• Chapter 2: The Room


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    The hooded figure appeared again. Same room, same muted TV, same burn mark on the floor, same as he had left it. “Did they get out in time?” he asked. A small bug came scurrying out from a corner. It started to speak to its master. “As f-far as we c-can tell. F-for a-all the debris are still m-making it d-difficult to find any traces of c-corpses or pieces of them. B-but the lack evidence suggests t-that they escaped the r-rigged h-house.” The beetle familiar barley managed to say. “Good, then maybe the painting can tell us where they went“ The figure just stood there asking this knowing the answer to his question. “That’s the problem m-master. A d-doppelganger d-destroyed the p-painting b-before they t-teleported away.” “DAMN! Oh well . . . But there is good news. We now know that all of them survived the last apocalypse, and now I have the pleasure of bringing their own personal doomsday’s to them, directly! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

    * * * * * *

    Why me? Why not me? Did he know what would happen? Why did he protect me? Why?

    “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” Cody jerked open his eyes. Then shut them again. A bright lamp was poised to shin onto his face. “Ah! Crap . . . stupid light” he turned over and almost fell on the floor. Cody jerked his eyes open again. A light? Here? Why was a light on in his room? He looked around.

    This wasn’t his room. This room was bigger. It was much neater than his. This room only had this bed made of something much, much softer than his old one. The first thing he saw was a wall. It was a nice solid green color that looked like a forest was growing out of it. And the floor was a blue so deep you could almost dive into it. The ceiling was a white so pure and bright that it seemed to illuminate the whole room. Cody looked over his right shoulder and saw the wall on his left was the color of a fiery blood red that looked as if it could burn everything in its path. The wall opposite that one was a black so dark it could almost swallow you up and you would never be heard from again. The last and final wall was not really a wall at all, but rather a view of the outside world. It showed a nice little garden with arrangements of flowers and a city way off in the distance.

    He yawned. Then tried to get up and stretch. He moved his arms a little expecting to swing around and jump out of bed and find some food. But something was holding him down. He heard nothing but the shuffling of himself in the bed. He did not feel anything on his ankles and wrists but he knew it was there. Whatever ‘it’ was, it was not permitting his arms and legs from moving.

    A voice then appeared in his thoughts. It was not his and he did not think it up, but it was there calling to him. It sounded like Will’s voice but had many voices combined. It called again, Cody. He answered. “What?”

    The voices hearing him responded. “OW! You don’t have to be so loud! just think what you want to say instead of saying it”

    “Is this any better?” Cody asked thinking to himself that this was very stupid.

    “I heard that! And yes it is much better.”

    “Oh sorry . . .” Cody was thinking his words and the voices responding every time. “So who is this anyway? And why can’t I get out of bed?”

    “You need to be retained so I can get all traces of that house off of you. This way they can’t track you . . . oh yeah. This is Will by the way”

    “So why can’t I see you, Will? If you’re in my head stay out! I have a lot of things in there that I don’t want people to know about!”

    “Like the time you went out with Ahdel?”

    “Yeah stuff like tha -- HEY!!!! stay out or I will find you and beat the crap outta’ you”

    “Ok prove it. Just concentrate on my voice and try to find me in your mind. If you can find me I’ll stop looking around your personal thoughts”

    “Ok you’re on!” Cody concentrated on Will’s mocking voice and looked all around his brain trying to find him. Then all of a sudden he found himself in a pitch black room. The room seemed to go on forever. The only source of light in the room seemed to be coming from the floor a pentagon about twenty feet in diameter. In the middle of the pentagon, standing there was Will. He was standing there watching him with crossed arms and a evil smile on his face. Cody took a step forward to execute his threat and felt a great weight just fall on top of him. He looked around but nothing was even near him.

    Will started to laugh "hahahahaha. Good job. You found me but fell right into your own trap." He was still standing there mocking Cody like nothing was wrong with himself.

    "My trap?" Cody was barely able to say. The weight felt like it was growing, crushing him from every angle. Cody heard a creaking sound promptly followed by a great snap and agonizing pain.

    The weight was indeed crushing him. That snap was his arm breaking from a growing invisible force that obviously didn’t want him there. Another crack and he was out of breath. He knew if he did not get out of here fast he would implode in this eternal room.

    Will, hearing the snap walked over to Cody saying "I see you can't be in here any more. You found me and that is all that is important. Let's go."

    As soon as Will picked up him, Cody reached for his neck and said "Got . . . chya . . ." Cody was in unbearable pain. He could hardly see and his vision was fading fast. His mind was clouded by so much pain he soon passed out . . .

    Everything went black . . . again

    * * * * * *

    A small crack echoed through the empty abandoned warehouse. The warehouse, scheduled for demolition, was the perfect place to hold a secret meeting. Standing, at the source of the sound, was a hooded figure. In front of him, sitting on what seemed like a cushion of shimmering air, was the air elemental.

    The elemental was averaged sized height with an almost anorexic physic. He had pale skin like a person who had been in a tanning saloon too long. His teeth were almost too yellow like a person had been smoking non-stop for three years. The shirt he was wearing was a regular tank-top with no design on it save the dirt stains that were all over it. The pair of jeans he had on looked as if they were used to clean a chimney. All this filth on him, yet he radiated this aura of a well respected millionaire.

    The figure spoke to the elemental like a friend who had always known him, although they had never met. "Did you successfully implant the captured ones?" "One of the two was implanted . . . the other eluded our implantation and fled . . . we have dispatched hirelings to find them . . ." The figure stirred at this notion. "Them? They both escaped? Hmmm. Well I guess that be enough to breech the ranks of the order. Now go. I will tolerate it this time. I will not have anyone fail me a second time."

    * * * * * *

    In the endless room with the pentagon again, four people stood talking amongst themselves talking. Then they all went quiet as a fifth person appeared in the room with a small pop, almost too silent to hear. “Why have we been summoned will?” the newly appeared figure removed his hood and it was indeed will. “We have a crisis. Cody has been reincarnated . . . which can only mean one thing, the time has come again to fight the Armageddon!” The rest of the figures seemed to stir. “WHAT?! I thought we lost the last one on Omak and that should have been the end of it!” the figure that burst into the outrage was a female and clearly had a short temper. She was wearing a long black robe and had a hood covering the face. The face was blurred like a cameraman had edited the face out in news stories. She was about the average size of a teen but everyone else here in the room knew who she was.

    “Yes, I know that the Armageddon seal is the ultimate evil act anyone can ever do destroying the host as well as the target. But the soul surviving member of the burning legion, nothing more than a coward, has been driven mad by the memory of his lost comrades. Now he has it in his head that he must avenge them and do it all over again.” Will was calm in explaining all of this but the others where getting restless thinking it might already be too late.

    “Then what do we do?” another person asked. This one was a male, slightly smaller than the average person his age. He too was wearing a long black robe with a hood covering the face. He too had his face blurred out. “You know it too. It might already be too late.”

    “We must first find out who the survivor is and were his armada is hidden. Kill them then the priests conjuring the spell and end this once and for –“ Will froze and then whipped around the others followed suit. There was silence for a few moments then a moan from a little ways off.

    “Who are you?” Will boomed his voice. Another moan answered him from the dark. A few moments later a figure appeared to be crawling toward them. Crackling and snapping the figure lurched forward and then was still. A great snap like a tree suddenly being cut in half filled the air. All was silent.