#5: The Spring Dance

By: M Monroe Casey

Introduction 

Taking a short break to work out, shower and get food after the events of Mexico, Monica sat on Mt. Couch in front of the Windowsill with a nice bean burrito and a quality caramel mocha. Cal, the sleepiest cobra around, lay on her lap like usual. She acquired her usual position as her favorite Goddess finally reached an event she has personally been looking forward to immensely, The Spring Dance. Something which her anticipation for matched only something like Baleigh’s future wedding.

An event of that magnitude was one of the few things that could come close to what this day meant to Monica and her positive attitude towards it. Her mentee had her first high school dance, a memory of her own that she personally cherished greatly and no moment will be like watching this for the first time. When you can see anything in the past or present and glimpses of any future experiences amongst the Cosmos, it does make watching something you truly love for the first time that much sweeter. But that wait time was finally over as her hazel eyes looked ahead while CJ was outside playing fetch with Tadala in the vast oceans all around their home. 

Scene One 

Her unsparkly hand opened the door with a great eagerness that was unexpected for this particular event. Baleigh was not much of a “school dance” person but she was still there and actually happy about it, much to her own surprise. Sadly, this optimism might just be short lived as she had a strong suspicion that they were already here. With her feet proceeding to march her into the Physical Education extra credit attendance line with a few of her classmates in front of her, Naj and Jack waited ahead. Knowing her friends wouldn’t wait forever once she cleared this line, her mind took advantage of this brief pause to finally catch up with what happened in the Yucatan.   

Maybe the fight with Stained Glass and the hurt she heard in their voice changed her and that’s why she actually looked forward to what lay ahead. A certain optimism in response to such tragedy. Or maybe it was Monica’s pep talk and her honest eagerness when they came to visit. Either way, even if it was one of those or something else, she knew that it was in part because she met Stained Glass. A truly sad being and one longing for a place to belong. That feeling of loneliness resonated deep within her for this was something that she had taken for granted for many years. She still had her people, unlike Stained Glass, but she sometimes didn’t really see them. Since even before Stevens Point, Baleigh had a “woe is me” mentality and it’s always been her greatest secret. All her teachers, coaches and teammates wouldn’t even know just how truly down on herself she was. Constantly sabotaging friendships to just avoid the cracking of those ties later on. This led to only two friends, her sisters and parents, a whole lot of feeling like they too will eventually grow too busy for her and a mound of “connections” with all others but none of that seemed important now. She felt that mentality was the one cracking now. Her greatest secret and the shame she felt from the mask worn with it has begun to fade. All because she met a few souls in Merida. Souls that she shared true kinship with. Another Goddess.

Sure, that immense force that her not-yet-friend shared with her tried to kill the young Canadian and drain her powers but that was a response due to their fear too. Fear she could help conquer. She could help change Stained Glass. She knew it in her bones. A smile sat on her well manicured and make-upped face. Her blush and eyeliner highlighted just how truly beautiful the dress was. The rainbow dress in honor of this kindred spirit she will forever cherish and soon call a friend. She just needed to find a way to convince them. Convince them that no soul alive could stand up to their might if they stood together, instead of apart. As she sat and optimistically played out her future partnership with the other Goddess, she moved forward in line and with a few extra steps northwest, her brain took a dramatic and drastic turn as she neared the front of the line. 

This new turn was one towards the anxiety that formed from the fact that Tiff Giselle-London and Kyle Maia were both here and stood in this very atrium with her. Looking up, she made eye contact with Tiff as her gut dropped. Kyle sat next to her and she couldn’t even look at his blonde hair, blue eyes and athletic build without a nervous blush. The captain of the youth city hockey team with his southern Wisconsin forest green sweater and northern Wisconsin lake water blue pants stood as a beacon of what Baleigh truly wanted. Him to notice her and talk with her for a few minutes only. A moment she would cherish until the day they both graduated, him two years before her. Tiff, his girlfriend of the same age, was well aware that “Puppet Girl,” felt this way and has always resented Baleigh for this. Tiff’s equally impressive built-from-massive-hockey-success form hosted her blonde hair, blue eyes and black dress with pink highlighted stripes on the side. She looked down upon her classmates all around and stood as a fierce wall next to her boyfriend, fending off all lookers with a jealous and vicious gaze. As the two of them walked towards the line that they originally passed by for that extra credit, Baleigh successfully finished writing her name and signature on the sheet and then shuffled past, quietly towards the dance floor and her two friends near it. Hugging both Naj and Jack after salutations, the three of them then went towards the pulsing lights and pounding bass ahead with the pit in her stomach only growing. Because now, she must conquer another fear. It was time to dance in front of all of her peers. 

His shaky hands attempted to hold the dynamite the best way he possibly could in that state of intense trauma as his neck jerked back and forth and his spine arched and moved in the changing night sky. Teary and scared vision through blue eyes lit the fuse as he looked around the thick mist of a particularly cool night in November on the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, all that mist couldn’t stop what happened above. The Darkest Star was near its necessary position and that could only mean one true thing lay ahead, the transformation was hunting for him. It was his third hour on the run from whatever destiny this otherworldly change meant and Walter was running low on food, water and pacifism. 

The first eleven something months of 1993 wasn’t exactly everything one could have imagined for Walter in terms of positivity. He learned of a dormant gene in his blood, he was attempting to adapt to his newfound abilities which required an obscene amount of food and water, he was run out of his small town in France and now, he had someone hunting him. Oh, and he was single again. Still shaking with the stolen dynamite in his growing, in both size and hair, left hand, the fuse was getting dangerously low now. His dehydrated eyes could slightly make out the other shape in the distance on the water as it seemed to be getting closer at an accelerated rate. His transformation was finished and the werewolf that existed within him now sat in the boat in his place, almost all alone in that cove with its white cliffs all around. His form that was forged in The Darkest Star stood almost two meters taller than his normal 1.829 meter human body. His normal sandy blonde hair was replaced now with much more and a much different color. Silver and hairy like the wolves of North America, with claws and fangs to associate with them too. A bloodlust wasn’t there though. He was the same man but just looked like the beast of vicious legends. 

The stick of dynamite was nearing its moment of use in his silver hands and he decided that he must at least try to fend off the mysterious attacker ahead. Unaware of the dehydration playing an effect on his entire form, human or wolf, he threw it ahead with little to no success. With no vision, he dropped it at his feet as it ignited and exploded instantly. As Walter’s own dehydration did him in at that moment, it wasn’t blackness, a famous celebrity depiction of a god or angel, heaven or hell that he saw. Instead, he found himself in that boat, minutes before, all over again. This was the third time this has happened now as the time loop refused to let him go. Walter seemed to somehow find a fate worse than death, or so he originally thought.

Scene Two 

An out of body experience with each explosion has him see his mistake that he has made. So far, he has watched the moments he escaped his village as the “vicious monster,” and took a left turn that led to an insurmountable pitfall. From there, he saw himself grab enough food to last two weeks, find the stick of dynamite, a boat, a paddle, clean water and clothes to protect from the elements. 

With the out of body experience over, Walter repeated the actions of his one, and now everyday, once more. He ran from the village limits, went right and down to the water. Grabbing the dynamite from their storage and heading towards the unchained boat, he left for the water as one adversary proceeded to chase faster than the others, once again. In the still water, he looked around to his slightly larger water supply and smiled. Each repeated loop brought him further and further into the distance ahead but no matter how far he got, that same stalker was still close to him each time. 

Destiny kept on bringing them back to his side as Walter lit the fuse of the campfire red dynamite and waited once more. A rumble in his stomach shook his entire form as the traumatic events of the night led him to forgo dinner. As that hunger only grew and his caloric intake sapped instantly through rowing his small boat in the cove’s light shimmering waves, Walter looked down with his dog-like features of his snout and put one hairy hand over his own stomach as the other hand began to grip the explosive less tightly. With the adversary reaching the closest they have yet, he could see in his hungry and stressed animalistic eyes, a face that looked eerily familiar as he dropped the stick from his front paws to his hind paws once more. With an explosion that claimed them both, the out of body experience had him questioning where to find more food and also, who was that chasing him. 

Her high school gymnasium didn’t quite look like the same place that her team set the school record for longest Volleyball volley in. Green and blue streamers laced the top of the room, stretching out in each and every direction across the metallic rafters above. With the hard work of the dance committee on a complete show, Baleigh Sofia Luisa felt taken away from her own school with the large indigenous flower decorations and scent of lilac in the air. The floral patterns of glowsticks decorating the sides of the entranceway welcomed all her classmates into a night of fun and camaraderie but to Baleigh, all it screamed was “oh… I have to dance in front of them.” 

With a pit in her stomach, she nervously rocked back and forth with her two friends dancing their feet off next to her. Naj and Jack loved the song that played from the large speakers on either side of them. They danced their very limited social anxiety away on that night in May almost immediately but to Baleigh, the process a little more involved. She could feel their eyes. All of their eyes. Somehow. 

Maybe they knew she was secretly part of one sixth of a group of some of the strongest beings alive. Maybe they knew she could shoot nearly unequaled powerful pink light from her fingers or heal just about any issue with those same fingers. Maybe they knew she could travel to nearly anywhere in the blink of an eye or she found her powers in a swell of a magical storm on a foreign planet surrounded by swaying alien plants as she saved her giant living puppet. Maybe they found out about all that somehow and they were judging her dancing with it. With all these feelings swelling up and the intense bass lines all around doing her no favors, she whispered to Naj about needing to go and proceeded to exit the dancefloor. Going back into the hallway and seeing Tiff and Jack coming towards her and the gymnasium, she took a fast left and ducked into the girl’s bathroom near the High School Office. Stepping in and taking a deep breath, she just wished it was easier. She could fight off and save the whole of North America from a soon-to-be-hostile takeover from a talking axe and a Goddess who wanted to return their homeworld by covering hers in glass but these two literal human minors struck all the wrong cords in her mind. 

Taking two more deep inhales and exhales, Baleigh looked over to the mirror to look at her outfit and complexion once more. Fixing her beautiful brunette hair briefly and then stopping in a moment of analysis, she saw a familiar face staring back at the other side of the mirror. Her own but it wasn’t her own at the same time. Her Goddess powers would have let her know if another being existed within her but this was different. There was another presence in her aura instead and just as she was about to open her mouth and ask what was happening, it began to speak to her. Soul to soul.  

“Hello Ms. Luisa…” 

“…Rashid?”             

Scene Three 

“I am so so so glad that I can finally actually try to help guide you on your life’s journey! It’s just so good to see you and good for you to see me! The… real… me! Wooohoooo!!!” 

“Ummm… What is happening? Why are you in my aura? What do you mean the real you? Did you seriously just say that? Wait… are you here to try to take me over in some form of possession? I just have so many questions…” 

Landing on the “possible possession” hypothesis, Baleigh then began to swat the pulsating hot pink and rainwater blue light that surrounded her entire form, like a swarm of small insects. 

“Ummm… are you trying to swat me away? Ummm… PLEASE don’t try to attack your own aura with your powers… Wait… What do you mean I diabolically planned this? You are the one who walked into me like thirty minutes ago…” 

“I did… what?” 

“You walked into my aura on the way here… well… what used to be my aura…” 

“I’m so confused…”  

“You… Ms. Baleigh Sofia Luisa… walked into the fragments of what used to be my energy force… It was shattered by one of you Goddesses and was divided amongst a few forms and only one of those forms was awarded a physical body. Sadly, I believe you met that part of me in both a physical and metaphysical confrontation…” 

“That’s why you seem so different… ummm… this is awkward but does this mean I incinerated your real body then with a star blast?”  

Still taking it all in, Baleigh rested her manicured and finely painted nailed hands on the smooth stone sink.  

“Kind of. You incinerated what could have been the real me but it was not. The one who did this keeps them all locked away. Each and every original form that the light touches, each stored down below. So, in reality, you only met a shadow of me on Scanor, in the limbo of life and death and on the street out there… a piece of my living and true form… but we can still save that living and true form from this Goddess, save my family too and stop who did this all – bringing them to justice. They are our mutual enemy Ms. Luisa…  We can do this and we can win… We just need to work together.” 

“A shadow? You seriously aren’t lying? But… you tried to take Erickson, Hamza and then kill me. Twice. You barreled down on and tried to attack an innocent teenage girl… I don’t know if I can just write it off as ‘not the real you’ and trust you instantly, okay?”  

She gripped the sink stronger in her anger and confusion. She was being asked help from a person who still gives her nightmares on occasion. A soul she didn’t know if she could ever trust. 

“Ms. Luisa, please. They have my family’s souls. I need to save them… please…” 

“You… you… claimed to be a Journey Shaman… you… I mean they… I mean you… you promised to help me as I literally had my entire life changed and you couldn’t offer that… you lied too me and then you tried to kill me… You met me in limbo and tried to hurt me again… you’re a bad man…”  

The sink began to crack under the weight of her immense strength as her fingers began to glow pink. It grew more and more as the bass could be heard from the dance floor outside. With a feeling of anger swelling up, nothing seemed to quell it until two names entered the conversation, pausing it all. 

“I need your help… Please… Imagine if it was Heldum and KJ…”

“Don’t… don’t you dare drag them into this…” 

“I won’t but Let There Be will do it. Happily.” 

“Let There Be?” 

“The Goddess  of Lighting…”   

“Lighting? That must have been Stained Glass’ partner there then… So… is that who is behind this? But before I say yes, can you answer a question for me?” 

“Yes. To both.” 

“In Mexico, I gained the power to heal and stop the glasses’ expansion but it seemed to not destroy like my other power. It just prevented it… How did that happen?”  

“Well… You… Ms. Luisa… you are the Star Goddess… Isn’t it obvious… you wished upon a star…”  

“I… what?” 

“You needed to heal at that moment… attack my shadow in another moment… Those are your two powers, yes? Two moments of need and two wishes made.”  

“How many more wishes do I have?” 

“All the legends I have heard speak of the “Wildcard Goddess” having three wishes. So, you have one more…”   

“One more wish… wow… and the Wildcard Goddess?”  

“The other Goddesses were formed eons ago and then were passed mantles or titles merely from soul to soul, here and there, to those who seek it out or whose journey’s led them to it. But not you… Ms. Luisa… You are different…” 

“That’s why they don’t want me on their team? I am different and I can be shaped and changed?”

In a moment of trying to understand it all, Baleigh slid her hands through her long and stylish brunette hair, the fierce determination from her past adventures returning to her eyes. 

“Exactly… They each fear you and want you to work for them. Take your power and grant their own wishes… You are unique, Ms. Luisa, you are the one and only Star Goddess. The only one to ever live and ever will live. The Wildcard of the group because no one truly knows how your legends will play out. The other five have their roles determined… you do not…”  

The nervousness from before began to fade as it was replaced with a strong resolution now. She has made her decision while standing in line earlier and this whole conversation only proved it more to her. Pulling her hand up to eye level, she looked at it. Clenching it into a fist, her aura began to rage in a roar of vibrating flames. In the flaming pink starlight, it abruptly calmed down as she smirked back to the mirror and her own personal Journey Shaman. 

“Yeah… no… that’s ridiculous. Their legends and lives aren’t played out, especially not according to some lame other legend written by probably some bored and narrow minded oracle somewhere, and I am going to prove it, one… by… one and  I think I already know where I will start…” 

Knowing that he couldn’t stop her intense teenage resolution if he wanted too, Rashid agreed. His own feelings on the matter aside, his aura stuck with hers then, bonded, as she snuffed her starlight out in a crackling instant and walked towards the door. Not even Tiff, Kyle or an army of millions could stop how she felt in that moment. Standing confidently in her rainbow dress, forged from the ties of camaraderie, she found out tonight just what kind of Goddess she wants to be. 

Eyes open once more on this night of the dawning of The Darkest Star as Walter quietly left his small orange brick shack in the dead of this fateful night. The first mistake in this loop was him not realizing that the townsfolk, his old neighborhood including his baker, hairdresser and ex-partner and all the others, had learned his secret and were coming for him in his sleep with an intense bloodlust. Walter found more food this time and with that in his bag, he reached the paddle and rushed to the boat for another chance at freedom and life. Reaching the same point in the water once more, he was hydrated and well-fed in the dark brown wooden boat and the time passed with him now in a much better position. A few hundred meters out of the cove, he was nearing the open water now and to whatever freedom lay ahead. Easily in his best position for success this time, he waited. At his feet, the stick of dynamite still sat but he still waited to light the fuse as that chasing adversary neared again. Cracking his massive knuckles in the light of only his lantern, Walter snarled as he could see the shape of his enemy’s boat and the sound of the splashing paddle cracking the stillness of the water around them both. 

The second boat was nearing and without hunger or thirst issues, only his own waning pacifism stood in the way now. Over and over again, he could only think about the day he was “found out.” The Darkest Star comes and goes in a pattern that it comes for two days and then leaves for three and returns for six. Unknown to this otherworldly, far-traveling star in the first place, how was he supposed to know that this existed within him. He was just living how he was wired but it’s not like he took those giant claws and tore up a cow or any undeserving farmer, he was purely just different on the outside because of what bubbled up from the inside. His former friends and neighbors couldn’t see that though. All they see is the “different one.” Pitchforks, torches and machetes proved that as they took to war instantly, the enemy being a man they once knew and dined with. As his blood boiled in the boat, he gripped his paddle tighter and tighter with the intent to finally release that anger and bludgeon any who stood in his way now. Who was this person and how dare they not just let him leave… 

“WHO ARE YOU?” Walter screamed to the distance in his snarled deep voice of the “monster.” 

A soft and smooth voice replied in the deep, a voice eerily similar to one he hears everyday. 

“Just your closest friend is all… Do you really think you can leave me behind too? I’m… always… with… you… FOREVER!” 

With the scream at the end, their paddle soared like a javelin of the ancient wars only a few kilometers north, west, east and south of this entire historic region. Smashing into his own paddle and knocking them both into the water, he reached down too slow as a rare wind gust carried it away. 

“No!” 

Turning his head, Walter saw the leaping figure in the growing starlight. A comment and then scream of shock filled the area. 

“Wait… NO WAY! AHHHHHHH!!!!” 

As this weirdly strong assailant tackled and then pinned him down to the floor of the boat, the light of the star was temporarily covered up through a rare cloud of the night as he transitioned back to his human constraint. Looking up at that moment, he saw their face in the most clear detail and it was exactly what he thought he saw and he wasn’t crazy. He gazed upon his own face and this exact copy of him resembled in every possible way. An exact clone. It even had that same scar on his left cheek that he has had since birth. 

His mind and face tried to understand this second version of itself, the one on top began to cackle. Trying to move his hand under its tight grip, he reached forward and attempted to get the stick only a few centimeters from his left hand. Desperate fingers clawed into the boat but their clawing grew more successful as The Darkest Star uncovered itself above. Holding the stick in his hand, he used his animalistic strength to then heave him off and grab the lighter in one swift movement. With the boat rocking and stabilizing in the open waters, away from the cove that he found himself in before, Walter stood in their stand-off. 

“What do you want?” A question escaped his mouth as the smaller version replied in the thickening mist. 

“You.” 

“What do you mean?”    

“I just want you… Simple as that… It’s time to come home…” 

“Come home?” Walter hesitantly stepped back as the enemy stepped forward.

“This little ‘play pretend’ life is over, Walter, come home… make us whole…” Another step forward and Walter was now on the edge of his boat and the edge of his pacifism. 

“My life is not pretend! This is who I truly am and how dare you… You know what… I’ll do it… I’ll kill us both!” Holding up the lighter towards the fuse, the enemy stepped closer and grabbed the lighter out of his hand in an instant. 

“No… you won’t. That’s not you but… I will!” 

Lighting the fuse and then knocking it out of his hands, the stick fell at both their nearly touching feet, exploding instantly and then claiming them both in its orange and red shaded rearranging of atoms. As Walter’s vision became the out of body experience once more, he looked down to the hut once more and saw everyone gathering at the red brick town hall a few houses to the left of his own. He could see their pitchforks, machetes and torches once more as he could see himself sleeping away, yet again. The situation felt hopeless as he just watched, unable to try and solve it. He watched it loop three times with him still sleeping in the hut each time as it was lit up over and over again. Watching it happen over and over again, the senseless violence began to desensitize and break him. 

He didn’t care about much of anything by the end of the tenth loop of this until he saw something that caught his eye. Something from his everyday life, so much so that it became just part of the background in his home. An item lost to time until he truly saw it again and in that moment, it changed everything. He saw on his nightstand, a framed photograph of him and his best friend. They were sitting on a sandy white beach in Florida, on his inaugural trip to the United States, a few years back. Remembering South Beach and why he must keep fighting for Schuyler Shaners everyday until they can see each other again soon, he smirked a smirk of defiance and determination as the astral projection floating high above it all. Their assorted farming weapons closed in from their many directions in an attempt to catch this monster but as he opened his once blue eyes in his own reality, he instantly and confidently knew something. He just knew how unsuccessful their little sneak attack would be for these former “important people in his life.” Reaching down and grabbing his packed bag, Walter fled through the southern window in the thick of night in their quaint coastal village. He was back on the run but this time, he had that newfound desire to find his freedom. 

Scene Four 

A confident Baleigh and an elusive Face inadvertently took a step in each other’s direction. 32 yards apart, across two offices and six walls but they neared each other technically. To the backside wall of the school, another one sixth of the Goddesses walked closer to the loading docks where the “cool kids” played with the trading cards after school. With the disguise of one of her classmates, The Goddess of Acting (and secretly vanity), waltzed up to the dance, fashionably late like always.

Looking at her, Monica knew exactly who it was based on how Stained Glass described them. They were missing conveniently when the fighting got hard but were back now. Shifty and smart in every aspect, just upon looking at them. Joining it all only now because sides were being chosen in the upcoming “War of the Goddesses” and she just wanted a seat and a sight on the winning side, which she deemed to be with the young Star Goddess. It had to be and couldn’t be anyone else based upon all the context clues at Monica’s disposal. Not knowing anything to be true but still not trusting any of it, Monica watched as Jessica Maddy got closer to the back door of the cafeteria. With their hood up in their all black outfit, they snuck through the last part of the loading docks, almost undetected. Almost. 

The Goddess known for being “everybody and nobody’s friend at the same time,” was detected by one that night. One pair of glowing scarlet red eyes watching their every move closer to the event ahead. As Face opened the cafeteria door, a singular massive fist wrapped in thick midnight black metal chains connected with the left side of their exposed face. Knocking them out completely, instantly and near effortlessly. Gathering their hunted prey, OMG left the scene in a swell of immense and terrible power. Instantly transporting herself back to her lair, deep underground the streets of a Central Minnesota hub of commerce and residence. 

Unknown to all of this, Baleigh reached the door of the bathroom, clean hand on the knob, when she noticed it was starting to shake in her grip. The knob, door and the whole of the bathroom shook all around her now. Starting with a slight subtle movement but it was growing in strength in each passing second. 

“Rashid… What is happening?” 

“I don’t know…” 

Before she could hear the response from Baleigh, the Windowsill began to flash red on the perimeter of the image on hand. An alarm that she and CJ set up recently for more potentially world ending events has now been tipped. 

Getting this high level threat alert for Aktau, Kazakhstan, Monica quickly grabbed the remote and changed the scene, catching it live just in time. Assessing what could be this drastic, all Monica saw was one being standing in front of a massive keyboard and screen, watching the map of circles drawn upon the earth, spin. Each one is getting faster and faster. Seven circles now moving at a rapid speed and on the left side of their screen, a percentage meter was slowly ticking up. 

Walter paddled past the edge of the cove and towards his freedom in this seemingly pinnacle moment of the loop. Inside the time loop, it’s hard to identify the most important moments but something in his massive, powerful animal gut told him that this was different. 

“Wait… wait… wait… why am I the one running? No… can’t think about that… I need to keep moving…” Walter stopped, the time loop cracked and then he quickly resumed, shaking his head back and forth in a worrisome twitch of anxiety.  

The logical part of his brain told him to keep going but his gut spun a different narrative and in the slowing down of his paddling, he knew which narrative was going to win. He was going to change it all now and nobody was standing in his way anymore. His old life only brought him this far but he knew it was time to use this power within himself to change the world around him. At that moment, he couldn’t believe how long it took him to understand this but he wasn’t cursed. He was given a gift and it was time to use it. Stopping completely with the repetitive movements of the heaves and just sitting still in the water, he turned his hairy neck and gazed back at the distant shore and the evil version of himself ahead, still in its pursuit. 

With a snarl and howl to The Darkest Star above, Walter clutched his oar tightly in his right hand and reached down to the stick of dynamite with his left. He was close but his epiphany must wait for now, an enemy called… 

“I’m NOT running anymore… you want to fight… well… LET’S FIGHT!” Walter yelled in his booming wolven voice across the glassy water. 

Lighting the dynamite with his hind legs, he then tossed it in the air and assumed the position. Watching it soar like all the old stories of Jackie Robinson in his legendary career, he watched the explosive rise into the air. Waiting for it to get closer, he held his oar-turned-bat and connected it into the airborne target in a moment of pure crisis fueled adrenaline. With a line drive shot towards his other self’s boat, it caught the pointed bow and exploded upon the instant impact. With a roar to the explosion ahead, Walter leapt into the dark waters all around. Instead of the open waters ahead, he swam back towards the shores he came from and previously fought so hard to leave. Passing the smoldering remnants of his enemy’s craft, a whole wall of golden glitter seemed to almost gravitate to him and embed itself within his own form as he moved past. Between this werewolf form and the newfound vigor and energy, he virtually glided towards the land ahead. A true master of the art of swimming and finally, himself. It only took him multiple handfuls of time looped moments to understand it but now, he did. Now, he wasn’t going to run. Not anymore. 

Pulling himself upon the rickety and broken dock, Walter stood for a second and looked upon his old city. He could see the various shaded brick buildings nestled in the picturesque hills of southern France. Ahead of him, the unruly mob was gathering once more. They reached the point that they were supposed to, heading angrily towards the docks. As they rushed him with their assorted weapons, one of the fastest in the group was a torch carrier. His former hairdresser heaved his flaming weapon towards the beast in an attempt to “just make it go away.” 

The fire touched his fur but no damage was done. Instead, his hue changed to match the orange and red flames as his whole body began to burn there on the grassy shoreline. Then with the roar of ten thousand fed-up-with-intolerance suns to the sky above, the three-and-a-half meter-tall, pure-muscle behemoth whose body was literally dancing with fire chuckled. Cracking his flame laced knuckles, Walter quietly whispered to himself the epiphany that finally reached him as he charged towards the mob ahead. 

“Now… let’s see who’s running…” 

Scene Five

Marche Tadala woke up on his single bed, alone in his shack in the Southern Hills of Pyroclastia. Pulling out his Dream Notebook, he began to documentate what happened this time. 

Another night has gone and passed for the man off of basically every Windowsill project since the early-on-into-the-project “drinking mochas and watching bros fight” days. Known as “other dude in black armor” to Monica, this related by royal blood to Lord Jadix and Augustin but otherwise unremarkable member of the family didn’t quite have the “project pull” as “Lord of the Universe Jadix” or “Master of the Boned Masses, Bone King,” and there wasn’t a moment of his life that exact thought didn’t somehow plague his thoughts. Maybe not always on the front brain but it was always there. Each and every day, awake or resting. Scribbling in his notebook without the prying eyes of the Windowsill upon him, he wrote about what happened to Walter in that vivid, near real, dream.  

With this action of Marche on the queue of over ten thousand things to just gloss over the highlights of, Monica Dancer continued watching the Central Asian crisis straight ahead. As the circles spun over each continent on the map, separate colored circles were under the oceans. Using the “zoom in function” from the remote, Monica looked closer upon the map and saw that each circle was merely an arrow nearly looped in on itself. As the time lapse like a weatherperson’s screen showed, it depicted the predicted movements of the arrows. Different locations decorated across the earth she used to call home and each arrow led to the same place. A pin labeled, “home.” 

With the percentage meter reaching 81%, the being reached up and hit the big red button on the keyboard as she muttered a single phrase, born in pure joy. 

“It’s time to go home…” 

While they were stepping back from the keyboard, the computer began to speak back to them. Only one word was repeated over and over again though in its robotic and metallic voice. It was the name of their protocol. Each time louder than the last. 

“e-den…” 

“E-den…”

“E-DEN…”

“E-DEN!” 

“E-DEN!!” 

“E-DEN!!!”    

The End