by Joseph Calev
A gigantic boulder rolled by, and Raynee resonated us to its surface. She stared at me, as if waiting for my next move.
“I know it sounds strange, but I think I know how to do it.”
She looked back, and I knew what she was thinking. We could essonate away here, form our own world, and be free. Mordriss would never find us, nor would anyone else.
And yet there was Sareya. Given it was now a hundred years in the future, she was almost certainly dead. But what if there was a way to get back? What if Mordriss could get to her, and we didn’t stop him?
“We need to do this,” I said softly.
“For Sareya,” she added, then turned toward me. “You know, if this fails . . . we could be separated forever. There are infinite worlds out there, and we’ll never find each other.”
I took a deep breath, then gently cradled her pendant in my left hand. With my right arm, I reached around her waist and held her tight. She kissed me just when I triggered the jump, and I held her desperately while we flew into the universe, then essonated through its barrier. Regardless whether this worked, it would be our last kiss.
The calculations and precision had to be exact. Imagine having to throw a curve ball through an exact-sized hole from two miles away, then doing something billions of times harder. Only at the exact size, at the exact velocity, and the exact moment of essonation would this work. If there was a single mistake, we were doomed to travel the universes apart forever.
We landed on the same barren landscape, but in a single piece. There was no more floating debris, but instead an unending horizon of jagged brown rock. Next to me was Raynee. We’d made it, though I still had no idea where.
My arm was still holding her, and upon realizing that I’d done it, she smiled. It didn’t last long. Before I could grin back, a force ripped her from my grasp and slammed her into a rock.
From out of the air, Mordriss appeared. Immediately I cenosated a universe toward him, but he calmly brushed it away, then lifted me with my legs and arms locked.
“Very stupid move on your part. Why did you follow me?”
He slammed me into the jagged rock so hard that everything went black, then I resonated to my feet and scanned for Raynee. I only found Mordriss’s cold glare.
With my hands free, I recalled my sparring lessons with Raynee, then attempted to knock him down. He only laughed.
“This is so sad. You’ve got to feel it!”
A surge pulled my body in two directions, and I collapsed to the ground while I felt my veins struggle to remain together.
“Resonation is the force of hate. You have to mean it.”
My head was lifted into the air, then pounded into the rock.
Now I was getting pissed. Faster than he could move, I ripped my arm forward and tore at his leg. It only wobbled.
“Is that it?” He laughed. “Is that truly all you can do?”
He shut my eyes and immobilized my body in the air. Only through resonation could I see. Mordriss turned to Raynee.
“You see, my dear, in every way, I’m the superior Mordriss.”
She had pulled herself up from the original attack, and now stood opposite him. Her palms were by her sides, ready for anything, but they were also trembling.
“Go fuck yourself,” she shouted back.
“Not today. In the meantime, let’s get rid of this copy. It’s been a long time, Raynee, but imagine the world I could give you.”
“I want nothing of your world.” She spit a tuft of blood at him. “And he’s not Mordriss. His name is Jason and you’re nothing compared to him.”
He resonated her inches from him. Her limbs were locked, and I was seething to escape. Slowly, I opened my eyes, then began to wiggle my legs.
“Shall I force you?” he snarled.
Raynee pulled herself away and her arms flung out. With every bit of force she had, she threw him to the ground. Mordriss’s head slammed against the rock, then he lifted his palm and blocked the next blow.
“You always were my weakness,” he said softly. “But no longer.”
Everything stopped. Raynee’s knees fell to the ground, and she reached her hand to her chest. It was covered in blood. Mordriss had torn her stomach open.
Blood poured from her mouth and she looked at me with wide eyes as the life flowed from her.
“NO!” I screamed. Upon seeing her dying, my veins surged and suddenly I felt the universe in every microcosmic detail. I pulled myself from Mordriss’s grasp and sent a fury of rocks directly at him.
He parried them to his sides with some difficulty, but I wasn’t done yet. For the first time, I could feel every piece of his body. I tore at his back, and my evil copy fell to the ground.
I was now high in the air, hitting him with every form of punch and blast I could muster. Raynee was beside me. She was gasping and choking, her thin hands unable to do anything against the flow of blood that now soaked the rocks in front of her.
Mordriss stood, his teeth clenched and his hair unkempt, then hurled a blast that earlier would have killed me. I blocked it easily. I felt his lungs filling, his heart beating, and every drop of blood moving through his veins. He looked into my eyes, and I sensed the blood rush faster. I knew how to kill him now.
I pulled my fist closed and his right femur snapped. His leg was wobbling, but still Mordriss held his pose while more meekly attempting to fight back. I glanced toward Raynee. Her hand was weakening against her chest, and her body was ready to collapse forward. There was no way to save her. She was going to die, and the best I could hope for was revenge on her killer.
“You lousy piece of shit!” I screamed and one-by-one twisted every bone in his wrist. He only glared at me.
“Why did you do that?” I shouted.
With all my strength, I focused on his healthy leg until blood began to pour out, and Mordriss fell to the ground. Yet there was no look of defeat. He only gave me a blank stare, and stopped fighting back.
Another blast crushed his arm while I hovered over him, then I prepared for the final blow. I would crush his skull and end this. While I resonated him still, I looked out toward the horizon. I would be forever alone here.
Raynee tried to gargle something.
She was nearly collapsed now. Blood covered her entire chest and legs. Those piercing brown eyes I’d first fallen in love with were ready to close. I released Mordriss and moved toward her. Raynee’s last gasp shouldn’t be alone.
“Break . . . the . . . cycle,” she made out with her last words.
From beneath Mordriss’s collar came the twinkle of a familiar marble. The woven gold chain was unmistakable, and for the first time I understood my purpose in everything. I knew now that Mordriss had received everything he wanted.
Everything had fallen to his plan. There was a reason he never killed me. It was the same reason I was defeating him just now. He had always planned to lose.
I looked back at the bloody, crawling person that was my future self. This entire thing had been training. Only when he had killed Raynee did I understand the true measure of hate. Only when he took the most important thing away from me could I match him in resonance. He had taught me to time travel. He had taught me to kill. He had placed me in this desolate world where I was destined to go insane from solitude. He had placed the Oreca badge in my pocket and forced me to orasate Sareya. He had made me Mordriss.
With one blast I shoved him over, then I rushed to Raynee. She was pale now, with precious little blood left. I looked down at her wound, but there was no way I could avalate that. She was trembling now, and I gently held her hand and kissed her forehead.
“I love you, Raynee,” I said. “And my name is Jason.”
The entire life of Mordriss was a vicious circle. He knew my every step, because he had once followed them. This Mordriss, like myself, was born on Earth. A girl named Raynee had found him, and he’d been subjected to the same ridicule as a new student. And then, just when he thought things were perfect,
the previous Mordriss had arrived. He taught him the things never mentioned in school, then took away his entire life and left him to seethe in the wilderness.
His anger had only risen in solitary confinement, until a horrible idea had come to light. Since he was Mordriss, he should be Mordriss. He mastered the final pieces of time travel, then returned and followed those steps he’d retraced in his head during those many years alone.
The end goal was never world domination. It was an end. This Mordriss wanted to die, and only another Mordriss could kill him. It was impossible to harm oneself with any of the forces. My previous copy was now sprawled across the ground, waiting for me to administer his fate. It was time for me to take his place.
Raynee was falling forward, but I held her up. Her breath was slowing, and with great difficulty she raised her arm. I grasped it, but she slowly wrung it free, then rested it on her pendant. More blood flowed from her mouth while she attempted to speak. She held it toward me.
Time travel would be of no use here. She wouldn’t survive the trip. Raynee was falling into my arms, her throat gargling.
No. She wanted to tell me something, and it wasn’t time travel. There was no way to save her, but the universe was presenting another option. The cycle didn’t have to continue.
Despite being mostly inept at every other force, I was a master of cenosance. Yet only with my thoughts on Raynee could I achieve anything. There was a reason for that.
It took two particles to trigger cenosance. Each had to be in precisely the right dance around the other. I remembered back to the rock fields we’d encountered earlier. Somehow, this landscape was destroyed. Mordriss hadn’t done that. I had.
While Raynee drew her last gasps, I realized that we were just two particles in the universe, doing a dance around each other the entire time. That’s how she found me, despite the nearly infinite odds against. We were destined to be together. We were destined to create something new, and in all his hate Mordriss had never realized that.
I thought to Sareya. We would never see her again, but she would be safe. There would be no Mordriss for her to ever fear.
I lifted Raynee’s chin and stared into her still piercing eyes.
“For Sareya,” I whispered, and she nodded in understanding.
The doomed copy of Mordriss screamed when Raynee and I embraced. Around me there was only a sense of great love and awe as our bodies burst to pieces, disintegrating what was left of that evil being, then joining together in the throngs of a new universe.
Our bodies were now nothing as the heavens broke loose and we gave ourselves completely to each other. The forms that used to be Raynee and Jason were no more, but she was closer to me than ever before. We had created something new. And then all went white.
29
The vast majority of hikers never knew there was an alternate path. This trail was famous for its wonderful vistas over lupine covered meadows. Most visitors knew that a true summit trip was not in their plans, but were still satisfied by the views of neighboring peaks amidst the barks of pikas. More than a few spent the day munching on the endless groves of huckleberries.
Yet for a determined few, there was another way. Hidden behind the last trees before the mountain went bare was a steep incline, with only occasional blotches of paint and stacked rocks for guides. This was the direct route. This went to the summit.
She hesitated only long enough to figure out which bush blocked the way. A poor choice could lead her to the wrong cliff, though even that didn’t scare her. She knew what she was doing.
The branches gave way and she was soon on a scramble upward. This was her least favorite part. She was still technically on a trail, it was steep enough to slip down, but lacked the standard amount of hand holds typical on a true climb. When the way turned completely vertical, she sighed a breath of relief.
Someone once asked her why she bothered to spend a free day like this. The walking trail took far less time, was considerably less dangerous, and offered nearly the same view. Those points were not incorrect, but she found the true advantage more difficult to articulate. Virtually no one climbed this route. The entire ascent provided solitude, and the summit was hers alone.
It was a warm day, perhaps a bit too much. She sweated profusely, despite an early start designed to avoid the brunt of the sun. Nature always had a way of deterring people from mountains, she thought. During winter, the danger from snow and ice made most ascents impossible, but summer could be nearly as dangerous. There were easier ways to ascend, of course, but the thrill of lifting herself foot-by-foot was the most exhilarating.
She paused a few times to admire the views. At the summit, she would enjoy a panoramic view from one of the tallest peaks, but this one was no slouch. Beyond, the mountainsides were bright red and green.
It had taken until late July for all the snow to melt. The walking trail had been clear since the end of June, but the peak always required a bit longer. The wait had been frustrating. Sure, there were other routes on other mountains, but this one offered something special.
The sky was bright blue, without a single cloud. She would have preferred a few to buffer against this unbearable sun. She slowed her breathing enough to concentrate on a difficult part, then lifted herself to a ledge and eyed the short distance remaining.
Even other climbers had rebuked her for not ascending with others, and going without ropes. Yet the concept seemed simple enough to her. In its essence, climbing was a basic endeavor. One simply needed to not fall, or at least not unintentionally. It wasn’t her fault they didn’t realize that. Then again, there were many things they didn’t know, and it wasn’t her job to teach them.
She took her time with the final hundred feet. A year ago, a less serious climber had hurried this section, thinking that it was more of a scramble than a climb. One wrongly placed foot had ended that assumption.
On this particular mountain, the summit was a single flat rock, perhaps six feet square. She’d considered spending the night there more than a few times to gaze at the myriad stars under an unpolluted night’s sky, then marvel at the following sunrise. Yet every time, caution had sent her down before sunset.
She reached the top with one hand, then pulled herself up where an endless field of mountains paraded her on every side.
She was not alone.
A young man sat on the middle of the rock with eyes nearly the same shade of brown as hers, and of similar age. His legs were folded and he bore neither signs of equipment, nor of sweat.
She sat across from him. He reached behind his back and pulled out a reddish fruit, then tossed it at her. She caught it, then placed it down with a wide grin.
Her forehead was no longer sweating, and her skin was as fresh as if she had never climbed. He opened his mouth to say something, but was met with hers as she knocked him over, then kissed him until far after the sun set.
About the Author
A New York immigrant to Seattle, Joseph Calev is a proud Luxembourgish-American photographer, traveler, and writer who couldn’t focus on one thing if his life depended on it. His novels and photography reflect his passions that include the savannah of Africa, ancient villages of Europe, and astrophysics. The world around us is simply too amazing to only admire one part. When he’s not photographing and writing, you may find him in Bellevue, WA, where he lives with his immensely understanding wife and two sons.
