*reupload from 2015 due to Blogger shenanigans*
It wasn't working.
Sean tried to raise his blade, but it felt like lead in his arms. Another step would probably kill him. He didn't dare look away, because if he looked around, he'd see what had happened to his friends. So he had to keep looking straight ahead. He wish he didn't have to.
"You're all aloooooooone~"
A pair of violet streaks of lighg screamed from the darkness. The sword deflected them, each parry shooting up his arm in a lance of red-hot agony.
"Dimitri? Buddy?" Sean's voice rang small in the darkness around him.
"I'm here," came the voice in Sean's head. It sounded a bit like him.
"Talk to me."
"Well, everyone's dead."
"Really? Hadn't noticed."
Sean charged and leapt, his muscles burning, and cleaved at the blackness. Nothing happened, and he landed on the stone floor with a gasp.
"Not doing so hot there, champ." Dimitri's voice wavered with with concern.
Sean gulped for air, forcing himself to stand.
"Nah," he began, "I'm really fucking peachy kee-"
The impossible limb hit him from an impossible angle. He flew for some time, and then hit the ground and rolled until he eventually stopped, lying on his back. Two of his ribs broke when he hit the floor, and he'd dropped the sword. He suddenly understood, lying helplessly on the floor, that he was dead and there was nothing he could do about it.
"All your friends are dead, Sean~"
"Home run hitter," came Dimitri.
"Gurgh," responded Sean. The floor was ice cold.
"Hey, Sean?"
"Ghn?"
"Where do Artificial Intelligences go when they die?"
"Dnno." It hurt to breathe. Sean tried anyway, and then coughed up a small spray of red.
"Really? Sucks. I hoped there'd be baseball."
It came out of the shadows, looming over him like a monument. It looked like a bird that had somebody had plucked and pickled. The skull was blind, but rows of yellow, lidless eyes swivelled madly along the neck. The sagging meat of the humongous body contorted as it stomped over to Sean's prone form. The beak pulled back into a grin of needle teeth.
"Oh, I am enjoying this!" The monster placed a single massive talon on Sean's chest and pressed down. More things cracked.
"Are you scared?"
Sean didn't have the energy to even shake his head, but he thought "Not anymore."
"I guess I'm not either." Dimitri sounded mournful. "I hope there's somewhere for me to go."
Sean shut his eyes. He hoped so to. He hoped that Leah and Jerry and Sam and Vicky were waiting for him. He hadn't had a chance to say anything... anything of note? They just died. It had been so stupid. All that hard work, the quests, the near-deaths, the fun and the fear and the friendship...
Maybe they'd play baseball.
"See you soon, buddy," he whispered.
The weight lifted.
"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" The voice was horrible, flutey, with emphasis on all the wrong syllables. "I mean, you came so far and tried so hard! You were comprehensive about it, too. I forgot about the cave in the lake, honestly. Must have been one your lot made up. Old Wives' Tales and that."
Sean realised that he wasn't going to die, and terror shot through him.
"Nowadays people don't get medals for trying," continued the monster. "But I am a big believer in encouraging free thought in my subjects, so I think you ought to get a reward!"
A claw picked him up and raised him. Carrion breath washed over him, and he coughed up more red.
"I'm going to revive your friends! They'll have another chance at bringing me down and ending my reign for the people or whatever. Isn't that great? But, oh dear!" The thing giggled. "They won't have you, oh Fearless Leader! You lead them in here to die, so I suspect they'll be much better off without your guidance. I mean, it is your fault they died in the first place!"
Lord Meshugah grinned with infinite teeth.
"No, Sean Carter, I have a better plan for you..."
Sean tried to scream -
*
Sean woke up somewhere completely different.
