Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - A novel

Necessary Evil and the Greater Good - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

...is without its faults

It was almost one a.m., and Mestoph and Leviticus were standing at the partially opened door of Marcus' apartment. He stared blankly at his visitors, trying to decide if he had heard what he thought he had heard. Luckily, one of them repeated it.

"We need to talk to Sir Regi," said Mestoph.

Unfortunately, it didn't make any more sense to Marcus the second time. He looked down at the little dog at his feet, who was obviously paying close attention to what was going on.

"You want to talk to my dog? My little Scottish terrier dog? Well...by all means. Talk away," Marcus said as he stepped aside. There was a brief pause, and he looked down at Sir Regi. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Well, you could let them in first," said Sir Regi.

*******

Once Marcus finally accepted the fact that Sir Regi could talk, or at least had stopped staring at him without speaking or blinking, he let Mestoph and Leviticus into his apartment. He sat on the arm of a small leather chair, trying to comprehend all that was going on. Sitting on his old beige couch were two people who claimed to be from the Afterlife, and his best friend and companion of many years (who just happened to be a dog) was standing on top of the coffee table and chatting with them about the end of the world.

"So let me get this straight: there's an impending catastrophe of an unknown nature that involves all of us and the barista at my usual coffee shop, and we need to go...where now?" asked Marcus.

 "We need to go to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico," said Mestoph.

"Truth or Consequences? What the Hell is in Truth or Consequences?" asked Marcus.

This was the part that neither Leviticus nor Mestoph were really sure about. How do you explain to someone—who was only just coming to terms with a talking dog and an ominous, vaguely apocalyptic, and completely fictional conspiracy—that Purgatory exists, is on Earth, and happens to be a tiny, dusty desert town in New Mexico?

"It's where Purgatory is located. Someone there can help us. But we have to get to him before they get to us."

In the story Leviticus and Mestoph had told Marcus, "they" were a shadowy fifth column in the Afterlife—in telling their story, they had slyly evaded mentioning a Heaven or Hell and left everything under the nebulously defined Afterlife—that was trying to bring about the end of humanity so that they could have Earth all to themselves. Whatever catastrophe was planned was to be the first domino. It was basically just a hodge-podge of bullshit conspiracy theories that they were making up on the fly. Leviticus left most of it to Mestoph since he was much more versed in the art of lying.

Marcus was quiet for a few moments. His initial hope that this had all just been a very vivid, unexplainable dream had long since evaporated, and he was now trying to decide if he had just gone crazy in the middle of the night. Since he desperately wanted to be sane, he decided to just go with it and see what happened. Though he needed one last thing.

"Prove you're from the Afterlife," he said.

Leviticus and Mestoph looked at each other and smiled.

"Follow me," Mestoph said as he walked to the door outside.

Mestoph led them all, including Sir Regi, to a small patch of grass outside Marcus' apartment and told them all to hold hands. Sir Regi hopped up into Marcus' arms, and then the three men clasped hands.

There was a pop and a puff of smoke, and suddenly Marcus found himself not in his apartment but in a small, dimly lit room with brushed steel walls. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low light, but as they did he noticed that the only exit was a giant and insanely complicated safe door—and they seemed to be on the wrong side. There was a glass panel across the entirety of the mechanism and behind it were hundreds, if not thousands, of gears, all polished to a shine even with the meager light.