Chapter 19 #2
“You—” I try to talk to him, try to reach for him, but my arms are heavy, my voice gone.
It’s almost as if I’m having an out-of-body experience. I try once more to call his name, concentrating as hard as I can, but if I’m speaking, I can’t hear my own voice.
I see his concerned expression, but it fades. The entire room around me disappears until I’m standing in pitch blackness, far away from my house, far away from Farnsworth.
I look around, my heart racing. Where am I, and how did I get here?
“Farnsworth should have warned you.”
I spin around at the sound of the male voice behind me. It’s the same man who was just in my living room.
“What did—how did this happen?”
“Oh, I took over your body. Hope you don’t mind. It’s really far more convenient for me, and the only way for Farnsworth to kill me is to kill you. So, I think I’m going to stick around for a little while.”
“You possessed me?”
The Horror chuckles. “We can call it that. Think of it more like borrowing.”
“You let me go. Now.”
“Why would I do that? It’s advantageous for me not to. Now, if Farnsworth had just minded his own business and left me to my own devices, none of this would be happening.”
“You know the rules. You don’t belong up here with the living. You died a long time ago.”
“Yes, well, you died too, and you’re here.”
“That’s different.”
“No, it’s not.” His voice turns cold. “It’s only different because they want the rules to be different for them. But why not for me? Maybe I wasn’t finished living yet, either. Have you ever thought about that?”
“That’s not the point. You did bad things, you have to pay for that. I have a job to do, and I’m going to do it.”
“Pray tell, how will you do that? I assume you didn’t read in the handbook about what to do in the event that a Horror takes over. By the way, doing anything hasty is an excellent way to get yourself caught in the Below, so think carefully before you act.”
Shit, shit, shit.
I strain to remember everything I read, and after a minute, I do recall that this was one of the situations where banishment could lead to my own death. It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to react to it.
“He really should have warned you,” the Horror continues. “He was too distracted paying attention to me to even notice what I was doing to you. But you know, he was distracted the first time he came across me too. That’s how I was able to get past him.”
“What do you mean? You didn’t get past him? He banished you.”
“Is that so? Then how is it that we’re all here in the Above having a nice chat?”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “Could you just be clear and stop talking in circles?”
Suddenly the thing is before me, gripping the collar of my shirt, leaning close to my face.
It has no scent, no smell of sulfur, nothing at all to indicate what it is, which is not like what I read, but I realize it might have something to do with the fact that he’s basically taken over my body.
“Listen to me. I made a plan years before my death to ensure my immortality and my bond to this place. I made sure I would return. All I needed was somebody to wake me up, and they did. Now that I’m awake, I’m not going back to sleep.
I’m going to live in your body and do all the things I missed out on thanks to my untimely demise. ”
“Yeah, no, that’s not gonna happen.”
“There’s really nothing you can do about it.”
“There’s something Farnsworth can do about it, and he will.”
“No, he can’t. Not this time. He’ll never find the witch.”
A bit of panic spreads through me, but I vaguely remember something from the handbook, something about how tricky Horrors can be and how they lie.
I decide then and there that I’m not going to believe anything he tells me, but still, he gave me a clue, and I should follow it.
“What witch?”
“The witch who woke me. He’s a descendant of the original witch who cast the spell and allowed my soul to embody these objects. I will admit, I’m a tad surprised you found them all so easily, but Farnsworth has always been astute, if nothing else.”
Okay, this actually makes sense. It might be the truth. “What’s in it for the witch?”
“Power. Once I’m able to take over the province, I’ll grant him anything he desires.”
“Take over the province? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know the name of it anymore, but I’ll rise to power in this region, destroy anyone who gets in my way, and then I will rule.”
His meaning sinks in and I actually laugh. A full belly laugh, too. “Dude. What year do you think it is?”
The Horror looks annoyed and even slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know how long I was asleep. I suspect it was quite a few years.”
“Yeah, like, five hundred.”
“What?”
“There’s no provinces in this country. You can’t take over and rule. It isn’t Renaissance Europe.”
“No, this is the New World.”
“Yeah, no one calls it that anymore, since it’s been around for about two hundred and fifty years.”
“Two hundred and…” The Horror turns away for a moment before swinging around again to face me. “You’re lying. The witch woke me for a reason. His instructions were to wake me up at an opportune time for me.”
“Maybe he got it wrong or maybe he had another reason. Trying to take over the government in this country will get you shot. Also, it’s pretty impossible for one person to pull off.”
The Horror looks completely annoyed now. “Just the same, I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. It won’t reflect well on Farnsworth if he lets his new Chaser get possessed and die, so eventually he’ll have to give up when he realizes I’m not letting you go.”
“Yeah, the fuck you’re not. If you think I’m spending an eternity as your puppet, you’re dead wrong. Pun intended.”
The Horror looks at me, tilting its head. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Don’t worry about it. I do. That’s all that’s important.”
“I’d abandon any plans you have. Unfortunately for you, you’re going to sleep through most of it. Otherwise you’ll annoy me.”
“I’m not tired. No way am I closing my eyes around you.”
It laughs again. “Silly boy, I can make you sleep if I want you to sleep, and I do want you to sleep.”
Before I can say another word, everything around me goes dark.
My last thought is that I hope Farnsworth can save me.