by N. P. Martin
"We’ve already discussed that," he said. "Like or not, I own this place, and that’s how it will stay."
Jesus, I thought. The arrogance of thinking he was getting one over on the powers that be.
"Well, he is, isn’t he?" Max said.
For now.
"Anyway," LeBron went on. "I have big plans for this place, but I will need more energy, in the form of souls, to bring those plans to fruition."
"So you need to create more draining chambers," Roisin said.
"Yes," LeBron said. "That will be necessary."
"So where do you plan on getting more souls?" I asked. "I would have thought the millions you have here already would suffice."
"If only that were so," he said. "But alas, my plans call for a lot more than that. I need billions of souls."
"Billions?" I said.
"Yes, and when I can harness enough soul energy, I am going to make this place into a new Earth, only better."
"One which you control, of course," my mother said.
LeBron nodded his head slightly. "Of course, my dear. It will be my playground, after all. But not just mine; it can be all of yours too. Think about it, a place similar in every way to the Earth you knew, only magic won’t be hidden like it is on Earth. For magicians like you, that would be a blessing, to say nothing of the blessing of getting a second chance at life. A life that will last an eternity, because well…you are already dead."
"And to live in this paradise, all we have to do is work for you," Fergal said. "Doing what?"
"Whatever I require of you," LeBron said. "Magic will play a big part in my new world, and I will need accomplished magicians to help me run it. I’m humble enough to admit that such a massive undertaking as creating a whole new world might be too much for me to handle alone. I will need trusted acolytes to help me, and in return, said acolytes could have anything they wanted."
My mother sighed and shook her head. "LeBron, we have no interest in staying here to help you build your fantasy world. Please, just allow us to move on. I have no doubt there are plenty of others here that you could ask for help."
LeBron’s smile was strained. "You would think so, but there really isn’t. Magicians are rare in the Gray Lands, and I will need people of your skillset."
"So that’s a no then?" Fergal said, already knowing the answer.
"I don’t know how many more times I have to say it," he said beginning to pace the room. "None of you are getting out of here. Ever. Including you." He pointed at me. "So you either agree to help me and live out your afterlife in complete luxury, or I put you all back in the Draining Chamber, and you will still contribute to my new world, only in a much less enjoyable fashion. I will drain every one of you until there is nothing left." He stopped pacing and looked at each of us turn. "So you see, you don’t really have a choice, do you? Unless the Draining Chamber holds some special appeal that I’m not aware of, does it?"
No one answered as we stared at him.
"Well, does it?" he shouted.
We all shook our heads then, and my mother sighed. "No," she said, speaking what we were all thinking.
"I can’t believe you are going along with this nonsense," Max said. "The man is clearly fucking deranged."
"Yes," I thought back. "He also holds all the cards at present. I don’t have a choice until I can find a way out."
Right then, my whole body spasmed in pain as it felt like my ribcage was being crushed, and hot battery acid had replaced my blood. It wasn’t long before I hit the floor screaming. "What is this?" LeBron demanded to know as my family gathered around me in concern.
"He has a demon in him!" my mother snapped.
"Oh yes, the demon," LeBron said. "That filthy thing is still here?"
"Yes, and it’s killing him!" Rosin said.
"You can get rid of it," my mother said. "Do it! Before it kills him!"
"I can rid him of this parasite," LeBron said. "If you all agree to my terms."
"No!" Max screamed inside me. "He can’t! Tell them, Creed! If he sends me back, I’ll rip your fucking body to pieces! Tell them!"
"Wait…" I said, barely managing to raise a hand. "You…can’t."
"Why not?" my mother asked. "We need to send that bastard back to the Underworld now!"
"He’ll kill me," I gasped through the pain. "Part of him…is still in my body…on Earth…"
"Yes, that’s right, motherfuckers!" Max shouted. "It’s called insurance!"
"Fuck!" Fergal shouted. "That demon bastard!"
"What does it matter if he dies or not?" LeBron asked. "His soul will end up here anyway. In fact, I can guarantee it will."
The pain began to subside, and I sat up. "What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked him.
LeBron’s smile became wider than usual. "I haven’t told you yet how I plan on acquiring those billions of souls." He paused as if for dramatic effect, his eyes full of glee at what he was about to say. "I’m going to kill everyone on Earth."
He let that hang there for a long moment as we all stared at him. "What?" I said eventually.
"You heard me," he said. "What do you think I’ve been doing with all the soul energy I’ve been collecting here? I’ll tell you. I’ve built a fucking bomb! The bomb to end all bombs! A bomb so fucking powerful, it will wipe out every single person on Earth in an instant, and then billions of souls will come flooding into this place, providing me with the energy I need to build a new world."
"You’re fucking insane," Fergal stated.
LeBron drew back as if offended. "Insane? I don’t think so. A visionary is what I am."
I had no cause to believe that LeBron was lying. I barely knew the man, but I knew his type, and I knew him to be completely capable of such a massive act of…what would you even call what he planned on doing? Terrorism? Theft? Complete and utter fucking madness?
My first thought was of Leona, and then Ray, both of whom would die like everyone else when LeBron triggered his bomb. My own body would be destroyed, and I’d be stuck here too.
"Think about it," LeBron said as he looked at me. "What would you really be losing, Creed? Your loved ones would still be with you here. It would be just like they were alive on Earth. I would see to it." He held his hands out like some politician delivering a speech. "People, there is no downside to what I’m proposing here. I am offering you everything in exchange for your loyalty, that’s it. But, if you are foolish enough to turn me down, there is always the Draining Chamber, and your eventual, inevitable wiping out of existence." His wolfish smile widened. "I know which option I would choose…"
"You’re crazy if you think you could ever get away with such a thing," my mother said.
"My dear," LeBron said. "I already have."
"What do you mean?" I asked him as I stood up, albeit weakly.
"It means that my bomb is built, and ready to be transported by me to Earth," he said. "In a few hours, there will not be a single living soul left on Earth, and that…that is a fact, boys and girls. Now are you with me or not?"
My mother shook her head. "We could never be complicit in such a heinous, unspeakable act of terrorism," she said.
LeBron snorted and shook his head in disappointment. "You know what?" he said, a hard edge to his voice now. "Maybe you are not the smart people I thought you were. Maybe—"
He got no further, because I pulled out my gun and shot him in the forehead with a chaos bullet. My mother and sister screamed in shock at the sudden loud noise, and Fergal cursed out loud.
LeBron staggered back a few steps, his face registering his complete shock at being shot point blank in the head…as you would. It was my last bullet, or I would have shot him again. But it was also a chaos bullet, so I didn’t think I would have to anyway. I had yet to see anybody, supernatural or otherwise, stand up to a chaos bullet.
Though as it turned out, LeBron became the first person to do so. He leaned over as he gripped his head with both hands, crying out in pain. Then the bullet
that should’ve been still embedded in his brain, squeezed its way out of the entry wound and fell to the floor with a small thudding sound. LeBron then stood up straight and breathed out forcefully, as if he’d just did a massive line of coke. "Fuck!" he shouted as the hole in his head began to close over. "That hurt! But also…what a fucking rush!"
Before he could fully recover, I tried a Paralysis Spell on him, backed up first by my mother, then by Fergal and Roisin as we all said the words to the spell together, putting all of our combined magic behind it. If we could paralyze LeBron for even a minute, it would give me enough time to finish the bastard properly with my knife. Being a living soul, if he dies here so to would his body, wherever it was. Of course, his soul would end up here once more, but by the time that happened, it would be too late for him, because I would release all the soul energy he’d been using to gain power. He’d be just another soul then.
Which would’ve been all well and good, had the Paralysis Spell worked on him. It should have worked, given that four powerful adepts were casting it. But all four of us were extremely weakened, and as it turned out, no match for someone of LeBron’s power. With one angry wave of his hand, he sent us all flying across the room, smashing us into the wall.
"Fools!" he cried. "Did you really think your puny magic would be enough to hold me? You are even stupider than I thought."
"No," Max said as I lay dazed on the floor. "Just desperate."
LeBron walked over to us. "And to think I had such high hopes…" He shook his head in disgust. "My men will be along shortly to escort you all to the Draining Chamber. In the meantime, I have travel plans."
"You can’t do this!" I shouted.
LeBron thrust his hand out and used his power to lift me off the floor, pinning me against the wall. "Don’t dare tell me what I can and cannot do. You are speaking to a soon to be god."
I laughed then. "You know I met a guy like you just recently. He thought he was a god as well."
"Oh yeah?" LeBron said. "What happened to him?"
"I stopped him. He’s dead now. Probably in the Underworld somewhere, which is where you’re heading. I’ll see to it myself."
LeBron laughed and shook his head at me. "You know, I was going to finish you all and be done with it…right now. But I don’t think I will. I think I’ll keep you around so you can see the world that I build. I might even find every soul you’ve ever loved or cared about, and I might make you watch as I make their lives a living hell, worse than anything the Underworld has to offer. Then, and only then, will I consider destroying your souls for good. How does that sound?"
He let me go, and I fell to the floor, my body wracked with pain once more from the demon possession. "I’ll come after you, LeBron," I said wincing. "You know I will. Your fucking minions won’t be able to keep me here…"
LeBron bobbed his head from side to side. "I beg to differ, but just in case…" He closed his eyes for a moment, his body stiffening slightly. I could see he was working his power, but I wasn’t sure what for.
"There," he said after opening his eyes. "I just created a little insurance policy to make sure you stay here, Creed."
"What are you talking about?" I asked him.
"Well, it’s like this, Creed," he said. "If you try to leave this realm and come after me, your family will cease to exist. Their survival is completely dependent on you remaining in this realm. I know you desperately want to be the hero and stop me from wiping out billions of people on Earth, but we both know you won’t go down that path if it means your mother dearest, and your two siblings, die…for good. We also both know you would never be able to stop me anyway, even if you did somehow manage to come after me, so…you might as well get comfortable. All of you. I’ll be back soon enough…with several billion souls in hand."
"You’re bluffing," I said.
"Am I? Why don’t you test the theory, Creed?" He smiled then, as if he’d thought of something. "I tell you what, Creed. Let’s make this interesting, shall we? I will instruct my men to let you leave this realm not long after I do. They won’t try to stop you. So now, the only two options you face are: option one, save your family, or option two, try to save several billion people on Earth.
"So what do you think, Creed? Am I bluffing? What will you do, I wonder?" He laughed as he started to walk away. "I look forward to finding out…"
"LeBRON!" I roared after him. "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"
29
Goodbye
I was on my feet, pacing the room, fucking beside myself over what to do. There was very little doubt in my mind that LeBron was telling the truth. What sliver of doubt did exist was based only on the spurious notion that he had seemingly cast such a powerful spell so quickly. There would have been a lot of intricacies, and a lot of power required, to cast the spell in such record time. It could be done, if you had access to nearly unlimited power, which LeBron had in the form of the soul energy he had collected.
"That fucking asshole!" Fergal said, back on his feet now as well, along with Roisin and my mother. "He’s really going to mass harvest billions of souls."
"Just so he can build another world here," Roisin said.
"One that he controls," my mother added.
I turned and looked at them at all as if they had a screw lose in their brains. "Who the fuck cares about his motives?" I said shaking my head. "Don’t you know what he’s done?"
The three of them looked at each other as if they shared some common consensus, then they looked at me. "We know what he’s done," my mother said.
"Then why the fuck are you not freaking out?" I asked.
My mother smiled and walked up to me, placing a hand that I barely felt on my cheek. "August, my son," she said. "You know what you have to do."
I looked right into her faded eyes and shook my head, even though, deep down, I knew she was telling the truth. "No…" I said. "I’m not…I can’t…"
"You have to, Gus," Fergal said as he came toward me. "That crazy fool is going to wipe out the Earth’s entire population. We all know he isn’t bluffing about any of it. We know he has the means to do it."
"And he will do it, Gus," Roisin said, coming closer as well, making me feel like they were ganging up on me. "You know he’ll kill all those people."
"Including Ray," Fergal said.
"And Leona," my mother added, surprising me.
"How do you know about Leona?" I asked, then shook my head. "Never mind…"
"Just go, little brother," Fergal said. "You’re the only one who can save all those people."
"But…" Tears streamed down my cheeks. "You’ll all die…you’ll cease to exist anymore."
Roisin was crying now too, and I really wasn’t sure if they were tears of joy or sadness. "We know," she said.
I looked at Fergal, and the second I did, barely visible tears rolled down his cheeks. "Brother…" I said, suddenly realizing I was going to miss him all over again, only worse this time.
The three of them moved toward me, and we huddled together as a family one last time, our heads slightly bowed as we looked at each other through wet eyes. "August," my mother said, barely managing to hold her reassuring smile. "I am so proud of the man you have become, of the things you have done to help others. You turned out exactly how I thought you would, how I always hoped you would."
"Mother…" I could barely speak.
"I love you, Gus," Roisin said. "My little brother…"
Fergal gripped the back of my neck, and I actually felt his hand squeeze as he pulled my head against his. "I’m proud of you, little brother, you hear me?"
I could only nod.
"You go now, and you get that bastard," he said. "You make sure he suffers for what he’s done, all right?"
"Oh…he’ll fucking suffer all right," I said through gritted teeth. "I’ll make sure of it."
We all stayed hugging for what seemed like too short a time, until it became obvious that I would have to leave them to their fates if I was going to have an
y chance at all of stopping LeBron. My mother stepped back first, then Roisin, and then Fergal.
Leaving me standing alone.
My mother smiled her beautiful smile at me, and I knew it would be last time I ever saw it, a fact which seemed to rip my guts out going by the pain I felt there. "Go now, son," she said. "Do what I brought you into this world to do. I love you."
"I love you, Gus," Roisin said.
"Love you, little brother," Fergal said.
With the tears still pouring from my eyes, I said, "I love all of you…"
Making myself move, tearing myself away from them, was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I just kept thinking to myself that it wasn’t supposed to be like this, that they were supposed to come home with me…
The only thing that got me moving was the deep anger I felt for LeBron, and the thought of him doing what he was going to do.
I didn’t have a choice.
I had to try and stop the bastard.
I would stop him. I was damned if I was going to let the deaths of my beloved family members be in vain.
As faded as they now were, I gave each of them one last loving glance, before turning my head and walking toward the door.
I barely got two steps before I heard the voice of Max behind me. "Not so fast," he said. "I’m not leaving until I get what I came here for."
About to turn around, my condemnation for Max was curtailed when the door opened and Moira walked into the room looking beat to hell. She could barely walk as she came tumbling into the room. "Moira!" I said as I ran to her. "Are you all right?"
Moira held out a hand as she straightened up. "I’m fine…"
"You don’t look it," I said. "What happened?"
"LeBron left me with some of his men, saying he would be along later to see to me." Dark gray blood ran down her face as she spoke. "I managed to escape. Then I hear that LeBron has left. Is that true?"
"It’s true." I looked behind me to see Max listening intently as my mother spoke to him. Then I turned back to Moira. "You still after a lift home?"