Mort De Tour (Death Of Turn)

            “Did you hear her yet?”

            He said that phrase with an effortlessly cold hush. His words seemed to roll off of his tongue with a certain slithering motion. They did not reverberate throughout the room and the air withheld in whatever area he happened to be in; the words he spoke were so sinister that they had a nature as bizarre as he was. All of these qualities scared me to a certain degree, but I tried to fumble through my conversations with him. Besides, he was my father’s friend and I knew him…quite well? I’m not even sure if that is even the phrase to use to describe my knowledge of him.

            The nature of this man is nearly intangible; like that of a deity or of a mythical creature. But he is real; that is the only difference. Anyone who knew this man would completely agree with my thoughts about him. Even the people that have known him all of his life would undoubtedly concur with me. It was strange to think about a person like this; most people cannot manage to accomplish having such a mysterious air surround them. But this man did; and that’s what made him amazing.

            I was seeing him to document his behavior. My studies at the university in the nearby city allowed me the opportunity to meet such a man as this. Sociology and psychology needed to have a man like this in their libraries. Missing the chance to interview this man was a thing that you would die with; it would be your life’s regret if you were apathetic about meeting this man.

            At first, he was extremely hostile in asking who that I was. His tone was deafening and frightful, but then he calmed afterword. I’m not sure of what caused him to do this, but he did explain some certain things about him. He talked about his past, but I was not so interested in that…or so I thought. As I would find out, I took about his history. Before the interview began, he said that his past was the most important thing to not about him. He refused to elaborate on why this was so.

            But our dialog would ensue, despite my questions about him. I began by writing some things in my journal about him. I started first with his appearance; he was very old, as if he’d lived a thousand years. It was nearly the strangest quality of him at face value. I noted his clothes which were not that bad; he wore a dark red robe, which was not at all strange to me, but it had a peculiar insignia embroidered on the left sleeve. I was inclined to ask about it, but I thought, ‘No, he will explain it later. It seems important and he would draw my attention to it.’ And he did. Eventually, our dialog began.

            “So…” He said. “Do you remember my name?”

            “Of course I do.” I replied. “That is how I managed to find you. You’re Jacquot Leveque.”

            “And you came to know that without dying?”

            “Um…” He broke out into laughter.

            “I toy with you. I do that to anybody. Now…” He said as he pulled a cigarette out of his robe pocket and lit it with a match from the table sitting next to him. “What is it that you want to know?”

            “Well…I wanted to know about the things you called, ‘Mort de Tour.’”

            His eyes became fixed to me as he puffed in smoke from his cigarette and crumpled the used match in his hand. He leaned toward me and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and let it rest between his fingers.

            “Are you sure you want to know of that?” Jacquot asked. I nodded my head ‘yes’ in reply. He leaned back in his chair and took another puff of his tobacco.

            “Mort de Tour is what happens with people like me.” Jacquot said. “The condition is what you see of me. How I look so old, but am still alive…that is Mort de Tour. It is an extremely rare occurrence, and only the best of the best can grasp the utility of such conditions. How it happens in the first place is from, ‘La Foudre en Boule’…literally meaning, ‘ball lightning.’ You may have heard of it before...it is the condition of a ball of lightning following a moving object. Such lightning has been reported to move through solid objects…such is an object that I sought to document.

            “You and I are not all that dissimilar. We have quite a bit in common, at least in the field of academia. I was once like you…an eager university dweller that taught and saw. But I grew to have a darker side. I became interested in the occult. Well, mysticism, in truth. It was all the same sort of eclectic mess of jumbled up thoughts from many different people spanning great amounts of time and coming from many different cultures, but I am not sure if that matters the most in this situation. Anyway, la Foudre en Boule is an extremely rare phenomenon that I did manage to document. I did not manage to take many photographs of the lightning, but there is one that I managed to get. During the nineteen thirties when I was outside of Paris, I was walking along the countryside looking for them. And my wish was granted.

            “I saw it in front of me, so I took a picture. The photograph was perfect…absolutely perfect. But then, the thing would not dissipate. After about three minutes, it still hovered in the same place that it was. It was ten feet away from me. But then, it called out to me. It said, ‘Jacquot…come.’ And I did. I plunged my hand into the interior of the thing and it took me away to some place that I know I’ll never go again. It let me know the secret to immortality.”

            He stopped there for the moment.

            “It showed you how to live for eternity?” I asked. I couldn’t believe I was saying such a thing…

            “Yes.” Jacquot said. “And I know that you want to know what I know. The secret that it told me was to follow in the steps that I was taking of the eclectic faiths. It knew that I was going to find out one thing from some of the northern Celtic faiths; that knowledge that came from the Celts was that of what I call, ‘chaînage’ which means chaining. It was the act of draining the electricity from another person’s cells to make fuel for my own. Now, this process ended up with the other people dying. Of course, such a thing would happen. If one’s cells no longer had any electrons, most likely, their cells will break down. The only unexpected thing to come from that was their immediate explosion…

            “The Celts never took note of that. They managed to document the event, but not the horrid aftermath. I’m not sure how they made such a mistake, but it happened. At any rate, I have been chaining people all of my life…ever since that day that I figured it out. And my quest for immortality has caused me to witness the death of my friends. I have grown old while I have killed them. The people who died…the best of my friends, my brothers and sisters, cousins, my lover…her death was the worst…her voice still resonates in this house, and it haunts me at night. You may hear her at some point…

            “All that I should warn you about is this: do not take the road that I took. Die like a normal person. Don’t try to stay immortal…it isn’t worth your life to see the people who made your life worthwhile dying. And sometimes dying by your hand…”

            He took a final puff of his cigarette before he shouted, “Go!”

 

            The next day, I wanted to interview him further. But, when I found his house, I found the front door unlocked. A booming voice resonated through the house once with a booming shout, and then faded. I went up to his study, the place where I had interviewed him. I was saddened by what I found.

            Ashes lay on the floor of his study and a cigarette lay on the ground. It was freshly lit.

            His robe was hung over the chair that he sat in and I looked that the insignia. It only said the words, ‘If you read this, then it has been my turn.’

            I spoke to myself,

            “So that’s what he meant by Mort De Tour.”

Reviews

[Tony Williams]

Very good. I like that the time period cannot be placed so easily. It gives it an eternal quality. Besides a little wording trouble here and there, this is a good one that is going in the library.

[Short.Nerd]

Very good:)

[Jessi Berlasty]

"The nature of this man is nearly intangible; like that of a deity or of a mythical creature. But he is real; that is the only difference." I would change both of those semicolons to commas.

You always write so beautifully and have such wonderful ideas. Good job!

[Coyote Poetry]

You had my attention from the title. I like the interview. The description made the event come alive. This had the possibility of being a powerful story. You have options to go in many directions. I like the open ending. I would like to read more. You are create a excellent story.
Coyote