In a world where death has no part, it creeps in from the other-worlds.
THROUGH
THE
GOLDEN GATES
The city of Albelost shone greatly in the night, it's open layout a spectacular display of craftsmanship of all kinds of architecture found all over the world of Monghost. Festive music played inside every building, each with their own reason to celebrate; a place no one could complain about boredom, there was something for everyone. The citizens of Albelost were merry and lived with carefree attitudes toward tomorrow. They saw no horror and knew not what death was, not because they were immortal, but because of centuries long lifespans; the first man and woman still lived among them and showed no signs of deterioration.
Overpopulation never a problem with the ever expanding limits of the city, the fruitful soil always supplying more than needed, and the predictable rains blessing the water wells.
They lived by a moral code, a golden one, programmed into everyone since birth by the Elders, the watchmen and women. Conflict was no where to be found. Each person a link in the chain of the machine that kept moving forward, and only good things happened to them.
Avest Deball, tipsy and joyous, entered the Elder's Rest Palace. The ornate lavish interior wall designs and furnishing commonplace to the citydweller, and he paid them no mind as he hurried through series of lobbies, grand halls, and spiral staircases.
He knocked on the door of a friend. "Hey, Locish, I'm coming in! Where ya been? The night is young!" Avest walked in. The lights were off. They are never off. "Locish? Are you there?" He flicked the switch, and the lights revealed no one occupied the spacious living room.
"Locish? Did you go party somewhere else without telling me? You sneaky serpent." Avest sauntered his way to the Grand Elder's bedroom. A motionless heap underneath the unusally unmade bed covers paused Avest. "You didn't have time to make your bed? Oh Grand Elder, what great mystery has happened to you?"
Uneasy and curious, Avest went to the bed and flung the covers off the bed.
A dead eagle lay on the bed.
"What has gotten into you Grand Elder?" Avest ran his fingers over the cold feathers. The great light is missing from this machine, why would the Grand Elder bring this into bed with him?
"G-g-go." A voice from a dark corner of the bedroom.
"Locish! What is the matter with you?"
"I'm s-sl-slippin-"
Avest ran over to the crumpled old man. He lifted him up in his arms, and carried him out to the living room.
What is wrong with him? Why is there so much pain and sorrow in his voice? Avest lay Locish on the sofa. "What do you need me to do? How can I help you Grand Elder?!"
"I'm slip-slipping awa-" His eyes stared off into another place as he's breathing stopped.
"Grand Elder?" A gentle shake. "Grand Elder? Answer me!" Avest shook the body harder. He gripped the collar of the old man's tunic and pulled the lifeless head off the sofa. He let go.
What is going on? He is not sleeping like we do, in fact, he is not one of us. He is a horrible replica of the Grand Elder, an imposter! An empty shell of flesh. Oh, but where is the real Locish? Where did he go?
"Somebody help me! Somebody!" Avest ran out the door.
The walls shook. Blur. Objects appear, but things aren't making sense. Where does that light come from?
"Somebody help me! Grand Elder Locish is missing!"
Faces, worried and nervous. Can they understand me? Yes this is an emergency!
The people can't speak. They move aside. Out the building, running man down the street.
"Has anyone one seen the real Grand Elder Locish?! Can anyone tell me?!"
Not a sound in the festive night.
Oh, they don't know! What if that was really him? What happened to him? I'll have to show them.
"Come follow me! A strange thing occured, come quick!"
A few curious minds hurried after Avest running back to the Elder's Rest Palace.
Back to Locish's living room. They gasped as they inspected the body. They walked out into the hall.
"Something mysterious has happened. We do not believe he is missing, he is still with us. We can feel his energy, but his body...it serves no purpose to him. He-he has surpassed the flesh."
"He is a god. Our god. We must learn and follow all his ways so that we too can surpass the flesh."
"Where do you get such madness? He is not here anymore! He has left us alone!" Avest stomped his feet.
"You've allowed yourself to become unbalanced and cannot see clearly."
"What is this then?" Avest went to the bedroom, picked up the eagle, and showed them. "Is this a god to you too?"
"Animals are not human, we are their next level of life. Grand Elder Locish has done what we've all dreamed of. Becoming one with the all, becoming like god."
"You are all drunk. This isn't a good thing, Locish is gone!"
"We're sorry but we can't communicate with you anymore. You've become unbalanced and unwise, disconnected from reality."
"Yes, Avest you are the one who is the most drunk of us all. Be still and recieve the blessing of Locish. His energy is blessing us with more life."
Avest tossed the eagle at their feet and walked down the hall. I can't deal with them anymore, they've become so blinded in their own ideas of the orders of the universe, they cannot see the horror before them. I must find people of good reason, free of delusions.
Can't they tell the body is cold and heavy? They make my palms sweaty, maybe no one will understand. This has never happened before, people missing from their bodies. Has something mysterious entered our city and taken Locish and the eagle from their bodies?
Avest entered the night streets again. Who can I talk to? Who will understand the real importance of this account? Pushed about as he stopped walking in the traffic, someone aided him to the slower parts of the street.
"You okay, sir?"
"Yesofcourse- I mean no! Nothing is okay anymore, Grand Elder Locish is missing!"
"Where could he have gone?"
"That's the problem, his body is in his place, but he is not in his body!"
The man looked around to see any curious bypassing listener. "Take me to him."
They ran back to the room. The group of men had grown triple in size. They sung songs of worship to Locish, the first god.
Rajad grabbed Avest by the arm. "A new portal has been reached and opened. We must talk somewhere else. This is sacred, things not meant for the collective, but for the few."
"I know a place." They faded away from the scene, nothing to see.
Down the road, off to the right into an ally, up the staircases on the side of the walls, and through a door into a room on the fifth floor.
"Who's room?" Rajad spun in place.
"This was Locish's. He was a marhadillyon country boy before becoming a Grand Elder, and could never stay away from home." Avest patted the metallic side of a black cude in the middle of the green room.
"Used it a lot from what I remember. This thing goes through space and time."
"Only for the Elders, huh? Well I knew they hid stuff from us, just not what exactly."
"I think I know how to use it. I heard him one time, said, 'The past is a real place and it can change.' Now, I don't know what that means, but I think we can bring him back."
"No you fool! You cannot! Don't you see this thing is why he is missing from his body? He must have reached a portal and didn't only open one, but all of them. Anything can happen now!"
Avest looked at Rajad with a puzzled face. "What do you mean? This has been going on for a long time, sir! They didn't just make these and start using them, the first ones fucking came out from them!"
"Excuse me? The first ones were crafted by the earth and spread their seeds over it. That's what they've told us!"
"You have to know a Grand Elder that holds no secrets well, and be good friends with them. Give them sorbelli, they love eating that stuff." Avest tried to find a way into the cube. "Anyways, believe what you want, but I'm going to bring back Locish and then they would worship me! Hahaha...no? Too soon huh? Yeah, well I've been drinking since noon man, fuck this shit."
"Well, certainly, you have enlightened me about things I thought i knew, and you know, that bothers me a bit because, as you know, I, and the rest put our trust into them. We're so gubille. What does that mean if the first ones came from these cubes? What are we?"
"Locsih tried to explain one time, but I wouldn't comprend, and he never brought it up again. From what I could manage from his crazy talk was that the first ones are inter-dimenisonal energy forces and they can take on any form. What they do is feed off the negative energy from humans living. I don't know what to tell you, it doesn't make sense. I always wonder where he heard this manner of speech, maybe it was code."