《Broken Kaleidoscopes》


 Broken Horizons(1)

    I like to consider myself an average student. Normal in every possible way.


    I would sit calmly at my desk whenever the teacher droned on and on, but I hardly ever paid attention. My mind would be too busy taking a stroll in the clouds, or daydreaming of some fantastic adventure that would whisk me away from the boredom of my day. It was almost like I could see some fantasy revealing itself to me.


    Knights in shining armor fought against beasts wreathed in impenetrable scales. Plumes of fire danced along the their tattered chainmail and broken breastplates. The beasts would roar and the world would tremble as the monster of flames bellowed wrathful burns against its aggressors.


    They even fought outside the very window I stared at. The school¡¯s courtyard burned and smoldered from the carnage that took place. Students just like me would scream and panic, running away from the biblical battle that waged outside.


    The stalwart defenders took up their cold, steel weapons that somehow hadn¡¯t been slagged by the heat of the fires hat licked them. A chorus of shouts and grunts echoed out as they took thunderous steps towards the beasts. Their forms dwarfed by the massive, scaled thing as even its claws were far larger than the girthiest of the knight.


    Great pinions of scale and leathers rose from its back, and shrouded the sun¡¯s light as if proclaiming itself the gaseous ball¡¯s better. Red lines glowed beneath the lighter scale that made its chest, slowly turning into a bright white. Its maw of horribly crooked and sharp teeth opened, and tongues of flame curled around the gaping hole that was its throat.


    A deep breath sucked in the air, satrving everyone of the necessary oxygen to function. With only a breath the world burn-


    ¡°Cade¡­ pst, Cade!¡± The knights vanished along with the impossible beast, and the students who screamed and hollered returned to their placid states of movement. There was no more destruction. No more flame. Nothing had happened. It was all just a dream.


    I sighed. That was a really good dream as well.


    ¡°I can see you¡¯re finally paying attention, Mr. Burningham. Wonderful of you to finally pay attention to the class.¡± My head shot up to stare at the teacher, Mrs. Moore. Her overweight figure and short blonde hair cut a distinctive figure for her, but it was her no nonsense personality that annoyed almost every student who had her.


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± I stammered, knowing that she wouldn¡¯t berate me further if I showed some semblance of politeness. She was a piece of work, but she wasn¡¯t as out to get you as she made some people think.


    My point was proven as Mrs. Moore hummed and turned back to teaching. The sigh of relief at not getting absolutely torn into by her was one I would rather not give all the time.


    ¡°Geez man, sucks to be you.¡± A voice whispered to me.


    I craned my neck to see a familiar face of my friend, Cole Cunningham. He and I were always placed next to each other due to our similar last names, and we kind of just stuck together ever since. Though, if anyone asked, we probably had the least in common than anyone else.


    He was a big guy for our age. Standing at an imposing six foot four with the muscles that put many of our varsity football members to shame. His short, golden blonde hair matched well with the sea blue eyes that sparkled as he talked. And talk he did, Cole was always the one that talked the most out of the two of us.


    Popularity, muscles, personality, Cole was probably everyone¡¯s dream guy. I, on the other hand, was just a dreamer. Long, brown hair that extended to my shoulders, and light brown eyes were what characterized me. Skinny arms and boring conversationalist was what I would be remembered by. And that was if anyone asked knew me more than being the guy who hung around Cole.


    Still, Cole was my friend. Just because he was better than me in most things, I would never abandon my friend. Even if it was just responding to him, and maybe that¡¯s slightly dramatic of me. ¡°Shut up, Cole. You know how I get when I zone out.¡± I snarked back to the taller guy.


    He smirked, pearly white teeth flashing back at me. ¡°Yeah, yeah, and what is the dream for today? Saving a princess in peril? Fighting a dragon? Maybe mixing it up, and going for a robot dragon?¡±


    ¡°Laugh it up all you want.¡± I huffed, mentally marking robot dragon as a cool idea.


    ¡°Nah man, maybe you should write a book with all the dreams you have?¡± He suggested. ¡°I¡¯d read it if only to tell you how many mistakes there are in the first couple chapters.¡±


    I hid my smile behind a frown. ¡°This is coming from the guy who failed his last English test?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t read the book! How was I supposed to know what was on the test?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Cunningham, need I remind you and your friend that this is class time right now. There are students trying to learn, and your outburst has troubles these young scholars.¡± I paused, looking around the room as Mrs. Moore¡¯s words cut into Cole¡¯s rant.


    I saw three people awake, and none of them looked like they wanted anything to do with the history lesson on the board. Everyone else had mastered the art of sleeping while looking like they were paying attention. I envied them.


    We were saved by the bell as it rung its grandiose tones that signified freedom from this torture. Cole quickly snatched up my own backpack and his as he ran a beeline for the exit. Other students mulled and shambled like zombies awakening from their graves to escape.


    Mrs. Moore exploded in rage. ¡°Did I say that class is dismissed?¡± Everyone froze, and I think I heard a whimper from Cole. ¡°No one leaves unless I specifically say so. The bell doesn''t dismiss you. Now, sit down.¡±


    I took back everything nice I wanted to say about Mrs. Moore. My adolescent brain could only handle so much of her personality before I entered a breaking point. Briefly, I imagined just making a run for it as she ordered everyone to sit back down.


    However, I decided against it as Cole saddled next to my seat. A few seconds of awkward silence later, we were all released out into the hallways of our school.


    The lime green walls were lined with rows of sickly green lockers that I¡¯m sure no one even used anymore. Unless they were shoving someone into the locker. Students milled about in the slightly too small hallways, and I was definitely glad that I walked behind Cole as everyone got out of the way of him. The white, tiled floors were rather sticky today, too. Probably from some prank that had gone right, or some guy spilling something. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°What a bitch¡­¡± Cole groaned from beside me. He handed my backpack back to me as we both walked.


    ¡°She¡¯s just being a normal teacher, Cole. All you gotta give her is some respect and she won¡¯t bother you too much.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but seriously. Holding us for three minutes after the bell; that¡¯s gotta be a crime or something!¡± He gesticulated wildly as he spoke, and nearly hit a couple passing students. I hurriedly apologized to them as we passed. They flipped me off.


    Got to love my school.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re done with history for the day, and I don¡¯t have anymore classes today, so I think I¡¯m gonna head on home. You have practice till five, right?¡± I supplied as we moved.


    Cole sighed tiredly as he frowned at me. ¡°I got practice till six today, so you shouldn¡¯t wait for me. I know you don¡¯t like waiting anyways. Also, the upcoming game is gonna be one of our toughest, you know. We¡¯re gonna need all the support we can get.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡± I drawled. ¡°Football, I just love watching head trauma in the making.¡±


    ¡°Come on, dude. I know you don¡¯t like watching it, but you gotta support the team. Or the school.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°Yeah, like anyone has that much school spirit.¡±


    ¡°What if I told you that Courtney would be there?¡± Cole gave one of his trademarked smirks as I frowned.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be there,¡± I answered just to get him off my back. Then I quickly added, ¡°but not for her, dude. I don¡¯t even like Courtney!¡±


    ¡°Sure, sure, anyways, Candle Stadium, tomorrow at seven P.M. sharp.¡± Cole brightened as my mood plummeted. I really didn¡¯t want to spend my weekend watching a bunch of sweaty guys smack into each other.


    ¡°Right, right, I¡¯ll be there. Seeya later, dude.¡± I waved. Cole was already trucking his way past several mobs of students. I watched his large form easily slip by the others in the hallway.


    Immediately, the swarm of students that filled the hallways collapsed in on his disappearance. I struggled to fight the crowd and make my way out of school as I pushed and shoved my way through the clustered halls.


    I finally made it out if the school a couple minutes later. The rustic brick of the school was painted in the same off green and white combo that made up our colors. Though, I guess it made some sense if you knew our mascot was a green viper. Many just called us the Vomit Vipers instead.


    Myself being included.


    It didn¡¯t take me long to find my bike. The thing had definitely seen some better days, but it was the only thing I could afford these days. Peeling red paint on a regular frame and fit with tires that looked like they were deflated a hundred times over.


    Still, my rugged steed fit me well as I hurriedly peddled away from the hellhole that was my school. Don¡¯t get me wrong. It wasn¡¯t that bad, but, considering that it was just situated in one of the worst parts of the city, it was still not that good.


    Baytown wasn¡¯t known for being the best of cities. In fact, it was perfectly normal if a regular high school student was robbed and killed on his way home. I peddled faster with that thought.


    Gangs, drug lords, simple crazies and thoroughly horrible people Baytown had them crawling from the woodwork. The high rise buildings of glass, steel and concrete were the best to hide between. Sometimes I heard horror stories of what exactly happened in nondescript alleyways.


    Hell, we even had monsters that tore their way out of buildings, sending falling shards of glass and concrete flying every which way.


    I peddled onwards at that. It was an odd daydream now that I stopped to think about it. I never dreamed of anything like it before.


    Screams of unholy evil eroded my eardrums as the glass crashed down around me. I looked up to see the beast was a mismatch of various other animal parts that didn¡¯t seem to want to stick. Bulbous heads of lions, tigers, ants, wasps, fish, sharks and all manner of beasties bubbled their way through the creature¡¯s pudgy, rounded body.


    It looked like it was trying to imitate a fat octopus with how utterly boneless it seemed. Transitioning between limbs, heads and fleshy appendages like some kind of lovecraftian horror.


    The cries it made were probably the worst part. It was like thousands of animals had banded together for the sole purpose of screaming.


    Groaning concrete and yelling glass clued me in on the fact that the monster still seemed to be bursting from the building. Like the inanimate giant had somehow birthed this horrible evil.


    Then something flopped right in front of me. Disgusting cracks and meaty splashes was all I heard for awhile. My eyes had cut away from the monster above to see the reality below.


    A body. They looked middle aged, and their limbs probably shouldn¡¯t look like that. I didn¡¯t look at their face.


    Instead, I threw up. Acrid stomach acid burned my throat as it came up, and suddenly I realized that monster was real. As much as I dreamed, I never found a dead body in them.


    There really was some kind of insane creature above me, ripping itself free from an office building. There really was a dead body that had fell in front of me. This was some messed up reality, and all this craziness was actually happening.


    Holy shit! What do I do?!


    Laughter stole my frozen body, but it wasn¡¯t my own. I looked back up to find someone staring down the ever changing beast. They were laughing at it like it wasn¡¯t even anything bad.


    They were also floating in front of it. Standing on the air as if there were an invisible platform keeping them from succombing to gravity.


    The building began to creak and groan as if something invisible was forcing it to change. The office building warped and twisted itself into a large prison that caged in the beast with broken pillars of concrete, beams of glowing steel and razor sharp glass.


    Still, the beast struggled in its improvised prison as the floating figure laughed at it. Blood spilled in waves as the creature continued to thrash against the broken glass, sending rivers of red liquid downwards in a torrential rain. If anything, the wounds only further enthused the beast as even those grievous wounds stitched themselves back like some kind of horror video on rewind.


    Another nearby building twisted on itself. The figure floating in the air made some kind of gesture, and suddenly the building exploded.


    Steel wound around itself, pulling the materials into some kind of track. Wires snaked inside the beams of steel, coiling into some kind of machine. The concrete mixed with glass to form a large shard of composite death that sat itself into the metal track that was currently floating in the air as if it weighed only a feather.


    The air sparked and then there was tendrils of lightning shooting around the metal pathways. I realized it then that the figured had somehow created a railgun from an office building.


    The figure laughed again, and I felt my world tremble as I stared onwards to the two monsters that decided that the city was perfect to fight a battle to the death in. A hand rose form the figure as the monstrous weapon followed.


    A deafening boom shattered every single window that was still there, and I felt my head throb from the action. Streaks of superheated air burst into flames to signal that something large and impossible had just passed by. Where the ever changing beast was imprisoned was now a void of nothing. The railgun had delivered its payload, and whatever was in the path of that massive bullet of death was instantly atomized.


    My head throbbed. My heart beat, and, when the figure turned to look at me from their godly position, I felt all the blood leave my face. Breathing suddenly became a chore as I felt my lungs contract in fear..


    ¡°Hello there!¡± The figure teleported to in front of me, stepping over the body that had fallen just seconds before whatever happened. They barely even registered that there was even someone there. I noticed that the figure was a female.


    She looked to only be about fifteen, barely reaching up to my chest. I was not the tallest of guys, only barely six foot, but this monster in the form of a girl had to be creeping up on five foot. Her hair was purple, too. It reached down to her neck, and an intricate braid extended further to reach all the way to her lower back. Everything else made me think that she was only a normal fifteen year old.


    She even wore some kind of uniform fit with a skirt that was dangerously short.


    ¡°Geez, if you were going to check me out, maybe I should¡¯ve wiped you out as well.¡± The monster teased with a smile on her face. To me it didn¡¯t really sound like a tease. Especially with the huge railgun that still floated in the air.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I whispered. Internally, I searched desperately for a way to flee.


    The girl shaped thing skipped happily over to my still form. ¡°All is forgiven! We¡¯re family, after all!¡±


    I fainted the next second. The stress of the whole situation was really getting to me. If anything, I really was impressed with not passing out sooner.


    When I opened my eyes again I found myself in my bed. Everything was normal. Nothing seemed out of place, and even my bed smelled the same.


    ¡°It was just a dream¡­¡± I breathed, swinging my legs out of my bed and padding over to the door. Hunger dragging me to the direction of the kitchen.


    I pulled open my door, and was immediately greeted with the sight of a deadly purple midget monster. The scream I delivered was completely manly as I slammed the door closed.


    A muffled voice full of disappointment clued me in on the fact that this was actually happening. Fearing that I had angered the girly monster, I swung the door back open to get a full view of the still smiling girl.


    She spread open her arms before announcing, ¡°Great! Now that you¡¯re all better let¡¯s go out and kill a Sinner! It may have escaped, but this time I¡¯m ready to fully destroy it!¡±


    I shut the door again, and threw myself back onto my bed. Somehow the idea of sleep was more important than whatever she wanted.


    Blissful sleep took me the next second. Maybe when I woke up everything would make sense again.

 Broken Horizons(2)

    Everything made no sense.


    ¡°You know, it¡¯s rude to ignore someone!¡± The midget monster said, pouting from her side of my table.


    ¡°Yes,¡± was all I could say as I watched food float from my fridge, make a few twirls in the air and somehow become cooked or prepared before plopping down in front of us.


    My apartment wasn¡¯t that large, and my fridge reflected that. It only had enough room for a kitchen that flowed into my cramped living room. My bedroom and bathroom were connected by an adjacent door.


    However, that mattered little to this purple haired ball of confusion. She would swish a hand in one direction, and the walls would retreat from her as if afraid. Food I didn¡¯t know I had would appear from my somehow inexhaustible fridge, and then cook itself for us.


    Instead of further berating me, the small girl shaped monster started to devour the morsels in front of us. In fact, it seemed as if the matter had been put completely behind her.


    To be completely honest, I had expected a bit more fire and death than this when I came out of my room after sleeping a bit. As I waited for her to finish, I couldn¡¯t help but be a little anxious.


    Did I try to run now? Could I make it? No, the door looks like it¡¯s a mile away; I could never make a break for it before she kills me via anything.


    Could I take her? She is fairly close, and physically doesn¡¯t look too strong¡­ I took that thought out back, shot it, shot it several times more and gave it the most dishonest burial that it deserved.


    This girl had collapsed an entire building to encase one thing. Albeit, it was something straight out of a nightmare. Still, I don¡¯t know what kind of idiot would think they had a chance after seeing that.


    That leaves trying to communicate. So far she has treated me fairly well. As in, she hasn¡¯t tried to invert my internals and externals.  The only problem with this option is that I¡¯m fairly sure she¡¯s batshit crazy.


    Taking a deep breath and readying myself for pain, I spoke first, ¡°So, uh, my name is Cade. How¡¯re you?¡±


    The monster paused between bites, and suddenly the air around my ears vibrated a little. I didn¡¯t move, unsure what I had done to spurn this monster to go straight for the kill.


    At first, I was sure that there were noises being directed into my ears. Then, I began to hear various languages; some that sounded like they couldn¡¯t possibly be formed by a human. They appeared for a second before disappating like smoke.


    ¡°Ah, ooh, there we go!¡± A cheerful tone echoed in my ear. ¡°It took awhile to work around our translation gene. Wow, I¡¯ve never actually done this. I¡¯m really, really excited!¡±


    ¡°Uh, what exactly is going on?¡± I asked tentatively. Inwardly, I was trying not to tense up at her words.


    The air wobbled for a second. ¡°Why I¡¯m inducting a new member of our family! It¡¯s been so long since we found another!¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± I started, suddenly feeling that my stomach was tossing and turning. ¡°And who is this lucky new member?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? It¡¯s obviously you, silly! No flimsy spawn of this Reality could ever have entered my Cube.¡± There was much to comment on her words. Much that I had no idea where to even begin.


    That¡¯s fine. The situation hasn¡¯t devolved into indeterminate screaming yet. Just think of it like talking with a toddler. A toddler with abilities likened to a thermonuclear bomb.


    ¡°Okay, so I¡¯m the lucky member¡­ that¡¯s great.¡± It was definitely not great. ¡°But I already have a family here.¡±


    For the first time since the food appeared, the monster stopped eating. I also just now noticed that her irises had the shapes of two interlocking cubes instead of normal circles. They were dark, foreboding black.


    ¡°I mean, I would love to join your family! There¡¯s nothing I wouldn¡¯t love more!¡± I hurriedly interjected before any chance of this monster doing something irrational.


    ¡°Hmmm, don¡¯t worry, little brother. I was just thinking about something. It¡¯s completely fine for us to have many ties to the Realities that we play with.¡± The air vibrated again, and the monster went back to her never ending feast.


    I think I was being corrupted by the crazy as I nodded to her words.


    ¡°That¡¯s nice. Could you, um, explain some things, though? I¡¯m slightly confused about¡­ well, everything.¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± The bodiless voice chirped.


    Alright, this is good. ¡°Okay, so what was that thing that you killed earlier?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a Sinner! Or, err,¡± the monster frowned. ¡°It¡¯s translated weird here. I¡¯m not the best at explaining it like Doldrum is, but I do know that it ate something that it¡¯s not supposed to. Also it¡¯s still alive!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not good¡­¡± I paused to grab a particularly adventurous piece of chicken out of the air. The name Doldrum was also marked down in my memory. ¡°... I think. But, what are you going to do about it?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was gonna close off this place till it eventually starved itself by eating this Reality dry, but then I found you!¡± The monster had finished the food in front of it as its voice slowly took over from the vibrating air.


    ¡°Right,¡± I said in fake cheer. ¡°What exactly does that mean now?¡±


    ¡°We kill it and let you consume its inner Reality obviously! I¡¯m a loving sibling, after all.¡± She expounded while posing on her side of the table. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    What¡­ ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re forgiven!¡±


    My brain rebooted from the conversation. ¡°No, I meant what do you mean by ¡®consume¡¯? Also what do you mean by ¡®we¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Huh, obviously the two of us¡­¡± She tilted her head in confusion like it was me who was making the whole thing confusing. ¡°You know of your own Reality, right?¡±


    ¡°I have no clue what you¡¯re talking about.¡± I stated clearly, and, for the first time, the monstrous girl paused completely. She looked like she was suddenly caught within the headlights of the most improbable of cars.


    ¡°What do you mean? You¡¯re joking, right?¡± She said, lips trembling.


    I debated on lying to her because I was honestly terrified about whatever made her terrified. Instead, I found my mouth moving on its own, ¡°I¡¯m not. I have no idea what is going on.¡±


    ¡°G, Give me a sec!¡± She cried as she popped out of existence. There was a brief sound of displaced air as there was suddenly a lack of everything in the space she had been.


    The walls of my apartment folded themselves back into their correct dimensions as if they were never a mile long. Steaming food that had been on the table was now suddenly going cold, and I noticed that there was no one complaining about my extra space.


    Well, it was gone now, but I expected some more notice. No wait, she said something about a cube? Did that somehow make it so no one noticed anything? It would explain why I hadn¡¯t seen anyone else as on my way home.


    She said we were family or something, right? Did that mean I could do something similar? No, I¡¯m going crazy if I did think that.


    Still, I¡¯m a dreamer, after all.


    I pictured a cube. Imagined one sitting between my hands, the cold, steel of it as it rested against my palms. I felt the heavy weight of it as it was just a completely steel cube.


    Somehow, something didn¡¯t feel quite right. Like I was trying to force a muscle I didn¡¯t know I had, and I was paying for it. However, I felt like I could get there if I began layering the metal cube as if it were muscles. Strings of metallic fiber pulled taunt. That felt not quite right yet, but I decided to think of something instead of cube on pure instinct. A circle came to mind that slowly became a Sphere.


    Something clicked in the back of my mind and-


    ¡°Quite an interesting lifeform you have there.¡± The words that rang behind me were enough to knock me from my trance. They were stern, cold and reminded me of ticking cogs in a machine.


    I spun around to come face to face with a massive figure. The loomed over me in a height that scraped against my own ceiling. Their body was draped in a fancy suit that reminded me of an over the top butler.


    However, it was the figure¡¯s face and exposed hands that drew most of my attention. Clicking brass and molded iron curled around the person¡¯s head, forming the approximation of a face. Some pieces of it were missing though, and I could see some gears turning and twisting within.


    Their hands were of similar make. A shining brass outer skin that flowed together with all sorts of metals, and pulled itself over ticking cogs and vibrant machinery.


    ¡°I think a congratulations is in order.¡± The being of clockwork spoke in grandfatherly tones. ¡°It is not everyday that we welcome a new member of our species.¡±


    ¡°B, but, Doldrum, you said he was broken!¡± A panicked voice rang behind the man of brass and metal. I found the little monster of purple behind the being. ¡°I brought you to fix him. He doesn¡¯t even know about his Reality!¡±


    The now named Doldrum hummed with ticking gears. He leaned towards me inquisitively, clanging spheres for eyes boring into my organic ones. ¡°Then he must have quite an affinity for Breathing. But worry not, Kali, young Cade here is just having problems because of our little Sinner.¡±


    I had no idea what to think of this now. There was suddenly a new being of unknown ability casually within my house as if they owned the place. Though, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever been complimented for breathing.


    Maybe I get invest in better locks¡­


    ¡°Um, I¡¯m sorry to interrupt, but could you please explain what is going on?¡± I entered into their conversation, and felt the two being¡¯s eyes on me.


    Kali was the first to react. Pouncing up like a startled cat, and bounding between Doldrum and I. ¡°Do not worry, I have no idea what¡¯s going on, but I won¡¯t abandon family!¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±  I blinked, turning my attention to the taller of the two. ¡°Um, Doldrum, sir, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°And I shall give you understanding, but first, I believe introductions are in order.¡± He spoke softly while bowing. ¡°My name is Doldrum, but most of our kind calls me The Keeper.¡± He gestured to Kali who was happily smiling despite everything. ¡°She is the last of the Whispers, and her name cannot feasibly be pronounced by any translating gene our kind possess. Though, we call her Kali.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± How do I respond to this?! Kali is the last of her race for some reason, and this guy is literally a living grandfather clock! ¡°I¡¯m Cade Burningham, uh, nice to meet you two.¡±


    ¡°A pleasure. Now, let¡¯s discuss your condition.¡± Doldrum said, picking a chair across from me and steepling his metallic fingers with an audible clink. ¡°You are currently experiencing something that will either help you, or kill you. You¡¯re decisions from here on in are a matter of life and death.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I blanched, having no clue what was happening, but if I was suddenly diagnosed with an intergalactic illness then I¡¯m not sure I want to know. Did I actually think of that? I shook those thoughts out of my head. ¡°Can I do anything about it?¡±


    ¡°Actually, you have a plethora of options to choose from. Most lead to death, but I can only help so far. To be brief, you have created something that ate your own Reality; it is now killing you slowly as the beast tries to integrate with it. You have, in essence, created a Sinner.¡± Doldrum clicked and whirred as he spoke, assuming a very rigid form of body control. I mentally noted what he said about Sinners.


    ¡°Mine?¡± I looked around the room for signs of the end. When I found none, I turned back to the living clockwork and expressed my confusion, ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s rather hard to explain¡­¡± Doldrum intoned, pausing to bring up an open palm. I felt like something octagonal was trying to force itself into the air above his palm. ¡°Think of it as every member of our race containing an entire world within themselves. We always know of it whenever another one of race ever brings up. Like a dear memory, you would be able to recall everything about it. Based on the fact that you can somehow still operate your Reality, I think we still have time before it truly integrates with your Reality.¡±


    ¡°Right, um, I¡¯m lost.¡± I stated clearly.


    Doldrum nodded his head scholarly like he had seen the problem before it even happened. ¡°It is hard to explain to one who does not know. Just know that the creature Kali and you saw earlier is killing you ever so slowly until your very existence had been drained dry. And you two need to kill it before then.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what?¡± I rose from my chair, feeling an odd weight on my legs. ¡°How do you even know I¡¯m whatever you guys are? How do you even know that it ate something? I¡¯m just a seventeen year old high school student, and you guys are¡­ actually, I have no idea. Some kind of god? What can I do against something that she,¡± I pointed to the silent Kali who had somehow gather another feast. ¡°Had all but blown to bits before I even understood what was happening? Hell, she even used two whole buildings to attack it! You want me to fight that?¡±


    Doldrum pointed to my lap. ¡°I believe that would answer the question to if you are one of us. As for why you must fight it, it has taken something from you. We believe in taking back what is yours.¡±


    I froze before following the finger to my lap. I had been standing up, but there was a constant weight attached to my legs that I hadn¡¯t really paid attention to. Whatever was stuck to me was certainly a cause for concern, however.


    It looked like a flattened box, but completely made of dull chrome. Small, spindly legs jutted from the bottom in a mismatch of random claws, and clutched to my legs like a desperate puppy. A small V-shaped indent ran along the side that faces me, splitting into something that looked like a parody of scissors. They snapped happily at my attention.


    Oh, hello mysterious monster¡­


    I silently looked up to my company, then looked down to the metallic creature, then back up to the smiling face of Kali and whatever Doldrum did to form amusement. I have no idea how he did it, but I was sure that the man of brass an gears was smirking at me.


    ¡°This proves nothing.¡± I stated firmly, not sure if I was in a weird dream anymore.


    ¡°On the contrary,¡± Doldrum said in a stint of clicks in clanks. ¡°That proves everything. You¡¯re were just starting to get in tune with your Reality, and had accidentally created something that ate your Reality. Now, all you have to do it kill it, and take back what¡¯s yours.¡±


    ¡°We should look for places with lots of bait!¡± Kali chimed in from her meal. I frowned as I processed what she meant.


    ¡°I have already took the time to understand this Reality¡¯s technology. If I¡¯m not mistaken there should be something called a ¡®Football¡¯ game tomorrow; from what I see that would be the perfect place.¡± Doldrum happily clicked.


    I was beginning to think that there were still people in those buildings that Kali had twisted into oblivion yesterday. The thought that these two beings were so callous that they treated deaths on the thousands as minor occurrences was not setting the best image.


    ¡°And how,¡± I inserted myself into their crazy. ¡°Do we know that this creature would attack the game?¡±


    Doldrum simply pointed at Kali who was still devouring food. ¡°Everything needs to eat.¡±


    With that, it was decided that Kali and I would fight some man-eating, monstrous creature that had somehow eaten something of mine, and was going to continue to feed till the world as I knew it was drained of all life. All I was armed with was knowledge of the fact that I can somehow create ceatures, and that I was somehow part of a race that was either crazy or had very low moral standards. Wonderful, I just love weekends!


    Well, Cole had wanted me to go to his game.

 Broken Horizons(3)

    I was running into a new set of problems at every turn. I had thought that coming up with a way to kill something that I had created would be the only challenge, but I was quickly proven wrong.


    On top of figuring out what kind of horror I had accidentally created, I now had to find a way into a sold out stadium. It seemed that even though I didn¡¯t particularly like the sport there were plenty of diehard fans of the Vomit Vipers. How uplifting!


    Then I had to make sure Kali didn¡¯t decide to simply try to kill everything.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t we just blow our way in?¡± Kali whined beside me. Her childish actions juxtaposed the rather terrifying connotation of her actions.


    ¡°Because we¡¯re trying to limit civilian casualties.¡± I explained, never having thought that those words would ever come out of my mouth.


    Doldrum¡¯s monotonous clicks echoed behind me. ¡°The loss of several thousands is inconsequential to the loss of an entire Reality. You need to start looking at the bigger picture.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± I drifted off, realizing that I was trying to argue with a being that was measuring loss on the planetary scale. Would I become like that? My head ached from even beginning to think like that. ¡°And why aren¡¯t you helping Kali and I?¡±


    ¡°My body is much harder to replace; metal is much more precious than organics.¡± He admitted before pointing a finger at Kali. ¡°Besides, Kali is much more useful in terms of offensive and defensive abilities. Some of us are much better at certain things than the rest.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± I frowned. ¡°I thought you guys were all powerful¡­¡±


    Kali giggled. ¡°Nope, unless you¡¯re one of The Four, you¡¯re kinda stuck being really good at one thing and pretty sucky at the rest.¡±


    ¡°The Four? What kind of childish name is that?¡± I asked. I had been getting comfortable around their unaggressive behaviors.


    ¡°A name that seemed less childish when there wasn¡¯t even a child to base the word off of.¡± Doldrum commented, gears ticking in a form of disappointment. ¡°Also, I would recommend keeping comments about The Four to a minimum. Some of our race view them as deities, and, after witnessing one in action, I wouldn¡¯t put them far off from that title.¡±


    ¡°Right, um,¡± I swallowed a lump of stale saliva while looking up, hoping that I haven¡¯t been put on the ¡®To Smite Later¡¯ list. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. L, let¡¯s get back to the thing that¡¯s killing me, okay.¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡± Kali cheered.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Doldrum not quite clicked. Hummed, maybe? The machine equivalent, at least.


    ¡°Plans, ideas, abilities what do you guys have? Let¡¯s work from there.¡± I started.


    ¡°We wait for it to eat, then blow the place up!¡± Kali supplied in her usual peppy attitude.


    I sighed, sort of expecting this result. ¡°Any plans that don¡¯t involve severe collateral damage?¡±


    ¡°If you truly want to cause the least damage, then it would be better to intercept it before it reaches this Football stadium. You can find a good spot to oversee the place, and Kali can run to wherever it comes from. The only problem I¡¯m seeing is that there isn¡¯t that much nearby material for Kali to work with.¡± Doldrum said.


    ¡°Can¡¯t she,¡± I waved my hand around. ¡°You know, make something like another railgun and blast it to bits?¡±


    ¡°Ah, Kali is not a Creator like you. She is a Manipulator.¡± Doldrum explained, pointing towards the floating, steaming chicken that roved around the purple haired midget.


    I breathed slowly through my nose. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that means exactly what it is.¡±


    ¡°Our race is fond of simple things. She can only work with whatever is within her range.¡± He gave a gear filled smile.


    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± I said slowly. ¡°How about support? Can we beam a message or something to someone else, asking for help?¡±


    Doldrum shook his head. ¡°Many of us have other things to do, and those that are free would not like to intrude on someone else¡¯s Reality. It is considered bad manners even if their sibling is in dire need of help.¡±


    ¡°Then why are you guys here?¡± I frowned, letting more anger spill into my words than I thought.


    ¡°One of the Four has a particular dislike for Sinners in general. They find the Sinners, and someone from our race is sent to take care of it. You being here was just a happy coincidence.¡± Doldrum said.


    I paused as technically I had created that Sinner according to Doldrums earlier words. Would this mean I am going to find a godlike being angry at me? I shivered at the thought.


    ¡°Okay, okay¡­ no extra help it is then.¡± I stumbled over my words, flinching as something suddenly crunched harshly nearby.


    My eyes roved over towards my little metal box of horror, and found something that was neither comforting or displeasing. The creature¡¯s scissor like jaws had bored into my fridge with staggering ease. Stainless steel and cured plastic seemed to part in the path of the blades that served as its mouth. Happy crunches were all I heard from the metal monstrosity.


    It was eating my fridge, I realized. It was eating my fridge, and I found it absolutely adorable. The thing even made small barks like a dog, but more metal and filled with an unhealthy amount of needles.


    The cute, metal horror turned towards me, pieces of my fridge stuck in its jaws, and yipped something between a distinct structural failure and a gunshot. I cooed at it as it skittered over to me on thousands of tiny legs. A particularly large piece of steel was presented to me like a well earned trophy.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll call you Snapper.¡± I said as I rubbed the flat top of the beast. It preened in contentment.


    Then a light bulb lit up.


    ¡°Kali what would you say your range is for your abilities?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Huh? I guess I can push my Cube to about three of those buildings from earlier, but your Reality is unusually resilient.¡± She admitted easily. Just another thing to note that my new family or whatever is not as all powerful as I first thought. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I thought back to a gigantic floating railgun, and decided I was underestimating them again. Right, they¡¯re still powerful as all hell.


    ¡°I have some old walkie talkies.¡± I announced and proceeded to pull them out of a cabinet. ¡°And I have a plan.¡±


    Doldrum and Kali leaned in further as I explained.


    Then Kali laughed in excitement.


    ~?£¤?~


    It was disturbingly easy to pass through security with a living piece of metal attached to my back. I knew how bad some security guards were at their jobs, but with Kali actively sabotaging their metal detectors and ticket scanners I would¡¯ve expected one to at least notice that my ticket was clearly fake. Hell, one guy even saw that their equipment was malfunctioning, and just shrugged it off.


    I would definitely write a complaint about safety some other time.


    Kali and I split off at the entrance as she went to scout the nearby areas, and I slowly moved through the chattering crowds. There were faces that I recognized and some that reminded me why I never liked going to games. Still, I pulled up the large hoodie I wore, and pushed my sunglasses further onto my face.


    Sure this getup made me look a little suspicious, but I needed to look like something suspicious was going on. I pulled out my walkie talkie as I found a free corner that was covered by quite a few people in the crowd. You¡¯d be surprised how inattentive people are.


    ¡°Kali, have you found anything?¡± I into my device.


    It buzzed back. ¡°Nope! I can¡¯t feel anything through my Cube either, so it¡¯s probably not coming yet.¡±


    ¡°Okay, keep me informed.¡± I sighed, wondering where a huge monster like the one I had seen before could be hiding.


    There was no reports of a monster on the news, and I was seeing a lack of actual sightings, too. I was beginning to grow worried that it had actually skipped town instead of staying for the snack that Doldrum and Kali had been sure it would go for.


    I slapped my cheeks as I realized that worrying about it wouldn¡¯t be that good. There was a job I needed to do, and something was slowly killing me, I had no room for more worries at the moment.


    Striding through the interior of the stadium I quickly found myself rather lost. I checked back to one of the maps that had been posted to the wall, and frowned as I found myself in the opposite direction that I needed to be.


    ¡°Do you need help?¡± I melodious voice spoke from behind me.


    I froze, recognizing that tone. I didn¡¯t dare to turn around as I already knew who was behind me.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you turn around, Cade. I know it¡¯s you under all that. I could¡¯ve sworn that Cole said you wouldn¡¯t make it; did you finally come to support him?¡± Feminine tones rang out behind me, and I felt sweat begin to gather on my brow. I still didn¡¯t turn to face her. Not with what I was about to do.


    Just my luck that my walkie talkie began to buzz. ¡°Hey, hey, are you in position yet? I¡¯m in the air, trying to see if I can catch it on the prowl. Do you think you gave it some stealthing or something?¡±


    ¡°Cade,¡± the voice behind me was growing more stern. ¡°What is going on?¡±


    Snapper yipped from within my hoodie. I sighed as the painful screeches of nails on chalkboard came from my little creation. Why wasn¡¯t anything going my way?


    ¡°Cade¡­¡± I finally turned to see bright green eyes staring at me. Short cut, brown curls flowed just above their slender shoulders, and framed a slightly egg shaped face. Freckles and plump lips were strained into a frown. Their lean figure was turned towards me, aggression clear in their stance. ¡°What was that?¡± She finally asked.


    ¡°H, hey Courtney.¡± I stammered. ¡°Funny meeting you here, huh.¡±


    ¡°Cade, stop trying to evade the subject. I know you¡¯re hiding something; I wouldn¡¯t be the school¡¯s reporter if I couldn¡¯t see something as amateur as your attempts to hide it.¡± Courtney bragged, eyes narrowing the next second. ¡°Are you being threatened?¡±


    ¡°What? No! No, I¡¯m fine. That was just¡­ uh,¡± quick think of something! ¡°Gas!¡±


    I held back the urge to slap myself.


    ¡°Gas?¡± Courtney echoed. ¡°That was gas?¡±


    I nodded, resigning myself to my lie. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s¡­ I¡¯ve changed my diet. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going well.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh, right.¡± The brunette drew out the word to an uncomfortably long second. ¡°What¡¯s actually going on, Cade?¡±


    I frowned, sighed then began pacing a little. Looking around I found no one nearby except for the slowly growing annoyed Courtney. ¡°Okay, okay, I have¡­ No, do you, uh, trust me?¡±


    Courtney raised an inquisitive eyebrow. ¡°Cade, I¡¯ve known you since the beginning of High School, just tell me.¡±


    ¡°Right, right, um, how do I explain this?¡± I muttered, pulling out my walkie talkie. ¡°Hey, Kali, can I tell people about this? You know, like what¡¯s going on.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Why not? They¡¯re just bait, after all.¡± Kali answered with more worrying words. Courtney wasn¡¯t impressed by the word choice either.


    She snatched the walkie talkie from my hands, and began speaking through it a second later. ¡°Who are you? What do you want with my friend? Also, what¡¯s this about being bait?¡±


    ¡°Oh, hello! My name is,¡± Kali said something that made my ears numb, and I felt some of my muscles twitch from the sounds she was making. I realized that asking for her name was probably not a very good idea. ¡°But everyone just calls me Kali. I¡¯m on a mission to stop Cade from dying!¡± She cheered.


    Courtney¡¯s eyes shot up to me, and I raised my hands in a gesture for surrender. She frowned, but continued to talk with Kali. ¡°What do you mean? How is Cade dying?¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh I found it.¡± Instead of answering, Kali¡¯s next words were all the more terrifying. ¡°It¡¯s coming from the east side.¡±


    ¡°Found what?¡± Courtney interjected, but Kali had already cut out of the conversation. The brown haired girl growled at the walkie talkie before glaring at me. ¡°What is she talking about?¡±


    I froze, not knowing what to do. There was so much I needed to do, but Courtney had sidetracked me. Then an epiphany came over me.


    ¡°Snapper, can you go over to the east wing?¡± I cooed to my hoodie. Courtney was about to say something, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, but her words were caught between a scream as Snapper shuffled down my legs.


    I patted the good little monster on its rectangular head, and pointed at the map. ¡°You can feed all you want, but remember to watch out for people.¡± I chided the thing.


    It gave me a squeal of shattering metal and squealing iron. Once more, I patted it.


    ¡°What, what the hell is that?!¡± Courtney screamed as we both watched it bore into a wall and disappear out of sight. I had already tested how intelligent it was, and Snapper could easily follow my directions to the ¡®T¡¯. He/She/It was such a good little abomination of nature.


    I looked Courtney straight in the eye before saying, ¡°My pet. Now if you''ll excuse me I need to go and kill my first pet, so it doesn¡¯t go on a blood filled rampage while draining me of my life.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s, what, how¡­¡± Courtney stammered incoherently as I marched away. I knew what she was going to do; Courtney was always the type to not be satisfied by without knowing everything about whatever caught her attention. I felt kind of scummy for taking advantage of her curiosity this way.


    ¡°Cade¡­ You¡¯re going to explain what¡¯s happening later, right?¡± She growled from behind me.


    I nodded demurely.


    ¡°Great!¡± Courtney exclaimed. ¡°Now, what do you need me to do?¡±


    ¡°Can you clear the stadium away from the east wing?¡±


    Courtney pursed her lips in thought. ¡°I think I can use some of my favors with the announcers, but you¡¯ll owe me big afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t have it any other way.¡± I said as she pulled out her phone and began calling people. She looked my way once more as I sprinted off in the direction of the east wing seats.


    My legs felt like lead as I ran, and internally decided that I needed to work out more. My head was filled with thoughts of what could go wrong as I felt something within me lurch. It was like a part of me was getting burned alive, but I could do nothing as more flames were added.


    I gasped as another bout of pain wracked my body, and I helplessly clutched my chest in an effort to stave off the pain. Was this what Doldrum was talking about? Was my Reality being consumed already?


    My everything hurt as I ran down another pathway, dodging past a few people who were still around. Slowly, the pain that had crippled me earlier was waning off. I gave it no more thought as I focused on running to my destination. I reached the highest point on the east wing seating, and then the intercoms above me buzzed into life.


    ¡°Attention, there is currently a bomb threat in the stadium. Would everyone please make a calm and orderly line away from the building until experts come. I repeat, there is currently-¡±


    I paused to wonder how Courtney had even got a big enough favor to call that in. My plan was definitely not that impressive now that I thought of it, but the help from a friend was a bonus. Then I realized that I owed her quite a bit after all this.


    Sneaking past disgruntled civilians as they shuffled out of the stadium by huge concrete ramps, I ran up the steps to the top of the nosebleed sections. When I finally got to the top I stopped thinking for a second.


    Not because of the rather terrifying height, nor because of my little pet that was happily causing a structural failure below me. It was the sight of something large headed towards the stadium.


    I hadn¡¯t thought that it would travel in any way other than the ground due to how large it was before. I never had a problem with being wrong up until now.


    Cacophonous wing beats blasted the air, as I felt the fifteen pairs of massive scaled and leather wings crash through the open air. I could barely see its humongous body from here, but I could see that it was completely red. Scales of impossible size layered over its body as ten, pillar-like limbs swung freely below.


    I knew there had to be razor sharp talons at the end of each toe. I knew that there would be a gigantic serpentine neck that rose up to an arrow shaped head full of needle like teeth. Five tails, akin to sharp whips, would be following it from its backside. And I knew that it would have ten sets of eyes, each with slit pupils.


    It would be hungry, I knew.


    I knew all of it because I had dreamed it up.


    My dragon was coming, and I would have to slay it or the world would burn.

 Broken Horizons(4)

    The first thing that came to mind as I watched the draconic colossus fly towards me was: shit. Literally and figuratively, I felt the air grow ever thicker as the beast drew closer. Its presence was that imposing with how it violated all manner of biological processes imaginable.


    I was beginning to think that the plan would fail. That I had somehow doomed both myself and billions of innocents by dreaming up some unstoppable monstrosity.


    I was being pessimistic, and I knew it. Being suddenly thrust into a life or death situation against an enemy of a dream was like I was in a fantasy. Or maybe it would be a horrible nightmare?


    ¡°Okay, you can do this¡­¡± I whispered to myself. This was my plan, and I couldn¡¯t back down no matter what. Think reasonable thoughts... ¡°Yeah, I already paid this month¡¯s rent the city getting destroyed would mean I wasted that.¡±


    With a renewed resolve of some sort, I turned back to the encroaching horror. Below me, I felt the seats shift ever so slightly. I took my walkie talkie into my hand.


    ¡°Kali, please tell me you¡¯re cloaking the giant dragon flying straight towards the stadium.¡± I said, half actually caring and half trying to get my mind off of how big it was.


    My speakers buzzed Kali¡¯s excited yelling was heard from the other end. ¡°Yeah, It¡¯s inside my Cube! No spawn of this Reality should be able to see it. Also, I¡¯m underneath it right now! I¡¯m being really sneaky!¡±


    I frowned and squint into the distance. Floating underneath the behemoth was a small dot, Kali. She was barely even visible from this distance.


    ¡°Hey, why can¡¯t I attack it now?¡± Kali asked suddenly.


    ¡°Kali, please don¡¯t do that.¡± I sighed. ¡°If you happen to enrage it somewhere other than here, it might go berserk in a place we cannot control.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± I got the impression that she was pouting, but I couldn¡¯t see it from here. It was a small mercy that I knew she would at least follow along with the plan. Though, I had to promise extra explosions later.


    Waiting for some horrible battle to erupt at any moment was torture. My legs shook in apprehension, desperately trying to stave off the fear that facing against a moving mountain of muscle and scale naturally produced.


    With Kali back to doing whatever she was doing to conceal the monster, I was back to my thoughts. My traitorous thoughts that bounced between trepidation and worry. It was just the nail in the coffin that I had no idea how to use my Reality again for how I created Snapper.


    Sure, I had tried, but something just wasn¡¯t clicking like when I somehow created Snapper. Saddened about the fact that I couldn''t create an army to retaliate, I tried to focus back on what I had to do.


    Or what little I had to do. All I had planned was clear the stadium, and then run for my life. Kali¡¯s range should be able to cover most of the stadium itself, too. I just needed to run backup.


    The stands began to shift underneath me again. Looking down, I could see that they were beginning to sway with the wind much more than standing structures should. The disgruntled people who had left were also taking note of this, and understandably began to run.


    With the evacuation in progress, I had thought that maybe the dragon in the distance wouldn¡¯t attack anymore as the food source was gone. I didn¡¯t have to worry about that.


    I did have to worry about the fact that it looked like it was heading straight for me. In fact, I don¡¯t think it deviated from its path. A path that lined up with me perfectly.


    A sinking feeling settled in the bottom of my stomach. I hurriedly ran to one side of the seats, and, as I feared, the dragon¡¯s path minutely changed towards me. My heart joined my stomach in doing unhealthy flips.


    ¡°Hey, the Sinner is moving weirdly! Should I attack it now?¡± Kali asked innocently, not even aware of the turmoil that was my mind.


    ¡°Um, I think it¡¯s going after me¡­¡± I responded slowly, unsure that I even wanted to comprehend several tons of flesh charging in my direction.


    Kali¡¯s response was one that was all expected, and, in equal parts, terrifying. ¡°Oh no¡­¡± Her voice was uncharacteristically unsteady. I think that terrified me more than her next words. ¡°I think¡­ I think it¡¯s trying to kill you to consume your Reality faster!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­¡± I paused to swallow a lump in my throat. ¡°Going to assume that¡¯s bad.¡±


    ¡°Yeah it¡¯s bad! There¡¯s a reason why they¡¯re called Sinners, and if something does something that they¡¯re not supposed to, bad things happen!¡± Kali hurriedly explained. I had no idea what she meant by bad things, but I wasn¡¯t in the mood to even ask. If Kali was worried I needed to be expecting an apocalypse.


    ¡°Right¡­ uh, new plan.¡± I said, turning and jogging down the steps. ¡°You attack it before it kills me and does those bad things.¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    Many things happened at once as soon as I ducked into the interiors of the stadium. A loud roar shook the building before a mechanical screech echoed out to challenge it. The stadium trembled, and I felt the collision of something large and fast smashing into one side. Trails of dust dribbled down with the shocking impact.


    Then I collided with someone and tumbled to the floor while they barely registered the impact.


    ¡°So, I thought you said there wasn¡¯t a bomb?¡± I heard a tough voice above me from my slight daze. It almost sounded just like Cole¡¯s.


    ¡°I had no idea that there would be an explosion!¡± Screamed back someone who talked just like Courtney.


    As my daze slowly receded I found that the two didn¡¯t just sound like my best friend, but they were my best friends. No wait, better question: why were they here?


    ¡°What are you doing here, Courtney?¡± I asked as I looked behind me, wondering if some type of dragon would come crashing through the ceiling.


    The brunette looked to me with a hand stuck to her hip. ¡°I¡¯m here getting your ass out of whatever situation you¡¯re in. If I knew you were going to actually go with a bomb threat then I would have knocked you out and dragged you away before.¡± She paused, looking around for something. ¡°By the way, where is that weird robot you brought?¡±


    ¡°Robot?¡± I echoed.


    ¡°Dude, you got a robot without me?!¡± Cole had his priorities straight.


    I frowned as my attention turned to him. He was dressed down in tight fitting, green pants that went down to his knees with built in padding. A skintight, white undershirt was obscured by a loose, greenish-white jersey with our school name on the back, and the number twenty two emboldened in thick, white script. He looked like he had come from the middle of the locker rooms.


    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I asked him.


    Cole smiled, bumping a fist onto my shoulder. ¡°I saw you running up the nosebleeds when everyone was trying to get out.¡± He forked a thumb over to Courtney as he continued, ¡°Saw good ol¡¯ Court running this way when one of the stands started to wobble, and thought something was going on. Now, I¡¯m here, wondering when you got a robot without me.¡±


    ¡°Yes, and as great as you two¡¯s bromance is, can we get back to the matter at hand.¡± Courtney cut in, stepping between us and poking me hard in the chest. ¡°I know I promised you to get people out of the stadium, but I-¡±


    ¡°Wait that was you?!¡± Cole interrupted.


    ¡°Cole, shut up for a second; I¡¯m trying to understand why our friend has turned to terrorism.¡± Courtney groused, and the big guy looked at me weird. ¡°Now explain, Cade.¡±


    ¡°I mean, uh¡­¡± I looked around, wondering how I could even begin explain this. ¡°Could I start from the beginning?¡±


    Courtney crossed her arms, clearly not amused, but nodded her head impatiently. One of her sneakers was tapping incessantly on the concrete floor. I had to hold in a laugh as Cole tried to look the same only to end up looking like he was pouting as if her were a lost puppy.


    ¡°So, uh, I was biking home yesterday as usual, you know.¡± I mimed riding a bicycle. ¡°Then all of a sudden this huge explosion happened, and-¡±


    I couldn¡¯t finish as the ceiling above us was ripped apart by saber-like nails that bore through the rebar and concrete like wet paper mache. Courtney screamed, I screamed, Cole grabbed the both of us and was already making a beeline down the next corner. He didn¡¯t look the least bit uncomfortable carrying the both of us.


    ¡°Was it anything like that?!¡± Cole yelled over a deafening roar that almost made my ears bleed.


    ¡°Shut up, Cole! Keep running!¡± Courtney answered for me.


    Both she and I were slung over the football player¡¯s shoulders like living sacks of potatoes. I was given the view of rough, red scales parting before a massive eye that peered into the broken hallway. Its reptilian slits locked onto my form, and I screamed again.


    However, my scream wasn¡¯t in fear or surprise, it was in absolute agony as I felt like something was trying to claw its way from my chest. Burning lances of pain sent my body in spasms of uncontrollable shivers. Cole almost dropped my body as a particularly nasty twinge in my nerves nearly jolted my torso out of his fireman¡¯s carry.


    ¡°Cade!¡± Courtney yelled in worry.


    ¡°Shit, was that another bomb?!¡± Cole cursed as he turned another corner.


    Then something slammed into the terror of scales with a cry of molten metal and squealing machinery. The beast roared in pain as it was torn away from tearing us to bits, and took some more structure with its disappearance. I think everyone felt it in their bones as it collided with the ground, sending tremors throughout the area.


    The pain within me trailed off with the dragon¡¯s leave, and I was finally able to form something that wasn¡¯t a scream or moan of pain. In the lull of aftershock, I realized that the dragon was trying to find me by tugging on my Reality that it had. I had no idea that it didn¡¯t even know what I looked like, but it certainly did now.


    Fear slithered down my throat.


    ¡°Cade, hey buddy, you okay?¡± Cole¡¯s voice held me from freaking out. ¡°How many bombs do your friends have?¡±


    I blinked at them, wondering how they had missed the literal dragon that had just beared down on them. Then it hit me. Kali¡¯s cloaking was still concealing the dragon, and they thought this was still a bomb attack. ¡°Guys that wasn¡¯t a bomb. I don¡¯t¡­ think I can explain it now, but you both need to get out of here like right now.¡±


    ¡°Cade, you need to shut up now.¡± Courtney said, tapping Cole on the arm that held her. ¡°You can set us down now, Cole. Thank you for that, by the way.¡±


    ¡°No prob¡¯.¡± Cole smiled.


    ¡°No, you guys don¡¯t get it.¡± I sighed, running a hand through my hair. How do I go about sending my friends away while also telling them I plan on fighting a literal ton of impossible biology? ¡°Those are not bombs, and Courtney, that thing you saw earlier wasn¡¯t a robot. It was a living thing that I created.¡± She looked at me, not even believing a word. ¡°Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I need you guys to leave. It¡¯s too dangerous and¡­ wait,¡± I turned towards the hole that was behind us. ¡°Kali, you can take the cloaking off the dragon now that we¡¯re in the stadium!¡±


    The diminutive bender of reality didn¡¯t really respond to my words, but there was a slight shift in the air. Suddenly the roars in the background became louder, the air was thick with heat and smog and both my friend¡¯s faces were rapidly paling. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°That sounds like a dragon.¡± Cole was the first to speak.


    Courtney slapped him on the back of the head. ¡°Of course it¡¯s not a dragon, you idiot. There¡¯s a perfectly reasonable explanation for something to make that sound.¡± She walked over to the opening, and I reached out to pull her back just as a gout of hot flame scorched the ground, curling up from below.


    ¡°Holy shit! It really was a dragon!¡± Cole ran over to us, peered over the edge and gaped. His mouth hung open by the sight that was once a regular football stadium.


    I joined him, too. There was a great many things that I had expected from this fight, and while I had planned to destroy the stadium, what was before me was a different matter entirely.


    The once turf and green plastic grass fields were now a stark imitation of hell. The ground was upturned to the point that soil and stone were all that remained between scorched cinders and cackling flame. Our stadium once had two sets of high stands that stretched up into the confines of the sky, but now we had been trimmed down to merely a small portion of seats.


    Concrete and rebar splayed out in equal disarray in the wrecked stadium. Large pieces that looked like they had been shorn off were lodged in the walls on some places, tearing up more seating from their probable trajectories. I found a rather distinct shell of molded metal that looked like it was still cooling from being forced into a shape that metal didn¡¯t want to bend into.


    There was also an imprint on it that didn¡¯t bode well for my chances of survival: an indentation of well defined scales. Kali¡¯s missile of metal couldn¡¯t even pierce through its outer carapace.


    However, I don¡¯t think my friends were paying much attention to that detail. I wouldn¡¯t blame them either when most to the stadium wasn¡¯t actually destroyed. Instead, it had been repurposed into a series of floating clamps made from tons of glowing rebar and crumbling concrete. Lightning danced along the outer fringes of each clamp, pulsing with unnatural energy that crackled in insane harmony. There were two long pipes, larger than a school bus, made from more metal and stone that blasted out shrapnel of glass and red hot rebar with pressurized air.


    Red, impenetrable scales covered the beast that the clamps sought to contain and the pipes dared to fire upon. Its body was more serpentine than I originally anticipated, fittingly matching as each of its five pairs of trunk-like legs carried it in coiling maneuvers to dodge the dangerous pieces of its assaulter¡¯s attacks. The once majestic wings that let it break the laws of gravity were now mangled and broken in several places, spurting steaming, crimson liquid into the fires that surrounded it. If anything, that only made the fires thrive.


    The beast had been cheated of its ability to fly, but that did not mean that it was any weaker. It took to the ground like it was water, showing that its ocean wasn¡¯t only just the air. Five tails cracked and broke the sound barriers in violent bouts of supersonic speed, slamming into projectiles or sending its own salvo on ammunition to its offender. Its scales shrugged off anything that wasn¡¯t shot from the two pipes, and even then, those times were seldom.


    A head like an arrow rose, some of its eyes were gone, replaced by gory openings full of stained glass and bloodied steel. However, it still had five eyes with which it could see, and a mouth that opened to sharp points of jagged porcelain.


    Then it roared with flame. Burning red light shone from beneath the scales on its chest, traveling from where its lungs would be and flowing till it reached its open maw. Out came screaming hellfire of white and dark red, torrents of almost liquid flame gored through the concrete of the stadium with ease before crashing into some invisible barrier that spread out the flames into the rest of the field. Tongues of flickering fire reached our locked feet as we stared below.


    I saw Kali, surrounded by her machinations of science and bullshit, no longer laughing or jovially playing with the beast like she had when we first met. No, her face was set into a stern frown of concentration that bordered on a new personality. She was far away, but I could see exhaustion begin to set in for her.


    She had gotten lucky with taking out the dragon¡¯s flight and some of its eyes. The only problem was that those were all of its wounds. Nothing more and nothing less. It was learning her patterns, and it was healing.


    The once broken wings were beginning to right themselves, and I saw bubbles of liquid forming in its empty sockets, pooling eye jelly that began to turn into usable vision. It was regenerating and Kali was not.


    She wasn¡¯t injured, or I couldn¡¯t see if she was. The thing that was holding her back was that her tactics hadn¡¯t evolved from ¡®shooting till it dies¡¯, and it was showing. This was no longer an enemy that she could just overpower with her insane creations that defied laws of physics.


    It was no longer a battle, but an inevitable loss that was slowly coming to fruition.


    ¡°Damn, who is that girl?¡± Cole murmured from beside me, taking my mind off of the growing desperation of the situation.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s Kali.¡± Courtney shot her own conjecture and looked at me, traces of skepticism were long gone in the presence of this fight. ¡°Now, I think I understand a little of what¡¯s going on.¡± She finished while pursing her lips.


    ¡°Wait, you do?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Of course, this is obviously too real to be faked anyways. Also, you said you created that weird metal thing, and also said it was your ¡®pet¡¯.¡± Courtney said, gesturing over to the dragon as it rampaged. ¡°You also said that you needed to kill your first pet; which I¡¯m guessing is that¡­ thing. I¡¯m sorry, but you said you created them, right?¡±


    My jaw hung open. She put all that together so easily. ¡°Um, yeah. Why?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how creating life works or what not, but can¡¯t you just un-create it?¡± Cole butt in.


    ¡°Obviously, he can¡¯t somehow.¡± Courtney reasoned, and easily stole back the limelight. ¡°I have no idea what to make of anything else, but we need to find a way to kill that or else we¡¯re all going to die. That thing doesn''t look like the type to take prisoners. And I don¡¯t know about you guys, but I certainly dislike being instantly flambeed.¡±


    Cole pointed out to Kali. ¡°That girl looks like she has it covered, though. I mean, look at all that! She¡¯s badass!¡±


    ¡°I think I agree with Courtney, Cole.¡± I said slowly, gesturing to Kali once again. ¡°Kali is showing signs of exhaustion, and if she falls we have no chance of fighting a raging beast like that. I need to go and help her somehow.¡±


    ¡°Uh, don¡¯t you mean ¡®we¡¯?¡± Cole frowned.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I agree with Cole on this one.¡± Courtney followed before I could say anything. ¡°You obviously can¡¯t get close to that thing, err, dragon without being crippled somehow. That¡¯s why you suddenly yelled out, right?¡± I was scowling as I nodded. I hated when she brought out perfectly reasonable facts. ¡°Besides, you¡¯d be better off creating more fodder to stall that thing¡­ I mean, dragon whatever.¡±


    ¡°About that¡­¡± I laughed nervously.


    Courtney sighed, placing her face into her palm. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Cole was understandable confused. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°This idiot,¡± Courtney growled. ¡°Has no idea what he¡¯s doing. It makes sense for how everything got so out of hand that he had no idea how to work his little acts to defy nature.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not my fault!¡± I defended. ¡°I had no idea that I was dreaming up monsters until yesterday!¡±


    ¡°Dude, not cool.¡± Cole chided. ¡°But honestly, what kind of messed up dragon were you even dreaming of to come up with that?¡±


    ¡°Wait, dreaming?¡± Courtney interrupted, and I saw the dawning of an idea come over her. Her arms crossed while her foot began to tap against the floor. ¡°If you¡¯ve somehow been imagining them into creation, then you should know all their strengths and their weaknesses, right?¡±


    I blinked as that thought made sense to me. ¡°Oh yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°No, more like damn right! What do you mean ¡®oh yeah¡¯? Now quickly spill, what are we dealing with?¡± Courtney ordered.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be going and helping the controlling-debris-of-doom girl?¡± Cole asked.


    ¡°We¡¯d just be nuisances right now, at best. If we figure out the weak points, we can go and tell her.¡± Courtney explained then motioned to me. ¡°Come on, Cade, we¡¯re running on a clock here.¡±


    I nodded, pulling up my memory from when the image first came into my head was rather easy. ¡°Uh, so I remember it having impenetrable scales, or whatever I thought would be the strongest. And uh, I¡¯m fairly sure I made its blood really, really thick so it works like cornstarch and water when you hit it.¡±


    ¡°So you¡­¡± Courtney made a sound that wasn¡¯t quite a scream, but not quite a yell as she pressed her fingers to her temples. ¡°You made its blood into a non-newtonian fluid¡­ I just can¡¯t. How is it even alive?!¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯re thinking too dark there, Court.¡± Cole said with a playful grin. ¡°At least the scales aren¡¯t diamonds.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡± I broke into a sweat.


    ¡°They¡¯re not, right? Cade, tell me we¡¯re not going against a living being that is coated in thick diamond!¡± Cole frantically shook me around.


    ¡°We¡¯re not going up against a living being that¡¯s coated in a thick layer of diamond.¡± I repeated.


    Courtney slapped the back of my head. ¡°Surely, this dragon would have some kind weakness, Cade. You wouldn¡¯t think up an unbeatable being of killing, would you?¡±


    I was sheepishly rubbing the back of my head for a second as I realized that I hadn¡¯t thought of a weakness before Mrs. Moore brought my attention back to history class. Then I realized that I had thought up one weakness. ¡°...history¡­¡± I mumbled.


    ¡°What?¡± Courtney blinked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I think I just heard you say ¡®history¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Specifically, American history¡­¡± I answered.


    ¡°Dude, that¡¯s a lame weakness.¡± Cole shook his head.


    ¡°In my defense, Mrs. Moore really made everything boring!¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Courtney sighed, one hand pinching the bridge of her nose. ¡°We have it¡¯s weakness, and all we have to have is for that girl to recite some facts. Can you tell her?¡±


    ¡°Kali, yell facts of American History at it!¡± I yelled over the explosions and fire, unsure that my words would actually reach her. I was both pleasantly surprised when she nodded, but absolutely terrified when she waved a hand in our direction.


    All three of us were dragged up into the air, and flown over to her fast enough for my ears to pop. My vision blurred as the wind rushed in front of us. When I finally got ahead of myself I found that all three of us were floating behind Kali, a large block of concrete halted a gout of flame that had carelessly traveled in our direction.


    Oddly, enough the beast halted the fire before the fire could slag through our defense. Instead, it roared a vibrato of wrathful indignation before shooting towards Kali with renewed fervor. I felt my head shake from watching the huge behemoth break the sound barrier with its own body.


    ¡°You all chant your ¡®History¡¯. I¡¯ll protect you three.¡± Kali said, sending a few floating cinder blocks and bolts of condensed lightning at the malevolent monstrosity.


    Cole was screaming while trying to scramble out of the air. I knew he was afraid of heights, but I didn¡¯t know he was this terrified. In fact, I was almost chuckling at the scene of the large teen yelling in a very high pitched tone.


    Courtney was too busy being disorientated by the sudden transition to help now, and I was sure she would marvel at her lack of appeal to gravity before trying to help. That meant it was up to me till Cole got over his fear and Courtney realized that our situation was dire.


    I wet my lips before saying the first thing that come to mind. ¡°Uh, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety two.¡±


    The dragon squealed as a piece of supersonic shrapnel bored through its scales and flesh with supernatural ease, blood spilled in amounts similar to swimming pools. It continued to thrash about as if some stake had been driven down its spine and then acid was filled into the hole. I continued to say random facts that came to my mind, and the beast screamed in phantasmal pain.


    At one point, Courtney had joined with me, giving much more detailed accounts of the Gettysburg Address and the socio-economic reforms of the late eighteen hundreds. They were as painful to me to listen to as the dragon¡¯s diamond scales shattered like plywood, sparking off in shards of glimmering red. Its blood sloshed with unnatural viscosity as more and more wounds piled up on its massive body.


    Bullets of reformed stadium, molded steel and razor sharp glass spilled out of the cannons that Kali kept forming around her. Their mechanisms chirped and complained with explosive results as each shot compromised whatever processes she had going on in there. However, for each disposable, oversized rifle she made, five more would snake out from the nearby structures. She was a gatling gun that had decided to remove the idea that being a gatling gun meant it had to be a singular machine.


    Death rained, dragons screamed and I was weaponizing history. It was an odd day.


    When all seemed to be going great, everything naturally went to shit. Kali¡¯s unending rain of various surrounding was dwindling as there wasn¡¯t as much reusable material around. She had said she couldn¡¯t use organic material, and that if the bullets were lodged into her opponent, she had no way of retrieving them.


    The dragon before us was bleeding through many holes that were now healing at a rate that was significantly slower than before. It proved that we were getting through its insane healing factor, but we were slowly becoming aware that we might not have the firepower to actually finish off this monster.


    Understanding seemed to pass through the four of us, and Kali did something with the air. Suddenly it became thicker, almost as if it had become molasses. Then the surroundings filled with living lightning.


    Nets of shocking plasma coiled into being as they discharged towards the struggling beast.  Coils of electricity burned into the dragon''s flesh, caurterizing every brutal wound that they slashed into it. It continued onwards even when the air became thinner. I realized slowly that Kali was having trouble breathing as well. She was somehow transmuting the surrounding gasses into plasma.


    It was a last ditch maneuver that was becoming more and more dangerous to continue.


    She dropped before we did. Her face was an interesting shade of blue as she continued to asphyxiate on the low oxygen, and lower us to the ground with all the care that our squishy bodies deserved. When we all touched the floor I saw that her legs shouldn¡¯t bend that way.


    ¡°Kali¡­¡± I rasped through breathless lips. ¡°Stop¡­ Please.¡±


    Kali just smiled my way as a bleeding dragon dragged its wounded body towards us. It growled so low that I felt my everything vibrate; bones, muscles and organs going through interesting tones as the floor trembled with every approaching step.


    Courtney coughed violently on the floor nearby. The combination of smoke and little breathable air seemed to have affected her the most. Her eyes watered behind a veil of fear.


    Cole was the best out of all of us, but his legs were still trembling from being up in the air for so long. He had gotten his wits about him eventually. He dragged Kali up from the floor, and I realized that she had fainted at some point. His other arm wrapped around Courtney as we both found ourselves in a silent conversation.


    We nodded as one. Then we began to shamble on exhausted steps. Moving between blazing hellfire, dancing beside growing bonfires full of smoke and coughing past fogs of black that littered the floor.


    Our lungs burned as we moved. We were feeling the pain of continuing, and Cole had tried several times to pass off Kali and Courtney to me. I just took Courtney, but never let myself take both.


    I knew him too well to know that he was trying to make it so that he became a martyr to save us all. There was a desperation that was welling up in me too, but I would never let Cole abandon himself. I yelled at him with my eyes, and our silent struggle continued. He just gave me a grim nod of acknowledgement.


    The beast was behind us, charging through the smoke, brushing past the flames and prancing through any obstacle. It was hardly slowed by what we forced our bodies against.


    We were saved when a large section of the still standing stadium crashed down on the crawling dragon. Several tons of rebar and concrete slammed its massive body into the ground, pushing it further into a prison of earth.


    Both Cole and I stared at the scene with some sort of odd glee. We felt like kids who had been lost and afraid, and then were suddenly found. Tears began to gather in our eyes as we felt that the nighmare was over.


    The glee went through a rollercoaster of turmoil as the debris exploded off of the dragon with a flurry of action. We had expected the monster to come up and eat us for even believing that it was stopped. Then we saw that we were saved not by random chance, but by the opportunistic predator that I had released earlier.


    Snapper, in all its dull metallic glory, had grown to an impressive length from its little eating frenzy. It easily coiled around the massive beast many times over with chitin of chrome and millions of needle-like legs that found purchase on the many holes that littered the monster¡¯s body. The scissors that had been its jaws were now shears that could bore into the dragon¡¯s flesh like some kind of horrifying, metal millipede that was conjoined with a centipede.


    Oddly comforting squeals of breaking iron echoed out in conjunction with the mighty dragon¡¯s screams. Snapper had found a particularly large hole in the side of the dragon, and promptly burrowed further into its unfortunate prey.


    The wounded dragon wailed in agony as it clawed, bit and flailed around, trying desperately to remove the parasite that had found it. Snapper¡¯s metallic body wasn¡¯t fit to handle the stress and strain that the dragon was putting on it, and several sections of metal flesh was shorn off the new and improved metal monstrosity. However, for every foot of so that was removed, Snapper just grew faster.


    Eventually, Snapper got small enough to fit in any hole on the dragon that it wanted. The little horror gored through the dragon¡¯s body, creating a network of pathways through the living beast¡¯s body. Blood flowed freely as its regeneration was beginning to fail it.


    I had to stop myself from gagging at the ease at which my creation was murdering what amounted to its big brother, and I promised myself to properly train Snapper whenever I had free time. I did not want that horror to be unleashed without at least knowing some table manners.


    The dragon was slowing down. Its thrashing was falling to small twitches as more and more lethal wounds stacked up against its rather unfair healing factor. Stumbling on torn and mashed feet, it plodded towards me, all of its eyes were locked on me as it moved.


    For some reason I felt rather horrible as Snapper popped out of a newly made hole, and skitter over to me to rub against my leg like a loving dog, wiping gore and thick blood onto my pants. The dragon collapsed right in front of me, its breathing slowing to a crawl.


    I looked at it, finding its slit pupils to be rather intoxicating. There were tears welling up in its eyes, and I felt my heart break. I watched as it opened its mouth and out rolled a small marble that looked like it contained a red star. Something pulsed inside me as I stared at it.


    I knew it was mine. It was my Sphere. My Reality. There were no signs of any damage on it at all.


    However, I didn¡¯t reach for it, I moved towards the dragon instead. One tired arm and exhausted body leaned against the warm body of my dragon. I knew what it wanted.


    It whined, for some reason it seemed happy. The sound was almost as if it was crooning, telling me something that I couldn¡¯t hope to understand. I never wanted anything more. Then it stopped breathing.


    And I couldn¡¯t help but feel this victory was depressingly hollow.

 Broken Horizons(5)

    ¡°I want some answers now, please.¡± I stated clearly in the silence of my kitchen.


    Kali had disappeared somehow after she regained consciousness, and my being alive didn¡¯t seem to faze her that much. For some reason, I wasn¡¯t in the mood to understand why that was. My mind was filled with Snapper, my friends and remembering that happy chirp my dragon crooned just before it died.


    Cole had to go back to where the rest of the football team was, and hurriedly jogged back to where they might be. He had made me promise to fill him in more after he was free, and to give him a robot whenever I could.


    Courtney was a little more aggressive in wanting to join me in hearing what was going on, but after she began coughing her lungs out from the amount of smoke we had all inhaled, she decided to go home and rest first. A couple of threats later, she left me alone with the being of clockwork that was waiting for me at home.


    Doldrum calmly clicked across from me in his facsimile of a human being. His cogs and gears whirred noisily in the silence of the room. It was only the two of us, but Snapper didn¡¯t count.


    ¡°Of course, it is not everyday that the creation of a Sinner happens.¡± His voice was steady clanks. ¡°I am here for a new member of our family.¡±


    I frowned, readily showing my distaste, and, after everything I had been through, I didn¡¯t particularly care what he thought. ¡°I know you have been saying Sinner all this time, and you even labeled my dragon with the same name. I get that Sinners seem to do something that you guys don¡¯t like, but I want to know what exactly the title means. Why did I have to kill my creation?¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s why.¡± Doldrum twitched in recognition. His movements were staccato and mechanic, as if he were afraid to startle me with being to unmoving. ¡°I had expected you being of the type to truly care for your creations. Many Creators normally fall into the category to create-and-forget. Between the two of us, I like you more than them. My race before I joined our family was technically made.¡±


    The scowl on my face remained unchanging. ¡°See, I ask one thing and get a different answer. I just want to know why I had to kill my dragon. It was just¡­ I don¡¯t know, afraid? Yeah, it was afraid. It had just been born, or made, whatever, and was just looking for me. It wasn''t trying to kill me at all. I have no idea what a Sinner is, but I do know that I was just forced to kill something that could be reasoned with. So I kinda want some answers.¡±


    Doldrum was silent for a couple seconds, remaining completely unmoving except for his moving cogs. His mechanics twisted and whirred as he stood. I felt myself tense as he walked over to me with slow, precise steps.


    Then he patted my shoulder, cold brass spreading some impossible form of intangible warm. ¡°For what it is, I am sorry for making you kill your creation.¡± His tones were low and grandfatherly. ¡°I will not say that I understand what it is like to kill your spawn, but I can at least relate to feeling something similar. As for your question, would you like if I explained as we walked?¡±


    I pursed my lips. Doldrum seemed to want to say something, and he obviously didn¡¯t have any ill intent. Or I just couldn¡¯t see any threat in his actions. With those thoughts in mind, I nodded. ¡°Okay, I just want to know.¡±


    ¡°Perfect.¡± His gears snapped together in a series of satisfied clicks.


    Then the world shattered.


    Or well, part of it. The wall that we were facing, more precisely. None of the brickwork, plaster, nor electronics were damaged. No, it was more like if a pane of non-existent glass had been shattered in front of the wall, and the shards were then frozen in space. However, something inside of me screamed that those shards were anything but glass, but they were confusingly still glass.


    It was utterly confusing.


    The floating, transparent pieces of not-glass yet glass shimmered in fluorescent rainbows that flashed in and out of the visible color spectrum. I was certain that, at some point, some of the glimmering glows were a form of radiation. It was only until the pieces of solid color twisted inwards, but instead of cutting through the wall behind it, they bore into a pathway of broken light.


    ¡°This is how people of our family take walks.¡± Doldrum said between hisses of cogs. ¡°Of course, you¡¯ll be able to do this with time as well.¡± He waved for me to follow as he entered the entrance of floating shards.


    Hesitantly, I joined him by his side after I grabbed Snapper in my arms. The little horror had just finished my fridge, and started on my sink. I was lucky to get to it before it ate through my whole house while I was gone.


    When I stepped through the gateway, I had expected a great many things. What I got was even more than I could actually comprehend. My head hurt as it gazed into the massive expanse of broken colors and shattered lights that swirled around in a form that reminded me of one of those kaleidoscopes that kids played with.


    Beneath my feet was more shards of broken light and space that congealed into a makeshift pathway that cut through the expanse. It looked oddly like pieces of gears stuck together without rhyme or rhythm. More like they had been jammed together in a series of bone rattling collisons.


    I turned to Doldrum. ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°This is the pathway between Realities.¡± He whirred in reverence. ¡°It is between everything, and within everything. When there is something that doesn¡¯t exist, this is there. You can say it is nothing given form. We call it the Kaleidoscope.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± I stared at the ever changing colors. The shards in the distance seemed to morph into every shape imaginable before returning to colorful blues and reds. ¡°That fits, I guess.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think some of the things we name are rather bland and boring, though.¡± Doldrum gave the approximate of a laugh for his metal frame. It just sounded like a factory exploding. ¡°Now, let us walk. I shall try my best to explain all your worries on the way.¡±


    I nodded, falling into step beside him on the bridge above nothingness. ¡°Right, let¡¯s go.¡± As I stepped forwards and looked down, I felt my legs begin to tremble. ¡°Hey, uh, are you sure this is safe? I mean, I don¡¯t really get the nothingness, but we won¡¯t be falling anytime, right?¡±


    Rattling of gearful laughter come from my side. ¡°No, we are safe. It ties into how our own Realities let us manipulate Reality by imposing it into wherever we are. Most of places we go actively resist our influence, and even the weakest places have some form of resistance. Here in the Kaleidoscope,¡± He tapped the bridge we stood on with a metal foot. ¡°Nothing can become anything.¡±


    ¡°Huh, well, thanks for the information.¡± I gulped, wondering if I could create thousands of dragons inside this place. The thought sent shivers down my back. Snapper chirped in my arms with a excited clap of sheared metal.


    ¡°Now, let us begin our walk.¡± Doldrum said as we both started to travel through nothing. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    As soon as he finished speaking, I felt like something was pulling my eyes forwards. It was almost like I could no longer turn my head any which way, and I began to panic. I tried to thrash out of the feeling, but my perception slowed down and sped up randomly in intermittent intervals.


    Maddening whispers screamed their silent hypocrisies into my ears in violent fits of noise. My whole body felt like it was being spaghettified by trying to stare into the shards of colorful monochrome. No, they had color at one point, didn¡¯t they? The floor was a noodle of liquid glass, and I was slipping down. My insides felt like they were becoming well-done.


    Heat burned my head.


    Then I landed painfully in a vast wasteland full of rust colored dirt. My body was intact, and my head was pounding in a massive headache. I was spitting globes of dust filled saliva till I hacked up enough to breathe in deep meaningful breaths. My eyes had trouble catching color for a second, but eventually I found out more about where I was.


    The sky was a dull grey, full of smog and smoke. I could taste a metallic tang of the air as it coated the back of my throat in chromed flakes that danced in the wind. An incessant clang rang out of sight, almost like a machine was futiling trying to repeat something that it could no longer do. In the distance, I could see large buildings that seemed to share in the destitute atmosphere.


    This world sang of ruin.


    ¡°I had not expected you to have such an adverse reaction to the Kaleidoscope.¡± Doldrums concerned clatter brought me to my senses. ¡°Is there something wrong with your Reality?¡±


    ¡°Um, I don¡¯t think so¡­¡± I mumbled, fumbling with a small marble in my pocket. Dragging it out, Doldrum¡¯s eyes landed on the spherical marble. Spiralling arms and twinkling stars inside it shone with otherworldly resplendence. ¡°Does it look wrong?¡±


    The jingling of repressed gears clued me in on the fact that Doldrum was looking at me like I was an idiot. ¡°No wonder you had such a reaction; you haven¡¯t reabsorbed your Reality yet.¡±


    I blinked, red dust catching my eyes. ¡°Uh, is that bad? I mean, I could already do stuff without it, right?¡±


    ¡°It is not as bad as you think, but travelling through the Kaleidoscope without reabsorbing your Reality caused you brain to almost melt with compensating for trying to save you from joining nothing.¡± I gulped heavily as Doldrum droned on. ¡°Normally, a Reality should correct this to an extent¡­ Well, we are lucky that I hadn¡¯t decided to go too far. And for your other question, technically we can impose our Realities upon where we are no matter the distance between the two, but it would exhaust us fast and is rather inefficient.¡±


    I wanted to ask more about the details, but my current whereabouts and the fact that I hadn¡¯t gotten the answer to my first question was more important. ¡°So, are you going to explain about Sinners, or where we are? I think we have been sidetracked enough.¡±


    ¡°Indeed we have.¡± Doldrum nodded in a clattering nod. I got the impression that he was smiling as he pointed to the ground below us. ¡°This is my home Reality, L-V03. And these-¡±


    He swept a hand in front of us, and a sudden gust forced all the red dust to fly away in an enormous sandstorm of crimson. I shielded my eyes from the windshear and dust that swirled around us for a second before I opened them again. Then I froze, body locked in a rictus of realization.


    The rustic sand was actual rust, and underneath it were bodies of iron and cogs. Their metallic fingers stuck in poses reminiscent of grasping, as if they were trying to reach a salvation that never came. Some of them were broken into just cogs or gears, but most were shattered beyond repair.


    This wasn¡¯t a wasteland; this was a graveyard.


    ¡°These are my people.¡± Doldrum intoned, and, for once, I felt a chill from how his voice never fluctuated. ¡°Other than myself, they were all Sinners.¡±


    I felt my tongue was filled with lead. Eventually, I managed to scrape together some words. ¡°What¡­ what do you mean? How¡­ could this happen?¡±


    ¡°This was the work of one of The Four.¡± Doldrum said, ominous ticks talking in unison. ¡°My race had originally been built with the sole purpose of being puppets for our creators. Then when our creators eventually died of some unknown cause, we all were no more than the rotting world that remained.¡± He pointed to the ruined buildings in the distance. ¡°Without orders to be given we all became inert. However, that was when I gained my Reality. And, for the first time, I dreamed.¡±


    I caught the feeling of Doldrum smiling between his metallic features, but that could¡¯ve been a trick of the light. Still, I remained silent as the man of clockwork jingled on about the destruction of his world caused by his so called family. ¡°With my dreams came sense of self. I gave myself the name Doldrum, and set off to try and find someone to talk to. To dream with. Eventually, I wandered till I reached the spot I started from. I felt that if I couldn¡¯t find someone like me, then I would create them. And, while I was the same as my race, I could order them like our masters had before.¡± He then pointed to the metallic bodies beneath us. ¡°So I ordered them to become like me.¡±


    The dawning realization hit me as Doldrum paused. His gears were much softer than normal. ¡°The problem with that order was I had no idea how I came into being. However, with time, I found a solution of sorts. I technically had a Reality inside myself, so my race simply took parts of our own Reality for themselves. Soon we all innocently stepped into coherence, but I had no idea what horror I would bring to them.¡±


    ¡°Our race prospered in time, we build vast halls to commemorate our creators. We grew to know love and peace, and, sadly, war. However, we built up and up, more of us were made, and families were born. I can still remember most their faces as they thanked me for allowing them to live. They were happier times.¡± Doldrum intoned in dreadfully quiet reverberation. ¡°You see, Cade, it doesn¡¯t matter if one is organic or inorganic, once they have taken a Reality, or even part of one, when they originally had no capacity for one, they will eventually be overwhelmed with the desire to consume more and more until tearing the Reality apart is the only thing that they live for. I don¡¯t know when it started, but I do know the chaos that it brought. Brother turned on brother and mother on child, and when they couldn¡¯t find any easy target, they turned to the Reality itself.¡±


    I felt my breath catch inside my lungs as I stared out at the graveyard before us. Suddenly, all the grasping hands seemed a bit more menacing, as if they were in a desperate craze. Doldrum paid no attention and continued with a silent ring, ¡°When I was busy burying those that I had stopped, I met our family, and when I pleaded them to save my race, they began to kill all of those who I had saved. I was angry. I resisted them at every turn out of the love for my people, and all I was just doing was letting them suffer more.¡± He turned to me with slow cranks. ¡°There is a reason only we can wield our own Realities. It has something to do with how we are more in tune with the Kaleidoscope, and that is where Realities are birthed from. Tell me, how did it feel when you traveled through it without reabsorbing your Reality?¡±


    My brow furrowed at the sudden question, but still answered, ¡°I don¡¯t know, it was like I was put in a blender that just spun me across all manner of random. If I really had to put a word for it: painful. Yeah, painful and maybe a bit of maddening. Like I couldn¡¯t fully grasp where or who I was.¡±


    Doldrum nodded in accquessience, his gears turning with approval. ¡°Yes, but you have the benefit of being slightly protected from the Kaleidoscope¡¯s influence. My people did not. They grew mad, they grew to be in constant pain and they tried to rip the Reality apart. I witnessed, first hand, how terrifying Sinners can become. I eventually joined our family to put the rest of them out of their misery, and tried to make up for all the loss I had caused. In a way, I can understand how you must feel.¡±


    This time I didn¡¯t feel the need to get mad at Doldrum. Instead, I felt something along the lines of pity and remorse. Here I was getting mad over the fact that I had to kill my creation that was not even a day old, and he had subsequently raised and eradicated his own race. I shook my head, denial staining my lips. ¡°No, I¡¯m sorry for making you bring this up. I¡­ I am just not thinking of the bigger picture like you said. My own problems don¡¯t match up to you losing your own race.¡±


    ¡°It is quite alright.¡± Doldrum calmly clicked away my worries. ¡°I have had centuries to mourn my peoples, and a family who I can lean on. However, I do not believe that our experiences are different. After all, the loss of a life is a loss of a life. There is no between.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡± I agreed, feeling a small amount of gratitude for Doldrum calming my worries. ¡°So what now?¡±


    ¡°I believe that is up for you to decide. You obviously haven¡¯t absorbed your Reality yet, so you are not a fully fledged member of our family yet. And that gives you time to decide what you want to do. Whether you want to take reabsorb Reality or go back to your own Reality depends on you.¡± Doldrum whirred.


    I gave the man of clockwork a lopsided smile. ¡°Don¡¯t you get confused with all this ¡®Reality¡¯ talk? How do you not get them mixed up?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes I do.¡± Doldrum clarified in a hiss of gear. ¡°However, if you want to blame anyone then blame the fact that there was only the Kaleidoscope in the beginning and those who had Realities within themselves. They liked things rather simple, I am told.¡±


    Laughing at that hopefully being a joke, I pulled out my Sphere to stare at. Without taking my eyes off of it I addressed my company, ¡°There are more Sinners out there, right? More people that have are catalysts that will eventually go crazy. More worlds like this that fall to ruin because of a simple mistake or uncertainty.¡±


    I didn¡¯t look up, but I got the feeling that Doldrum was also looking a little wistful. ¡°There is much our family knows, and there is much that it doesn¡¯t. If I was to guess then there are probably Realities that harbor nothing but Sinners that constantly hunger in their insanity. We can only deal with so much, though.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I shouldn¡¯t be surprised.¡± I sighed, then brought my Reality up to my lips and swallowed it easily. There was no notion on if I did it right or not, but Doldrum wasn¡¯t making a big fuss. Plus, it just felt like the way I was supposed to do it.


    ¡°I am guessing that you have made your decision?¡± Doldrum chimed beside me.


    My head dipped into a nod. ¡°Yeah, I have no idea what I¡¯m doing, nor if I¡¯m making the right choice, but I don¡¯t like the idea of there being places like this. I don¡¯t want my home to end up like this, either. The best choice would be to join, and figure out a way to prevent it.¡±


    My response was met with a smattering of bells and clangs. Doldrum was clapping with what I hoped was a smile on his face. Snapper yipped in my arms as Doldrum spoke in happy jingles, ¡°Then I welcome you to being a fellow Being-R.¡±


    I paused, unsure of what I heard. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I think I misheard you.¡±


    ¡°Then I welcome you to being a fellow Being-R.¡± Doldrum repeated in similar tones.


    My palm reached my face. ¡°You guys really need help on your naming scheme.¡±


    I think I would remember this day for the rest of my life. I had done what was essentially joining what was basically a cult of super powerful beings that could hop dimensions, and all I wanted to do was keep my own safe from whatever came next. In the span of two days, I had gone from an average teen to someone who can travel to different worlds. There was quite a bit I could say about my situation, but I don¡¯t think I had the words for it.


    However, I don¡¯t think I was ever more excited for the unknown than ever before.

 Shattered Realizations(1)

    The world was of color and omnipresent shards of reality. There was no sound. There was no matter. There was only everdistant nothing that was represented as everything.


    My head was burning again¡­


    ¡°That¡¯s enough, squirt.¡± A gruff voice beside me shocked me out of my semi-lucid stupor.


    My eyes blinked back the glossiness of coherence as my mind reeled from some phantasmal snap. Aches and tired pains wracked my body in waves, numbing the entire burning that was my brain. Frowning, I realized that I almost died, again.


    However, the pains, aches and devastating brain trauma were gone in an instant, tiny pieces of flesh righting themselves from their misalignment. They were even less of a worry than a papercut. In fact, now that I had my Sphere, almost every physical injury wasn¡¯t an issue. All I had to do was think myself in pain and want it gone. The damage would be gone as if flesh was being pushed into the place where the damage was.


    Still, the amount of pain I was in was directly converted to healing speed; it wasn¡¯t even close to the speed my dragon healed at. And that thought brought me back to my dragon; how much pain were we putting it through to get it to heal so fast.


    I tried not to think about it too hard as my eyes trailed up to my helper. A mountain of a man, or creature, easily dwarfing Cole at his largest. Bulging muscles, corded like cable wire, were exposed through small sections of skin that were trapezoidal transparencies in between deep, purple flesh.


    He was fitting every model for alien I had ever thought possible. Where Kali was at least human-looking, this guy was not. Four fingers gripped each hand, and he even had four whole arms that he could move in disturbing unison, his second pair taking their place on top of his shoulders. His lower body was that of a snake, purply rhombuses covering it it dazzling scale.


    His face, and I sure hoped it was a he, was decidedly not human. A snout extended to form a terrifying mouth that split into four ¡®petals¡¯ that were lined with sharp, needle-point teeth of white. Orbs of onyx were his eyes, always moving inside their sockets and sloped brow.


    I don¡¯t want to say that I screamed the first time I saw him, but I did give a manly wail of terror.


    ¡°Well, what are ya looking at?¡± His split mouth growled in the approximate of words. ¡°Ya nearly killed yerself again, Squirt. Why the hell¡¯re you still tryna connect with the Kaleidoscope?¡±


    ¡°I, uh,¡± I was a little embarrassed. ¡°Am I not supposed to, uh, sir?¡±


    He looked at me, onyx eyes boring into my stupidity. ¡°Not unless ya want to go insane and die. Also, call me by my name, not sir.¡±


    ¡°Right, uh, sorry¡­ Rachel.¡± The man/woman/thing¡¯s name was Rachel. I honestly had no idea what to think of that when Doldrum introduced me when I asked for training, but apparently it was a manly name from wherever Rachel was from. Though, as awkward as that interaction was, I had other matters on my mind: like learning how to manipulate the fabric of time and space to do my bidding.


    ¡°So,¡± I drew the word out, hoping to get my mind off of the origins of Rachel. ¡°How am I supposed to use the Kaleidoscope to cross worlds? Is there like a manual that I can borrow or something?¡±


    ¡°No, there is no guidebook or whatever. I don¡¯t see what¡¯s wrong; this should be the easiest thing.¡± Rachel growled between enough teeth to scare a shark. ¡°Yer own Reality should be protecting ya from the influence of the Kaleidoscope. It¡¯s how we adapt to the different Realities we visit, and so long as we think that where we are is livable, our Reality should make it so.¡±


    ¡°Uh, so it¡¯s like a passive boost to survivability?¡± I frowned, not really thinking it would be so easy. I had expected to do something along the lines of ¡®absorb the universe to protect yourself from it¡¯. Instead, as soon as I imagined a breathable atmosphere around me, I was having less trouble keeping away from looking too far into the Kaleidoscope.


    The feminine-named monstrosity shifted its multiple sets of arms, onyx eyes blinking in vertical eyelids. ¡°I guess¡­ I know The Keeper had said ya were green, but how green are we talking?¡±


    I pursed my lips remembering that The keeper was Doldrum¡¯s nickname. For what reason, I forgot to ask, but I was more preoccupied at the moment.  ¡°I know about Sinners.¡±


    ¡°Anything else?¡±  There was some exasperation in my trainer¡¯s words.


    My head shook from side to side in denial, eliciting a heavy sigh from my company. Though, it sounded more like a roar of a lion and the grating of bones.


    ¡°Okay, so very green.¡± Rachel groaned, slithering closer to me. ¡°I guess I should talk about the three types of categories we all have. First, I am proficient in Creation like you.¡± I watched with rapt attention as Rachel brought three hands together, and the space between them began to fill up. It was rather different from Kali¡¯s with how her¡¯s produced a more distinct warping effect. Rachel¡¯s Reality looked like particles being creating from thin air, and layering on top of each other to form a small, metallic dodecahedron.


    Snapper, who had been idle next to me, jumped up and began demanding the offering. Rachel looked a little spooked by my pet, and hurriedly threw the shape away. My little metallic monstrosity skittered in pursuit.


    Rachel stared at Snapper for a couple of seconds before turning to me. ¡°Anyways, there are three types of things that us Being-R¡¯s can use our Realities for: Creation, Manipulation and a Domain. We all can use all of them, but only one with any real use. For example, I inherently use Creation, but if I try to use Manipulation, all I can do is make a particularly threatening breeze.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    I nodded, happily getting some clarification on what exactly I could do. Then a thought came to me, ¡°What about if I practiced doing Manipulation and whatever a Domain is? Would I be able to use all three?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Rachel laughed. ¡°Of course not, I only know four who can, and ya can barely be called close to their toenail.¡±


    ¡°Four? What are you- oh, oh, The Four.¡± I frowned at the grandiose title to these beings. Still, it meant that there was a chance that I could eventually reach that, right?


    ¡°Yes, oh, ya little Squirt. Without them holding up the peace, ya would barely be a stain on the wall. Show them the respect that they deserve.¡± Rachel enunciated, leaving no rebuttal to be made. ¡°Now, get back to the task that I was told to do: we¡¯ll be focusing on Creation. Based on that creepy thing that yer carrying around, I say that ya got a talent for Breathing.¡±


    My face scrunched up at the word. ¡°Thanks?¡±


    ¡°Ya have no idea what I¡¯m talking about¡­¡± Rachel observed astutely, and made another terrifying sigh. My teacher brought up two hands. ¡°I¡¯ll explain it like this. There is a subsection for each type of Reality; for Creation there is two: Breathing and Crafting. Crafting deals with inorganic creation as well as inert creations with no capacity for life.¡± Above Rachel¡¯s right hand formed a weird looking saber that I was hard pressed to call metallic. It looked like it was made of glass shards that had been welded together and called a weapon, and then those glass shards were coated in some type of damascus that glowed with something that reminded me of radiation.


    I wasn¡¯t able to study the weapon in my head further as Rachel continued, something wriggled into being above his other palm. While expecting a creature similar to Snapper, I was disappointed as all I saw was a small, scaleless lizard scuttling around the palm. To my horror, Rachel crushed it easily after a couple seconds of its life, speaking easily as if he didn¡¯t even notice the blood on his hands. ¡°Breathing, on the other hand, deals more with organic creations that must adhere to the limitations of the user¡¯s Reality.¡± Rachel was frowning with his multi-part mouth. ¡°However, yer¡­ creation doesn¡¯t seem to fit in any biological niche I had seen. Ya created that creature, right?¡±


    ¡°Huh, yeah.¡± I blinked at the random question. ¡°Is there something wrong with Snapper?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Rachel responded quickly. ¡°No, err, Snapper is fine, but I just wondered a bit on its creation. Maybe yer Reality is less restricted in what it chooses to breathe life into? It would explain yer healing.¡±


    Rachel¡¯s words were setting off all sorts of alarms in my head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but what do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°Yer healing, ya mean?¡± I nodded my head to his question before he continued. ¡°Just that it¡¯s one of the faster ones I have seen. Quite a bit of us who are proficient in Creation and Breathing can achieve the same results, but ya seem to be instinctive.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that good? I mean, shouldn¡¯t it be great to heal fast?¡± I asked hurriedly, feeling that something was coming.


    ¡°For ya, yes, it¡¯s really good.¡± Rachel answered. ¡°But ya probably have pretty shit range, and it will have to take quite a bit of concentration to invoke yer Reality. More than usual, at least.¡±


    I breathed a sigh of relief, glad it wasn¡¯t something worse. ¡°I can fix that, right?¡±


    One of Rachel¡¯s eye ridges rose. ¡°What do you think yer here for? I¡¯m not letting ya leave till ya can form a stable Creation away from ya.¡±


    Nodding, I got to work on just that. With the Kaleidoscope no longer encroaching on my mind, I was able to focus clearly on what I needed to do. I sat down back on the bridge in the middle of nothing, and raised my palms in front of me, hoping to cause some special magic.


    Nothing happened for a little bit, but I continued to focus on palms. A couple more awkward minutes passed. Then I felt Rachel place a hand on my shoulder.


    ¡°What are ya doing, Squirt?¡±


    ¡°Uh, how do you use your Reality?¡± I whispered, slightly embarrassed.


    My monstrous company only paused for a second before pointing over to Snapper. ¡°And how did ya make that?¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± I found the answer quick, falling silent as he waved me to continue.


    My thoughts revolved around to how I created Snapper for the first time. I had thought about when Kali mentioned something about a cube, and I tried to form my own cubic metal. Then when a cube didn¡¯t seem to click, I instinctively used something else.


    My mind fell to my Sphere. Something was then floating above my palms, tearing its way into existence as a way to bend Reality to my thoughts. I opened my eyes, and found nothing out of sort with the air above them.


    However, I still felt that there was something above them. I knew that there was something perfectly invisible and spherical floating above my palms. Other than being very, very small, it was clearly mine. It pulsed with a desire to create.


    First, I tried to keep it simple. Making a smaller version of Snapper came to mind, and I tried to imagine the metallic chitin of my pet. Its veins were filled with liquid mercury and organs as softer metals. Things were ticking off in my head as I ran through my metaphorical blueprints, but then when I tried to enact my Sphere to actually create, all my efforts were jarred to an abrupt halt.


    My Sphere seemed to refuse to create another Snapper no matter how I hard I pushed against it. The feeling was rather vague as it resisted my blueprints, and I was left with the idea that my Sphere didn¡¯t want to simply create copies. It wanted to genuinely create those that were unique.


    I frowned as the feeling intensified. ¡°Hey, Rachel, is it weird for a Reality to refuse to create?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes.¡± Rachel stated, flipping a couple hands back and forth. ¡°I have heard of a couple of us having restrictions, but those can be overcome with training. Normally, its tied with how the person wants their Reality to work. I am guessing ya have one such thing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± I confirmed, as if tasting something sour. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can create anything more than once.¡±


    My teacher slithered slowly to and fro with my words, expression tight. ¡°That makes things much harder¡­¡± With a tired sigh, Rachel turned back to me. ¡°Well, just create something for now. Ya can work on getting yer Reality under yer control in time; after all, we all live so long as our Reality remains.¡±


    I blinked at the fact that I was essentially immortal, and it was admitted so nonchalantly as well! It was something less to worry about, but, at the same time, I don''t think the prospects of immortality hit me at the time. Or the detriments, too.


    Shaking my head to rid my distracting thoughts, my attention turned back to the small Sphere above my palms. It was desiring me to make something, and I already had decided that I would go through with my decision to protect my friends and family from the horrors that I had been exposed to. The first step was learning how to do this.


    A blueprint of life filed into my mind, and I felt my Sphere pulse in acceptance. Witnessing the process now was much more entrancing than when I had suddenly found Snapper sitting in my lap.


    Cells began to form from thin air, shaping and stretching in ways that biology shouldn¡¯t. Millions of tiny organics connected to form the innards, a small balloon that served to keep the creature afloat in the air. Tracks of nerves raced along the outside of the balloon of tissue, and veins of crimson weaved through the structures that were being built.


    Gelatinous, ivory sclera formed around the sphere of nerves and ballooned tissue. A iris of iridescent green blurred into being along the white, eye jelly. The floating eye that had appeared was then covered in a thick chitin of dark brown interlocking plates, and thin, translucent wings folded out from holes that formed along the chitin¡¯s cracks. They buzzed rapidly to keep it hovering in place above my hands.


    In random places of the outer carapace there were holes large enough for the pupil and its roving green iris to peer through. It appeared as if the eye was suspending inside the shell of brown as it was rapidly switching between the different viewpoints fast enough to make it look like a green blur with interspersed white.


    My creation was roughly the size of a fist, and happily flited around my head as soon as I completed the finishing touches on it.


    I turned to the disturbingly silent Rachel, who was watching on. ¡°Did I do well?¡± I asked with a smile.


    My teacher just switched his gaze between both my creation and me with something between respect and terror. When the four-armed snake man finally decided to speak his voice was shaky, ¡°I think yer good for today.¡±


    I was back in my boring, small apartment the next second.