Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving

Hey everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving, or at least almost.

Frank Jenkins is gone. Calling his phone reveals it's a disconnected number, but that makes sense. I suspect he probably just smoked a whole bunch of DMT and went back to wherever he came from. Maybe he returned to Earth-20181. Who knows--I at least wasn't banking on him staying around.

Wherever he is, best of health to him.

Qom and I are spending Thanksgiving with A.S. tomorrow. It will be the first day that his family spends without Jacob. He seems to be standing strong but maybe he just doesn't want us to worry. But I'm gonna tell you a secret, kiddies--I may not seem like it, but I always worry.

In any case. Be thankful for what you got. Don't be surprised if this blog doesn't update again after today.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Confession of Amos Slimechap Berkley

If I want to avoid the legal consequences, I shouldn't be making this post. But I like to think that I'm mirroring Frank's writing of The Life of Mocata, and this serves as a warning beacon for Tamaron if he ever comes back. I doubt we really killed him, but we may have stopped him for now. Given how many worlds he's visited--Alpha, 20181, 13151518, Kuru, and now Gamma--we can't know if he's dead or if he's just slipped through the cracks, tumbling down in the space between universes to live again.

Fighting against him was terrible.

Because he's a fictional character. And real people are not quite as terrible as him. Hitler didn't have magic. Pol Pot didn't sterilize an entire planet just because he was angry. This is Edward Tamaron, the First Enemy of the Multiverse. If Frank's right he's destined to have a hand in destroying reality itself. How can we deal with that?

If Darth Vader suddenly was revealed to exist in a corner of the Multiverse, and attacked our world, we'd just make Sand People noises and jokes about his mom, and he'd break down crying. If Dracula showed up, we'd just slash his throat with a kukri, run a knife through his heart, and call it a day. But Tamaron? We've seen that Tamaron can't be stopped. He can be killed but we know he can just sidestep death with ease. Anyone with a magical aura, he can feed off of—though we don't really know if that's how it works. (Did Marvel or Brant have significant auras? Maybe it's a religion thing. I don't see a pious lunatic like Nebel practicing the Dark Arts, but maybe his fanatical Christian practice made him vulnerable.) And emotional stuff wouldn't really work; make a crack about his dad, or talk about how he killed his sister, and he'd just become angry. The only thing we have is that he can be distracted and corralled by his hatred, and that hatred also blinds him tactically. How much of a boon was this in the fight? I really can't say.

Marcel went missing, and he left a note on our door in Chuck Eldridge's handwriting: "Come get him. I'm just outside of town." We piled up in Garry's car and left Alberta, patrolling all the roads outside of town. There he was, as Eldridge, standing in a field where no one drives, waving his arms at us and smiling. Marcel was tied up, next to him.

We parked and got out. None of us were up to the task--our legs were shaking, our hearts were gonna burst out of our chests, we were drowning in sweat. I at least remembered that we should've contacted Frank and had him join us. But now it was too late.

I looked into his eyes. I knew I had to do it, and strangely, I don't have a feeling of wishing I hadn't. They were normal human eyes. I mean, I saw his past in there--Marvel, Krankor, Titan, Gerber, Brant, Jason, Ghibourkei, Nebel, they were all in there. All his names and faces. But I was too scared of the fact that Edward Tamaron existed to see any real horror in just the eyes.

He'd fought dozens of heroes that were way stronger than us. Doctor Cryptos, Hazel Hexen, Prince of Space. We're just a bunch of twenty-something nobodies. But...somehow...we still won.

He let Marcel go, wordlessly. I don't remember him talking--I could sense his feelings and knew at once that that was a magic thing--but he just stared at us and smiled, as if he had already beaten us. He might have meant to say something, but Qom and Derek got to him first.

I mentioned Dracula, right? How he died? Throat slashed with a kukri, heart stabbed with a bowie knife (and not a stake). Well, I guess Qom had the former, and I knew Derek had the latter. Those two things were silver streaks when they came upon him. Derek was screaming with anger. He told us later that he thought that Marcel had been tortured and he couldn't stand that. His pocketknife wedged itself suddenly in Tamaron's chest. He gave a little gasp which turned to this disgusting gurgle when Qom cut his throat.

I don't remember what Qom said exactly. Something like how he didn't know he could do it, how he'd never want to do it again.

Tamaron died quickly. Perhaps he died too quick to jump bodies or eject his spirit outside of Universe-Gamma, our universe. Eldridge's fat middle-aged body collapsed to the ground, and it kicked for a little bit until the blood didn't come out of his jugular anymore.

It was over, just like that.

So. Yeah.

Marcel is fine, it sounds like. He just got taken out of his house in the night and was tied up all that time. Tamaron didn't do anything--he didn't say anything. Marcel was scared of him at first but was able to keep his mind away from it over time. He's a strong kid. He'll survive.

Qom and Derek are gonna bury their weapons. Someone will find the body sometime, but we don't want to be associated with murdering Eldridge. No one will understand--no one will know who we really killed or tried to kill. But if we have to be punished for what we did--I, at least, will go to jail happy knowing I did my part in the battle against the First Enemy. Let it come down.

I leave this testament as a record of the truth--but also as a celebration that we all sort of feel that it's finally over. I just hope that Jacob can look on me from up there with pride now, because I've taken revenge in his name.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Peace in Our Time?

Hey guys.

No word for awhile. We've been having twice-a-week meetings with Frank, and he wonders if Tamaron has given up so easily. Chuck Eldridge has disappeared, and none of us want to provoke the situation by asking the police if they've made an arrest. It would seem rather suspicious, really. The school has not made a statement, however, so when it comes to the idea that Tamaron has somehow been defeated...

We all rather doubt it.