How to Become a God

How to Conquer

Thousands of voice chattered in Diana's head through the echo-thought.  They spoke of mundane things and melded together like the background of a bustling sidewalk.  However, Lars' voice continued to tear at the facade of normalcy like a jagged knife.  At random, he would break through with a snarl and spit fiery words of hate, but he would then fade back into a soft whisper.  Every second, an illusion would blur into existence in the corner of Diana's eye, and it would dissipate in the next moment.  Diana smirked, and she continued to run towards the madman with increasing speed.  She felt she had finally gotten him, and all she needed to do was ignore him for just a little longer.

In his throneroom, Lars clawed at the arms of his seat until his fingers bled.  Anger and uncertainty stormed in his stomach, filling it with rabid butterflies.   He had a dream to rule over the world with absolute power with a single thought, and he spent years or deception and billions of resources to obtain the power of the imagination.  But now, a single spy was going to collapse his entire plan and send him into the forgotten annals of a classified filing cabinet.  Being forgotten was something he did not handle well and was often the reason for his anger management courses.  He needed a way to get her attention, something to make her lose focus, something to let him into her mind for even a second.  Then, his lips curled into a wicked, childish grin.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Diana! Hey! Hey Diana! Hey!  Are you here yet?  Hey! Diana! Diana! Are you here yet? Hey!" Lars screeched into the intercom like nails on a chalkboard.  Lars turned on his announcement system and set it to the highest volume.

Diana's skin crawled at the sound of it.  Her ears felt like they would start to bleed any second.  He sounded so needy and loud like a spoiled child she had to take care of during an odd job.  The repetition of exclamations stretched seconds into eternities of annoyance.  Her ears pulsed with pain, and the screeching deafened all other sounds.  Diana's sense of balance began to fail, and she felt light-headed and began to lean against the wall.  His mental assault could be stopped by the echo-thought, but it could not stop actual sound.  After long, painful minutes, Diana snapped.

"WHAT." She answered.

"Don't think of a chicken." Lars whispered into her mind.

Puzzled, Diana wondered, "Chicken?  Why a chicken? What is so special about a chicken?  How can a chicken stop-"  Within a split second, Diana realized her mistake, and she tried to close her mind. She let the echo-thought fill her thoughts again, trying to lose herself in the sea of voices.  However, she could distinctly hear a soft clucking sound, and she lost her balance and tripped forward into a painful heap.  Diana could already see what had caused her to stumble before she turned around.  It was going be a small, speckled, brown, hen like the one she always saw in the commercials.  It would give give her a dumb stare and cluck as it bobbed its head forward just to make her angry.  Slowly, she turned her head, and sure enough, a picture perfect copy of the chicken did just that.

She knew that she had to deal with the consequences.  The chicken hopped in front of her face and clucked.  Diana knew it was not real, but it looked like a chicken, certainly smelled like a chicken, sounded like a chicken, and felt like one.  Diana stood up and tried to step around the bird, hoping Lars would not interfere.  Little did she know that he could hear her fears with greater volume, and he began to peer further into her mind.  The chicken squawked and flapped its pitiful wings as it blew up like a balloon until an enormous chicken blocked the hallway.  Diana was ashamed for lowering her guard for a second.

Lars' voice piped up from the foul, "Now, that you let me in.  Let's see some participation from you for our little game."  Eerie screeching sounds ran down Diana's ear like a toddler eagerly scraping the bottom of a cereal bowl.  "Hmmm, regrets, wishful thoughts, secrets... yes, just what I wanted, nightmares."