22

Feeling returned to my body slowly. I tasted dried blood and realized my upper lip had been bleeding. I slowly opened my eyes to see I wasn’t in the elevator any longer. I was lying on the ground just outside. In front of me was a hallway entirely made of the glass that the elevator had—Darkness filled the outside. I didn’t see any fish swimming around.

There was a wet feeling and I turned slowly to see that the others were piled on top of each other in the elevator, unconscious. The elevator had been hanging on by one of its four railings attached to the top. Any more structural damage and the whole thing would have broken off and sank to the depths with us inside. I was still worried—it was wet...why was it wet? The park was supposed to be protected from the water, right? Just...what the hell happened?

I got the answer to one of my questions when I looked back at the elevator more closely. It’s supposed to fit perfectly into a slot in the glass wall so that when it opens up it makes a perfect seal to allow us to move from the elevator to the lobby without bringing in any water from the outside.

Since the elevator was hanging on by only one of its rail connections underwater it fit into the slot at an angle, and water was now spilling into the lobby floor from both underneath and above the cracks. This was a dumb idea. God this was such a dumb idea. Okay, focus. I just have to wake everybody else up and...and I don’t know but it’s something. That stupid author can wait.

I stood up and felt a weakness in my knees almost send me back down immediately. I looked down and saw my left leg was bleeding. I think I scraped it against the ground as I fell. Picking myself back up was hard, but I managed to bring myself over toward the elevator. Mr. Krest was the closest one to me, so I bent over him and began shaking him. He was out cold.

“Ellie, Ben, come on, one of you get up.” I kept shaking. Nobody woke up. Breathing, just not waking. I stood back up and cursed the whole way. Not even the worker Steph was stirring. I gotta go find someone else who can help them out.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Look at yourself. You’re playing the hero again. Was a year’s freedom too boring for you that you had to go jumping at the chance again? I looked down to my hands and stared deep into them. You’ve been so adamant about defying your fate that you’ve circled back around to following it. And now you’re just a shitty hero alongside a shitty anything. Why don’t you just give up fighting and return to your role?

My...role? Is that all I am to be? Forced to be the hero no matter whose face I wear? No. I refuse. I refuse to crawl the path that has been carved out for me, because crawling is giving up. I have a purpose. I have a goal, and I am not letting this cycle continue to get in the way of that goal.

I look toward the entrance of the park and then back toward the elevator. Sorry guys. In another life I would have not stopped until you were all safe—I would have considered you friends. But I’m not Danny Aldoun—I don’t know if I can even wear my own name anymore, I still have to find out why that author knows it.

I nod my head to them as if they can see it as a formal good-bye and begin walking closer inside the park. The pain stung at first but gradually grew more tolerable the longer I walked.

23

The Cressfall Resort was nationally lauded for the atmosphere they provide guests who often travel across the country and sometimes even across the globe to visit their glorified fishbowl Disneyland. There aren’t any rides at the Cressfall that are particularly unique or exclusive that other amusement parks wouldn’t have. When you come to the Cressfall you come for the experience of doing all the things you could do above land, except that it is underwater and twice as expensive.

When I stepped past the ticket gates at the front of the park I was not filled with a sense of childlike glee or anticipation at the multitudes of group happiness around me. No...I wondered why there were so many dead bodies.

24

I passed the gift shoppe that’s stationed right next to the entrance / exit of the park—no doubt some marketing scheme to entice children to drag their parents for one last purchase before leaving the park. That was when I saw the little girl younger than even Danny lying down on the ground.

She was wearing a t-shirt of one of those animated monsters that are on the TV so often...Poke...man? Mon? It didn’t matter but in that moment it seemed to. I could tell she was dead right away—those eyes couldn’t belong to anything left alive. They seemed like they’d exploded out of her head and leaked down her cheeks.

I took a hesitant step closer and bent down over the child—her dark hair was matted with a thick dark coat of blood, but it didn’t seem to be hers. She wasn’t near anybody else, so she must have died here on the spot.

I stood back up and walked down the avenue as I passed another small gift shop. I stopped and rounded back to the window when I saw the face of the employee behind the cash register buried face first into the machine. I stepped inside and noticed the acrid smell immediately. This body was left to cook. The vic was late teens and also had dark hair almost like the young girl—but of guys it was a common enough color, most likely just coincidental. I picked up his head by the back of his hair and saw his eyes were blown out just like before—the fluid dripped onto the counter.

I dropped his head down and it hit the corner and fell down onto the ground. “Jesus.” None of the others in the elevator were like that...but what if they would? Ah fucking damn it I’m going to go back to check them aren’t I? Well...I’m convincing myself now that I no longer have Ben to relay dumb ideas off of. Ahh fuck.

I turn out of the gift shop and head back up round near the ticket booth and back to the hallway where the elevator rested crudely in its slot...only this time things were different, but not in the way I’d expected them. There were a few bodies missing—the pile was smaller than when I had left. Ellie, Evan, and Anna were nowhere to be seen. What remained…

Chunks of glass had been broken somehow from the edge of the elevator that had not fit quite right and were protruding from the chests of the remaining. Steph the worker, Mr. Krest, Ben, Stacy, James, and even Sable. God, kid’s so quiet I forgot she was even in this stupid class. Oh well, so much for breaking out of your awkward phase.

Well now things just got a whole lot more interesting because these people were all still alive when I was here not a few moments ago, and now some are...well they’re somewhere. Looking at how the glass was broken I highly doubt any rumbling shook them around enough to accidentally puncture each of them perfectly in the chest like that, so the best explanation I can think of is that one of them—or maybe all of them—somehow managed to break off pieces and do the deed themselves. Or maybe one of them did it and then stabbed and hid the others. Or I dunno. All this is really guesswork on my part.

The water was now flowing faster through the hole caused by the broken glass and mis-fitting elevator, it turned a minor issue into what looked to be a very serious possibility of us drowning in here. Calm down. You’ve been through worse situations than these on a monthly basis at this point. This is nothing.

I just had to find the missing ones and either ask them what happened...or take matters in my own hands and defend myself if necessary. It’s just like any other time. Except I knew that it wasn’t. I had no clue what would happen if I died in this body. I couldn’t rely on past experiences when Danny defied every single one of my rules.

You’re no nice boy.

The thought flew into my mind and instantly dragged out a bloodied and beaten memory—one I thought long locked away. My mother passed to lung cancer and I left her dying as I moved into my new apartment. I fought with her that night I moved out. It was over stupid shit—it always was. I didn’t have enough in me to be what she needed. I couldn’t be her hero.

We screamed at each other and I felt that prickly sensation behind my eye-lids. It was the same kind of burning slowness I felt when I was inside Toni Matterson. I saw a vase she kept on the windowsill and couldn’t get the feeling of smashing it over her head out of my head. I screamed louder because I wanted it to stop and I wanted her to stop, but not in the way my impulses wanted her to stop.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

So I got her to hate me. I said hateful things—things I knew would cut her deep down so I’d feel guilty enough to suppress that blood lust. It worked. I saved you Mom. Then you died a week later thinking I hated you. I tried to be your hero but it didn’t work. That’s why I can’t be a hero anymore. If doing the right thing is that bad then I don’t want any part of it.

I’m going to be me. And someday I’ll be okay with that.

25

The bodies I had seen before were undisturbed on my second run through. I passed on the gift shop to avoid the terrible smell. The park opened up considerably after the lines of shops. Attractions littered every inch of the park’s length. A crowd of ten people lie on the ground scattered in front of me. I walk slowly over to them with my breath held. Each of them is just like the others I had seen. I don’t recognize any of them, so I move on deeper into the park.

In the distance I catch a glimpse of a figure running and instantly I have a lead. Someone alive. I have to find them and figure out what is going on.

I ran as hard as I could given the circumstances through the main square and passed over the bodies that remained. I was taking the steps up to the ferris wheel when I caught another glimpse of the figure. It was the mascot of the park—Marina the Dolphin. The person was wearing the mascot’s suit.

They cocked their head and held their fist out in the same sort of thumbs up pose I saw on the sign out front.

“Who are you?” I asked.

The person in the suit shrugged their shoulders and motioned for me to come closer, and then walked closer to the overlook at the other side of the stairs. I took a step closer and then stopped. “Why should I trust you not to do anything fishy? You’re the only other one here I’ve seen alive.”

Marina motioned again, not saying anything. I could tell that it wasn’t any of the other kids from the class inside the suit. They were much too tall. Something still held my spine up straight as I took another step up the path. Marina motioned again before pulling my arm and closer to the overlook, pointing out over it.

Down ten feet below I saw Ellie, Anna, and Evan all sprawled out on their backs. From here their eyes didn’t look like they’ve spilled out of their heads like all the others before. Another second and I feel Marina’s hand on my back sending me tumbling over the overlook. I instantly feel the rumbling stampeded that Dom got killed by as the first victim fell from their own overlook, only this time the rest of the people to stampede were already dead.

I hit the ground with a thud, but it was far from fatal. My leg stung a whole lot more than it already had, it was probably broken. I looked up above me and saw Marina taking the ramp down the bend and slowly walking closer. Their hands reached up close around the neck of the suit and began to yank the headpiece off.

Inside had been my face.

“Well look who we have here. William Wallace in the underage flesh.” My voice said. “You’ve made quite the mess of yourself.”

“What...is happening?”

He walked closer and bent down to my knees. “You came here looking for the person who wrote this?” He held up a copy of The Eye of Amnael. “Trying to find out what it all means? It’s a lot simpler than you think.”

“Are you...the author?”

A nasty smirk crossed my face, “No, sorry there. That’s my Father. He’s not here. He’s a very busy man. I’m here, though, if that lightens your load any.”

“How...would that? I don’t know who you are besides the fact that you’re wearing my face.”

Another nasty grin, “And you’re wearing the face of a young boy. Whose to say this can’t be my face now, I mean you did discard it and all.”

I had no answer. This must...be the other that the post talked about.

“Oh, you’re wondering about that one on the internet?” I looked at him with growing confusion. “Yeah, you’ve got no secrets from me,” he winked. “I wrote that post. I mean the message was dictated to me, but I added that bit there at the end to clue. you. in.” He tapped at my forehead with each syllable. “You want to know why the book talks all about you? Because it isn’t a book of a fictional account. It’s a live description of current events. Take a look,” he tossed the copy down on me.

I picked it up and scrolled past the thirtieth page. There definitely was more to it now than before...at least a hundred pages. It ended with my meeting right here…

“How...”

“My name is Amnael.” He smiled. “I don’t normally look like this, I just happened to find a free body I could use and yours was perfectly fit.”

“You’re in my body because I left it when I entered Danny,” I said, coming to terms with it.

“You’re almost right. You’ve got the large idea of it, at least. The rest requires some explaining. I am a Highborn Child of the Night. We’re beings that were born outside of your world. Yours is a world of light, where mine is absent of it.”

“You’re like...aliens?”

“If it helps you understand it better. We’ve had a problem, you see. There’s only one of our world, but your world of the light seems to grow new copies day by day. It endangered us because soon we would be exterminated by the growing light. My father created everything, but even he has made mistakes. So we’re all here to try and correct that mistake. That is what has happened here. You may have noticed your sun a little while back. I doubt you could have missed it.”

“Yeah it...it looked like it exploded.” I said.

“That was called the Collapse. My sister had gathered enough energy to merge each of the continuously growing universes into one singularity. You were right about being placed in an Alternate Universe each time you were sent into another’s body. Only now you’re not right since there is only one universe. So about half and half.”

‘I...”

“Next you want to know how I know all of this about you, and why you can do what you can. That’s a simple answer. Each of the Children of the Night have come to this world with specific jobs in mind. Mine was to scope out how dangerous different tragedies are that affect this world. None of us knew anything about what things were like here, so I was sent to gather info...almost like an ant. So I say, what kind of info gathering can I do when I hardly know anything about this place? And then I had an idea—I use human larvae. I learn through bodies that are already beginning to learn the world around them. So, I found you. There wasn’t anything special about you in particular—you were just the closest larvae to my landing point. You won’t have remembered this since you were so young, but two years before your first experience at Chernobyl there had been a meteor shower. I had come to that world inside of that meteor. I found you and snuck inside you while you slept and waited until I recovered from my trip.

“The...the first time I experienced this curse was because of you. You were inside of me?”

“You never noticed me. I was the voice inside your head, the conscience that guided you along as I gathered my information. You were very helpful in my goals. Unfortunately, you showed an irritating showcase of willpower that was stronger than my own when we came into this universe. Normally I ready to take you back but you broke our link early. I went back to your body and you stayed inside Daniel’s.”

I sat up on my elbows and looked around me, trying anything to distract my mind from staying on one tangent too long. I feared I’d go crazy if I hung on one. “The others...why did they die?”

“Beings with low to average willpower couldn’t handle the Collapse. It is that simple. Their minds couldn’t take it so their brains overloaded and various internal organs failed. Those three there are different, however. I told a little bit of a lie. Not all of you stayed inside Daniel. Your soul fractured when you cut our link. Most of it stayed inside Daniel, but I made sure to keep a piece back with me.”

“Why’d you do that you bastard?!” Yelling hurt, I put my arm around my waist.

Amnael grinned, “I needed to make sure I could find you again. I had already put so much time and effort into you it would be such a waste of time starting all over. So I had to take some time and grow the pieces of your soul until they were big enough to send them into other bodies in that universe to keep an eye on you. These three happened to be the bodies they landed in.”

I instantly remembered Anna and Evans’ episodes on the bus and realization dawned over my face. I even had suspicions about Ellie but I could never have guessed…

“You are not the only...You.” Amnael said. “You were too short sighted to see it at the time, but I bet it makes perfect sense now. The Eye of Amnael...it is my own eyes on you—chronicling your every move so that you don’t escape from me again. Everything has been set in motion outside of your grasp, so now I’m going to have to kindly ask you only a single time to accept me back into your body.” He smiled. “I can force my way in, but it’s a lot messier and I have to spend a lot longer patching everything up. So it’s really in both our best interests that you cooperate.”

“You can keep the fuck away from me. I’m finally free from your bullshit.” I said.

“And I was afraid that that would have been your answer.” He clicked his tongue. “Ah well. Can’t blame me for trying.” Amnael opened his mouth and bent backwards until he was perpendicular with the ground. An elongated appendage climbed its way out of his mouth. It bent down and touched the floor tentatively, then stood firm as support as more of the smoky body began to emerge. My body began to feel cold as the full image of the creature erupted from my old body. At least ten feet tall stood an ant that looked to be made of a smoky ethereal substance.

“This is as close to my body that you can understand,” Amnael said directly into my mind. “It’ll take a few months for your mind to recover from my insertion, but that is a price I am willing to pay to save thirty-four years of work.” It took a step closer toward me and my blood began to freeze.

I looked away and held my hands out in front of me and screamed.