Part 1: Le Chemin a la Grandeur; Prologue

A Chapter by Mikel David Ryus

Part I Le Chemin a la Grandeur

Prologue

"The bruise on the heart which at first feels incredibly tender to the slightest touch eventually turns all the shades of the rainbow and stops aching. We forget about it. We even forget we have hearts until the next time. And then when it happens again we wonder how we ever could have forgotten. We think: 'this one is stronger, this one is better...' because, in fact, we cannot fully remember the time before."

~Fear of Flying by Erica Jong



    I wake up. I don't know how long I've been asleep, but that is quickly becoming more unimportant by each passing second. My surroundings slowly fade in, giving me a vision of the frightening reality which surrounds me.
   I can't move; it's not that I'm chained or tied down, because I'm not. It's as if everything, from head to toe, is paralyzed. I can't even blink. I find myself frozen against a wall, a few feet above the floor. The room, my prison, is actually a cave; stalagmites and stalactites are spread out unevenly, looking almost like they're conscious beings reaching across the cavern for something that may complete their existence. I can't see much, for the cavern is expansive and dark, implying hidden areas and possible drop-offs into unknown depths, and the place smells of dust, rock, and ash. Usually, hidden caves are a place of comfort for me, like having the arms of the world wrapped around you for a brief, motherly moment. But now, locked inside this cave which has no apparent entrance or exit, fully paralyzed, unable to move even my eyelids, this cavern now suddenly feels malicious and terrifying. I feel trapped, imprisoned, cornered. I’m not completely sure how I got here, but I do have a pretty good idea of what is about to happen. As all these thoughts flood my mind, I begin to question how it is that I can see at all. There doesn't seem to be any light-source (no fire, no magical lamp, nothing), yet I can still see clearly. Failing to understand how all this came about, lost in confusion and terror, I begin to panic inside. I'm alone, lost, imprisoned. I have no possible escape, no way of finding out where I am, no chains or ropes to try to break through. I'm completely and utterly helpless. However, just as I was about to completely lose myself in my own terror, I finally see the source of all the luminescence. In the middle of the cavern, behind one of the enormous stalagmites, was an eight-foot-tall, three-foot-wide marble tablet. Why I hadn’t seen it there before, I don’t know. But on the side of the tablet facing me, I noticed that there was a kind of language etched into every inch of the slab. The language seemed to be swarming with life, as if the words themselves were alive and well and were trying to jump off the surface through their kaleidoscopic dance. The marble tablet itself seemed to be made of glass, as if it were a crystal partition leading to another place.   But the marble tablet just stood there, resting on the stone floor like one of Hatshepsut’s forgotten obelisks.

    It was then that I noticed, from the other side of the cave, a purple mist billowing out of the ground like a miniature mushroom-cloud. It was seeping out of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling like silly-putty through a squeegee, as if the mist were a gaseous liquid that had found its way into this place. The mist seemed to have a mind of its own, gathering together in one location on the floor, growing in size until all the mist had come together and made one giant purple cloud floating in the air across the room. It seemed to float there, unchanging, for hours, just bubbling and teeming in its own magnificence. Then, as if it had never been in pause, it rushed together, condensing and compressing itself into one solidified form. As the cloud became more and more concentrated, it eventually took on the form of a human being. This purple human-being-cloud then regained the color and texture of a human body, and came into being as the person I recognized as Lucy.    She just stood there, staring at me with eyes that screamed frustration, anger, love, and loneliness. It was a face that has seen way too much of human suffering and hatred. I could tell that she still loved me, still wanted me, still wanted to embrace me, even after everything that's happened since we first met. And, to be completely honest, I will always love her too. I will always yearn to have her in my arms, to kiss her beautiful face, to hold her and never let go. But, despite all that, I know that I will never want her again because of what she's become, even if I had the chance.    But I say nothing. Even if I knew what to say, I would not have the strength to say it. She, however, broke the silence for me.    "You know why we're here, Jason."    "Of course."    "So...?    "Have you nothing to say?" She screams. "After all this time, after all the wars and fights we've inflicted on each other, you honestly have no thoughts regarding what I'm about to do?" She says, angry and frustrated. "Even if I did, would anything I say have any influence on what's about to happen here?"    "No. Probably not." She says, smiling.    "Then do what you must. But remember; karma balances everything out in the end. You receive only that which you give."    "Karma's bullshit. There's only power, and those few who are important and powerful enough to possess it." Then, with great confidence, she quickly thrust her arms forward, palms facing out, hands flexed. A brilliant red lazerbeam shot out from the center of her palms, and rushed straight toward me.    The light clubbed me in my sternum with such force that I could probably have been ripped in two. At first I just felt winded, but then something that began as just mild heartburn quickly spread out into the rest of my body; it felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside out, as if my skeleton were trying to tear its way out of my flesh. It was so excruciating that I didn’t even have enough strength to scream, only spouting tiny weakened gasps that begged for help.    Then, I blacked out.
*   *   *   *
   When I finally woke up, I knew exactly what was happening before I even saw it.    The enormous eight-foot-tall marble tablet had been moved. It stood a mere three feet from where it originally stood, revealing what was lying underneath.   A large stone turtle lay mostly buried in the floor of the cave. It looked as if some giant being had stepped on it, causing most of its body to get buried under the surface, leaving only its head, arms and legs peaking out.    Lucy, very reverently, began walking toward the stone turtle. Squatting down next to it, she placed one hand on its back, like a mother comforting her lost child. As she spoke to it, looking at it and stroking its back as if it were alive, no sound came from her throat. And even though there was silence as she spoke, she did so with a caring and loving air that is only accorded the most noteworthy of matrons. Then, very gently, she stood up and took several steps back. After a few seconds the ground began to rumble, the earth immediately surrounding the turtle jumping the most violently. The turtle itself began to shake and quiver, an apt accompaniment to the violence of the cavern floor. The whole cave shook with force and anger and, much to my surprised amazement, the inanimate turtle very slowly began to raise itself out of the ground. As the stone turtle raised itself out of its tomb, it stood proudly and defiantly on its legs, walked several feet forward, and then crunched its belly onto the ground with a loud thud. It then became just as still and lifeless as before. Lucy, however, just stood there, a malevolent grin smeared across her face. She was looking down into the well that existed now that its cover had walked away. It was an uneven and imperfect well, one that looked as if three epileptic men, all in different states of fatal desperation, had agreed to dig the well in ten minutes. It was a rugged and amateurish thing, obviously dug in haste. But there was only silence. It was the kind of silence that precedes earthquakes and floods. It was the kind of silence that’s reserved for one purpose; to allow the world to take a large, deep breath before it lets loose all the catastrophe inside. Lucy, me, the cave, the world, even the air itself were all holding their breath, waiting for the hurricane to hit. Quietly, as if it were thousands of miles away, a deep, baritone laughter began to rumble the walls around us. It was a laughter that spoke of magnificent sadistic glee of having, finally, been released. It gradually increased in volume until it almost shattered our eardrums and liquefied our brains. Then, in the midst of all this evil euphoric laughter, a black cylindrical cloud exploded out from the depths of the well. It was a concentrated evil mist that shook the entire world as it rose out of the ground, shot forth into the air like a missile, and traveled straight through the top of the cave and out into the world above.    Lucy, however, merely stood at the other side of the cave, her arms raised above her head as if showing the cloud where it should go. Then, when all the black mist had escaped into the world above, Lucy lowered her head and arms and looked straight at me from across the room. She just stood there smiling, quietly chuckling as the last vestiges of the cloud's mist and laughter faded away.    Pandora's Box had, once again, been opened.

© 2009 Mikel David Ryus

Author's Note

This is actually the prologue of the second book of an eight-novel series. I have completely written the first book, but I wanted to post this prologue of the second book to see how people respond to it. It's still in the first 'rough-draft' stages, so take into account that certain grammatical errors will exist. Any thoughts you have, let me know....