New York City -- 2013 AD -- Silence… Oddly enough the city that never sleeps had been in a post apocalyptic slumber for almost a year now. Motionless debris consisted of the streets decorum and everything seemed to be the same colorless shade of gray, black, or white. Ash and soot blanketed the dead city baking in the hot afternoon sun. The only life left in the city were the flickering flames that licked at the walls of the half standing buildings they resided near. The somber air was hot and arid, quite a few degrees above normal… but then again a lot about the terrain had changed the climate wouldn’t be top on one’s list of observations.
As common lore states, from the ashes of destruction something should be birthed. From the ashes something is born. However, in this fairy tale of sorts, this something is not a beautiful phoenix, or anything of the sort. Somewhere in the center of the city something moves… a slight rumble at first. A pile of debris, slags of cement and bits of concrete shift as something within the pile of destruction begins to stir. The advance was slow at first… His vision was blurred, his senses were dull, his head was buzzing with pain, throb throb… throb throb… throb throb…
A light… it was blinding… even through the lenses of the mask that seemed to suffocate, wrapped tightly around his face. But… Why? How? What? His eyes clamped shut and he slowly pressed his way out of the rubble into the light of day… The humanoid figure stood, crouched before slowly erecting upright, canting his head back aiming that masked face towards the sky… The sun beat down upon the black surface of the mask, shimmering off of the white washed lenses. The sound of his breathing could be heard filtering through the cylindrical forms upon his plastic face…
Suddenly the setting changed. He was weightless. The sky was dark but not without light. He was neither hot nor cold. Up became down… down became up… black became white… and the world around him seemed to fade into nothingness… space. Silence… broken only ever so often by the sound of static. Distant at first but with each passing increment it grew louder and more intense. His eyes opened and through the lenses he looked forward, floating amongst the nothingness, only to see two shifting objects… a series of plates following one another in two lines, going in opposite directions, curving upwards into a circle… like a halo. Blank white words were etched into his mind, like a silent voice carving the thought into his brain… The words read…
A ẃ̀͟͝o̧̢̢͢r̶̨ld
Not ҉of̢ my making
Y̎̅͆͑̋͗èͩ̅̀t̑̽ a worl̴d
Of my̡͟ ͝͠design
He neared the spinning structures and could see the reflection of the nothingness around him… an aura of yellow and blackness meshing together in the background of this strange realm. Was he unconscious? Was this real?
So ҉st̛r̵ange
A͠n̵d so famí͘҉͚̖̥̞̤͙̟͈̟l̶̢͉͕̺͉͇͚͍̬̲͎̮̲̝i̵̴̢͎̮͎͍͙̙̱͈͖̤͎̘͙͇͝ar
The lettering continued to carve almost painfully vivid in his mind. He would blink, wincing slightly as this strange world was so overwhelming… The silence was deafening, the sensory deprivation was overwhelming… He could feel nothing… hear nothing… smell nothing…taste nothing… but he could see… these images as he floated amongst nothingness with no reason.
…b̡̧̎͊̈̍̉̎ͤ̇uͧ͋́͌̽͘t̷̵̋̓͐̉̆ͮ̒̽̀͡ no matter h̃̃ͥ̂̏͢o̾ͬ̋̀wͩ͘ ̷͆̃dͣi͌s̴͊ͯ̏͋t̂͛̀aͯ̅nͫͭ̊͝t̏̆ͨͮ̾͒͢
In ti̼͙̘ͭ͂͊̈ͤ͐̏͋m͍̯̒̽͑̈́͌ě͖͕̘̣̳̱͚͇̰ͥ or sṕac̵e̢
His eyes would open beneath the lenses and he would witness a new setting… flickering white orbs of light would dance around his figure, head swiveling this way and that for a good look as he watched arcs of light flicker on and off like sparking wires all inter connected through one large sphere of light… He would reach his hand out forward, but it was no use, he couldn’t feel the warmth from the light… He couldn’t feel anything…
O̦̣̞̐̊̓͛͊͘n̵̮̼ͭe̟͇̜͈̗͔̮̐̍̈́̇̓́͞ c͓̊̍ͯͮ̽ͬͣ̎o̜̗̭͕͕̰̗ͦͫͣ͂̊ͯn͖̥̲͓̞̻̳̓̃͗ͣ͗̃ͯš̞̰̪̘̗̜̅̓t̳͓̳̝̲͕̤̽̄̊ͮ̋̒̚ͅa̲̬͇̣̳̪̽ͧ̊̋n̗̤͎̻͉͌ͪ̀͗̈́̌̓͌ṯ̲̯̝͎͍̯͓̙̒͂̓ r͕̱̱̙̣ͪͥ͢ë̡̫̮̩̼̫̘ͪ́ͬ̈̀ͩ̕͜ṁ̹̬̜̉͐͋ͨ̾ą̙̓̅̂̿ỉ͍̦̰̪̳̌ͮ͗̾ͧͣ͗͢ń̶̳̰̳̮̗̯̀s̨̺͓̱̰̝͓̗͍̮ͮ̂̊...
It read in his mind as he traveled betwixt the swirls of white that contrasted so greatly with the blank nothingness of blue and black behind it. His pulse quickened, his skin moistened beneath his odd gentlemanly attire. He could feel once more… he could feel one last thing… His pulse. His heart throbbed strongly in his chest and he could feel the blood being forced this way and that amongst his veins. But suddenly… it stopped. The deafening silence didn’t seem so imposing any longer… His chest was still… He was dead? Hands were lifted to his face as he twirled this way and that, slowly, ever so slowly. He looked through soulless lenses at black, gloved hands. He could move… He was still alive… but his heart remained idle… “What constant remains” He thought to himself… and in the same manor as before he was answered…
C̵̴͖͓̤͈̼̼͐̄̉̔͒́Ḣ̶̛̜̼̮͓͎͉̱̫̳̝̹͎̝̭̜͓̥͕͗̿ͯ͂̐͑̅ͫ̚͡A̰̰̩̩͌ͧͦ̈́ͪ̔̍̎̐͌̆̓̇ͦ̿́͠͝͞Õ̞̖̖̘̇ͦͤ͊̍̄́͜͡ͅͅS̶̡̢̛̳̩̼̮͉̙̻̥̻̖̝̜̣͇̞̱̺͉ͣ̃̄̔̊̉̈́̂̑͑ͫͣ̆̐͛ͯ͢
In that instant everything he had seen became a blur. He was moving, fast. His stomach lurched inside him, pressed down farther than it should have been, falling into the pit of his pelvis so it would seem as he was torn asunder in this strange realm. Rocketing forward, forced to ingest images so fast… A feeling of nausea coursed through his body, again contradicting the sensory deprivation… The silence was broken by the rhythmic beat of metal clanging against metal as he was thrown down a strange path, above a strange structure of geometric plates. Sharp, unfinished edges and metal spikes composed the rough, alien looking, rectangular structure as he was dragged along passed it. The destination could be seen as he canted his head to look up as he plunged head first into what seemed like a strange black hole. There were tendrils arcing from the center point, twisting and turning like a collection of Ouroboros, serpents devouring their own tails. Figures that circled in and out of this singularity for no reason at all… He was certain as he was lunged towards this hole in existence he would be crushed… but as the moment peeked, the climax passed, nothingness…
The first thing he felt was the hot, arid climate around him… The stagnant, afternoon sun beating down upon his head… His eyes opened and the setting had dramatically changed once again… The ruined city was still ruined and he was still standing in the center of a large pile of debris. Something in him compelled him to look down… there he saw a singed, but otherwise neat looking top hat… A hand would reach down gripping the brim and lifting it up towards his head… placing it down snugly, completing his odd attire… Clamoring to his feet, black boots would embrace the rocky ground beneath him, the trench coat would sway slightly in the slight building breeze. His hands would reach up, embracing and tugging gently upon the collar of his attire, situating it. Eyes peering through the lenses of that odd gas mask… Without a second thought his right foot would take place in front of his left and he would continue a slow, yet steady pace through the remains of the city…
From the ashes he rose… but for what purpose? For what reason? . . .
Soft footfalls lead his figure throughout the remains of the city … but suddenly things began to change. The setting remained the same but it seemed as if this time, time was no longer passing. Everything seemed to stop so suddenly. It was remarkable to see the fires freeze in midair. Without warning things began to move again… but not forward. Everything was backwards. The plumes of black smoke were being sucked into the flames that birthed them, rapidly. The sun arced in the sky in a flash and it was night… and soon the moon followed suit, soaring through the air…
in only a few moments it was yesterday. Then the day before… It seemed like a cheap movie effect, but it was real… It was happening. It didn’t seem to effect the man whom stood in the center of it all, watching through dull lenses of his mask… Weeks passed… months… Before long it began to effect the terrain. The man walked…watching as debris lifted, rose and reformed itself.
The once great city was being rewound into its former glory, buildings destroyed in reverse. It was astounding. Amazing. Before long it had reverted to its former glory, the population filling the streets. It was night when time froze once more…
The Tallhat Gentleman stood in the middle of the sidewalk watching the frozen faces of the individuals who seemed to be in a hurry to get where they were going. Their faces not betraying this, nor indicating any knowledge of how time itself was refusing to allow them forward. Eventually, of course, it would. At regular speed. The masked man watched in expressionless amazement as people walked passed him. A few unruly patrons brushing a shoulder against his… Three years and passed in reverse… He had been shown the future… but was he to prevent it, or would he be the cause?…
New York City -- 2010 AD…- - - - - - - - - -
It's a little shotty. I left it as raw as when I wrote it all hopped up on sleep deprivation and such. Wrote it at like 6 am after a sleepless night. But I liked it. Hope ya'll enjoyed the read.
