I

The pain was gone. Johnny opened his eyes, and looked around.

Am I dead? He wondered.

Certainly not——his back and neck bled profusely. Johnny slowly stood up to get his bearings. The world was the same as the dreamscape had been. Behind him was the river that flowed red from his own blood. The wounds in his neck and back still bled, and that made doing anything a bit difficult. It wasn’t the pain——there was none anymore——but instead the torn muscles made movement somewhat like threading a needle five feet away. It really wasn’t really possible.

Johnny collapsed to the ground and cried. What had happened to him? Why? The worries of a high school junior being suddenly eclipsed by something terrible and incomprehensible wasn’t something he even considered. Now that it was upon him, however, he had no idea how to proceed. The tears streaming down his face didn’t seem to be helping much, and as Johnny sat there letting his emotions run dry, he began to realize something. No matter what, he was stuck in this place, for better or for worse, and he should probably do something about his situation, especially the wounds in him. It was obvious by now that they weren’t going to stop bleeding any time soon, and that he wasn’t going to die either.

Johnny sat up and reached behind him to where he knew the river was. He kind-of wished that the river wasn’t there, but instead, something comfortable. To his surprise, he felt something soft but springy where he had expected there to be cold and wet. Turning his gaze as best as he could, Johnny saw that the soft thing was a bed with sheets on top. He crawled his way over to it and lay on top for a while, his wounds bleeding just as much as before.

The blood from his back and neck were soaking into the bed, making a mess that was really uncomfortable for him to lie in, but Johnny had learned something important, or so he figured. With only a wish or a belief, he could create things in this world. That meant he could probably fix his back the same way. Although he had never been good at school subjects like Math or English, he had always been good with his hands. The video games he played daily couldn’t have been better training for a situation like this.

Johnny stopped crying as he realized that this new home could be lots of fun. Once he understood how this place worked, maybe he could cheat his way back just as he’d gotten here. Games always had cheat codes, and so too did real life, he thought.

Johnny concentrated on believing that his neck and back weren’t wounded. It was slightly difficult considering the uncomfortable feeling of the blood rushing out telling him that he had the slices there. After about thirty minutes——and nearly twice as many attempts——Johnny was able to seal both holes in his body such that movement was much better.

The fact that the whole idea had worked, allowed him to put more faith into the belief that there were cheat codes to this world. He would find them sooner or later. Johnny decided that he should probably find a good place to sleep for the night. He didn’t know how to build a shelter or any of that, but if his imagination worked for anything, then it would work for this.

Johnny stood up and looked into the sky. The blood-red moon put him on edge. Nothing should be that way, but some things shouldn’t change, he reasoned, that way, if the demon returns, she won't see any differences. Johnny imagined back the river and his body where it had been before walking. Johnny didn’t know which direction he walked or how long he walked for, but when he felt a safe distance away, he imagined a comfortable hut that was small but livable. With a stroke of inspiration, he decided to make the house only visible to certain glasses. His house was now demon-proof too.

Feelings of sleepiness came over Johnny after he had done these imaginings. It seemed to him as if doing these things worse him out, but that was what made it a good game to cheat. Every game had rules, and this was just another one. He would break this rule like he’d broken every other one. Even if it couldn’t be broken, he would exploit it to his advantage.

All that was left to do that night was eat and sleep. Johnny imagined a hamburger, his favorite food. The burger filled him up quickly and left him even more tired than before. He put on the glasses and found the door to the small house. He entered and looked around. There was a bed, a television, a bathroom, and a kitchen——all the essentials that a teenager could want or need. Anything else he had missed, he could imagine. Johnny pulled back the covers on the bed and took off the glasses. He felt around for the night table to put the glasses on, placed them there and then climbed onto the bed. He slid under the sheets and pulled the covers up tight to his chin.

It had been a long day. Tomorrow, he would need to work on these glasses. They were really impractical. As well, he would have to explore the world a bit more to find the limits of imagination as well as the other rules. Perhaps there was a library of data that could be found. Johnny yawned loudly and closed his eyes.

II

Light flooded into the house early the next morning. Johnny rubbed his eyes and yawned loudly. It was too early to get up. School wasn’t for another few hours. He turned over and jumped back hard enough to hit his head on the headboard of the bed. He was floating in midair! He rubbed his head and the events of the night before came back to him. With the realization, Johnny reached over to where he had put the glasses on the night table. He put them on, and the house literally materialized in front of his eyes.

His work was laid out in front of him for the day. First on the list would be to fix these damned glasses so he didn’t wake up like this anymore. Johnny concentrated on affixing the glasses to his eyes. In the end, the best he could do was to make the glasses into contacts. Anything more was just too complicated and difficult.

His stomach grumbled with the need for food after all his efforts. Johnny materialized another hamburger, this time with barbeque sauce on it to make it taste even better. The juicy burger felt good going down, but he was so hungry that he didn’t really taste it. The next item on his list for the day was to go exploring. If he better knew the layout of the world, he might be able to understand how the place worked.

Since Johnny had been able to fix his wounds the day before, he wondered how else he could modify his own body to be able to explore the world at a faster pace than just walking——that would be tiresome. He first thought about wings, but that would probably be pretty boring after a while. Instead, he thought that perhaps a flying machine could prove a bit more difficult to learn, but rewarding because it could do things he couldn’t with wings.

In his mind, he imagined a craft where he could lie facing towards the ground such that the flying machine was just barely larger than he was. In the wings of the machine, he imagined that there were two machine guns on each side——just in case. The controls of the aircraft were located where his feet and hands would be. The craft had no visible propulsion system, but in a world like this, it really didn’t matter. Johnny climbed into the machine and found the controls exactly as he had pictured. The hands controlled the pitch and the roll. His feet controlled the yaw by using two foot pedals. All together, it was an incredible flying machine for its size. Sure, Johnny could have used his brain to control the whole thing, but where’s the fun in that? The only parts he chose for mind control were the throttle and the machine guns.

With his mind, Johnny cleared a path through the trees not by making the trees vanish, but instead by sliding them back like a folding door. He took off in the flying machine and closed the gap back up again. His hideout would be invisible to the demon and anyone else that could be lurking out here. The view he saw was of mountains covered in trees. In some of the valleys there were lakes of deep blue water. The world looked beautiful in the daytime.

Johnny soared over the hills and valleys, carefully keeping track of the layout. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting that stuck in his mind, and by late afternoon, he was tired. Johnny headed back from where he’d come, feeling hungry and a little tired. He was happy though. The flying machine had worked amazingly well, but it was a little uncomfortable. Tomorrow, he’d try wings, that shouldn’t be as painful. Just in case he ever wanted to use the plane again, he decided to make a garage for it under his house.

To land, Johnny did the same as before. He separated the trees and closed them up once he was done. With his mind, he imagined a garage for the aircraft under the house. The entrance to the garage was inside the house, and the way out was a short underground runway. He carried the machine inside and closed the door behind him. Johnny climbed the stairs into his house.

The sun was setting and the blood moon was rising. The crimson of late evening was being replaced with the crimson of eternal blood lust. Much as he wanted to shut it out, the unearthly glow penetrated every wall and every fiber of his being. Chills ran down his spine. Although day was his paradise, night was his hell all the same. Something would have to be done to change that before he scared himself crazy.

Johnny imagined up spaghetti for the night. It would keep him going for a while. He lay down in bed and pulled the covers up over his head. Even then, the red glow still came to his eyes. Under his eyelids, he could still see more red. It was a different color than he normally would have expected if normal light had shone on his face. With a last desperate act, Johnny imagined that the walls were lined with lead. The heavy metal kept the glow from entering his house and allowed him to sleep, though still shaken from the experience.

III

The morning came later than Johnny had expected, but this was due to the lead in the walls and windows keeping that unearthly glow out. He got out of bed and imagined meatloaf for breakfast. It didn’t much matter to him what he ate or when, as long as it tasted good. The meatloaf was the very same as his aunt made, and it made him feel a bit homesick as he ate it.

With the food in his stomach, he was ready to explore more of the world, this time in the other direction. Johnny imagined that he had wings where his arms were. Knowing that there could be a slight complication if he didn’t have hands on his wings, he accounted for that with sharp talons for gripping. Just like yesterday, this was just in case.

Johnny jumped and flapped his wings a few times to gain altitude. Once above the trees, he rode the air currents in the opposite direction as he had the yesterday. The mountainous terrain he had seen the other way was in stark contrast to what he saw now. This side of his house was much flatter and increasingly sandier as well. Way out in the distance, Johnny could make out a full desert, complete with cacti and sand dunes.

Specks that were animals moving across the savannah looked like prime targets to him. He dove and landed on one of the smaller creatures. It was something like a deer, but smaller. The animal died on impact from the heavy body and sharp claws. This would be hard to bring back to the house, but it wouldn’t drain him as much as imagining food. Johnny had realized over these past days that doing anything made him tired. The more complicated or large the task, the more tired he was. When he did the things on his own, he reasoned, he wouldn’t get quite as tired.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something that was trying to stay hidden. It wasn’t an animal and it wasn’t a demon. It looked human, and it looked too scared to run in case the big bird that was Johnny saw it. He turned to the human and recognized it as a man about thirty years old. Immediately, Johnny imagined his wings back into arms and hands so he wouldn’t look quite so scary. The man stood there awestruck by his transformation.

“Hi, I’m Johnny,” he said to the man.

“I-I’m.” The man stuttered, “I’m Zack.”

“You look lost Zack.”

“Damned right I am. I have no clue where here is. Do you?

“Not any more than you do, but I’m figuring out this place as best I can. From what I can tell, it’s no different than a dream. Imagine something and see what happens.”

Johnny watched as Zack closed his eyes. Suddenly, a rifle materialized in his hands. Johnny smiled. This man had good instincts, whatever this place was.

“If you haven’t noticed,” Johnny said, “You get tired and hungry every time you do that.”

“Yeah, I feel it. I’m just amazed that I can do this sort of thing.”

“You can really do anything you want, it’s just more difficult sometimes when the things are larger. Really zaps the energy right out of you.”

Johnny paused for a moment to catch his breath. The flight here had tired him out considerably.

“See this animal here? I need to carry it back to my house to cook. It takes less energy this way. Do you need a place to stay?”

“Yeah,” Zack said. “I don’t have a place to go. I just showed up to see you pounce on the, the thing right out of nowhere.”

“Alright, it may be a bit hard for me, but here goes.”

Johnny imagined himself into a much larger bird with hugs wings and talons so that he could carry both the carcass and Zack back to the house. He felt his body changing with the imagination. Zack let out a scream of surprise and fright. Johnny turned to him and bent down.

“Get on and be careful you don’t fall.”

Zack climbed on and Johnny took off. He picked up the animal in his claws and raced through the air towards home. The miles raced by quickly, and before long, the small house was visible through the trees. He circled lower and lower until he was able to drop the carcass and land in the most open place next to his house. Zack got off of his back and looked about ready to throw up. Johnny transformed back into himself and turned to Zack.

“Here’s the house,” he said. “It’s invisible to anyone who doesn’t have certain glasses. Oh, right. You can’t see it. Sorry. Here.”

Johnny imagined a pair of glasses and gave them to Zack. When he put them on, surprise radiated from his face.

“That’s wild,” Zack said. “I never would have expected something like this. Why is it invisible?”

“Hopefully,” Johnny said, “You’ll never have to find out. Go outside tonight and I think you’ll understand. Tomorrow, I’m going to teach you what I know, and maybe we can figure out where the where here is like you said. Help me with the animal?”

The rest of the evening was spent dissecting and cooking the beast. Dinner was served and the leftovers stashed away neatly in the refrigerator. Johnny imagined a small room for Zack and the both of them headed off to sleep.

IV

Johnny got up early the next morning, before sunrise. There were a few things he had to do before Zack got up later in the day. He was going to have to teach Zack what he knew in the hopes that Zack would not be such a lump sack of potatoes that he had to drag around everywhere.

Outside the house, the red glow of the demonic moon still shone unabated. Despite this, Johnny ventured outside to set up a small obstacle course for Zack to test his skills once he had learned them from Johnny. When Johnny was done, he was very hungry and a bit tired. He went inside and heated up some of the food from the night before. There were still huge chunks of uncooked meat in the refrigerator. He cooked some of them up on a frying pan like bacon and hoped that the smell would bring Zack from his room. It didn’t, and Johnny ate his meal in silence while thinking about how to continue.

He finished the food quickly and headed off to Zack’s room to rouse him. Zack was snoring loudly and Johnny had to push him nearly off of the bead in order to wake him. Zack yawned loudly and asked Johnny what time it was. Johnny responded that there was no time.

“Get up,” said Johnny, “we have to get ready for the day. I have a lot to show you and teach you about this place. Sleeping won't get you home faster. Lets go!”

“Alright, alright.” Zack said, yawning again. “I’ll be out in ten minutes. Let me wake up.”

Johnny left Zack to his own devices and went back into the kitchen to fix both of them a plate of food. It was his second plate, but Johnny didn’t need to tell Zack that. He knew that he would be using a lot more of his energy teaching than Zack would learning. He sat at the table and started eating. He was halfway through the meal when Zack finally showed up almost twenty minutes later, obviously having gotten more sleep. Zack sat down across from Johnny and ate the food in front of him like a starved animal.

When they were both done, Johnny imagined his plate clean. This would be the first in a set of challenges for Zack.

“Zack.” He said. “I want you to clean that plate with nothing more than your imagination. Imagine it’s clean and see what happens.”

Zack’s face contorted with a pained I-need-to-crap kind of look. He was concentrating a bit too much, probably to the point that he would have an ulcer or something. Johnny put his hand on Zack’s shoulder and told him to stop.

“There’s no need to concentrate that much,” he said thinking of a way this jock of a man might understand. “Think of it as a woman and imagine her clothes off. It’s that sort of thing.”

Zack’s face changed this time when he closed his eyes. There was a small smile on his face when he concentrated. As Johnny had hoped, the plate started to shine——the grime from the food just melted away. Zack opened his eyes and was amazed to see the plate cleaned just like Johnny’s had been.

“Good Job. The next task is for you to take this,” Johnny said, tossing a small rock to Zack, “and make it disappear.”

Zack closed his eyes and assumed the same position as when he had cleaned the plate. He clenched his fist so tightly that Johnny could see Zack’s knuckles going white. In a flash, Zack’s hand collapsed inwards, showing that the rock was truly gone. Johnny clapped as Zack’s eyes opened. Both men smiled, though Zack’s was a bit larger.

“Alright, said Johnny as he led Zack outside, “moving on now. Up to this point I’ve had you modify an existing object, and destroy an object in existence. The next task is for you to make an object out of nothing. Like this.”

Johnny imagined a ripe and juicy apple in his hands. It took a second, but he felt it resting in his hands after a moment. He bit in and juice dribbled down his face.

“Now you try Zack.”

Zack’s face changed as it had the earlier times, but after a minute, no success. Zack tried again and again, but still, nothing. Johnny told him to imagine the feel, the smell, the sight, and the smell of the apple he wanted to make. Finally, after several tries, Zack was able to create an apple. However, it was oddly shaped, small, and had a distinctively bad aroma.

Johnny decided it was best to move on for now, but to come back to it later. There were only a few things left to teach Zack before getting on with what he had to do.

“That apple looks nasty.” Johnny said. “We’re moving on for now, but we will come back to that later. All I’ve had you mess with are inanimate and stationary objects. The best thing to do is to move the environment to your will so you can do things you otherwise couldn’t. For instance, this.”

Johnny separated the trees into the runway like he had to take off in his plane a few days ago. As a second demonstration, he lifted Zack and hung him upside down. Zack screamed in surprise when he started moving, but quieted down after a moment. Johnny let Zack slowly come to the ground and told him to try moving a tree.

This test was met with success immediately. Zack was able to pull the large oak from the ground and throw it quite far. He was visibly tired now though.

“If you want a break Zack,” Johnny said, “take one. But since you’re also hungry, use your mind to think up something to eat. It's the completion of the task you messed up before. Talk to you in about an hour, then break is over.”

Johnny lay down on a smooth patch of grass outside the front door and fell asleep.

V

A light and then rough prodding by Zack woke him up. It was mid afternoon now, but Zack looked happy.

“I can do it now Johnny!” He said excitedly.

“Let me see.”

Zack held out his hand, and a plate with pancakes appeared. They were golden brown and steaming. On top was a pat of melting butter with syrup dripping down the sides. A knife and fork were going to work cutting the pancakes into bite-sized pieces. The fork reached up and placed the piece of pancake in Zack’s mouth.

“Great job,” Johnny exclaimed. “I’ve only got a couple more tests for you before I’m done teaching you everything I know. When we’re done, I’ll show you something cool if it’s still light out.”

Johnny imagined a short dagger and slashed into Zack’s flesh deeply.

“W-what did you do that for?”

“Fix that wound. It’s about the same as what I had to do when I first got here. It’ll test everything you’ve learned so far.”

Zack closed his eyes and the wound knitted itself up. The underlying tissues fused together and the skin sent shoots of light brown across the gap. The light brown tendrils pulled and tugged on the sides of the gap, closing them together for a scarless mending.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Good.” Johnny said beaming. “The last thing I want you to do before the sunset is to modify your body in some major way. Like this.”

Johnny imagined himself into the creature he was yesterday. The wings sprouted and his hands formed claws at the end. Zack closed his eyes in an attempt, but only small winglets sprouted from his shoulder blades.

Zack tried again and again, but as with the food, it didn’t seem to work. The sun was sliding lower towards the horizon. He probably had only a couple of tried left before he would miss out on the surprise. Johnny knew that Zack had to be thinking this because it was obvious in his facial expressions. Johnny pulled Zack aside for a moment.

“From what I said before, it seems like you love women almost as an obsession. Am I right?”

“Yeah, you are,” Zack said, blushing a little bit.

“Good.” Johnny said. “Instead of changing yourself into what I am, how about you get the process down a bit better by changing into a woman for a moment and then changing back? I don’t mean looking like one, I mean actually being one to the point where everything is functional if you get my meaning.”

Zack blushed for a moment and then tried. Not much happened the first try, but on the second, he was able to transform himself fully. Zack turned to Johnny again.

“I never knew a woman felt this way,” he said in a mighty high and sweet voice.

“Now try changing back.”

Before his eyes, Zack’s body grew taller while the womanly bits disappeared to be replaced with his old physique.

“That’s a useful thing to know,” Johnny said. “No, I don’t mean how a woman feels or how to change into one, but the ability to change your form to be able to fly for instance. It is equivalent to what I’m going to show you. Come with me.”

Johnny led Zack into the house and down the staircase into the basement where he kept the plane. He imagined a second one identical to the first, but Zack sized. Johnny got into his plane and waited for Zack to figure out how to get in.

“Get a feel for the controls.” Johnny told Zack. “Your mind controls the engines and machine guns. Let's go!”

Johnny went full power out of the hill and zoomed into the air. He circled around, waiting for Zack to come up. He finally did. The two flew around for a while, higher and higher into the sky. Finally, Johnny noticed what looked like a wall of reddish glow advancing swiftly towards them. He told Zack to follow him into land because it was getting dark now. The light from the blood moon hit them before they were able to land. Johnny told Zack to flip over in the plane for a good look before they landed.

Once inside the house, Johnny closed the doors and started cooking dinner. Zack looked visibly shaken.

“That light,” He said, “that moon. What are they?”

“I don’t really know, but I do know that there is a demon that lives out there at night, so I generally only go out during the day time when it’s safe. That demon is a woman, and she could kill you faster than you could react.”

Zack looked down at his food. Johnny told him not to worry, that house was invisible so they couldn’t be found. After dinner, they cleaned up and sat down at the table for a moment.

“Before we sleep tonight,” Johnny said, “I want to decide with you what we should do.”

Zack sat down across from him.

“I see this place as something like a video game or a dream world, maybe both. That means that there should be some sort of center where everything is run out of, like a library or memories. We need to find out where that is and to have a good look. Once we do, we may know what to do from here on out. The only question is, how do we look for something like that?

“That flying machine that you showed me before is interesting. If we were both able to fly around from really high up, we should be able to spot it from far away and make our way there quickly.”

“That works. Thanks Zack. See you in the morning, I’m heading off to bed.”

Johnny brushed his teeth quickly before heading off to bed. It was more of a habit than actually needed here. He jumped into bed and pulled the covers up tight to his chin.

The next few days will be really important, thought Johnny. I’m glad that Zack learned enough to be of some use.

With that thought, Johnny turned off the light in his room and closed his eyes.

VI

The next morning, it was Zack who woke Johnny up. The light poured into the kitchen as breakfast was cooked and then served. Both men were silent, knowing the journey that lay ahead. When breakfast was cleaned up and put away, Johnny took Zack downstairs to the garage. The two planes from yesterday sat at one end while the door at the other end slowly opened.

“We’re going to need to cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible,” Johnny told Zack. “I want you to go one way and I’ll go the other. I don't know how big this world is, but what we’re looking for will probably be pretty obvious. You know, out in the open. So fly high enough that you can get a good view all around, but don’t fly too high, otherwise you’ll miss some things. If anything stands out, don’t be afraid to investigate. Finally, don’t worry about coming back here tonight. Just imagine yourself a house. We’ll be in radio contact just in care one of us finds something.”

“Sounds good,” said Zack.

With that, Johnny went inside his plane and took off. He decided to go towards the desert where he had seen Zack the first time. This meant that Zack would have to go over the mountains the other way. As he traveled towards the desert, Johnny ascended to just below the clouds in order to see what he could below.

The greens of the mountains faded into the greenish brown of the savannah and then finally to the sands of desert. Along the journey, Johnny saw nothing. He ventured farther and farther into the desert. The sand dunes grew to the size of mountains, and he had to be careful not to hit them while flying. Several times, he thought that he saw what he was looking for, but they were just dark aberrations in the sands below.

Johnny landed around midday for lunch and to chat with Zack. He imagined himself a beef sandwich with the works. He ate it and then made contact with Zack.

“Come in Zack.” He said.

“I hear you.” Came the response.

“Any news?” Johnny asked.

“Naw,” Zack replied, “Just water as far as the eye can see, you?”

“A lack of water as far as the eye can see over here.” Johnny said cynically. “Well, I’m off again, good luck!”

“Same to you.”

The radio crackled as Zack clicked off his response. It was time to keep flying. Johnny climbed into the air, up to the clouds again. He flew for hours. The desert thinned out over time to become a high plateau covered in sage grass.

The sun was beginning to sink close to the horizon when Johnny saw the ocean in front of him. There would be no going farther today. He circled lower and touched down. After brief communication with Zack, he imagined food and shelter for the night based on the home he had created hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles away. Jake ate quickly and crawled in the shelter. Sleep came as usual.

VII

Johnny was awake the next morning before the demonic moon had set. The first rays of light took the fear he still had of that glow. He ate breakfast quickly and got back in the plane. Zack checked in with him about an hour later when he got up and left.

The ocean before him was a deep blue with white specks of windblown water coming off of the tops of the waves. The waves that usually look so disorganized from below travelled in specific patterns——they were well organized. Johnny flew as fast as he could to pass the ocean as quickly as possible. After all, there would be no library out here in the ocean.

By almost mid afternoon, he finally saw land in the distance. It was far away——almost one hundred miles——but it was land. Johnny sped up to the fastest his plane could go. The water rushed under him like the wildest river imaginable. The land ahead was rugged. It was mountainous with large crags and peaks. The place looked like some place Johnny never wanted to go. He landed on the top of one of the mountains for a break.

The meal was the same as yesterday, but it tasted just as wonderful. Johnny contacted Zack for an update but got no response. He thought it was strange but figured he would contact Zack later. The sun was setting sooner than normal where he was. Instead of venturing farther than day, Johnny decided to create a shelter for the night. The demonic moon rose soon after, and he was left to sleep for the night. Before he lay down, a crackle on the radio. It was Zack finally contacting him.

“Hey Johnny,” Zack said, “are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Why didn’t you pick up before?”

“Sorry about that, I didn’t have a signal.”

“Where were you?” Johnny asked.

“I was underground,” Zack said excitedly. “I found it!”

“Really? What was it like?”

“You’ll have to see tomorrow. It looks evil outside right now.”

“Alright Zack. Thanks!”

The radio went silent. Johnny lay down. He found it hard to sleep that night, but after exciting hours of thought, sleep did come.

VIII

Johnny woke up a little later than he had intended the next morning. The sun was already part way up in the sky. He ate breakfast quickly and got into his plane. Before taking off, he imagined that he had a tracker to follow to find Zack. On the glass where he looked down from the aircraft, an arrow pointed in the direction of the fastest route to Zack.

Johnny took off and climbed high into the air. He headed in the direction of the arrow as fast as the plane could go. A number next to the arrow showed the distance decreasing rapidly, but it was still a long way to get to Zack. The rugged mountains below became a prairie as the peaks slowly smoothed out into rolling hills and then into unbelievably flat planes. Rivers dotted the prairie like little treads lying on a green piece of paper.

It was only around midday when Johnny realized he was getting close. Below him, he noticed a pattern in the topography. The prairie had turned back into rolling hills, but from this high, the rolling hills looked like furrows in a plowed field. The furrows looked as if they were converging toward a point in the distance, just out of sight.

After about an hour, Johnny was able to make out the point of convergence. In the distance, a spire rose out of the ground about a quarter of a mile or so by his estimate. The spire looked black against the blue of the sky. As he approached, he was able to make out more about its construction. It was triangular in design. Three thick legs started at about forty-five degrees at ground level and curved upwards almost vertically to a point. Between the legs of the structure was a tetrahedron. Between the angled edges of the tetrahedron and the legs ran support beams, and from the peak of the structure to the point of the tetrahedron ran a cylindrical pipe. Around the structure ran a circular mound of earth from which the furrowed hills emanated like rays of light from the sun.

As Johnny approached the structure, he saw Zack’s craft on the ground and a man standing next to it, waving. Johnny landed the plane next to Zack’s and got out. The first thing he did when he landed was to eat and drink——it had been a long day already, and he hadn’t had anything since breakfast. Zack came over to Johnny and sat down with him.

“We finally found it.” Zack said with delight.

“Yeah,” Johnny replied, trailing off. “Night’s coming soon, we’re going to have to do something about these planes.”

“Not to worry, Johnny.” Zack said. “We can sleep inside the library. There’s even enough room for these things.”

He paused for a moment, and looked at Johnny.

“Follow me, I want to show you what I’ve found. I haven’t been everywhere, but where I have been, it’s interesting.”

Johnny followed Zack into the library, which was the tetrahedron itself. The inside has a distinctive musty smell. The only light in the place was the sun that shone through the glass sides. Bookshelves followed the three walls then inward in a spiral that not only got tighter as it went in, but also went higher. At the top of the bookshelves was a small green door. The other end of the spiral sank into the floor to go underground. The structure was larger than Johnny could have imagined.

Zack led him up the triangular spiral to the top of the tetrahedron. He opened the green door to reveal an elevator that must go through the pipe he had seen from the outside. Zack pressed the up button once the both of them were inside. The door closed and the elevator lifted them higher into the sky. Johnny looked through the small slits cut in the elevator tube and saw the earth falling away below him.

At the top of the elevator, a red door greeted him. He slid it open and found himself in a small triangular room with a pointed top. Three glass windows looked out over the land. There were two beds in the room that looked out of place——Zack must have put them there.

Johnny looked out over the horizon and watched the sun set. The demonic moon rose and covered the land in it’s bloody glow. The three windows cast the light into the center of the red door. The shape on the door that the moon made as it rose just above the horizon was a sadistic face that looked exactly like the demon that Johnny had fought.

Johnny and Zack imagined dinner for themselves. They ate quietly and cleaned up as soon as they were done. They got ready for bed and went to bed. Johnny pulled up the covers up to his chin, but he couldn’t sleep. The face that light made scared him, but he knew that if he ever had to fight that beast again, he was much more prepared this time. That thought put him a bit more at ease. He fell asleep moments later.

IX

Johnny woke the next morning at first light. The red face that scared him last night was now the yellow smiling face of a goddess. He woke Zack up and the pair ate breakfast to get ready for the research ahead.

Johnny hated school. It wasn’t as bad when he sat in class and could sleep the day away, but when he had to look things up and do projects… Johnny shuddered at the prospect; yet here he was, in a library having to do research as if his life depended on it. This fit in with his theory about there being a way to manipulate any system. Even though it was research, he would be able to control what was found and how quickly. It wouldn’t be very hard now.

Johnny and Zack got into the elevator and traveled down to the green door. Johnny opened it and they stepped into the spiral. Johnny told Zack to go to the bottom of the spiral and see what was below the entrance while he looked at what was up here. Johnny knew that he would work his way down while Zack worked up, cutting the work in half.

The bookshelves were ebony accented with white birch. From top to bottom, there were three rows of books. Although the bookshelves spiraled down to entrance level, dividers held the books upright and served as a separator for easy viewing. Johnny ran his fingers along the top row of books at the top of the spiral. They were ancient. The covers of the books were leather bound and caked with dust. He pulled the book closest to the green door out of its place on the bookshelf. This book looked the most ancient of the lot. Many of the pages were slightly ripped or worn along the edge.

Johnny opened the book. The pages were a light amber color from the age. He flipped through the pages to find the title and contents. The ink was a bit faded and hard to read. “A Birth” read the title. Johnny looked at it in a confused way. The book was dedicated to “my mother and father.” The date of the printing was faded beyond recognition, but Johnny wasn’t looking at the date. He was looking at the table of contents. The first part said “Conception.” He opened it to the first page. There was no black ink text as he had expected but instead a color still image that began to move before his eyes.

There were two lovers in a bed, neither of whom Johnny recognized. They were certainly getting it on. Both of the lovers were screaming in ecstasy. Johnny had seen enough. He slammed the book shut and pulled the next dusty volume from the shelf. It was titled “New World.” The contents looked similar to the first one, but the only difference was that when Johnny opened to the first page, it was not of two lovers. Instead, it was a simple light blue wall. The blue wall moved and at a corner revealed another light blue wall. It was a room. From the sight of it, there wasn’t much in it, just a crib and some foam toys. It wasn’t just any room, it was a baby’s room. Where was the baby? Johnny thought for a moment before realizing it. A pair of large feet came into the room——a giant from his perspective. This book showed the view from the child!

Johnny ran down the spiral and chose a book about halfway down. It was much newer. There wasn’t nearly as much dust, and the pages weren’t nearly as yellow or as beat up. The picture inside revealed the scene of the same baby room, this time though, it was painted a pale yellow. There was a four-post bed in one corner, and posters hanging on the walls. The posters were of guys with their shirts off. Clothes littered the floor——girls clothes. Johnny finally understood what was going on as soon as the view changed. These were no ordinary books. They were memories. He couldn’t say whose memories they were, but they told a story if read in order——day by day.

Johnny ran down the spiral to ground level and then blew towards Zack. When he found it, Zack was wandering around trying to figure out what to do. He obviously had gotten there only a few seconds before Johnny did.

“Zack.” Johnny said, trying to catch his breath.

“What is it? I thought you were going to be up there.”

“I’ve figured it out.” Johnny said between breaths.

“Just calm down, it’s hard to understand you.” Zack said, sitting down on the floor.

Johnny caught his breath for a moment and then continued.

“While at the top, I looked at a couple of books. They were memories. I came down a bit and the memories became newer and fresher. I figured that down here at the bottom would be the newest of the books. The newest memories.”

Zack opened and closed his mouth. He was speechless for a few minutes.

“So wait,” he said finally, “what are you saying this place is?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Johnny said, “but I have an idea. I think that we’re in a body… Well, not exactly. More like the mind of the body, like alternate personalities.”

“How is that possible?”

“How should I know? All I can say is, I have my own memories and you probably do too, so why we’re here I can’t say. But going from what I said before, the newest memories should be the newest book.”

Johnny put his foot next to the wall where the bookshelves ended at the bottom of the structure. He stood there for about thr33 or four minutes before he had what he was waiting for. The wall moved. It moved away from his foot another three or four inches. On either side, the bookshelves grew longer automatically, slightly farther into the ground to continue the downward spiral. Johnny grabbed the newest book in the rack. It had the new book smell. The cover was also leather bound, but everything was in pristine condition. He opened it to the title page. “Of and Relating to the Now” it read.

How ironic. Johnny thought to himself while chuckling.

He opened to the last page of the book——the mist present of the lot. The scene was very graphic. He imagined he had a screen on the wall and a projector to show the image onto it. The larger image showed the amazing but terrible details of the events unfolding.

There was a man tied to a bed and a dead woman next to him. Her throat was slashed and dried blood was everywhere. The man tied to the bed was unconscious but not dead. The picture moved out of a door on the left and left down a hallway. Another left and the view was of a living room with a long couch. The couch drew nearer until the view looked directly at it. Suddenly, it shifted up to the ceiling. It was night, and the room was dark. The view slowly grew black.

Johnny grabbed the book and ran up the spiral and out of the entrance. The blood red of the demonic moon flooded the landscape. Suddenly, it made sense. The demon was this person, this woman. She was going to kill that man just like she had killed the woman. Something else came to mind that he hadn’t considered. His last memories of running away from home and of killing his aunt… Why was it that there was a man’s voice? The only answer Johnny could find was that the woman pretended to be the man. The last memory he had was of going to sleep and of fighting the demon. After that, the next thing he remembered was being here. Had the demon been that woman? Had she somehow taken over his body? Johnny thought the answer to both of those questions was yes. The only question that remained was how could he get his body back?

He pondered that question under the demonic moon for a few minutes before arriving at an answer. If she had gotten in his head, what about Zack? What if there were more? This woman certainly was a killer. As much as Johnny wanted his body back, he knew what could happen some time later even if he did. She would come back. He would have to kill the body. He would have to kill himself!

Johnny motioned for Zack to come over to him.

“What is it?” Zack asked.

“She’s going to kill that man?”

“She?”

“The memories are from a girl. She will kill the man tied to the bed if we don’t stop her. She’s the reason that the moon is red like that. She is the demon!”

“So what should we do?”

“We’re going to find where she comes in and out of this place. There must be a door in the wall of this world where she comes in. When we find it, I’m going to take over the body by surprise. Then——“

Johnny choked and tried not to cry.

“Then I’m going to have to kill this body,” he said, crying anyway. “It’s not just any body, it’s my body!”

“This place is nice though.” Zack said.

“Think about it! She is killing people with impunity right now… In my body!”

“Alright, alright.” Zack said. “Let's go.”

Johnny wiped the tears from his eyes and imagined a tracker to find the demon. The arrow pointed in the general direction of the house near where he had fought the demon originally. He put the tracker in his pocket and imagined a portal from the library to the garage of the house. It appeared, but it made him weak to have done it. Before going into the portal, he turned to Zack again.

“If it comes to a fight, you have to lose. If you win, it might be impossible to find the door.”

Zack nodded and the two of them stepped into the portal. Johnny found himself in the garage of the house, just as he wanted. He ran through the house and outside. The tracker showed him the direction of the demon. It was in the general direction of where he had fought her the first time. He set out in that direction with Zack hot on his heels.

The moon was setting by the time they reached the destination. Johnny was weak, and the demon was already gone. He imagined food for himself and told Zack to stand watch while he slept. Zack agreed to wake him as soon as the moon rose. The next night would be their last.

X

A push on his shoulder woke Johnny. Zack was there pointing up at the sky. Johnny roused himself out of his drowsiness. The demonic moon was hanging low in the sky. It had just risen. He jumped up and hid in the woods. The tracker showed that the demon was coming, and Johnny knew he would have a perfect vantage point from here. Sure enough, the demon——the woman——came into view in the clearing where they had fought.

She was not the monster he remembered. She was beautiful, and about his age; but there was something in her eyes that Johnny didn’t like. She looked like a killer. The look in her eyes was something that was indescribable, and yet it was something that he felt through his entire self. She had to be killed as soon as possible. Johnny motioned to Zack who was next to him.

“I’m going in after her.” Johnny told Zack.

He got up and transformed himself into a monster, just in case it came to a fight. His body was larger and stockier than before, and his skin was hardened like stone. He quietly crept after the demon.

After a while, the demon caught on to his presence and started to walk faster and then run. Johnny gave chase. The woman turned around and faced him, growing larger until she was about his height. Her body was thinner and her limbs were long. Attached to the edges of her arms were long blades that tapered from nothing near the wrist to a point out beyond the elbow.

She ran at him at blazing speed. Johnny knew that the demon couldn’t hurt him, but he knew instinctively that he had to lose so he could follow her out of this place. Her left arm sliced and he imagined a flesh wound that didn’t really exist but spewed blood as if it did. Johnny fell down only his back as if it had been a hard blow. The demon came closer to him and started slashing more and more. For each hit, he had to make another wound, so by the time he was done, he looked like a fence with holes everywhere. He thought that perhaps the sight of his real body would stun her a little bit and make it easier when he had to do what he had to do the next time. His body grew smaller and took a more fleshy appearance.

Johnny lay still while the blood drenched demon walked off. Once she was out of sight, he cleaned himself off and followed. He made himself invisible so that another fight couldn’t happen. He followed for hours, despite being so worn out from before. Johnny laughed in his head. He hadn’t learned any way to use the system against itself. Despite his knowledge, he hadn’t had enough time to figure it out.

XI

The moon was finally setting and Johnny followed the demon. When the moon got to the horizon, the woman slowly disappeared in a specific spot. He understood now. There was a door but it wasn’t physical——it was in his mind. To open the door would be difficult and he was weak. He would need another hour or so to rest and eat before trying.

Johnny imagined food and ate. The energy flooded into his body, but he needed his full power. Over the next hour, he ate and relaxed until finally he felt ready. He reached out with his mind to connect with the body itself. It was something that felt natural. It was something he was born to do. It was his body, not hers. It wasn’t as hard as he expected, and before long, Johnny knew he was ready to do it. He took a deep breath. His heart was beating quickly. He was going to die. He was afraid, but he knew it had to be done.

I’m not going to let you have my body anymore! Johnny yelled into the thoughts of the demon.

With that, he jumped through the mental door and into the body. Instead of letting the demon run loose in his head, Johnny held her there to watch with him. It was like sharing a laptop that had a view of the world, but he was in control. He felt the body change to his own. He felt something cold and metallic in one of his hands. The demon struggled against his control of the body, but he held firm. He raised the gun to his head.

No! The demon screamed in his head. Don’t do this to me!

A tear fell from Johnny’s eye. He pulled the trigger.

Bang!