Checkout the story of third winner of Anitale event
The Sense of Bizzare
Part-1: The Road
Red opened his eyes for the first time as everywhere he his eyes moved, he saw white light plain and simple as the chapter of creation itself.
Then the light decided to give Red a gender. It chose a male. The light then gave him a personality but it got wrong and instead of a disciplined stoic individuality he got a weird sense of humor. Then the light gave it a sense of existence and embedded in it’s consciousness a purpose. A purpose which will decide the fate of their World.
Red then fell from the light’s grip and and…
Oh Shit!! He’s falling.
But instead of screaming in terror, he screamed in joy and a weird thought crossed his mind. What if he puts tons of cotton on the ground? How many bones will he save? 17? 18? Oh wait, he doesn’t have bones, he realised and the ground came closer like the slap that comes after you have rubbed your girlfriend’s cheek for baby powder. What you’re looking at loser? You don’t have a girlfriend.
The ground came closer. And Red floated like he had wings and gently his feet kissed the ground. He then straightened his red jacket that he was wearing. What were you expecting a fancy entry where I break my knees for what? Couple of seconds of lustful staring of men and women joining the simp club. Well, it’s okay if they’re genuinely women. The hat came falling like a missile and Red grabbed it in a sweep and put it on his head. The hat was red. He put on his red glasses and went on the road hoping to find the one thing he’s looking for.
The suns are rising on the horizon and the black grass are just looking fabulous and hypnotic, just looking at them makes him feel like he’s surfing his way through the Undead Sea playing golf and smoking a cigar.
He walked and walked and walked and… Walked. Just when he thought he has achieved his goal… He walked. How many years has passed since he was walking on this god darn road? Oh wait, he was just born two minutes ago. A crashing blow came for his head and the ground gave way and a large gaping hole opened like a huge mouth opening to laugh at how anti-masculine that was to get knocked down like a ping-pong ball.
A huge explosion took place which was blue in colour and was cold to freeze anyone’s hair off. The man’s hair, who did it, was blonde and his it was covering one his right eye and only between some strands could you see that the eye was pitch black and the other was bright green. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt underneath and his hair was white and very silky. He breathed a sigh of relief. “You know, hitting an innocent traveller from behind is similar to cutting black grass.” Red remarked sounding slightly annoyed.
The stranger turned around and took out his pistols and knife astounded by the survival of the person he just bombarded with all his strength. He went on to strike Red with an uppercut blow with the knife followed by a swing of his left leg and few shots of incendiary rounds which just ricochetted out of his body and the physical blows just don’t leave a mark on him at all. Like he’s made of Steel or maybe he’s Invincible. Well, that I am, no doubt about it but I’m more interested in knowing who is Steel? And what gender is he?
“What won’t you just die, you abomination.” The Stranger rasped. “Well, let me know when you find out and now could you tell me why were you attacking me?” Red demanded. “Are you even serious right now?” The Stranger asked sounding genuinely astonished at his uncanny remark. “Why do I need to be serious to be killed? You see that is the drawback of being born late to comprehend these rituals or practices of yours.” Red said sounding really distant and subtly blank.
The Stranger stared him for a few seconds before holstering his guns and sheathing his knife.
“Come with me.” The Stranger said coldly and began treading on the path. “You know, even though I am ten to Eleven minutes old but still I have the sense of knowing that whoever is violent towards ourselves should not be-” Red sentence was cut as the stranger eyes budged and he began staring at Red like he had done something extraordinary.
Or maybe said something extraordinary… “Wait, what did you say? You have sense?” The Stranger remark felt funny to Red and thought he was being sarcastic. “Yes I have and that proves you don’t have rust in your ears after all.” Red said sarcastically. “You have to come with me, right now.” The Stranger commands. “And would you kindly give me one good reason why I should go with you?” Red asks Crossing his arms.
“I can give you three, first: knowledge about your origin, second: your existence and third: your purpose.” The Stranger coldly remarks which forces Red to take a few seconds to process this information. “Fine, as long as they have black grass there I will not have a problem. So where are we going?” Red asks floating above the ground. “To the realm of Razzergard.” The Stranger says.
“Really, sounds familiar but still sounds really sexy and crisp, like an oak tree with knifes instead of leaves.” Red remarked teleporting from one place to another. The Stranger remains quiet as they both began travelling the road.
Part-2: The Battle
They walked for several hours while being dead silent and not exchanging much words with each other. While Red didn’t had much knack for names but still the Stranger hadn’t disclosed his name or an alias of his preference yet so Red insisted on calling him Black which, not surprisingly, was rejected by the Stranger but still Red was firm on calling him Black from now on and seeing his stubbornness, Stranger said to “call him whatever he likes” as he doesn’t care.
“So, Black, could you tell me more about this world in which I’m born in? You see I have power and you have knowledge and I sense that knowledge is not entirely useless.” Black breathes a sigh as he begins:
“This world is a grotesque culmination of the the real Universe and the Ideaverse, home to all the fictional characters, concepts and worlds ever created by several humans in
whom a part of the Source resides, the entity that created everything from the infinite cosmos to the tiniest atom of water. The Source also created the Ideaverse but accidently due to some anomaly of unknown origin this world was born, where every character is a combined morphed version of characters from both the real Universe as well as the Ideaverse. Each world vibrates at different wavelengths so they don’t collide with each other but because of the creation of this world, all the three worlds are distorting and it won’t be long before one world destroy the other.
To save the real universe and the Ideaverse, this world has to end and to do that we have to travel to end of this world to the Source and sever it’s ties with this world then everything born of this world will ultimately fade away. But to reach the edge, we have to go through the seven cities or kingdoms of this world to enter the wormhole that takes us beyond this world to its edge where the connection to the Source is.”
“Splendid explanation, I give you that, total genocide vibes which I’m going to enjoy to the fullest. But I had a question, which world are you from?” Red says floating inverted. “I’m from the Ideaverse and before you ask me, you are a product of this world.” Black coldly replies expecting a solemn silence from Red but he forgot one thing… That’s Red.
He has an uncanny perspective to everything which he doesn’t care about. “Nice, at least I’m not boring and doesn’t invade other realms.” Red flies off and comes back in a fraction of a second. “We are here, this…is Razzergard.” Black said as the sky turned dark green as they saw huge skyscrapers gleaming with the shades of pink, violet, yellow, green, blue and red with all types of techno billboards displaying various images all at once and streets crowded with…horses?
Red and Black both were astonished at the intoxicating colours and heights of the skyscrapers that pierced the clouds. He could see…chariots? All riding the space between the hulking objects which were steered by abstract creatures whose shapes were uncanny and hard to comprehend. They all looked medieval and some place distant a battle horn could be heard.
“Prepare yourself, hostiles incoming!” Black screamed as in a swift, almost godlike movements, prepared his dual guns and rifles he was carrying. He also began brandishing his knife which gleamed with so many lights reflecting on its surface. He took a battle pose as Red saw the sight of countless chariots and creatures of medieval era along with futuristic cars and aircrafts all flying and advancing towards Red and Black with all their grunts, hums and static crescendoing into an annoying tone that is hard to bear. “Is this the part where we pull their underwear out and spank them for being bad boys?” Red said as he started floating again but this time winds started swirling around his body.
Black didn’t answer as a huge number of soldiers brandishing huge swords, spears and shields as well as soldiers running with high-tech weapons glowing all shades of blue and red. Red took that as a yes and began gliding way higher attracting the attention of all the aircraft and chariots which were now zooming towards him. Black advanced as the soldiers charged towards him and they clashed with him and he moved so swiftly and smoothly like an
eagle which cannot be seen through the naked eye. The scene was chaotic as the only sound which was audible was the ugly amalgamation of metal clashing, flesh tearing and deafening shouts, screams and cries as the scene grew bloody by each passing second as Black mercilessly and brutally killed each of the soldier that dared to come near him and disposed them off like they were nothing.
Red’s eyes grew a fiery red as literal flames danced out of his eyes as he grinned devilishly. Lightning crackled at his fingertips as he screamed, gathered his strength, stretched his hand back and with his might jerked his palm upright towards the aircraft approaching.
Silence.
Dead Silence.
The wind seemed to have stopped and time itself must have stood still until a ear piercing sound echoed throughout the skies and a fiercely strong gust of wind blew them out of the skies and through the universe until they couldn’t be seen by the naked eyes.
More aircrafts approached as they started firing beams of energy towards Red and also arrows and spears but they all turned into ash the second they touched his skin. Red grinned and whispered: “My turn.” as everything turned white as Lightning struck and vaporized some aircrafts midair, while the remaining aircrafts began advancing towards him and the scenario turned into a flashes of white, red and blue as in a fraction of a second he was floating at the far end of the farthest aircraft. The aircrafts seemed as they have frozen in time but in less than a second they exploded like firecrackers one by one.
On the ground, Black panted as he was covered in blood as was his guns, blades, clothes, face and hair which was not his own. He stood above thousands of mangled corpses of soldiers and wiped his face.
“Well, that was good. A nice exercise for my rusty shoulders, I should do this much often.” Red exclaims as the fire in his eyes have settled as he walks towards Black adjusting his hat while avoiding slipping on Blood and colliding with the corpses.
“Not even close, I expected much more skilled warriors in number.” Black remarks coldly as he sheathes his blades and holsters his weapons inside his coat.”I don’t know why but I’m suddenly feeling an unsatiable urge to consume something.” Red put a hand on his stomach.
“Let’s go there, seems like a stall.” Black pointed towards a stall which had a man cowering behind. Black swayed his head towards him and he got him and started preparing noodles. They both sat down just when a crashing sound came and a building collapsed behind their backs. “I hope their insurance covers accidental battle damages.” Red sat as debris settled and smoke clouds blurred the green moons in the pink sky.
Part-3: The Talk
They both sat in silence as the vendor prepared their meal. Red eyed some chopsticks and grabbed them, he opened the packing and started to examine them. “Such an odd utensil for eating, how can someone possibly eat anything with this?” Red says as he eyed it curiously. “It’s a chopstick and it’s not rocket science to eat from it.” Black says being cold. Red hands the chopsticks to Black who gets subtly surprised by it. “No, I will have mine.” Black says pointing at the stack of chopsticks on the corner of the stall. “No, I want you to explain me how this works.” Red says.
Black swallows and grabs the sticks with a sigh. “Fine, pay attention. You grab the sticks with the hand which you prefer and use your thumb, index finger and middle finger. Grab at an inclining angle from the table above the middle and the pointed parts are to be brought close by applying pressure from the index and hold it using minimal pressure, enough to hold the contents from your thumb and middle finger and finally bringing it into your mouth. Repeat the process after this to finish your meal. Got it?”
Red stares at him blankly. “Yes, yes very crystall clear.” “No, you didn’t. You didn’t get it.” Black stated the obvious.
“No, I got it.” “You sure?” “No…I mean Yes, Oh for fudge’s sake.” Red says being annoyed. For the first time Black gave a little smirk and didn’t look cold and actually a human, “So, you’re a man who can summon lightning, fly and possess unmatchable strength but don’t know how chopsticks work?”
“Probably.” Red says being confused “What’s that?” He says pointing at a potted plant. “That’s a plant, you don’t know this much?” Black says being confused. “I think you don’t know how old I am and the fact that I don’t understand the concepts of life and death when I didn’t had one.” Black stays silent for a second to process the information what Red said, “So what, you’re alive or dead? Who made you?”
“Wish I knew, I’m neither, something in between, I never knew who made me, what my real name is, just that I was thrown into this world to restore sense with nothing but infinite power but no understanding of the feelings and emotions of people or anything in general.” Red says being utterly innocent but Black senses some pain which he sees in his eyes which he once felt when his eye was taken out because he was staring at an egoistic mad king, or the instance where his friend was killed for defending Black for not killing children on the king’s orders and holding his beaten up body while everyone
watched and his body was left to rot and forbidden to bury or cremate but to rot in the garbage and screaming while the rain masked his tears. “So what will you do when you have achieved your goal?” Black asks.
“I don’t know, maybe I’ll get killed by my maker or maybe cut the black grass.” Red says laughing but Black doesn’t laugh as he senses something weak in that body of his, the smile he wears but the sadness he doesn’t know about. “So, what you’re not afraid that you’ll die?” Black asks. “How can I even feel something when I’m not even alive in the first place?” Red says which puts Black in thought about his unfinished concept of life.
“Look at this plant.” Black commands pointing at the plant and Red does “At first, this plant looks lifeless but if you put water and some nutrients in it from time to time in adequate amounts then it will grow big and sprout beautiful flowers. Just like that, something that doesn’t move or even do cannot define if it has life or not.”
“Interesting.” Red says putting thought to it. The vendor brings their noodles and they eat in silence. It would have been a second after they have finished when a woman comes up to Black and pants wildly.
“Come later, I don’t have change.” Red says searching his pockets. “Shut your bloody door, Red” The woman says and sees Black and a feeling of relief washes over her “Thank god, Joe you’re alive.”
“Who the hell is Joe?” Black says being completely puzzled. “Sorry, but I don’t think he’s your boyfriend.” Red says.
“I’m not his girlfriend.” The woman exclaims.
“Wait, what’s a girlfriend?” Black asks. “A friend who is a girl.” Red says without second thought. “But I don’t have any friends, even a woman for that matter.” Black says. “Wait, she’s a woman? Like an actual biological female?.” Red asks. It was enough nonsense talk for anyone to bear let it be this woman, so she yelled at them.
“Shut up, both of you!” The woman yelled as Black grimaced. “Calm down woman, watch your choice of words next time before you open that mouth of yours, what do you want? And how do you know us?” Black returned to his cold self again.
“I don’t remember posting anything on the bird, oh sorry, I forgot it doesn’t exist.” Red said. “I’m from alternate timeline of the Ideaverse and I’m here to tell you about the upcoming blast that is going to destroy the whole realm so you have to get away.” The woman says in a panic. “And what madness blinded you to expect that we will believe you, woman.” Black said staring her with his cold green eye, searching for truth until…
BOOM!!
Red, Black and the woman both saw it. A giant explosion but not a normal one. Like everything was goddamn normal in the first place. Good joke. Black squinted to look at it but all he saw was a orange cloud until he had to cover his eyes but Red saw it, as clear as day, and orange and yellow coloured cloud mixed with hints of white. Anyone would have been horrified by it but not Red, he found it quite beautiful, familiar but still beautiful.
Black didn’t saw it as he was kicked so hard a portal opened and he was gone in a fraction of a second and Red couldn’t do anything. Red reacted and the woman moved with the speed of light as he was also shoved so hard, for the first time Red felt pain shoot up and spread in his entire body, as he was also sucked into a wormhole. Just before his vision blacked he saw the woman grinning very creepily…which felt like victory.
Did they just doomed everything and everyone?
Part-4: The Truth
Black thought he died. Sometimes he wished he would get a clean death without much suffering, that he would finally get peace which he has yearned for his entire life. He imagined his supposed Afterlife be a large landscape filled with yellow flowers and the rising sun never setting down as it’s rays touched his skin and make him feel the warmth of the godly sun.
But then he felt a strong gust of wind blasted in his face and he opened his eyes and… He’s falling!!
Each passing second the ground got terrifying closer, for a split second he expected Red to grab him from nowhere but he quickly realised that he wasn’t coming and he has to do something himself otherwise he will die a horrible death, and he’s not o ne for dying so early.
He frantically searched for any way to survive. He can use a parachute of his coat but it won’t be practical. No, he can fire his guns at the ground and the recoil will somehow save him, no it’s ridiculous. But that’s the key, he has to be ridiculous, this world is ridiculous, no rules or sense apply in this world. He has to take a leap of faith for the first time… …which can also be his last.
He loosened his coat and adjusted the triggers of every firearm and took a deep breath and shifted his body weight to let aur fill the innards of his clothing and fired his guns. It looked like it was not working as the ground came closer every second and he showed no signs of stopping. This was a bad idea, he thought and shut his eyes for the crushing pain but instead his fist struck a soft object he felt a cold sensation and blades of blue clouds around him.
He squinted and saw a large crater and heard a soft voice from behind which he couldn’t hear and in an instinct attacked it with every blade and every firearm he had. Until he opened his eyes and couldn’t believe the person he saw before him. It was Red.
He dropped his weapons and advanced towards him but Red instead started grinning devilishly and his eyes started spewing fires.
Black instincts peaked and he knew instantly something was wrong and slowly went to pull out his gun… …but Red was faster. He punched his gut and tore his chest where his bloodied hand was holding his cracked spine. Black spewed blood from his mouth, his nose followed just after then his eyes and his ears until he saw only red and then his vision became black.
The false Red then pulled his fist out and threw him in the sky, his eyes were blank it saw only the ground coming closer…
Closer…
Closer…
Black gasped as his eyes were now normal and there was not a gaping hole in his chest. He then didn’t got much time as his eyes straightened to the ground which was just a fingertip away and he waited for the crushing pain. Waited. Waited. Nothing happened.
He opened his eyes and saw the ground frozen his place. No, he was frozen in place. He turned his neck and saw nothing providing supporting to his feet but still he was levitating and then, still being inverted saw a sharp red blur running towards him and in less than a second they made a furious contact and bits and pieces of Black’s flesh, bone and blood flew everywhere. His dead eyes stared at the ground getting closer…
Closer…
Closer…
Black again gasped as his body was still intact. Again he fell and this time Red shot big lazers from his eyes which evaporated him in midair. He again woke and this time he landed on the ground and it opened like a big mouth and chewed him til he was dead. It
took some time and a couple of deaths for him to come to the horrifying realization that he was caught in a neverending time loop to recreate (or create) the initial meeting with Red.
A paradox.Now what? Is he doomed to die and not die at the time for eternity? Black didn’t had the answer
…
Red fell from the wormhole and saw a black and blue globe like structure which throbbed like it was alive and made ethereal patterns in its wake and it’s center, where all the patterns seem to meet, stands firm a man in a majestic robe with countless patterns and abstract figurines he can’t possibly comprehend. He just wished if Black could be there to make sense of just anything there.
“Greetings, I was expecting you.” The man didn’t look much older than 40 and was smiling softy.”I don’t think I know you but it is hard for me to believe that someone was expecting me. Why and what were you expecting by the way?”
“Well, I-” The man began to speak but Red interrupted him. “Also who are you again?” Red said expecting a very sophisticated name which will be hard to pronounce but instead it was not what he expected. “I am the Source, or at least a physical embodiment of it for you to actually see me.”
The Source said. “So why were you expecting me anyway? Just because I’m a character in someone’s stupid story and this the moment where the degree and scale of the shenanigans are explained by some really creepy pedophile.” Red says admiring the patterns that seems to be alive.
“You quite explained it bit that is the gist of it, but I’m afraid you missed some, no, a big fraction of the whole story.” The Source glides his hand in the air and he sees the view of all the three worlds which appear to be distorting and adjoining into one.
“Did you ever notice that even though the Ideaverse being the home of countless fictional characters yet did not caught sight of even one of them? That’s because the collective idea of storytelling and fiction is being invaded and destroyed by something which we saw coming but chose to do nothing, A.I. or Artificial Intelligence. It is being now adopted by various artists and the numbers of actual storytellers goes on decreasing every moment. Nobody will care
about these existing characters when this A.I. can create millions just like them without taking a break. That’s why I created you or perhaps you can say 51 different versions of you, and you’re the last, the 52nd variant which I sent to destroy this A.I. but all your predecessors succumbed to failure. Now, I have one last chance to fix things up and to do that I need Joe’s life or you like to say ‘Black’s’ life.” The Source proclaims and Red for the first time feels a chill run down his spine and felt like his legs just can’t support his weight anymore and that something really strong and invisible punched in him the chest which he couldn’t dodge.
“You can’t be serious, why do you need Black’s life? And there might be other versions of Black as well if there were different versions, tell me you made them, right? You made them? Right?” Red stammers and can feel his palms going cold and he just can’t shake off that dizziness anymore.
“I never created a character to interact with you and even if I did, either it got killed or couldn’t bear your irritating behaviour. Joe or this ‘Black’ guy really made a connection and you are the first of the 52 versions to become sentient or self-aware about its existence and origin. Time has wrapped Joe in its grasp and if he permanently dies then time will break and both the Ideaverse and this horrid world will die and, sure in the absence of the Ideaverse the real world will suffer a lot but only for a little time, I will soon create a new Ideaverse and everything will go to normal.” The man tells.
“No, I will not accept this. I will not let you harm Black anymore! You hear me! I will save him, no matter how many worlds die but I will save him!” Red says as he flies towards the Source to punch him but his hand finds only air and he sees in disbelief a thousand versions of him standing behind him. Red eyes glow fiery orange and red as he shoots a heat wave at him but they seem to go through them like they are not even there.
“Like I said I’m only a physical embodiment of a concept you can’t ever possibly comprehend, so kindly cease your futile attempts at once. Your time is running out.” He said coldly.
Part-5: The Rebirth
Red wanted to gut him but then he remembered Black and tore another wormhole and travelled every reality to find Black but only found ruined kingdoms, lights, morphed creatures and nothing pleasant until he found him dying by his own clone’s hand. Red saved him but Black got furious. When asked of the reason he told Red that this was what the Source wanted all along, to have Black saved by Red to distrupt the flow of time and destroy the worlds.
Realization destroys both of them but Red gathered his spirits and said:” It doesn’t matter if the worlds die or live, you know the truth right?” Black knew all of it which initially destroyed him that he is also a character of this morphed world and he was just made to make this awful story interesting which was written by the A.I. to defeat them which it did.
Tears fell from their eyes as they saw a light clearing everything but Black looked at Red and sat hand on his shoulder. Red felt not a sense of dread of death but a wholesome feeling that he felt something and made a friend, a good friend. It doesn’t matter if they’re useless characters made for someone’s amusement, what matters is that they liveda life worth dying for.
The light came closer as both nodded their heads in mutual respect and farewell as the light took them and amidst the ashes of the old world, a new one was born.
Wriiten By, Sameer Nathan
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