Part 203 - Recollection
I stare at the pure white cell around me. The door is simply a flat piece of sheet metal, with no handles or anything of the sort on my side. It opens inwards, so I can't even kick it down. There's a flat, crappy looking cot for sleeping on, and a chair with a table, along with a toilet and a sink. The entire room is only about 7 feet wide by ten feet deep. It's... pretty cramped in here. Amusingly, there's no security camera, or at least no visible one.
Worse, I have nothing to do.
I lie on the bed for a while, staring up at the ceiling, as I play synonym games in my mind.
Death, Die, Dead, Killed, Slain, Eviscerated...
I do this off and on for a while before I find myself asking a silly question. Why?
I've never been one to do something like that. Playing word games... why would I do this?
I continue staring at the ceiling as I think silently to myself.
I stopped time. Maybe, it was just for a moment, so maybe it was in my imagination, but those men froze and stopped their movement. I know they did.
I pause, as I look around the room. There's nothing in here that's very small, but...
I take my shoe off. Holding it in my hand, I lightly toss it in the air. As I do, I speak loudly again. "Stop!"
The shoe halts its movement in midair, and I jerk back in surprise. Then, a second later, my heart pounds viciously, and right as I keel forwards, the shoe falls again, banging my knee as it falls to the floor.
I didn't imagine it. I stopped time. I really did it. What does this mean? Am I... a mutant? Some kind of freak? Jesus Christ, what if that lady was right? What if I'm some supernatural monster?
I decide to ignore it for the moment. There's something else that's bugging me. I feel like there's an itch, in the back of my brain. There's something I need to remember. Something really important, but I just can't make it appear in my mind's eye.
I keep feeling this urge to say something out loud, but I just don't know what.
"Why can't I remember?"
I speak out loud, and the tiny room dulls my voice almost instantly, as if it's been soundproofed.
"I need to remember."
I speak again. It keeps coming back to me, there's something there. I can't put it into words. I just... need to...
"Remember. Remember. Remember!"
In the blink of an eye, thousands, millions of images flood my mind. An incomprehensible number of events blast into my brain as I fall off my bed, writhing in agony on the floor.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I scream so loudly I feel like I'm going to tear a rift in the fabric of space and time.
Moments later, it's over. Blood is pouring out of my nose, as I lie on the ground, listless.
I remember now. I remember all of it. I... failed. I wasn't supposed to go back this far. I'm not supposed to be here. And I've already missed the cryopod, they likely called the backup participants to get them to fill in for me.
Fuck. Goddamn it.
...
No.
Wait, this isn't bad. This is... better. I don't really wish to be trapped in that hellish place. I don't wish to be in that labyrinth. I'm back in the past now, and that means I can prevent that awful future from occurring.
Yes, that's it. I can change the future, and make sure none of that bad stuff ever happens.
I sit back up, grabbing a piece of toilet paper from beside the toilet to clean up my nose. I screamed pretty loudly, I'm surprised nobody came running.
I can't be here though. I need a way out. If I just teleport though, I'll attract Marie's suspicions.
...Marie. Is that the younger her? She said she was unbelievably old, but could it actually be her? It could be anyone else. On the off chance it really is her, I need to do something special.
I look my body over. "Examine."
It appears that my spiritual energy is pitifully low. I have almost nothing inside of me. I certainly can't teleport out of here like this. Even with rest, I'll only get a little bit back. My days as the God King are over.
Or... maybe they aren't? I gained power once before, through many improbable events. But now I have all the knowledge I gained from the future. Even without the Crown, I can perhaps turn knowledge into wisdom.
A silly thought occurs to me. "Storage."
My mental storage open up and I nearly scream for joy. Everything I ever stored there in inside of my storage.
Including... Hoarhiim?!
I grab his orb from inside the storage space. It's shining bright white?! HE'S ALIVE!!!
"Hoarhiim! Are you there?"
Nothing happens at first, but then, in my mind's eye, a mental face appears. The face of an old man, almost seventy years of age, shows up in my mind. "Who are you? Where am I?" He's a scruffy looking guy, his face having pure white sideburns that go all the way down to his chin and taper into a small white beard, along with wild unkempt hair.
"Ah... my name is Her- I mean, it's Jason. What is... your name?"
This is weird. Why am I not seeing Hoarhiim? Wasn't this his orb? The man speaks again. "Ah! Great ta meet you, my boy! The name's Harold! So, where am I?"
"Uh, don't you know? You're inside a pure white orb, inside a jail cell with me."
The old man seems to tap his lips as he thinks. "No kiddin' huh? I'm in jail then? Strange, the last thing I remember was feelin' real mighty sleepy after a long day watchin' the telly, then I took a nap, and woke up here!"
The old man seemed to shrug. "Well heck, maybe I up 'n keeled over! Is this heaven? Purgatory? Maybe them Buddhists were right and I done been reincarnated inside some crazy orb!"
Well then, this is an interesting turn of events. "Well, Harold, it's a pleasure to meet you. Might you have some spiritual energy to share with me? I'll accept your power!"
Harold squinted his eyes as he peered at me. "You alright there, young feller? You ain't one o' them Jehovah's, are ye? Talkin' bout weird spiritual mumbo jumbo?!"
I shook my head. "No, but I'm-" I paused, as I felt a tremendous surge of energy flow into my body. Wow, it worked! I guess he didn't have to accept to give me the energy from this orb!
I paused again. "Harold, I'm going to put you away for a while, but we'll talk soon, alright?"
Harold shrugged. "Whatever, I ain't got nothin' better ta' do anyways! Nobody ever wants to talk to a boring ol' grandpa anyways..." He mumbled and grumbled a bit, making me feel bad, but I quickly put him in storage.
First thing to do: Get my power back at least somewhat.
"Detect! Infrared! Sonar! Tracking! Targeting! Perception!"
Then, following my usual procedure, I did more. "Intelligence! Intelligence! Enhance! Enhance!"
Perfect. Once again, my spherical vision was back. I could sense the positions of over three thousand life forms moving around or mulling around within a three mile radius. That actually didn't seem like very much, and it wasn't, because we were apparently outside of any particular town. We were in the countryside.
I stood up, aiming my hand at myself. "Copy!"
Instead of a clone, an exact copy of my body appeared, slumping to the ground. Based on my enhanced intelligence, I deduced that unlike my clones, this one would not turn to dust on death, as it was already dead.
I quickly pulled off the body's shoes, and untied the shoelaces, as I wound them up and over a pipe in the ceiling, one that looked pretty tough.
Within a few minutes, I'd made a makeshift noose. "Reinforce! Reinforce!"
I strengthened the noose since shoelaces couldn't usually hold up a body of this size. Then came the nasty part... I picked up the body, wrapped the noose around its neck with my free arm, then let go. I heard the pipe creak, and quickly strengthened it.
Now, we had the perfect decoy. It would look exactly like I had killed myself. I could sense someone walking down the hallway. I had finished up, and not a moment too soon. I aimed my hand at the floor where I had bled from my nose earlier. "Clean!"
Then, aiming my spherical vision at a nearby hill I quickly teleported myself out, just seconds before that person arrived at the door.
The perfect escape. Now I just have to save the future.
Posted Oct 13, 2016, 6:49 AM UTC · edited