Chronicles of Myth Volume One: Twisted Daydreams

Scene Nine

“See he’s going to be just fine”, Ragnarok told me; “Let’s get some rest shall we it’s been a busy day”. “Can we trust him”, “Ashton we need all the help we can get; there are threats out there we can’t fight alone… seeing the expression on your face, only time can tell; so we wait”. “He’s a soldier, a man who looks at the world through the barrel of a gun and by swinging his fists like a bat-shit crazy ape”. “Soldiers are ones who keep us safe, you’re a mercenary we all are; the people pay us to keep them safe, so doesn’t that make us as bad as Lex”. Ragnarok said, “Forget I said anything… we’ll talk in the morning”. “Good night”. I tossed and turned that night, I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach. In my dream ended back up in the memorial face to face with Reico; this time was I was dressed in my graphic t-shirt and tattered jeans, “Up for a drink”? He asked motioning to the bar counter, “Yeah… that’d be nice”. We took our seats, Reico poured us a glass of merlot and took a swig. “It’s rough being a leader isn’t it Ashton”? I looked at my friend in despair, “I don’t know what to do Reico, when I look at it… it feels like everything is going to fall apart”. I felt a pat on my back, “You’ll be fine. After all you’ve made this far without anyone dying didn’t you”? Reico laughed like a child and slipped on a pair of white fingerless boxing gloves, taking off his suit jacket… I saw he was dressed in a white vest, a white button down shirt and white ironed pants. “I want a rematch”. He warped us to the gym and handed me a pair of green fingerless gloves; I tightened the gloves and took my stance. “Five rounds… first to three KO’s wins”. He said stepping into the ring, I ducked under the rope and stepped in. The white tarmac was hard and the ring we stood in was lit by a single light bulb hanging over us, it flickered and I saw Reico for the monster he was whenever the light flashed. “Hand me your tie… I want to make this worth remembering”. I put his white tie over my eyes as a blindfold.  I heard the blub shatter and all bets were off, I ducked down dodging a right hook and I stood back up, stepping back to dodge a knee to my stomach. I blocked off his left straight and punched him in the face with all my weight, I heard him breathe and rushed forward jabbing him in the gut. I grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground with a shoulder throw; he stood back up and grabbed me by the waist, I smashed my elbows into his back and kneed his stomach, he straightened up and with a suplex smashed him neck first into the mat; crack, I turned around kicked him the face and I stomped on his back snapping his spine. I heard his bones being relocated into the right positions, then nothing; the room fell silent except the sound of my breathing, I felt a claw pierce my side, I pulled out the claw and twisted his arm before ripping it from its socket and impaling him in the chest. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with a bony large foot pressing into my torso, I smashed his femur and knee with my fists. Reico screamed in agony, I threw him off me and we breathed heavily on our backs; “scratch that, best two of three; hey Ashton you still with me” Reico asked, staggering back up. I struggled to breathe as I got myself back on my feet. “Let’s end this”. I rolled out of the way to dodge his axe kick, Reico reattached his arm and skewered me through the heart with both claws; he threw me to the mat and that was all she wrote. With the snap of his fingers the light came back on and I was lying in a pool of my blood, losing consciousness on the tarmac; “Go gentle into that good night sweet prince”. I heard Reico’s voice one last before snapping back to the world of the living; I woke up in the middle of the night with my clothes drenched in sweat and covered in scratches, I ran into the bathroom and vomited out whatever I had left in my stomach. I rinsed out my mouth with the tap water and held myself from crying at my searing throat. I looked at myself in the mirror, a haggard man looked back at me with bloodshot green eyes; I punched the reflection out of rage and left a thick blood stain of my knuckles on the mirror. I bandaged my wounds and went back to sleep, I forced myself back into the memorial; grabbing a barstool I sneaked up behind Reico and smashed his face into the granite counter top. “Fuck you”! The expression of the terror and shock on his face was priceless, I smiled as I broke off two legs and stabbed him through the back piercing his lungs, I broke off the other two legs and stabbed him in the back of the head, I grabbed him by the collar and removed the sticks in his brain, stabbing him through the eyes I grabbed the seat part of the stool and smashed it over his head; “Now we’re even”. I spat out, “Ow”. Reico said staggering to his feet, “I deserved that much”. He took out the stool legs from his body and sat down in an easy chair, “You can’t let anything go can you, Ashton”? “No, I can’t”… an epiphany came to me, I dropped to my knees; “I’m sorry I went a little overboard”. “It’s alright, you can’t kill me”. “You hold on to every grudge, to every memory when someone has wronged you. That’s the reason why you get everyone killed”. “I hate it when you’re right, damn it”. I cursed out loud, “It’s not too late it never is”; Reico stood up completely unharmed, he aimed his gun at my face… “Isn’t there a more peaceful way to send me back”? He shifted his aim to the dart board behind me, “No and you might want to get out the way… we’ve got some troublesome guests tonight”. I don’t know what broke the through wall and tackled me to the ground; it had six eyes, grey fur, and three inch claws sharp enough to me to confetti, and all I knew was it was trying to eat my face off and I was stabbing my kunai into its throat; for the sake of saving time we’ll call it a really fucking ugly dog from hell, I snapped the neck of the hellhound and kicked it off me; Reico shot the corpse with nitroglycerin round, “Kick the dog into the hole in the wall”. I scrambled up and punted corpse back into its hole; “You brought your Uzi’s”? I flipped the pool table and took cover behind it, “Yeah… what are we up against”. “Shades”. I aimed my guns at the hole, “How many are coming”. We heard a myriad deathly screams from the darkness, “A shitload… that’s how many”, Reico put away his pistol and pulled out a MP5; cocking the gun he went prone and aimed down the iron sights, black ragged shadows seeped out from the darkness, I stared down tortured faces; for a moment the shadows looked at us and cowered in fear, the lights in the bar flickered… once, twice, then the breaker in the room shorted out, the shades declared open season and we opened fire ripping the shades to pieces; “Pour it on”. Reico’s voice was drowned out by the sounds of gunfire and incessant screams, fighting in the dark the span three minutes felt like an eternity, as we barely fended off the torrent of shades; click, click. Whatever comes next I hope we could fight it without any ammo, Reico got the flashlight from behind the bar counter and turned on the light, finding the electrical box he walked over to the breaker and reset the fuse. The auxiliary safety lights came on and we breathed a sigh of relief, Reico shot the ground with more nitroglycerin rounds and torched the inky darkness under our feet, watching the rounds burn through the bodies was oddly relaxing and calming .“There we can take a breather now…” “Shit… you my friend need to go home, now”. He walked over and opened the side exit for me, “Ashton… take the alleyway down and you’ll be back home; whatever you do… don’t stop moving”. Outside I heard thunder and rain, I ran out the door and into the dark alleyway; I looked to where the door was and it vanished leaving only a graffiti marred and bloodstained worn brick wall, behind me I saw a wall of white masks; as it rushed toward me in a tidal wave the masks smiled and bared their teeth, “Fuck”. I broke into a run and knocked over everything in front of me as a feckless attempt to slow the wall of teeth, drenched by rain and my breathing overshadowed by the noise thunder; I kept pushing on until I saw the light, I sprinted through the light as the wall of teeth almost swallowed me whole, there I was back in the world of the living. More importantly: I was back home safe and sound. “You shouldn’t have done that, it’s all your fault”. That voice was sinister, monotone; complete insanity, it was my own. I felt a chill run down my spine, as felt a long fingernail trace my back… “Sweet prince, I will come for you and friends in time… for now goodnight”. I felt the nail drive through my back into my heart, I heard a faint whisper: “I am light and I am dark, I am the poison in your soul, the cure you can never imagine… I am Nolan”.