Nothing

((So, hi. It's NaNoWriMo!! I'm usually very unsuccessful at this, so now I'm going to ask you all to PLEASE read and push me on so I actually complete this. o.o I have completion issues. Feel free to send me reviews over PM or Skype. DO NOT post in this thread please. Thank you guys for your support!!))


Chapter 1

This is a tale of death. A journey of sorts. A journey through Nothing. A journey I led them on. It’s a sad tale, but it’s still one that needs to be told.

We’ll begin with a view of a school. A lovely school, public and home to a population of about 1,500 high school students. This school is home to two very particular students.

If we venture out to the football field, we’ll meet 17 year old junior Michael Thomas. Popular and handsome with bright blond hair and sharp features with striking green eyes, he was the envy of most boys in school. He wasn't smart though, and he was failing most of his classes. It wasn't that he wasn't doing his work or trying his best, it was just that he was not intelligent at all. It stressed him out to the point where it was a miracle he was still on the football team and that he even was in his same grade and had yet to be held back.

But his beauty was only skin deep. He treated the entire school like they were peasants beneath his feet. He teased most of the nerds with his spawn of Satan girlfriend Mackenzie Ryland. He left a certain clique be for personal reasons, but he didn’t dare to stop Mackenzie from teasing this certain clique, due to his fear of women.

This clique was the film nerds. In this group of film nerds was a 16 year old sophomore girl who bore a striking resemblance to Michael. Her name was Melody Thomas, and she was a total contrast to Michael. Her hair was brown and curly with dark framed glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, and in her own right she was pretty as well. But her beauty ran through her more than her older brother, even if he acted differently at school. She was a bit more reserved and hit behind a wall of friends, but she was quirky when she was used to them. Often shrieks of laughter could be heard from her bedroom in the turret of an old home with her friends, obviously from the strange things she did with them. Sadly, no one in her family ever knew exactly what it was she did while she was in her room, because she said nothing to her parents and brother. Not anymore.

Their home life was polarized. Michael would sit on the couch with his parents and watch football games on Saturdays, trying to identify which coach would be best for his football scholarships. Meanwhile, Melody would sneak downstairs and take her brother’s backpack. Using her excellent skill of copying handwriting, she wrote in the font of her brother’s sloppy script to do his homework. Their parents never knew, but Michael did. He never mentioned it. She spent her mornings sleeping, afternoons with her friends and a camera, evenings in the turret typing away at her typewriter, doing some form of secret project after her homework was done. The only person who seemed to know was the boy who came by frequently but also never said a word to the jock boy in the house. Michael’s guess was a script of some form. Maybe it was something more.

Michael, the person with a car, would only speak to his sister on the weekends and in text messages no less. These text messages were unintelligible for Michael, as Melody used vocabulary beyond Michael’s knowledge. Her texts would tell him, after some translation from his parents, to come get her from some strange place in his pickup truck, as he was often requested to fetch her for dinner since he had the car and it was his responsibility. It was a different place every weekend. Two days would be spent filming something or other, ranging from a forest to a hospital. He never got the opportunity to inquire about whatever her project was, as she spent the car ride stone cold silent and blaring music on her iPod and tuning him out. It upset him slightly that he never talked to her, but he returned the silence. He interpreted silence as a punishment for teasing her friends, so he punished her for being nerdy to begin with.

The pair was on one of these excursions one weekend as they were driving down a dirt road from another one of Melody’s strange sets. This one was an abandoned cottage nestled in the woods. It was the beginning of the end of winter, and it was raining. Melody had her head pressed up against the freezing glass, her breath ghosting across it and leaving fog to hide the droplets behind it. She was staring into space again. Michael was staring at the road ahead of him.

It was very sudden and abrupt. The deer jumped across the road and Michael swerved left to avoid it. The truck slipped on the mud of the dirt trail and flipped over down the hill. The only sounds that could be heard were the crunching of metal and the screams of Melody and Michael.

Melody’s friends came running down the road to see what had happened to the battered pickup truck. The scene was a disaster. A scar had been carved down the hill along the path the truck had taken during the accident. The vehicle was upside down, with its wheels still spinning. Two of the stronger boys ran down to try and pull out the siblings while the only other girl of the group called 911.

The boys were not very successful. Melody’s side of the truck was crushed, as it was the first side to make impact. Michael was trapped in the cab, his legs caught beneath the rest of the car. The only things the boys could do were check for a pulse and wait for the paramedics to show up.

They waited for twenty minutes, and it was the slowest twenty minutes of their lives. Cops, firefighters, and paramedics arrived at the area, and for twenty more minutes, firefighters worked to get the pair out while policemen spoke to Melody’s friends to try and find out what happened. They were unhelpful and scared, and finally the siblings’ parents showed up to make things worse. Finally, they were retrieved from the truck and loaded into the ambulances. The Thomas family followed behind in their cars, driving slowly.

At the hospital, life saving work was being done on the brother and sister. Michael had suffered traumatic spinal injuries and had been pierced by glass all over his body. The steering wheel had rammed into his chest and had broken ribs, which punctured organs. The boy was bleeding internally and externally, and he had suffered brain damage to the point where he was in his own coma.

Melody’s entire right side was crushed underneath the weight of the car. Bones, muscles, scratches, everything was damaged. She was far worse than her brother was. Reconstruction was being attempted, but amputations were likely. She needed more blood just like her brother. Unfortunately, her blood would have to wait. The hospital was too low on her O- blood type, and the blood bank wasn’t going to be there for another two days. There was no way she’d be able to make it for that long if she wasn’t stable, so they treated her injuries as best as they could, and slipped her into a coma.

Their parents were distraught over everything that had happened. Their children were practically dead. Their intelligent and antisocial daughter and their brilliant and athletic son were now hooked up to tubes galore in hospital beds. There were high chances these two would not come out of their comas, even if the one was medically induced. Even if she did wake up, she would have a long and hard road ahead of her. Her son would have it worse most likely if he did wake up. In one flash, because of one creature being at the wrong time, the Thomas family was shattered.

The mother of the two children broke down after receiving news of their children’s treatment. The father left the room to get his own space, leaving the mother with a nurse. Once he was outside in the cold winter air, he started sobbing as well. It was the worst news a parent could hear. Ever. And they had heard it all in one night.

The tragedy of the Thomas family certainly is heartbreaking. It seems like it’s the end already. But it isn't. In fact, the tale is just beginning. But this journey does not take place in a hospital, nor does it even occur on Earth. It occurs in Nothing. These siblings have already suffered a great deal of pain, but their pain was about to get worse. This Nothing will be like nothing they had ever experienced. It’s why it’s called Nothing. Though my story has taken me through Nothing many times, Nothing is always different. No matter how many ways you think you know Nothing, Nothing surprises you and takes you even further into confusion. It isn't a pleasant feeling. Michael and Melody certainly felt no different. But still, their tale needs to be told so it may be remembered by everyone else except me. Their journey still weighs heavily on my mind and I intend to remove it. Let it be the burden of someone else that isn't me.

Chapter 2

Michael awoke in Nothing first. The boy sat up, rubbing the back of his head and looking around to find nothing but pure white walls. His body and clothes were unscathed here. It was like he was in a dream.

Lying next to Michael was his sister. Melody had yet to rise to consciousness, and she seemed so peaceful and beautiful when she was asleep like this. Almost like Snow White. But he would never be true love’s first kiss, because that would be gross, frowned upon in Western Society, and possibly illegal in most states except North Carolina and Alabama. Plus, Michael had never fully gotten over his cootie phase from elementary school, and he firmly believed that Melody was the cause of it all.
After several minutes of sitting and thinking about cooties, he finally stood up to start looking around while waiting for her to wake up. And after an unknown length of time, he wasn’t sure how long; she sat up with a gasp.

With wide and terrified eyes, Melody glanced left and right until she noticed Michael staring at her. “What are you looking at?” she snapped.

“I’m waiting for you to go brainy and tell me where the hell we are.”

“Does the obvious obnubilated look on my face tell you that I have no idea where we are?”

“Uh… what does obnub… obnible… whatever the word it is you said mean?”

“Oh yeah. I forgot you were an ignoramus. It means confused.”

“What does ignoramus mean?”

“Moron.”

“Are you calling me one or is that the definition?”

“Both.”

“Okay then.” Michael said with a sigh. He ran his fingers back through his already tousled golden hair.

“So, Short Bus, what do you remember?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember anything before you woke up here?” Melody finally stood up and glanced around the white space to see what was around. There was absolutely nothing but a vast expanse of whiteness.

“Not much. I had picked you up from one of your sets you were at with your nerdy friends, and then a deer jumped out of the trees, and I tried to avoid hitting it and I lost control…Oh my god. Mel, do you think we’re dead?”

“Okay. Three things. One, do not insult my friends in front of me. I already deal with enough of your harassment at school and I purposely avoid you at home to not deal with more of your harassment. Wherever we are, this counts as home, and that means no insulting my friends.

“Two, don’t call me Mel. You lost the rights to call me that name when you grew peach fuzz and started calling yourself a jock. You have yet to earn those rights back.

“Three, I don’t think we’re dead. Yet. This doesn’t look like Heaven or anything, nor does it look like Hell. Unless there’s some eldritch definitions floating around, at which point I don’t know if I’d call Heaven being with you or if you’d call Heaven being with me. This may be something else. Some alternate dimension thing. I don’t know.”

Melody’s words stabbed right at Michael’s heart. He had no idea his sister held so much disdain for him. It would be weird to call her Melody again. He hadn’t done it in… Well, he hadn’t done it at all. Not even when they weren’t speaking. Michael would always tell his parents he was going to pick Mel up from her sets. That Mel was up in her room. It was never Melody. Just Mel. However, he took it like a man but with a sad yet slight sigh.

“Alternate dimension? What do you mean?”

“I mean a separate entity that isn’t Earth, Heaven, or Hell.” Melody looked up at the ceiling to see more endless white. She tried jumping up to reach the ceiling, or attempt to see if there even was one, and failed miserably.

“Entity?”

“Location, area, thing, you get the idea.”

“Oh. But I thought there was only those three?”

“You thought wrong, as usual.” Answered Melody before starting to walk in one direction.
“Wait, where are you going?”

“Exploring. Might as well since it looks like we’re stuck here. Maybe we’ll find something. Or someone. You never know.”
“But we don’t know what’s going on!”

“Which is why we’re exploring!”

Michael gave another sigh. “When you’re lost you’re supposed to stay in one place, Melody. Mom and Dad always told us that when we are little.”

“Going nowhere gets you nowhere, and I’m not little anymore. If you want to stay, fine. Suit yourself. But I’m going, and that’s that.” Melody had her back to her brother, and you could tell she honestly did not care what her brother’s advice was. She wanted out of Nothing as much as anyone else ever did, even though she didn’t know she was in Nothing yet.
“But you’re still my little sister! I’m supposed to protect you!”

That set Melody off. She turned around, and glared at her brother. “Well that’s one hell of a job you’ve done so far!” she screamed at him before turning and walking even faster away from the boy who just now realized what he had said.

He came running up behind her. “Who said I’m staying behind?”

Melody picked up her pace. “Do what you want, don’t feel obligated to walk with me.”

“I’m doing it because I want to.”

“Prevarications! Go stay behind.”

“I don’t understand that word and I don’t want to.”

“It means lies. Now, go do what our parental units instructed us to do in our youth and sit down and wait for some nonexistent person to come find you. I’m sure you’ll have a great deal of success with that strategy!”

“And I’m sure you’ll be successful by walking around and making it harder to find you, Mel.”

“I thought I requested that you refrained from denoting me as such a name!”

“Stop using big words like that! You know I don’t understand them!” Michael threw his hands in the air in frustration and brought them through his hair yet again.

“I’m teaching you better vocabulary.”

“Prevati- privatic- Lies! You’re just trying to punish me more for letting my friends make fun of you at school!”
“Oh, you’re letting them?! That’s just a rich exculpation! It’s one of the best ones I’ve heard yet!”

“Excul…what?”

“Excuses, Michael, excuses.” said Melody with a sigh. She finally stopped, folded her arms across her chest, and sighed. “You say you’re letting them do it. But why haven’t you done a thing to stop it?”

“Mel, they’re my friends-“

“I’m your sister! I take a little more priority over them, don’t you think?!”

“Mel, it’s not like tha-“

“I don’t want to hear any more of it, Michael! You can stay behind for all I care! Go ahead! I guess I’m just your nerdy little sister, as usual!” screamed the girl, finally returning to storming away. “I hope I am dead, so I never have to see you again!” Her pace picked up to the point where she was running.

“Melody! Stop! Let me explain! Please!” shouted Michael in frustration. Melody was too far away by the time he was done for him to catch her. Running was one of the talents she didn’t like to use that much, but she easily bested her brother in that.

He fell to his knees, tears running down his face. He had alienated his sister when chances were they were all they had in this world. It was a dumb move on his part. Michael had no idea that Melody felt that way. He should have talked to her more, or stopped his friends from teasing her group of friends. Maybe then they wouldn’t be in this position right now.

Michael felt a ripple of energy on his left arm. He turned in the direction to find a white chair had spontaneously appeared. Confusion spread across his face, and he used the sleeve of his olive green khaki jacket to wipe his face before beginning to approach the chair.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.” said a male voice from behind him.

Michael whirled around to see a man with spiky black hair and a suit with a red tie smiling at him with his hands behind his back. “Who are you?” he asked.

“No one important. But you shouldn’t touch the chair. It’ll zap you to another area without your sister. You probably won’t find her again if you do.” said the man, cocking his head to the side.

“She doesn’t want me around anyway. She hates me.”

“Oh, I know Michael. Practically everyone in Nothing could hear you two screaming at each other! Are you two normally like that? If so, I feel terrible for your parents.”

“No, she hardly ever speaks to me at home.”

“Hm. Looks like she had a lot of pent up frustration. Then again, most women do! You won’t believe how often they yell at us guys. It’s seriously ridiculous. You’re better off without her. So, if that’s the case. Go ahead. Touch the chair if you want. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“But… you said I probably wouldn’t see her again.”

“At least, here in Nothing. If you two wake up in your world, then you’ll see her. But then again, maybe one of you will wake up. Maybe neither of you will wake up. Maybe you’ll both die and get thrown out of Nothing. I don’t know. I can’t see what’s going on up there.” the man said with a shrug.

“Wait, hold on… is this a dream?”

The man laughed. “You’re too cute, kid! Too cute! I can barely contain myself! Oh you think this is a dream! That’s a good one, kid!”

“So… it isn’t?”

“Of course it isn’t!” The man’s laughing expression turned to one of anger and frustration. He thought it was obvious this wasn’t a dream. “You’re in Nothing! Nothing, you dummy! Nothing!”

“What do you mean by nothing…?”

“I could practically hear your lack of capitalization. It’s Nothing with a capital N.”

“What’s Nothing?”

“Nothing can describe Nothing. It’s why it’s called Nothing. And you’re in it. So is your sister. And since you’re split up after your little tirade, well, you’re on your own in exploring it. I’m just one of the locals. You seem to be handling things pretty nicely, so I guess I’ll take my leave.” The man turned his back to Michael and began to walk away.

“Wait! Please don’t leave me alone!”

“Why?”

“I… I don’t want to be alone here and I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Kid, neither do I. I never know. Nothing always changes. This room won’t stay stable much longer, so you best sit in the chair and get going.”

“Will you come with me?” Michael pleaded.

“Hmmm…”

“Please, since I might never see my sister again.” He was begging now.

“Oh alright. Since you’re making those puppy dog eyes and I hate them so much. But you have to listen to everything I say because otherwise, you’ll be screwed.”

“Done.”

“Alright then. Have a seat, Michael.” The man lowered himself to where his bottom was hovering over the seat of the chair. Michael sat on his lap. The pair disappeared.

I watched it all as it went down, but said nothing the entire time. I’m not sure if Red Tie even knew I was there. But with this turn of events, I had to get to Melody before Red Tie did. I looked in the direction Melody had headed off in, and started running.

Chapter 3

Melody stopped running as soon as her brother was out of sight. She paused for several minutes to catch her breath and look around. Everything seemed to look the same. The place was awkwardly quiet too. It set her on edge. She liked quiet, but this was just too quiet.

It was here she felt the ripple of energy on her arm, and she looked to her left. There was now a pedestal with bright red flowers in a vase a few paces away from her. With curiosity evident on her face, she slowly approached the pedestal.

“That’s one of the transport items.” I said before she whirled around. She would see a man with spiky brown hair, a neck beard, and a brown suit with a blue tie.

“Who are you?”

"I’m here to be your guide. Your brother has one, and he’s not necessarily the greatest of guys. I’m not allowed to stop them though, because once a guide finds a newcomer here, they’re bound until the newcomer leaves or the guide dies. Either or. They’ve all happened before.” I answered.

“But what’s your name?”

“Whatever you want to call me.”

“Can I… can I call you Chuck?”

“Uh… sure I guess?” I shrugged.

“Okay then. Chuck. Where am I?” Melody asked me with a nod.

“You’re in Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing can describe Nothing, really. It always changes. I’m just the person here to help guide you through it. Although, I never fully understood the point of it because only one of the guides have seen all of Nothing and all of what it is capable of. That was hundreds of years ago though.”

“How can you help me if you haven’t seen it all?”

“Because I’m here to be your support, I guess?”

“I don’t need support.” snapped Melody.

“Obviously you do since I heard the nice screaming match you had with your brother.” I shrugged again.

“You heard that?”

“Of course I did. I thought you two would be interesting for guides, especially you. And given how… slow your brother is, he was easily taken advantage of by his new guide. I’m here to prevent you from falling to the same fate your brother will with Red Tie as his guide.”

“Is Red Tie seriously his name?”

“Like I said earlier, you call me whatever you want to. We do the same with him. Your brother’s probably going to name him something too.”

“Knowing him, it would be something like Jerry or Peyton. He loves football.” Melody looked sad again, thinking about her brother in an actually pleasant way. “Will I ever see him again?”

“Probably not in Nothing. Maybe when you wake up, if you wake up.” I said, wrapping one arm around her shoulder cautiously. I wasn’t sure if she’d like that.

Melody left my arm there. “Is this a dream?”

“No, it isn’t. It’s Nothing.”

“But what is Nothing?”

“Nothing. It can be anything or it can be nothing. You’ll have to touch the transport item to find out.” I gently moved her in the direction of the pedestal and vase.

“Will you come with me?”

“That’s my job, isn’t it?”

We reached the item in a few steps and we touched it together. We both felt a tugging sensation and then we were standing in a garden. The pedestal and vase were gone. “Ah. Hence why there were flowers.” I said as I was looking around. “But why were they red?”

“What do you mean?” Melody asked as she gazed around in wonder.

“Usually the items have some form of representation of where you’re going. The flowers are here for obvious reasons. The pedestal probably means something along the lines of being the garden of a rich person or something along those lines. But red… red here in Nothing is not usually a good color. Besides your clothes and mine, the only colors of transport items are red or white. White is good. Red, not so much. So why were the flowers red?”

All of a sudden, one of the flowers reached out and grabbed a bunny rabbit that had scampered into the path with its mouth before it started chewing and swallowed.

Melody looked terrified. “Is that why?”

“Yup. Run!” I said and grabbed her arm before running as fast as we could down the path. “We need to find another transport item to get us out of here.” I told her after a few minutes of running and dodging several flowers that lunged at us.

“Where would we find one?!” she asked, dodging another flower.

“Anywhere. They spontaneously appear at anytime. We can’t feel them, so you have to tell me when you feel the same sensation you felt when the vase appeared.”

Another flower jumped out at them, and this time, managed to grab Melody by the sleeve of her sweatshirt. She screamed as it yanked her toward its mouth, and she wriggled her way out of the sweatshirt to leave it to the monsters. This wasn’t good. She was getting tired, slowing down. We had to find a place to stop quickly so I could carry her. There had to be a good place. We couldn’t run forever.

Eventually we reached a clearing with a tea table and a fountain. The flowers weren’t lunging around here. I hopped into the water of the fountain in hopes of getting as close to the center as possible, just as a precaution since the flowers didn’t seem that long. “Get on my back. I’m carrying you.”

“Why should I?”

“You humans get tired too quickly. Get on because you’re slowing down and I can’t have you passing out on me.”

“Are you going to get me wet?”

“Does this look like the proper time to be worried about that?! If you get wet, you’ll dry off at some point. My pants are already soaked anyway!”

“Alright fine, I get it!” she snapped. I knelt down to give her an easier chance of getting on, and she hopped on obediently. Carrying her piggyback style now, I stepped out of the fountain and looked around the clearing. Flowers were attempting to snap at us, but we were just out of their reach. There were three paths leading out of it, not counting the one we entered through.

“Pick a direction.” I instructed.

“Go through the right one. I think I see something in that direction.” Melody squinted to try and see it. “Maybe a house? You did say it was a rich person’s garden.”

“Maybe. Sounds good. Let’s go.” I said, and started running down her selected path.

Somehow we managed to dodge more flowers until one got smart and threw a root out. The root wrapped itself around my ankle and yanked, causing me to fall over and drop Melody. She stood up, looking right at me as I struggled with an expression of fear. “Don’t just stand there!” I snapped as the root attempted to drag me into the bushes. “Help me!”

“How do you expect me to help, Chuck, when there’s nothing to help with?!” she asked, looking around wildly for something to cut the root or something with.

“You’re a creative person, Melody! Think of something!” I yelled at her.

Melody looked around at the ground. She found a rock, and made sure it was big enough before hurling it at the flower that was obviously holding me. It screamed in pain, but was distracted enough to loosen its grip on my ankle. I pried myself away from the root and scooped her up again before starting to run again. The house was close enough now to be defined as a house. Houses were good. They’d provide some safety for us from these demonic flowers.

After several more minutes and many more close calls, we finally reached the house. I hurried up the front steps with Melody and set her down on the porch before trying the handle of the door. It was locked. I pulled out from the front pocket of my suit a lock picking kit and pulled out one of the tools to begin picking the lock.

“Chuck! Someone could be in there!”

“Trust me. You won’t meet a single other person here besides your guide.” I said, just as the lock clicked and I opened up the door. “Stay behind me, just in case there’s something in here that could kill us. I can come back. You can’t.” I ushered her behind me and slowly entered the house. It was empty, thankfully, and covered in dust. Obviously this area hadn’t been visited in a long time. We entered a living room

“You have some explaining to do.” said Melody abruptly.

“What do you mean?” I sat down in a chair and offered her the couch. She accepted.

“First thing: How does this-“ She made wild gestures around the room to designate what she meant. “-even exist here in Nothing?”

“Everything can exist in Nothing. I can’t explain how because I don’t know how. Nothing can make anything.”

“That defies all laws of science.”

“But you’re not a science person, Melody. You’re a writer. Writers make things, utterly impossible things. You of all people would know.” I stared her down intently, like my ice blue eyes that matched my tie were bearing down on her. It made her nervous. I could see it cross her face.

“True.” She played with her hair a little before continuing. “You said I won’t see another person in Nothing. Does this mean I won’t see my brother again?”

I sighed sadly. “Probably not. Maybe when you wake up. If you wake up. You can stay here as long as you’re in your coma in your world. But when you wake up, you’re taken away. If they pull the plug on you or you die, you’re being taken away to go to the afterlife. I tell all of my companions that Nothing is the state that isn’t the Dream World, Heaven, Hell, or reality. It’s like Limbo almost. Only you don’t float. But Nothing can be many things, from a tropical paradise to your worst nightmare. I’ve seen them both. Both are terrifying.” I looked at my hands that were clasped together. So many companions, and they all left, never to return. I missed them all, especially Sarah. Sarah had named me Charles. I missed that name. I missed her.

“How is a tropical paradise terrifying?”

“Evil monsters rising from the sea.”

“Ah. Now, what happens if you die here?”

“You die in your world. The same thing keeping you alive here is what keeps you alive here. If one dies, you’re gone from Nothing forever.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“We wait for your transport item out of here. That’s also what Nothing is: The Waiting Room. If you’re not patient, learn it. It’s all that will keep you sane here.”

Chapter 4

After they had poofed out of the white area, Michael and Red Tie appeared in what appeared to be a dining room. The white chair was gone, and was replaced with mahogany chairs cut in the exact same way.

“We’re in a White Area.” Red Tie said to Michael as the boy looked around.

“What’s that?”

“Transport items usually tell people what kind of area they’re going to. White is good. Red isn’t the greatest. People usually die in the Red Areas.” said the man in the Red Tie.

“Okay, and what’s your name again?”

“Whatever it is you want to call me.”

"Uh… can I call you Brett?”

“Why Brett?”

“Brett Favre is one of my favorite football players. Ever. He’s just great.”

“Okay then. I don’t like being named after people, but whatever. I said name me whatever you want. Let’s go look around and see where we are.” Brett left the room, and Michael obediently followed.

From the dining room they entered a kitchen. Michael realized that he was very hungry, and wandered to the refrigerator. He pulled out a tub of bow tie pasta salad, and opened up several drawers until he found a fork.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Brett asked him as he began shoveling the food into his mouth.

“What? I’m hungry.”

“That food could be poisoned!”

“But you said this was a White Area. White Areas are safe, right?”

“Ugh… fine. Go ahead. Eat your fill.”

Michael shrugged and continued his eating. Between bites, he looked up at Brett and asked him a question. “Can you explain where we are exactly?” asked Michael innocently.

“Nothing. I told you earlier.”

“But how is all this here? How did this super delicious pasta salad get here?”

“It got here because Nothing made it. Nothing can make anything it wants.”

“So… it’s like it’s a living, breathing thing?”

“More like living, breathing nightmare, but okay. I guess you could put it that way.”

“What do you mean by nightmare?”

Brett approached Michael and looked him dead in the eyes, a hand on his shoulder. “People change here in Nothing, Michael. Nothing can make impossible things, and all Nothing wants to do is break you. Chances are you’re going to be broken. So will your obnoxious sister.”

“What does obnoxious mean?”

“Annoying. Now, any other questions?”

“Do you know if Mel is okay?” Michael had tears in his eyes, hoping she wasn’t hurt. It was his responsibility to look after her, even if she didn’t want it. Even if she wanted him to call her Melody, he’d still call her Mel. It was a nickname that had been around since he could speak. It never changed, no matter what.

“Nope.”

“Nope as in you don’t know or nope as in she isn’t okay?”

“I have no idea. But like I said, you probably aren’t going to see her again while she’s here in Nothing.”

“Why not?”

“People never see each other in Nothing. Nothing likes to prevent that.”

“But how can I see you?”

“Special case. I’m a guide. Guides can see everything. Guides are cool.”

“So… you’re here to guide me?”

“No, I’m here to drink tea and jump of cliffs with you. Of course I’m here to guide you! It’s why I have the title!” Brett snapped.

“Okay. I get it. No need to yell at me.”

“Apparently you’re too stupid to understand anything without yelling. I’m going to end up losing my voice before you leave.”

“I’m going to leave?”

“Everyone leaves.”

“How do you know?”

“They die, they wake up, something always happens. That something throws them out of Nothing and into wherever it is the circumstances send them.”

“What kinds of circumstances?”

“Anything that sends them to Heaven, Hell, or Reality?”

“So there is a Heaven? And a God?”

“No, I’m just humoring you and your silly religion.”

“My religion is not silly!”

“When you never die, there’s no need to worry about that kind of thing, kiddo.”

“So you’re an atheist?”

“No, I think religion is a stupid thing you humans like to kill each other over.”

“Um… I’m not sure how comfortable I feel doing this with you now.”

“Too bad. You’re stuck with me. The moment you sat on my lap to come to this area is when you were bound to me and I was bound to you.”

“How?”

“Magic.”

And at that moment, all Hell broke loose. Cannonballs started flying through the window, shattering the glass and lodging themselves in cabinets and walls. Brett threw Michael on the ground, covering him up with his body from the flying shards of glass and splinters of wood.

“I thought you said this was a safe zone!” shouted Michael.

“Nothing likes to lie sometimes!” screamed Brett back at him. The man shoved Michael towards the bottom of the window in an army crawl until they reached the gap of wall between the window and the floor. Brett peeked up to see what was outside. “It’s a bloody pirate ship!” he said, pulling himself down to avoid another cannonball.

“A pair of shit?”

“A PIRATE SHIP!”

“How are we going to avoid it?! How is it firing if there are no people we’re ever going to see?!”

“Because the people firing the cannons aren’t people! They’re probably monsters or something!”

“Do we have a plan?”

“Um…”

“You don’t have a plan?!”

“I’m better at improvising, okay?! Calm down!”

“Well, get started!”

“We can’t leave here until your transport item shows up. We’re going to have to do a lot of ducking and dodging to get to a better barricade. We have no way of firing back unless there’s something in the house.”

“Like the knives in the kitchen?”

“Unless you can get underwater and shove it in the bottom of the boat without getting shot, I extremely doubt it.”

“We’ll need to get around the house. Maybe we can find a gun or something.”

“Good luck with that.” Michael missed this, as he was crawling toward the visible stairway to go look for the guns. “I HOPE YOU DON’T GET SHOT!” Brett screamed after him as another cannonball blasted through right above his head. “Assholes.” he muttered.

Michael made it to the stairs, and he hurried up to the second floor. There were fewer holes poking through in this hallway, and he made his way into a fancy study. After sifting through a couple drawers in the desk, he found a pistol and a few rounds. He popped them in the holes where bullets were supposed to go in the movies, and rushed downstairs. He went at a low crawl again until he reached where Brett was.

“What a motherfucking miracle that was.” Brett observed.

“Language!” Michael snapped as he fired off two rounds at the belly of the ship. They hit the wood, causing it to splinter a bit, but nothing that would sink it. He had to try another plan.

The cannons. They were exposed. Maybe he could jam them. Even though he had no idea if one little bullet would stop a cannon, but it was worth a shot. Michael smiled to himself. Worth a shot.

Michael popped up over the window and aimed before firing into the middle cannon. It ended up exploding. “Now how did I manage that?” he asked, looking at Brett.

“I don’t know, but just keep doing it!” Brett shouted as Michael fired off another bullet at the second cannon. That one went up in flames as well. One more cannon. One more bullet. This last shot had to count. Michael took a careful aim before firing off the final shot.

It missed, hitting the operator of the cannon instead. Michael groaned and ducked back next to Brett.

“Any other bright ideas?!” Brett snapped at Michael.

Michael opened his mouth to respond when he felt the ripple of energy on his arm again. He looked in that direction to see a red journal lying on the ground a few feet away. “How about that transport item over there?” he asked.

“Grab it!” Brett shouted as he dove for the book. They both grabbed it together and disappeared.

Chapter 5

After what seemed like hours of waiting, Melody and I were given the gift of a transport item. This one was unlike any transport item I’ve ever seen in my travels as a guide. It was a blue fob watch.

“I thought you said transport items were white or red. What does blue mean?” Melody asked me as she stared at the watch. She knelt, looking it over but not touching it.

“I haven’t the faintest idea.” I answered, kneeling down next to her. “I’ve never seen a blue transport here in Nothing. Blue… what a strange color.”

“Your tie is blue.”

“But it isn’t a transport item.”

“Should we touch it?”

“I don’t think we have anything better to do.” And with that, I reached my hand out with her to touch the blue fob watch. The tugging sensation again, and we found ourselves in an expanse filled with clocks. A constant tick-tocking was constantly sounding through the room and it created a strange echo.

Melody looked at me, not sure what to say or do. I didn’t know what to tell her. So I simply shielded her, hiding her behind my back, and tread carefully with her hand in mine. She looked nervous, and I could feel her hand shaking. I would tell her not to be afraid, but even I was afraid. Some things can’t really be lied about.

Suddenly, Melody cried out, falling to her knees with her hands over her ears. “Melody! What’s wrong?” I asked her, bending down to her level. She was gritting her teeth and had her eyes closed tightly.

“The ticking… it’s so loud…” she stammered.

“Melody… they’ve been ticking at the same volume the whole time.” I said, suddenly very worried. I pulled her tightly to my chest, and scooped her up gently. Something was very, very wrong. I had to get Melody out of here. We had to get to another transport item and fast.

She curled up into a makeshift ball in my arms, like she was cold or something. I wanted to put my jacket on her and hopefully get her some protection or a feeling of it. But I had to keep moving, or else she’ll lose it.

“Make it stop… Chuck, please, make it stop!” she wailed, tears falling down her face.

“I don’t know how to help you, Melody. I’m trying to get us out of here.” I was trying my best to remain calm, but I’m sure she could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I’m not sure if that was all that reassuring.

“Please, Chuck, I’m begging you! Make it stop!” She suddenly felt the ripple of energy near her, and she opened her eyes. “Chuck… there was a transport item. I don’t know what it is. It’s… on your left.” Melody said as she looked in the direction of the item.

“I see it.” I told her. And I did see it. It was a white teapot. “Melody, you’re going to have to take one of your hands off of your ear so you can touch the transport item. It’ll be quick and it will stop. I promise. If it doesn’t, you can slap me.” I instructed, and gently removed her hand from her ear. Her face scrunched into a grimace as we both put our hands on the teapot.

The tugging sensation occurred again, and suddenly we were in a dome. A ceramic dome with a window that extended out a bit. Melody removed her hands from her ears, but she still looked shaken. I set her down gently and took off my suit jacket and draped it on her shoulders, then removed a handkerchief from a pocket. She accepted them with gratitude.

“I’m sorry.” She said, drying her eyes.

“Can you tell me what you heard?” I asked her, sitting down in front of her. I took her hands in mind and held them tightly.

“The ticking… It was so loud, and it started… changing. It changed into so many things. I heard my brother in there, I heard my parents screaming and crying, my friends crying too, it was all at me. They said… awful things. I don’t know. It’s all a blur now. But it was awful. We are not touching a blue transport item again.” Melody said, looking at me with troubled eyes. I hadn’t realized what color they were until they were practically piercing into my soul. They were a stormy gray. They provided an air of mystery, but with a silver tint of light. They were very hard to describe.

“I’m sorry.” I said. “I wish I could have helped more. But only one transport item shows up per person per land. If a blue one shows up, a blue one shows up. But there’s still a mystery on our hands. I don’t know what caused the blue item. Blue is something Nothing has never made before. This is bad. Something’s terribly wrong, and now we’re going to have to go investigate.”

“But what happens if I poof in the middle of our investigation?”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, if we get there. Right now, we need to figure out where we are. Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” I helped Melody stand up, and we looked up at the top of the dome. There was a ring of light at the top. “Um… Chuck? Are we… in a little teapot, short and stout?”

“There’s the handle, and there’s the spout.” I said, pointing at each.

“I’m getting steamed up, so I’m going to start shouting here soon if we don’t get out of here.” Melody froze as she realized exactly what it was that had just transpired. She then looked at me and grinned.

“What? What did we do?”

“We just had a Little Teapot moment.”

“I think the teapot is bigger than us.”

“You’re acting like a complete ignoramus, just like my brother.”

“Apologies.”

“Don’t be sorry. You’re trapped here for eternity.”

“It really isn’t that bad. You get used to people coming and going.”

“Do you miss them?”

“Sometimes. It depends on the person. But I wish I saw them again sometimes. You don’t forget your friends. At least, you shouldn’t. If you don’t, you’re a terrible friend.”

“Do you really remember them all?”

“I write it down. I have a room somewhere in Nothing I can teleport back to. I keep a journal with everything that happened. That way, I won’t forget no matter what. Now, stop talking about me. I’m going to give you a boost and I want you to push that lid off.” I instructed, and cupped my hands for her to step on. She obeyed, and after several minutes she finally shoved the lid off of the pot.

I pushed her up through the hole, and she lowered her hands to try and pull me up. After several minutes of struggling, fighting, and a swear or two, she managed to lug my significantly heavier (it’s all muscle, I’m not fat) body over the edge of the hole.

And sure enough, we were in a teapot, short and stout. And we were on a giant table for tea. There were several ceramic teapots, a few bowls of giant sugar cubes, and other tea related things.

“It’s just like Alice in Wonderland.” Melody said in awe.

“I don’t understand that reference.”

“It’s a book that someone wrote hundreds of years ago in my world that was written while that person was under the influence.”

“Influence of what?”

“Some form of hallucinogen. I think that’s what I read.”

“It’s a weird book. A good one, but it’s very bizarre.”

“Do you ingest these… hallucinogens?”

“No. Never had any form of desire to. They can befoul your brain. Oftentimes for the worse.”
“I see.” I said, and slid down the belly of the teapot. Melody slid down as well, and we started walking. As we trudged through the obstacle course that was this giant table of tea, Melody’s stomach growled. I helped her take a chunk off of a cookie for her to munch on as we continued on, and that made it so we walked in silence.

After several hours and long after she finished the cookie, I heard a clap of thunder overhead and immediately looked up. The sky was dark and ominous, and looked like it was ready to split open and begin dumping water on us at any second. I looked around to see if there was another teapot, but we had reached a part where it was all food. “Melody, find another teapot we both fit in. We’re too small to survive the storm. One splash at a wrong place could wash us off the table, and then we really have problems.” I instructed, and she nodded before heading off to go find a teapot in one section of the buffet. I searched the other half as the rain finally begain.

It was her who found the teapot first. “Chuck! Over here!” she called out, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of pouring rain. I couldn’t hear her, but I realized that I shouldn’t have left her alone like that. I hadn’t foreseen that we would be faced with this issue. My explorations were fruitless, and I went to go find Melody before she fell off the table somehow.

It was really hard to see through the rain. Thankfully, the girl was smart and kept shouting about the teapot I asked her to find. And soon, I heard her voice, and hurried in the direction it was coming from.

But just as soon as I got there, water splashed down on the table and knocked her backward, leaving her dangerously close to the edge. I quickly grabbed her hand, and gave her a boost to the top of the pot. I kept hoping the entire time she didn’t lose her grip on the slippery ceramic, and luckily she got to the top and opened the lid. With her feet half hanging into the pot, she helped me get up, and I pulled the lid on before finally letting myself drop to the floor. There was a puddle of water, and we were both soaked to the skin. But we were alive.

Melody tugged my sleeve. “Look. There’s a transport item in the spout of the kettle.” She said, pointing into the small tube. It was a blue fountain pen. When she saw the color, she looked terrified. “Do we have to go?”

“I’m sorry, Melody. We have no other choice.” I said grimly before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Together, we grabbed the pen and disappeared.

Chapter 6

The red book had brought Brett and Michael to a library lined with old books and mahogany shelves. It smelled like dust combined with paper, and Michael coughed. It was overwhelming. Brett looked around. “That book was red.”

“Isn’t red not good?”

“Exactly. Now, what makes this place red?”

“Maybe it was another mistake. Like the last one.”

“Nothing doesn’t like to make the same mistake twice. I don’t think we’ll get another glitch like that again.” Brett pulled out one of the books and opened it up. The book yanked itself out of his hands, and beat him over the head. “Ow!” he shouted, rubbing the sore spot.

“Is that it?”

“Maybe. Seems more like a pink to me, a book bashing you over the head. Am I bleeding?”

“It hit you with the flat end.”

“Oh. But still, it freaking hurt!”

“Have you ever played football?”

“What?”

“Have you played—“

“No, I got your question, but I don’t know what football is.”

“It’s a game in my world. You try and get this ball in an end zone and it’s really fun.”

“Oh! Handegg!”

“What?”

“Balls are spheres. That game you call football barely uses your feet, the ball isn’t a ball, and the name has been claimed by a sport you Americans call soccer. Really, you’re playing handegg.”

“Why the hell would you make it sound so demeaning?”

“Ohoho! Look at you with the fancy vocabulary!”

“Mel taught it to me. It’s the only one I remember. But you didn’t answer my question.”

“Would you rather I say rugby for wimps?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Handegg players have more padding.”

“Ugh, I’m done with this conversation. Let’s go look around.” Michael gave up, and started down one of the rows of shelves.

“Fine. But don’t touch any more books, Michael!” Brett instructed, and followed him.

They walked for several minutes, Michael examining the spines of the books and seeing what titles were demonically possessed. He recognized a few of them. They were books he was supposed to read for English class, like The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. Melody would read the chapters and write some notes on them for him for reading quizzes. They would be in his binder, with his handwriting perfectly copied, and he would read over them and take the quizzes. Somehow, he passed them.

Michael kept looking the books over until he reached a wooden door. He turned around to ask Brett if he should go in, only to discover they had been separated. With a deep breath to summon his courage, Michael went in despite the lack of advice from his friend.

What he entered in to was a dark room with bookshelves in the middle. Some were new, others were gathering dust. He found a light switch on the wall next to the door, and a dim lamp flickered on. Michael wandered along the outer aisle of the shelves, looking at these new, unmarked spines. Despite Brett’s warning, he pulled one of the newer ones out of the bookshelf.

On the cover was a name.

Melody Thomas.

Michael nearly dropped the book. It could only be a coincidence. That’s it. There were 207 Melody Thomases in the world; he remembered the number because he had seen a link on Facebook one time and checked. The name stuck to show that Melody truly was a unique flower. A rare person floating through the crowd. Michael had a pedestrian name with 10,949 of them. He had never revealed any of these figures to her.

He still had to check and see. He had to make sure that this Melody Thomas was among the other 206. The 206 that would never be the true Melody. So, he opened the book.

The book had a date as the first word. 11/2/97. Melody’s birthday.

Michael skimmed through the rest, until he reached the accident. Then the words started twisting and turning all over the page, making intricate designs and continuing on for several dozen pages. It was legible words at first, and then it turned into the words a monkey would make when bashing a keyboard. None of it made sense.

He flipped a few pages further back toward the very last page. Just as he was about to start skimming the end, the book was smacked out of his hands. Michael looked up to see Brett standing in front of him with a glare on his face. “I told you not to touch.” he said coldly.

“I had to see the ending of Melody’s book—“

“I said to touch nothing! You could get us killed now! And you should never read the ending of someone’s book, because you have to live it first!” Brett cut him off, slapping him now.

“I’m sorry!”

“Sorry won’t save our butts!” As if on cue, the room began to shake. The bookshelves toppled over, sending the books scattering on the floor. Brett shoved a frozen Michael out the door of the room and into the main room. This room was shaking too, and finally the bookshelves started falling like dominoes. Books were flying everywhere, some possessed by demons, others by gravity and inertia. The ones possessed by demons paused when they sensed Michael and Brett, and began to fly at them. Their intentions did not seem to be the greatest.

Brett sensed it, and immediately they started running in the opposite direction. The books followed anyway, flying together like a flock of geese ever so gracefully. Michael had never realized evil could be so cool.

The books were quickly gaining on them. Brett had the idea to shove Michael to the side to save him while the books finally reached them and ganged up on the man in the red tie. Brett started shouting and thrashing, until finally the books finished their work and turned to Michael. He pulled out his lighter from the weed he liked to smoke on occasion, a habit that made Melody scrunch her nose with disgust, and held it up threateningly. The books backed away slightly. Michael cracked a grin, and held it up as he side stepped over to Brett, heaving the unconscious man on his shoulders.

As he was trying to figure something out on what to do next, Michael felt the familiar ripple of energy that was a transport item. He quickly took Brett’s limp hand in a position where they could both touch the blue candle, and dove for it. They both disappeared, leaving the books dazed and confused.

Chapter 7

Almost immediately as we found ourselves in the next blue area with the pen, Melody put her hands over her ears, not out of pain, but out of the fear of it. Melody’s experience with the blue had made me wonder if her older brother had encountered any of the blue items yet. And it made me wonder what his experience would be like. I wondered how Red Tie was treating him. Michael was the other side of Melody’s coin, and I couldn’t see it because it was super glued to the ground, impossible to pry up and look at. Despite the thoughts racing through my head, I pulled Melody close to protect her from anything as I looked around.

We were in a white hallway. On either side of us was a long shelf that stretched endlessly down it. This shelf had a single, neat row of pens lining the middle of it. These pens were of myriad colors and styles, some fountain, some gel, some ballpoint, and in every color imaginable.

Melody wasn’t screaming now. In fact, despite being white as a sheet, Melody removed her hands.

“Are you hearing anything?” I asked her gently.

“No, I’m not.” Melody looked around. “No, actually, I feel fine. Despite being soaking wet.”

“Ah. Um…” I said, looking her over. She already was wearing my coat, and she was drenched. I had to get her out of those wet clothes, but then there was nothing to cover her up with. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you.” I said sadly and somewhat embarrassingly.

“No, it’s fine. It’s kind of warm in here anyway, so it’s okay.” The girl really was a trooper. It was great of her to shrug it all off like this.

“Okay. If you say so. Let me know if you get cold.”

Melody did not answer, as her gaze was transfixed on the wall. I followed her gaze to elegant black writing on the wall that was not there when I looked at it last. Melody’s complexion, which had been beginning to return to normal, went white again. I think I did too, but there was no way I could really tell.

It wasn’t that the writing had appeared had shocked us.

It wasn’t that the writing even existed that had has frozen in place.

It was the words written that sent shivers down our spine.

Melody Christine Thomas. Come talk to me.

I looked at Melody again. “Is that your middle name?” I asked.

Melody nodded. “How do I talk to it? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but this is freaky. No one has ever mentioned this.”

“Would they have mentioned this?”

“Absolutely. We’re required to tell everyone about the places we go when we don’t have companions. It helps keep the others safe. There’s a huge book of worlds that gets passed along to people and they fill it in with their adventures.”

“That sounds like a book I’d like to read.”

“Most humans do. But no one ever does. So, I suggest you start talking to it so you can help me fill this book out when you leave.”

Melody nodded again, and stepped forward. “What would you like to talk about?” she asked aloud. There were several minutes of silence as the walls made no answer. She looked at me again, and I shrugged. She waited again for several minutes until she finally gave up and slumped on the ground in defeat.

“Melody, it’s fine. You tried.” I said, squatting so I could see her properly.

“No it isn’t. We’re going to be stuck here for ages.”

“No, we won’t. We’ll find a way out of here. You’re a creative girl. Think creatively.” I told her. I lifted her chin to look into her eyes, and realized she looked tired. We’d been running almost constantly. I never needed sleep, but then I remembered she was human. Even if this was her consciousness trapped here, she still needed sustenance.

Melody pulled her head away, and closed her eyes. I thought she was going to sleep, and so I let her use my arm as a pillow. For a few minutes, I just looked at the wall, wondering if it would do something else. Then she startled me as she shot up and grabbed a pen from the shelf. With a black fountain pen, she used elegant handwriting, handwriting that looked like it shouldn’t have been used by a person of her age.

What is it you want?

I waited in anticipation until finally more marks appeared on the wall.

It’s about time you replied. I figured this method of communication was far more effective than the previous one I employed.

Melody hesitated before answering. “Was it you I heard?”

Yes.

“Why do you want to talk to me?”

I just thought I’d let you know I’m going to kill you.

If it was possible for a human to become paler than white, Melody achieved it easily. I grabbed a pen myself, and angrily scratched out “No you aren’t.”

In retaliation, the room sent me coughing up blood on the floor. I could barely breathe. “Chuck!” Melody screamed, and quickly scratched out “Stop, please! Don’t hurt him!”

It stopped, and I fell over unconscious. Melody would tell me later what happened after it. Impudent little guide. He’s already on the verge of getting thrown out of here already by me. Now then, Melody. I want to tell you that I’m dying. I’ve already been getting weak, messing things up. I did that with your brother earlier.

“You what?! What did you do to Michael?”

Sent him to a Red Zone with a white transport item. He’s fine. I’m going to speak to him next.

“What about?”

I won’t be telling him any of this conversation and vice versa. I firmly suggest you not ask.

“Why are you going to kill me?”

You’re going to be my food. You or your brother. One of the two.

“Why us?”

Wrong place, wrong time. But if you don’t die, I will collapse.

“What are you?”

Nothing.

“Nothing as in the place Nothing or literally nothing?”

The place. The very place you are standing in right now.

Melody turned and looked at me out of habit despite my unconsciousness, looking for advice, but since I was kind of, sort of, not able to do that, she turned back.

“And if I say absolutely not?”

That’s not an option.

“It’s always an option.”

Not this time.

“Don’t say no to me. You have no control over me.”

Would you like me to make your life here total Hell?

“Go ahead. Try me.”

If that’s what you wish. Your guide will go first.

It was here where I actually felt myself doing something. Melody told me that it looked like I was having a seizure, convulsing and coughing up more blood. She rushed to my side, trying to calm me down or keep me from hurting myself somehow. Sadly, she had no medical training and no idea what was happening. She did try pinning me down, and soon, I stilled, seeming to be dead.

“No… No, please. Chuck! Chuck, wake up! Tell me you’re not dead or something!” she repeated, shaking me now. With tears in her eyes after that didn’t work, she took the pen up and wrote on the wall some more. “Bring him back. Bring him back right now.”

No.

“Don’t say no to me!”

No is always an option.

She was frustrated now. Nothing had turned her words against her. “Will I get him back?”

Her answer was my body disappearing. She broke down sobbing over where it was, now feeling totally and completely alone. “He hadn’t lied. He said Nothing would be my worst nightmare. Nothing knows how to play with my fears, and my greatest fear is being left completely alone. Nothing, you are a total bastard, and I will never die for you. Not after all you’ve been doing. For all I care, you can rot in Hell. I hope you do collapse, so you don’t torture anyone like you have me and probably my brother. No matter how much I hate him, you don’t torture my family. Now, take me out of here and bring Chuck back to me!”

There was no answer, only the ripple of energy that meant a transport item had arrived. Melody looked over to see a red violin on the ground. With tears in her eyes, she looked around one more time, and stood up. A touch of the violin made her disappear.

Chapter 8

Michael appeared with a still unconscious Brett in a darker room, dimly lit with candles. The smell of incense was everywhere, and he wrinkled his nose. The boy leaned his guide up against a wall, hoping for him to wake up, and looked around. Michael, still being a bit slow when it came to logic, had no idea what to do with all of this stuff, so he took a seat in the center of the circle created by the candles.

After several minutes of waiting, he heard a voice in his head. At least, he interpreted it as a voice. It was more like the words were just appearing in his head, being written out as if on a laptop screen. “Michael Alexander Thomas. How are you today?”

Michael’s gaze moved from his knees, which were hugged against his chest, to a wall. It looked like he was staring into space. “Who are you?”

“It’s not a matter of whom; it’s a matter of what. I am Nothing.”

“What do you mean, Nothing?”

“The place, Nothing. Where you’re sitting.”

“How are you talking to me?”

“You can actually hear me, unlike your sister.”

“You talked to my sister? Is she okay?”

“She’s fabulous, until I start breaking her.”

“Why the hell would you do that?”

“She said no.”

“No to what?”

“I’m going to kill her.”

“No, you aren’t.” Michael was getting really angry now. He was still very bent on protecting his sister, even if he hasn’t seen her in what felt like ever. It made him wonder for a moment: how long had he been stuck here? How long had it been since Melody had stormed away from him in fury? What was she thinking now? Did she miss him?

“No, she doesn’t miss you at all.” The voice answered.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“I can see everything in your head. I know about that party you threw when your parents were out of town. I know you locked your sister in the turret while you were at that party without her cell phone so she couldn’t call your parents, even though you knew full well she wouldn’t call them and tell. I know how bad of a brother you are to her. I’m surprised you’re so defensive here. You know she doesn’t want you to defend her, even after all you’ve done. But you know what she’s done for you? She’s been even meaner. She’s called you a moron repeatedly, tortured you with words you don’t know. She’s made fun of your favorite football players and let you fail your tests and quizzes even if she does your homework for you. She’s said that she’d rather you die instead of her.”

“No. She’s nicer than that, I know it.” Michael didn’t want to believe it.

“You know what she does all day in her room? She’s planning on ways to get back at you for all the cruel things you do to her at school. These ways are ways that could maybe kill you. Then she’s planning on ways to get away with it. She doesn’t care about you. She hates you. Wouldn’t it be great if you were the only child your parents paid attention to? That Melody was maybe… out of the picture?”

“Out of the picture how?”

“We’ll figure that out. All you have to do is follow everything I say to the letter. Just trust me. I’ll make it so your life is twenty times better. You will be rewarded so immensely.”

“What does immensely mean?”

“Greatly.”

“Ooo. I like rewards.”

“I know you do. What is it you want? Brains? Riches? Love? I can give it all to you. And more.”

“I’d like to be smarter. Smarter sounds nice.”

“I know it does. But like I said. You have to listen to every word I say. You have to help me, Michael. I’m dying. I need you to help me. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to give you a transport item, and then I’m going to give you instructions in each place I send you. You’ll receive them through your guide, as I’m going to take over his mind. I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“Okay.”

And right after that one individual word was said, thick, black smoke gathered in the rafters of the room. It hung over Michael’s head for several moments for gathering and flowing rapidly into Brett’s left ear. His injuries healed, and his eyes opened. Originally, they were an almond color, and now they were deep black. He cocked his head with a toothy grin. “Are you ready to go, Michael?”

Michael nodded. “Take me wherever you want.”

“Excellent. So cooperative.” He raised his hand, and a silvery wine bottle appeared on the ground before them. Brett picked it up, not disappearing magically.

Michael hesitated a little. “Can I still call you Brett?”

“No. You will refer to me as Master.” Brett retorted.

“Alright then… Master.” Michael didn’t like the way the word rolled off his tongue. But he wanted to be smart. He didn’t want to get killed either. It was best to roll with it for now.

“Magnificent. Oh, I do love this body. Simply glorious. Your little friend is a handsome man. You are too.” Master turned and smiled at Michael, with a quick yet flirty wink.

Michael looked mildly terrified. “Oh. Um. Okay. Thanks. Can we just… go now?” he stammered as he stared down the silver bottle. “Where is that going to take us? What kind of zone does silver take us to?”

“It’s the same as white. Don’t worry. As long as you’re with me, you’ll be an all-white person. I won’t take you to red zones. None of what we need is in them anyway. Now, you were requesting to leave? Pip pip, cheerio. Allons-y. Vamonos.” Master urged, gesturing over for Michael to stand in front of him. Michael obediently did so, and touched the bottle. The pair both disappeared.

Chapter 9

Melody’s red violin brought her to a stage. A theater, red curtains and all, with empty seats before her. The show hadn’t started yet. As soon as she landed, she sank to her knees with her face in her hands. Chuck had died because of her stubbornness. She should have just agreed and moved on. She should have stopped Nothing from killing him. It was a stupid, stupid move on her part to let him take the beating for her actions, and now she’d spend the rest of her life with the guilt. Even if he was just a thread in the fabric of space and time, in a dimension that wasn’t even supposed to exist, he was still important. Melody had a firm belief that everyone in the universe was important for some reason. It wasn’t a religious reason, but she constantly thought that everyone was going to do something great in their lives. And once that great thing happens, they could die in peace. That greatness couldn’t be judged by others though. It had to be judged by the person themselves; otherwise it would never be enough. She hoped dearly that Chuck had done something he considered great. She thought he was great, but she hoped Chuck was above thinking about what others thought of him. He seemed like the type that would think less of other people’s opinions and more of his own opinion of himself. Those were the important ones.

She had no idea where to go from here though. Without Chuck, she had no guide through this nightmare that was Nothing. But then again, even she and Chuck were sort of wandering through the dark. At least Chuck had that nifty book memorized, so he had a somewhat idea of what he was doing. He was used to the unpredictability of Nothing. She wasn’t. Even if there was no way of determining what was happening, it was better than going through this alone. The loneliness was getting to her now. It made her wish she hadn’t split up from her brother.

A hand touched her shoulder, and immediately she looked up, expecting Chuck.

It wasn’t.

In fact, this thing didn’t look human. It looked more like a little troll. It was a bald little thing that appeared to be male, and was a brownish green, like diarrhea. Crooked teeth were dominant in its concerned mouth, half hidden by its huge nose. It wore a green shirt and brown pants that were dirty and shredded. “What’re you doin’ here?” it asked, a strange accent that sounded like Cockney.

“I was poofed here. There was a red violin.”

“Well, best you get off the bloody stage before the cast comes on, ‘cause they might think you’re the criminal!”

“What?”

“The show’s an execution! They bloody torture you to death!”

“Why?”

“Punishment!”

“No, why do they watch it?”

“Torturing people is fun, lass!”

“No it isn’t. Eighth Amendment.”

“Wut’s tha’?”

“Cruel and unusual punishment. It’s illegal where I come from.”

“Oi! We don’t have none of that here! I suggest you stop thinking that and get off the stage!” The troll was getting frustrated now, and started pushing and shoving her shoulder and slapping her in the face. The rough hands it had made it so it was like being smacked with sandpaper, and left a scratch across her cheek.


“Ow! What the hell?!” she snapped, smacking the little troll back. It went flying into the curtain.

“Fine, that’s one hell of a thank you! I was just trying to save your bleedin’ life!” It screamed at her, and stormed off.

Melody frowned, and finally forced herself to get up to jump from the stage into the orchestra pit. There she found stairs into where the audience sat. She sat down in the middle row, curious as to what would happen.

It was about an hour’s wait for the orchestra to come out and start tuning their instruments. Strange creatures were filing in, more trolls like the one that had slapped her. Some were wearing way too much makeup that did nothing to improve their looks, others were completely naked. One of said nude trolls sat down next to her. It had terrible body odor, and she wanted to puke. She pulled as much away as she could without leaving her seat, and it was still so prevalent in the air. She wondered how long it would take to torture whatever criminal they had to death. Hopefully, it would be quick.

The orchestra started that familiar A note, demonstrating that the show was about to begin. Everyone hushed, and the curtains were drawn. They revealed a table, standing upright, with a naked guy strapped to it, straps covering the bits people shouldn’t see. A human one. Tables were nearby with strange instruments of pain, glistening in the spotlights.

Melody gasped. She had to do something.

The audience applauded, excited for the show to begin, especially as another troll thing, this one in much more extravagant makeup, waltzed out to the table, grinning wickedly. Already, Melody was pulling herself out of the row where she was trapped in. As soon as she reached the side, she started running up the long aisle to the stage.

The audience gasped as she ran up the stairs and grabbed one of the instruments, the sharpest she could get. The guy’s eyes widened, shocked at the appearance of another human, and thinking that she was going to be the one to torture him first.

He was wrong.

With the sharp thing that looked like a knife, she sawed at the thick leather straps at his wrists and ankles, then the one covering his mouth. She had no idea why that was there; she assumed the audience, who was now watching in horror, loved a good scream. It would have probably come off had she let the show continue, but there was no time to dwell on it. Melody handed the knife to the guy to let him saw off the strap covering his male parts, as that would have been awkward for her and she was known to be a bit of a prude, and he quickly finished it off.

By now, the cast was getting pissed, grabbing the other sharp tools to try and get her and kill her since she had set the star free. Then she would be the star of her own show. Melody, thinking quickly, shoved the cart into the pit. Some screams were heard from the orchestra, but there was no time to think on that either. There was only time to act on impulse and quick choices.

A rippling of energy on her left made her head snap in that direction. A red lucky cat. “Exit stage left!” Melody shouted at the guy, and they each dove for it, miraculously touching it at the same time. They both disappeared.

Their reappearance was in a Chinese temple. Candles were everywhere, and it looked like a peaceful little spot.

“That was bloody brilliant!” the guy said suddenly in a British accent.

Melody couldn’t help but laugh in relief as she lay herself down on the cold marble floor of the temple. “Yeah, it kind of was.”

“I thought I wouldn’t see another human here!!” he laughed with her and leaned against one of the walls. “The name’s Max. Max Carsten. What’s your name, o brilliant one?”

“Melody Thomas. Where’s your guide?”

“Guide? What’s that?”

Mel immediately sat up. “You didn’t get one? I thought everyone did. Even my anserine brother got one.”

“You know that word too?”

“Sweetie, I know a lot of words.” Melody grinned wickedly.

“Pomander?”

“A mixture of nicely smelling things. Defenestrate?”

“To throw out a window. Eldritch?”

“Weird!” Melody was elated. It felt like ages since she had had a friend who was even competent with their vocabulary. “What are you in here for?”

“I got shot by some hoodlum who robbed a store while I was in it. Severe brain damage. Yourself?”

“My brother and I were in a car crash.”
“Ouch. Were you here together?”

“For a little bit. He infuriated me and so we split up.”

“I believe that wasn’t a wise decision.”

“Neither do I. I felt really lonely, since Nothing killed my guide and my brother is off God knows where.”

“What’s this guide thing you keep speaking of? I never got one.”

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t have. But they’re basically special and powerful residents of Nothing who help the people who come to Nothing.”

“Wow. Sounds like you got lucky.”

“Except I’m marked for oblivion in Nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing wants me to die. It wants me to be its food. It’s dying and it needs me. Not sure why me, but it needs me.” Melody sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. “It’s why Nothing killed my guide. To get me to submit and become its nourishment. It may use my brother next. He’s certainly a big enough blockhead.”

“I’m sorry.” Max crawled over and rubbed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

“Okay, that is really awkward when you’re naked like that.” She removed her sweatshirt and handed it to him. “Please put this on. Cover yourself.”

Max obliged, and tied it around his waist. “Sorry, my clothes were taken from me by those troll things.”

“I’m aware, I don’t care, just put the jacket on. Why were those troll things after you anyway? What’d you do?”

“I got caught taking some food from them. I was starving.”

“That was stupid. They got that mad over food?”

Max laughed. “You’d be surprised.”

Melody remembered that the transport item was red. That meant some form of danger was coming. But right now, all she really cared about was resting up a bit. She had a friend now. She wasn’t alone, at least for the moment. Sadly, he was in danger being around her, and surely Nothing would use him against her. If she were Nothing, she would. But that didn’t matter now. For right now, it was all okay, and she had saved a life if only temporarily.