Memoirs
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Life After Death Pt. 1Written by Brian Roig; Edited by Rob Smith
Chapter 1: Death is Just the Beginning....
I'm dead [Slow Breathing] Or at least I should be. After the last blow from my clone everything stopped functioning. No movement, no sound, and no sense of my aura. The only way to explain what surrounds me is neon black. The darkness is hurting my eyes. But I guess that's ok, because that at least tells me that as far as I know, I'm still alive. I could barely hear myself breathe. That wasn't how I lost consciousness, this was how I woke up. I guess for whatever reason my brain started working before the rest of my body did. I must be in some kind of stasis, which would explain why this feels like a strange "re-awakening" process. I've used this time to think about alot of things. More specifically about how long I've been gone. For all I know it could be years. Oddly enough, while I did think about my teammates, they weren't the ones occupying my thoughts the most. I suppose after all that we've been through it's become second nature to think that the team could find a way out of anything safely. I thought about my friends back in my hometown in New Jersey. Ever since I took this job, I haven't called or visited home as much as I should've. As cliché' as this sounds, you never realize how much everyone means to you until they're gone. Right now I feel I should've told them more often how much they mean to me. It never occurred to me how hurt I could actually get in this business. I guess I took the team's knack for constant survival for granted. If I am alive and there is a way for me to get back, I will from this day forward open my heart to them more. I hear something. Sounds like wind. I'm starting to gain better control over my functions again, but I can't see as well yet. As I sit up, I feel the weakness that now ravages my body. My strength has left me. My aura is nonexistent. Then again it's possible that wherever I am contains no living or paranormal presence at all. I feel the ground under me and grab what feels like sand, as I let it sift gently through my fingers. It feels real enough. But it's cold here…damn cold. My vision is returning. It's blurry at first, but the neon black recedes and white overtakes what once was. I try to look around but all I see is white except for the ground, which is the shade one would expect to see of sand. My vision is becoming clearer now. I can see the sky. There aren't any clouds. There isn't even a sun. Just...light. A cold white light. I don't see anything on the horizon in any direction. Just sand…everywhere. It appears that I'm in some sort of desert. But, is it Earth? Is this the afterlife? Chapter 2: The Misinterpretation of Silence and its Disastrous Consequences
I reach into in my uniform to see if I have anything on me of use; nothing, not even a trap. Looks like its back to the basics. Gonna' have to use my hands for more than drumming practice. What I wouldn't give for a particle thrower now. I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going. Almost every direction looks the same, except for one. The sand in front of me is condensed into a higher sand dune than the others. This suggests change. Might as well take this path. Wherever here is, it doesn't seem to have a sun, so I can't make out the light source. I brush the sand out of my hair and pull my hood up over my head for protection against the sandstorms and shade from the blinding white sky. In my first steps, I immediately notice the sand isn't as deep as I though it was. This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Though, I gather the problem will find me once I walk far enough. [ A few hours later ] Still nothing. I've been walking for what seems like forever. At what point do I determine the worthlessness in walking? I figure this much, I'm trekking on open land. How much of it I don't know, but from what I can tell, it isn't ongoing. But if there is an end, I intend to find it. As I climbed over another sand dune I hear a crackling noise. It startled me at first but I quickly figured out that it was coming from my communicator. It was strapped to my left shoulder for easy access and used in the same manner as a police officer would use. Rob was working on a smaller more compact communications device and as far as am I'm aware he hasn't finished it yet. Then again, by the time I find my way out of here he could have developed 6 more communicators by then. My commuicator stills crackles and attempting to contact anyone is useless, for the only thing I am able to accomplish is making various types of static. I continue on. I suppose things could be worse. This desert could be scorching hot for one thing. If that were the case I don't know how far I would make it with exhaustion controlling my body. I find that constantly getting my mind to think or process certain things helps me to regain my focus. I hope that with enough focus I could get my aura back. I'd certainly feel more confident if I had power behind my fists. I stop for a moment to rest as I re-scan the area as usless as it's become now. Quite a feeling being alone. In a manner of speaking it's what I fear the most. "Oh and fear it you do. How you loathe to spit your last breath without sharing your heart with another. Admriable, but disgusting." I stop in my tracks. Out of nowhere I am being mocked by someone or...something... crackling over my communicator. It knew my thoughs. Something I always valued as one of the last remaining sancutaries for humankind. "Who in the hell is this?" "That is of little importance. If you keep heading in that direction, you will find the change you seek." "Where am I? Is that the way out?" Silence. Just static again. I am starting to grow weary of this place. I have but no choice but to follow the myterious directions given to me. I continue on in the same direction. [ hours pass ] Maybe I shouldn't have listened. I don't see a damn thing. I'm losing focus. I need to meditate. I sit where I once stood with my legs crossed, feet rested on my knees. I clasp my hands with only my index fingers sticking out. Using them as a conduit, I hope to drive out the negative energy from my body and regain the focus I so desperately need. I listen to the wind moving like a serpent through the empty space that makes up this place. It's soothing. "You look and look and look, but you don't see. And here I thought you'd be a challenge." I snap out of my meditation with my eyes still closed and immedately grab the two-way on my shoulder. "You lead me on and on in a pointless journey to search for nothing. It is you who are the fool if you think there is anything out here." "Being from the same cloth I expected you to better than this. I just gave you the benefit that you might prove me wrong. I see you lack proper knowledge. Just open your eyes." "Same cloth?" Just another disctraction I assume. Something to keep me from focusing. Fed up with this nonsense I quickly stand and place the two-way back on my shoulder ready to ignore this messenger. I look in the direction my feet were taking me and I almost trip ove rmyself at what I see. It's a pyramid. It's the Great Pyramid!.... but this wasn't normal in any sense of the word. It was hovering. That wasn't the worst of it. It was inverted! Chapter 3: Dispersion
The sandstorms ment nothing to this structure. It floated amongst it's backdrop like a king who conqured his enemy. I walk underneath it, analyzing it. Frighting the thought of what would happen if gravity lost it's grip on it. Consumed by it's shadow I observe the tip which is now above my head. The possibility of being in the desert of Set occurs to me. Yet if it were the case it shouldn't be this....calm. I take my eyes of the pyramid for the first time and upon doing so I become encased in a cone of light. It's bright. Too bright. "My Eyes!!!" I quickly pull my hood over my eyes and hold it in place to shield them from the scorching light. As I try to preserve my sight I hear a humming noise. It seems to gradually get louder as time progresses. At the cresendo of it's loudness it just suddenly cuts off. Silence. As I pull my hood back notice three things right off the bat. One. It's cold. The same cold that I felt when I awoken here. Two. It's dark. As my eyes re-adjust to the darkness I barely make out un-used torch. As I looked closer it's in a holder attached to the wall. A wall that has some markings on it. With out light I can't make out what they are. I remove the torch from it's holder and examine it. It's wooden as I thought and the end is wrapped tightly with a cloth that smells like it was soaked in gasoline. From what I can tell there isn't anything to light it with. "Well. Things are looking up" says Brian sarcastically. Spontaneously the tip of the torch bursts in to a flame. "Not up. Brighter. " The voice. It returns. "You're wasting time. move!" Three. These markings which I now see are...hieroglyphs confirm my last initial thought. I'm inside the great pyramid. Chapter 4: The Road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road the Heaven is paved with bodies.
These glyphs scale to the ceiling. The further I walk down the hallway I start to notice that the walls are covered with stories containing the ancient gods of egypt. Their births. Their lives. Their deaths. Ra, Horus , Set , Osiris, Isis, Thoth, Anubis, Ma'at, Hathor, Sekhmet, Bes, Geb, Nephthys, it goes on and on. They are all here. As I reach the end of the of the hallway there is a podium with a book placed on it, and yet another torch holder on the wall. I place the torch on the wall and examine this "dead" end. The wall behind the podium has the story of creation on it. There is a circle indentation on the wall right in the middle of the story. Right at the moment Osiris and Isis gave birth to Horus. My attention goes back to the book to which I now recognize. It's the Book of the Dead! "Open the book!" the voice says urgently. Hesitantly I open the book and carefully go through the chapters. Upon reaching chapter 64 where it would detail the deceased traveling across the sky in the sun bark, instead of the scene which should be there, lays in stead a sun disk emedded into the book. As I admire it's prestient condition I almost miss the eye of horus in the center do the glare. This represents no-doubt the joining of Ra and Horus to become the god Ra-Horakthy. The indent in the wall must be for the sun disk. I place the sun disk into the wall and it clicks in place. I stand back as the wall beings to rumble and then open to reveal a chamber beyond. "What the hell is going on!?!?!?", says Brian. Countless times I've been in the great pyramid. There are only three chambers inside. The Grand Gallery, The Kings Chamber and The Queen's chamber. This isn't acurate. Something's wrong here. I grab the torch and proceed inside. It appears to be a burial chamber. There are sarcophaguses on both sides of me trailing down towards the back of the room making a pathway in effect. One by one I examine the sarcophaguses and one by one I grow anxious as these appear to hold the gods themselves. "I no longer want any part of this illusion!", yells Brian. I finally come upon the end of the room. One final sarcophagus lays ahead of the two rows, in the center of the "pathway". Oddly it is open and the lid is missing. I step closer to peer inside. "I can't believe this..", says Brian hesitantly. The person in the sarcophagus is... Me! I lean in closer to try and wrap my head around this anomaly. As I do so the duplicate's eyes open and it's head turns to look at me. "Welcome....to your neurosis!" Chapter 5: Enter Transcendental Sleep
The duplicate sits up and grabs ahold of my throat. While still keeping a grasp on me it steps out of the sarcophagus and stands in front of me. He forces me to my knees as I grab his hand to try and release myself from.....from my own grasp? "This is where I lay dormant. Where you keep me imprisoned until you feel the urge to furfill an unlawful carnal desire!" The same cloth!..... I...I was talking myself all along. Wait... I was talking to myself? "I am every unwanted thought. Every bad seed you could have planted.....but you close the path of the light." He.....I... release my grip on myself. This is starting to give me a headache. I start coughing and gasping for air. "It would have been easy to throw you in that sarcophagus and take control, but that would have been to easy. I, like you must follow the same guide lines. After all we are together complete.",says the duplicate. "Who in the fuck are you?", yells Brian. "I am your neurosis. With out good there is no bad. With out bad there is no good. I need you as much as you.......need me.", the duplicate chuckles menacingly. "There is a bigger problem here. Something looming over the horizon. Something that will disrupt the the battle for light and day between Ra and Nut. Something that will create unbalance for humanity. Something that requires us to work as one. But......." "What.....Taxes?", Brian says mockingly. The duplicate pauses. "Something you need not worry about yet. You only need to know ahead of time." "Ahead....of time.", he laughes to himself. "Before time get's ahead of you", the duplicate says cryptically. "What are you talking about.??" The duplicate bends down to come face to face with me. "You will know..... In time.", the duplicate let's out a horrific cackle. At the climax of that cackle the heiroglyphs start swirling around. It starts speeding past my eyes until it just turns into images. Images of the present. Images of humanities corruption and hate. The images start to spiral out of control. A subtle metaphor no doubt. I black out. Chapter 6: Floating Back
I regain conciousness and open my eyes. I'm staring at a ceiling. I'm no longer in the great pyramid. This...This is more familar. This is the firehouse! Behind me is the containment unit, there is no way I can mistake that peice of engineering. I try to move but I haven't the strength to get up yet. I look to my right and see some friendly faces coming down the staircase. "Egon?" "Ray?" "Peter?" "Guys, how did I get all the way to New York City?" The surround the table I'm on. All staring at me. "Guys?" "LUCK!" they all say similataneously. Their jaws de-attach and lower, shard remains of what was suppose to be teeth appear. They all let out a manical laugh. I suddenly realize what stands before me. "Oh...SHIT!" - End Part. 1- Top Discuss this Story on the Forum |
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