This is the prologue of my new story Purgatorium. This is going to be a full fledged novel that will have everything. Adventure, Suspense,Mystery, happy times, and sad times. Liam will be the main character so please go on this adventure with me. Let me know how I am doing. Vote if you want. I'm here for the pleasure of writing the story. Not the fame.
Brian
12/16/2009
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Purgatorium
Well I jumped into the river
Too many times to make it home
I'm out here on my own, an drifting all alone
If it doesn't show give it time
To read between the lines
'Cause I see the storm getting closer
And the waves they get so high
Seems everything We've ever known's here
Why must it drift away and die
--Guns n Roses, Use your
illusion II ~ 1991
Prologue
Panorama of Purgatorium
Central park
New York, NY
Purgatorium
April, 14th 1978
LD enjoyed central park. She came here only when her skills were called upon, but always enjoyed it when she did get to travel here. In Purgatorium, trees were always green, unlike their counter part in the real New York City. A plethora of smells, riding the eastern wind, bombarded her senses. Flowers, oak, cherry wood, and acorn mixed with the smells of Chinese food coming from a restaurant on West 88th street. She was here to meet the "old farts," or at least thats what she liked to call them. It better damn well have been important to call her away from her normal duties. She figured it was, they had a job that was just as important as hers LD thought to herself, although, in her opinion, hers was much more exciting. LD pulled a coin out of her pocket, and started spinning it on one fingertip, transferring it to another as she walked. She flipped the coin into the air and caught it on yet a different finger before letting it fall into her palm.
Shae, and TC sat on a bench next to the Central Park Reservoir. Skyscrapers rose to the east, like soldiers on a battlefield awaiting orders. A clear crystal chessboard sat on the bench between them. White on Shae's side, and black on Tc's. The chess pieces were handcrafted from clear crystal as well, the sunlight shining through, creating every color of the rainbow, and some colors that weren't, on the ground below. Shae looked up just in time to see a woman in a dark green dress with a slit all the way up to her thigh, and black stiletto heals walk around the end of a S curve in the path. She really was beautiful he thought. Today her hair was curly, and brown, but next time they meet it may be straight, and black. Whatever mood that struck her at the time.
"There she is TC, right on time as usual." Shay said in an old, but sophisticated voice. Still admiring the woman walking up.
"Uh huh." was all TC said, holding one of the pawns from the chessboard in the sun, twisting it so blue, and green light danced off the waters of the Reservoir.
"What do you think she is going to say about it?" Shae asked.
"Hmmm." TC said.
LD walked up on the two old men. Shae, she knew, would undress her mentally the entire time she was there. She didn't blame him, she was beautiful, thats the way she was made after all. TC however would sit there, deep in thought, like he always did. TC hardly ever managed much more than a grunt to anybody. He wasn't much of a conversationalist, that was for sure.
Shae made no effort to hide that he was staring as LD walked up to the park bench, and sat with her back against the table, away from the sun She crossed her legs, the leg on the side with the slit rested on top, showing her perfect leg all the way up to her thigh. Shae figured she was doing it on purpose, but he could care less, as long as she kept doing it.
"If you could pull your eyes away from my thigh, for a moment, you might tell me about this unscheduled meeting." She said in a voice that was so light she sounded as if she had sang the words, instead of speaking them. I have other duties I have to attend to today."
"Hmphh." TC said as he put the pawn back on the chessboard.
"Today is the day Liam will be born." Shae said.
"So." LD said. "Everyone on level six knows about that, so why am I here." She pronounced it Heeeruh.
"They want us to play for it." Shae said. "They told me this morning."
"Uh huh." TC said with half his finger up his nose. Digging for gold perhaps. Funny thing is, he might pull some out.
"This is BULLSHIT." LD screamed. "They always try to stack the deck on the ones we depend on. Its like they don't want to give us a chance. Like they want us to fail."
"I know." Shae said, bowing his bald head, finally pulling his eyes from LD's leg. "But you know if we don't play for it, they will choose. If they choose, they won't choose anything good I promise."
"What do you mean, anything good?" LD said. "There are only two choices and you know they would choose the bad one. I know we have to play for it. At least then he might have a chance."
"Three." Shae said.
"Uh huh." TC said finally pulling his finger out of his nose, a tiny piece of gold came out with it. TC just smiled at nobody in particular.
"Oh, come on." LD said her voice laced with sarcasm. "That almost never happens. You guys hardly ever stalemate anymore. The last time that happened was 700 years ago when we played for Wallace. One of you always wins nowadays. I hardly ever have to flip, and if I do, THAT almost never happens."
"Well you still have to be here." Shae sighed. "Lets just get this over with so we can go. This whole situation has put me in a bad mood." His eyes had wondered back to LD's leg.
Shae didn't hear any arguments, he looked over at TC. TC nodded his head, and they began. Shae was white so he made the first move. Then the game took off at incredible speed. Both players hands moved so fast they appeared as nothing more than a blur. The colors of the prisms casting colors all over the surrounding area. It was so bright and the colors moved so fast it reminded LD of a disco ball. Once in a while you would hear the word "Check" come out one of the two old men's mouth. The pieces on the board piling up on one side, or the other. Then, in a colored flash, everything stopped. There were three pieces on the board. Two kings and a pawn.
"Hmm." TC said. Picking up one of the pieces again and reflecting the light back on to the water.
Shae looked up with a little horror in his eyes. "Stalemate." he said shaking his head. He played his best game trying to beat TC. If he had won then at least Liam would have had somebody guarding his back. He knew that Liam still had a chance. But his odds were now fifty/fifty. Equal, but a scary concept at the same time.
"Shit." LD whispered. "I don't even want to talk about it." LD said as she opened her hand and picked up the coin that was still hidden in her palm. She flipped it high in the air, one side white the other side black, it spun in the air. Just as it reached its peak it spun, weightless, casting flashes of light over the three's faces. Finally it began its descent. It fell onto the table, swaying to one side then the other turning circles all the while, white side up, black side up, white side up, and then it started to wobble. The black side was showing, and it was almost for sure that was the side it would fall on. Then the edge of the coin hit the tiny piece of gold TC had laid on the table. The coin went up on its edge. Teetered left and then right for a moment, then it was still.
All three just stared at the coin in amazement. Of all the time they had spent in purgatorium this had just happened five times. "His fate is his own!" Shae said barely whispering.
"Yeah, is that a good thing?" LD said as she snatched the coin off the table. She turned and walked back west out of Central Park. "Lets just hope he does as good as Wallace did." She yelled over her shoulder.
"Uh huh." Was the only reply.
