Notes From A Simpleton

Dark fantasy, dark humor, surrealism

There was a house, a very old house, with a cracked wooden porch and a crumbling shed. I found myself kneeling in the driveway, amid a vast field of grass and trees. The rocks and pebbles dug into my bare knees. I managed to get up. Blood was pouring and trickling down my legs. I didn’t care, I started walking. I walked along the rocky trail that led to the front porch. I climbed the wooden stairs which creaked beneath the weight of my steps. The climb was very slow and exhausting and everything around me was growing hazy. When I was finally up on the porch I noticed an old wooden chair. Someone was sitting in it but I could not make out who it was. The form and the details were incomprehensible, but the presence was there and it filled me with penetrating sorrow. I felt unbearable pity for the presence sitting in that chair and I tried to reach out to it but my hand started to crumble. Then I quickly turned my attention away from it and saw a door in front of me. White chips were peeling away and falling from the door. It was slowly crumbling away before my eyes. I felt this overwhelming compulsion, like I was running out of time. A compulsion that drove me to open that door before it crumbled and disappeared. I reached for the handle and effortlessly pushed the door open. Beyond, there was nothing, a vast terrifying abyss, a dark oblivion, the dreadful end of existence. Then I woke up perspiring in my bed. I was glad it was only a dream.     

It was a frequent, reoccurring dream when I was young. Back then I was a young and stupid boy. And like many young and stupid people I did not bother to ask meaningful questions about my life, instead I pursued cheap ideas. Now that I’m older I’ve encountered all manner of people. Those that lack intellect, passion and love usually seek comfort in their wealth and they will make a big deal out of their wealth because they do not have any other qualities to talk about. Those who lack intellect, passion, love and wealth will talk about fame and they will talk about how they know famous people or how they visited famous places. They will also idolize others. Those who lack intellect, passion, love, wealth, idols or even an exciting story will find themselves at the bottom of the pit, striving to be somebody. Those are the people who desperately seek meaning and significance in their lives because they cannot even lie to themselves about how meaningless and superficial their lives are. Those are the people who must confront their existence with full honesty, that was me in my youth. But one night I had an idea which led me to an experience that changed my life completely. That night I was sitting with my roommate Camron, and I told him everything. My roommate was a d****e but I tolerated him because we’ve been friends since we were kids.

“So what’s this idea about Chinaman?” Camron asked me. “I hope it’s better than your website business idea”

My mother is half Japanese and I have some Japanese in me, it’s barely noticeable but if you look at me long enough you can tell I have some oriental features. Camron calls me Chinaman, sometimes, just because he wants to be a blatantly racist d****e.

“Trust me, this is good.” I told him. “Let me introduce you to the Rape Cam.”

“Rape Cam?” I could tell just by the sound of his voice he already thought it was stupid.

I continued, “Yes the Rape Cam, it’s a hidden camera women can wear when they are walking outside and they are vulnerable to rapists. They activate the Rape Cam and it records everything, where they are walking, what they are doing and it sends the footage to a control center where people can instantly respond and call help if a rapist attacks them.”

He looked at me and he was very confused. “What? Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Do you know how many rape crimes we can prevent? And how many rapists we can bring to justice?” I answered

“This sounds like the worst idea yet.” He picked up the remote and turned on the tv.

I was scrambling for words, anything to catch his interest. “Camron, we are gonna make millions!”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” He wasn’t even looking at me.

“No, trust me it’s gonna be awesome. The Annual Innovation Convention at Watertown is coming up and I came up with this idea. There are gonna be entrepreneurs out there willing to just pour their bags of money on us. We just have to get our nice suits and present our idea and bam! Jackpot!”

“What suits? You work at a coffee shop and I’m a car mechanic, we are not suit and tie kind of guys.”

“I still have the suit which I wore to my grandfather’s funeral.”

“That was 6 years ago, that still fits you?”

“Yeah of course, and I know you have a collared shirt, so you can just wear that or something.”

I knew that suit still fits me because I tried it on and tried to rehearse my Rape Cam presentation in front of the mirror the other day.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

“Wow. That was fast.”

“Yeah I figured you will eventually talk me into it, just like you talked me into pursuing all your other stupid ideas so I’m just gonna spare both of us some time and agree to do it right away.”

“Alright good! Then I can count on you!”

 “Yeah what are friends for.” He said it very bluntly and sarcastically .

 

We were driving home from the Annual Innovation Convention at Watertown. We were both silent and disappointed. No one liked our idea and it was just one s****y experience after another. Not only that, Camron suddenly started giving me s**t, while I was driving, as if we did not get enough s**t at this convention and during this entire crap fest.

“Rape Cam? Seriously? F*****g Rape Cam! No one is gonna buy a product that goes by the name Rape Cam! How could you be so stupid?!”

“You know Camron, I thought it was a catchy name! So shoot me!”  

That sent him raving. “Catchy!!! You thought the name Rape Cam was catchy! Give me the gun I’m gonna shoot you right now! Tell me where it is!”

“You know what Camron, at least I am trying to come up with ideas. Let hear one of your brilliant ideas! That’s right, you have none! Because you have zero creativity, you mentally challenged d****e!”

He continued. “When most people think Rape Cam, the first thing that pops into their mind is inappropriate! But for you, it’s catchy!”

We were driving by fields and farms, as Camron continued his stupid rant I caught sight of something. It was that house that I saw in my dreams. The crumbling stable was there, the driveway, everything. I instantly pulled into the driveway and stopped the car.

Camron looked at me. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I am going over to that house.” I replied.

That confused him. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know why. I just need to knock on that door.” I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out. He followed me.

“Roy, get back in the car!” He was yelling behind me.

I crossed the driveway and climbed up on the wooden dusty porch. The old wooden chair was also there, just like in my dream. Camron followed behind me. White paint chips fell as I knocked on the white door.

“You are f*****g crazy.” Camron whispered to me.

The door opened half way, I couldn’t see anything inside because it was dark and I smelled a gust of revolting air. It smelled like excrement. An old lady peered from the door. She looked pale, her eyes were blood shot and her hair was falling out. She looked at both of us, she reached out to touch me. I stepped back, as her long, yellow, finger nails brushed passed my face.

“Help me.” She managed a weak plea. She looked terribly sick. I took her with Camron and we walked her over to the chair, outside, where she sat down.

“Camron, watch after this woman. I am going in.” I told my friend.

Camron caught me by the arm. “Don’t be stupid, lets just call the police or the hospital and get the hell out. This woman is sick, this place doesn’t look right and it doesn’t smell right. You got no business going in.”

I pushed past him and I went inside. I heard him from the porch. “Seriously!!? You are doing this!?”

I ignored him, the place literally smelled like it was covered in excrement but I couldn’t identify where the smell was coming from. The floor was cluttered with newspapers, broken furniture and other junk. There was no light and the bedroom doors were all open. I walked into one of the rooms. There was a large, cryptic symbol on the wall. It looked like someone burned the symbol into the wall with a blow torch. I heard buzzing flies and I realized there were traces of dried blood along the walls, revealed by what little sunlight pierced through the boarded up windows. Then the door slammed shut. I tried to scream but no sound came out my mouth, something stole my voice. I was thrown up against the wall and I couldn’t move.

“Shhhh! Now we don’t wanna startle the lady.” A voice came from the shadows. It sounded very cruel. The thing that emerged into the half-light was small, childlike, it looked like something out of a surreal nightmare. But it was real, I wasn’t dreaming this, this thing before me was like a human child but with a bird like beak and round black eyes.

“I can give you your voice back but you must promise not to scream! Can you do that?” I nodded.

“What the hell are you?” Suddenly my voice was back.

“I am a very old being. That is all you need to know, we don’t need to concern ourselves with the specifics. What is more important now is what shall I do with you? You have trespassed on my property.”

“Your property!? This is the old lady’s house, it’s her home! This is not your property.”

“It has become my property young man as you can tell both you and her are not in the position to dictate to me what my property is. I am much older than your arbitrary games and rules, how do you think property comes about, it comes through power and the very first man who acquired this property seized it through power. Only then did he choose to give it through trade. But I would not like you to think of me as a savage. I can engage in your civilized and arbitrary games, would you like to trade?”

“Trade what?”

“I will give this property back to the lady if you can offer me something more valuable.”

“I have no idea what you value.”

“I value your mind, I would like to possess it, but you will have to be willing to give it to me.”

“Hell no! Who the hell would take that offer, do you know how creepy that sounds? Is this how you do business? Good luck finding customers.”

“I apologize I have not done this in several hundred years, let me sweeten the deal. You get three wishes, any three wishes you desire and I will fulfill them. But if you end up regretting all three wishes, I have permission to possess you.”

“I can wish for anything I want?”

“Yeah.”

“Even superpowers?”

“Your imagination is your limit. After all what do I look like to you? A false idol?”

“Well yes, but if you leave this lady alone I’ll take your offer.”

“It’s a deal young man. Whenever you want to make a wish, you call my name. My name is Nav.”

 

The next day at work I was listening to a customer. He was a middle aged man, wearing a business suit, one of those guys with a receding hair line that try to compensate for their hair loss with an extra thick mustache. He was a regular who came through here almost every day at about noon and like always he could not be satisfied unless he made his order ridiculously complicated for me.

“I want 20 milliters skim milk, and 20 milliliters 2%, if you could heat up the skim milk to 80 degrees and the 2% to a milder 60 degrees then add a pinch of brown sugar to the skim milk….”

He went on like that for a while and I was writing everything down but my mind was elsewhere. I made a deal with that thing called Nav. It was gonna grant me wishes, I could have anything as long as I was careful enough to word my wishes properly. I just wanted to escape this hell hole.

I worked at one of those intellectually progressive coffee shop chains like your typical Starbucks. There was post modern art  on the walls and college students with laptops occupied most tables in our shop. We were very ethically sensitive to globalism, for instance we sold water bottles then gave few cents of the profit to the workers in the third world that picked our coffee beans. That’s almost twice more than what they usually get paid for picking coffee in the third world. If I had a nickel every morning I had to come to work I would’ve been one of those guys picking our coffee beans. But I wasn’t, I was one of the more fortunate employees, who gets to enjoy the finer intellectual environment while serving coffee. I got to listen to progressive jazz or Alanis Morrisette’s latest album all day. All the while my co-workers in the third world were picking coffee beans somewhere and getting nickels tossed at them.  I shouldn’t have really complained but I did, I couldn’t help it because this job did not satisfy me and selling coffee was not my passion. Alanis Morrisette’s latest song came on, and I must have heard this song 20 times already that day. If you wanna know how I felt about my work just try listening to Alanis Morrisette 20 times a day and then tell me if you are happy. I spaced out as usual, wondering if they also played Alanis Morissette for our bean picking comrades in the third world when Aida showed up.

“Roy!” She called my name.

I woke up, “Aida! Hi! How are you?”

She laughed, I can’t describe how much I loved her laugh and how much I loved making her laugh.

 “I’m good, and you?” She answered.

“Great, serving coffee as usual. You want the usual?”

“Yeah.” She answered. I got right on it.

“How’d you do on your exam?” I asked her.

“I got a B+.” She answered.

“That’s it I’m punching your professor in the balls.”

“Roy, you can’t go around punching people in the balls everytime I get upset, the world needs testicles.” She winked at me.

“Wise words, here is your drink.” I gave her the coffee.

We stood facing each other. “B+ is not all that bad.”

“I’ll get over it. How is your non-pornographic website business doing?”

“Oh that, yeah I didn’t go through with that. But this time I got something that I really wanna do and it’s gonna be huge.”  I gave her the thumbs up and then mentally shot myself in the face, because I realized how lame that probably looked.

She smiled, “You say that every week, you tell me you are gonna do something and it’s gonna be ‘huge’ and ‘phenomenal’ and then I see you back here, serving coffee.”

“This time I’m serious.”

“Okay, promise me you are gonna follow through this time.” She rubbed my arm.

“I promise.” I replied rigidly.

She took her coffee and walked out, turning to smile at me and wave goodbye one last time before she went out the door. Spending those few minutes with her was the best part of my day. If I could be with Aida, I would be the happiest man on earth. I just wanted a chance, that’s all, but the problem was that I was a dead beat loser, working at a coffee shop, with no future or perspective in sight.

 

 

I thought very carefully about the kind of wishes I was going to make because I did not wanna make a stupid wish that I might regret. I spent a whole week thinking about it. Camron came and went, he had no idea about the deal I made with Nav and I did not wanna bring it up and complicate matters. We stopped with the whole Rape Cam idea of course. Camron kept reminding me that he told me it was stupid and it was never gonna work. I sat there and shamefully took all of it.  I made my first wish one night when Camron had a party at our apartment, when I was feeling really drunk and confident. Our apartment was over crowded, we had a karaoke machine set up in the living room and I felt like real hot s**t screaming into the mic and jumping around like a rock star. Camron told me the next day that he had to stop people from jumping out the window and killing themselves, that’s how bad my singing was but I still felt like a raging rock star at the time. When I was done I left our apartment, I was drunk and I did not care about anything. If I died that night it really did not make a difference to me. There was no direction or progress in my life. This stumbling, purposeless, drunk condition which overwhelmed me, that was my life. That’s what was running through my intoxicated head as I stumbled through the dark streets and alleyways. I suddenly fell and knocked over a bunch of garbage cans.

“You need help son?” I heard a voice.

When I looked up I saw a man, he vaguely resembled this West Indian guy from a pizzeria shop around the corner. It might have been him.

“I can get up!” I answered and then attempted to stand up. “I got my dignity!” I slurred then fell over again. He lifted me up from the ground and placed me to lean against the wall.

“Stay safe.” He told me as he left.

“You stay safe!” I yelled at him. I meant that as a comeback and then I realized how ridiculous that comeback sounded.

“Nav!” I yelled.

Nav stepped out of the shadows.  I could hardly talk and I was profusely hick upping but Nav could understand me. I don’t remember everything I said to Nav but I do remember saying this: “…….I never felt like I was good at anything and then I was good at track and field, and I thought finally I was good at something. I wanna be the fastest man in the world. No, wait, I wanna be so fast I wanna move at the speed of thought.”

“So you wanna be able to run so fast you can instantly get to places at the speed of thought?” He asked me. “That’s your wish?”

“Yes.” I answered, I stepped back and wobbled.

“Done. Do you wanna test your superpowers?”

“Just like that. I can run fast now?” I asked him.

“Yes, but I suggest you just run a few meters, up to there.” He pointed to the end of the alleyway. “Test your superpowers.”

“Okay.” I started then collapsed after a few inches, it felt like every muscle in my body was getting torn to shreds. “Ahhhh!” I yelled in the night. “F**k!”

He leaned over me. “So where did you think you were gonna get the energy and momentum to run that fast?”

“I don’t know!” I answered while my body was aching in a thousand places.

“I only grant your wishes. If you wanna run fast you have to use up your body’s own power supply and it doesn’t look like your body can carry you very far.”

“But you told me I would be able to run fast!”

“But you can run fast, very fast, just not very great distances.” He chuckled at me.

He left me lying on the dark and dirty alleyway floor. Twisting and groaning in pain.     

 

So the next morning I was at work with a horrible hang over and sprained muscles, regretting my first wish. My body was bruised up and I must have torn a thousand ligaments. It really sucked, I had a cool superpower, but it was absolutely useless because my body could not generate enough energy and power to sustain it. Nav, the little a*****e was even kind enough to remind me that using it could easily kill me since my body was not made to run that fast. I felt depressed and I had to deal with this hipster looking customer with awful tattoos.

“I said I wanted some cream on my latte. Why isn’t there cream on my latte?” He stood effeminately with his man purse, inspecting the latte I made him.

“I can put some cream on it if you want.” I told him.

“Hmmm, the latte is not a milky brown, it is a darker color than usual.” He was still inspecting the latte.

“Fine, I will make you another latte.”

He looked at me. “Oh my god! You must be telepathic because I was totally expecting you to say that.”

I went ahead and made him another latte and put all the cream he could desire on it.

“Here is another latte, it has all the cream you could ask for, to satisfy your mouth.”

“Thank you.” He smiled at me and walked away sipping.

I turned to my next customer mumbling “How can I help you…” Then I saw Aida. My dead face suddenly lit up. “Hi,” I smiled.

“Hi” She smiled back at me. “So I heard you were rocking it out like a champ on Saturday night.”

“You heard about that?” I was rubbing my head. “There goes my dignity.”

“I thought it was pretty cool.”

“Oh yeah is that what you heard?” I started making her coffee.

“No, I heard the exact opposite. But I still support your inebriated attempts at karaoke.”

I gave her the coffee.

“Yeah, well I’m glad I have at least one fan.”

“If you ever become a big rockstar and sell out, please remember that I believed in you when no one else did.”

“Thanks, but I’ll just stick to making coffee.”

She laughed. “Works for me.”

 

I stood in front of my bathroom mirror and I felt ridiculous. I wanted to ask Aida out but I could not even do it in front of my mirror because I would notice how ridiculous I looked and I would start blushing. Then I’d get nervous ticks and my face would twitch. There was no way I could ask her out. I did not have a chance with a girl like her. I am not smart, athletic or good looking. She is going to finish college in a year and I am not even gonna bother with college because I know I am not college material. So how the hell am I ever gonna get a girl like her?

I could only get her with the help of Nav, but asking him for anything made me cringe right now. I had two more wishes left. I stood in front of the mirror thinking whether I should ask him and whether I should make the wish. I was reluctant to ask him for things, because I clearly remembered how he screwed me over last time. But then I realized that if I did not ask him for this, I would regret all my other wishes. It was literally impossible for me not to make this wish, because I would use up all my wishes and regret not making this one. Looking at myself in the mirror I was thinking how skinny and useless I was, I looked like a scared little boy. I was trapped now by my desire to have Aida and I began to wonder if Nav somehow purposely set me up for this wish. I did not dwell on it much longer, I had to make Aida fall in love with me.

“Nav!” I yelled in the bathroom.

“Yes.” I heard Nav’s voice behind the shower curtain. I pulled the curtain aside and Nav sat in the bathtub amid a pile of bloody bones. He held one in his hand, tearing the glistening marrow off with his beak. It was disturbing because the blood and meat was fresh and raw, and the bones reminded me of human bones. He looked up at me. “Hurry up with it. You are interrupting my lunch.”

“My roommate is gonna be back in half an hour!” I yelled at him.

“So?” He asked me while chewing with his dripping, bloody beak.

 “You brought all this blood and bones in my tub. How do you expect me to clean this?”

“Don’t be such a baby. I just brought my food with me. I will take it when I leave. Now what do you want?”

“I want Aida to fall in love with me.”

“Fine, granted.”

 

I was optimistic about my second wish. I couldn’t wait to see Aida again.  There was no need to be nervous, there was no need to break into sweat or stutter, I knew she loved me now. I just had to ask her and she would be mine. I was counting money when I heard her voice.

“How do you like my new look?”

I looked up and there she was, smiling at me.

“You look beautiful.” I whispered, almost mesmerized by her stunning smile.

“Why thank you, young man!” She winked at me. Young man, Aida never calls me that.

“You like your second wish don’t ya?”

I frowned and looked at her. “Nav…”

“Yeah that’s me, you big stud.”

“What did you do to Aida?”

“I possessed her body, how did you think I was gonna make her love you? You thought I was gonna brew you a love potion?” He asked me sarcastically.

“Let her go Nav…” I began feeling dizzy, and my heart was palpitating as I began to absorb everything.

“I am her, silly boy.”

I had to grab hold of the counter so I would not faint. “No, Nav, this is not her, you are possessing her body.”

“Oh yeah, can you prove that? Can you prove that I am not Aida, can you prove that this is not Aida talking to you, right now? Can you prove that she’s been possessed?”

“I….don’t know.” I managed a reply. “Leave her alone!”

“Go on boy, prove it. Prove that I am not Aida.”

 I didn’t know how to reply to that.

“That’s what I thought, I have her name, her legal documents, her body. I am Aida.” He looked at me. “What’s the matter? You disappointed? You don’t find me attractive?”

I almost puked in my mouth.

“Don’t worry, I will love you. Now give me a kiss.” He grabbed my head and pulled it towards him. I was fighting him back savagely while he tried to kiss me. I finally managed to push him off and I stumbled back and smashed into the espresso machine. It fell on the ground along with a whole bunch of coffee mugs which shattered. I was up against the wall, terrified and breathing rapidly like a cornered animal.

He smiled at me. “You are no fun.”

He fixed his purse and turned around. As he walked out of the coffee shop the customers were staring at him and then they turned and looked at me.

 

My shift was done at night, I managed to get through the day mechanically, just serving as much coffee as possible and pushing back the dreadful thoughts that were surfacing in my head. But now I could not occupy my time with anything, there was nothing to distract me and the awful thoughts churned inside. What did I do to Aida? How could I let that happen to her? My hands were shaking as I closed the shop door and locked it. I quickly ran towards my car. It was unbelievable how Aida went from being the most wonderful and beautiful person in the world to the ugliest and most vile thing on this planet. I could not even think of her in that way anymore, every time I tried I could only think about Nav and it was goddamn repulsive. What tortured me even more was the thought of Aida’s mind being trapped somewhere in that body, witnessing everything that was happening but being completely powerless to do anything about it. Was she even in there? I desperately hoped her mind was still in there somewhere. Some place from where I can still pull it out and bring back the old Aida. Otherwise I didn’t know how I could continue living with myself. My thoughts were racing when I got to the car. A hand grabbed me at the elbow and I jumped back abruptly swinging my fists.

“Get the hell away from me!” I yelled at the robed figure before me.

The hood came down and I looked at a lady with long black hair. She was young and pale like a phantom, but there was terrifying intensity in her haunting gaze.  

“Who are you? You scared the s**t out of me.”  I asked her, holding my fists up defensively.

“I am here because of you.” She answered.

“Listen lady, I am dealing with a lot of s**t and I really don’t have time….” She whispered something and moved her hands around while I was talking and suddenly I stopped and I could not move my jaw. Then I realized I could not move anything at all. She walked up to me.

“Now you listen to me. You are gonna do exactly what I tell you because if you don’t do as I say, everyone is gonna be fucked. You unleashed that thing and you allowed it to manifest in this world and you have the nerve to tell me that you have no time to deal with the mess you created?”

I felt my jaw loosen and I could talk, but I couldn’t move anything else.

“What the hell are you?” I asked her.

“I am a witch.”  

“What do you want from me?”

Her pale face was youthful and beautiful, but there was something terrifying about her, something that sent chills up my body like cold, numbing ice. Her blue eyes burned like a demon, leaving me powerless and exposed before her gaze. “First of all I am here to look after you and make sure that your rampage of stupidity ends here. Second you are gonna help me find Nav and banish him before he does any more damage.”

I tried to stay calm and I managed to speak even though my fear surfaced in my stuttering. “Ok, fine. I…..I wanna get rid of this cursed thing as…..as well but he is powerful……”

“I know that.” She interrupted me.

“How do you know?”

“Because I have encountered him, over a 1000 years ago.”

“You are a 1000 years old?”

She came closer to me. “I’m 1400 years old.”

“What the hell is going on here!?”  

I felt her hot breath in my ear. “I will tell you what’s going on. Nav possessed a physical body, he can open the gates between his world and ours now. He can begin to merge the two realities. And you don’t want to know what’s gonna come out of those gates. So now take your keys and open the door, you are driving.”

 

I was driving the car, she sat beside me. The silence was awkward and I felt like a stupid puppet, following her orders. She overlooked everything I did, and she kept barking commands at me. When I tried to initiate a conversation she would not even reply to me.

“Listen, I fucked up, I admit that. But I had no idea things were gonna turn out this way.” I told her.

Finally she engaged me with a full sentence and asked, “What did you think was gonna happen?”

“I thought I was gonna have some wishes granted. I thought all my dreams would come true. And I thought, for once in my life, I would be happy with myself! Do you know what it’s like to wake up every morning and know that you are a no body? A loser without a future or perspective? That’s me. I just wanted a taste of power and freedom, so I could say for once in my life, things are going my way.”

“Oh is that what you call this? Power? Freedom? You sit around passively making demands, boy. You don’t have any power and freedom in that relationship.” I had no idea what she was trying to tell me with this.

“What do you mean I don’t have power? I get wishes granted! That’s pretty damn powerful!” I answered

“You just ask him to do things for you, he has the power to execute your demands and he has the power to actualize them. And he can actualize anything as long as you give him consent. He can bend reality however he pleases to serve his purpose.” Those words stung a little because I recognized some truth in them. I began to realize how powerless I actually was.  

I was speechless and she continued. “If you think the balance of power is in your favor you are delusional. And his plan is to create illusions, to make you believe that you have power and choices.”

“You know so much about our relationship don’t you?” She was beginning to frustrate me.

“I walked this earth as a woman for over a millennium, I think I know a few things about how power relations work.”

“Great, so you are a millennium old feminist! Have you found a husband, walking the earth all these years?”

“No.”

“I can’t imagine why?” I smirked sarcastically. Then I felt an invisible hand squeeze my crotch and I screamed, grabbing at my crotch. “Ahhhh holy f*****g s**t! What the hell lady, I’m f*****g driving!”

“It’s alright I got it.” She replied. The wheel was steering by itself, I was still holding my crotch recovering from the pain. I realized she used some kind of telekinetic force to simultaneously squeezed my crotch and drive my car.

“Have you recovered your manhood?” She asked me.

I nodded.

“Good, so you can take the wheel again. And next time watch your mouth.”

 

We were in a large clearing surrounded by forest and mountains. The people around me wore strange ceremonial robes, similar to my kidnapper. Some were humans, others resembled humans with subtle, unusual traits that betrayed their humanity. They were all women. I was paraded in front of all of them. I got curious looks, which I did not shy away from.

This lady looked at me, her face was painted with symbols and she was playing with beads in her hand, as her dark eyes followed me.

I turned to her. “What!?”

I got pushed along until I came to a pair of creepy looking, hairless, twins. Strange chromatic lights swirled in their pupils. A pale, sexless child, with pointy years stood beside them.

“He is the one?” The child asked my kidnapper.

“Yes Eilion, I have brought him.”

“Who are you? Why am I here?” I asked the child.

“I am Eilion, high priestess of ceremonial conjuration.” It answered. “Devon,” she pointed to my kidnapper, “is the head of our order, we are the Witches of the Old Earth and she has brought you here because you need to help us summon Nav.”

Devon spoke to me. “You will summon Nav when I tell you.”

 

The ceremony was quickly set up and it was only a matter of time before I was placed in the center, surrounded by strange looking idols and trinkets. Despising everyone around me for making a spectacle out of me, for using me like their toy and dehumanizing me in their stupid ritual, but I had to sit and shut up. I could not say anything because Devon was right beside me and if I did anything she would certainly hurt me or do something nasty to me. I hated her, I’ve never hated any other woman with such passion. I wanted to smack her. I considered myself a gentleman, I would never raise my hand towards a woman but Devon was no woman, she was a horrible, immasculating b***h. She was a woman with power. That’s where I stopped myself, I felt kind of weird and odd when I realized that this was the first time I came across a woman with power and I wanted to smack her. This whole time I thought I was a gentleman. I would never think about hitting a woman and now my whole mentality reversed as soon as I came across Devon. The strange women around me were chanting in the night, I was too caught up in my own thoughts to realize that the idols and trinkets around me were moving sporadically and jumping all around me.  A sigil of light appeared on the ground and it enveloped both me, and Devon as well. Then she told me. “Call him.”

“Why?” I asked her.

“Listen to me boy!”

“No! I am sick of being your puppet! I wanna know what you are using me for. What’s this all about!?” I yelled at her. The sigil beneath our feet was growing brighter.

“It’s a ritual to banish the Nav, now if you wanna free your precious girlfriend from his possession I suggest you call him now!”

“Nav!” I called his name.

In the surrounding brightness I could make out Aida’s slender form.

“What is this?” I heard her voice

Then I heard Devon, she began to chant with the others and all of them were shouting. “Igmut” in unison.

Devon yelled over the others in a cryptic language I did not understand. The light suddenly vanished. I saw Aida, she looked at all of us and her lips curved into a sadistic smile. Nav was still in there. He started laughing. I had no idea what was going on but everyone around me look terrified.

One of the witches yelled. “You told us you knew the Nav’s true name!”

“I…No this can’t be….” That’s all Devon could say, she was visibly scared and trembling.

Nav spoke, “Igmut? 1400 years on this stupid earth and you still can’t figure out my true name.” Everyone started backing away defensively. Nav continued. “I thought you charlatans might show up, so I decided to invite a friend of my own. I’m sure you will remember her.”

There was a burst of fire, it sprang from the ground like an enormous column, blazing up into the night sky. Something emerged from the inferno. The shadowed shilouette had the form of a slender woman. It came out of the fire and I saw the smoldering, burning remains of a woman. A burning, wailing corpse with fire blazing from her empty eye sockets. Fire trailed back over her head, waving in the air like a crimson hair of flames. From her back a pair of burning, smoldering wings extended and they began to flap. The corpse flew in the air above everyone.  Everyone around me erupted into panic, screaming and yelling, some had tears in their eyes. Devon also looked upon this thing. What surprised me the most was the expression on her face. I never thought I would see her this way. Her strong, dominating resolve withered into utter defeat and weakness as she gazed upon the corpse. She knew this corpse, it meant something to her.

The corpse let out a tortured, piercing scream that echoed in the night. Her voice ignited into fire and everything was set ablaze. The women screamed as they were engulfed in flames and I ran instantly. I glanced back at all the fire and turmoil, it was only a split second glance but I managed to catch everything. At either side, the twins were weaving a transparent cage of brilliant pulsing energy in an attempt to contain the dreadful corpse. The thing raged inside like a berserk animal smashing and clawing the force field. Then she let out another horrible wail and her voice shattered the cage, incinerating the twins. I turned and smashed into someone which knocked me off my feet. I looked up and there was Nav, standing over me.

“How do you like my artwork?” He pointed at the burning corpse. It flew in the air, spears of pulsing energy flew at it, but it dodged them with unbelievable agility, then it swooped down incinerating everything in its path. The witches finally broke and fled, but this vile thing was remorseless. It chased them down, burning them all.

Nav stood over me, the hellish pyre flashing behind him. I was still on the ground, too light headed to get up. He crouched beside me and whispered in my ear. “You wanted to win Aida back, but look where that got you. Now listen to me, you better stay out of my way because things can only get worse for you.”

I turned and looked at him. “I wanna make my third wish. I wish you were dead!”

He looked at me. ”You do realize whose body I am currently possessing? If I die, I will make sure she dies as well. Do you really want that?”

“No I take it back.”  

 He stood up again. “Good boy! Now lye down!”

He kicked me in the head and I was gone.

 

When I woke up I felt my face sting, Devon stood over me, she slapped me into consciousness. The earth was scorched and black all around us.

“What happened?” I asked her.

“You saw what happened.” She answered me as she walked away.

“Who was that corpse?” I got up. There were others with us. Eilion, the sexless child of conjuration was still alive and well, and there was this other lady but her face and body were completely ravaged by the fire. By some miracle she was still able to stand and walk.

“Are you okay?” I asked her

 “I need healing.” She told me.

“Don’t you have some healing magic, you are all witches right?” I asked them

Eilion spoke, “Kiera’s fire corrupts anything it touches, Gia’s scars cannot be healed by us. You see this earth.” She pointed at the scorched earth. “Nothing will grow on this earth again.”

“Are you ready for the summoning?” Devon asked both of them.

“What are you summoning?” I asked them.

Eilion answered “We are going to summon an ancient, woodland being of rejuvenation. It’s called The Saad. It’s our only chance to heal Gia and to banish Kiera from this realm.”

“Who is Kiera? Is that the burning corpse?”

“Yes.” Eilion answered. “Now hold your questions. I have to focus.”  

“Alright well I am going to find Nav and get Aida back from him.” I turned and started walking.

“You can’t do that.” Devon’s voice stopped me.

I turned around and asked. “Why?”

Devon approached me. “Because knowing you, you are only going to make things worse.”

“So you are not gonna let me go?”

“That’s precisely what I’m gonna do.” She whispered something and I was paralyzed again.

“Oh! Not this again!” I yelled. “You know, you are no different than Nav! But at least he can make it seem like I have a choice!” I yelled at Devon as she walked away from me. 

 

I watched them chant, as they engaged in their weird ritual. The song and words sounded ancient and archaic. It sounded like a guttural version of Latin. Eilion danced around, waving around a smoking rod made of leaves and sage. The black, ash ridden tip suddenly erupted in a strange violet fire. She threw the rod and it was waving in the air by itself, carried by an invisible force. The rod suddenly vanished and there was only the violet fire. The violet fire split in two and it floated in the air like a pair of violet, glowing eyes. And something manifested before us, but it was unstable, I could only see it’s glowing eyes, the rest was like a blurry, white image that constantly shifted. It’s form was human, but I could not make out anything else. A large pair of white wings sprouted from its back, it reminded me of a large ghostly butterfly. They were rapidly flapping, reflecting a soft, unstable texture in the fire light. New, healthy, grass grew, every time it set foot on the scorched earth. It came up to the witch. It caressed her gently, her burned flesh peeled away, her scars were stripping off. Her skin instantly regenerated, her laborious breathing slowly regained strength, her gurgling mouth which spewed blood now moaned with a new vital breath.

 

I was driving with Devon again. The others disappeared, I didn’t know where they went, I really didn’t care. My goal was to get to Nav. The highway was empty and I struggled to keep my eyes open.

“What is your order about? Why does it exist?” I asked Devon. I had to keep a conversation going, to stay awake.

“There are beings in this world which are invisible to most people. But they exist and once in a while they make contact with people. They have contacted people in the past during critical stages of human development.”

“Human development? What kind of development are you talking about?” I asked her while yawning.

“Like the development of language. Humans have existed on this earth for over 100 000 years, but they have only been able to use language 50000 years. 50000 years ago, these beings began to appear and mix among humans. They seduced your ancestors and bred with them which gave birth to half-breeds like me.”  

“And then what happened?” I yawned again.

“These half breeds were soon revered as gods by the clans and tribes of your human ancestors, and they mated with other humans. As our blood was diluted, the sons and daughters of your ancestors lost some of their more incredible abilities but they did retain one quality, the ability to use language.”

“You are telling me humans acquired language because they were seduced by these strange beings?”

She looked at me. “Yes. And language is the basis for everything, it is how I am able to do the things that I do. It is all in the symbols.”

“But why would they mate with us?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. I am just a half breed child that was abandoned on this earth. And the only true home I’ve managed to find was with my order.” She fingered the medallion around her neck.

I looked at it, it glistened in the half light. “Is that a medallion from your order?”

“Yes it’s the medallion of the High Witch, it is given to the leader of the order.” She answered with a somber tone.

“So how did you come to be?” I asked her.

“Well I was born 1400 years ago, my mother was the daughter of a woodsman. I was told she was lost in a forest one night. The night was cold and frightening, and the forest was proweling with hungry wolves. But she met someone there, she called him the dark man. The dark man, banished the wolves and cradled my mother in his arms. She was terrified but the dark man’s soothing touch lifted her fear, she was suddenly very comfortable. She drifted and floated through the dark forest half conscious, aware that something strange was happening, that she should run and find her home, but she was powerless because she did not care. She did not care about anything, the sense of comfort disabled her. The next morning, she was found in the forest and she was pregnant with me.”

“And how did you join the order?”

“We formed this order because in the middle ages people like us were not tolerated. My mother knew I was different and she did everything she could to protect me, but as a 13 year old girl I was already forced to run from my village and my family, and from then I have never looked back. We were hunted down and burned. People feared our unusual talents and all the things we could do with them. We had to unite and protect ourselves. Most of all, people feared us because some of us were women, women which could wield incredible power.”   

I was starting to feel a little sad for her,  this woman never knew her real family. She had been hunted down ever since she was a little girl.  “And who was Kiera?” I asked her.

“Kiera, she used to be the head of our order and then she summoned Nav and made a deal with him.” The somber tone was still heavy in her speech, but when she talked about Kiera her voice sounded weaker and tender.

“What kind of a deal?”

“A similar deal to the one you made, but she wished for power, immortality and revenge.” She was almost mumbling now but I could catch what she was saying.

“So why did she decide to side with Nav?” She did not wanna look at me.

“Because during the inquisition we were fighting a losing battle and they finally captured her. The clergy held her in a cell and they were going to publicly burn her the next morning. She was angry, very angry and most of all she wanted vengeance for what they did to our sisters. She wanted Nav to resurrect her from the fires and give her the powers of a goddess, so she may smite all who have wronged her and our sisters.”

“And from what I’m seeing right now that didn’t turn out so well.”

She looked up at me again and tears were dripping down her face. “She was a noble woman, she did everything she could to protect us and Nav took her from us. He tricked her, trickery is his weapon.”

She was visibly upset and I noticed she left something very important out of her story. Nav did not trick Kiera, Kiera tricked herself, the way I screwed myself over the moment I placed my fate in Nav’s hands. This went unacknowledged in Devon’s story but I held my tongue because there was a deep, heavy sorrow in her words and her denial. That denial was the only thing she had left, she still held Kiera in high regard, she was not ready to admit that Kiera had become a bloodthirsty monster through her own will. Kind of like I could not fathom the idea that Aida might be gone, forever, all because of me. I had to keep believing she was still in there somewhere. I could not speak anymore because my words would only torture Devon, the truth would crush what was left of her spirit and I did not have it in me.      

After that we continued to drive silently in the night. It wasn’t long before the city came into view but this time something was seriously out of place, the buildings loomed like lightless, deserted monoliths against the night sky. I turned to Devon, she looked at me and said “It’s Nav.”

 

The city streets were dark and deserted, a foul smell permeated the air, like rotting meat. The dark buildings loomed into the night sky and as we drove deeper into the city the smell intensified. The air became oppressive and revolting.

I began to cough, “This is not good for my lungs. What the hell happened here?”

“Stop the car.”  She answered

I quickly pulled over to the side of the deserted street and she got out of the car.

“Wait.” I followed her.

When I got out I noticed the trees along the sidewalk. They all had a sickly, rotting color and the branches were decaying and falling apart, all of the trees were dying. Then I quickly ran to the other side of the car. I saw her kneeling on the side walk, she was reading a scroll which sat open in front of her.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

I seemed to have interrupted something because she looked very frustrated. “Get back in the car!” She yelled at me.

“No!” I answered.

“You are gonna get both of us killed! Now listen to me and do what I say….” She suddenly went silent and there was a subtle change in her expression. Her frustration instantly turned to fear. And before I could comprehend anything, before she could attempt to shout or warn me. Something threw me against the car and my head shattered the window. Blood splattered in my eyes, I couldn’t see anything. I was savagely thrown around until my face fell against the pavement. I heard the thing above me breathing and snarling. My blood froze as I felt cold claws gently raking my back. A tremendous force lifted me off the ground and I was carried away. The streets and cars receded below and my screaming echoed in the night. I didn’t know where I was going, everything flew by me too fast and my mind was racing with terror. Then something hit me on the head and I was out.  

  

I woke up with an immense headache. I was in complete darkness. Grass brushed my fingers. Something trickled down my face. I sat up and wiped my face, I tasted blood in my mouth. The darkness consumed everything and I sat in it like a quivering mouse, waiting for something to happen because I was too afraid to do anything. My eyes slowly began to adjust. I saw shapes, and outlines of objects. Things began to look familiar. There were trees, sick and rotting trees. My eyes adjusted further and I could see benches, park benches beside a winding trail. The sky was empty and dark, frozen in an eternal twilight. Everything was silent and still. I finally gathered enough courage to get up and stand on my shaky, quivering legs. I realized I was in a park, but things in this park were wrong and out of place. Flies were constantly buzzing around and there was this noxious smell. I kicked something in the grass. Wondering what the hell I just kicked I decided to bend down and pick it up. I grabbed something in the grass.  It was hard and dense in my hands but it was also cracked and punctured by holes. I slowly brought it up towards my face and then I realized it was a human skull. I dropped it and stumbled back into something wet and slimy. I backed off as the buzzing intensified in my ears. The darkness was kind and it didn’t reveal everything, but there was a body in the grass, it was glistening and wet, and it was half-eaten. 

 “Oh god!” I wanted to puke.

 I heard that familiar snarling and breathing. Except now it was all around me. It came from everywhere and fear paralyzed me in place. There were subtle movements in the dark, they were like passing shadows, barely noticeable but their presence was certain. They were circling me, snarling like blood thirsty beasts, playing on my fears and imagination.   

There was no way I could run from them or get out of there. I closed my eyes, hoping that it was gonna be quick, hoping that once they tear me apart my body would shut down and my mind would drift away. I just wished I could die, without pain and without torture. But you rarely get what you wish for. They descended on me and it was awful. I didn’t know if their claws or their teeth were digging into my flesh, but it was horrible, like being cut apart by razors. I screamed and trashed in the grass desperately yelling for help. I don’t know why I did it. I knew I was alone and there was no one here to help me. But I still yelled for help, begging for someone or something to help me.

A blazing light came from somewhere, suddenly the pain went away and I was lying in the grass.  My whole body was shaking, the waves of shock and agony numbed my senses. The light revealed grotesque feral, faces, utterly deformed and fused together. Faces which shared a common mouth, a twisted, horrible grin, smeared with dripping blood. Blood dripped from their fangs and hanging tongues as they danced around me snarling and clawing frantically. They howled and retreated from the light. I tried to reach out and touch the light but I had no more strength or life, I collapsed on the grass coughing out blood in torturous, painful spasms. Devon showed up with Eilion and Gia, they held their arms up in the air and their hands blazed like torches. The light suddenly turned blue and the things around us ignited in blue fire. They were incinerated to ashes. The rest scattered away and flew off leaving behind trailing ashes and blue flames. My body was giving up, I could not move anything and that’s because I didn’t have much of a body left. My body was shredded beyond recognition. Strips of flesh were hanging everywhere and I was swimming in my own blood. I couldn’t talk, I could only gurgle out non-sense and spit blood. I was waiting to pass out and die, then I saw The Saad, it emerged out of the nothingness like a surreal dream. It’s butterfly wings fluttered, it’s unstable, ethereal form shifting in the half-light. It approached me and it touched me. I saw my flesh shift and move, like a living thing it began moving and folding back upon itself. A part of it seeped through me, it became me. I was suddenly pulled into a place beyond time, before this earth was born, a primordial limbo of color and pulsing light. I knew they descended on the earth when it was young, when the very first signs of life sprouted from the ground. But now there was only one of them left and it was inside me. Life pulsed through me, it began from the tips of my fingers and then the sensation climbed up my arms. I could suddenly move my fingers and it didn’t stop there, it continued up my arms until they were galvanized with new strength.   

   

I was sitting by a boarded up window in an abandoned apartment. There were symbols drawn everywhere, on the floors, the walls, the doors. Eilion told me it’s to ward off all the demons that are running around the streets. A single lamp was placed on the wooden floor, in the center of the room, our only source of light. We all sat in our dark corners contemplating what to do next. They pissed me off, because they were not getting anything done. We were wasting time while Nav still possessed B’s body, while my home town was getting ravaged by demons and what not.

“So what’s the point?” I broke the silence, eager to get things moving. “Why is he trying to conquer our world?”

“He want’s dominion over this universe.” Eilion answered.

“But that’s what I’m trying to understand why does he want this useless piece of rock?”

Eilion continued “He will gain extrodinary power and prestige in Pakal once he makes this universe part of his dominion. He will climb the hierarchy and he will accomplish something no other entity from Pakal ever could. He will make earth his dominion and he will be in charge of all humans and their future development.”

“Humans are weak and useless. Look at me, do you think I am useful?”

Devon spoke, “You have more power than you know, but you are just not smart enough to use it.”

I gave her the middle finger.

Gia gently took my hand. She looked at Devon. “You are being a little harsh on him.” Then she turned back to me. “Humans and us, half breeds, have something they don’t.”

“What is that?”

“Freedom, they are bound by forces we cannot begin to comprehend. That is why we are able to control them with incantations and they cannot do anything about it. Our ancestors developed ways to protect themselves from the more malignant beings. And they passed this knowledge down with generations to people like us. We are like children to the old beings, a child is free. A child can develop in any given direction, but as we grow older we are constrained by our experiences and knowledge. This is exactly what the old beings are, they are constrained while we are free and careless.”

“And that gives us power?” I asked her.

“Yes, it gives us a great advantage. It is the only way we can protect ourselves, because we can bind them and control them and banish them simply by manipulating symbols and incantations but they can’t do the same to us because we are not subject to the same rules as they are. Now imagine if Nav can make this earth his dominion, with all the humans and half breeds kneeling before his throne. He will gain incredible power.”

“So why can’t we banish Nav?”

“Because Nav is a first generation half-breed, the spawn of a demon and a human. However his power is still tied to Pakal, unless he possesses a human he is like a fish without water in this world. We need to get him to leave Aida’s body, and we can do that only if we know his true name.”

“I thought his true name was Nav?”

“Nav is just the general name for his kind of half-breed spawn. He won’t reveal his real name to anyone.”

Devon spoke. “I raided crumbling temples, dark tombs and libraries. I thought I found his name, but he is clever, he has managed to keep it hidden even after all these years.”

“So what do we do?” All I could do was ask questions. I felt like a helpless idiot. And really that’s all I am.  I was never good at anything, all I could do was serve coffee and now I’m dealing with powerful witches and demons. I did not have enough power to challenge them and I was not smart enough to out smart them. My role was passive. It made me angry and frustrated, because I really loved AIda and I wanted to be the hero. I wanted to be the one who was competent enough to rescue her but I am a simpleton and all I could ever do were simple things like serve coffee. That’s why my ideas never worked, that’s why I could not out smart Nav with my wishes, because I don’t have a brain for complicated ideas.

Devon interrupted my thoughts. “We must release The Mad King.”

Gia looked at her, and she looked terrified. “No, Devon…..we can’t do that….”

“Listen to me.” Eilion tried to calm Gia down.

“No! I can’t do that!” Gia turned on Eilion.

Eilion continued, “Gia, we have no choice! We are not gonna win like this and you know it. Just us three and the Saad, we are not enough. We need an army and the Mad King will provide this army to us. Once we release him he will want to conquer the underworld, he will directly attack Nav. And if we sacrifice to him, we will be in his favor, he will not harm us.”

Gia was outraged. “Are you out of your minds!? The Mad King is not gonna further our cause, he is a blind, destructive force and he will unleash chaos!”

“But if we leave Nav unchallenged this world will surely perish.” Eilion added.   

Gia was speechless, and from the look on her face she was very disturbed.

“Who is the Mad King?” I asked. But my question was not answered. There was silence but it was accompanied by a lot of unspoken tension. Devon and Gia stood facing each other. “Fine Devon,” she answered. “You are the leader, so lead us to victory, but I will say this. I don’t like this at all. You are beginning to remind me of her…….you know who I’m talking about…..”

Eilion interrupted her “Don’t say it Gia.”

Devon turned around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

 

 

 

Once upon a time there was a king, he was a powerful king, a conqueror who lived in the Dark Ages, whose name was lost from the records of history. He had a daughter who he loved and protected. The king’s armies raided cities and plundered temples providing his daughter with all the gems, rubies, precious art and slaves she could desire. He gave her the most beautiful forests and mountains, dominating the wilderness and taming the rivers in his daughter’s name. It was all hers, because that is how much he loved her. He wanted to give her everything, all the joy and happiness she could ask for, because it tore him apart to see her sad and disappointed. But famine and disease plagued his beautiful lands, and people were starving and dieing. The king began to kill his own people, in an attempt to protect his daughter. He did not want the disease to spread to her. The sick were burned alive and the hungry were left to starve as he hoarded what little the farmers could grow. The Mad King then turned on his soldiers executing them, with paranoid delusions that they carried diseases that would infect his precious daughter. The Mad King was eventually overthrown, he was chained to his throne and thrown underwater. He was cast out and exiled into the ocean depths where he remained imprisoned. According to myth his madness kept him alive beneath the oceans and for centuries he remained imprisoned, chewing at his chains. And tonight we are gonna set this guy free. We were in front of the Binghampton Park gates, which are usually closed at night. Now they were smashed open, torn off their hinges and lying twisted on the ground. The park gate gaped open revealing a pitch black void. Gia was performing some kind of a ritual, she called it the protection ritual.

“And why are we going back to the park where I almost got shredded to pieces?” I asked Eilion.

 “Because that is where the Mad King and his demons manifest their power. The park is a place where lovers come together, where children play while their parents watch them and where his demons manifest. ”

“The things that attacked me were his demons?”

“Yes, they are demons of love.”

“Love? Isn’t love a good thing.”

“It’s two faced, it can be compassionate and caring, or it can be an irrational evil, that blindly discriminates and destroys everything in its path.”

I heard Devon speak behind me. “Kind of like the same way you brought about all this destruction, because you could not hold yourself together and you had to make a wish to win over some floozy you wanted.”

Gia turned to her. “Will you leave him alone already?”

I interrupted. “It’s fine, she is just jealous because it wasn’t her. She wouldn’t know how it feels, a man hasn’t desired her in over a millennium.”

“The only reason why I am not smacking you around right now is because I promised Gia I wouldn’t.” Devon answered.

“Enough you two!” Gia interrupted us. “I have given us the proper protection, now we can go inside.”

 

We approached a dark lake in the park, our light fell on the watery waves but there was no reflection. The lake absorbed and devoured the light, it swirled like an unholy cauldron amid the snarling, howling things around us.

Devon turned to Eilion, from her robes she produced a curved dagger with a white bone handle. “This is the portal to the Mad King’s domain. We can start the summoning ritual.” She said to Eilion.

Then I heard crying, it came out of nowhere and it surprised me. It was a baby. Eilion walked forward she was cradling a crying baby in her arms.

“Where the hell did this baby come from!?” I asked her. She did not respond. Tears ran profusely down her cheeks and I had a really bad feeling about everything.

“What are you doing with that baby?” I asked her as she walked passed me. “Hey! I am talking to you! Acknowledge me!” I yelled at Eilion and started walking towards her. Devon turned towards me, she was crying as well, she whispered something and put her palm out. I was knocked off my feet and I fell on the ground. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I could not get up. Eilion brought the baby to Devon.

“You f*****g psycho b*****s what the f**k are you doing!? It’s a goddamn baby!” I yelled at them.

But no one listened to me, like in a nightmare, I was witnessing something horrible and I was powerless to do anything. I saw the dagger go down and the baby stopped crying. I heard Devon, her voice was heavy with pain and misery when she spoke these words, “Mad King, I release you with this sacrifice. Mad King I bind you from hurting us with this offering.”

 The blood spilled down hitting the lake, creating dark, red ripples in the water. A hand emerged from the dark waters, it dug it’s horrid black fingers into the soil. A second arm came out, followed by a black glistening body, which crawled out onto the shore. The light fell on a man, he slowly rose up to his feet. An old rusty crown rested on his head, broken, dripping chains hung from his wrists. He was decaying, covered with sea shells and other things that fed on his skin, slowly eroding his face. I could see his ribcage, and his innards. There were large things that moved and shifted inside, like hungry worms. The demons around us went frantic, howling in a mind rending frenzy.

The Mad King’s ribcage snapped open and the worms unraveled towards us. It was too fast, too incomprehensible and I couldn’t act. I stood frozen but fortunately the things stopped several feet from us, their slimy mouths sucking at the air.  They could not penetrate our barrier, and I had a clear view inside the Mad King’s chest.  In the midst there was the face of a demonic young girl. She smiled at us, then her jaw stretched open and her teeth grew into enormous spears. The worms shot off into the darkness, and they dragged a screaming flailing demon which was shoved into the little girl’s mouth as she devoured the whole thing.

Gia whispered to me. “It’s the Mad King’s daughter.”

 

The Mad King was loose, his demons eclipsed the night sky. All of us were speechless. I wanted to yell at Devon, I wanted to tear right into her, she was a goddamn monster. But when I looked at her I saw a blank, traumatized expression. There was nothing I could say which would make her feel worse than she already did, she realized what she did.

I just told her. “This better work, otherwise you deserve to burn.” She just looked at me with that blank expression and then looked away.   

We stood and waited, while the demons ravaged the city. Some of them flew into the night sky, carrying limp human bodies. Others feasted on living and screaming people. I tried to ignore these grueling sights, and it was not very hard by now, I was somewhat desensitized to all this killing. If this was me just a few days ago, I might have fainted like I did the other night when I saw a whole group of women burned alive and incinerated. But now I could at least stand here, and watch all this devastation unfold. It still crushed me and made me feel weak in the knees but I could stay conscious.

I looked at Devon in disgust. “Human lives don’t mean anything to you, do they?”

She did not answer, she just stared blankly down the street where the Mad King’s large worms wrapped around cars, crushing them into useless metal and throwing them down the street where they tumbled off into the misty horizon.

Gia spoke, “They are approaching.”

“Who?” I asked her.

“The white horsemen, the guardians of the underworld.” She answered.

The mist at the horizon was spreading quickly, it wasn’t long before we were completely immersed in the fog.

 

In the pale white fog I could hardly see anything, but I did catch momentary glimpses of shadowy forms that instantly disappeared. They were ghostly shades of people on horses. I heard screaming and howling. Tortured cries echoed everywhere. But everything around me was still, the mist rolled passed us. Devon and Gia completely disappeared, I was left standing with Eilion and she suddenly turned to me and yelled “run!”

“No I’m not leaving you behind!” I yelled back at her.

She grasped me by the shoulders. “Roy something very dangerous is coming for us. I can sense it, you have to run there is nothing else you can do.”

A pale, ugly, hairless horse broke through the mist. Eilion instantly turned to face it. There was a rider fused with the horse, their flesh connected, they were one. Eilion was already uttering incantations and bursts of blue lightning branched from her fingers striking the horse man as he trashed wildly. That briefly stopped him, but then he pushed through the thundering storm effortlessly. A pale revolting, hand covered with black veins extended, grasping Eilion by the throat. It lifted her up and I saw Eilion’s veins visibly fill with that black, ugly poison. They became black and they swelled up, protruding from her skin. Her eyes rolled over and her skin and flesh decayed, until there were only bones left behind. I stood and watched in horror as the horse man dropped Eilion’s skeleton and turned to look at me, with his white, bulging eyes. His mouth was a cage of jagged teeth. He began to approach me with his horse. Suddenly a swarm of worms burrowed through his torso. The worms tore the torso off the horse, wrapping around it, feasting on the black, dripping entrails. The horse fell on the street, jets of black blood spraying from its back. The worms drew the torso into the mist and I heard the angry howling of the Mad King but all I saw were shadowy forms struggling and fighting. The Mad King decapitated the horse man’s torso, tearing his limbs apart. This was hell and it was a thousand times worse than anything I could ever imagine. More horse men approached the king and they overwhelmed him, but I could still see his terrible form, he was furiously fighting in the chaos and turmoil, with the irrational bloodlust of a hungry beast. His worms extended and unraveled, burrowing and eating through the horsemen, spraying blood and entrails in the obscure mist. 

I turned and ran in the other direction. I began clearing the mist and large firey things fell from the sky, slamming into the pavement around me. I fell to the ground and screamed. Luckily none of them hit me. When I looked around I saw burning heaps of flesh. They were the Mad King’s lifeless demons. They fell from the skies, ablaze in flames. I heard a familiar scream. I looked up and I saw her. The burning witch was flying in the sky, incinerating the The Mad King’s demons. They dropped from the sky like a rain of scorched flies, some of them still moving and trashing. I looked overhead and one came straight at me and I froze like a stupid, paralyzed deer. The firey, fleshy thing stopped right in front of me. My underwear was soiled, but I remained calm in front of the levitating thing. It suddenly shot back into the witch with tremendous speed.  It slammed into her and catapulted her away.

Devon approached me from behind, “Get up!” She lifted me from the ground.

“You saved me!”

“I know, now get behind me!” She yelled at me. The burning witch already recovered, she flew back towards us sending cascades of fire.  The Saad materialized in front us and it clashed with the witch fire, the fire twisted and curved around the creature as it flew up towards her. The Saad tamed the fire, controlling it and bending it to it’s will. Then it’s wings began to flap, rapidly, approaching incredible speeds and the fire ahead was blown away. It curled back on itself, then it completely vanished, withering into smoke. The gust reached the witch and it almost extinguished the aura of fire surrounding her. She screamed in incredible pain. But the blaze was rekindled and the witch flew into the Saad in a blinding flash. The two clashed in the air and fire filled the skies. I saw them both, as they descended like a blinding comet. They smashed into the street, shattering the earth, ripping the ground below me and I fell as a thick haze of dust, debris and smoke lifted. I screamed and held onto my ankle as I fell inside a narrow trench, massive boulders of concrete rained above. I was trapped, with a broken ankle.

 

“Ah f**k!” I yelled, holding onto my foot. There was no way I could climb up. I started making my way through the shadowed trench. Hopping around, crawling and barely keeping my balance by holding on to the walls. It felt like there was a hundred daggers tearing through my ankle as I fell over and crawled through the debris. I could see an opening. I heard Devon yelling and I tried to quicken my pace, crawling as fast as I could.

I saw smoke and ash ahead. I peered inside a large crater and I saw the burning, decaying witch. She was flying over The Saad, tearing at it with her claws. Throwing it around and hurling fire at it. The Saad could not fight anymore, it looked hurt and it’s form was withering away, slowly dissipating. A cloud of black demons descended on the witch carrying her away.  

Devon and Gia appeared, at either side of the Saad their fingers extended into tendrils of brilliant energy which wrapped around Kiera who trashed savagely, fighting off the black swarm. The tendrils bound the witch in a motionless, suspended state. The demons clawed and ate her flesh away, tearing off the burning tissue. Fire erupted shrouding the demons in flame. Devon was caught in the blast. She screamed as her burning body collapsed on the ground. Then the Saad flew up and it’s withering, fluctuating body wrapped it’s wings around the burning witch like a white, fading cacoon. It held her slowly extinguishing her flame. I started crawling towards Devon. The piercing cries of the burning witch echoed through the crater. The Saad was ablaze in her destructive aura, but it still held onto her. The aura began to fade and the fire was withering away. The cries slowly died as The Saad disappeared with them. A still corpse dropped on the ground and a trail of smoke followed.

 

I managed to crawl to the center of the crater where Devon was on the ground. Gia came over and kneeled beside her. I looked down at Devon. It was a horrible sight, her body was beyond recognition. It was still and she wasn’t breathing. I felt a tingling sensation in my ankle and all the pain went away. I could move my foot again.

I turned around. “What was that?”

I saw something move, it was barely noticeable, little less than a shimmering wrinkle in space but it was there, it was moving. The Saad was still with us. It was using whatever was left of it’s power to heal us. It hovered over Devon and her burns peeled away, her shriveled black skin turned a healthy color. Then she gasped, and she was breathing again. Her skin continued to heal and just as the Saad’s gentle touch arrived at the last scar, the creature withered away, completely disappearing. Leaving Devon on the ground, a large scar covered her burned face, but she was alive and breathing again.

 

We climbed over boulders of concrete and mounds of soil. We emerged on the street. The street light flickered over the passing mist. Vague, shadowy forms surrounded us. The Mad King’s head hung from the street light, it was impaled on a steel hook. But even in this decapitated state, he was still alive. He groaned as the hanging chain rattled and his head swung from the lamp post. We knew who the horsemen in the mist were, and we knew they defeated the Mad King.

“What now?” I whispered to Devon. “Any plans?”

“Lets see what happens.” She answered.

“I don’t see much happening here. They are gonna close in on us and we are done.” Then I saw Nav, he emerged from the mist.

He looked at us and laughed. “Oh, you guys are really something.”

Devon turned and faced him with fierce hate. Nav spoke to her as they circled each other. “Why do you keep trying, you look so pathetic. Look what we did to your Mad King, your Saad, your order of witches, you are nothing to us and if you were smart enough to figure that out earlier you would’ve stayed out of our way. But look at you now.”  

Devon answered, “If we stayed out of your way there would not be much of a world left for us to live on. It’s our obligation to bring you down or die trying.”

He laughed again, “You never cease to amuse me. You will definitely die trying then.”

“Nav!” I interrupted them.

He turned to look at me. “What is it my precious little idiot?”

“I have one more wish left.”

“Oh you do.” He turned to Devon. “We will finish this later.”

Nav approached me. “Alright, lets hear your wish. This should be good.”

“You will pay for everything that you’ve done.” I told him.

“And you are gonna make me pay?” He grabbed my face. “With a clever little wish? Do you know how many sorcerers, sages and philosophers have attempted to trick me and get their way with a well worded wish? Countless!” He pulled my face closer to his. “Countless boy…..they were men with intelligence and wisdom that you cannot even begin to rival, much smarter and wiser than you. I don’t know what makes you this delusional, to believe that you will somehow out smart all of them. Go on, make your wish.”

I looked at him calmly and answered. “If you are trying to scare me, it’s not working. All those men craved power. I don’t, I’ve seen where that can lead when you are granting the wishes and I’ve got nothing left to lose. Nav, I wish all of us could know your true name.” His mocking smile turned to confusion, then bewilderment and finally anger when he realized the implications of my wish. The name suddenly flashed in my head and I knew it. Devon and Gia did not waste time, they were already weaving incantations. Nav screamed and thrashed wildly but Aida’s body was slowly losing strength. He levitated from the ground, surrounded by a bright yellow aura. Aida’s body snapped backwards and Nav screamed, a demonic, gut wrenching scream. Yellow light burst from Aida’s mouth. The pale horsemen closed in on us but now the mist was dissipating and the horses were wildly jumping around. One by one they turned and ran back into the receding mist. Those that stayed began to evaporate a white smoky vapor from their skin. One reached out towards me and the smoking hand barely missed me as I stepped aside.  I saw the horrid bulging eyes, looking down at me as the vapor lifted and the horseman dissolved away.  Wind blew, carrying away what was left of him. My view was becoming clear. Aida’s body shook and convulsed then the yellow aura exploded in a blinding flash. When the light receded I saw Aida, lying alone on the empty street. The oppressive atmosphere suddenly lifted, no demons, no Nav, no Mad King. The city was back to normal.

I ran over and kneeled down over her. Devon approached us.

“Is she gonna be alright?” I asked her.

“She will be fine, she will be up soon.” She answered.

I looked up at her and she stood over me, smiling down.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“I’m impressed.” She kept smiling, this was the first time I’ve seen her smile and it was a beautiful smile, regardless of her scarred and burned skin.

Gia approached us. “How did you know it was gonna work?” She asked me.

“I’m simple minded, I know how to say simple things and I knew this wish was too simple to fail.”

Aida began to stir, I held her in my arms gently cradling her head. She opened her eyes and looked at me. I was completely stunned and I knew Nav had left. I don’t know how I knew but I could see it in her face.

“Aida?” I called her name.

She did not answer, she just stared at me.

I turned to Devon “What’s wrong with her?”

“She is in a state of shock, give her some time.” Devon answered.

Aida got up and crawled away from me like a frightened animal.

“She is afraid of me, why is she afraid of me?” I asked.

A sudden intense rumble of thunder sent Aida scurrying away. I looked up and saw the clouds swirling. They were coming together, forming a vortex of lightning and thunder.

“What’s going on?” I asked them, my eyes fixed on the swirling skies.

“It’s Perun…” Gia told me.

“Oh great, the surprises never stop, do they? What is a Perun? Do I wanna know?”

Gia swallowed and managed a reply. “An old being, worshipped by ancient clans and civilizations as the god of thunder, the king of the gods, he goes by many names. But that doesn’t matter, he is here and he is going to destroy us.”

There was a large, black skyscraper in the distance, beneath the swirling clouds. Suddenly it dissolved into thin air and there was nothing left. Seeing the building dissolve like that made me think that I must’ve lost my mind.

“What the f**k was that!?”  I yelled. “Did you see that building?”

An enormous face appeared in the swirling clouds, lightning bolts crossed and discharged for it’s eyes and it’s mouth.

“I told you he is tearing the world apart!” Gia yelled back at me. Aida was cowering behind us, it made me sad to see her this way she didn’t even look human.

I pointed at the sky. “That’s not lightning or thunder making the buildings disappear, that’s something else.”

Gia grabbed me. “He is the guardian of this universe. All matter has electronic structure and he can control it, he can tear this earth into atoms if he wanted to. And that’s what he is gonna do.”

Devon came between us, “Unless we can justify ourselves to him. We are responsible for everything that happened and we will call him down and justify our actions.” She turned to me. “And you will let me do the talking.”

It was frustrating to hear that. “Oh come on, you still don’t trust me. After all we’ve been through!”

 

 

The robed hooded figure that stood before us was Perun, he took the form of an old man, with a long silver beard. Lightning danced in his eyes and it crackled all around him. He stood silently and waited for us to speak.

Devon stepped forward, “Holy and merciful Perun, I am Devon from The Witches of The Old Earth. We are seers and witches dedicated to protecting each other and protecting this land from the encroaching darkness of vile beings and the forsaken ones that hail from the underworld. Please spare us and spare this world from annihilation because through hard work and resilience we have managed to banish the demons of Pakal back to the underworld. The earth is safe again and there is no reason to destroy it.  This earth does not present a threat to the universe anymore. My order and what’s left of it will continue to fight and banish evil and anything else that would threaten your domain. You have my word.”

She bowed down on one knee before him.

“Is that it?” I asked her.

She looked back at me. “Yes.”

“Well it’s not working because buildings are still disappearing!” I yelled and pointed towards the horizon where the city was disintegrating.

 She looked up at us. “I don’t know what else to say…”

“Holy and merciful Perun.” I interrupted her. “Please do not listen to my friend, she does not believe in her own words and I think you can sense that.”

Devon was stunned, she did manage to say: “What!?”

I continued, “You can’t blame her for losing her confidence, because she is an extraordinary woman who has made great sacrifices. She has done horrible and unredeemable things I know, but she did those things because war doesn’t give us a clear choice between right or wrong. During war, sometimes there is no such thing as a moral or ethical decision. Sometimes the position or the authority we assume forces us to make horrible choices which we may never recover from. This is why she does not believe in her own words, she has been forced to make such decisions. She has made decisions which have forced her to question her beliefs and she has made decisions which have shaken her confidence. But I believe in my words and I can justify our actions. All of us here, we’ve been through a lot of crap. We been shredded to pieces by savage demons, incinerated by the burning corpse of a witch, we lost friends and lovers, we’ve lost our dignity and self respect and Devon has been scarred for life, all because we believed that in this world there is something worth fighting for and something worth preserving.” I looked at Aida quivering behind Gia’s legs and tears began to drip down my face. I looked back at Perun. “I’ve given up possessing what I love, so I can preserve it. And preserve this world.”

Perun’s expression did not change and the city continued to disintegrate.

I continued. “This is not proof to you, this is not proof that we love this earth and we want to preserve it? You are still gonna destroy us? What gives you the right to have dominion over nature, you are no different than us!” I yelled at him.

Gia tried to silence me. “Roy stop!”

I heard her yelling at me but I was furious. I wasn’t gonna stop. “You are no different than us, but both of us are fighting to preserve the same universe and this should be something we both strive to fight for, it shouldn’t be something that’s gonna tear us apart. What if you find another civilization you deem too threatening for this universe, will you destroy them as well? And what if you find another one after that? And another? Are you going to destroy all of them? Every patch of life? We are unpredictable, if we were predictable things we would all be like the lifeless, barren rocks. If we were predictable, we would be your puppets, dancing to your strings. Any patch of life could threaten your universe and if you destroy all of it, then you’ve done exactly what Nav was trying to do!”

The thunder storm suddenly stopped and the city ceased disintegrating. Perun stood still, lightning bolts crackled around him.

And I managed to tell him these final words. “There is no right or wrong here, there is only what we want this world to be and what is sacred to us. What we want to preserve.”

 There was a blinding flash of light and a booming crash of thunder which dubbed my ringing ears and when I opened my eyes again Perun was gone. The city was at peace.

 

Dawn finally broke, after what seemed like eternal night. I was standing in the middle of a deserted street which receded into a far horizon of crumbled buildings and wreckage.  Devon and Gia stood beside me, mourning Eilion’s death and the death of everyone else. Aida left us, she gave me a nasty smack across the face. For a second I thought I saw stars.

She looked at me and she was angry. I’ve never seen her like that. She said, “Don’t ever talk to me again.”

I tried to explain and apologize but she smacked me again before I could finish and she walked away, walked right out of my life. It was very embarrassing and it was how I lost the one person I truly loved.

Gia was trying to cheer me up. “You caused her a lot of pain Roy, you can’t expect her to love you after this. But you did do something extraordinary tonight that none of us could have done. You saved us from destruction.” 

“I know, I’ll get over it, it’s fine. I’m glad we are all alive and well.” I managed an awkward smile while holding my sore face.

Devon did not talk much, she was staring off blankly.

“Are you alright?” I asked her.

She turned and smiled at me. “Yes. I’m glad I met you.”

“Thank you.” I answered, a little confused.

She turned to Gia, “I am leaving the order.”

“What?” Gia was baffled.

“I don’t want to do this. I’ve been cleansed by fire and now I want to hold onto what’s left of me, before I completely lose myself.”

“But who will protect us from the darkness? Who will lead us in times of war? Someone has to do this Devon. Now more than ever, we are what’s left of the order, we have to find new people, we have to regroup and grow strong again. Someone has to lead us. If you leave now our order will be lost forever.”

“I don’t know, those are complicated questions. But I can tell you this, every war will chip away at our humanity and moral dignity and in the end we will lose both. There was a wise man once, his wisdom rivaled the gods and his cunning wit tricked even the cleverest of demons. He said there is no right or wrong, there is only what we want our world to be and what is sacred to us. I am choosing to keep what is sacred to me, let others worry about leading armies and waging war. Others who might one day destroy our world while trying to protect it.” She looked at me and smiled again.

 

That is how I learned to appreciate myself. That night I learned that there is a place for simpletons like me. There are useful things we can do. Complicated things scare the s**t out of people like me and there is a reason for that. I’m not saying that simplicity is beautiful or sublime, the beautiful and sublime is a myth. If you push anything towards it’s barren extreme, you will see it’s illusion peel away and you will witness it’s barren ugliness and you will actualize it’s horrid potential. Beneath our illusions of ethics and aesthetics there is a legacy of the corrupt and revolting. Underneath all our “civilized games,” as Nav called them, there is a platform of bloodshed and violence. Beneath all our illusions of love, there is a ruthless favoritism. I get anxious when I talk about my “heroic” or “moral” deeds because when I do that I am starting to fall into a trap from which I might never come out. All I can say is that I’m thankful circumstance has not forced me to do something horrible. The world has an infinite number of complicated traps for the moral and heroic, and it is very easy to trap the moral and heroic because they have incredible passion and desire. They desire to actualize their moral deeds. They crave power that will enable them to do incredible things. Once passion overwhelms you, once your desire enrages you, once you become fixated on your pursuit, once you have the power to command others and influence their lives you rarely notice that there might be a small demon hiding above you, pulling all the strings. A demon who is slowly merging with you, baiting you into a moral trap, becoming one with you.

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Reviews

[emmajoy]

This powerful tale comes as a shock, not because of its content but because there's too much to fully appreciate in one read. May i suggest you break it into chapters or parts. That way more people will be given the chance to read at leisure, be moved or inspired to read carefully, then, move on and on, each time becoming more and more absorbed in and focussed on your story.

[Budimir Zdravkovic]

Very good suggestion Emma, thank you and thank you for reading.

[emmajoy]

You're welcome.

[Budimir Zdravkovic]

Looking forward to read some of your writing soon.

[emmajoy]

NO rush, I don't review just to have one back, truly.

[Budimir Zdravkovic]

I had a witty reply but I don't think it got posted

[Budimir Zdravkovic]

Ok I can post again, well my reply was gonna be: "Perfect! Because I don't read to give reviews back! ;-)"