Wondrous is the truth to the sacred mind's palace. Unobtainable and strewn from corpses long withered away by madness. To understand the unobtainable and discover one's existence in the fervor of soaked nights the very man must throw selflessly to the rumbling pot.
Ready he is for the truth just as in death.
Await he must for the future regrets lain in steady barrels and pointed tips followed not far by the glint of a murderous aura is to come and flow around his bod like nothing but a passing drizzle.
Rumble, Rumble the pot goes. Stirring its innards into a chaotic fashion. The sought truth muddied by continued sin and glorified by the rumbling crowds.
Rumble, Rumble he cries all the same. Crying for all yet not himself, for his path was paved and all that remained is the edging truth winking under the moonlight, casted far over the dunes of a beach.
To the dunes he returns without stop. To the moment he recounts in stinted shudders. Despite the persisting horrors, steadfast is the soul sacrificed to its Creator. Buckle he can't, cower he may not, as his life is not to be selfishly thrown in the vein of a bastard.
The Creator gave him life, so he follows a plotted point.
That is how the cycle is to be, isn't it?
…
Rumbling smoggy wisps descended, having permeated the skies with a thunderous noise of war. Thousands exit their homes to gaze at the once in a lifetime experience of THE NUMBER ONE: UNITY, fight in all of HIS glory.
Grumbling "oohs" and "aahs" echoed through the streets and bounced off the windows to only amplify the mass's astonishment and glee.
A glee I cannot experience. Although the bed aches with the comforting aura of warmth, the hard, rotting frame procures bumps and rough patches that bring about insomniac tendencies at night.
How I wish just to get a glimpse of the man. The person the nation proclaims as the "savior of our time." A person so perfect God would bestow him the pleasure of being his right hand. Yet, I lay here vomiting into a bucket. God is cruel this way.
So unbelievably cruel.
"Stay strong" my sister whispers, holding back my sweat slickened, raven hair. Constant words I have heard many times. Nails that dig deeper into my consciousness each time they are spoken. Between the garble of abused nerves on my tongue I narrow my eyes and stare intently at my sister's hands strewn about like chains on my torso. Her words are repetitive and pathetic.
Pathetic… just like myself.
Clinging to my back like a toddler savoring her favorite snack she continues to give sweet nothings to my ear over and over again. Although I'm the eldest, she was the one nursing me. Our parents were nowhere to be found. Too enraptured by the gilded flow of light emanating from the Hero in the sky. All I respond with is a grimace. Natural as always with those two. Bile and blood spills from my mouth as the expression becomes nothing short of painful.
"Don't worry, Lisa." I mutter. "I will be better by tomorrow, just you wai-" The vomit had crept back up my throat into the bucket once more.
I've lost count of the number of times I have had to lie. Phrases like, "I will take you next week," or "next birthday I'll get you something special." are just natural to say. Lies that have no chance of transforming into truths. Endless sickness that would not cease since I was five years of age. Only to accomplish a singular goal to inform my soul that death was narrowly approaching.
'He should just kill me already.'
Without an ability, growing up alongside my sister agonized the family. I am just a drain to their resources. Who needs me when my sister has the better chance anyways? Power is what grants an easy life amongst the Evolved thus making my sister one of immense fame, or soon to be anyways. Strength is what divides me from her.
Even now I am teased with the singular prospect of HIM granting my sight. Hero of Yuiryt City and victor of the Ambush on the Twisted Pyre. Tales, exaggerated or not, have left me with this blossoming flower deep in my pious core.
Although HE is so far off in the sky only HIS yellow sparkles reach my window. Tiny bursts of white light disintegrated on contact. These sparkles follow from HIS fingertips propelling HIM forward to a telekinetic command.
'CLANG!' The bucket topples over as another explosion rocks our street. Deep dark green sludge with bits and pieces of black residue stains my toes eliciting no response from me. It's too tiring to make a noise in protest.
Bursts of scorching hot flames, that can be felt from all the way down here, prickled our skin. Inferno's challenge to UNITY is apparent. In its snarky appearance of hot-rod flames creating a cover of clothing, Inferno is another spectacle among enthusiasts of the Heroes and Villains Encyclopedia, H.V.E. for short. The fire Villain can melt steel in mere milliseconds through the power of intense flames. Then there is the fact that he creates pockets of trapped oxygen and heat to act as highly condensed explosions.
My eyes brim with tears brought about by the fowl scent procured from the floor. The vomit mixes into the grime of my skin paling it.
'What a terrible day.'
"Oh, crap!" Lisa rushes off to grab towels and water.
The boom of punches clashing against muscle echoes to my ears. Standing atop my bed I barely catch the imagery outside. Large spouts of fire swivel like a top from an unknown epicenter. Only then do I notice the fire is in fact burning hot. The whole house has become a bath of heat that threatens to strangle the oxygen from my brain.
Inferno is now directly above us. Ash mists over the neighborhood blanketing my world in a veil of gray. Some ran indoors seeking shelter as they sensed the impending doom meanwhile the flock rooted themselves to the blazing glory. Whether it was fear or sheer stupidity their fates were plucked short.
Melt they did, in a swift hurricane of red which simply blew their faces to the wind. Explosions cascade against dozens of homes catching fire to the artificial lawns.
Red and blue find love as they lick each other's faces. Pecks from lips and the twirl of tongues mixes together perpetrating a violet child. Saliva spills in tangible threads that infest through the wood and whatever crevice it finds.
Only piles of black ash and burned bone gave recognition to the human that stood there moments before.
'CRACK!' Akin to the snap of a whip, this sound pierces out of the violent flames echoing down the street. UNITY must have snapped Inferno's arm. Only HIS strength can accomplish such a feat.
With my legs growing ever weaker I decide to fall back to bed resolute in believing the fight is all but over. There is no point in wasting my energy. The pictures I want to take; the hand I want to greet is an impossibility with myself in this state. Rest calls.
Then, the wind began to leave the building convening far above, lifting items and extinguishing the flames. Lights flickered on then off while sockets sizzled out; blown by the excess of electricity.
This was not the NUMBER 1's power.
Inferno could absorb the surrounding oxygen and electricity in his self-titled super move: Thunderous Hell. But he had already been defeated. His arm broken surely the same with his spirit. A useless attempt to execute a failure of a move. That's when the room became increasingly warm. Burning hot in fact.
Cloth and paper became a blaze of nonsense; even the clothes on my back unwound themselves into a hurry of coursing heat. The fire spread along my body seeking to invite much like a cigarette. It may be the most loving of holds I had experienced for once inside I was calm. This love is what soothes the soul.
'Creek!'
My eyes drift toward the door to find Lisa standing, a dumbfounded expression gauntly sketched on her dimpled cheeks. Her knees tremble while the scene within her pooling sockets wavers with a deluge of liquid. Her hands clasping the bucket and damp towels with the grip of death.
Why? It's beautiful. Finally, I'm what I am supposed to be. A whirlwind of devastation. Watch as I control the eradication of my own flesh, billowing as it's consumed by the passing blow of a breeze. She's such a silly girl.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
Who screamed? It sounds like my voice, but I can't be screaming; I'm in no pain. The screaming pursues me as I stumble toward the bathroom. Lisa pushes me inside the tub banging my head against the faucet. She tips the water from the bucket onto me then runs the shower head dousing me in more cool water.
Finally, the pain reaches my brain. It's excruciating as if thousands of larvae were crawling through my skin tearing holes through nerve endings with their tiny pincers. Needles poke inside my brain rendering me unconscious in seconds.
The last image I see is of Lisa shutting the door as more flames catch the corners to the wood. Surprisingly her clothes were not touched by the fire. Only a thin layer of black dust stains her undershirt. Triggering her ability, a malevolent shadow coats our bodies in protection. She draws in this sickly color from the lust of carnage present all around, a powerful measure of protection that allows for her to conjure this shield.
"Please, don't save me." I whisper unto deft ears.
...
My eyes open to a perplexity. I lay in the middle of our dining room. The ceiling torn off with weeds of fire prancing about the wreckage.
In the middle of it all stands Inferno. His blazing red outfit mixes with controlled flames at his feet and chest portraying him as a facsimile of a demon. Neither of his arms are broken and there is no sign of the NUMBER 1.
'He hasn't left us, has He? No, He would never do that.'
'Don't think that! He will surely come to stop Inferno.'
'So, who screamed earlier? Was it just my imagination?'
A gust draws the flames closer to me serving to sear my already mutilated torso. "GOD! I FEEL SO ALIVE!" Inferno bellows to the sky. His right-hand waving about with the throat of some girl caught in it. Realizing my mistake, I utter a moan in recognition of my sister's torment. Her face turns a dark blue as life leaks out from her soft peachy lips. His claws corrupting Lisa.
'Bastard!'
Fire erects from the gap in his lips as he yells to the heavens proclaiming his victory. It's no longer red but manifests itself into a light blue, like that of a stove just beginning to alight. Inferno declares his freedom to the world. The dreaded god of Hell is alive and well.
I roll onto my stomach crawling toward him. A terrible ache shoots from my fingertips. Blood leaks from beneath the nails while my veins bulge with adrenaline. A pain worse than that of burning alive ebbs throughout my body. Almost like my heart was pulsing from its ventricles exploding with an overproduction of pus.
I came to a stop a foot further. Inferno's bleak beady darkness studying my figure. Our eyes meet in an awkward fashion. A battle between stares, enticing the other to sweat more. My own shine in his, displaying my rage back to myself. However, his stare is not of some derangement. It's just curiosity. Like a cat playing with an insect. The man releases Lisa without a glance of concern. In the blink of an eye he stands above me. An immense heat irradiates from his boots forcing me to squint.
"Don't you look fucking pitiful?" His voice is energetic and cracks like a high schooler experiencing his first round of puberty. "That must be partially my fault, I guess. If that idiot hadn't gone about attacking me then none of this would have happened." Inferno waves his arms about then flexes both to represent Unity. A hand goes to his forehead massaging the temple. "I swear none of this is my fault." Pupils dilating and an expression of horror comes over him producing a fit of hyperventilation. Inferno's hands shake while the look beyond his eyes lightens. Indecision and sorrow procure from their dwellings. The man abruptly drops to his knees, smothering his face with his palms.
"Those fucking civies always yell and taunt me. I'm no evil, aren't I?" His pointedly inept question broke my barrier. Without an answer he continues, "They kept throwing shit. Firing 'em guns at me. It all hurts." In the corner of his sorrowful expression the man's right eye stayed open seeking out an ounce of sympathy from me. Yet, none was found.
"I am disappointing, aren't I?" A snide smug appears.
Inferno wipes the nothing from beneath his eyes. His cocksure attitude returns. Almost like this other side to him never existed. "There's no point in talking with the dead." A hand reaches up, nails about four inches in length, to catch an orange leaf fluttering under the pretense of the Fall season. "Leaves caked in flames. Flames baked in guts. Guts filled with nutrients. The world is just one of itself. Everlasting balls of time that cannot demonstrate their worth. Maybe I can wrestle with this prospect and ensure a future regained and desolate of destiny."
His scrutiny is lain on me. "Then, the world shall change." Smelling of rust, his boots clomp toward me. "You seem to be in a lot of pain... I'll take full responsibility." His right hand holds just below my chin as the left grapples to my throat. Clouds of breath disappear in the wind. My veins bulge further out as those needles in my brain burrow ever deeper. More blood excretes from my nails; but it did not end there, my mouth and right eye bled as well.
Inferno's curiousness peeks at me. Using two fingers, he squishes together my lips. Molesting their circumference by dabbing them, along with wiping the excess blood from their surface.
"HAHAHAHA! You look like a fish!" He croaks like a frog which echoes out against the ash flooded earth. Inferno finishes his fit of laughter then asks, "Would you like to know why I did it?" I shake and wiggle, but my actions are nothing more than an annoyance to him. In response, he chose to shatter the ribs along my left side. A singular love tap to the chest cavity was all it took.
Weak… forever weak…
"Well… the story is not for the faint of heart, I suppose. Asking yourself may bring about a better conclusion. Your eyes are very similar. I seek IT! The way in which this world shall be torn apart and shredded, like a nail, piercing through the pupil of time! You're a good kid, you know that? I saw how you were trying to help your sister. But…" Tears fell from his eyes. "I have to kill you. I'll do you first, so you won't have to see her die."
'SNAP!'
Snapping his fingers, a realization confronts him. "In heaven, the two of you will meet again. This will be better! So, so, so much better! You won't be in so much pain and she will be happy to see you. Also… Also your parents will be there too!
Oh... that's right,
I didn't get them yet. Sorry 'bout that. Don't worry, I'll look for them afterward."
Spittle flung from my lip as I hoarsely whispered, "Enough of this."
"FINE!" He screamed. With his index finger the spark of coming death blossoms from its tip.
'Where's Unity?' The spark fizzles into a bright bead.
'He's, our Saviour!' His finger amasses into a fit of indistinguishable agony.
'Saviour? Who gave him that name? What has he saved ME from?'
'A coward! The one who ran away from us!'
'Faith will only kill you, when you should have been prepared.'
Inferno's face twists and turns, changing shape into that of father. Rows of pearly white teeth as well as a snarky grin. Laden of course with violent wandering eyes. Next was Mother… her sickly green face which provokes sympathy as it rids animosity from her peers. Yet, unwillingness and ignorance cloud the fleshy mask. Someone should eradicate these three. A single touch to wound up their muck pinning it to thread only to strangle the participant in order for a test of its tautness.
Strangulation is not fun. In fact, it feels like you are having your insides stretched for miles then to have them suddenly crushed with a mallet. My tear ducts explode to complement the saliva painting over the gore from my mouth.
Despite Inferno's claims of sadness, his face proves his psychopathy and unwillingness to accept that truth brought the madness. A marble slate with the single attribute of remaining clean.
'I should let it all go by.'
'BA-THUMP! BA-THUMP! BA-THUMP!'
My heart shot from its rooted position. It wakes me from my deep slumber. An excruciating agony suffuses into my hands. The muscles elongate to reinforce the shattered bone. In all this confusion, a hand rises when it should not. Puppeted by some greater power, the appendage rests on the man's breast pocket. White lightning courses in my veins arching my back as well as widening my lips to wail in this sudden shock.
One pellet made of what can only be described as a purity, exits from the tip of my index finger. Inferno ogles the pellet. It floats only to pass along the tide of wind, that is until the object takes a sharp turn right, striking him in the center of the forehead. An expression of shock soon transforms into anger.
Niggardly, he takes me in close. Using his booming voice, Inferno cries, "What the fu- uck did you do to me?" Juice spews from his throat, washing out like a silver platter across his tongue. The haste in his words showers this fluid across my face.
Shock has come back for revenge.
His skin peels and unwinds around his hands and feet. Beyond lay his flesh and muscle, exposed to the fresh air for judgment. Further secretion of blood came from the pores to his face. Bone crumples into the remnants of dust which piles to be torn down by the vast gale from the east. Puddles of urine consume his shadow.
I descend to the floor resulting in the snap of ligaments and joints in my right leg. The presence of tiredness creeps further across consciousness provoking unconsciousness. Just then, Inferno drops to his knees screaming with no sound. An iridescent explosion of white light leeks from the joints in his body. A sound almost indescribable in nature found its way to my ears.
Trumpets. The tooting of trumpets played by an incredible brass section boomed out from his torso. Experts and savants are what these players are as they fiddle their instruments selectively pressing each key and valve including more and more players to this veteran orchestra. Their sound procures a wrenching brightness from the core of Inferno. Then, angelic beings shout from the heavens. The perfect chorus to this band of heavenly presence.
A liver, some teeth, and his tongue are just a few of what I see fall out from his decaying rib cage. The liver in particular splatters intestinal fluid in its sponge-like bounce on the wooden tiles slowly before its own evaporation. Inferno's body crumbles and tears away. Soon, his existence metamorphosizes into the last ash of his skeletal frame.
Oxygen floods my brain, relaxing the nerves. A single word prances to the forefront of my reality.
'Lisa.' Her body strewn across a concrete beam that fell in the midst of the destruction.
My body ran out of energy. Nothing remains in this tired, crippled body of mine. The leftover fluid from Inferno bathes me into a false sense of comfortability.
'Someone will come along. They must. Lisa is alive. Help has to come. The wait is unbearable.'
A shudder extinguishes the last flames, blowing shrapnel and the wreckage around me away. My eyes caught sight of a lump in the direction of the wind. Then, the lump of the Number 1 rises from its slumber. His arms stretch out as he cracks his neck to some unheard-of tune. The man's muscles explode from his figure overshadowing the moon.
He was there the whole time. Passed out from the fight?
No…
He had been waiting. Waiting for Inferno to leave. The death of regulars is nothing to them.
'Why? He's the strongest? Yet, he employs such cowardly tactics to survive.'
A premonition of Lisa's potential death replays before my eyes. Inferno's claws stretch out her skin while the muscle is torn away from its trachea. A spine remains almost like the charger of a laptop. A possibility that may have truly reincorporated into reality if not for a miracle. One not brought by him.
The Number 1 slumbers forward. A step from him sends the wood and rubble flying about. Yet, his movements are off. An unnatural limp is present in his walk. I could smell his breath from here. A disgusting scent bitter to the nose akin to rotten fish. To me, it was recognizable due to my father's habit. He's drunk.
What I can only describe as rage infests my soul. Tainting it to a darkened crisp.
Then, a loud 'SNAP!' The slow turn of my pupils has been arrested with fear. Their wobbly nature bobbles around on the lens. Yelps and whimpers of pain echo in their bouncing tune upon my mind's encasement. In retrospection it may have been disbelief that drew me to take a glance at her.
In place of her arm, the foot of Unity encroaches her nudity. Once connected to the ligament, now is nothing but a smudge of flesh on the concrete.
Dark shadows creep from their figures approaching my body. A maniacal grin distorts into maniacal laughter with nothing less than joy parading my ears.
A devil with the propriety to diminish all in his path. The smile lengthens demonstrating a pearly white row of jagged teeth. His shadow envelops his body sharpening his claws, tearing away the last visage of his heroic appearance. The suit is gone along with my fanatical praise leaving a single sight.
'DEVIL… DEVIL… DEVIL… DEVIL!'
The Devil takes a single step in search of the Villain. An expression of disappointment shone across its face. Its hooves piston like a spring then explodes from the earth launching it halfway to the heavens. The jump leaves no mark or strain to determine its existence. Almost like it never existed in the first place.
What a dream…
A great nightmare to suffuse my terrible day.
Now, it's just time to wake up. Time to wake up, smell the roses, and return to the sick bed.
Let me wake up now.