Close Encounters of the 4th Kind

“Very professional.” Sinestro teased from within my own head.

“Oh fuck you, Nessie.” I sputtered, spitting the remaining bile from my mouth.

I looked up, finding the spot where the monster was only moments before, and was only slightly disappointed at the lack of prize. All that was left was the still fizzing and steaming piles of black goop, slowly fading from existence.

“You can let go of me now,” Sinestro chimed in. “It is still incredibly taxing for us both to keep me in this form.”

I stared down at the gold and black pistol in my right hand. It was plain but sleek in design, practical, and completely natural in my grip. It felt heavier than when I had shot the monster’s eye, though, as though the metal it was made of were growing exponentially heavier with each passing second.

“So you,” I asked slowly. “Are this gun?”

“Yes,” Sinestro responded, his voice prickly in my head. “This is my practical form, taken when we are the most in sync and in the presence of danger. Both of these instances have passed, and I’d like to take a less exhausting form please.”

I paused, staring at the gun. It was warm in my grip, like Sinestro’s hand. I could feel my own pulse echoing through the pistol. It calmed me some.

“Do I just drop you?” I fumbled. “I can’t just drop you! Should I put you down, or like, is there a code word or something to change you back?”

I could feel Sinestro’s sigh.

“Loosening your grip would be a great start,” He explained. “Then just close your eyes and uncurl your fingers. Then I should be able to return to my stable form.”

I immediately jammed my eyes shut, and let my fingers relax. The warm feeling remained, but I could tell I wasn’t holding the weapon anymore. When I opened my eyes again, Sinestro was facing me, my own awe-struck expression reflected in the lenses of his glasses.

“Great job,” Sinestro said with a smile. “You passed the first test.”

Our hands were clasped in a firm handshake. I felt myself smile back at him. I had passed the test. That was a feeling of accomplishment I hadn’t felt in a long time. We both let go of each other at the same moment, and turned together towards the open door.

“First test?” I asked. “You mean walking through that door won’t make me wake up?”

Sinestro closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I already went over this with you,” He complained. “This isn’t a dream. Not in the traditional sense.”

We walked through the golden, glowing doors without incident. The stone cathedral floors gave way to nondescript, cloudy grey flooring. The walls were half grey paneling, half solid grey. The ceiling faded into a dark mist, swirling and changing as we moved along the narrow space. I heard the door shut behind us, but it had vanished by the time I turned around in reaction to the sound.

“I don’t like this.” I blurted. There was something deeply ominous about the space. My skin broke out in goosebumps, and I consciously moved closer to Sinestro.

“This is your first peek at the byways of Limbo,” Sinestro explained. “It’s not meant to be pleasant. We’re in an extremely isolated area, not much need for Guardians here.”

Limbo? Guardians? Tests? What had I gotten myself into?

“I legitimately have no idea what you’re talking about, Nes,” I admitted. “I just woke up back in that non-church with no idea of how I got there. Then you appear and tell me it’s a test and if I don’t pass, I die. So I’d appreciate a little bit of exposition, if you don’t mind.”

“I never said you’d die!” Sinestro argued, halting and crossing his arms.

“Semantics.” I countered with a dismissive wave of my hand. Sinestro rolled his eyes and continued down the pathway.

“The place we find ourselves in is most commonly referred to as ‘Limbo’,” Sinestro explained. “As it is, overall, an in-between state of consciousness. It serves different functions for different people. I regrettably know exceedingly little about the place to be perfectly frank.”

“Why not?” I asked angrily. “Aren’t you the Virgil to my Dante?”

If Sinestro was annoyed at me making another reference, he elected to now show it.

“I don’t know because a lot of it hasn’t been written yet,” Sinestro went on. “But I’m sure as we move further along in the tests, I’ll assuredly know more.”

Tests? There was more than one of these things? I was only able to pass the first one because of my addiction to video games. That couldn’t possibly save my ass twice, that would be illogical and stupid and utterly too convenient. I had used up that proverbial lifeline.

“Yes, to answer your mental chatter,” Sinestro continued. “There are two more tests. Your mind is beginning to heal itself at a deeper level after everything that’s happened to you. These tests are the means for that healing. To put in a way you’d understand, your brain is Humpty Dumpty and these tests are the kings horses and men, putting your noggin back together again.”

“Oooh, Mother Goosery, I like it!” I praised. There was only one problem with Sinestro’s reference: all the kings horses and all the kings men COULDN’T put the egg-man together again. I pointed this out to him.

“But you understood the metaphor!” Sinestro cried in frustration. “Sure, it won’t be Humpty Dumpty as he was before, because that Humpty Dumpty is gone. Irretrievable. But just because he’s not exactly as he was before doesn’t inhibit him from remaining Humpty Dumpty. He’s merely a changed Humpty Dumpty.”

“Say ‘Humpty Dumpty’ again.” I teased. Sinestro growled.

We both fell silent as the corridor began to show signs of widening. Sinestro seemed increasingly uneasy.

“Hey, man, relax. We got through the first test together, I’m sure this next one will be a breeze. We’ve figured out your gun mode and everything!”

Sinestro shook his head, adjusting his glasses absently.

“As much as your encouragement warms me,” Sinestro said darkly. “I am not the only companion you will gain on this journey. And I can only serve as a secondary aid from now on. You’ve mastered the test meant to bring us closer. I imagine I will be relatively useless in this next venture.”

Never. Sinestro talked me down from the brink of insanity, saved my sorry ass from being monster-chow. He could never be useless.

The new door appeared out of the black mist in the fraction of a second it took me to blink. It was similarly golden like the door we exited the cathedral through, and I somehow didn’t find that comforting. Sinestro paused just before the door, making no effort to open it.

“It’ll only open for you,” Sinestro explained. “Should you choose to continue.”

“It’s not like there’s a ‘chicken out’ door like at Disney World.” I muttered to myself bitterly.

The moment my fingertips touched the door, it began to creak open. It slowly swung inward, choosing to be coy about revealing it’s contents. I huffed impatiently and stormed inside.

The room was impossibly bright, my eyes blinded temporarily by the encompassing light. I flung an arm over my eyes to shield them from the light as the room came into better focus.

Mirrors.

Mirrors as far as I could see. Reflections on reflections created a dizzying effect, making my stomach churn in fear. As my eyes swept the space, they fell on the only non-mirror in the space.

“Oh there you are, darling.” A deep, masculine voice toned.

There were footfalls echoing through the space as the man approached me. I couldn’t tell if there was one man or a million, or even definitively where he was coming from. I closed my eyes in an effort to refocus. Before I could even open them, I felt warm, unfamiliar hands on my shoulders, and I was pulled into someone’s chest.

And then, he was kissing me.

His lips were as soft and inviting as his eyes, which were blue. I only came to realize this once he stopped kissing me long enough to let me actually look his him and his golden locks and attractive five o’clock shadow. Perhaps this test wouldn’t be so bad, since my companion was Adonis. The man laughed a melodic, somehow sexy laugh.

“As much as I love the comparison,” He said with a winning smile. “You may call me ‘Darcy’.”