Story Completed!

Not a real blog entry, just giving the heads up that I have finished my story. I hope you've enjoyed watching it form over the past week. Now, without further ado:

Mutatis Mutandis
A storm was brewing; ominous grey clouds covered the night sky, suffocating the moon from view, creating a forlorn scene above an empty old house. The house itself was nothing particular, four walls and a roof. The lights were off, and all that could be heard was the low drone of a computer buzzing, sounding like swarm of bees. The dull glow emitted from the monitor cast glimpses of faded silhouettes upon the distant wall.


Odette laid back in the field, her solemn green eyes searching the vast sky for answers to questions unasked. Remembering back to the night her father died.

“Ask the big questions Odette! Don’t let them cover your eyes,” he said, rushing her into the cupboard. Through the slits she could see the tragic scene unfolding before her eyes.

BANG!
Two muscly henchmen kicked in the door, no need for manners in their line of work, and headed determined for the man cowering in front of the cupboard.
“You’ve been summoned, old man,” the one on the left said, his voice matching his facial expression; emotionless.

“What does he want with a defencelessly decrepit man, such as myself?” He tried to stay calm but fear held tight his voice and it shook like a baby’s rattle.
“I know not of his purpose, only of my orders” He answered.
“But why? Why me?”
“You know too much!” The discussion was over. The two men rushed in grabbing the elderly man by his arms and dragged him out kicking and screaming.
“No, help! Somebody, anybody! Help me!” As time passed his voice faded until all that could be heard was a faint echo reverberating in the silent night. A stream of agonising tears raced down the face of an innocent girl. It was raining inside the cupboard.

Odette opened her eyes. Her breath was heavy, her eyes were dilated, and her lips were a quiver. She shook her head from side to side trying desperately to clear her mind of such a frightening memory. It didn’t work. A lonely tear seeped from her eye. She brushed it away quickly. She was stronger now.


Jason sat alone on the bench, fingering through the local newspaper. He grumbled at the realisation that he lost fifty dollars; caught on the wrong end of a sports bet, his home team lost twenty four to sixteen. His stomach let out a low rumble; he replied with a groan and tried rubbing it back to good health to no avail. It seemed that the only antidote to this ailment was a tasty medium steak together with freshly cut tomato, lettuce, and beetroot thrown between two buns seasoned with a light sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Looking around he rested his eyes on a small restaurant across the road, Steak n’ Bacon. He compared the healthiness of the meal to the unsurmountable hunger that pestered him. It was a one sided debate and after only a couple of seconds his stomach won. He begged his body to move and it obeyed slowly at first and then more nimbly once he got moving, only stopping when he reached the edge of the road. Looking both ways he made sure that there was no cars in sight.

Without a doubt he walked out onto the road. In his mind he was already choosing what toppings he wanted, a droplet of saliva slipped from the side of his open mouth. He dabbed it with his shirt sleeve, his pace hastened and his vision no longer focused on the perils that the road presented. He failed to notice the distance roar of a car engine creating a crescendo as each moment passed.

It all happened so fast.
CRASH!
Jason’s knees buckled.
A body flew over the car.
The squeal of breaks tore through the air.
A pair of eyes closed.
A heart stopped beating.


Odette sat up; she had laid down enough today and decided it was time to do something. Odette didn’t really partake in the regular activities that girls her age would. This was understandable; Odette had lived the past three years by herself and rarely trusted anyone. So on this sunny Tuesday afternoon, she decided to go to the library, nothing more enjoyable to the young miss than immersing herself within a fortress of words created by the likes of George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and other great authors of recent history.

She crossed the city, not walking too slowly but still people rushed passed. It seemed that ever since her father died humanity was always running ahead and she was being discarded like the scraps of yesterday’s dinner. The street was full of people, yet somehow she felt like the only one there. All the dissimilar faces looked the same in blur, as if under this shell called skin they were one figure; a generic figure that all humans inherit as right of birth. It was these things that crowded her thoughts as she made her way down the busy sidewalk.

The sun had sunk deep into the afternoon before Odette reached her destination. She let out a small smile as a cool gust of air from inside the library rushed out to meet her at the door. Once upon a time Odette’s father told her to ask the big questions. She interpreted this in the best way she knew how, through the art of philosophy. So it was no surprise when she found that her feet carrying her to that section within the library.

There wasn’t much of a selection at the library; then again in this day and age books were superceded by their media counterparts. That’s probably why Odette had such a profound connection to those of the literary sort. Realising she was alone she reached out to the shelf and gently ran her fingers across the spines of several books noting that they were all alphabetized by order of the author’s last name. Odette was searching for something that she hadn’t read before, which proved difficult. At one point she even thought of giving up until she saw it.

An olden book with the title edged down the spine. ‘The Philosophy of Two Worlds’ it read. There was no author, no publisher, nothing that could be used as an identifier as to where this book came from. Odette was stunned; she couldn’t take her eyes off the cover. It was like this book was something else, possessed, giving off an aura of power. She looked up and found she was no longer alone instead she was faced by two strangers.

“You’ve been summoned.”


Jason opened his eyes, it didn’t do much good. He was surrounded by nothing but emptiness, as if he was drowning in an ocean of dark seawater. The nothingness filled his lungs and slowly drained his energy. He struggled against it; kicking and flailing about, it didn’t help.
“Help!” he screamed, the word fell off into the distance. The only reply was the cold bitter silence that surrounded his body. Helpless, he gave up; surrendering himself to the omnipotent shadow.

Jason had calculated that he had been floating for about half an hour before a loud, abrupt, mechanical sound cut through the silence like a fax machine making a call, or a dial-up modem connecting to a host. Jason covered his ears, but the sound was harsh and penetrated straight through his hands. He yelled out, trying to match the noise.
“ARRGGHH!” He fell short, his voice drowned out by the horrible, digital, sound. It only lasted a short time, but felt like an eternity passed before it had stopped was replaced by a low drone. There was a small bright light in front of him. A friendly light, Jason was overjoyed; solitary had taken its toll.

“Hello” Jason tried to communicate, which ordinarily would seem weird and something he wouldn’t do but he was floating in a pitch black pool of nothingness; anything seemed possible.
“CONNECTION ESTABLISHED.” The voice echoed, bouncing off of invisible walls. The light didn’t move, but it was obvious that it was the source of the voice.
“Who are you? What is this place?” Jason asked, these questions had been plaguing his mind ever since he entered.
“I AM A GEOMETRIC OMNIPOTENT DISPLACEMENT OR G.O.D AND THIS IS MY ROOM.” It sounded unhuman, never stuttering, pausing for breath or stopping to think, it sounded almost robotic.
“Your room?”
“YES MY ROOM. THE ROOM BETWEEN BOTH WORLDS.”

“Both worlds? Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t there only one?”
“THERE ARE TWO WORLDS, ONE WAS MADE PERFECT, ONE WAS MADE IMPERFECT.”
“So what world did I come from? I lost my money gambling, so I’m guessing it’s imperfect.”
“YES AND NO. BOTH WORLDS ARE IMPERFECT.”
“Wait, didn’t you just say that one was perfect?”
“YES. HOWEVER YOU FORMS CHANGED IT. ADAPTED IT TO YOUR WILL. A PERFECT WORLD IS INPERFECT TO A FORM.”
“Hmmm… okay so what is a form?”
“FORM: A MUTATION OF THAT WHICH IS PERFECT. I AM PERFECT. YOU ARE BUT A MUTATION OF ME.”

Jason honestly had no idea what this thing was going on about, and while something deep down inside him cared about what exactly it was saying there was a more pressing question on Jason’s mind.
“Okay, okay. I understand now, but I have a question for you.”
“YES.”
“I assume I’m here because I’m dead? Is this correct?”
“YES.”
“So what happens to me now?”
“YOU ARE REBORN IN THE OTHER WORLD. NO ONE REALLY DIES. THAT CONCEPT WAS SOMETHING YOU FORMS MADE UP.”


“CONNECTION ESTABLISHED.” The voice tolled like a church bell. Odette’s eyes sprung open finding herself face to face with a light.
“W-What’s going on?” Odette whimpered, lost in cocktail of emotions; fear, confusion, and anxiety topping the list.
“DO NOT BE ALARMED. YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT HERE BECAUSE I HAVE SUMMONED YOU.” Odette’s vision was blurred, her head was hurting, but still she made sense of the situation.
“Summoned me? Wait, are you the one who took my father? What’s going on who are you? What are you?”
“SO INQUISITIVE. I AM G.O.D. AND YES I TOOK YOUR FATHER. HE KNEW TOO MUCH. THINGS PEOPLE DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW. SO I MADE HIM A DEAL.”
“Deal… does that mean my father is alive?”
“YES BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW HIM!”

This was the first news that she had heard since his death, or what she perceived was his death. Odette found herself crying once more, this time for the right reason, her father was alive.
“What do you mean, my father is dead, I saw your men take him away. I haven’t seen him since.” She managed to spurt out through strangled sobs.
“YES. HE LEARNT TOO MUCH OF THIS WORLD AND ITS SECRETS. SO I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO MAKE A DEAL WITH HIM. HE COULD BE REBORN A SUCCESS OR LIVE LIKE A FOOL. HE WAS WISE AND CHOSE THE FIRST OF THE TWO OPTIONS.”
“Reborn, reborn what? Where was he reborn?”
“WHEN THIS WORLD WAS CREATED I MADE A PERFECT AND IMPERFECT WORLD EACH MIRRORING THE OTHER. YOU ARE CURRENTLY LIVING IN THE PERFECT WORLD.”
“War, corruption, and the homeless. It’s hardly what one would call perfect.”
“THESE THINGS YOU MENTION ARE ALL OF HUMAN CREATION, WITHOUT HUMANS THE WORLD IS PERFECT.”

The realisation of this truth hit Odette hard as tears continued to exude from her eyes.
“Why are you telling me this? What’s going to happen to me?”
“I DO THIS BECAUSE I HAVE HAD MY EYE ON YOU. LIKE YOUR FATHER YOU DO NOT FIT IN THIS WORLD. I SHOULD NOT HAVE SEPERATED YOU. SO THIS IS YOUR RELIEF.”
There was a long pause.
“FOR YOU. I GIVE YOU A CHOICE. TO CONTINUE TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD WITHOUT A MEMORY OF PAST EVENTS OR TO LIVE IN THE IMPERFECT WORLD WITH YOUR FATHER. THOUGH HE WILL NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE. IN ANY CASE YOU WILL FORGET THIS CONVERSATION EVER TOOK PLACE.”
Another pause.
“YOU HAVE DECIDED.”


She let out sigh. At last, twelve hours of excruciating labour had ended. This was her second baby and though she was used to the process, it wasn’t any easier. The nurse came wetted down a sponge and dabbed at her forehead gathering beads of sweat. She laid there exhausted, the doctor held the prize in his hands. A baby, 3.6 kilos, cried out looking for someone warm and loving to attach itself too. The doctor handed the baby to the mother and she held it close to her breast.
“What do you wish to call him?” He asked.

“Jason.”


Odette opened her eyes, again she found herself in a weird, unusual place. Surrounded by unfamiliar faces gathering in a circle, at the forefront there was a slim kid with wavy blonde hair. He looked at Odette with hazel eyes, the same hazel eyes that was taken away from her that unfaithful night.
“Are you alright?” Odette rushed forward wrapping her arms around the boy and pulling him tight. The boy was taken aback, but accepted the embrace for what it was; a showing token of affection. It was the first time she had smiled in a long time. As this was indeed her father.


The computer sat there alone, content with itself, the silhouettes were still dancing against the distant wall. So much had happened, but so little had changed; the computer still buzzed. A man died, a child was born, a woman changed worlds, and found her father yet the buzzing continued. In the end it’s all a game - the game of humanity to which no rules apply.

C’est la vie.