COWBOY IS HURT. I share my light with him; I’ve never tried it before; it works with the Ghouls.
His crystallization softens, and he heals nearly instantly. He is smiling up at me as he is able to see again. All the swelling has gone down.
“How can you jus keep putting all that energy out?” He asks.
“We’re all pieces of this universe trying to figure itself out. As you said, there are no limitations.”
He pats my cheek (Monster’s cheek).
“That’s my boy.”
There are so many thoughts running through my head. I never wanted to survive the Apocalypse; I would have been fine passing with my friends and family.
The truth is, I was alone and didn’t even know it. My siblings didn’t live anywhere nearby; my parents had passed on; I had no loved ones, no wife and kids. It just never happened for me.
I guess when life beats the crap out of you from the day you’re born to the day you don’t die, you do it mostly alone. If you’re lucky, you get a few people in your life from time to time who actually might care about you if you don’t screw it up.
In this life, all we have is each other. I will tell you, in the end: Your race, gender, age, and political stance have no bearing on how desperate you will be to not die alone.
If you don’t matter to anybody, then what’s the point of all of this? People screamed in the streets about freedom of speech. It never solved any problems. No one had the answers to help, and now it’s too late.
Dust particles dance in the shadows between the snowflakes.
I help Cowboy to his feet, as he has done for me so many times. I get knocked on my bum a lot, but I always get back up.
SHE’S STILL ALIVE
Our eyes travel together over the snow. Demon’s hand moves; she is not speaking, only beckoning.
Without haste, we march over to Demon and each grab a leg, carrying her lower body back to her top part. We set it close enough.
She smiles when she sees me. She is so strong; if that were me down there, I’d probably be screaming. Once she tried to attack me, but only now I know she was attacking herself.
Little threads of her flesh reach out from the legs, and the upper half of her begins to join. I am feeding her some energy. Soon she sits up, looking at me.
“Thank you, boogeyman. When my head feels like stretching, I’m gonna give ya a big kiss.”
“But with my head on the outside of your mouth, right?” I ask.
“We’ll see.” She replies with a laugh.
I’m smiling. (I’m always smiling.) I’m smiling with my soul.
Demon shakes her head, looking at me.
“We gotta help you out. You can’t walk around looking like that! We need to get your body back and get you out of that Monster.” She states.
I nod my head.
“We’re on the same page there. I met another Monster in his soul. I’m going to help him hold the throne. I’m going to find your friends in here, Demon, and I’m going to set them free.”
That is a different story. ‘WINK!’
OLD PATHS
We find ourselves walking down a familiar road. It is leading back up the hill, toward the caves.
There is a light drizzle. It hasn’t snowed like this in years. I’m enjoying the fresh frost.
I noticed that everyone is smiling; guess I’m rubbing off on them. I’m going to miss this. I know that inside that cave, there is a kind of hell waiting for me, but if I can survive the end of the world, I can survive this.
We come to a stop in front of the dark opening. I try to see inside, but there is only darkness and shadows.
“Tha harness in there is a different beast, Boogeyman.” Cowboy points with two green fingers aimed at the mouth of the cave.
I nod my head.
“Now, don’t jus nod; listen. You’re gonna see stuff. This is gonna be a whole other level fur ya. It is like therapy. Yer gonna have ta face yer self.”
“I understand.” My voice booms. Well, Monster’s does, but the words were pronounced the way I would say them. It’s weird being a giant booger.
Sorry, ‘kind of Good Monster.’ (In case he’s listening.)
There is nothing left to do. I enter the cave. We find our way through the tunnel and come to the harness lying there on the ground where Demon left it. I look around, but she isn’t here. Understandable; if I were in her place, I guess I would never want to see it again. (I wish she were here.)
I’m not going to lie; a part of me wants to run. I could be over the next hill in no time at all. There is no way they would catch me in this body. I don’t want to spend my life running away. I have to see this through. I want to help my friends.
Cowboy works quickly and removes the chains. I could feel ‘DARK MONSTER’ begin to panic inside of me. He knows what is about to happen; he can sense the harness.
“You have to do this now, Cowboy; he’s fighting me.” I plead.
The harness is being placed on my body. It is a complete shock and not like any material I have felt before. It seems like the walls of the cave are quaking.
I want it off of me so bad. I fight the urge to vocalize. I need to be strong for them, for me, for the lost redeemed inside of Monster.
I have to do this if there is ever going to be some kind of future for all of us. If I give up now, we are all lost. I’m going to be lost in this body with a creature older than hell itself and twice as evil.
“Earthquake?” I ask.
Cowboy looks around strangely. I don’t think he’s feeling any of the shaking.
He closes the latch, and it locks into place. I’m tucked in and ready to go to sleep. If it were only that easy. Something tells me that I am going to be awake, front and centre for all of this.
What will happen next? I have no idea, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I am scared.
Oh, I wish I had said, ‘See you later.’ to my friends.
I’m on the floor of the platform, right next to ‘Kind of Good Monster.’ Dark Monster is lowering himself, sitting back on the throne. I can see his discomfort as the spikes enter his body.
His dark, glowing, fiery eyes look right at me. They pass my face, pass my ghost, and look right into my soul.
“You sat on the throne, Boogeyman, but you don’t have enough hate to keep it.”
His monstrous voice echoes in the chamber. It shakes in my head. It creeps about in the dark.
“Yeah, but you’re eventually going to give up because you love nothing and have nothing to fight for.”
He snarls at me. I think a part of him knows that I am right.
I float up to my feet. ‘Kind of Good Monster’ joins me. The battle isn’t over. We run at the creature from the ancient dark, yelling our war cry. We fight for our friends, our family, and the world; we fight for you.
The end of Book One of the Hello Epic.
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I want to thank you all for reading. This is the end of book one in the Hello epic. Book two is coming soon. Stay with me. I will not let you down!
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