Inkitt Link

“Wake your ass up!” Someone roughly yanked me, pulling me out of my cot. Hitting the ground hard, I blinked several times in bewilderment. Just moments ago I was lying on the stone next to Crystal, resting after another long day’s work, and now...

Now I had no idea where I was.

Being roughly dragged to my feet, I tried to pull on my magic, but it was gone. Two men were lifting and pulling me by either arm, and after a moment my mind remembered them. “Frank! Hank! You can’t be here.” I was beginning to sweat, and my knees were knocking as they dragged me along between them.

“Ha! As much as I hate this job, I got another five years to go before I can retire from it,” Frank laughed. “I’m afraid I’m going to be here much longer than you, boy.”

“Aye. Tonight’s your last night with us. I hear there’s not gonna be any last minute call for you.” Hank snarled and spat his disgust to the side. “Child murdering punk like you is gonna cook real nice. I’d pull the switch myself, if they’d just let me.”

“But… but..” I couldn’t comprehend what had happened. These were the two guards who had escorted me to my death, oh so long ago. I’d already died. I couldn’t be here! Not again. Frantically, I tried to pull on my magic. I tried to use the training I’d learned fighting with father and De’Nara to pull away.

All I got was zapped with a stun gun and dragged along, while Hank muttered about, “Told ya he wouldn’t come quietly. The guilty ones never do. You owe me a fiver, Frank.”

Once again, I was strapped down and the proceedings for my execution took place. I was asked if I wanted someone to perform last rites. If I had anything to say. If I wanted to tell the world how sorry I was. I tried to fight. I tried to struggle. The straps were simply too tight and built too strong; they’d been used for this purpose before, and would probably be used for it again after me.

I tried to talk. I tried to reason. I begged and I pleaded. I asked for Crystal. I demanded to know how she, Dino and the others were; where they were! I simply got ignored, as the guards treated my performance as the last desperate acts of a madman. It was too late for an insanity defense at this point in the process, but that never stopped some people from trying.

With a jolt of pain, the switch was flipped and fire ran through my veins. Agony burst throughout my body, and my heart exploded. I died…

… and nothing happened.

Darkness descended. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. But I could hear and I could feel everything. The guards waited a few moments and the doctor confirmed I was dead. I was wheeled out and taken someplace cold. Eventually, I was moved again and lifted, bathed, and dressed, before being placed back inside something rather hard and uncomfortable.

I heard people come and whisper of me. Some whispered that I deserved it; that I should burn in hell. My mother – the mother who had gave birth to me the first time, before my rebirth – came and cried over me. She wailed about how she was sorry that she’d failed me, that it was her fault I turned out the way I did. Even she believed I was guilty in the end, and blamed herself for being a bad parent! If my corpse could’ve cried, I would’ve.

Eventually, the mourners – and even the gleeful enthusiasts – stopped coming and I was moved once again. Lowered down into the ground, I heard as the dirt was shoved onto my casket.

And then I simply lay there.

Alone. In the dark. Slowly decaying; slowly rotting – and feeling every moment of it. Hours turned into days. Days into weeks. Weeks into years. My corpse bloated from the gasses building within, and then burst. My flesh decayed and worms ate at what was left. Soon I was nothing more than bones and regrets, and even the bones began to crumble after enough time had passed.

For an eternity, I tried to yell without a mouth. To scream out my despair and frustration. I cussed myself. I cussed the guards. I cussed Crystal, Le’Nara, and De’Nara for being nothing more than the last minute dreams of a madman. I cussed everyone and everything that I ever knew. Both my mothers. Both my fathers. Every girl whose name I could even imagine remembering from the island. And then I cussed the Flipping Fool.

And then there was a wild laughter. An insanely mirthful giggle that echoed all around. “HIYAS!!” Light erupted all around and I was once again floating in thin air, surrounded by darkness, with the idiot God that had given me a second chance before me.

“I LIKES YOUR PRAYER! IT’S FUNNY!” He was zipping around, doing flips, cartwheels, and spins. “WHATCHAA NEED? HUH? HUH?!” Soon he was bouncing all around me, looking me up and down.

“Come on. Come on. COME ON! You called me here! Whatcha need? Do I need to guess? Can I guess? Should I guess?” Skipping, twirling, and spraying rainbows and glitter everywhere, I could only stand and stare with my mouth agape once more. Trying to follow the Fool was more than my brain could process all at once, after sitting in the dark and rotting for several centuries.

“A PONY!” He yelled, waved his arms, and giant balloons filled themselves out of thin air before popping and revealing a pony floating upside down behind him. It leisurely leaned and chewed on the Fool’s disarrayed hair, completely disregarding the fact that it was upside and floating there.

“Not it? That’s OK! It’s a tree! It’s a bird! It’s a cricket! A ball!” Without giving me a chance to say a single thing, the Fool bounced around – the pony pulled along behind him, chewing his hair, much like a kite on a string – creating everything he named. A willow tree appeared, floating on its side, off to my left. A dozen brightly colored birds of all shapes and sizes appeared and fluttered all about. A single cricket the size of a mountain appeared and hopped off into the darkness, as dozens of balls of all shapes, sizes, and colors rained down around us.

“Am I dead again?” I finally asked feebly. The fool stopped spinning, a pink elephant was standing on its tip toe in his hand and growing larger and larger by the moment as he blinked and stared at me.

I waited patiently, watching in amazement as the elephant continued to grow – it was now the size of a large skyscraper and still perched precariously on the Fool’s fingertips – until the Fool finally burst out into another round of wild laughter. “YOU GOT ME! I WOULDN’T HAVE GUESSED THAT FOR ANOTHER 2317 YEARS! THAT’S FUNNY!!” His voice echoed and rumbled all around, blowing the tree and elephant both end over end and out into the darkness.

By whatever strange logic ruled this place, the birds and the balls stayed where they were, completely untouched by the tornado his yell released.

“You gots me! You gots me! You gots me!” The Fool was skipping and spinning and twirling all around; dancing to a beat that only he could hear. Fireworks burst all around us, and rainbows and sparkles blew away the darkness completely – all save one small patch which immediately seemed to get the Fool’s attention.

“HIYAS!” He yelled at the darkness and waved at it. “I’m sorry! I didn’t see you standing there! How is ya?!” Shoving his hand forward like he was going to shake, the Fool touched the darkness and then screamed.

“WAAAHHHHH!!!” Jerking his hand back, fires burned and melted his fingers. “EWWW! EWWW! EWWWWW! EWWWW!!! EEEEEWWWWWW!!” Shaking his hand up and down and back and forth frantically, the flames simply spread, melting and burning his whole arm away.

“IT’S NASTY! NASTY! NASTY!” The Fool was staring to soften like wax on a hot summer’s day, and his features were beginning to droop and sag. As he slowly melted away into nothing, I could feel him pulling together an unfathomable amount of pure energy into his lungs. Taking a deep breath…

…. The darkness disappeared in an instant and I woke up screaming, “I’M TELLING! I’M TELLING! I’M TELLING!!”