I was listening to this while writing and now I'm sobbing all over my phone...
Do you think it fits with this chapter?
The void had consumed everything but the Life Gate and the sparse land around it. The battlefield was gone, the dead bodies were gone and now it swallowed up the mammoth crater the King had descended into. Mikel took a step backwards hurriedly, his eyes expanding in alarm when he noticed it.
He bumped into Astra, who looked at him with wide puzzled eyes, her uncertainty clear to see.
“Where’s Tyrese?”
She shook her head, her eyes fixated on the approaching void. Everywhere was white now, white and empty and they backed up, their backs planted against the Life Gate. “That thing, swallowed him. One second he was there, then it touched his leg and he was gone. What’s going on?”
She took his hand, squeezing it tightly and a note of despondent finality entered her voice. “We’re going to die here, aren’t we?”
The Life Gate drowned out his answer, sparking to life suddenly. The space in between its two hands had been replaced by a swirl of monochrome colours and when Mikel looked down at his body, he saw he was dissipating.
His body was pixelating, the pixels shuffling towards the Life Gate at a dizzying speed.
It was what he had wished for, what he had wanted but as the Life Gate transported him back to the real world, he found himself clinging to Astra, burying his face in her shoulder.
Tears pricked at his eyes unabashedly. “No, not now…”
Astra looked down at him, and the panic she felt made her voice a pitch higher than usual. “M-Mikel? What’s happening to you?”
He did not say anything but hugged her even tighter, not trusting his voice to hold if he spoke.
The dissipation had gone all the way to his chest now, much faster than he had expected, and he only had time to whisper a final farewell before he was gone, vanished from the game. “I’m sorry.”
Astra was all alone now, and for miles and miles around her, there was nothing but white. Nothing remained of the landscape she knew. The trees, the hills, the skies, they were gone. Tyrese and the corpses were gone. Mikel was gone.
She dissolved into sobs, reaching for the Life Gate, reaching for the monochrome swirl which was disappearing into nonexistence…
If I could reach it, I could follow him…
…but the void had gotten her now. It consumed her just as it had consumed all the others, invading her being and holding her in place. In vain, she reached for the Life Gate, her hand outstretched futilely in front of her. So close, yet so far away. As the last of the swirl which had taken Mikel away disappeared, so did the Life Gate.
Its purpose had been served and so the void consumed it as well, just as it consumed Astra. It took over her legs, her arms, her chest, her face. It consumed until there was nothing left to trespass, until the land was white and shapeless, until all was as it had been in the beginning.
It consumed until No Blessed was purged.
*
“This program had been disrupted with news from the ACND. Residents living in the Zamani region of the city are advised to evacuate their homes within the next thirty minutes. A growing whirlpool has appeared over the city, raining blocks of hail on the province. Residents are advised to evacuate their homes as soon as possible—”
Koenig changed the channel, disinterest in his eyes, eventually deciding on a news channel. The day had been boring since Aaliyah had left hours ago, and he was considering cutting short his hospital stay. He’d had retreated there to hide like a coward, and in doing so, the situation had spiraled out of control. He needed to redeem it, one way or another. Increased the volume of the television absent-mindedly, he dropped the remote, scrolling through his phone.
“…the suspect, Sean Bishop, Vice President to mega gaming company Nuroh Incorporated is currently receiving treatment at the Pepple University Teaching Hospital, as well as the two victims he abducted. Official reports have confirmed the wounds on the victims were inflicted by Mr. Bishop, resulting in several lacerations, contusions and what is suspected to be a bruised rib in the older victim. This incident is assumed to be a retaliation to the outcry against Nuroh, which has recently been embroiled in a kidnapping scandal.”
Koenig sat up right, staring at the television. He reached for the remote again, increasing the volume as the newscaster continued to speak. His body stiffened in response to the allegations and as he heard more, a dull, glazed look entered his eyes. The newscaster stopped speaking, tapping on her earpiece as she received some information. The look on her face was excitement intermingled with solemnity.
“Breaking news coming in from the Zamani Province, Laura Ite, over to you.”
The channel showed another screen where a young woman, her hair and clothes flying in the furious wind, was excitedly relaying the news.
“Laura Ite here, updating you on the situation in the Zamani Province. A man, I repeat, a man has just fallen out of the whirlpool.”
The camera panned to where a man in dark clothes was falling out of the sky, his coat and hair flying wildly in the wind. He looked unconscious, his eyes closed to the world and then the camera turned back to the news reporter, whose restlessness was evident in the rapid way she spoke.
“Currently, we are not sure if he is dead or just unconscious, however the city’s emergency services have been notified and are already on their way…”
From the TV, sirens could be heard in the distance yet Koenig was not listening. He shuffled down from his bed numbly, his eyes were dark and devoid of life. He walked out of the room, his phone still clenched in his arms. As he trudged up the winding stairs, he placed a call robotically, clicking on the green icon.
The recipient answered by the first ring.
“Dad!” Aaliyah’s voice came through. “Are you alright?”
“Aaliyah,” His tone was grim and melancholy as he walked up the stairs, never pausing for a break even when his breathing grew dry and rutted. “I need you to listen very carefully to what I’m about to say.”
Aaliyah’s silence was her consent.
“I’ve only had two glorious days in my life, the day when I married your mother and the day you were born. When your mother died, I was devastated. She was the bond that glued our family together and her death left an emptiness we both tried to fill in our own ways. Every time I looked at you, I was reminded of her and I threw myself into my work to forget.”
Koenig breathed out shallowly, forcing the words out. “But I tried too hard. Somewhere along the line, my work became my life and I used it to fill the loneliness I felt when your mother died and you moved away. I became obsessed, and with that obsession, I did things that have ruined me, things that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“Dad…”
“I worked and worked until Nuroh became my existence. I have convinced myself it is my existence.” Koenig pushed open the door that led to the roof, and the rain pelted him, the harsh pinpoints of water pricking his skin through his thin shirt. “I love you Aaliyah, I loved you from the moment you were born but I am too much of a coward to face the penance of what I have done.”
Sobs erupted from the other line, a plea from one desperate soul to another. “No, dad please…”
“I was a coward when your mother died, and I am a coward even now. I am sorry that you were born to a father who lets fear rule his waking hour.”
“Dad, we can work something out, I’ll make sure of it!”
“I am sorry you were born to a father who does not love you as you love him, who prizes his company over his daughter.”
“Dad, please! You’re all I have left of mom…”
“And I am sorry for the many ways I have wronged you, and the many ways I have failed you.”
“Please, I’m begging you…”
“Goodbye.”
Koenig cut the call, and threw his phone to the ground, not caring when the screen cracked, several zigzag lines adorning the surface. He moved towards the railing, and placed his hands on the cool metal barriers.
Without a second thought, he climbed over the railings, settling himself unsteadily on the thin ledge. The only thing stooping him from falling was his tight grip on the railings. Death stared him in the face.
“It would be very easy,” Koenig mused as he looked at the ground below. “It would be very easy to jump down, and end the madness my life has become.”
He was several floors above the ground, and the wind blew against him with soft caresses. Stinging his cheeks, it coaxed him to let go, to be free. If he jumped now, an instant death was guaranteed.
The thought enticed him even further and his grip on the metal loosened. He half expected Sean to burst through the door and tell him to stop this foolishness. But Sean was in the hospital now, and from the hospital, Sean would go to prison. If he did not jump now, he would go there too. He would live out his days there, never seeing the light again until his soul left him.
But now, if he let go now, he would die a free man. He would not be subject to the humiliation on TV, and the public trial and the gossip in his social circle. No Koenig had ever set foot on prison grounds, he wouldn’t be the first.
Koenig let go, and then he was falling. All the way, the wind was with him, singing a song of comfort in his ears.
All over, it will be all over soon.
His anxiety disappeared, his fear disappeared and his worry disappeared.
Mark Koenig only knew peace when the pavement split his skull open.
*