The Apocalypse Spiral

Chapter 2: Here, Now and Later

I kill the world...

I die and kill the world.

Fuck...

Why do I remember that?

I get up from my realization and switch the TV off.

I die and take the world with me.

How does that even happen?

I go to the bathroom again, turn the faucet on and splash water onto my face.

Come on..! Remember goddamn it!!

Nothing. Nothing comes into mind.

Anger and frustration fill my heart.

Why can’t I remember the details? Why do I only remember the tra-

Pain.

I collapse onto the floor, an electric-like shock courses through my body. I feel it creep up back and into my skull.

The pain..!

A surge of sounds filled my ears...They were screams, screams of dying men, women, and children.

Oh god...oh god...

Images fill my mind, scenes of devastation, proverbial hell on earth...

Buildings were reduced to rubble...

The sky was a fiery red, marked and cracked open by terrifying bolts of lightning.

And the ground...Oh good god, the ground...

The dead...so much dead...

Make it stop...!

The images & sounds of death, chaos, and destruction continue to pour into my mind. I feel a warm liquid leak out of my ear. I was bleeding.

More images...!

Scores of people in a city, nobody was spared..!

Tendrils...Things that resembled vines emerged from their bodies and shot skyward..

No...The tendrils didn’t emerge from them.

It came from...Me!

I find myself floating over a destroyed city, suspended amidst a scarlet sky.

I feel a pulsating beat throb throughout my entire body, I feel that my arms are outstretched as I look down at a sea of people below...

The tendrils emerge from my own body and enter every single individual below, piercing them like spears from the heavens.

They scream and howl in pain, bleeding profusely like stuck animals.

Oh god, make it stop! Please, make these images stop...!

My gaze, my power-filled gaze moves to a nearby mountainside, above it is a c***k, a rift in the sky...Somehow I know it is a c***k into another world...Into another...

I reach out for it with my right arm, my limb is covered with blood-stained tendrils. I realized I was draining the essence out of the populace below.

I felt a rejuvenation. I felt power flow through me. Everyone below was now me...

Their cries of pain, their wish for this chaos to end...it was all mine now...

The c***k beyond! It grows larger! At last, I am-

I suddenly see nothing but blackness and a deafening silence make my ears ring.

I feel a coldness on the skin of my back and the sensation of a dried-up material on my cheeks.

I sit up in the cold, silent darkness.

My left-hand touches something ceramic and familiar.

It was a toilet bowl.

It seems like I had broken out of my horrid vision of...something.

Was that how I died? Was that how I killed the world?

What did I become...?

I couldn’t explain what it was, nor how did I feel or know about it.

I sit up and find myself shuddering, I feel cold.  A sense of vulnerability envelopes me and I begin to sob.

I continued to sob in the darkness...feeling nothing but bewilderment, confusion, and...guilt.

________________________________________________________________________

Daylight once more. It was pouring diagonally through the window.

My throat felt dry. My eyes felt swollen. I felt like I had slept for a very long time...How long has it been...?

Jonathan, the body I was somehow reborn in, felt terrible.

I look up and see an unknown face looking down on me.

It was a woman. She had short hair, large brown eyes, and pale skin.

She wore a black jacket, jeans, and a pair of soil stained sneakers.

I sat there. Frozen in place. Not knowing what to do next.

“Hi.” She simply says. "Is that dust on your bathroom floor?"

I say nothing.

“Have you seen it yet?” She follows up on her question.

I stay silent. Who is this woman...and why does she...?

“Hey, are you deaf?” She taps me on the left ear. “Hey!”

“Who are you?” I finally spoke, my voice sounded hoarse.

“Me? You’re talking to yourself...” She says with a sarcastic smirk. “The name’s Fels.”

“Fels?”

“Fels.” She repeats her name. “So did you see it yet?

“See what?” I ask, moving a few inches away from her large eyes.

“Don’t bullshit me. I know you saw it.” Fels tells me. “ You bawled like a baby. Your ears bled too...see?”

She rubs a finger on my right cheek, scraping off something off the skin.

“See? Dried blood.” She shows me the dark powdery substance on her finger. “So I’ll ask again. Did you see it?”

“I saw...something,” I tell her, briefly recalling the horrid images. “It’s a f*****g nightmare.”

“Mmhmm, okay...” She nods, takes a few steps back, and extends a hand. “Come on. Let’s get you up from the floor.”

I look at her. She was a complete stranger. Why would she help me? Why should i accept her gesture?

“Did you go deaf again? Come on.”

I sigh and take her hand. Her hand was cold and my legs felt like jelly. It seems like i did need help standing up after all...

“What’s your name?” Fels asks me as I got to my feet.

“Well, now? It’s Jonathan.” I tell her, recalling the cellphone message from earlier. ‘I think i was reborn as this guy...”

“Reborn..?” Fels asks me as she walks me to the living room. “Say what now?”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t think I was this man before...I died and woke up in this guy’s body.” I tell her, realizing how ridiculous it sounds out loud.

Fels simply nods as she ran a hand through her short hair.

“I believe it. I think they call it reincarnation. It’s a Hinduism thing I think...” Fels says.

“But I’m not Hindu...at least, I think I’m not,” I say in reply, taking a seat on the couch before the now switched off TV.

“Well, Hindu or not, you’re back in the land of the living. Welcome back ‘Jonathan’...” She says with air-quotes at the end of her sentence.

She hands me a glass of water, which I drank hungrily, and takes a seat beside me. She crossed her arms across her chest and leans back.

“So...what did you see?” She asks again.

“Wait...Who the f**k are you?”

“I just told you. Fels. So did you see it?” She asks in reply once more.

“Hold just a damn minute, You waltz in here, god knows how did you get in, and here I am confused out of my mind...and now you want me to ask your questions about some f****d up dream I had?” I angrily tell her. “Are you out of your mind?”

Fels ran her tongue on her teeth and spoke.

“Yes, I want you to answer and No, I’m not crazy.”

“Son of a b-” I say with exasperation. “Look, I have no goddamn idea at what just happened and I am sensing that you know a lot about me...So can you please tell me what is going on?!”

I realize that I yelled and a brief sense of shame washes over me.

Fels exhales out of her nose.

“What you saw is not a dream because I saw it too.” She tells me. “I felt it. Heard it. Seen it. It hurts, I know. Give it time, you’ll feel better...but speaking of time...”

Fels stands, paces around a bit, and pulls something off the wall. It was a Calendar.

“You lost some Time! Or gained it, I’m not sure how time travel looks like from your perspective...Did you lose or gain time when you go back in time...” She mumbles to herself. "But then again, how much time exactly did pass before I met you? There was dust on the bathroom floor. Odd place to have dust to be honest, but I'm don't judge other peoples' cleaning skills uh uh nope, I don't judge..."

She was rambling. She probably forgot that I was here...

She turns to me and her eyes briefly widen, as if remembering and realizing I was sitting here the entire time.

“You’re out of place. Out of time and out of body. You’re dead. Technically. But you’re back. So what’re you going to do with it? Sulk and stay confused or do something to stop the end?”

I didn’t know what to say. Nothing she said made sense to me. All I could muster was a stare of confusion.

“Come on man...” She says in exasperation. “You went back in Time for a second chance to stop all of this...and your death! IF you want to do it!”

“So I cause an apocalypse?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I can’t tell you. You have to find out for yourself.”

“What..?”

“Time. There are rules. I’m already breaking some here but I’m pushing the limit as we speak.”

“So you’re from the past?”

“No.”

“Where are you from?”

“Earth. Obviously.”

I shake my head.

“Dumb questions have dumb answers Johnny boy, come on...” she says, tapping her dirty sneaker.

“Can you at least tell me what I can do? Please!” I yell out, this time fully aware of the annoyance in my voice.

“Well...that I can tell you...It doesn’t break the Rules...Well, it does, if I tell you the WHOLE thing but if I give you a clue, it can be-

“JUST TELL ME!” I interrupt her ramble.

“Okay!” She says raising both her arms halfway. "Impatient little imp..."

“Go to Mount Jebediah. Tonight. Outside of town. At night, then look up. It’d be a clear night, so you won’t have a problem...unless your meat suit ‘Jonathan’ has f****d up eyes...”

I still didn’t fully understand it. It was something but it meant almost nothing.

“Just...go there and you’ll see. Okay?” Fels continues. “I told you what you needed. Again, if I continue explaining things, s**t goes down, okay? Time does *not* like to be trifled with. Be fortunate that you’re in another body and not out *there.*”

I sigh and finally nod.

There was a sudden beeping noise, Fels reacted and rolled up her left sleeve.

Her watch, a classic calculator watch, was beeping.

“I have to go.” She begins to walk to the door. “Remember what I told you. Mount Jebediah. Tomorrow night. Look up!”

She turns the doorknob, pulls the door open, and bolts out of the room.

I get up to my feet in an effort to go after her and ask more questions.

“Wait! Hold on!”

I make it to the door and see her run towards a pair of elevator doors.

“Wait! Just who are you exactly and why are you helping me?!” I yell across the hall.

“Again, stop talking to yourself, you loon! Read my note! On the fridge! Byeeeee!” She says with a grin, entering the elevator.

She turns around, waves at me, and disappears behind the closing elevator doors.

And I’m left alone, standing in a doorway, standing in silence.

I gently close the door, rest on it, and slide down, sitting by the base of the door.

My head was still spinning with everything mentioned...what just happened?

But I guess it's a start to solve...whatever my situation is.

I sigh and get back up to my feet once more...

A grumble emanates from my gut.

Hunger.

I need to eat something...and probably read the note from that crazy woman.