Locked in chains, pushed by the butt of a scabbard. Snapped at the heels, heads shaken along as they took to the steps. Feet against steel, shirtless and weak. Water holding their hair down, tired eyes fell on a beak helmed soldier. Crimson plates laddered his shoulders. Two glossy eyes under the visor that fell behind the nape, hovering over the shoulders. Crisp lips between newly shaven skin. Translucent folds of hair hidden beneath the shadow of his helm. A wet sigh exited his lips. He straightened, tapping his thumb.
“Where is she?” He asked.
“Who…?” Akli replied.
“My daughter.”
“You talk like you care.”
“Do I not?”
“Not if you want her dead.”
“If she can not be safe with me, then death is all she can be given.”
“What a doting father…” Akli’s knees were smacked, blood running down both tendons. “Fuzzy soldiers you have here.”
Leaning on his fist, King Schizo sighed once again. “I was once dismissive, rebellious, anarchic. Natheless, I have grown to see that this realm needs peace. With my guidance and my daughter’s unique properties, I can lead this world into true prosperity.”
“You sound like all the other bad guys in history books. Say, Horo, you’re a book nerd, why don’t you educate this mother fucker! Ack!” Another slash came at Akli’s calves.
“…” Horo stared at his toes, not daring to move a muscle.
“Move them back to the dungeon…give them treatment.”
“You are now healed, child,” a man in white plastic dyed in blood said to Ben. His face felt fresher, however the burning sensation within his right hand permeated, the scarring of the tattoo untouched.
“Where am I? Who are you people?” Ben asked.
“Weavers of his Majesty’s will…” The medic soon began to melt with a horrid stench. The rancidness of spoiled milk and rotting goat liver. Appalled, Ben leapt back, his frontal sinuses burning with disgust. Splash. Turning over his hand, a glue-like substance appeared, its maroon ombré spreading across Ben’s view. Under the stretcher he could see down open doors, a hall that stretched with bodies upon bodies. A shower of claps opened up to his ears, the joyous laughter of the curdling he was bathed in. Rising to his feat, the nauseating pain sloshed throughout his mind as the hands began to crawl upward. Swatting them away, Ben ran through the murky sludge. The rattling clamoring through the ceiling. Silky turbulence swirling around, spinning and twisting. As if surfing through time, back and forth, Ben opened one door to only arrive back to where he already was. Lights going in and out, flashing off and on, fire and ice. In an instant he was colder than he had ever been, as though just a corpse given consciousness. The next, he was as hot as the sun, burning from within, curling into a ball of puss and blood.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
His scratchy screams ended in the open air of a land called Ontiganel. Wide streets, steel walls, and the clatter of people styled so vibrantly different to what Ben was accustomed to. Could this have been the future? A thought many from where Ben grew up would think. Although some passed him with concern, most simply ignored the frantic teen. Terror washed over him, every second he drew breath it felt as though someone was watching, watching him.
“My Lord, word from one of the hired hunters.”
“Speak,” King Schizo ordered.
“He is coming here, he believes that the Princess is arriving with one of her guards.”
“I see, send a bird, our inside eye will dictate our operations. We shall have my daughter meet up with this eye unknowingly. Pinching them into no escape.”
A court general said: “Majesty, if I may?”
“Speak.”
“Our men are having trouble staying on the outskirts of Ontiganel. If I may propose a sacking, to merely plunder a few supplies. For we may not know when the Princess will arrive.”
“General Kris, do you know why we have not made a strong effort into the southern lands, nor any of the islands, nor any of the Unknown?”
“I am aware of the terrain problems, as well as our lacking ability to manufacture vehicles that can handle such terrain. Especially with our open ocean knowledge lacking also.”
“Those of course are warrant-able, and a prominent place of discussion. So tell me this, with all that brings us struggle, why have we been able to strangle the rest of the world the way we have?”
“Your Majesty’s immense power, and the fact that it can be shared by millions of soldiers, gives us on average a superior force to the typical.”
“Bravo General Kris. Now then, we are in the lands, we have the strength, nothing is stopping us…is that what I can gather from your suggestion?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Do you think I am the only one capable?”
“Uh…could you clarify more on your question…your Majesty?”
“Surely, General Kris. It means I am not the strongest yet. Someone out there, in Ontiganel has the power to rival me; excluding the terrain, resources, and the insurmountable difference in military size. Someone rivals me!”
“I-if you don’t mind my request, but where could his Majesty possibly gather such information…?”
“Oh why of course, from the most reliable source in the universe, the future.”
“The future…? I’m sorry…”
“Do not apologize, not until three years ago, I thought how ridiculous that could be as well. Natheless, we are here to capture the future, so that we may create a brighter one. Say General Kris, would you not want a world where your grandchildren can live in absolute bliss, and for their grandchildren to live in even more bliss. With you and the many great citizens that fight for our cause, we are creating a more glorious future everyday.”
Tears streamed down the general’s face, nodding with pure admiration. The soldiers framed their hearts with fingers in alignment with their god, the almighty King Schizo.
