by Jason Levine
More tentacles wrapped around Murray’s throat and arms, pulling him in further. Murray tied to take a deep breath but the tentacles were cutting off his airway. He ghosted anyway and quickly de-ghosted the second he was freed. More tentacles wrapped around his body.
“You know,” Murray said as he fought their pull, “I can ghost through these all day.”
“Can you now?” said the General.
Fifty tentacles flew out from the General and hovered around Murray.
“Go ahead and ghost all you like,” the General scoffed. “I’ll have more ready to pull you in when you need to breathe.”
Murray struggled against the tentacles, trying to get enough momentum to allow him to move while he ghosted.
“I thought you couldn’t possess anyone that you had possessed before?” Murray asked, hoping to buy himself some time until he thought of a way out.
“True, it will be more difficult. It will take more effort and cause both of us excruciating pain. I’m willing to endure it, though.”
Murray ghosted one more time. This time, as he held his breath, a mass of tentacles writhed around him waiting for him to de-ghost. Murray drew out his staves and reloaded them. By the time he was done, his lungs were aching for air.
Murray de-ghosted and stabbed every tentacle that came at him. He ghosted through a few and whacked a couple away. Just when he thought he might be making progress, though, a tentacle yanked one of his staves from his hand. A second later, the second staff was pulled from his other hand. Murray ghosted through a mass of writhing leech tentacles. He didn’t dare to look back but heard distant clattering. The General must have tossed them far away.
Murray de-ghosted and ran for the steps at the rear of the stage. Just a few feet from the small box, he fell to the ground. A tentacle had wrapped itself around his leg and was dragging him back. Murray tried to ghost, but was too exhausted.
“It is foolish to resist me,” the General declared, slowly walking towards Murray as the tentacle reeled him in.
Murray reached into one of his pockets.
“I seem to recall doing it before. I figured I’d go for a repeat performance.”
Murray drew out his knife, extended the blade, and stabbed it into the tentacle. One of the leeches let out a scream and ripped in two. The rest of the leeches tried to slither up Murray’s body. He knocked them away and scrambled across the ground to get to his target.
Murray picked up the box and tried to press the button with his thumb, but a tentacle grabbed his thumb and held it in place. More tentacles wrapped around Murray’s arms and legs. They tore into his suit and started biting him.
“Why can’t you see how foolish this is, boy?” The General announced in a voice that seemed to simultaneously come from inside his head and from each wriggling leech.
The tentacles turned Murray around. He saw the writing mass of the General pulling him in. His legs and lower torso were already inside.
“Chaos reigns in this world. I will end it. I’m just trying to help everyone. Under my rule all will benefit.”
Murray could feel himself sliding deeper into the General’s quivering mass. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but he was sure he wouldn’t like it.
“After I absorb your form, I will impose order on this world. Chaos will be banished.”
Murray tried to calmly consider his options, but he didn’t see any. He was too tired to ghost out of the mass of tentacles–and even if he could, more awaited him. His thumb was being pulled by one tentacle to keep from pressing the button on his box while his other arm was immobilized by a different tentacle. Panic invaded his brain. He had no options. There was no way out of this.
“Don’t you see that this is for the best? When I reign, everyone will be happy.”
Murray looked down and saw more of his body disappear into the General’s mass. This was it. He was going to die.
“When I’m in command, everyone will follow my rule.”
“I’ve told you before,” Murray said, forcing the panic from his brain. “I don’t do rules.”
With the last of his strength, Murray ghosted. It was only for a split second, but it was enough to get his thumb free. As he pressed the button on the small box, Murray shouted “Ruth, give the signal now!”
Suddenly, the stage was surrounded by flickering blue light from the general dampener hidden underneath. It pulsed randomly–never on or off long enough to let Murray or the General get used to its state. Murray groaned in pain, dimly aware that Ruth had raised her arms upwards and blasted twin beams of energy into the sky.
Murray fought off the urge to pass out. He looked at the General. For all the pain Murray felt, the General seemed to be feeling it more intensely. His entire body was convulsing.
Murray broke free from the tentacles that had wrapped around his upper body. They shattered into dozens of leeches which writhed on the stage floor. Murray punched and kicked the General’s body until he broke free. Murray fell to the wooden stage and tried to crawl away from the General. As he struggled to maintain consciousness, Murray ripped off the few leeches that remained affixed on his arms and legs.
“My suit is a mess,” Murray thought wryly, looking at the tattered remnants of his outfit. “I don’t even think William could fix it now.”
The General attempted to pursue Murray, but the leeches that made up his legs collapsed. He tried to reach towards Murray but his arm fell off of his body. As it hit the ground, it smashed into thousands of screaming leeches which writhed in pain before passing out. The rest of the mass that was once the General fared little better. Leeches rapidly dropped off of him. The ones that remained screamed louder and louder. The pace quickened and soon the General was nothing more than a quivering mass on the stage. If Murray weren’t so close to unconsciousness, the sight would likely have made him nauseous.
Murray collapsed to the wooden floor. The sun had set. Darkness was taking over. A black shadow flowed into the camp and over the General’s troops. Murray was dimly aware that needed to turn off the general dampener. He barely found the strength to press the button on his small box. The flickering blue light ceased. He could feel himself losing the battle to remain awake and alert. The last image he saw before he passed out was of the shadow rapidly approaching the stage and passing over the General’s leeches.
Chapter Twenty Nine: Answers And Mysteries
Murray slowly awoke. He first realized he was no longer in the courtyard. Instead of a hard wooden stage beneath him, he was on something extremely soft. As his awareness returned, Murray recognized that he was in the bed in William and Heidi’s apartment.
Murray slowly sat upright and looked around. Sure enough, he was in the same posh bedroom that he awoke in when Heidi healed him. The only change was the addition of a chair next to the bed in which Ruth sat, slumped over and sleeping. She had changed out of the military outfit she wore when under the General’s control. Now, she was wearing a plain red t-shirt and blue jeans. Her fiery red hair was no longer tied in a bun but fell down her shoulders as she slept. She awoke with a start as Murray moved in his bed.
“You’re awake,” Ruth said, yawning. “How are you feeling?”
“My head is pounding. Otherwise I think I’m fine. What happened? How did I get back here?”
“That robot of Sean’s that you brought with you. Ronald, was it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he showed us where you had hidden the van. We used it to get Sean, Eddie, Thomas, and us out.”
“What happened to the General and his men?”
“Actually, we were wondering if you could explain some of that. After you passed out, this darkness spread over the General’s troops.”
“That was my… friend. Shadow.”
“Shadow?”
“Well, that’s what I call him, anyway.”
“Anyway, he went over the General’s troops. When he was done, they were still. Well, except for Brawn who woke up. He lo
oked around and then ran away. Quickly. He disappeared into the night.”
“And the General?”
“The darkness… Shadow… it spread over those leeches that the General turned into. We couldn’t see anything, but the shrieking sounds coming from inside were horrible. When it parted, none of the leeches were moving.”
“Good riddance,” Murray replied, frowning. He wasn’t one to celebrate someone’s passing, but he wouldn’t be mourning the General anytime soon.
“That’s when it got really weird,” Ruth added.
“You know, we’ve got a really abnormal definition of ‘weird,’” Murray said, smirking.
Ruth smiled. “You’re telling me. Anyway, the weird thing was that the darkness formed almost a human shape.”
“Glowing white eyes?”
“Yes. It reached for Sean. By this point, Sean was lying on the ground and Thomas was sitting beside him. I stepped between them and Shadow. I told him to step back and put my hands in front of me, ready to blast him if need be.”
“Did he tell you what he was going to do? His voice can be a little freaky. Almost like it’s in just your head, but not quite.”
“No, he didn’t talk at all. He just pointed at Sean. I said ‘You’re not going to hurt him.’ And then I froze.”
“You froze?”
“I couldn’t move. I’ve never felt so afraid. Not even when the General’s men had surrounded me.”
“Yeah, Shadow can have that effect.”
“Well, he walked right past me. I could hardly move, but I managed to look behind me. Thomas was frozen in fear too. Shadow swirled over Sean and then moved off. He disappeared into the building Eddie was being kept in.”
“Is Eddie okay?”
“He’s fine. Resting. But he kept saying something about having a message for you.”
Murray struggled to get out of bed. Ruth tried to stop him, but Murray insisted until she relented.
“Take me to see Eddie.”
Murray and Ruth walked down the hallway to a second bedroom which looked just as opulent as the one Murray awoke in. Ruth knocked in the door and opened it up. Inside, Heidi was changing some bandages on Eddie. His right eye was swollen and his left arm was in a sling.
“Will he be okay?” Murray asked.
“He should recover fully,” Heidi said. “I’d take his injuries for him, but I’m still not fully healed from yours.” She held up her still bandaged arm. “Until I’m strong enough, he’ll have to heal the old fashioned way.”
“Can I talk to him?”
Heidi looked at Eddie who nodded. She turned back to Murray.
“Very well, but keep it short. You have five minutes. My patient needs his rest.”
Eddie groaned as he propped himself up on his pillows. Murray and Ruth pulled over two chairs and sat down next to his bed.
“How are your feeling?” Murray asked.
“I’ve been better,” Eddie laughed before grabbing his ribcage and wincing in pain.
“Eddie, I’m really…” Ruth started.
“Sorry,” Eddie finished. “Ruth, you’ve apologized eight times already by my count. Probably some more when I was unconscious. Let’s make a deal. I won’t hold a grudge against you for what you did to me while you were under the General’s control as long as you don’t hold a grudge against me for what I did when I was Edge.”
“Deal,” Ruth said, smiling at Eddie.
“Eddie,” Murray began. “Ruth said that Shadow spoke to you after he killed the General and freed everyone under his control.”
“Shadow? You mean that guy made of darkness? Yeah. He came in to where Ronald and I were. Ronald stepped in front of me to defend me, but Shadow just swirled around both of us.”
“Did he attack?” Ruth asked.
“No. He just said he had a message for you, Murray. He said…” Eddie thought for a second. “It was ‘The deed is done and the pact is completed. You have my thanks and for that reason I will leave you be while you recover. The next time we meet, however, don’t count on gratitude’s protection.’”
Eddie and Ruth looked at Murray. Murray thought about the words for a second.
“What did he mean?” Ruth asked.
Murray told Ruth and Eddie about his first encounter with Shadow and how they escaped. Then, he related the tale of encountering Shadow as he broke into the General’s base and the deal he and Shadow made.
“Just how strong is this guy?” Eddie asked.
“Extremely strong. I don’t think he could have taken the General and all of his men on at the same time, but it would have been a close contest.”
“You have no idea,” came a voice from the doorway.
Murray and Ruth turned around and saw Sean standing in the doorway. Thomas was standing right behind him. Like Ruth, both had changed out of their military fatigues. Thomas was wearing a white, button-up shirt and black pants. Sean had changed into his usual gray long sleeved shirt and gray sweatpants.
“Sean! Thomas!” Murray exclaimed. “How are you two feeling?”
“Much better thanks to you,” Thomas said.
“Indeed. Except for a pounding headache, I’m fine.”
“That’s probably the remains of my sedative in you,” Murray said. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” Sean replied. “I’ll take a horrible headache over being mind controlled any day. About your ‘friend’ who helped save us, though.”
“What about him?” Murray asked.
“Didn’t you notice that there was something… different about him?”
“You mean the fact that he has abilities? If that’s your definition for ‘not normal’ then none of us in this room are normal,” Murray answered.
“No, I mean something else. I was passed out, so I couldn’t get a reading on him, but my robot that was with Eddie was active.”
“Ronald?”
“Yes. That’s the one. I was wondering why he was insisting that I call him Ronald.”
“I sort of named him.”
Sean shook his head. “Anyway, Ronald took some readings when Shadow was with Eddie. When we got back here, I had a few minutes to perform an initial analysis on the black goo that you retrieved. This is just a preliminary finding, mind you, but it looks like the goo came from Shadow.”
“That makes sense in a way. When we were trapped in the power dampener room, Shadow mentioned something about the guards taking his essence. What’s weird about that?”
“Murray,” Sean began, “over the years, I’ve seen many incredible abilities. I’ve never seen anyone able to give others abilities, though. As far as we know, only the Light One or the Dark One can do that.”
“You think Shadow is the Dark One?”
“Remember my prophesy, Murray,” Thomas interjected. “Third Original, the Dark One bound. To protect the Earth, he must be found… The Third Original was the General. The Dark One bound...”
“I found Shadow trapped in that room in Sampson Technologies,” Murray added.
“Exactly. And he definitely was instrumental in protecting the Earth from the General,” Sean concluded.
“The flickering light, shall be endured. With darkness unleashed, the pact secured,” Thomas continued.
“You beat the General by turning a general dampener on and off quickly,” Ruth said. “It made a weird, blue flickering light.”
“One that really hurts,” Murray added.
“Where did you think that trick up?” Thomas asked.
“When Shadow and I were trapped, I used an explosive to damage the room’s dampener. It turned on and off like that and was extremely painful. I figured the General would hate it just as much as I did.”
“He did from the sounds of it,” Eddie said. “I just wish I could have seen him crumble into a pile of leeches.”
“Else freedom will end, the swarm will feed. Bridge shadow and light, the Dark One freed,” Ruth said, concluding the prophecy.
“Well freedom wo
uld definitely have ended if the General fed on Thomas,” Eddie said.
“And I am doubly glad he didn’t,” added Thomas.
“And freeing the Dark One let Murray ‘bridge shadow and light’ to defeat the General,” Sean remarked.
Suddenly, Murray felt like he had a million questions to ask at once.
“What happened after Shadow left? Are the General’s men okay? Do they remember people having powers? Is the cat out of the bag?”
“One question at a time, please,” Sean said, slowing Murray down.
“We got Sean into hiding pretty quickly,” Ruth answered. “After all, it’s hard for him to pass as normal.”
“What? Normal people don’t have electronic eyes?” Murray asked.
Ruth laughed.
“Not usually.”
“Luckily, it seems that non-powered individuals recover from the General’s control a lot slower than powered individuals do,” Sean said.
“We had plenty of time to clear out the General’s remains,” Ruth continued, “along with any other evidence of powered individuals being there before the General’s men woke up.”
“That included Ronald and me,” Eddie added. “It would have been tough to explain a beaten up guy and a robot.”
“But don’t they remember what they’ve seen? Eddie and Brawn’s abilities?” Murray asked.
“We told them that the General was abducting people and subjecting them to a powerful hallucinogen,” Thomas explained. “All of the fantastic things they saw were just part of the drug’s effects.”
“And they believed that?”
“Before your powers,” Thomas said, “had you seen half of the things you’ve seen since your abilities, wouldn’t you have tried to cling to your old view of reality?”
“I think so. I’ve definitely seen some really weird things in the past few days.”
“As far as the General himself,” Sean continued. “He’s officially ‘at large.’ Ruth and Thomas wished the authorities luck tracking him down, but I somehow doubt that they’ll find him.”
“So what do we do now?” Murray asked. “The General is defeated and Shadow… the Dark One is free. We’ll be hunted again, right?”