“Can you really bring her back?” Wallace asked. He hoped against hope that it was possible that his wife could be brought back from the dead.
“If what you’re saying is true that your wife died a supernatural death.” Jack Goode replied, he took a bite of his pancakes before continuing. “Her soul is likely in a state of limbo and it can be found and placed inside another human being. She won’t look like your wife or any of that but she will be the same person.” Jack grabbed his glass of orange juice and took a long drink. Wallace noticed that Jack’s pail blue eyes never stopped staring at him the whole time. The manic energy in his eyes was unnerving but also enchanting.
“But, wouldn’t somebody have to lose their soul then? I couldn’t live with the idea that to get my wife back that somebody had to be killed.” Wallace said as he stabbed at a piece of bacon. His nerves made it so he had no desire to eat and was just play acting the part of having a breakfast. He did his best to choke down the bacon as he waited for Jack to speak.
“Wallace. There are so many bad people in this world. So much hatred and malice in this world. Satan has spread his arms wide and so many take to his embrace. We would not dare harm a good soul, but a damned soul taking the place of your wife?” He shook his head in disgust. “We would be making this world a better place. A more holy place.”
Wallace bowed his head, both to avoid having to look at Jack’s eyes and to gather his own thoughts. America had truly been a bizarre place ever since he’d arrived. People had been calling him special and talking of his wife’s death as if it was something that happened every day. He’d never expected it to be so different from England. He gave up trying to use his silverware on the bacon and picked up a piece and ate it.
“My dear friend. I can do this for you. I want to do this for you. There is something inside you my friend that is powerful, that is special.” Jack said. Wallace was back to looking at those glimmering eyes again. Jack’s whole face seemed to radiate with energy, his long white hair seemingly moved of its own volition. “We can do great things Wallace.” Jack said and Wallace’s heart jumped into his throat. “We can do something truly incredible.” He continued. Wallace’s heart sank. He knew what he was so desperate to hear and it wasn’t there. Everything about Jack made Wallace want to agree with him, to accept him, but in his soul it never felt right.
The waitress walks over and re-filled Jack’s cup. The cup overflowed and slipped coffee onto the table. The waitress screamed as she saw the spill happening.
“Jack I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. I never meant to.” She began to sob as she cleaned the spill.
Jack’s whole body bristled with rage. His eyes lost focus and were staring off into a distance only he could see. The waitress kept dabbing at the coffee with her towel as she cried and pled for forgiveness.
“What…What shall I do Wallace?” Jack asked, his voice cracking. “I think you’re a special man so I will depend on your judgement my friend. Beth here had spilled my coffee. She’s made an awful mistake. What shall we do with her?” His final sentence was said with such little emotion that Wallace could barely understand what was going on. It was as if he was being asked to kill this woman over a spilt coffee.
“It’s a coffee spill. Let her clean it up.” Wallace said sheepishly.
Jack’s mouth spread into a crazy grin. His missing fang tooth on the right side became noticeable. He began panting and inhaling through his nose and out his mouth as if he was working out. He then stood up on his seat in the diner and began shouting at everyone.
“Nothing! This man! This special man! This innocent soul sees an act this vile, this profane, and yet in his heart he finds mercy. What an incredible man Mr. Wallace is! Normally I’d have poured this cup of coffee over Beth’s head and been done with it. You would have deserved that Beth, wouldn’t you?!”
“Yes I would. I’ll do it to myself if you want me to!” Beth sobbed as she continued cleaning. Her mascara now covering her cheeks as her brown eyes kept crying.
“No you won’t! No, we’re letting Wallace dole out the justice today and today it’s his mercy that rules this diner. Jack spun around and looked to the other side of the diner. His long arms flailing as he shouted.
“All of you should look up to this man! For the coming days shall be the most important this world has ever known. A new generation shall be born. These people shall be shepherds that shall tend to the flock of the world. They will lead humanity forward out of the darkness and into the light of God Almighty! They will” He was about to continue when the door to the diner opened up. Wallace watched as Hector and Mia Gomez walked into the diner. The two of them had on sunglasses that appeared to be strapped to their heads.
“Wallace what are you doing here?” Mia asked. “This man. These people they will only tear you down.”
“You have one minute to leave my property before I call the police and have them arrest you for trespassing.” Jack napped at her.
“Wallace. I don’t know what you are looking for but we need your help. When we said you were special we were not lying.” Hector said. His voice was pleading.
Wallace felt so strange. Why was the world like this? Why did he suddenly matter? He’d never mattered before a day in his life and now he was some great prize being fought over between a crazy father/daughter team that knew about the paranormal and said they needed him for help in their research, and a cult leader who said he could bring back his dead wife.
“He can bring back my wife!” Wallace shrieked. “That’s all I want. I just want my old life back. I just want to sleep and be happy. I can’t help your crazy research. It’s too much for me. I can’t do all that.” Wallace finished.
Jack smiled wild. He stared daggers at the Gomez family.
“Get out.” He hissed.
Hector Gomez turned and started walking out the door. His shouldered slumped, his pot belly seemingly larger than before. He left the diner as Mia began walking out.
“My father hates to be dramatic. He hates to say things that seem so over the top and absurd, but I need to tell you this Wallace. We need you.” As she said those words the world around Wallace seemed to change. He felt weightless. He began hovering in space as a light slowly filled the room around him and covered everything in a soft white light. All that he could see was Mia and himself staring at each other from across the diner. As Mia looked at him she began to change. The seconds felt like hours as she transformed into Crescent, his late wife. She looked exactly as she did before the sickness claimed her. The beautiful crow’s feet on the sides of her eyes, the wrinkles on her forehead. Her perfect curly dark brown hair. Her sparkling amber eyes.
“Save the world.” Crescent told him. It was the last thing she had said to him before she had died. His heart was pounding. He was barely breathing.
“Did you hear me?! We need you to save the world.” Mia repeated herself. Wallace slowly came to the realization that nobody else in the room had spent the last few moments floating while covered in a glowing light. Perhaps his experience was different from everyone else’s.
“Call the cops. Get her out of here.” Jack bellowed. Mia turned and opened the door. Wallace bolted from his seat and ran towards her. He escaped the diner right after her.
“Run! We need to get out of here before Jack does something stupid.” Hector shouted. The three of them rushed towards the large white van Hector drove. “Jack Goode is a powerful man, but he is also an arrogant man and men like him can be tricked. He’d been set up to end the world and he doesn’t even know it.”
“So we’ll have to stop him” Wallace told him.
“Honestly Wallace. What’s going to happen is that we’re going to tell you how to stop him and you’re going to be the one to do it.” Hector told him as the three of them jumped into the van and Hector started it up and pulled out of the parking lot as Jack’s cult was now charging out of the diner after them.
“Why am I going to be the one doing all the work?” Wallace asked.
“Cause you’re the most unmagical person we’ve ever seen. You looked into Jack Goode’s eyes and didn’t empty your wallet, take a bullet for him, or give him your wife. That makes you a miracle.” Mia told him.
“I don’t feel like a miracle, and I don’t feel unmagical. I feel like a man who had his dead wife talk to him and now I’m on a quest I don’t understand.” Wallace said
“Buddy once you understand you’re going to wish you never did.” Hector said with a laugh. Wallace sighed and slumped his shoulders. He knew Hector was right and that things were about to truly get insane.
Olivia had spent a long night riding to get into position at the top of the hill overlooking the dirt road she knew the army would be marching on. Her camouflage outfit allowed her to blend in with the tall grass, but she was a bit worried that the color of the grass in her outfit didn’t perfectly match that of the surrounding environment. Her dark red hair always bothered her in these moments, it was as if her whole body was designed to make her stand out when all she ever wanted to do was blend in. She tightened her hat on her head and quieted such thoughts from her mind. Neither the grass nor her hair would give her away, it was merely paranoia eating at her mind. What would they do if they found her? A crazy old lady with a gun with no bullets. She’d be a funny story to tell at the campfire before bed.
Hunting and marksmanship had been part of Olivia’s life for as long as she could remember. Her family lived on the frontier of the Kingdom. She had fired her first gun by the age of five and killed her first deer at eight. When she met Butch Miller at one of his expositions she was the only one to offer any criticism of his firearms and even suggested some improvements to his scope. Their courtship and marriage led to a partnership over the design and use of rifles. Butch had suffered a horrible leg injury falling off a horse as a result it he spent his time making the rifles and Olivia used them. Now with war seemingly inevitable and rapidly approaching it was time for the Millers to prove what they had was true. That their firearms were the greatest in the Kingdom and could be a great tool against the Utopians and their armies.
An hour later she heard the drums as the army approached. She slid her rifle out from under her body and had a pale green eye stare through the scope. Minutes later the Utopians showed themselves, officers on horseback, drummers and flagbearers leading the way and then a seemingly endless procession of young men in green uniforms that looked like they had been put on for the first time. Olivia’s heart ached as she looked at the faces of the men. They were but children, so young and ignorant to what war was. She wanted to shoot one of them in the chest, make the rest of them run around in a panic to try to save him and then fail and watch him die. Instead of the dealing with the horrible truth of war the men were singing. She assumed it was a song in honor of their God. A mass of delusional people celebrating and re-enforcing their delusion.
Religion was the scariest part of the Utopians. A world that had rightfully shunned and ridiculed religion had managed to create a nation that allowed lunatics from all corners of the earth to come and bask in the nonsense of an almighty being that reincarnates people after they die. Olivia was old enough already and she was quite ready for death to take her. The idea of dealing with all this bullshit all over again was a nightmare to her, as was the idea of some unseen being checking boxes off to see if she was doing right or wrong. The Utopians had to be stopped and their poisonous religion exterminated.
It was in that moment as she scanned over the army that she came to the understanding that she could kill. She had killed animals all her life but killing a person was different, and now she knew she could pull the trigger. All the pain she would cause the families of those she killed, all the horror she would inflict was a worthy trade off if it meant pushing back against their madness. Maybe if she killed enough of them they would wake up from their insanity and see that God wasn’t with them.
She sighed, she knew that was impossible. For a nation to be so deluded they would make excuses over whatever happened. These were a people who nearly burned their church down after a couple rich fools had been declared God had killed themselves in drug fueled orgies. The church placated them by making some girl from a poor neighborhood their new God and they accepted it. They would have to be beaten, conquered, and occupied for a generation to finally leech the venom of religion from their veins.
Olivia marveled at how slow they marched. How straight the line was that they marched in. They were sitting ducks, she could kill a dozen of them before they would ever find her location and even then she could kill countless more before they finally discovered her. It was only her desire to not be the one to fire the first shot to start the war that prevented her from doing this. She wanted the Utopians to do it. To march to Midpoint and bully the smaller Kingdom peace keeping force. She wanted the shame of the beginning of the war to fall squarely on their shoulders. A grandmother hiding in a suit covered in long grass on top of a hill wasn’t about to be the person to fire the first shot. She was only here to test her nerve, and she had passed that test.
A smug smirk creeped across her face pale as the Utopians marched past her and towards Midpoint. Let them march and sing and celebrate their God for now. Soon enough they would be lying bleeding out on the battlefield pleading with their God. Begging Him to explain why He had let them die.
Their God hadn’t left them to die. He had done nothing. He didn’t exist.
Who is the character that's been in your head? Are they from a D&D campaign or some other role playing adventure? A recurring protagonist in short stories or a novel you're working on? What's their background? What is their goal? What's their family life like? What do they look like? Do they have super-human powers, if so what are they?
Horse 1- Color- Grey Jockey- Red with yellow X
Horse 2- Color- Brown Jockey- Green with black polka dots
Horse 3- Color- Black Jockey- Black with white diamond
Horse 4- Color- Brown Jockey- Pink and white checkerboard
Horse 5- Color- Red Jockey- Blue with a black X
Horse 6- Color- Grey Jockey- Red with yellow circle
Horse 7- Color- Black Jockey- White and green checkerboard
Horse 8- Color- White Jockey- Yellow with black polka dots.
And now the clues to help you put each horse in it's proper finishing order.
The sum of the top three horses numbers is 13
The sum of the last three horses is 14
Horse 1 beats horse 3 but loses to horse 2
Both the jockeys in checkerboard uniforms beat the jockeys with X’s.
Horse 8 finishes 5th.
One Black Horse finishes in the last three, the other finishes in the top 3.
Second place has a lower number than first place which has a lower number than third place.
The jockey wearing a diamond finishes one spot ahead of the jockey wearing a circle, but neither are in the top 3.
One of the jockeys with white on his uniform wins the race.
A grey horse finishes one spot ahead of the red horse.
Tengaged mail me your guess, if you're wrong don't worry, just keep guessing. I will let everyone know when somebody has gotten me the correct result, if this drags on to long (Like say 20 minutes.) I will post additional clues.
