Published at 8th of March 2024 7:44 am

Chapter Forty One

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When I awoke, I was surprised.

I was sure going to sleep in a weird alternate dimension where the sky was filled with impossible staircases, each step of which resided a copy of a man who had tried to injure, kill and/or sacrifice me multiple times was going to end up with my death... But it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. I didn’t know how to leave this place and I had been exhausted at the start of last night's adventures. Pile on top of that an hours-long fight that ended in the combustion of several million people (even if they were all technically the same person), I was surprised I lasted as long as I did.

Not only was I surprised I had lived through the night—Was that even the right term? What is time, here? Anyway, not only was I surprised I lived, but I was thoroughly confused by how rested I felt. I had passed out on the ground, amidst the ashes of Jerry and I not only felt refreshed and energetic, but I only had a passing soreness as evidence of yesterday's activities. Shouldn’t I be hungry? Or thirsty?

I wasn’t. My mouth wasn’t even dry from sleeping on my back. I got to my feet, paying attention to how my body moved. I felt better than I had at the beginning of this stupid trip. Was this a side effect of Alice’s healing? I’d have to ask her about it.

I looked at my hands and, yeah, probably not Alice’s healing. My fingers were longer. I had thought the claws had just gotten longer, and while they had, it wasn’t by as much as I had thought during the turbulent moments before summoning Trix. My fingers were longer, making them look thinner, more… sinister? I bent and studied my feet, having to lift one up out of the ashes to get a better look at it. Were my toes longer? I think so. I don’t know my feet as well as my hands.

With a frown, I held my hands out in front of me, similar to how my mom would place them if she was trying to read a food label without her glasses. Were my arms longer?

I took a deep breath. I can worry about this later—heh. I seem to think that a lot. But I need to go find Alice and verify my assumption that no time passes in this place. I turned until I spotted the ziggurat in the distance, starting towards it with a brisk jog.

I found Forgettable where I’d left him, but he was standing over himself. The one I had tied up was still on the ground. Did he die? Did I make his gag too effective? A twinge of guilt ran through me. The guy was an asshole, but that was still a terrible way to die.

He spotted me and opened his mouth to speak, but I interrupted by holding up a finger (that was too long), silently asking him to wait. I heard him take a deep sigh as he stuck his hands in his pockets, settling in for a wait. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long.

Now close to the ziggurat I could replay my brief flight from the building and found Alice in a few minutes. She was awake, staring at the peak of the ziggurat with a horrified expression. But she was also frozen, which confirmed my theory about this place’s relation to time. Okay good. Also covered in a lightly disturbed coat of ash. Huh.

I trotted back to Forgettable, gesturing at the trussed-up body and wincing. Forgettable regarded me silently for a moment before heaving another sigh.

“You were gone for two days,” he said.

Two fucking days?!

I blurted that, but it came out as weird metallic noise I associated with nails rattling around a metal container.

Forgettable seemed to get my meaning, however. “I died after the first day,” he said, glancing at his corpse. “I waited a bit for you to show up, and honestly I was afraid you had died somewhere on the island of your wounds and I’d have to go and find you.”

I frowned, raising an inquiring eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes. “I have to take everything I bring here back, or I can’t leave,” he said. “Otherwise I’d just pop into the real world to take a shit, and come back to your dusty corpse. I wouldn’t have needed to die a couple million times.”

It was a lot more than a couple, but I didn’t quibble. At least, not audibly. Also, I guess all the copies of his clothes on the corpses didn’t count? It must count it like one thing in, one thing out… What about my skin cells on the fists of his clones that died? Or the blood I spat that one time? God, his powers were stupid. Powerful, but stupid.

I shrugged and pointed to the top of the ziggurat.

“You want to come back up there?” He asked, to which I nodded.

He took a long moment, squinting in thought. Finally, he threw his hands up and let them drop. “Whatever,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

I followed a few feet behind him as we approached the stairs of the ziggurat. I looked at the ash covering everything and wondered if it’d persist in the real world. He said he could only leave with what he brought in, and he definitely didn’t bring in several million peoples worth of ash. Maybe—

My breath caught as we crested the top of the stairs. Things were not as I left them.

Not a lot had changed, but what had changed was significant. There were now deep grooves in the roof that draw a complicated summoning circle—no, not a summoning… a doorway? The grooves were so deep I could clearly make them out through the several inches of ash that covered everything. Terrance stood at the “north” point of the circle, which actually pointed northwest. Every ward, circle, or enchantment—any spell that has a written component— has a point at which you begin or anchor it, colloquially known as a North (at least in the 1800s, which was when my information had been hastily penned in a journal). What the fuck happened.

I stepped forward, shouting a question that came out as if music had shattered(I know that doesn’t make sense but that’s what it sounded like.). Forgettable whirled around, startled. His fist came out but he relaxed slowly at my emphatic pointing at Terrance.

“You were asleep for two days,” Forgettable said, his voice droll. Then he frowned. “At least, I assume you were asleep for all that time. For all I know you were dicking around trying to find a way back without me.” He was pensive for a moment before continuing. “Then there’s the fact that we fought for a whole day before that. Time doesn’t stand still here, it’s just faster than there.” He gestured to the scene before us. “I’d say… Maybe an hour has passed?”

Oh, Christ.

I circled the spell on the ground, studying it. Over the past few days, I’ve had a lot of time to familiarize myself with Terrance’s spell craft, and the son of a bitch knew his shit. I needed to figure out what he was summoning or inviting over.

The ash made everything difficult. How was Terrance drawing this? I could tell after several moments that the circle, while mostly done, wasn’t complete. If it was complete I doubt whatever dimension we were in would behave as it had under the influence of whatever being Terrance was summoning. If this symbol means entry, this one must mean… wait. That also means entry. Was he summoning multiple beings?

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed a small lump on one of the lines of the spell. I crouched next to it, and doing my best not to cross the lines of the spell, scraped away some of the ash with the side of my hand so I could see what it was. It took several big lungfuls of air blown at the ash to finally reveal it: One of the giant maggots that were Terrance’s suit-mouth’s teeth. The little things were carving the spell for him.

Gross.

Okay so, those two symbols are for entry, then this one—

“Hey.”

I paused and turned to find Forgettable glaring at me. “This wasn’t part of the deal. You got your nap, and now I take you over, and I disappear. Obviously whatever this place is agrees with you. Great. Fantastic. Good for you. But it hurts me to be here. I can feel—“ he gestured toward the sky and the billion copies of himself. “—Every. Single. One. So let’s wrap this up.”

I growled (Came out as pigs neighing. (Yes, I know it doesn’t make sense. But that’s what I heard.)) and clenched my fists. But I calmed myself and took a deep breath. Having two days to recuperate in the middle of a fight was an incredible advantage, as well as reducing the number of opponents. Plus, if I killed Terrance, he wouldn’t be able to complete… whatever this was.

I nodded slowly and approached him. I kept my tentacles low and slightly behind me, but ready to strike. If Forgettable planned to betray me, this would be where he’d do it. Right when we went back to our own reality. When I reached his side I lifted my hand for him to grasp.

Moving slowly, like I was a shelter dog he was afraid to spook, Forgettable reached out and took hold of my wrist. He closed his eyes and grunted—

And the world started moving again.

My future sight kicked in and I was momentarily stunned. I barely registered Forgettable letting go of my hand and jumping down the steps next to us like he was running from a bomb.

“Hm?” Said a loathsome, familiar voice. “Jerry? Where the hell have you been?!”

Had my future sight not been working in that other world? How the hell didn’t I notice that?!

With a Herculean effort of will I slammed my future sight into the back of my mind, allowing it to function but not impede. I turned just as Terrance did, both of us catching sight of each other.

“What?” He asked, surprise evident on his pocket-square face.

I sank six tentacles into him and used them to pull me into him, slamming my claws deep into his chest.

“Round two, you son of a bitch,” I snarled.

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