer, and then walked closer to the overlook at the other side of the stairs. I took a step closer and then stopped. ¡°Why should I trust you not to do anything fishy? You¡¯re the only other one here I¡¯ve seen alive.¡±


    Marina motioned again, not saying anything. I could tell that it wasn¡¯t any of the other kids from the class inside the suit. They were much too tall. Something still held my spine up straight as I took another step up the path. Marina motioned again before pulling my arm and closer to the overlook, pointing out over it.


    Down ten feet below I saw Ellie, Anna, and Evan all sprawled out on their backs. From here their eyes didn¡¯t look like they¡¯ve spilled out of their heads like all the others before. Another second and I feel Marina¡¯s hand on my back sending me tumbling over the overlook. I instantly feel the rumbling stampeded that Dom got killed by as the first victim fell from their own overlook, only this time the rest of the people to stampede were already dead.


    I hit the ground with a thud, but it was far from fatal. My leg stung a whole lot more than it already had, it was probably broken. I looked up above me and saw Marina taking the ramp down the bend and slowly walking closer. Their hands reached up close around the neck of the suit and began to yank the headpiece off.


    Inside had been my face.


    ¡°Well look who we have here. William Wallace in the underage flesh.¡± My voice said. ¡°You¡¯ve made quite the mess of yourself.¡±


    ¡°What...is happening?¡±


    He walked closer and bent down to my knees. ¡°You came here looking for the person who wrote this?¡± He held up a copy of The Eye of Amnael. ¡°Trying to find out what it all means? It¡¯s a lot simpler than you think.¡±


    ¡°Are you...the author?¡±


    A nasty smirk crossed my face, ¡°No, sorry there. That¡¯s my Father. He¡¯s not here. He¡¯s a very busy man. I¡¯m here, though, if that lightens your load any.¡±


    ¡°How...would that? I don¡¯t know who you are besides the fact that you¡¯re wearing my face.¡±


    Another nasty grin, ¡°And you¡¯re wearing the face of a young boy. Whose to say this can¡¯t be my face now, I mean you did discard it and all.¡±


    I had no answer. This must...be the other that the post talked about.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re wondering about that one on the internet?¡± I looked at him with growing confusion. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯ve got no secrets from me,¡± he winked. ¡°I wrote that post. I mean the message was dictated to me, but I added that bit there at the end to clue. you. in.¡± He tapped at my forehead with each syllable. ¡°You want to know why the book talks all about you? Because it isn¡¯t a book of a fictional account. It¡¯s a live description of current events. Take a look,¡± he tossed the copy down on me.


    I picked it up and scrolled past the thirtieth page. There definitely was more to it now than before...at least a hundred pages. It ended with my meeting right here¡­


    ¡°How...¡±


    ¡°My name is Amnael.¡± He smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t normally look like this, I just happened to find a free body I could use and yours was perfectly fit.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in my body because I left it when I entered Danny,¡± I said, coming to terms with it.


    ¡°You¡¯re almost right. You¡¯ve got the large idea of it, at least. The rest requires some explaining. I am a Highborn Child of the Night. We¡¯re beings that were born outside of your world. Yours is a world of light, where mine is absent of it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re like...aliens?¡±


    ¡°If it helps you understand it better. We¡¯ve had a problem, you see. There¡¯s only one of our world, but your world of the light seems to grow new copies day by day. It endangered us because soon we would be exterminated by the growing light. My father created everything, but even he has made mistakes. So we¡¯re all here to try and correct that mistake. That is what has happened here. You may have noticed your sun a little while back. I doubt you could have missed it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah it...it looked like it exploded.¡± I said.


    ¡°That was called the Collapse. My sister had gathered enough energy to merge each of the continuously growing universes into one singularity. You were right about being placed in an Alternate Universe each time you were sent into another¡¯s body. Only now you¡¯re not right since there is only one universe. So about half and half.¡±


    ¡®I...¡±


    ¡°Next you want to know how I know all of this about you, and why you can do what you can. That¡¯s a simple answer. Each of the Children of the Night have come to this world with specific jobs in mind. Mine was to scope out how dangerous different tragedies are that affect this world. None of us knew anything about what things were like here, so I was sent to gather info...almost like an ant. So I say, what kind of info gathering can I do when I hardly know anything about this place? And then I had an idea¡ªI use human larvae. I learn through bodies that are already beginning to learn the world around them. So, I found you. There wasn¡¯t anything special about you in particular¡ªyou were just the closest larvae to my landing point. You won¡¯t have remembered this since you were so young, but two years before your first experience at Chernobyl there had been a meteor shower. I had come to that world inside of that meteor. I found you and snuck inside you while you slept and waited until I recovered from my trip.


    ¡°The...the first time I experienced this curse was because of you. You were inside of me?¡±


    ¡°You never noticed me. I was the voice inside your head, the conscience that guided you along as I gathered my information. You were very helpful in my goals. Unfortunately, you showed an irritating showcase of willpower that was stronger than my own when we came into this universe. Normally I ready to take you back but you broke our link early. I went back to your body and you stayed inside Daniel¡¯s.¡±


    I sat up on my elbows and looked around me, trying anything to distract my mind from staying on one tangent too long. I feared I¡¯d go crazy if I hung on one. ¡°The others...why did they die?¡±


    ¡°Beings with low to average willpower couldn¡¯t handle the Collapse. It is that simple. Their minds couldn¡¯t take it so their brains overloaded and various internal organs failed. Those three there are different, however. I told a little bit of a lie. Not all of you stayed inside Daniel. Your soul fractured when you cut our link. Most of it stayed inside Daniel, but I made sure to keep a piece back with me.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯d you do that you bastard?!¡± Yelling hurt, I put my arm around my waist.


    Amnael grinned, ¡°I needed to make sure I could find you again. I had already put so much time and effort into you it would be such a waste of time starting all over. So I had to take some time and grow the pieces of your soul until they were big enough to send them into other bodies in that universe to keep an eye on you. These three happened to be the bodies they landed in.¡±


    I instantly remembered Anna and Evans¡¯ episodes on the bus and realization dawned over my face. I even had suspicions about Ellie but I could never have guessed¡­


    ¡°You are not the only...You.¡± Amnael said. ¡°You were too short sighted to see it at the time, but I bet it makes perfect sense now. The Eye of Amnael...it is my own eyes on you¡ªchronicling your every move so that you don¡¯t escape from me again. Everything has been set in motion outside of your grasp, so now I¡¯m going to have to kindly ask you only a single time to accept me back into your body.¡± He smiled. ¡°I can force my way in, but it¡¯s a lot messier and I have to spend a lot longer patching everything up. So it¡¯s really in both our best interests that you cooperate.¡±


    ¡°You can keep the fuck away from me. I¡¯m finally free from your bullshit.¡± I said.


    ¡°And I was afraid that that would have been your answer.¡± He clicked his tongue. ¡°Ah well. Can¡¯t blame me for trying.¡± Amnael opened his mouth and bent backwards until he was perpendicular with the ground. An elongated appendage climbed its way out of his mouth. It bent down and touched the floor tentatively, then stood firm as support as more of the smoky body began to emerge. My body began to feel cold as the full image of the creature erupted from my old body. At least ten feet tall stood an ant that looked to be made of a smoky ethereal substance.


    ¡°This is as close to my body that you can understand,¡± Amnael said directly into my mind. ¡°It¡¯ll take a few months for your mind to recover from my insertion, but that is a price I am willing to pay to save thirty-four years of work.¡± It took a step closer toward me and my blood began to freeze.


    I looked away and held my hands out in front of me and screamed.

 brave new world

    26


    I felt his leg stab through my body like absolute zero. My eyes widened as he gripped right around my heart, but suddenly I felt a warm feeling grab my hand. Right where Amnael¡¯s leg intersected my body came a streak of stray light. It spilled a figure that stood next to me. It looked just like I do now. It...it was Danny Aldoun¡¯s spirit.


    Danny looked from me to the giant ant from where he spouted, and the back to me.


    ¡°What...are you?¡± Amnael asked, lightening his grip slightly. Then recognition passed in his voice. ¡°You...You¡¯re Daniel.¡±


    Danny didn¡¯t answer Amnael, he walked a few steps behind me and bent down in front of Ellie. I had to strain to see what he was doing, but it was too far. I had seen when he made it to Evan. He made a sort of swirling motion with his index finger and I saw a white substance leave through his nostrils into Danny¡¯s finger. He passed over to Anna and did the same thing.


    ¡°Oh, Daniel you¡¯ve done such a fine job of retrieving the rest of his soul back together. I almost would have for¡ª¡± He stopped as Danny walked over to me and pressed the substance into my face, letting it fill my nostrils and go down my throat.


    ¡°What are you doing?!¡±


    Danny looked back to me and walked closer, placing a hand on both of our chests. ¡°I forgive you.¡± He dissipated into smoke and rejoined with Amnael.


    Suddenly my chest felt even colder than before, but I wasn¡¯t the only one feeling its effects. Amnael was shaking as the smoky appendage lunged right through my chest was turning a different color. I yanked back once and felt it snap inside of me.


    Amnael let out a harsh scream that invaded all corners of my mind. ¡°I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU.¡±


    I tried to stand up but was yanked down by another one of his legs. I landed chest first and his scream matched mine as I did. I realized that he still felt the leg that remained in my chest. It didn¡¯t vanish to nothingness even though it had been separated from his body. I had an idea and only one chance to make it work.


    I flipped over onto my back and grabbed the leg still stuck in my chest and I squeezed it. What followed was a large roar and Amnael flinching in pain. I flashed a grin and stood to my feet.


    ¡°I found a way to keep you at bay. A piece of you...¡± I grabbed harder down on the leg and pushed it further into my chest. It left no entry wound, but slid in just the same. ¡°...is now in me. But it¡¯s a part you can¡¯t control, can you? But you can feel it, even when I do...¡± I held my breath for a second as my heart continued beating. I felt light headed as the palpitations began. My heart had grabbed a hold of the leg and was squeezing it in-between beats. ¡°...this. You still feel it.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Each beat caused visible seizures with the creature. He bent down until his abdomen hit the ground. ¡°Y-YOU HURT YOURSELF EACH...TIME.¡±


    ¡°If it means I can get a...agk!¡± I held my hand close to my chest, ¡°...hold over you then it is more than worth it.¡±


    ¡°YOU TERRIBLE PERSON.¡±


    I laugh, ¡°My mother told me I wasn¡¯t no good boy.¡± I look up at him. ¡°You made this mess yourself by entering my body the first time. You created this monster. And now you¡¯re going to pay for it.¡±


    ¡°YOU DON¡¯T KNOW...WHAT YOU¡¯RE DEALING WITH.¡±


    ¡°If you die then a large hole will be left in your family plans, right? So that means you¡¯ll do anything to survive, including obeying my every...¡±


    ¡°AGHHHKKKKKKKHHH¡±


    ¡°...order.¡±


    ¡°YOU WILL NOT COMMAND...¡± There was an even louder scream. It sounded like it was made of pure terror. ¡°I...I S-SUBMIT.¡±


    I smiled a dark look at him. ¡°Excellent. I make the rules now. There¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m letting you back into my body to get your leg back, so you can kiss that idea good-bye.¡± I looked around, and got an idea. ¡°Her,¡± I pointed to Ellie. ¡°You¡¯re going into her body, and you¡¯re going to help me get out of this shit hole. It¡¯s going to sink anytime now, and we¡¯re not going to be here when that happens.¡±


    ¡°THE...GIRL¡­?¡±


    ¡°Now,¡± I said, and squeezed.


    ¡°Y-YES.¡± And Amnael did as said. Ellie¡¯s eyes opened and her naturally blue eyes faded to a reddish-gold shade.


    ¡°Excellent. Now come on, let¡¯s get going.¡± I nod my head. ¡°We¡¯ve got to fix this stupid leg up.¡± I pointed down, and then looked back up to Ellie. ¡°Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that part. You¡¯re going to be carrying me, but save one of her hands free. I have use for that on the way up. It¡¯s the least you can do for an apology.¡±


    I could see the apprehensive look on Ellie¡¯s face, and to be honest it turned me on. Things had become okay and it was all thanks to Danny. I don¡¯t think he expected it to turn this way when he forgave me, but you know what? He¡¯s dead now. His opinions don¡¯t matter.


    I have been lead like a dog my entire life¡ªled just for the sole purpose of some fucked up alien creatures to do research? Nah, I thought that what I was doing was the right thing, but I sacrificed all of my life to do it. Now I am finally in control, and I¡¯m going to enjoy myself with it. I think the greatest joy of all will be putting an end to Amnael¡¯s pretentious Dad who is so keen on making my life a living hell. Don¡¯t you worry buddy, I¡¯m coming for you and anybody else who gets in my way.


    26


    Amnael was able to fix the elevator with no issue. We dumped the bodies out into the hallway first, of course. Got to have at least some courtesy for the dead.


    ¡°Can I put you down while we ride the elevator up?¡± Ellie asked.


    I nodded, and then grinned as the doors closed. The elevator rose up to the main lobby, but I took my time getting out. I was on the top of the world when I walked to the front doors heading outside. I shoved them open and pounced with the largest smile in our brave new world.


    Amnael, still sitting in the elevator, was shaking. I...never...experienced anything like this...before. Then stood up shakily and followed William out of the lobby.