27
(Season 3, Episode 1)
The False End is The Beginning.
The Instant
Two days ago he had just been taking a quick trip to make
sure his buddy was okay. Two days ago
the world Scott knew had been a normal one, filled with taxes, death and
everything normal and happy and mundane in the middle.
As he took the kick to the abs from the literal embodiment
of the Horseman of War, he couldn’t help but remember how nice that had been. Scott sailed across the stone floor of the
temple before crashing back to earth, coughing, barely able to maintain
consciousness. He had lost track of the
ribs that had been broken inside his very normal mid-section by the very
abnormal demon-like creature that had crawled from his friend’s chest a half
hour before.
Scott turned and found the screams of the countless ninjas
being torn to shreds behind him by the swarms of man-eating bugs that made up
the Horsemen of Pestilence. He turned
and saw the Celtic warrior covered in tattoos using his spirit gun to take
shots at the thin, withered specter that was Famine.
He then turned and saw his friend, Zachariah, stumbling up
the steps to the door to Time. His back
was pulsing and his skin pulling and Scott had seen it happen before.
“You know it’s over.” War’s voice was overpowering in his head but
the image before him never changed from that of a woman, a mother, blood red
tears constantly flowing from her eyes as if she was forever crying for a son
that would never come home.
“Death is pulling away from the shell that is the Rognaithe
and after three millennia we will finally be free. This world will again be ours.” The woman never spoke. Instead, Scott heard the words in his head and
just somehow knew they were from her.
Scott then saw the small wizard, the dwarf named Mel. Zachariah’s secret magic friend was looking
back and forth at the battle, assessing the situation. Mel kept the spell in place that kept the
Dahaka away from Zachariah, a beast that was released eons ago by the Nex’s of Time
and…
…and it was all really confusing to Scott. Just too much
information to take in in two days. All he knew was that if Mel released the spell
the Dahaka would burst through the doors and get Zachariah and his best friend
would be wiped from time and space…as well as the horse men that had crawled
out of him.
Zachariah screamed and collapsed one inch from the door to
time, the place Zachariah needed to get to stop all this, and save himself. He
saw a boney had begun to push its way out of Zachariah’s back. Scott’s eyes
went to Mel again and he saw the greater good overwhelm him, and Scott knew
then, Mel would fail Zachariah.
Mel released the spell and Scott screamed. “No!”
Zachariah seemed to find his resolve and the boney hand was
pulled back into him for a second. He
grabbed the door handle and opened the door. Scott watched as the beast crashed through the
main hall. It was huge and seemed to
move on four legs with no distinctive shape.
It was just a swirling black mass with two bright white lights where
Scott guessed its eyes should be.
“Stop it!” War
screamed and the swarm of bugs turned and moved towards the monster but the
monster roared and the bugs were scattered.
It began to gallop across the room towards its pray mowing
down ninjas and demons alike. “It cannot
reach the Rognaithe before death is free!!!”
War screamed but it was too late. He stepped through the doorway into the time
chamber and then, a second later, the Dahaka leaped after him. As soon as the monster touched Zachariah, there
was an explosion and a flash of light that washed over the room.
War screamed as the Horsemen were the first to disintegrate
into the light. Mel looked at Scott and
Scott spit blood in his direction. “Damn
it Mel. What have you done?”
Mel frowned. “I’m
sorry. I had to, but you are his true
friend. You are here now and you will be
the one that remembers, and for that I am truly sorry.”
****
Two days Before the Instant…
Zachariah pressed play on the CD player and John Lee
Hooker’s deep voice and skillful guitar filled the small apartment. The song was “Burnin’ Hell” which Zachariah
found interesting because he was about to find out.
He placed a small black cigarette into his mouth and lit it
up, trying not to itch any number of the red bumps that littered his skin. Bedbugs, he had tried everything to get rid of
them and failed. They would not die and,
even worse, they only seemed to be in his room, leaving his roommate alone, completely.
After the last couple of months he began to believe they
only existed in his mind, like some kind of Edgar Allen Poe metaphor for his
life slowly consuming him. He remembered
the side stepper telling him to find his love before falling to his death. That was where it had begun to go downhill. The woman he believed to be his love had
ceased to love him, ceased to even really be the woman he had fallen for and
the relationship ended.
The slide into depression began there and only built
momentum. His drinking became worse and
worse as he realized his entire life had been built around a woman who was
never really his in the first place. He
no longer talked to any of his family and most of his friends had begun to stop
calling. Even his roommate had enough of
him.
Now, on his twenty seventh birthday, Zachariah was already
drunk and it was only 11:00 A.M. He was
done. He had decided then and there that
this world had nothing left for him and he had nothing left for it.
He finished packing the apartment’s front door with old Polo
shirts to make it mostly air tight then began to dance around to the music,
freed from the pain in the knowledge that he was about to end it. He moved to
the small kitchen and grabbed the stove pulling it away from the wall and,
using a wrench, he smashed open the natural gas line and gas began to blow into
the apartment.
He took another drag on his cigarette and put it out. There was no need to blow up and kill innocent
people. He only wanted to let the place
fill with gas and slip into the afterlife.
He scratched, he couldn’t help it anymore, and who cared
anyway? He would be dead soon.
There was a loud knock on the door.
Zachariah turned and frowned, whispering to himself. “You have got to be kidding me.”
He was silently hoping that whoever was on the other side
would just move on. He had no such luck
as the knock came again and the person on the other side yelled through the
door. “Come on, Zach. I know you are in there. You always take you birthday off.”
The voice belonged to Scott, the friend who had always been
there for Zach, even when Zach didn’t want it… Like right now. Scott had been calling non-stop since he found
out about Zachariah and Maggie’s break up, on a quest to make sure his buddy
was okay. Zachariah had returned none of
those calls, wanting to be left alone.
“I can kick this door down. You know I can.” Scott said through the door after more silence
had followed. Zachariah knew he could,
too. Scott was a black belt in some kind
of martial art, Zachariah could never remember which, Kempo Kung Pao? Something like that.
“Alright, I’m coming.” Zachariah finally resigned himself to having
to get rid of Scott as fast as possible so he could finish finishing himself.
Zachariah unlocked the door and opened it, only a crack. “Thanks for coming, but go home.”
Scotts oval face frowned back at him, he had started shaving
his head and with his stocky, fit build, it made him appear very intimidating,
even if he was slightly shorter than Zachariah. “I came to wish you a happy birthday.”
“Thanks, now go home.” Zachariah replied and tried to shut the door
but Scott’s foot stopped him.
“I drove all the way from Cleveland.” Scott said, frustrated.
“Then you should get a head start on heading home.” Zachariah replied, also frustrated… and itchy.
“Do I smell gas?” Scott’s face shifted as the gas that was quickly
flooding the apartment finally reached his nose.
“No, I don’t smell anything.” Zachariah sputtered quickly, losing his
opportunity.
Scott took a quick step and put his shoulder into the door. Zach lost his footing and fell backward and
Scott pushed open the door and saw into the kitchen. “My God! What are you doing?”
****
10 years after the instant…
“What are you doing?” The small dwarf’s voice was weak now as his murderer
laid him on the floor gently before removing his broadsword from the small
Nex’s chest.
“I’m sorry but I have to make this right.” The killer
replied as he stood and sheathed his sword. He wished he could feel bad about the small
Mage’s impending death but after ten years of fighting and death, losing
everything he held dear, he had been numbed.
“You can’t do what you are thinking, you cannot un-do time.”
Mel sputtered as he coughed blood out
onto his cheek.
The killer approached the large stone door at the back of
the head Nex’s chambers where the key to time was kept and heard Mel’s words
only on the edge of his consciousness and he dismissed them instantly. Whether it was or was not possible no longer
mattered. For the killer, the question
was no longer how or what, but when. He
had lost too much and come too far not to.
The killer approached the door pulling a long cross shaped
piece of stone. He placed it into the center of the door and the stone began to
shift, magically beckoned to move by the artifacts placement. Beyond the door a
small room with nothing but a pedestal and an old looking golden key.
“Scott. Please-” Mel
sputtered but was cut off.
The killer spun at the sound of his own name, rage coiled
into his blood. “Don’t call me that!”
The killer calmed, realizing he was talking to himself now. Mel had left the room, and his body.
A small ping of regret washed over the killer. He still got those occasionally. His hands were drenched in the blood of his
enemies. If he accomplished his goal it
would all be undone. It would be
unwritten and he could finally be at peace. He would be the man he had once been, a man he
respected.
He turned from the dead Nex back to the key and the future
he needed to rebuild.
There was no going back.
Well that was dark, wasn’t it? Has
anyone figured out what’s going on yet because I have to be honest, I don’t
even know! Will Scott let Zach murder
himself? Will the future version of
Scott murder everyone else? Will this
season be funny? Find out…
NEXT TIME!
Stranger Things; Zachariah’s Death
TO BE CONTINUED…
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