“Because it can kill you. That is, if you don’t balance yourself correctly.”
I leaped down into the snow and skid all the way down the slope without a care in the Fancore about what I was doing. I was a natural when it came to rolling and sliding down steep surfaces because of the steep hills I grew up wandering back home. I just thought of it as an extremely long hill that seemed to never end. Surfing down the way behind me were the three men, unable to see the rocks that I was coming up to. I had to make sure that they didn’t run into them, as they would surely be killed by the impact. I shot a beam of energy through my finger tip that blew a hole through the rocks large enough to allow all three to pass by.
As I dashed through the trench I had created, I looked back to see a flaw in my action. The shards of the dismembered stone were scattered along the area, so all I could do was hope they wouldn’t trip over them on the way down. I continued to slide downhill as fast as a mountain goat, dodging every obstacle and destroying every barricade in my path. As I reached the bottom of the slope, I waited for the rest of my group to come down. In a matter of seconds, Larou came forward, landing on his knees, his eyes widely opened in amazement to the thrill he had just experienced. George came third, landing on his feet, but slipped and fell on his back when he looked up to face me with a cocky grin. And finally, Bradel tumbled down the steep slope, with snow all in his white beard.
With a laugh at them all, especially George, I turned around and continued north to our destination. The city of Xixic patiently awaited our arrival for the space port. Soon enough the city gates were in reach, but we were halted by the city guards. The men spoke in another language, so the translation sequence commenced when Larou revealed to us what they were trying to say. We were lucky to have this man with us after all. We wouldn’t have gotten far without his ability to speak multiple Imgan languages such as Ingoggidonian. It wouldn’t surprise me if he knew more from planets beyond the twelve Imgas.
“The one on the right asks you for your reason of being here.”
“I am the chosen one. I wish to board a space ship for travel.”
Larou, the fluent mage, repeated what I had said in the Ingoggidonian native tongue. Their response was as I would have expected. They backed away and kneeled before me, uttering praises and thanks to their gods. Then one of them stood back up and began speaking to me again.
“The one on the left says that you’re more than welcome to enter the city, on one condition.”
The guard continued to state his terms, and without a moment of hesitation, Larou read off what it was that the armored man had said.
“You must save their city from the demons that haunt a vacant residence. They weep like banshees and torture any who dare come inside. Do this, and they will gladly let you leave to the stars.”
I nodded and flipped the falling snow off of my flame hair. Without further questions, I gave him the only answer that would let us pass and make the city happy.
“I shall do as you wish, sir.”
Anything else as a response would have been futile. Besides, it was my birthright to vanquish evil from the land, and lesser demons were no exception. The city opened up to me as a marvelous wonderland with the white-topped buildings and lightly faded brick towers. As for the men who guarded the gate, they opened it for us and walked with us to show the way to the demon-infested house he spoke of.
The house was as common as the rest of the houses and buildings around it. The only difference was the obscure and somber vibe it gave off. Despite the fact that the whole area was cold, an even cooler breeze emanated around the steps of the house, as if there was a message being sent to me, demanding that I kept myself as far away from this place as possible. I was not intimidated; I was not afraid. The demon infesting the vacant house was going to have to face me before descending back to hell.
Judging by the names engraved on the walls and the ground around the doorway, I thought that this house was a sort of sanctuary in its prime. I stepped closer to the door and found a rose, long dead and wilted, with a piece of blue cloth tied around the powdered stem. It was a flower left there by a deceased one’s relative. I looked through the foggy windows and felt a strange sense of déjà vu; sometime beyond my memory, I felt that I had visited this place in a dream.
Trying not to let the eerie feeling get the best of me, I opened the front door and proceeded in. The wooden door made a ghostly creaking sound, shaking my nerves off balance when I looked around and witnessed the sight of cobwebs and dust. There were dolls lying on the furniture that began to turn their heads and follow me with a low chanting. I stepped slowly through the dark living room, watching for the demon in this haunted house. For the moment, it didn’t seem to be half as dire as I had expected, or as frightening as I had fathomed before walking in. The dolls were not a threat to me at all.
There were worms oozing out of the cracks in the tiled floors; rats and other vermin-like creatures made homes in the sofas, bookshelves, and clocks that rapidly ticked around the walls. Bats hung in the corners of the ceiling and did not seem to wake from my entry. There were pictures of various men and women torn apart by what appeared to be claws, sharp enough to even rip through the frame.
“Demon of this house, I command you to show yourself for the exorcism at hand. You won’t intrude in this home, nor shall you holdout a compromise. You will not sway me demon, for I am the chosen one, who has been sent to destroy you! Come out and face me!”
The room became silent, the dolls stopped chanting, and the clocks stopped ticking. None of the creatures inhabiting the residence were shaken by my voice either. As the demon’s presence grew stronger from my summons, I could feel it as clear as day. The malevolent essence whispered and reverberated all around the room, giving me no indication of where to begin my search. The hallway down the corner was one choice, but the doorway leading to the dining area and the kitchen was another. Without any sense of direction, I followed the whispers starting to grow down the cold, pitch-black hallway. I saw many doors that were painted in blood. They spelled horrid sentences such as: Get out!, Leave while you can!, and This is hell!
“Demon, what is your name? I command you to show yourself at once! You are not welcome here! Go back to hell!”
In an instant, I was slammed against the wall, which dented on impact from the swords on my back, rattling the entire house with a boom. It was the physical form of a demon I had once seen before in an old nightmare when I was a child. I was sure of it this time. Somewhere in my past, this demon had played a major role in one of my recurring childhood nightmares. I had repressed memories flashing back in my mind as soon as I saw the crimson and orange eyes open to me. The body of the demon was tall and lanky, covered in red ooze that dripped off every bend in his frame. The six arms he possessed each had a function in torturing me. One pulled my hair, one scratched at my face with long, dirty claws, two held me back by my arms, and two held me back by my legs. The wheezing breath of this unclean spirit felt like it was melting the side of my face with extreme heat following every exhale.
The demon was naked but had no gender. It was one of the most disgusting abominations I had ever laid eyes upon, aside from Jobik in my dream. It hissed in my ear with a long, serpentine tongue, “I am Asteroth the Crimson. I am the one who has tugged upon your strings when you were much younger. There are reasons why your memory was wiped clean of me, Sui Ozborn.”
“What?”
I could not speak after that. Everything he had said in those last two sentences stunned my body and numbed the pain that he had been causing me. I stared into the hideous face of the fanged monstrosity and finally recalled what had happened in my younger life. Overwhelmed, I realized that I had traveled the world of Imga I before, not in a dream, but for real. But when was it, I asked myself. When was I out in the world to be tied together with this demon, and when was I ever in the city of Xixic? Without a way
of asking him what had happened before, how I lost my memory, I knew my only chance of escape was to resist him.
I mumbled a spell in an ancient tongue and shouted out the last word to cause a blast of fire that sent the demon flying back. I wiped the red slime off of my body and looked back at Asteroth, who was lying on the couch with wide-eyed shock on his face. I didn’t need to worry about the past at this time. I didn’t care how I knew him before. It was more important that I took care of this demon once and for all.
While he was down, I took out my swords and desperately tried to figure out how to separate the bow from Soba. I tried many combinations of moves to no avail. I then remembered how I made these two blades back in the jungles of Matta Shimbib. I crossed the two swords and swiped them to both of my sides, causing Soba to release the bow and bring herself back together as a whole. In my right hand, I held Soba, and in my left, I held the bow. With my weapons back as they were originally shaped, I dropped Soba to the ground and readied my bow for shooting this creature.
Instead of using the large arrow, I took a symbol of the god Inson, Imgan god of holiness and demon vanquishing, off of the wall. It was called The Cleansing Ivory; a sharp tipped fang with two swords crossed above it. After securing it in the bow’s line, and having the demon in my crosshairs, I faithfully released the Cleansing Ivory, shooting it straight into the crimson demon’s forehead, instantly turning him into a pile of dark red ashes that sputtered on the wooden floor like confetti. There was no way to be sure that he was truly dead, even after what I had done to him, but at least for the moment, he was gone.
I took a deep breath and looked around the old living room. The bats had long since fled; the rats, worms, and roaches had crawled back into their homes within this home. The ash pile on the couch sizzled and smoked like a fire just put out. Afraid that something else might happen, I picked up my blade and fastened both of my weapons behind my back. I left the house and met the guard who stood with my three companions. The guard had a face of suspenseful hope that I had completed the task set before me.
Larou asked with desperation, “Did you do it? Is it actually-”
“Yes, though, I need a glass of water.”
“Oh, there’s water at the space port,” Larou ensured me, “we can get some from there before we leave to get the cure.”
The Xixic guard wiped his brow and said in a relieved tone of voice, Larou translating his words, “After all those years of fearing that haunted house, we finally have an exorcist who knows how to take care of things.”
“You’re quite welcome, sir. Now if you will excuse us, we must be leaving.”
After hearing Larou’s translation, the guard nodded and smiled broadly. He ran back to the gate in delight. I had never felt so awkwardly strange and overwhelmed by worship and revelations of a past I never knew I had. I did not recall much, but the images of me in these very streets did return. Like finding a lost treasure you had misplaced years ago; I knew that I had been all around the globe, but it was fuzzy. Perhaps the curse was getting to my head again, I thought. George gripped my arm gently and leaned in close to ask, “What is it?”
“I don’t know. I just-”
I couldn’t finish that sentence with all of the jarring feelings and vague memories that kept replaying in my head. Throughout my body, shivering pains flowed up and down beneath my skin. He walked me to the space port by the hand and never gave up looking to check my face and my body for any signs of illness or possession. He had a caring heart, and there was nothing I loved more in a man than one of those. I tried to reassure him that I was not sick, but he adamantly kept stating that there was something wrong with me. Whatever that demon had done, it wasn’t a sickness of any kind.
As soon as we got to the space port lobby, just around the northeastern corner of the city, I saw many people of different races and species coming in and out of the doors for flight registration and citizenship to the Imgan Monarchy System. As I marveled at the rocket hanging from the ceiling, I began to forget the happenings from within that wretched house. This station was very welcoming to all who entered. It seemed almost too welcoming; however, for I could feel a dark presence watching us from the shadows. Shoving my paranoia away, I saw the food court where an ice cold glass of water awaited my lips. I got in line for my refreshment and took a couple of golden coins out to pay for a snack as well.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the old man that George has been talking to in the Shimbian tavern when we had Spike with us. He was dressed as nicely as before, wearing a purple tunic, a turtleneck shirt underneath it, and a pair of dark violet pantaloons below a buckled belt and above two curl-toed shoes. He was off in the distance, holding something behind his back. The suspicious vibe he gave off worsened when he turned his head back and forth as if he was searching for someone. When his eyes scraped by me, he jetted his gaze right back at me. He then gave me a look of spite and started coming toward me with whatever it was behind his back. I looked down at Bradel who was standing obliviously by my side. Trying to get his attention, I lightly kicked his leg, but he moved to speak with Larou further back in the line, as soon as my foot was about to nudge him. George was too busy looking around for me to grab his attention, but it was too late anyway. The old noble was gone. A woman wearing a long, black cloak stopped him in the midst of the crowd he was pushing out of his way. I noticed that her face was covered by a mask. Pushing the old man away with a mood of disappointment, she looked at me over her shoulder. The mask’s stare was beyond hollow; a pair of black eyes painted below the brow, a straight red line above the chin was like a mouth, and there was absolutely no sign of a nose on that soulless veil.
I stared back and prepared for anything to happen. The woman was the same one who left with the nobleman in the Wet Twig’s Inn. After a brief moment that felt like an eternity, she vanished into the crowd of unorganized lines of people waiting to book passage. I looked around and could find no sign of either of them among the port. I looked at George behind me and remembered that he knew the old man. When we were cured of this bloody curse, I knew I was going to ask him all about that strange man. I didn’t want to mention it while at the mercy of this ailment because I feared what might happen if I did. I focused on sating my appetite and thirst. Fighting off the fear of those two as much as I could with the thought of crumpets, I looked down to see Bradel tugging on my blouse, wanting to have a word with me. When I saw the concerned gleam in his eyes, I realized that he was about to say something important.
“George didn’t tell you where we were going, did he?”
“No, I was just told that Larou knew of a cure for the jauish brand curse. Why? Do you know, Bradel?”
He looked around to see if anyone would notice him say it, then had me bend down so he could whisper it in my ear.
“Salidiah Pulse.”
The name of that planet was legendary. It was a mythical land told to be among the stars, far, far beyond the Imgan worlds. I didn’t believe what the gnome had told me at first, but when I looked at the galactic map on the large wall, after receiving my water and warm crumpets, I nearly choked on the first sip. It held hundreds of planets, containing life in areas of this outer space that I had never even known to exist! Salidiah Pulse happened to be one of them, floating around in the blackness with the glowing, white stars.
I said in awe, “Salidiah Pulse? So you do exist. My, what an adventure my life is turning out to be.”
“Indeed,” Larou said impatiently. “Now if you don’t mind, we must get our boarding ticket to the planet. Finish your beverage and cookies and we will be off.”
Opening my ears to the mixed chatter of the crowd, I heard talk and whispers from people all around the area, chattering about me, and saying that I was the one sent by the gods. How they knew this was unclear to me; however, I tried my best to ignore the gazes and glances. I was not in the mood for an interview with a curious schol
ar or media group. After we got to the front of the line to buy our tickets, we left to get on board our designated shuttle that was out on the space-docks.
After exiting through another set of double doors, George and I were stopped dead in our tracks. It was a mighty sight to behold. The colossal craft was unrealistically obese, with engine thrusters nearly the size of five hundred-story buildings put together. The space port looked like a larger city than Xixic itself. I had another fuzzy flashback, but I brushed it off until after I got rid of the brand upon my high arm.
“Wooooow. It’s so vast!”
George reached out and held my hand while he admired the scenery with me. Larou and Bradel moved on without us to save our seats on the ship. I sighed and told George about the memories brought back to me by that red demon.
“George, my life before this wasn’t as simple as you might have thought. I’ve been recalling things. Blurry memories are returning to me after seeing that demon earlier. They aren’t disturbing memories, but they just keep holding my head and ripping me away from the present. I want to know my true past, but we have to focus on getting rid of this curse first.”
George couldn’t understand what I was talking about. It was probably the curse, so I just relied on him to hear me through after we were rid of the horrible tattoos plaguing our bodies like a disease. It was a bane of the mind; a neurological toxin forbidden by nature.
“Just let us be rid of this brand before I share anymore with you,” I said, annoyed, holding my brow, “I may- I may be hallucinating again. I saw an old man and a masked woman earlier. They probably weren’t even really there. We cannot fully trust our vision, or our minds. Not even our emotions, to an extent.”
George snapped out of his trance and nodded his head. He walked me to the ship where we were going to board while Larou and Bradel were already up on the ramp speaking with the stewards about the catering that they gave to passengers. George and I could honestly care less about unneeded comforts. Instead, George and I took the wise route and rejected any massages, catering, and especially sleep in a cabin. We were perfectly content with just sitting in our chairs throughout the entire flight, observing the mysterious nature of the dark dimension, above the atmosphere, through the window.
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