Tobias

I opened my eyes and wondered when I had closed them. I must have fallen asleep, because I now felt sluggish yet healthier than I had for the last two days. My belly was still emptily churning, my throat burning dryly. I felt like a machine with no fuel or oil. Finding water didn’t sound very difficult, especially now that I could hear the merry gurgle of a stream. Perhaps it was a waterfall. But it was a water noise. It sounded like heaven to my little blue ears that stood up even when I was down.

The moss had molded itself to the shape of my body and now felt like a large, wet bed. A rather comfortable one at that, if only it wasn’t making me cold. I would have gone to sleep, but... I wanted to have a little communication with Karoesk before I went insane.

Well, more insane.

Since the only light came from the stars and a faint green aurora, I assumed that Karoesk was awake and at His cheeriest. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, letting several dead leaves fall off my black shirt. Prayer to Karoesk was like talking to the clouds. Only, when He answered, it was a little more apparent. Quite often I would see a formless patch of darkness in front of me, and it would answer me in a completely normal (yet androgynous) voice. Whenever I had things to confess to Him, he wouldn’t even bother to answer me verbally. Punishments ranged from suddenly being allergic to rainwater to that one time the roof caved in on my head.

Oh boy, was my conversation with him going to suck. Maybe, if I was lucky, the worst thing to happen would be my head falling off my shoulders.

The only reason I confess things to Him is Judgment. That’s right, judgment. Your punishment in the mortal realm is nothing to what He can do to you in Vayor if you keep secrets from Him. I wasn’t in the mood for eternal torment, having gone through enough already. I cleared my throat, closing my eyes and bracing myself.

“Hey, uh... Karoesk?” I whispered into the dead night. “I have a bit of a confession to make...” Nothing happened. I couldn’t see Him yet either, so I continued. “I’ve done a lot of evil shit out of idiocy the last couple days. Now I’m a mass murderer-” -my voice suddenly sounded dryer than it really was- “-and think I’ve abused your grace...”

I shut my eyes tightly. Surely at the words ‘mass murderer’ He would’ve taken notice.

“Bullshit.” That voice had no discernable origin. Like all the other times Karoesk spoke to me, it came from inside my head. My eyes snapped open. I still couldn’t see Him. That wasn’t a good sign. “I heard all about your little ‘party’ on the Apocalypse. I think you abused Ajax’s grace, not mine. Get it right next time, nuke ass.”

Ow.

“But he’s forgiven you, so that’s all in order.”

“What about everybody else?” I asked wildly. “What about Juane? I just took out at LEAST two hundred people!” D’oh. I should have kept my mouth shut. Well, maybe not. It’s not a good idea to lie to God.

“They don’t matter to me.” That took a moment to digest. God doesn’t care about some people. Ha, I knew it. Karoesk’s voice had something it I’d never heard there before. Amusement. Last time I heard that specific tone, it was right before an extremely twisted bitch I used to know had burst into an evil cackle. “They might matter to their gods, but I couldn’t give a shit. Now, stand up and tell me how you ended up in this time period. There’s no dead people that know yet.”

I stood numbly, trying to gather my thoughts and form them into something suitable for a story. But when I stumbled onto my feet, I still found that I couldn’t see Karoesk. “Where are you? I don’t wanna talk facing away from you.” I realize I was asking God to show his face. It was a bit rude, but it seemed Karoesk was feeling rather rude tonight as well.

“Behind you.” The voice was no longer in my head. I twisted around to face Him. There, behind a bush, was the familiar patch of darkness. Only, this time, from the very bottom of it, something was rising up and writhing. Tentacles? No, it was a thick red liquid, in all appearance blood. It looked like a lava lamp that had a will of it’s own. It dripped out of the shadows as if gravity reversed. Then, suddenly tripling in speed, the liquid formed together then twirled into a recognizable form... a body.

While I watched, the darkness and blood merged together in a more compact manner. I could recognize limbs, limbs turning into defined parts like hands and fingers. From the feet up, it wound into a highly detailed and realistic body, color and all. It finally reached the face, filling it and completing it.

And I received one of the nastiest shocks in my life.

This was Karoesk. This was God. And He looked like me.

He looked exactly like me, only, his spikes were black and his eyes... his eyes were... There’s no easy way to explain it. His eyes were like holes, and within them was a black sky with glowing red clouds, swirling realistically, that formed a twisted iris. His pupils looked like lightening, even moved and flashed like it. Like hundreds of lightening bolts moving along the same vertical path. His eyes were storms, producing their own light.

But the rest of him looked like me. He even wore the same Ripper uniform I did. And he sported the one spike that always twisted the wrong way. Okay, perhaps that malign smirk wasn’t really mine. “Surprised, Toby?” His voice still sounded the same. Wonderful. It was weird enough as it was.

“No,” I squeaked. His lips pursed with the effort to restrain his laughter, a very mortal gesture.

“You’re funny when you’re scared, did you know?”

“Great,” I mumbled. I don’t know if I’m funny when I’m scared. And scared I certainly was. I’d never actually seen my God like this. He’d always been a formless entity, a voice in my head, and a force that brought pain onto me when I’d done wrong.

He demanded with a bit less humor to hear my story. I did tell it to him, fumbling over my words while I explained it to him. He seemed amused when I referred to Loki as ‘that tricky son of a fish.” That wasn’t the term I meant to use, but it worked.

When I was done with my tale, Karoesk sat silently for a minute. It made me feel rather suspenseful, the way he didn’t move for so long. Also, I began to notice that he didn’t breath. That wasn’t exactly the most comforting thing to figure out. After this long silence, he suddenly burst out laughing. Very suddenly. He even fell over and roared his laughter like a battle cry. His teeth looked like knives.

“Oh, nicely done! That was delicious. That was RICH. That was exquisite. You’re quite good at having bad days!” So he cackled. Well, THAT wasn’t very nice! He sat up with his smirk back in place, fixing me with those disturbing eyes. “Well, I’d better get going, since it’s almost dawn and you’re not the only Saikro out there. Bye.” He stepped away, just one step, but that was enough to make my frantic mind reel again. I grabbed the hem of his pants, exactly like my own, and gave him the most desperate look I could muster as he turned back.

“I don’t want to be alone,” I mumbled. I know how pathetic that sounds. But there wasn’t any way more shame could come to me from that. He laughed again, his razor teeth making Loki’s sword seem dull.

“Bitch, bitch, bitch. Toby, you’re so needy that it’s funny.” I said nothing, trying to show how resolute I was, trying to ignore the fact that he couldn’t bear the light and dawn really was approaching. “Don’t worry, you won’t be alone long.” I was about to ask what he meant, when he suddenly burst aflame.

I was so shocked that I dropped his pants. Quickly as they erupted, the flames were gone, and Karoesk was gone with them. There was no ash. There was no residual heat. There was only me, alone, on my knees, drenched with sweat and stuttering helplessly. No other sign that Karoesk had been there in the first place.

When my brain shifted back into place, I realized how silly I was to sit there like that, and I flopped tiredly on my back. Conversations with Karoesk were always strange. At least, this time, I wasn’t in a hospital afterward.

His farewell statement that I wouldn’t be alone long was a wee bit unsettling. What did that mean, anyway? It could be taken many multiple ways. An imminent attack? Yet another demented, traitorous ‘pet’? What if Loki and Rukis had turned around and came my direction? Oh, that would suck royally. He might have even meant something as far-fetched as having the company of some home-hungry bacteria, damn it!

After lying alone for a while, sleepless in my thought, the thirst finally became too strong to ignore. I sat up again, slowly, ignoring that my spikes had gone numb from the moist cold of the moss. The crushed moss smelled strangely sweet, almost like a freshly cut pine. Nice as it smelled at first, I knew I would get sick of it, as the scent would linger on my shirt.

The rush of running water was a soft, nearby sound. As proved by the short time it took to reach the source, it wasn’t far at all. It was the prettiest little creek I’d ever seen. Ever. Rainbows of glowing mushrooms and sweet, fruity-smelling flowers and fungi grew around the water’s edges as if it were an oasis. Some tingly feeling in the air made me want to sing. Babble, babble. The little stream was talking to me quietly. I had no idea what it was saying, but my dry throat pretended it was humming “drink me!”

I started forward across the dewy midnight grass, and stopped sharply when a voice reached my ears. Loki and Rukis?! No. It was female. It was giggling. A second later I heard another. Both of the giggling women, they sounded very close- probably just around the bend.

I wasn’t alone.