The Man Who Vanished For Fifty Years

A Story by HollowOblivion

Interview Transcript

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Robert: How does it feel to be fifty years in the future, Jack?

Jack: It’s strange. Very strange.

Robert: Should we just jump straight into this thing, then?

Jack: Sure. Where should we begin?

Robert: Well, at the beginning, naturally.

Jack: It began in a bar, oddly enough. It was called The End of the Road. Don’t know if it still exists anymore.

Robert: Can’t say I know. We can look into it later, if you like.

Jack: It’d be nice to know. Anyway, I’d had a couple beers and I was waiting for the gang I was a part of to show up, starting with my partner.

Robert: What was the gang called?

Jack: The Hollow Hearts. Truth be told, gang was a pretty strong word for it. We were kinda just a group of friends who watched each other’s backs. We were an odd bunch.

Robert: You mentioned your partner a minute ago.

Jack: Sarah. She was a real sweet gal.

Robert: What did she look like?

Jack: Blonde hair, freckles, glasses, and a worn biker jacket she always wore.

Robert: Was she a looker?

Jack: I thought so. We made a good pair. Always got into trouble together.

Robert: Were you two involved in any kind of romantic way?

Jack: No, not really. I mean we liked each other but... I don’t know, we just never did.

Robert: So who else was in this gang of yours?

Jack: Well, there was Rick and Andrew for starters.

Robert: And what were they like?

Jack: They were a few years older than us. Once Sarah and I joined, they got to move up the ranks a little bit. Rick was a wild guy, to say the least. He was my best friend. Always had my back and was the kind of guy with enough muscle to not need to use it.

Robert: What about this Andrew fella?

Jack: He was a very by-the-book kinda guy. Never smiled. He thought it was his job to keep everyone out of trouble. Rick and Andrew had been close at one point, but they had a falling out around the time Sarah and I joined. Never found out what it was about though.

Robert: Your gang had some kind of leader, I take it.

Jack: That would be Charles. He was a great man. He was everything you’d expect a leader to be. He was intelligent, charismatic, and he always had a plan.

Robert: So, there were five of you.

Jack: We were the core of the group, but there were others. They just had a bit more autonomy than we did. We followed orders directly from Charles.

Robert: Sounds a bit military, if you ask me.

Jack: I think that was how he saw himself. I don’t think he was ever in the military. He certainly would have fit in there, though.

Robert: So, who else was there?

Jack: Let’s see, there was Luke. He was pretty similar to Charles but kinda came off as a bit of a cheap knockoff. He was too cocky and didn’t have the same control that Charles did. Luke often took Rick on jobs with him. I think he liked having extra muscle around. They spent most of their time dealing with people who caused us trouble.

Robert: And by that you mean-

Jack: Luke would try to reason with them and if that failed, Rick beat the s**t out of them.

Robert: Ah, so-

Jack: Then there was Viktor. He spent most of his time reading. You wouldn’t think that would have been super useful but sometimes he knew exactly the right thing to help us out of a tough spot. There was also Alexis, who was kinda known for just being a total b***h. She was also brought on for a lot of Luke’s jobs.

Robert: Is that everyone?

Jack: Not quite. Last guy was a man named Zack. He was a sharp guy and liked to turn your words around on ya. Sometimes Sarah would go and play her guitar in some crowded area and Zack would accompany her. He liked to listen to her play and make sure she didn’t get into trouble. In general, he was a sarcastic con man who spent a lot of time gambling. He was quite good at it too.

Robert: So, we’ve got all the characters together. What now?

Jack: We’d been unusually successful for the last month or so. So Charles was gonna throw us a little party. There was an old, abandoned school on the outskirts of town. The plan was to spend the night there and drink a lot.

Robert: Why an abandoned school of all places?

Jack: That was just who we were. We didn’t really care for the rest of the world. The isolation of places like that was perfect for us. You ever leave town for a night just to be somewhere else?

Robert: Sure.

Jack: It was a bit like that.

Robert: I suppose I can get behind that. So, you’re on your way to the party.

Jack: Yeah, and people started to group together with the people they liked the best. Me, Sarah, and Rick walked together just like always.

Robert: The three of you were pretty close then.

Jack: Yeah. I miss them a lot. Even with everything that happened.

Robert: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, kid.

Jack: You realize I’m older than you, right?

Robert: Then why do you look like a twenty something?

Jack: Couldn’t tell ya.

Robert: Why don’t we get back on track.

Jack: Fine. Let’s see, Charles was followed, as always, by Zack and Andrew.

Robert: What’s up there?

Jack: So, Zack was like Charles’ second in command. Charles regarded him very highly. But Andrew was a ladder climber by nature. And he needed to be that second in command guy. I know that had a little bit to do with his falling out with Rick.

Robert: Sounds like politics. Who else stuck together?

Jack: Luke and Alexis. They were definitely a thing but absolutely didn’t think anyone knew. We did.

Robert: And what about the mysterious Viktor?

Jack: Viktor stuck to himself, head in his book. He didn’t seem to have anything in common with us, but maybe that was it.

Robert: What do you mean?

Jack: Maybe he just liked being alone with us.

Robert: I think I see what you mean. I think.

Jack: I dunno, man. He didn’t want to socialize but he didn’t want to be truly alone either.

Robert: So, you guys make it to the school.

Jack: Things went normally enough. We all loved to drink-

Robert: Doesn’t everyone?

Jack: It didn’t take everyone very long to get completely plastered.

Robert: Sorry about that.

Jack: Can I continue?

Robert: Go for it.

Jack: So, Luke and Alexis left the party early to find a room to be alone. No one was surprised. But that was the last time we saw them.

Robert: Anything you want to say about them?

Jack: You know, I never really liked them very much. But they changed my mind just a few weeks before their disappearance.

Robert: How’d they do that?

Jack: One day, I wandered into the bar and they were the only ones there. They’d been drinking. A lot. I sat as far away from them as possible. They kept trying to get my attention but I just kept ignoring them.

Robert: Doesn’t sound like anything special.

Jack: After a while, they came over to where I was sitting and pulled up a couple chairs. It was pretty out of character for them. Maybe they were just that drunk. They bought me a drink and we started talking.

Robert: What about?

Jack: I’m getting there. Eventually, the conversation turned to their upbringing and, well, why they were the way that they were. Luke and Alexis had both grown up in violent neighborhoods. Beating after beating after beating. Eventually, they had had enough. Luke learned that if he turned his aggressors against each other, then they left him alone. For a little while, at least. Alexis learned that if she got angry enough and shouted loud enough, she could get people so afraid that they wouldn’t even look at her.

Robert: Wow.

Jack: Apparently, Rick’s story was similar. They wouldn’t tell me anything. Said it wasn’t their place. I asked him about it later but he never wanted to talk about it.

Robert: And so ends the tale of Luke and Alexis, huh?

Jack: Yeah. Yeah, it does.

Robert: Do you want to continue? We can take a break if you need to.

Jack: No, I’m fine.

Robert: Let’s continue then.

Jack: After a while, we realized that no one had seen them for hours. Charles wanted us to search for them. We searched the whole building and couldn’t find a single trace of them. At that point, Charles ordered the search outside.

Robert: Sound like he was worried.

Jack: If they had just decided to go off on their own for the night, he was fine with that. He just wanted to make sure they were safe.

Robert: What a guy.

Jack: We never made it outside though.

Robert: What? Wait, what do you mean?

Jack: The doors wouldn’t move. They weren’t locked. They just wouldn’t move. It was as if there was a wall of concrete behind them. Next we tried the windows. Nothing we could do would open them. Nothing we could do would break them. We were trapped.

Robert: Talk about unnerving.

Jack: If you think that’s unnerving...

Robert: Go on.

Jack: I looked out those windows. There was nothing outside. It was just dark. And you think you know what dark is. But I’m telling you, you could not make out the faintest outline of an object. It was just empty darkness. At that point, I don’t think we existed anymore.

Robert: What do you mean by that?

Jack: I dunno. Like, we had left reality. Nothingness had captured us and taken us somewhere else. Obviously we were still breathing, but I don’t think we existed anymore.

Robert: Why don’t we move on...

Jack: It’s hard to grasp, isn’t it?

Robert: Yeah...

Jack: Try fifty years of that. It’ll drive you crazy.

Robert: I can imagine.

Jack: No. You can’t.

Robert: Let’s continue.

Jack: Rick started to lose his s**t. Which meant that Andrew went into lecture mode. They had a very annoying argument. But then Viktor spoke up. And when Viktor spoke up. You listened.

Robert: When a man barely speaks, it makes you take pause when he does, doesn’t it?

Jack: Viktor was an odd guy. He liked to keep to himself mostly. From time to time though, he would come find me and take my hostage for the day. I think he saw me as a kind of student. He would just spend the whole day teaching me s**t.

Robert: Did you enjoy his company or was it miserable?

Jack: I enjoyed it at the time. But I miss those days terribly now.

Robert: You can keep going, if you want.

Jack: Sometimes we’d go meet up with Zack when Viktor had his fill for the day. Zack wasn’t a very emotional man, but he always took care of us when he brought us on jobs with him. That quick tongue of his saved our lives.

Robert: I almost wish I’d known these people. They sound like good folk.

Jack: They were. One of the best nights was when Zack taught me, Sarah, and Viktor to play poker. We lost miserably. But Zack wasn’t as much of an a*****e as people liked to paint him. He always told us that we played well.

Robert: Zack and Viktor. They disappeared next, didn’t they?

Jack: Yeah. Rick lost his s**t even more. He didn’t handle panic well.

Robert: I’m getting that sense about him.

Jack: Charles took control though. You gotta understand, that school was very old. So it had some odd things in it compared to even the schools at that time. Charles planned to capitalize on that.

Robert: And what does that mean?

Jack: While we were searching for Luke and Alexis, Charles had spotted a room with a fireplace. We moved quietly and slowly. We used broken chairs and paper to start the fire. Everyone sat down to rest for a moment. We were very, very sober by that point.

Robert: Yeah, I’ll bet.

Jack: We sat in darkness for a few hours. No one said very much. And before I knew it I fell asleep.

Robert: Who disappears this time?

Jack: Charles.

Robert: Oh. S**t.

Jack: By that point it was all over. All hell broke loose.

Robert: What happened?

Jack: The first thing I noticed was Sarah. At some point, she had come over next to me. She was sleeping on my shoulder.

Robert: Cute.

Jack: Rick and Andrew were shouting. It didn’t go well.

Robert: How do you mean?

Jack: It started with a punch. It ended with Andrew’s face in the fire. Then they both disappeared.