Post by Andrew Savage on Jul 27, 2012 12:21:24 GMT -6
"I can give you the world if you so desire."
We had left the clearing, and the woods behind. Notice how I no longer use the word, I, referring to myself as "us". In truth, there was no such thing as the singular. And never would be, again.
There was something inside of me.....a being. Umr-At-Tawil, an ancient, timeless creature, an avatar of the great Yog-Sothoth. A being of indescribable evil and hatred. And I had unleashed it upon the world, all because of my selfish desires.
"Let me show you the power that I.....you wield."
Without even realising what was happening, the next thing I felt was the rush of air caressing my cheek, the cool breeze permeating my body along with a rush of nausea. It took me a moment to register that I was no longer stood on the firm, brown earth. In fact, my feet stood on nothing but cold air. And, weirdly of all was the strange sensation of me....moving upwards.
Looking down, I gasped and for the briefest of moments, I thought my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I saw the fir canopy of the forest, the treetops fading into the distance below me, soon becoming nothing more than a green canvas stretching out as far as the eye could see. Past the forest was what looked like blue cloth, reflective, glittery blue cloth moving and writhing in the wind. Of course, it was not, it was the sea itself, with the stars and moonlight reflecting off its turbulent surface.
Was this what the moon and the stars saw every evening as they blinked into existence?
Of all the questions I could have asked internally, I was amazed that this was the first rogue thought that popped into my head. Never mind the fact that what was happening to me was impossible.... I was flying. Fuck me I was flying.
"Beautiful is it not? You need to understand Andrew the depths of the abilities that you now wield. You needn't fear anything or anyone ever again. What you have, what I can give you makes you a god amongst men."
The words of this frightful, dangerous being gave me pause. A god amongst men. Essentially, that was now what I was. I could bend and warp reality, twist it into whatever shape I desired.
"At the cost of my soul. You now have control of me. I am nothing more than your vessel."
A deep burbling sound resonated inside of me, and I realised that I was listening to the sound of laughter.
"Does it matter when I can offer you so much?"
And, deep down inside of me, when I looked into the blackened, pitiful wreckage of my heart, I realised indeed that it did not matter anymore. And, though at the time the significance of my thoughts and feelings were lost on me, at that point, in accepting my fate I unwittingly closed the door on any sort of redemption that I could ever have aspired to.
So we flew. We flew to the very stars itself.
We flew over the forest, over the glittering ocean. We flew past villages, towns and cities. Below me, as I passed was a long line of flickering lights moving up and down in a constant line.
Strange that, how different the world looked from above. How insignificant and pathetic that we looked when staring down. Humanity were like insects. A line of soldier ants, marching futilely up and down in a neverending quest that would ultimately end in their demise. How pathetic indeed. It would be so easy for me to reach out and crush all of them in the palm of my hand.
Dangerous!
What little of my mind remained hissed the warning at me....obviously Umr-At-Tawil had not only taken over my body, it had imprinted its thoughts and psyche onto mine. For these were the primal urges of a deity - to crush and destroy anything that could not match its magnificence.
"Where are you taking me?"
It was a direct question, asked of my "guest".
"Why? I'm taking you home. I fulfil my bargains little one. I am giving you your life back."
Mere seconds passed, and I was indeed back at a place that I had not seen, or travelled to in a long, long time. A long, windy road, weaving and entwining, its rocky surface perilous to any driver that was not taking particular care where travelling across it. And I knew that all too well. This was the road where it had all happened. This was the road where I had lost control. This was the place where I swerved off the road and killed the woman I loved.....
*****
Flicker
*****
"What are you doing?"
The voice answered.
"I am taking you back to your past. I am setting right the events that led you to oblivion."
*****
Flicker
*****
We traversed a thin road through a forest. Either side line after line of trees passed by like they were nothing more than cardboard cut outs. For the last couple of minutes, I felt more and more flushed, which was strange as the temperature had been dropping considerably.
Thinking nothing of it at first, I continued driving. But...I felt hotter and hotter and hotter as I travelled on. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead, rolling slowly down my pallid skin.
"Are you okay?"
Raven's voice seemed far away, as if it were coming in to the car from the outside. In the meantime, I felt more and more nauseous. Then it dawned on me what was actually happening.
Fuck. I'd not taken a shot in a while now. I was suffering from withdrawal.
"Please, park the car."
I could barely hear her. The voice was muffled. Now the heat was overwhelming. I tried to open the window, but it didn't work. Lights.....white lights outlined in black shot across my eyes. My vision swam, the road had become blurry. A shooting pain crashed through my temple.
Without thinking of what I was doing I took my hands off the wheel and reached into my pocket, looking for the vial I knew was within.
*****
Flicker
*****
I knew how this story ended. I knew that it would lead to me losing control, smashing the car into a tree.
Raven's face would be torn off in the collision and she would die, the paramedics unable to save her.
*****
Flicker
*****
"Is she going to be alright?"
The rain was lashing down on my forehead as the paramedics tried to restrain me.
He was a man with a kind round face, but he was forceful nonetheless as he held me back from running to the wreckage of my car.
"They're doing all they can son. There's nothing you can do here. Go and sit down."
He gestured to the ambulance to my side. Angrily, helplessly, I turned and walked to the footstair leading into the van. Another of the paramedics, a middle-aged woman with curly, greying hair laid a jacket on my shoulder.
"Here, take a coffee. You're going to need it. Its going to be a long night."
Emotionlessly, I accepted the drink and clutched at it with numb hands, my expression grim. The ironic thing was, I'd managed to reach my drugs and inhale, but in doing so, lost control of my car. It had swung off the road and crashed straight into a tree.
I'd blacked out, but the last vision I had prior to losing consciousness was Raven, her pretty mouth opening in a scream, holding a hand up to protect herself from the impact.
The next think I knew I'd woke here, on the ground with the paramedic trying to keep me warm. The not knowing was the worst. Clinging on to a faint hope that she was alive held back the dreadful tide of guilt that threatened to overwhelm me.
One of the ambulance crew came up to confer with the woman tending to me. She walked out of the ambulance to speak with him. But.....the expression on his face was all I needed to know. He looked sad, and gestured towards the car. She spoke some words to him and he shook his head.
"No. It does not end this way. Not this time. Go to her."
The voice inside of my mind shook me from my grief. More importantly, it gave me purpose. I stood, walking past the paramedics, my expression one of determination. I saw a body lying on the floor not so far from me, near to it was the smoking wreckage that was once my car.
One of them tried to restrain me.
"There's nothing you can do. She's beyond all of us now."
I pushed the arm away and snarled.
"No, she is not!"
"Please, you don't want to see this!"
I ignored the words and walked up to her. I saw her, what was once her, her face a bloody wreckage. Her eye had come out of her socket, laying on the floor like so much garbage.
"Kiss her."
The voice was in my head. Ignoring the bile and sickness that rose in my throat at the thought of what I was about to do, I kneeled down and cast everything aside. I kissed her as passionately as the day we were married. And then it happened....the impossible.
She gasped.
I tore my face back, stunned as I looked down at her. Her face....skin knitted back together. Flesh re-attached itself. Her eye fitted back into its socket. She looked at me in amazement. Tears, unbidden, rolled down my face.
"Raven....you're alive. My god you're alive."
We embraced, and this time the heavens itself couldn't part us.
*****
We returned to the present day.....back to Ottawa. I woke, in bed, with the lights black. Beside me, I felt another body move....I cradled it, and smiled in contentment as I realised that the impossible had been done....that my wife was back with me.
"How can I ever repay you for what you have done?"
The voice inside me responded.
"You gave me form. You gave me life. What we have done is just the beginning though. There is so much more to come."
"What?"
"Idol is the beginning. He is weak. Injured. He fears you and what you can do. You will destroy him. It is your destiny. He will be nothing more than an example of your capabilities. He will fall before you, as will all who oppose you."
"And then?"
The burbling, unnatural laughter welled up inside me again.
"Then - we take the world for our own."
We had left the clearing, and the woods behind. Notice how I no longer use the word, I, referring to myself as "us". In truth, there was no such thing as the singular. And never would be, again.
There was something inside of me.....a being. Umr-At-Tawil, an ancient, timeless creature, an avatar of the great Yog-Sothoth. A being of indescribable evil and hatred. And I had unleashed it upon the world, all because of my selfish desires.
"Let me show you the power that I.....you wield."
Without even realising what was happening, the next thing I felt was the rush of air caressing my cheek, the cool breeze permeating my body along with a rush of nausea. It took me a moment to register that I was no longer stood on the firm, brown earth. In fact, my feet stood on nothing but cold air. And, weirdly of all was the strange sensation of me....moving upwards.
Looking down, I gasped and for the briefest of moments, I thought my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I saw the fir canopy of the forest, the treetops fading into the distance below me, soon becoming nothing more than a green canvas stretching out as far as the eye could see. Past the forest was what looked like blue cloth, reflective, glittery blue cloth moving and writhing in the wind. Of course, it was not, it was the sea itself, with the stars and moonlight reflecting off its turbulent surface.
Was this what the moon and the stars saw every evening as they blinked into existence?
Of all the questions I could have asked internally, I was amazed that this was the first rogue thought that popped into my head. Never mind the fact that what was happening to me was impossible.... I was flying. Fuck me I was flying.
"Beautiful is it not? You need to understand Andrew the depths of the abilities that you now wield. You needn't fear anything or anyone ever again. What you have, what I can give you makes you a god amongst men."
The words of this frightful, dangerous being gave me pause. A god amongst men. Essentially, that was now what I was. I could bend and warp reality, twist it into whatever shape I desired.
"At the cost of my soul. You now have control of me. I am nothing more than your vessel."
A deep burbling sound resonated inside of me, and I realised that I was listening to the sound of laughter.
"Does it matter when I can offer you so much?"
And, deep down inside of me, when I looked into the blackened, pitiful wreckage of my heart, I realised indeed that it did not matter anymore. And, though at the time the significance of my thoughts and feelings were lost on me, at that point, in accepting my fate I unwittingly closed the door on any sort of redemption that I could ever have aspired to.
So we flew. We flew to the very stars itself.
We flew over the forest, over the glittering ocean. We flew past villages, towns and cities. Below me, as I passed was a long line of flickering lights moving up and down in a constant line.
Strange that, how different the world looked from above. How insignificant and pathetic that we looked when staring down. Humanity were like insects. A line of soldier ants, marching futilely up and down in a neverending quest that would ultimately end in their demise. How pathetic indeed. It would be so easy for me to reach out and crush all of them in the palm of my hand.
Dangerous!
What little of my mind remained hissed the warning at me....obviously Umr-At-Tawil had not only taken over my body, it had imprinted its thoughts and psyche onto mine. For these were the primal urges of a deity - to crush and destroy anything that could not match its magnificence.
"Where are you taking me?"
It was a direct question, asked of my "guest".
"Why? I'm taking you home. I fulfil my bargains little one. I am giving you your life back."
Mere seconds passed, and I was indeed back at a place that I had not seen, or travelled to in a long, long time. A long, windy road, weaving and entwining, its rocky surface perilous to any driver that was not taking particular care where travelling across it. And I knew that all too well. This was the road where it had all happened. This was the road where I had lost control. This was the place where I swerved off the road and killed the woman I loved.....
*****
Flicker
*****
"What are you doing?"
The voice answered.
"I am taking you back to your past. I am setting right the events that led you to oblivion."
*****
Flicker
*****
We traversed a thin road through a forest. Either side line after line of trees passed by like they were nothing more than cardboard cut outs. For the last couple of minutes, I felt more and more flushed, which was strange as the temperature had been dropping considerably.
Thinking nothing of it at first, I continued driving. But...I felt hotter and hotter and hotter as I travelled on. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead, rolling slowly down my pallid skin.
"Are you okay?"
Raven's voice seemed far away, as if it were coming in to the car from the outside. In the meantime, I felt more and more nauseous. Then it dawned on me what was actually happening.
Fuck. I'd not taken a shot in a while now. I was suffering from withdrawal.
"Please, park the car."
I could barely hear her. The voice was muffled. Now the heat was overwhelming. I tried to open the window, but it didn't work. Lights.....white lights outlined in black shot across my eyes. My vision swam, the road had become blurry. A shooting pain crashed through my temple.
Without thinking of what I was doing I took my hands off the wheel and reached into my pocket, looking for the vial I knew was within.
*****
Flicker
*****
I knew how this story ended. I knew that it would lead to me losing control, smashing the car into a tree.
Raven's face would be torn off in the collision and she would die, the paramedics unable to save her.
*****
Flicker
*****
"Is she going to be alright?"
The rain was lashing down on my forehead as the paramedics tried to restrain me.
He was a man with a kind round face, but he was forceful nonetheless as he held me back from running to the wreckage of my car.
"They're doing all they can son. There's nothing you can do here. Go and sit down."
He gestured to the ambulance to my side. Angrily, helplessly, I turned and walked to the footstair leading into the van. Another of the paramedics, a middle-aged woman with curly, greying hair laid a jacket on my shoulder.
"Here, take a coffee. You're going to need it. Its going to be a long night."
Emotionlessly, I accepted the drink and clutched at it with numb hands, my expression grim. The ironic thing was, I'd managed to reach my drugs and inhale, but in doing so, lost control of my car. It had swung off the road and crashed straight into a tree.
I'd blacked out, but the last vision I had prior to losing consciousness was Raven, her pretty mouth opening in a scream, holding a hand up to protect herself from the impact.
The next think I knew I'd woke here, on the ground with the paramedic trying to keep me warm. The not knowing was the worst. Clinging on to a faint hope that she was alive held back the dreadful tide of guilt that threatened to overwhelm me.
One of the ambulance crew came up to confer with the woman tending to me. She walked out of the ambulance to speak with him. But.....the expression on his face was all I needed to know. He looked sad, and gestured towards the car. She spoke some words to him and he shook his head.
"No. It does not end this way. Not this time. Go to her."
The voice inside of my mind shook me from my grief. More importantly, it gave me purpose. I stood, walking past the paramedics, my expression one of determination. I saw a body lying on the floor not so far from me, near to it was the smoking wreckage that was once my car.
One of them tried to restrain me.
"There's nothing you can do. She's beyond all of us now."
I pushed the arm away and snarled.
"No, she is not!"
"Please, you don't want to see this!"
I ignored the words and walked up to her. I saw her, what was once her, her face a bloody wreckage. Her eye had come out of her socket, laying on the floor like so much garbage.
"Kiss her."
The voice was in my head. Ignoring the bile and sickness that rose in my throat at the thought of what I was about to do, I kneeled down and cast everything aside. I kissed her as passionately as the day we were married. And then it happened....the impossible.
She gasped.
I tore my face back, stunned as I looked down at her. Her face....skin knitted back together. Flesh re-attached itself. Her eye fitted back into its socket. She looked at me in amazement. Tears, unbidden, rolled down my face.
"Raven....you're alive. My god you're alive."
We embraced, and this time the heavens itself couldn't part us.
*****
We returned to the present day.....back to Ottawa. I woke, in bed, with the lights black. Beside me, I felt another body move....I cradled it, and smiled in contentment as I realised that the impossible had been done....that my wife was back with me.
"How can I ever repay you for what you have done?"
The voice inside me responded.
"You gave me form. You gave me life. What we have done is just the beginning though. There is so much more to come."
"What?"
"Idol is the beginning. He is weak. Injured. He fears you and what you can do. You will destroy him. It is your destiny. He will be nothing more than an example of your capabilities. He will fall before you, as will all who oppose you."
"And then?"
The burbling, unnatural laughter welled up inside me again.
"Then - we take the world for our own."
