You knock on Andrew's door. You hear a muffled sound which you think meant “come in,” so you press the tiny red button where the door knob would be and it slides open. You see Andrew lying back in a chair that's reclined back pretty far. His feet are propped up on a small stool and he looks perfectly relaxed with a book in his hands. You see the title is “Radical-9” by Taylor Santoro. The text on the cover, but you see an illustration of a young man with a sort of glowing energy around him, it's like an aura.

“Am I interrupting?” you ask.

“No, no. Now is a good stopping point, actually,” he says, folding the corner of the page over and closing the book. It looks brand new.

“That's in English,” You say, nodding towards the book. “It's been so long since I've seen anything in it.”

“Yes, one of a kind, too,” he says, setting the book aside on an end table just next to the small bed in the corner of the room.

“Is that the same Taylor that works under Jesse?”

“The very same. I assume you two met on your trip here?”

“Yes, he said he was speaking with the council about a personal matter.”

Andrew moves his arm out towards the bed, “Feel free to take a seat, I have a feeling our talk won't be short,” he grins. “And yes, he actually came to speak to me. Taylor's fluent in English as he was primarily the one to study Earth's history being human and all. I also heard he was a talented writer, so I tasked him with writing me some stories.”

“Them being that book there?”

“Yes, this is the first in a series I'm going to have him write.”

“What's it about, if I may ask?”

“The events that lead to the Earth's destruction. I think it's been enough time that people should know how it happened from one of the only living sources.”

“It feels so weird to say that it's destroyed. I mean I was most certainly alive on earth near the 1970s...I was a teenager then.”

“Your memories started coming back?”

“In pieces, yeah. I know I was alive around that point, I haven't remembered anything from my adult life yet.”

“Well then, that makes you older than me,” he laughs.

“Huh?”

“If you were alive in the 70's then when we were both on Earth you would have been older than me, almost thirty years older at the least. I was born in 2003.”

“If I may ask, how are you still alive? I mean if it was a case of humanity perfecting these robotic bodies then there should be more of people like you around, right? But I'm going to assume that most humans have a similar lifespan here on Sayar.”

He takes in a deep breath. “I'm alive because I am carrying out an eternal punishment. I am the reason why Earth is destroyed, why 8.6 billion people died.”

“It was you? What happened?”

“In this world, all worlds really, there are two forces, constantly fighting back and forth. They are the Alpha Force and the Omega Force.”

“How very biblical in tone,” you say.

“They were aptly named. They're the two basic forces of the universe. The Alpha Force is almost everything here in our world, our life, organic matter, inorganic matter, et cetera. Everything that becomes and grows is because of the Alpha Force. Conversely, Omega Force is substance that is it's opposite, namely an absence of Alpha. When creatures die and decay that is the Omega Force overtaking it.”

“So life and death, what's so important? Isn't that just like common sense?”

“It should be, but then again if it was then things wouldn't have turned out how they did. So, as total opposites, the two forces can never meet on a physical plane, or else reality begins to distort and break apart. Weird shit happens, to say the least.”

“Did the two meet?”

“In 2013 on Earth some scientists managed to do that very thing. They managed to create that very meeting. It was a substance we named Radical-9. Nobody even knew the half of what this stuff could do, it tore families apart, and even almost escaped into the public in 2029. I was one of ten children who was tested with this, the Omega Force, as we now know it as.”

“You've got the stuff inside of you now?”

“Yes. I told you when it makes contact with Alpha Force, my normal body, reality begins to distort and break apart.”

“Weird shit,” you quote.

“Well, for what it's worth I basically became a superhero,” he says. The grin on his face tells you there were quite the amounts of stories behind it. “Telepathy, Telekinesis, that kind of shit, but don't get me wrong...it was perhaps the worst thing that could ever happen to me,” the grin fades as fast as it came.

“No offense, but that sounds kind of awesome.”

“Well, it came at a cost. It began to take over my mind, I frequently lost sight of almost everything not directly on my mind. My...wife. She was in pain and I wasn't around as much as I should have been, even when I was around physically.”

“Did something happen between you two?”

“She killed herself, overdose. That was back in 2029, and it all is still fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. That's what sent me over the edge. It didn't happen right away, but slowly I began to lose more and more of myself. I became something dark. My power grew with my sorrow, the Omega Force was overtaking the Alpha in my body, blood evolving to a new horrid substance that ran in my veins. I made contact with the first official alien race as a human on Earth.”

“What? You were the first one who met an alien?”

“He was a Lunfilios named Khap-En. He's the councilman's son, by the way, but the two couldn't be more different. Khap-En was rebellious, immature. He was exiled on Pluto's moon, Charon, with his small band of fools who kept stirring up trouble back on their home. Anyway, Khap-En found his way on Earth some time in the early 1900s to find life to help him make his way back to their galaxy.”

“This is absolutely insane.”

“I assure you it happened, he lived in silence and in the dark for a very long time, shapeshifting and acting human when he needed to.”

“I believe you, it's just crazy sounding to hear.”

“I met up with Khap-En and he told me of the Alpha and Omega forces. “Each living thing has an expiration date, and Earth's is coming,” he told me.”

“He told you Earth was going to be destroyed?”

“He told me that it was going to be by a comet sent from the stars loaded with Omega Force. It would suck the planet dry as it passed, the inner waves of the planet would synchronize with the comet and both would vanish at the comet's passing. Of course, it was more than just his words that showed me, but I believed it simply in my state of mind. I believed a comet would come to collect the Earth in its grasp.”

“Even I know that sounds silly.”

“I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have that kind of stuff flowing in my body already. I thought anything could happen.”

“True.”

“So, Khap-En worked with me to construct a ship to travel with as many humans as we could bring to their refugee camp out on Charon. I was told there was an entire civilization out there who could help rebuild humanity.”

“Was this ship built?”

“Yes. It transferred the consciousness of its passengers onto a storage unit on the ship that would be then implanted in the bodies they occupy today, though less advanced.”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“That was to withstand the trip, right?”

“That, and we could fit more people on that way. Even though I grew cold with ones I called friends I still at this point knew a common good, save humanity. If we could digitize consciousness we could store a few million people instead of a few hundred thousand, so that is what Khap-En and I worked on for a few years. In 2042 we set out for space, and it was then Khap-En revealed the true nature of his plan, the destruction of earth and kidnapping of millions of humans for slaves.”

“What?!”

“The human brain can be tricked into believing anything you want it to if you scramble the neurons enough. Our memories aren't physical things in our brains, they're the byproduct of the connection between the neurons in our brains. They're called synapses.”

“I think I remember hearing about something like that from biology class.”

“Think of a synapse as an electrical current running through your brain. When those connections are made your brain begins to learn that connection so it can recreate it easier. Human brains are based on the idea that each and every sensation gives off a different reaction, pleasure, pain, sadness, jealousy, et cetera. When these reactions happen over a period of time they create memories.”

“That's interesting and all, but what does that have to do with the whole slaves thing?”

“When we uploaded the consciousness of the humans to the ship's database they were no longer a part of their human bodies.”

“Wait a second, if they weren't in their original bodies how would their new bodies retain their memories?”

“Exactly. They wouldn't, couldn't be able to remember anything when they would eventually be placed back into the substitutes. That's why so few people tell the tale of how Earth was destroyed, because the only ones who could remember it were the two people conscious during the trip from Earth, Khap-En and myself.”

“One question.”

“Ask away,” he asks.

“I'm not in my original body. I lived on Earth, you know this, but why have I been remembering memories of life on my Earth body? Wouldn't that contradict your explanation?”

“I...guess there might be more to memories than even I know. To be honest I didn't even really think of you being in this body like that. You're 100% certain that isn't your body?”

“100%,” you say.”

“Well, then I do not have an answer for you, but a request. If you do ever find out the cause of your memories, do enlighten me.”

“I'll definitely try. About the memories of all those people back on Earth though, I hope you didn't know about all of this before the planet was destroyed?”

He shakes his head, “As much as I'd love to blame myself for that fault, I didn't know of how the human mind would handle being coded into the ship. I took a risk to save as many people as I could, but it turned out to be the wrong decision.”

“What happened? Did Khap-En do something?”

“Something, all right. While I was working on the project for those seven years he would slip away often, secretly rigging the entire planet with an explosive. I learned much too late he set up the equivalent of an Omega Force nuke. He used the compound that ruined my life to make a bomb the size of an elephant that had the destructive power of planet-shattering apocalypse. He let it rip when we'd cleared the atmosphere of the planet, and I watched as it all was ripped apart.”

“And so you blame yourself.”

“I do, because it is my fault. I could have stopped it from happening so many times. Even after it happened I had to act as Khap-En's right hand to try and keep as many of the survivors alive as possible. I wasn't good at that. I failed so many people.”

You don't have anything to say to this.

“It all finally stopped with my best friend. He sacrificed himself to end those people's suffering. He was like me, one of the children who was tested on, and as I cradled his body as he died it gave me my punishment. The radiation from his body was too much, it was almost leaking Omega Force in its purest form. My body lost whatever humanity it had left, it no longer had any Alpha Force in it, yet somehow still existed. It moved, walked, talked, and aged, but never decayed.”

“So that's how you're still alive.”

“I've bled my fair share, and am almost positive I can still be killed, but age doesn't seem to be a factor anymore.”

“I don't want to sound rude, but I'm kind of surprised you never tried to like...you know...”

“End my life? I've considered it almost every day for the past 5,381 years.”

“What kept you here?”

“It's a lot of things, really. I'm afraid of what's beyond life, beyond this. I don't deserve to die yet and go be at peace, not for those lives I've ended. Don't quite deserve to forget the lives I've taken. So, I'm here for as long as I can to try and make things right for as many lives as I did wrong.”

“I'm so sorry, that's got to be a huge weight to carry on your shoulders.”

“I'm not the only one carrying a weight, so I don't let that bog me down. I do what I can and just hope each day is another towards making things right. I'm much to tired to do anymore wrong purposefully.”

“That's heartbreaking, I'm going to be honest.”

“That's life. You know your fair share of it, right? Being thrown into another world altogether with no rhyme or reason? I'd say I was envious if it wasn't spitting on those of the deceased.”

“I...I just thought something was off.”

“Hm?” He turns his head to the side, you can see his green eyes more clearly now, they edge on the verge of tears. Something tells you after five centuries he still hasn't mastered the act of holding it in.

“That phrase you said Khap-En told you, it sounded very familiar.”

“Oh?”

“I think I've heard it before.”

The feeling comes quick. It isn't the same as earlier, from when you had the energy of the bomb inside of you. It's the feeling when you're about to dip into your memories. You breathe once and slide in as if it were a small pool you could stretch out your entire body in.

You're lying on a bed, it's small, perfect size for someone half your size. Your legs hang off the side of it, it's strangely tall for how short it extends out. You stare deeply into the depths of the ceiling above you, wherever you are it isn't anywhere you recognize.

A door opens and you turn your head, it's Devon. His hair has grown out to a mop around his head. He steps inside and shuts the door after him. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, I...I wanted to tell you something.”

“What is it? Not anything to interrupt our date night tonight?”

“It's about that.”

“Well, what's up?” He sits on the edge of the bed and rests his hand on your leg. “You can tell me anything.”

“I met with Mr. Marshall last night.”

“What's up with this Mr. Marshall business? I remember you giving me shit back in the day for being so formal with him,” he says, looking at you strange.

“That's not the point Devon,” you can hear your voice on the edge of breaking.

“Okay, sorry. So what happened?”

“I was talking with him and...it got to the point where we...”

“Where you...?”

You see tears start to form from your eyes, you try to rub them to stop them from coming, but you let out a little sound instead. “We...he...told me that for all of the students' nineteenth birthday he has to implant his seed.”

“Wait, what?”

“We had sex, Devon. I...didn't want it, but I didn't say no. I didn't like it, please don't hate me,” you say as you break completely, grasping a tiny throw pillow to your chest. He slides up next to you and wraps his arms around you, kissing you on the cheek. It hurts as you feel your heart breaking inside.

“I couldn't hate you, Alex. Listen, we're okay, okay? I love you.”

You remember this as the first time he said I love you.

“H-How can you not be freaking out about this?” You ask, you've given up on stopping your tears from coming. One streaks down the side of your face.

“Noah is special, Alex. You know his lecture. “Each living thing has an expiration date, and Earth's is fast approaching. It's time we worked to crossing the gate to heaven” and if that's what I have to do when I turn nineteen to be with you forever then I'm going to do it.”

“Devon, this is not okay. I don't think I want to do this anymore.”

“Alex, come on, you're just nervous since it was your first time.”

“No, Devon. I'm upset because I don't like what happened, and I feel like it's all wrong.” You sit up, moving out of his arms.

“Alex, please, calm down. We can lie down and talk this through, and then maybe go back to-”

“Back? Did you just finish talking to him?”

“Yeah, actually, he sent me to come in here to talk to you. Told me you might be a bit spooked.”

“Devon, I don't like this. I want to go home.”

He sits up, “Let's go talk to Noah, it'll help you I promise. Please.”

You shake your head and then you feel the backside of his hand against your face. It's a moment that freezes everything in time around you.

You feel yourself being pushed down onto the bed.

“Now you're going to lie down.”

“Devon...” You say, your hand on your cheek, absolutely paralyzed.

“Noah told me that you might need some extra help to calm down. He told me to show you my love. Alex, I've loved you since the day I met you.”

No. This is wrong.

“You've been my best friend and kept me company all this time, I don't know what I would do without you.”

This is all wrong.

You are unable to move, frozen to the core as he does what he needs to. You barely even feel it, numb to his advances as it all goes on in an ear piercing silence that hums every voice and every grunt in unison. And then you begin to move outside of your body, your view leaving the tiny room you lose your innocence in. There is a tiny hallway outside that leads to a tiny path into a large segregated wing with a bunch of doors just like yours.

The doors in the house of the madman.