Mirable Dictu
Chapter Seven
‘Ancient holy scriptures and children’s tales alike speak of the infinite worlds that stretch right and left of every decision mankind ever made. Later tricksters picked up on this idea and used it to entertain the masses and justify their misgivings by convincing them that each of them was God, each of them gave birth to an millions of worlds every day, every instant. With time humanity forgot the dizzying charm of infinity in favour of more tame hallucinations of grandeur, but they also forgot that this web of time - the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries - embrace every possibility.' The croaky voice let out a sigh.
‘Who are you?’ said Jeremy, gripping the branch tighter. An unnerving silence filled the room. He could hear the dead leaves rustling in the wind and the wood cracking as it turned to ashes outside, but the strange house felt like it was filled with liquid darkness, like his frightened words and even more frightened thoughts just bounced back and forth as waves in a tiny pool.
‘Show yourself,’ he continued. ‘I’m not scared of you, whatever you are. Where is Erica?’
‘Why do you ask so much about others? You know well that what it is yourself you need to inquire of.’
‘Okay...’ he murmured, creeping closers to the opposite wall of the room where the voice seemed to come from. ‘Tell me about myself’, but he could see nothing but dried moss and pools of black rain water in the gloom.
Another sigh. It seemed to be coming from the house itself, both from its walls, but also from every atom of every particle of dust suspended in the air.
‘I am but a messenger came to warn you, your friends are not who they claim to be. You think you have to fulfill a mission, a quest, but you have been led astray as to which side is the right one. Like most human beings you were much too happy to escape death to question the motives and methods of your saviours. Didn’t you ever stop to wonder why you had to die to become useful to them? Why out of all humanity they picked you?’ A shrieking laugh filled the room. ‘Human beings though endowed with extraordinary powers are wonderfully weak creatures, you cannot see what is exactly in front of you. The auras you’ve been seeing are signs of your universe bursting at the seams, the shadows are mere souls which have been kicked out of existence by your friends.’
Jeremy blinked and he found himself looking up towards the stars, no house or fire in sight. He could not remember the last time the sky had been this full with stars.
‘Who are you?’ said Jeremy, gripping the branch tighter. An unnerving silence filled the room. He could hear the dead leaves rustling in the wind and the wood cracking as it turned to ashes outside, but the strange house felt like it was filled with liquid darkness, like his frightened words and even more frightened thoughts just bounced back and forth as waves in a tiny pool.
‘Show yourself,’ he continued. ‘I’m not scared of you, whatever you are. Where is Erica?’
‘Why do you ask so much about others? You know well that what it is yourself you need to inquire of.’
‘Okay...’ he murmured, creeping closers to the opposite wall of the room where the voice seemed to come from. ‘Tell me about myself’, but he could see nothing but dried moss and pools of black rain water in the gloom.
Another sigh. It seemed to be coming from the house itself, both from its walls, but also from every atom of every particle of dust suspended in the air.
‘I am but a messenger came to warn you, your friends are not who they claim to be. You think you have to fulfill a mission, a quest, but you have been led astray as to which side is the right one. Like most human beings you were much too happy to escape death to question the motives and methods of your saviours. Didn’t you ever stop to wonder why you had to die to become useful to them? Why out of all humanity they picked you?’ A shrieking laugh filled the room. ‘Human beings though endowed with extraordinary powers are wonderfully weak creatures, you cannot see what is exactly in front of you. The auras you’ve been seeing are signs of your universe bursting at the seams, the shadows are mere souls which have been kicked out of existence by your friends.’
Jeremy blinked and he found himself looking up towards the stars, no house or fire in sight. He could not remember the last time the sky had been this full with stars.
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You can't imagine my horror when I saw that the story was fantasy-ish because I don't read fantasy. I hope it didn't turn out that bad. I just really wanted to make a half believable plot twist and get some answer at the same time. Sorry I was a tinsy bit late in submitting the story. Also the second sentence contains a quote from the short story 'The Garden of Forking Paths' by Borges. I always start stories with quotes, but I didn't want to mess up the layout of the whole story so I included it in the body of the text itself. Writing this has been fun, I hope all the writers who'll write after me'll have tons of fun too.