Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 30: The Preparation, Part 2

“State your business,” said a voice through a small rectangular window of a black wooden door.

“It’s me, Usher. I came to meet my old pal.” The man in black coat replied.

“You are not welcome. Go away you rat!”

“I have what 'he' needs. I have come here to trade.”

The door opened, an old cripple stepped to the side. “Try anything funny and you won’t leave this place alive.”

The Outsider ignored the cripple and walked into the darkness.

“Don’t get lost!” The crippled shouted from behind.

 The Outsider walked slowly. His eyes had hard time adapting to the absence of light, old light bulbs were swinging on the ceiling at random places, giving only enough vision to avoid hitting a wall on sharp turns of a twisted path. The place was silent at start, but the further he went the louder the noises behind concrete walls became. In time, the noises turned into menacing screams and moans. After a few more turns the path began forking and turned into a maze. 

“So, Glen. This is the place where all the filth of the ship gathers. This is the place of crime and human desires. How low can a human go to satisfy his physical needs?” the Outsider asked.

“A fleshless creature would never understand,” Glen snapped.

“You are getting better at this.”

“At what?”

“Fighting.” The Outsider giggled.

His laugh stopped after one of the doors a few meters in front of him slammed open and a naked pale man ran out. His eyes were bloody red, body movements poorly coordinated. He put his hands on a wall and began smashing his head into it.

The incident caught Outsider's attention, so he decided to take a peek into the mind of the fallen man to meet the daemons inside him. Ushers figure continued walking, but part of the Outsider wasn’t here. Part of him was inside the broken man. The Outsider always laughed at the misery and pain of humans. Only now it was different. Once he got in he began feeling truly sorry for the man. The feeling of loneliness and grief was so strong inside him. The man was happy once, and then the next day his entire world was torn apart.

The brutal images of man’s dead family crushed behind a torn down building, sounds of explosions echoing in the distance. These memories were fresh and the Outside knew that for a weak man such as him they would never go away. The man was too weak to take his own life, so here he was, trembling down on the floor with a bloody forehead, intoxicated and struck in artificial paradise his mind had crafted for him.

“Ask and I will set you free.” The Outsider projected his voice into man's thoughts.

“Who is this?”

“Why should you care?”

“No man can help me, mister, only God can,” the man replied.

“I’m neither. I’m not as weak as a man and I’m not as cruel as a God. But I can help.  I can make it all go away.”

“No one can help me, no one can help me…” the man mumbled and after the last words “…please help.” he began to cry

 “Let it go and come with me.” The Outsider said and his mental image began to drag the man away from the physical reality.  “You will forget it all and come back again sometime.”

“Thanks.” The voice of the man echoed from the other side.

******