Paragon.
Time stopped in place this morning. Maybe it was around seven. I don't remember, really. I guess I was half dreaming.
A man with a sword was in my school. We were running towards the most forbidden room on the planet. T--- was imprisoned there. His release would spell certain destruction for the universe. There were monsters in the forbidden room. Other people were with us; they were going insane. I wiped the blood and sweat from my face, and looked at the man with hysterical eyes.
"Don't attack the ones in the back of the room! They won't pay attention to you if you don't attack them!"
The man made a swinging motion with his sword, and a blast of energy cleaved half of the monsters in the room in two. Pillars of light shot up from a giant stone altar in the middle of the room. The man turned to me.
"I'll end this once and for all. Go. We'll meet later. Most of the world will die."
I pushed my way through the crowds of insane people. They were ripping their hair out and screaming. I ran towards the door. The screaming people turned into students in front of my eyes. The Forbidden Room turned into a normal classroom. People were rushing out of the building with me. It was the end of a long day for the students.
I ran outside, and everything was normal. It was a sunny day. A spring day. A sunny spring day.
AND NOW WE CHANGE TENSE.
And all around me I see people walking. They are walking to their cars, to their busses. They are excited because it's a friday afternoon. A girl is holding her boyfriend's hand. A small boy is holding his mother's hand, and now I find myself in a vehicle. I can't see my body, because there is no body to see, no body to feel. I look out the window of the vehicle.
"A car. It's green. There's a green car there. It's my sister's car. She has a green car. This is a college. I thought it was a high school, but it's a college and I don't know what I'm doing here, and I don't know why my sister's car is here. This is just ridiculous. What am I looking for? A car. A green car. Someone told me to find a green car. I forget why, but it's important. There. There's a green car. There are stickers on the back window. A girl put them there. I like this girl. She likes me. I can't get out of this vehicle. She needs to know I'm here, but I can't feel my body."
...
Evan wakes up at this point. He's not fully awake. It could be seven in the morning. He looks at his clock and the time isn't moving. He picks up his watch, and that's not moving either. He concludes that both the watch and the clock have run out of batteries. He contemplates the likelihood of this happening. He realizes that the chance of this happening is highly unlikely. He doesn't like the feeling of not knowing what time it is. He feels like he should get out of bed, but there is a dull throb behind his eyes. The name of the throb is seven a.m., and it's kicking the shit out of his eyeballs. Evan falls back asleep.
I walked quickly towards the waiting school busses. I got on, and the bus left immediately. The name of the bus was the Eagle of Freedom. We were driving really fast. The road was unpaved, and then, suddenly, with the punctuality of an insane highway worker, it was paved. Both sides of the road were lined with impossibly huge trees. And then there were no trees.
And then I saw something mildly disturbing.
We were driving on a tiny road on the side of mountain miles above a huge forest. The ocean was miles away.
A giant gash was carved from the beach to the center of the forest. It looked like a gargantuan cannon ball
had been fired from underwater. The gash was getting bigger. Giant tentacles flailed wildly from inside of it. It was a whirlpool, and there was something inside. T---. It was coming this way.
The bus slowed down. The driver wanted to get a "better look".
"What the fuck are you doing you crazy bitch!" I yelled. "If you don't keep driving, T--- will kill all of us!!"
She started driving as fast as the bus would go down the tiny, winding road. tiny whirlpools of water were forming in the road. All at once, everything turned upside down. There was a blast of water, falling boulders, and the bus flipping upside down. People were screaming. Everything turned red, and then black. My eyes burned. I wiped the blood of the girl who had been sitting next to me off of my face. I could see the inside of her skull.
I climbed out of the window. People were already climbing up the side of the mountain that flanked the road. I looked behind us and saw the whirlpool coming closer. I climbed. Rocks were splitting apart like splinters of wood. I heard someone yell the words "hold on". I grasped a rock. A wave of water hit us. For ten seconds I couldn't breath. I started gagging and spitting up water, and more water filled my lungs. And then the water was gone. I kept climbing. The whirlpool was right behind us, eating the mountain. Everything was shaking.
A piece of rock broke off and dragged a group of people down with it. The bus driver was still alive. She had reached the top of the mountain. There was a faint red-orange glow silhouetting her frame. She was yelling something to me, but I couldn't hear her above the sound of the crashing whirlpool behind me. A second later, my reality became water. After an unknown amount of time, I found myself on top of the mountain with a few survivors; most of them were children. I could see a burning city in the distance. Alien sounds echoed maddeningly, seemingly coming from nowhere. Someone yelled "look out", and then I found myself in the grasp of an entity that defied all known logic. I was being crushed by a giant tentacle.
A voice projected down from the sky. It told us something very important.
The Japanese, as a culture of people, have long respected and feared the deep ocean. This fear is deeply rooted into their consciousness. For a Japanese person, dying at the hands of a terror that has lurked beneath the oceans since the dawn of time is the greatest of honors. A Japanese person will choose to die this way, if given a choice.
The creature holding me flung me into the ground. I got up and started to run. A little girl started to run with me. I took her hand.
"Come on!" I yelled to her. The least I could do was save this kid. I felt the presence of an important memory within my mind. I ran towards a rock face that jutted violently into the sky. There was a tiny green
light built into it. It was glowing. I pressed it. A door opened, and the little girl and I ran inside. I pressed another green light on the inside, the door started to close, and I watched as everyone else on the outside of the door was slaughtered.
We were inside of a pitch black hallway. Everything was made out of metal. We started walking. She ran ahead into a room. She screamed and ran back. I found a light switch and flipped it. Light flooded the hallway.
"Evan...there's something in that room! It's moving!!"
There was a metal footlocker at my feet. I knew what was inside. I knew what I had to do. I opened the footlocker and removed the twelve-gauge tactical shotgun stored inside. I pumped it like only a bad-ass motherfucker can. The little girl was staring up at me. She was obviously very upset. She was probably only ten-years old. I needed to say something to comfort her. I looked into her ten-year old eyes and this is what I said:
"I guess that's just the difference between the two of us. You cry like a little bitch, and I reap undead flesh."
I walked into the room.
The end.
A man with a sword was in my school. We were running towards the most forbidden room on the planet. T--- was imprisoned there. His release would spell certain destruction for the universe. There were monsters in the forbidden room. Other people were with us; they were going insane. I wiped the blood and sweat from my face, and looked at the man with hysterical eyes.
"Don't attack the ones in the back of the room! They won't pay attention to you if you don't attack them!"
The man made a swinging motion with his sword, and a blast of energy cleaved half of the monsters in the room in two. Pillars of light shot up from a giant stone altar in the middle of the room. The man turned to me.
"I'll end this once and for all. Go. We'll meet later. Most of the world will die."
I pushed my way through the crowds of insane people. They were ripping their hair out and screaming. I ran towards the door. The screaming people turned into students in front of my eyes. The Forbidden Room turned into a normal classroom. People were rushing out of the building with me. It was the end of a long day for the students.
I ran outside, and everything was normal. It was a sunny day. A spring day. A sunny spring day.
AND NOW WE CHANGE TENSE.
And all around me I see people walking. They are walking to their cars, to their busses. They are excited because it's a friday afternoon. A girl is holding her boyfriend's hand. A small boy is holding his mother's hand, and now I find myself in a vehicle. I can't see my body, because there is no body to see, no body to feel. I look out the window of the vehicle.
"A car. It's green. There's a green car there. It's my sister's car. She has a green car. This is a college. I thought it was a high school, but it's a college and I don't know what I'm doing here, and I don't know why my sister's car is here. This is just ridiculous. What am I looking for? A car. A green car. Someone told me to find a green car. I forget why, but it's important. There. There's a green car. There are stickers on the back window. A girl put them there. I like this girl. She likes me. I can't get out of this vehicle. She needs to know I'm here, but I can't feel my body."
...
Evan wakes up at this point. He's not fully awake. It could be seven in the morning. He looks at his clock and the time isn't moving. He picks up his watch, and that's not moving either. He concludes that both the watch and the clock have run out of batteries. He contemplates the likelihood of this happening. He realizes that the chance of this happening is highly unlikely. He doesn't like the feeling of not knowing what time it is. He feels like he should get out of bed, but there is a dull throb behind his eyes. The name of the throb is seven a.m., and it's kicking the shit out of his eyeballs. Evan falls back asleep.
I walked quickly towards the waiting school busses. I got on, and the bus left immediately. The name of the bus was the Eagle of Freedom. We were driving really fast. The road was unpaved, and then, suddenly, with the punctuality of an insane highway worker, it was paved. Both sides of the road were lined with impossibly huge trees. And then there were no trees.
And then I saw something mildly disturbing.
We were driving on a tiny road on the side of mountain miles above a huge forest. The ocean was miles away.
A giant gash was carved from the beach to the center of the forest. It looked like a gargantuan cannon ball
had been fired from underwater. The gash was getting bigger. Giant tentacles flailed wildly from inside of it. It was a whirlpool, and there was something inside. T---. It was coming this way.
The bus slowed down. The driver wanted to get a "better look".
"What the fuck are you doing you crazy bitch!" I yelled. "If you don't keep driving, T--- will kill all of us!!"
She started driving as fast as the bus would go down the tiny, winding road. tiny whirlpools of water were forming in the road. All at once, everything turned upside down. There was a blast of water, falling boulders, and the bus flipping upside down. People were screaming. Everything turned red, and then black. My eyes burned. I wiped the blood of the girl who had been sitting next to me off of my face. I could see the inside of her skull.
I climbed out of the window. People were already climbing up the side of the mountain that flanked the road. I looked behind us and saw the whirlpool coming closer. I climbed. Rocks were splitting apart like splinters of wood. I heard someone yell the words "hold on". I grasped a rock. A wave of water hit us. For ten seconds I couldn't breath. I started gagging and spitting up water, and more water filled my lungs. And then the water was gone. I kept climbing. The whirlpool was right behind us, eating the mountain. Everything was shaking.
A piece of rock broke off and dragged a group of people down with it. The bus driver was still alive. She had reached the top of the mountain. There was a faint red-orange glow silhouetting her frame. She was yelling something to me, but I couldn't hear her above the sound of the crashing whirlpool behind me. A second later, my reality became water. After an unknown amount of time, I found myself on top of the mountain with a few survivors; most of them were children. I could see a burning city in the distance. Alien sounds echoed maddeningly, seemingly coming from nowhere. Someone yelled "look out", and then I found myself in the grasp of an entity that defied all known logic. I was being crushed by a giant tentacle.
A voice projected down from the sky. It told us something very important.
The Japanese, as a culture of people, have long respected and feared the deep ocean. This fear is deeply rooted into their consciousness. For a Japanese person, dying at the hands of a terror that has lurked beneath the oceans since the dawn of time is the greatest of honors. A Japanese person will choose to die this way, if given a choice.
The creature holding me flung me into the ground. I got up and started to run. A little girl started to run with me. I took her hand.
"Come on!" I yelled to her. The least I could do was save this kid. I felt the presence of an important memory within my mind. I ran towards a rock face that jutted violently into the sky. There was a tiny green
light built into it. It was glowing. I pressed it. A door opened, and the little girl and I ran inside. I pressed another green light on the inside, the door started to close, and I watched as everyone else on the outside of the door was slaughtered.
We were inside of a pitch black hallway. Everything was made out of metal. We started walking. She ran ahead into a room. She screamed and ran back. I found a light switch and flipped it. Light flooded the hallway.
"Evan...there's something in that room! It's moving!!"
There was a metal footlocker at my feet. I knew what was inside. I knew what I had to do. I opened the footlocker and removed the twelve-gauge tactical shotgun stored inside. I pumped it like only a bad-ass motherfucker can. The little girl was staring up at me. She was obviously very upset. She was probably only ten-years old. I needed to say something to comfort her. I looked into her ten-year old eyes and this is what I said:
"I guess that's just the difference between the two of us. You cry like a little bitch, and I reap undead flesh."
I walked into the room.
The end.