TDYK - Soul Fall .2 (Patreon)

Just over twenty four hours later, Theo saw his first Soul Fall. It was a remarkably short amount of time, considering the vast, infinite space of the Chaos and the random nature of it, for which Theo was grateful. If he'd had to watch Bbl wallow in his pointless depression any longer, he may have been motivated to do something about it.

Whilst the crab had moped and sighed about the place, Theo had been a little more productive. He could only say 'a little', since there wasn't much to do, sitting on a flat slab of featureless rock suspended in an endless sea of pure chaos, but he did what he could. He thought. And he tried to get his memories into some sort of order.

He tried to search for more entries in the marketplace that might be useful, but it proved to be a colossal waste of time. Mind control helmets, elaborate torture devices, Demiurge penis enlargement services, vehicles that promised to traverse the Chaos like a fish in the sea. Theo felt that if he could imagine it, he would find it in the market, and he still didn't have access to the full thing. He gave solid odds that ninety nine out of a hundred of the entries he saw were complete bullshit, which frustrated him. The market held so much promise but he couldn't afford to gamble every time he needed something. The only thing that would allow him to traverse the market was something he still sorely lacked, knowledge.

He could only hope that it would come with time.

The other thing Theo learned during his day of waiting, was that he no longer needed to sleep. As the hours ticked by, he didn't feel tired, never grew listless or weary. In fact, he felt as sharp as he had the moment he woke up, something the fragmented memories that pieced themselves together in his mind over time told him wasn't normal at all.

Pictures and movies, broken into thousands of pieces, that was what his memories were like. They surfaced with no apparent chronology or pattern. Images of himself as a child, as an young man, and as a working adult, blended together in no particular order. He felt that it should drive him crazy, not being able to piece together the sequence of his own life, but he found the memories to be drained of emotion, as if they were a painting where the colours had run out, the image left stale and bland.

He could remember a time he stood in a church, a woman in a white dress walking down the aisle toward him. A wedding, his wedding. But he couldn't remember the bride, or how he felt that day, nor could he find it within himself to summon any powerful emotion about the memory at all. He wanted to know more, of course, but the time he spent within his memories felt empty and hollow.

Just another thing he would have to investigate. 

All in all, Theo had felt unsatisfied and irritated by what he had spent his time on, so it was a relief in more ways than one when the Soul Fall finally occurred. 

Theo was the first to notice the change, as he sat and stared the sky. His vision was filled with ash, smoke and the fire that smouldered eternal behind the rolling sea of black cloud. It began with fire. Like lightning that danced in a fierce storm cloud, bursts of flame began to trail through the clouds, leaving pulsing lines of red in their wake.

He sat up straight as he noticed the strange behaviour in the sky, his head arched back to take in the sight. The lines of fire grew more intense, with less time in between each burst, and it became clear that the they were growing closer together, focused down on one particular point in the endless sky. Booming sounds began to reach their ears, faint, as if from a great distance. The rumble caught Bbl's attention and the despondent crab leapt to his feet in an instant and stretched his claws up to the sky.

"No fucking way…" he muttered.

Disbelief radiated from the crab in palpable waves as he scuttled toward the plinth Theo had leant himself against and stared at the intensifying storm in the sky.

"What's happening up there, Bbl?" Theo whispered, awed by the impossible sight.

"It's a soul fall," Bbl whispered back.

As if verbalizing the concept had suddenly made it real, the crab whooped with joy and leapt onto Theo's legs before he reached up to pinch Theo on each cheek with his claws.

"It's a fucking Soul Fall! And it's close! We might get one! By the deep, we might actually get one!"

Bbl released Theo's now bruised cheeks and danced with joy up and down his masters extended legs.

"You must be loved by the Chaos, Theo! This is fantastic!" The crab ceased his jaunty steps and extended two grasping claws into the air.

"Come down here you filthy, miserable bastards!" he hollered with savage glee. "Come to Bbl!"

An uncomfortable churn began in Theo's stomach as he continued to stare at the sky. There were coming. Literal souls of the damned were coming. How the shit was he going to do this? He had to, he had to find a way. It'd be fine, it's the circle of life kind of deal, right? The natural order.

As Theo tried to prepare himself for what may come, the storm overhead built itself to a crescendo with no care for his wavering heart. Mountain sized gouts of flame roared like dragons of the end times as the ash clouds boiled with frenetic energy. Each new burst of fire brought another rumble to Theo's ears, the volume not nearly in tune with the scale of the events he witnessed, as if he were viewing the apocalypse through a filter.

Then the screams began. 

So distant at first that he thought it no more than a product of his struggling conscience, but the sound grew and grew until he could no longer ignore it. The horrified screams of thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, all overlayed in a cacophony of terror that drive a knife into Theo's gut.

What in the name of all that is good is going on, he despaired.

Bbl continued his obscene display of joy as the screams reached him.

"Come on down you scum!" he cackled, "come down and get the claws!" 

Snip! Snip!

The small crab clacked his claws aggressively as he gyrated and spun in demented little circles. The happier his advisor became, the more nauseous Theo felt. Shrieks of agony and despair rang in his ears and he begun to hunch over, both arms wrapped tight around his stomach.

The screams grew louder, and louder, until finally the sky parted, and they began to fall. The boiling clouds of ash rolled back and from within the heart of the storm Theo got his first glimpse of the damned. At this great distance, it was hard to see clearly, yet Theo felt he could see as well as he could stand for. 

From this distance, they appeared as tiny motes of light. Only faintly could Theo make out the flailing limbs and distorted bodies. But they glowed in the darkness, standing out like white paint on a black background. At first it was just one, then another, then a dozen broke through the ash and fell like a scattering of snow. Then something different began to emerge from beyond the smoke, a huge mass of souls, a giant ball of the condemned broke through and began to fall into the Endless Chaos.

"Why do they look like that?" Theo whispered to himself, but Bbl, despite his manic glee, managed to hear him.

"You're looking at the true form of the soul, unhoused from its mortal shell! Also, the glow makes it easier to find them in the dark."

After giving this advice, the crab turned back to shout and curse at the souls as he snapped his claws at them, almost as if he could draw them in on his own. Theo swallowed the saliva in his mouth and concentrated on his eyes, squinting a little as he gazed up at them. And he saw them, mortal bodies of thousands of kinds, that rolled and flailed, their faces twisted into strange shapes as they screamed in pain, anger and fear. In an instant he turned his eyes away as he felt acid rising into his throat.

Holy shit. This is hell, this is actually hell. It's real, it's real it's real. 

Reality crashed down on Theo's disparate mind and he struggled to cope. All he could think of was the tormented inscription written on the gate to hell in Dante's epic poem, Inferno. 

"Through me is the way to the city of woe,

Through me is the way to eternal pain,

Through me is the way to a lost people.

Justice moved my great Creator

Divine Power made me,

the Supreme Wisdom and the Primal Love.

Before me nothing else was created

nothing but the eternal, and I last eternally.

Abandon all hope, you who enter here."

It was all real. Eternal Pain, the city of woe, all of it. That gate was real and Theo stood on the other side!

The thought that this was all real, that it wasn't a dream, rattled around in Theo's suddenly empty head as he stared, horrified at the scene overhead.

From the moment the edge of that mass had pierced through, the screams had become even louder, they rang in Theo's ears with perfect clarity. So many people, each one in complete terror. The shrieks went on and on as the souls fell, the distance so great it appeared as if they descended in slow motion. Small motes of light broke off and fell away from the main mass in increasing numbers over time, like a meteorite breaking up on entry to Earth's atmosphere.

Without realising it, Theo had become hunched over, his knees drawn tight against his chest as he watched with horrified fascination. 

There but for the grace of the Multiverse go I, he thought, numb.

"Come on," Bbl muttered as he stared intently at the collapsing mass of souls, "come on. Give me one. Just one of those assholes. Come on, come on, come on, COME ON!" he roared at the end, claws extended, whole body tense.

Down they fell, and down. 

They weren't directly overhead, Theo realised, as he observed and performed the rough geometry in his head subconsciously. From the direction they were falling it appeared as if they were actually a great distance away, which for some reason appeared closer through the Chaos.

The other he noticed was that even as the mass of souls descended, he could see them clearly through the swirling mass of the Chaos, as if they illuminated the darkness by their very nature.

With bated breath the advisor and the Demiurge watched the souls, on hoping desperately, the other not sure how he felt, but neither able to take their eyes from the spectacle that unfolded before them. Theo felt sure he would never forget the sight for as long as he should persist in this existence, it was as beautiful as it was terrifying and horrific.

Are the screams getting louder?

Bbl grew still as he listened, his crab body tilted to one side. The screams in general hadn't grown louder, in fact some were fading as they grew more distant. But other were growing louder, which meant they were coming closer. Ears attuned to the sound Bbl almost vibrated in place, so intent was he on listening.

"aaaahhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

With a strange sucking noise, the Chaos on that made the border of Theo's realm parted for a moment and through it came a glowing soul that thudded heavily into the paved stone floor of the demesne.

Theo and Bbl both looked at the new arrival in stunned silence that was soon broken by the advisor.

"Yeeeeesssssssss!" he whooped as he scuttled from left to right in wicked delight, his claws clacked with uncontrolled joy.

For his part, Theo could only stare, horrified at the now still and completely silent ethereal ball of light.

"aaaaaaaaAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Theo twitched with surprise and even Bbl grew still as yet another screaming soul pierced through the border of their home and slammed into the ground on the outer edges of the demesne.

Bbl slowly turned toward Theo.

"Tell me true. Does the Administration love you? Or are you just one lucky son of a hen?"

Theo sputtered. The administration? They couldn't wait to get rid of him!

"You get two souls from your very first Soul Fall?!" Bbl continued, outrage building the more he went on, "and you only had to wait for such a short time! Do you know how much I suffered at the start?! Huh?! It's not fair!"

Filled with disgust and indignation, the crab threw himself onto the ground and wriggled his body whilst his legs kicked at the air, all his previous joy and delight washed away like lines drawn in sand before an incoming tide.