When the Clock Stands Still

Darkness Awaits: Part One, Chapter Two

"What do you mean I'm the only one who can do this now? My father isn't dead." Maximus shakes his head and puts it between his hands. He can't believe that his father is dead, much less that some sort of a clone is in his place right now and he never even realized. He continued to listen to his father, no. His father's clone. His father is dead and nothing can change the truth, even if he still refuses to believe it, it doesn't change it. The two men watch him struggle to try to grasp the truth yet fight it at the same time. The smaller one chuckles and flicks Maximus's head.

"Idiot, how could you not know? He was killed by a Creature of the Night, but it was covered up. Didn't you take note of the cuts in his flesh? The way it was torn open, torn apart, like some animal had gotten to it."

Maximus shakes his head and the car makes a turn to the right. "No. I-It was a car crash, plain and simple." The bigger one shakes his head in disdain before getting up to sit next to him. Max looks at him and is more than shocked when the big man in black pulls him against him, face still masked.

"I know how you feel."

Maximus stays where he is, not sure what to do and the man pushes him away, "Back to business now. My name is Mr. Joseph Franks. Over there is Mr. Don White, we will be helping you and will be your body guards until this is complete."

Taking a deep breath, Maximus looks at them both and puts the names with their faces. Something doesn't add up though.

"That isn't his real name is it? Don is his first name, but the last isn't." Joseph nods and Don grins mischievously.

"That is correct. Congratulations, you passed the first test." Don holds his hand out to shake and Maximus takes it. Something sparks and he pulls away again, not sure what just happened and then the vehicle stops. The two men in black get out and he follows them through a set of doors, down a hallway, and into an elevator. The smaller one leans in the corner and the elevator starts its descent.

"When we get down here, you'll see a few things that you have never seen before. Things that your own father had created, but they had escaped the system and killed him. That was their job in the sys-"

"Hold on, what do you mean they escaped the system?" Maximus looks at him and Don crosses his arms over his chest, already starting to get agitated with the boy.

"Let me finish and maybe you would get your answers. Now as I was saying, your father was creating the Creatures of the Night. He was not the first, nor will he ever be because this is an ongoing thing. The creatures created each year are always advancing, and so are the ways to kill them quickly and efficiently.

"So why are you doing this anyways?"

"We do this because we need to figure out different monsters for different games."

Maximus looks at the ground and thinks about everything that Don had just said to him, trying to comprehend it all. It's a lot to take in, but he thinks that he can get it all, and maybe he did.

"So you use people's imaginations for your own personal gains?" Don smiles and nods eagerly, which repulses Maximus even more than he was already.

The elevator stops and the doors open to a bright light, but once he steps into the room, Maximus realizes that it isn't just a room, but a colossal domed room that has several corridors that branch off into other places that lead to things he still has yet to see. But from what he can see this part of it is more like a cargo hold and shipment docking place. He doesn't know how else to explain the chaos going on around him.

Numerous monsters ranging in size and shape walk through the room, going to other parts and some coming from the same places. Roughly three-fourths are in handcuffs and the other fourth are the ones leaving. Maximus can only guess that the ones that are leaving are the ones that are free, since none of the ones with handcuffs are, nor do they walk around freely without someone with a gun to their backs. It's at this moment that the truth dawns on Maximus and he takes a step back.

"Th-th-these are... these are Creatures of the Night... they all are..."

Joseph nods and some of the creatures look at them, glaring before they are taken away and the two men in black start to walk forward. Many humans jostle about between the Creatures and a few of them carry clipboards and straps. What to Maximus doesn't know. The two men in black lead him to a room off to the right and inside it is the largest gaming room that he has ever seen.

Screens line the walls with different things on each. Keyboards protrude from the spaces in between, as do touch and draw pads. A few more humans are in the room and they look at him. One gaps and starts to speak but Joseph holds a hand up to stop her.

"He agreed, we didn't steal him." She fumes and nods, shoving headgear into his hands. Maximus itches to touch it all, to play this game that they have put together, even if it isn't the best. He wants to put the headgear on his head and enter into a world where he can escape and create other Creatures of the Night. Those that have been haunting him that are mentioned in not one book. Nor is there any proof that they do actually exist.

Fingers snap in front of his face and he snaps out of it. Maximus follows the fingers to the woman's hand, arm, and finally her face and smiles, noting the outline of it, and, coming up with the name that goes with it.

"Harem. Nice to see you again." She nods and keeps her face just like it was, no emotion playing across her features whatsoever. Joseph hands him the headgear and he grins like a madman who just received a cube of sugar.

"GFX control and HUD display. You can create as well as fix and play. When you create a new Creature of the Night, make sure that you create it's stats and the game will automatically create a weapon that could be used to fight it. If you don't like the way the weapon looks, or how your Creature looks, you can always change it." Maximus watches her lips as she talks and soaks it all in, finding it easier to listen and retain when she speaks through those soft looking lips. No. He can't think like that about her, she's his childhood friend, the one he always hung out with when he was bored because no one else would. And she loved games just as much as he did.

"Do I get to manipulate the scenery or do I get the pleasure to make it as well?"

At last, she offers him a small smile, "You create everything. Now, as you play the campaign, it will tell you to list certain Creatures of the Night by rank or strength. And since you have been picked to do this task, I would hope you studied your Creatures before you came here?" Maximus nods and so does she.

"Good. In the beginning, you will create your character like normal and after that the real simulation begins. Step onto the gaming pad."