THE ROADS ARE cracked and riddled with holes. I will not be walking the normal path. (As if I ever have in this crazy life of mine.)
I take another look at Carnival Monster; he smiles and nods at me.
“Go save your friends, Boogeyman.”
I nod back at him and push Monster’s world down. My feet lift off the ground, and it somehow feels different. It feels effortless and free.
Out of nowhere, black bolts of lightning strike me and knock me out of the sky. Again, what are they hitting? This is not a body; I’M A GHOST!
I plummet and bounce off of the terrain with a sickening thud. No bones, so no pain. I have NO PHYSICAL BODY, but how did the lightning strike me?
I guess I will just lie here in the grass a little and wait for my spirit to stop smoking.
“Yer jus gonna lie there and give up then?”
I RECOGNIZE THE VOICE
“Cowboy!”
I sit up, still smoking, and face him. He is leaning back against a rock, as he tends to do. He is smiling through his beard at me.
“Howdy Boogieman, I came ta help ya.” He states.
The ethereal mist left over from my ordeal with the black lightning moves through the air in ghostly streams, disappearing forever into the black of this dark place.
The haunting call of a murder of crows cast shadows from overhead. If there were so many, they could block out the sun; I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen the moon or the sun since I got to this dull landscape. This place is sick with all that Monster lacks as a person.
There is no sunshine here because there is none in Monster’s soul. Whatever was done to him to make him like this has stolen his inner light. I’m going to force it back into him.
There is something deeper here, something darker; there is an evil in this dark place, and it wants to bring pain and hurt, not just to me, but to everyone and everything. This dark thing wants to lash out until you want to lash out back, then it wins.
The idea is not to kill you; it wants to change you so it can get inside and keep you warm. It wants you to rely on it and give up on yourself. It will disguise itself as strength, but it is only capable of fear. All those who lash out are filled with fear.
A sadness falls over me. I’m too late. If Cowboy is here, we lost the battle.
“We lost.” I state.
He winces at me with a sly grin.
“Did you think we wud actually win against a being called Monster?”
I stand up off the ground; most of the sizzling has stopped.
“I was hoping.” I state.
“Hope is a virus that infects people. You need to rip that Band-Aid off now; you will be better off for it.”
Yeah, I notice it too. Let’s see if you know what I’m talking about.
Cowboy stands and peers down one of the trails that fork off towards the mountain.
I notice his clothes. He is dressed in black from head to toe. Skulls are hidden in the patterns of his western gear. He still looks like a Cowboy, but more like one who escaped from hell.
NO HEART
It is decided; Cowboy will travel with me to the mountain. He is quiet; he hasn’t cracked a single joke. It is like someone stole his sense of humour. Laughter is the language of the heart.
The world can be a cold and lonely place; one thing that brings us together is having the courage to find humour in it. Those who can’t have joy are filled with weakness; weakness comes from fear. Fear is a lack of knowledge.
If you become afraid of everything, you risk becoming weak and stupid. When you find something scares you, learn everything about it, and the fear goes away. This is what it means when they say knowledge is power.
I decided to test Cowboy, my friend and my family.
“When I was young, my mom was stressing, and I told her to embrace her mistakes, so she gave me a hug.”
“Huh.” Cowboy said.
The cold, dark forest hugs the road. We are closer to the mountain trail. The Pterodactyls are circling something up there; well, halfway up, anyway.
Eventually the road just ends, and there is nothing but a climb ahead; even the foothills look treacherous.
I stand by the start of the climb and peer up the misty rock face.
“I think we should fly.”
Cowboy clears his throat in a most unpleasing manner.
“Monster will see us if we fly.” He states.
“Oh, I don’t care if he does; I’m not afraid of that big pants-fart.”
Dark Cowboy’s eye twitches.
“Would you be so bold as to say that to his face?” He asks.
I nod and smirk, leaning closer to him; I hide my mouth with the curve of my hand.
“It’s no secret that he can hear us; we are inside him; I guess that makes him our girlfriend.”
There is no expression on his face.
We begin the climb.
A voice in my head catches me by surprise.
‘He knows you know.’
I recognize the voice; it is my light side.
‘Where were you during the fight?’ I ask,
‘Right here as always. You get that I live in you, not out there, right?’
“Oh.” I say out loud.
How did Dark Cowboy get ahead of me? He peers down at me with an unsettling grin. Guess I said, ‘Oh,’ out loud.
I can't believe he is doing this in cowboy boots.
I, for one, am glad those nope birds (the Pterodactyls) are staying way up there away from us. I just have to focus. I also don’t like that the fraud up there is ahead of me.
I turn up the heat and start speeding up. My hand slips, but I don’t fall off of the cliff face. Dark Cowboy has me by the wrist.
“Go on then, pull me up.”
He does. He has me by the arm, and we are almost face to face. Cowboy would have made some kind of joke by now, but this imposter does not.
THIS LAND IS MY LAND
“What are you doing on my land?”
The voice caught us both off guard. We turn and find Monster standing there in all his Thor-like presence. The Redeemed practically glowed. It is a thing of beauty.
You could see right away how different he is from the others.
The mountain seems to have tropical properties to it. There are big, leafy jungle trees, volcanic rock, and crystals; mild weather. This place is a paradise; that’s why he didn’t climb to the top.
“I’m looking for you.” I reply.
He points his finger out at Cowboy.
“There’s something not right about your friend there.”
I look at Dark Cowboy and then back at him.
“Oh yeah, that’s Monster in disguise.” I say.
Dark Cowboy puts his hand over his heart and mimics being hit.
“Honestly, I’m hurt.”
I nod and widen my eyes, still smiling like an idiot, of course. Even when I’m technically dead… I get it now; people can hit me because I’m not dead!
“I’m here to help you get your butt in the throne in the soul temple!” I state.
He looks at Dark Monster in disguise and then me again. I wave at him, wiggling my fingers and mouthing the word ‘Hi.’ He shakes his head and turns his back to me, walking away.
Dark Cowboy follows him, and then I trail behind.
Dark Cowboy’s body becomes like smoke, and he funnels at ‘kind of okay Monster,’ knocking him over. The smoke envelops him; I can see him trying to fight him off.
I didn’t want to tell him, but he kind of taught me something when he shot me out of the sky earlier. I build up the light from my solar plexus and pull it into my fingers. I aim my fingers at him and shoot green lightning from my hands, focusing on only the smoke.
I can see the green lightning dancing about in there, and his face forms like Monster and looks back at me with a snarling mouth, so I do what any of us would do at that moment: I shoot him in the eyes with the green lightning.
He moans and rages, but he also rises into the air and shoots off. Free from his attacker, a kind of good Monster is pulled up off the very rich ground by yours truly.
He makes complete eye contact with me.
“How do you know you can trust me?” He asks.
“I don’t; trust is built, not given.”
He nods his head in agreement.
“How did you know he wasn’t who he appeared to be?”
I shake my head in the kind of way that bears the question, ‘How could I not?’
“Are you kidding me? That guy talks like an idiot; my Cowboy is much more sophisticated than that.”