Wake Me Up When It's Over

PART 1

Looking at the numbers.

  My eyes never leaving the numbers.

  0 0 0 0 0 0 

  NO!

  What is this?

  Where are the numbers?

  Watching the numbers - watching the numbers...

  

Time to take a break!

I will make some coffee.

  I will look out of the window:

  There they are again, that old damn tramp.  He's always sat under the railway bridge...

  Watching the numbers - watching the numbers

  CAN'T TAKE A BREAK!

  That old tramp never moves!  Crouching in his dirty patchwork clothes, warming his raw fingers over a fire bin.  He is the living dead...

  0 0 0 0 0 0 

NO!  

  Why are there no numbers?

  Yes.  You are right.  I am talking to myself.  But it is not madness, I swear.  

  It's just the numbers, that's all...

  It's all I have.

  And I used to have everything...

  Someone was knocking on the door.

  'It's open!'

  It was my old compatriot Rees!  What adventures we have had in the days gone by.  We built an empire, he and I.  I would be nothing without him.  He took me out of the streets, built me up, put me on the right road.  He was an old man now, fat and tired after doing everything right.  

  I should have listened to him.

  I could have retired.

  Instead I was just sitting in my chair, looking at the numbers.

  BUT with his help things could change...

  They had to change!  He was the one to help me.

  Rees.  I need you.

  'Things are not looking good,' was the first thing he said when he walked into the living room.  

  He poured himself a brandy and then sat in the chair beside the screen and watched the numbers with me.

  'You are sinking fast,' he continued.  'I can't bail you out of this one.  I want to, but the risk is too much.  And quite frank, I wouldn't touch you with a barge poll, not these days.  NO offence, old friend.  We won the world together back in the day, you and I, and it should have stayed that way.  But you were never content.  You had to keep pushing things.  And here we are.  Or, to put it more rightly, here YOU are.  You should have listened to me...'

  'I don't wan to hear this,' I returned.  'I just want to see the numbers.  You can help me get the numbers, right?  You are the man for the job.  That's why I hired you?'

  'You haven't hired me, I am here as old friend,' said Rees.

  0 0 0 0 0 0 

  'Look at this mess,' said Rees shaking his head.  'This is down to you!  I warned you.  But you never took heed despite my years of experience.  You are a hot head, a gambler.  And gamblers are fools as far as I am concerned.  Tisk!  You were never content.  Always chasing the clouds, looking for the end of the rainbow - but there is always another rainbow.  One pot of gold is never enough for a man like you.'

  

  0 0 0 0 0 0 

The numbers were still not changing!

  Those dreadful abhorrent numbers!

  I curse them!  Let them Change!

  Please.

  Let them save me!
  There is nothing else except the numbers.

  0 0 0 0 0 0 

  'There has got to be something you can do to help me, Rees?  

  'I tried to help you six months ago.  I gave you the best slice of advice a friend could give a friend: stay away from the Gustav Deal.  I told you.  I told you so many times.  This deal was too much of a risk.  It could kill you.  You couldn't tackle it by yourself.  The reward was not going to be worth - the injuries you were going to endure in the meantime would last forever.  I was right.  Men did no tackle mammoths by themselves back in the day - they needed a good loyal team.  You didn't have that.  You have always been a solo force and you have done a lot of amazing things working that way for over twenty years.  I'd like to say i admire you, O definitely used to.  but now all i can say is good - I would not want to be you right now.  You are going to have to fix your own problems by yourself from now on - I am out of this mess.  Goodnight.'

Yeah...

  Goodnight and get lost - loser!

  

PART 2

Every time I look out of the window I see shadowy shapes in the mist.

  I don't see their eyes.

  But I know they are watching me.

  I dread every minute that slides into infinity.

  Every minute.  Every second.  With each drop of time the shadows draw ever closer.

  0 0 0 0 0 0

Why do those cursed numbers never change?

  EVERYTHING CHANES

  Except:

  0 0 0 0 0 0

'It's not going to change.  Now is the time to give up...'

  NO I CAN NEVER GIVE UP.

  A grave looking man in a suit had allowed himself into the apartment.  He was sitting in a corner on a chair and pouring himself a glass of the last reserve of the whiskey.

  'You are in a dark dark place, a pit of the kind where these is no way out,' he said.  'And NO.  I won't lend you anymore money.  It isn't happening.  You have messed up good and proper.  You don't deserve help.  you have done what you have done and that is where you are going to stay.  You have dug this pit and now you can die in it.  Because trust me you are going to die...  There are people out there in the streets that want to get you.  You owe a lot of people a lot of money.  People can only take so much, and you have broken every promise you have ever made.  And people in this town do have a breaking point.  You have played a dangerous game with people rich and poor.  Now the game is over.  And everyone has lost.  The poor people will want to get you because they can't feed their children... and the rich, ell, that is na whole different story.  You have ripped off a lot of powerful people.  Don't deny it!  I can see it in your eyes.  You want to fight me on this.  But you can't.  There is nothing to fight.  Yes.   Could help you.  But are you going to help me?  You can't even help yourself.  NO.  Our business is done.  You are going to have to face the shadows all alone.'

  After he made his speech he finished his whiskey and left.

I CAN'T GIVE UP!  THE NUMBERS WILL CHANGE...

  THEY HAVE GO CHANGE!

  

  0 0 0 0 0 0

PART 3

There was somebody knocking on the door.

  It was Jim.

  Jim declined the offer for a drink and a smoke.  He looked shifty and stressed.  There might have been several specks of sweat on his brow.  He walked the length of the room and pressed open the window blinds.  

  YOU BETTER HAVE GOOD NEWS FOR ME JIM.

  'The streets are massing against you.  It is not safe here,' Jim replied.  'My advice to you is to run, while you still can.  Look, this is the situation.  There is no situation.  The money is gone.  All of it.  Maybe if I was a magician I could make more, but I am not and so I can't.  Look.  I don't want to be a part of this business anymore.  I look at it like this:

  'I cannot help you and you can't help me.  We are done.  A year ago we might have been able to help one another.  I have my business, and you have yours.  Yes.  We could have worked something else.  But you threw everything into Gustav Deal.  I don't you not to do.  And so did everyone else.  What were you thinking?  Were you mad?  Were you drunk?  And you burrowed all that money...  You know what the people of this town are like?  There are people out there perfectly willing to kill you.  And me as well.  That's why I want out.  I wanted to do business with you.  Like I said it could have worked.  But not anymore.  Take my advice and run.'

  LOOK INSIDE THE DRAW OVER THERE.

  Jim did so.  

  Jim sighed and shook his head when he saw what was inside.

  There was a gun sitting at the bottom of the draw.

  'And what is the point of this?' said Jim.  'I told you already!  I am done with this.  I don't want to be part of your business.  I am done.  NO!  I am not shooting anybody form you.  There was a time I would have helped you.  Look at it from my point of view.  I need money just as much as you do, but this is not the way to do it anymore.  Look.  That idiot you runs the shop has security cameras.  I can't get to him.  And I am not a robber.  I am no the guy to do this.  You need to get somebody else.  Please, I beg of you to give up and run away!  Don't drag me down in this madness!  I know I owe you.  You have helped me a lot in the past.  I want to help but...  But no.  It's over.  I am out.'

  HE HAS MONEY - YOU KNOW THE COMBINATION...  HE'S AN ENEMY.  IT'S HIS FAULT THE GUSTAV DEAL TURNED OUT THE WAY IT DID.  EVERYTHING I WORKED FOR IS IN ASHES BECAUSE OF THAT MAN...  END IT NOW JIM.  YOU OWE ME.  TAKE THE JOB AND DO IT...

  

PART 4

The man in the suit sitting opposite him that morning was a detective.

  He started to speak:

  'Everything 

  WHAT WAS THE POINT IN THIS?

  'This place is a bomb.  The timer is ticking down.  Soon it is going to go - and there is going to be an explosion here like no one has seen before in this town town.'

  GET OUT OF MY HOME!

  'We know things are going bad for you.  You are at the top of the list.  There are people out there who do not like you - powerful people.  You should be careful.  Call me if you need any help.  There is a way out for you - but you cannot stay here.  I can find a place for you to stay, for a few days, till you can straighten yourself out - but I can see that you are not interested. Fine.  Well, listen to this:

  'We found a dead body in the shop three days ago. They are saying you are involved - everyone is, not just the force, but most of the people who know you.  They are saying you owed the victim a lot of money, and that they were threatening you.  Now I don't believe you had anything to do with us.  I know you from old.  I think you have had a lot of bad luck lately, but I don't believe you are a murderer.  I don't think you would have ordered it, either.  I don't like tot think you would do that.  But the clock is ticking Mr, and you are sitting on a bomb.  You need to get up and walk away.  I can see what you are doing.  You are not listening to me, are you?  Fine.  I have said my piece.  Now I will go.  Those numbers are  not going to change, sir - but that bomb is going to go, finally, and when it does it is going to go real bad for you and lot of other people involved in your business.  Goodday sir.'

PART 5

  0 0 0 0 0 0

There we go again...

Bailiffs at the door!

Bailiffs at the door!

I hear them knocking.

I hear there threatening voices.

DON'T LET THEM IN!

  0 0 0 0 0 0

PART 6

'I see you have stopped checking the numbers.  Finally.  Common sense has been achieved.'

  Jim had let himself in through the back door.  He was a rascal for doing that!

  It was like he had keys to the building - but he did not.

  He just knew how to get inside places - that's what made him good for certain tasks...

  'I did what you wanted,' Jim started.  

  Jim walked around the room till he found the whiskey decanter, and then he freely started to pour himself a drink.

  He took a seat.

  He didn't care.

  You could see it in his face, in his eyes.  He was pale.  He was broken.  His eyes were full of darkness.  

  Once he had finished drinking he pulled out a gun.  

  What was he doing with that thing?

  The police were everywhere!

  Had the man gone mad?

  Maybe he had...

  Maybe they were both mad.

  Maybe it was the end of the world for the both of them.

  'It's been a long day,' Jim continued.  'Its like that at this time of year.  Morning and night bend into one - with only a splash of day, but that is the way, this time of year.  Forgive my mild attempt at forcing poetry.  It just helps pass the time - help to keep the mind straight and on the task.  We are all survivors in this world, no matter where we are, we are all trying to keep our heads above the waves.  It is a hard business.  My grandfather was a sailor, back in the day during the war.  He had to weather every storm imaginable and I feel I am doing the same thing in my own way.  The hardest route to take on the seas is the straight route.  I tried to do it.  I tried to avoid the rocks - and head straight for port.  But I couldn't do it.  You know what I want in my life?  A quiet beach.  I never found it.  I am mostly to blame for my mistakes.  I am stupid.  I have done a lot of ridiculous things.  I tried to be like my grandfather - it did not work out...  PTSD and all that.  It's real you know?  It is not must something clever people in nice suits talk about.  I see it nearly every day - the horrible things... we did.  But well.  Thank you for the whiskey!  The drink helps keep it all at bay.  As long as I can still drink I am sailing straight for the calm beach!  And it is a most pleasant thing.  This is a sad meeting.  Like many people who have promised me that quiet beech, you burned the flag of my ship and you sunk my dreams beneath the waves.  But it is my fault at the end of the day.  I should not have listened to you.  My dreams were nothing except paper boats, lost in the waves.  There was nothin for them.  Nothing for me.  But well, sad as that all is, here we are.  Now there was a time when you were the king, and I bowed my head and kissed the ring.  It was the thing.  My pockets were empty but yours were full.  I was grateful to you, when the business began.  You helped me a lot.  I thought you were great.  A fine king!  I was proud to serve thee.  But now it is over.  Those buildings are empty.  And the place where I used to live is empty.  Now all I have left is the open road, and it is cold this time of year.  How did it ever get to this?  Maybe we will never know, not you not I.  But here we are and this is what the situation is.  

  'Another man is dead because of me.  I got him to open the vault before he died.  Lies work so well when one has a weapon at hand and defenceless head behind it.  You can be the nastiest man alive, but nothing backs down to the flame and to the steel.  He did everything I told him to do.  The money is in a suitcase.  I can bring it over.  But here is one thing you h ave to do first, and you have not done this yet.  You have to pay me for my work.'

  PLEASE.  IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

  'Well that is a pity.'  Ralph raised the gun.  'I wanted things to go well this evening, but I do not work for free, and I need money.  Ah well.  Goodnight fine fellow.  I wish things could have been different.  But sadly this is how it is.  You had your chance - and you smoked and drank it all away.  Long live the king.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I hope you had a good time.'

  0 0 0 0 0 0

They 0 disappeared.  

  There was simply nothing left...

(Remember!  All spelling errors and grammatical mistakes are intentional - the author 😆)

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THE LEGEND OF RUDWIN REVIEW 

The Night when the onions attacked...

THE NIGHT WHEN THE ONIONS ATTACKED

DISCLAIMER:  ALL SPELLING MISTAKES IN THIS STORY ARE INTENTIONAL AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WRHITER.  THANK YOU.

My friend Shay and I lived on the coast of the Isle of Sni - east of the West Coast.
  We lived alone, taking care of the family estate.
  We owned a large library full of the oldest and most useless books anyone could imagine out of memory, full of stories about moons, and the breeding habits of dragons.
  As a botanist plants have always fascinated me, and it has long been my ambition to imbue plants with the consciousness of human beings, and grow flowers and hedges that might be willing to aid me in my day to day task of maintaining

the family library - for it is such a heavy task cleaning all those dusty old books of ours.
  Such a heavy task.
  And I am old, very old, and Shay is foolish and cares nothing for the books.
  The walls of the library are covered up and down by whole vine roots - thick they grow - great green webs, wild and free.
  Then the inspiration came to me...
  What if all those leaves could spring to life!
  And aid me in my troubled strife -
  At tidying all those dusty old books!
  So for forty years I studied the ancient arts - with Shay's help I collected and grew many ancient herbs.
  I brewed many potions.
  Apart from the final brew - that swam in a bottle labelled "Plants will speak" on the top of my workbench - I took my eye away from it for a minute and then it was gone!
  My life's work for naught!
  I was furious!
  I sent Shay to work!
  'Find the missing bottle!  Do not return without it!'
  My poor assistant Shay has been at my side since the beginning.
  I cannot describe the misery that silly man brought me...
  The mere thought of him made me feel weary.
  He strutted about, like some frivolous child, swinging his arms about like he was in dance, with a beaming grin on his face.
  he was permanently jolly even in the darkest times.
  I grew so tired of that foolish little witless man that I put together an old medieval contraption, a screw with a knot, and strapped it around his head so that whenever he annoyed me I tightened the screw and brought great pain upon

him.
  It is a cruel thing to do, I know, but the man must be controlled, and the crick and crack his skull makes always bring a very swarm glow to my heart!

And so life went on, very normally, stacking books, watering plants - turning the screw - looking at the ivy leaves and wishes so hard that they could walk and talk - when I was disturbed from my afternoon nap by a voice that was

whispering from under the crack of my door.
  'Tonight is the night we dine!'
  I was left a little shaken, but soon recovered my senses when i told myself I had only just imagined the whispery voice below my door.
  An hour later my friend Shay entered the room.
  'The onions are missing!'
  Onions, he said.
  Onions...
  Onions!
  I swiftly removed my hand from my pocket and lashed Shay around the face - and turned the crew a little more till I heard the crick and crack - that sound that so calmed my twitchy nerves.
  Shay knew better than to speak about Onions in my presence.
   Little swine.

  He knew that I had been born with a phobia of those wretched little rooty things.

  I loved many a thing that grew out of the ground, but onions no!

  For onions my love of growing things stopped...

  My hatred for that vegetable was rooted deeply in my soul - it was sowed into my DNA while I was growing myself within my mothers womb.

  Those bulbous things...

  They simply disgusted me!

  Beyond belief I could not tolerate them.

  I don't know what it was - whether it was the smell - or the feel of their flaky skin - or their offensively dull appearance.

  There was something about the onion that was foul to me - to my eye to my senses - it made me feel ill in my stomach.

  'Curse you Shay!' I cried.  'How many times have I told you never to speak of such things!'

  Shay realized his mistake and his knees started to quake, rightly so.  'Forgive me!  It was a slip of the tongue!  I will speak no more of onions!'
  'You said it again!  You will pay for making me suffer Shay!'
  Shay melted into a trembling wreck on the floor.  'No sir!  Please sir!  Do not turn the wheel!  Don't turn that thing!  I will mention the bulbs no more!  No sir!  NO more shall the word onion flow from my lips...'
  I heard him say it, and took action at once.
  I turned the wheel - twice it span round.  
  One more turn and the little man would of died.
  But I decided to spare him that day.
  I could see that he had learned his lesson and I dismissed him at once.
  And he did go, stumbling so, but he did go.

Night arrived, and the cold air outside was filled with a sound that was like hissing - hissing snakes?
  No!
  My imagination surely?
  I could only be nothing more than the winter wind caught up in a battle amid the ivy leafs of the library walls.
  That's all it was...
  Hush hush now...
  Time to close my eyelids.
  Try to shut down the brain, and remain, somewhat in control of my thoughts.
  But then I started to hear the rustling, outside my window peering beneath the midnight sky - I heard the rustling, growing louder, maybe moving nearer, to my body and soul.
  My eyelids would not fall.
  I lay down on my bed, and tried to think of other things.
  But inside my head, I could only dream of certain fiends - rolling around and around, inside my aching mind.
  Were I not so kind I would say it was a fever - but I knew that it was far more, something like a seizure, of all that was sane in my head.
  My conscience was not playing tricks.
  I was in a fix.
  And I knew something bad was on its way...
  Then I remembered the whispery voice from earlier, the memory sparked up and played again in that space between my ears - I heard the whispery voice again, it echoed it's old play again - 'We will dine tonight!'
  The rustling increased - and the doors around the library creaked.
  'Who goes there?' I cried.  
  I hoped it was Shay.
  Why if it was I would turn the wheel so tight his brain would be in delight of something more welcoming than death.
  The doors continued to creak.
  'Who goes there?'
  No voice returned.  
  I left for the door that was nearer, and reached my hand out to the handle.
  I had the key ready to unlock the unknown.
  'Whoever you are be warned!  I am not a man to be tried!  My Shay will tell you so.'
  The door, unlocked, now opened through the works of my hand, and then I saw it, in the darkness with the full moon on its flaky skin, I saw it, a thing from out of the deepest depths of my horror...
  An onion the size of a man!
  The foulest thing my eyes could ever lay upon - the gates of hell would of been a merrier sight, anything but that thing!
  It stood there, before the door, barring my way, rooted against my escape, a bulb of horror.  

  Such terror!

  I could barely contain the leaping dance of my heart as it threw itself into a stupor of the most horrific magnitude.
  That moment at the door, with the vegetable before me, was the most terrifying event of my whole life.
  I threw the door to, and instantaneous action any sane man would make in such a situation - but the massive bulb behind pressed hard on the wooden frame - pressed hard indeed before the oak of the hundred year old door snapped in many various ways - leaving a wide opening free for any fiend to happily roll in and assail me.
  My terror was high beyond belief.
  It was all I could do to hold my senses to prevent myself from collapsing with grief.
  I made at once for the steps that led up to the library tower.  
  Surely the rolling vegetable fiends would not be able to follow me there?
  I scarpered up the steps like a thief in the night.
  I spared a little look behind me as I ran - and I saw not one onion but three - maybe another fourth rolling up in the shadows behind.
  Was this my worst nightmare coming to life?
  O please wretched mercy o please let me awake!
  I made my way up the steps and closed the last door behind me verily.
  But I could still hear the rustling under the crack of the door.  
  Surely the fiends were not following?
  Surely they could not wade the many steps up the neck of the tower to here?
  No onion could do such a thing!
  But then...  What did I know of onions?  My fear had left me isolated from the vegetable?  How did I not know if an onion could walk the steps of the tower?
  Maybe I had doomed myself.
  Maybe this was my door all along?
  But there was no pressure on the door.
  The night went away, and I left the tower to explore.
  The onions had gone away.
  I was safe!  
  Or was I?
  I started to look around, look for food and water, but Shay was nowhere to be seen.
  It seemed I was alone against this thing.
  Had I just dreamed the events of the earlier night?
  Like they had heard my thoughts the onions came again!
  O yes!
  There they were...
  Fiends!
  They came bounding up the hillside from my east and west - I retreated at once for the library, but then this giant beast of an onion rose before me.
  'I am the onion king!' it cried.  'Now you will know my wrath!'
  The skin of the onion beast split, and after several of the layers behind opened its foul onion juice flowed forth.
  Intense was the heat of the horrible acid that leaked forth from its maw.
  How it burned my toes!
  How it made me yell in pain.
  It was time to run again.
  So run I did, up the steps, back into the tower.  I closed the door, locking myself maybe into a dream of safety.  
  More like a prison worse than death.
  But I dare not open that door again.
  The onions are outside, I know it, and I refuse to face them.
  Fort my own sanity I cannot!
  I shall hide.
  I shall hide!
  I shall make furtive steps while the shadows are drawn, but I will not go far - not while the onions are on watch.
  I see not their minds but I know that they watch - but they will not get me - not while I still have thew wits left to think and move.

  By the time you read this I will most likely be threw...

         tossed up and mixed in with an onion stew...
  So thank ye for reading, and fare thee well my friends.
  Far thee well.

  May thy onion-filled tears fill many a brew...

THE END

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Ring Ting Man - Strange Dark Poem

Ring a ting ting
You hear me?
I hear you!
What's your name?
play the game!
I will tell you what to do!



DOES IT MOVE?
Does it stare

Can it be alive?

Can it be dead?

Can it be anything if there are no eyes to witness its rise and fall.

Is there a sun?

Are there any clouds?

Is the sky filled with stars at night -

Do the flowers show colour?

Do the trees move in the breeze?

What is a breeze?

Can anyone feel it?

Is it even there?

It is there because of us

That's the truth of it

Without us there is nothing

Without eyes there is nothing...


THAT IS WHY I NEED YOU!



Ring a ting ting
You hear me?
I hear you!
What's your name?
play the game!
I will tell you what to do!




What are you?

It's a mystery - for what it's worth

How do you feel?

Your face is the sign.

Your eyes are the thing -

What are they ?  Do they hold the key to the meaning ?

It trickles away from like a stream...

It means nothing.  And nothing means nothing.

I feel not - know not - it means nothing -

But you see it -

You feel it -

You know it -

I know nothing because to me nothing is nothing.

Show me your eyes.

Let me see the secret.

I don't know why but I yearn to understand the secret.




Ring a ting ting
You hear me?
I hear you!
What's your name?
play the game!
I will tell you what to do!






Let me live in your eyes.

I see you squint, I see you squirm

I know that face

and so forward I shall race

- let me live in your eyes!

I shall send thunder over you

put mist before you

Set up mountains for you to climb -

Your sweat shall fall like rain over a dancing forest

Your footfalls shall be heavy like the thoughts of kings.

You shall walk slowly like a hailstorm is before you.

Lest you let me live in your eyes.

For a second,

Let me live in your eyes.





Ring a ting ting
You hear me?
I hear you!
What's your name?
play the game!
I will tell you what to do!








Proud is your heart, I shall break it,

Weak is your humility, I shall melt it.

Loud is your voice, I shall drown it.

Your will is like a sea wave, but it shall fall,

And you will come down one and all.

Your bones are tough like granite, but I shall make them snap

And in my power enwrap,

Your mountainous spine - entwine, in my serpent grip

 - twist into sand,

flat on the earth.

ALL will crumble, I'll make sure of that...





Ring a ting ting
You hear me?
I hear you!
What's your name?
play the game!
I will tell you what to do!




Into the swamp you will sink.

Your breath will swim away from you - your soul like an anvil will not hover in the sky.

Down the tunnel you will go

walking, falling, flying

In silent company you stand

An uncharted island on a map, a mystery, but forgotten,

And I shall close your eyes - forever.

You will cease to be, and I shall live and be nothing.

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Tree Eye

It is a game

I feel this, more than I know

It is all a façade.

We are all so caught up in the game it would be tragic if it wasn't so funny!

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The circle of madness

Who am I to know its weaves -
Or where its fronds do twine:
Where its tendrils grow...
Deep in the mind...
The darkness,
The Space...
The universe
Around and around it does not sleep:

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The Amazing Mr Carnival Man

The Amazing Mr Carnival Man

You can take an illiterate 30 year old man, a man with the mind of 18 year old, who can barely utter a few sentences outside of a mumble, a man whose only talent appears to be his ability to holler curses, vulgar and distasteful, with a brain span of about five minutes, you can take that man body and soul and transform him into a poet in about five years –

- Give or take.

Here is the trick…

Lock him in an empty room.

Give him only food and water.

Nothing else.

Never speak to him.

Never see him.

Leave him with nothing except himself.

In the years to follow that man will pass through four stages:

ANGER

DESPERATION

DEPRESSION

ENLIGHTENMENT

Before he entered the room he had no dreams.

Now he lives in dreams.

Now he feeds not on bread and water, but on his mind, on his soul.

He feeds on himself.

He draws nourishment from his mind.

Now he is a poet – and an artist like no other one Earth!

PART 1

He had it all…

His own business.

A good sized house.

Lots of land.

A swimming pool.

Plenty of money and plenty of enemies…

“I am like a piece of meat in a pool full of piranhas,” he told the reporters.

And they came for him, those piranhas and they ate him to the bone…

‘I’ve got to get out of this damn country.’

‘But my dear friend there is a way,’ said Silus. ‘I have given you the way long ago but you have ignored me. You could afford to ignore me back in the day. You can’t anymore. Will you listen to me?’

As far as hope was concerned Greg was a starving man – a cornered rat stuck at a dead end, a man with no options. He agreed to listen.

‘Five years ago I took ten thousand dollars with me to the Philippines, married a local girl and became a citizen. I bought a house and a car. Ten thousand dollars in the Philippines makes you a very rich man. You can buy anything you want. You can live like a king!’

Greg sat listening intently to his friend.

Silus had this voice that sounded so convincing. He could make you believe in anything! If he told you he had found a way to turn ordinary rocks into golden nuggets you would believe his word without question.

‘DO you know what else I did with my money? I built a studio. I display art. I love art as you know. Underground art. Dark art. It’s my thing. I have purchased many of the works of Sgt Baroos, and Gier Toffman. Their works are like the interior of a complex brain. When I think of the inside of a brain, and of course I refer to human imagination, I imagine a huge house with a spiral staircase inside going up and down forever. That is what I say in the dark swirls of their art.’

His passion was inspiring.

He made the life he lived abroad sound like a perfect little dream.

Greg wanted a slice of it!

Greg decided to stab his friend with a question.

‘How much do you think I would need to become a citizen and settle down?’

‘How much money can you get your hands on right now?’

‘I’ve got two thousand. That’s all.’

‘That’s enough,’ said Silus. ‘That’s about twenty thousand. If you are that keen to go, then you can leave with me. I’m catching a plane in two weeks once I have finished business here. You can stay in my studio. You will have upkeep – but don’t worry about that too much. I am not interested in money. But there will be one or two tasks I will want you to carry out.’

To the ears of a desperate man like Greg the offer sounded too awesome to decline.

His friend was willing to put him up in his studio rent free!

So he would have a few tasks to carry out?

So what?

Greg wasn’t afraid of hard work.

So he accepted the offer.

‘Then mu friend when you return to the Philippines I will go with you!’

And so the date was set and the deed was done.

Greg’s fantastic journey saw him flying halfway across the world to the city of Manila.

From there they took flight to the archipelago of Milas, and then after a five hour trip inside this tight little vehicle the locals called a Jeepney they made for the local town of Malatas.

But this was not the end of the journey.

It was time to do some backpacking.

They left Malatas on foot, heading in the direction of a great rise in the land.

Silus pointed to the hilltop and said to Greg, ‘That is where I live! Let us make haste!’

It was a long and dirty journey which lasted three days.

All Greg could think in all those days of hiking was how far off the beaten track they were.

Why weren’t they following a road or a path?

Why were they cutting their way through the wilderness?

Surely there had to be a safer swifter route to home?

But finally the shrubbery subsided and they saw it!

The villa, stood against the warm blue sky – tranquil among the trees like a painting.

This was the home of Silus. They had finally reached their destination!

Silus stood at the doorstep and said to Greg, ‘Let me welcome you to my abode. My home is now yours. It is good to have a new worker living here with us!’

When Greg stood on the balcony and saw, properly, for the first time, the scene of turquoise sea, and green flecked islands, Greg truly felt he had made the right decision to flee his country.

He felt in his heart that he had found some kind of redemption.

It was like his worries were finally over!

How wonderful!

Silus slowly appeared from the back room, and stood at his side on the balcony. He was sipping whiskey while letting his eyes fly across the gorgeous view. ‘I often wonder why I live here,’ he said. ‘Then after a few months in England, I return and then I am reminded why I chose to plant my roots here. My hotel in London has a window looking upon a sight filled with block after block of gargantuan stone. Each window block has a thousand windows with a thousand eyes looking out in all directions. I see them, looking all about and yet looking at nothing, because there is nothing to actually see out of those windows. There’s just a lot of noise, that’s all. A lot of noise that drums inside the skull. It drums away inside endlessly without stop. It never loses energy because it is constantly supping away at the essence of your soul. You grow sick without knowing it. Then I stand on this balcony, see that view right here, see the real world, and I am cured. It’s the same for you right now I imagine, Greg? You didn’t realise you were sick a few days ago but I imagine that you do now? Don’t worry about it. Breathe in that air. Relax! You are finally free! Enjoy the cure. See the world as it is. This is your new life now.’

Greg breathed it in.

Good times were ahead!

His soul breathed lightly and his heart was glad.

Silus patted Greg on the shoulder. ‘Time to get to work,’ he whispered.

‘Yes I am ready to earn my keep,’ said Greg.

‘I am glad you understand the score between us,’ Silus replied. ‘I helped you, and now you will help me. Tit for tat if you will.’

‘I am ready to work,’ said Greg. ‘You got me out of nasty mess. You have given me a new life in this country far away from any of my old enemies. I am in certainly in your debt.’

Silus smiled.

For some reason the smile made Greg feel uncomfortable.

He didn’t know why.

Silus had the look of contempt.

Greg had never seen his friend hold such a look before.

Now Greg started to think very deeply about things.

Lots of thoughts were racing around inside his head.

How long had he known Silus?

Answer?

He didn’t know!

He couldn’t remember!

Did he know him enough to trust him?

Did he trust him at all?

Had Greg agreed to pack up and leave abroad with Silus because he was panicking?

Had he really thought any of this through?

The answer?

NO!

That was all the voice in his head screamed:

NO NO NO!

Something about this is not right!

‘You are indeed in my debt very much so,’ Silus replied. ‘And all debts must be paid in full. That is the policy in my house. As long as you understand this, Greg, we will get along quite well.’

Greg retired with those words in his head – “You are in my debt. All debts must be paid in full. Understand this, Greg.”

Greg couldn’t sleep.

This new sense of dread kept stinging his conscious mind.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble.

Finally morning arrived, hot and humid and full of the sounds of birds and beasts, and Greg was called into the living room.

There Silus told him that he had a task ready for him to complete.

Greg was so tired but he agreed to go along with things.

‘Alright what must be done?’

Silus called for his Filipino servant Penchy Gisborn. The dwarf stepped into the room bowing before his master, but as he swept Greg by he gave the man a strange dark look.

Silus now addressed Penchy directly:

‘Penchy! Let me introduce you to Greg. He is your servant from now on. He is to be put to work in the fields. You will oversee his labour, and provide additional tasks if need.’

‘I understand master,’ said Penchy.

Penchy looked at Greg and sneered. ‘You are my servant now, boy.’

‘You are free to beat the man if you feel it is necessary,’ said Silus, to Greg’s surprise, he spoke that sentence quite casually to his dwarf servant.

Silus farm grew coconuts.

The warehouses were full of busy people jostling and shouting, buying and selling.

It was loud and smelt bad

Greg was quite out of his depth.

Penchy stood next to Greg laughing.

He was enjoying Greg’s discomfort. He held a stick up to Greg’s throat. ‘I expect you to sell fifty coconuts by the days end, or I feed you to komodo dragon!’

And he laughed O my how he laughed!

All Greg could in that situation was panic…

And he sol no coconuts.

Penchy sighed, tutted, and started to shake his head.

‘It’s punishment time for you my boy,’ he said.

Greg’s heart was in his mouth!

What punishment had this dwarf in mind for him?

Just the thought of this alone was too terrible for him to bear.

Greg tried to plead his case to the dwarf.

‘Please,’ he started. ‘I am new to this and I don’t know what to do! At least train me? Tell me what to do! We can start again tomorrow.’

‘I give no second chances to you,’ Penchy replied. ‘Punishment will do you good! I punish you right away!’

Penchy took a very forlorn Greg towards a barn full of giant snakes!

Greg counted at least ten of these terrifying reptiles.

‘You will sleep here for the night,’ Penchy told him. ‘I will lock the gate and you will stay here with these beasts, in the dark!’

‘But they will kill me!’

‘You will fight! Penchy fight snakes! Penchy work alone on the coconut farm. Snakes attack me all the time. And dragons! They attack me. They try to kill me. But Penchy fight. I have scars,’ he rolled up his sleeves and showed the great scars on his arms.

His index finger had been severed by a giant lizard.

He revealed that his left leg was made of wood – a crocodile had at him, but Penchy , versatile slippery Penchy, escaped the iron grip of the monsters jaws.

‘My right eye is made of glass see,’ he said to Greg.

Greg saw the fake eye.

The eye was red, like a lunar eclipse.

‘Great cat attack! Penchy alone. Fight the beast. It take out my eye. But Penchy does not run. Penchy bight with teeth, like a savage. Penchy win. Penchy live to speak another day. Penchy work hard on Lord Silus farm. Penchy bleed for Lord Silus. Now you bleed for Penchy!

‘I beg you not to do this to me!’

But Penchy wasn’t listening.

He had no mercy in his heart for Greg.

‘You go in barn now!’

Greg was no going inside that barn.

Not for anything.

Run.

Run!

He ran.

But where could he go?

He was alone and lost in a land that was alien to him.

And Penchy knew the countryside.

It was not long before Penchy found him, collapsed, exhausted, and shaking with terror.

Penchy got together a few of his boys and they carried Greg back home.

There, in his house on the hill surrounded by the beautiful turquoise sea, Silus was waiting.

He was not happy with Greg.

He was holding a glass of wine in his hand, and poured the contents out on Gregs head.

‘You are a fool Greg,’ he said. ‘I expected more from you.’

‘I don’t know how to sell coconuts! And I can’t fight snakes! Come on man! You know this!’

IN a fit of anger Silus snapped, and tossing his wine glass onto the floor he grabbed Greg by the hair of his head and pulled the man’s left ear to his mouth.

Then he hissed, and spoke:

‘Damn you! Ungrateful dog! I take you in. Save you from the lone sharks after you the money lenders sold the loan they gave you. They were going to gut you like a fish if they got their hands on you. You would be dead now if it wasn’t for my generous heart giving you a second chance at life. I gave you so much! A roof over your head and good food and drink! All I asked was that you worked for these goodly things I have given you. I give you good honest work so that you had the chance to repay me! Is that too much to ask? I believed in you Greg! I had hopes in you. And then you ran away from me. Damn you! Poor Penchy had to send his men to hunt you half way across the island. They walked miles, so that they could find you and drag you back to me like so worthless animal. You cost me time, Greg, and like in all business time is money.’

Silus let go of Gregs hair, and walking to the other side of the room he sighed. ‘I will pay you back now, Greg, for the time you have cost me. I will pay you back double for the money I have lost today.’

Silus turned to Penchy the dwarf and nodded his head.

He had given him a sign.

‘Throw him in the pit. We will see how long he lasts without food water or company.’

Penchy grinned like some demon of old, and gleefully snatched Greg up with his arms, and with strength that seemed almost impossibly inhuman for a man of Penchy’s small stature, carried Greg over to the edge of the pit, and through the man down into the darkness!

When Greg reached the bottom of the pit he hit his head on the hard ground and fell unconscious.

Penchy stood there at the edge, and spar on Greg. ‘You try to climb up again boy and I beat you freely. I beat you till your legs fall off! Haha!’

Penchy laughed like a mad dog before retreating into the darkness beyond.

So there was Greg at the bottom of the pit, trapped in the dark alone.

It was the worst kind of situation anyone could find themselves.

When Greg finally awoke, opening his eyes to see absolutely nothing, he panicked!

Was this some kind of purgatory?

Then his memory came slowly sliding back and then he saw it all and knew where he was.

It was the end of the road, Greg knew it.

He felt so foolish!

Why had he trusted Silus?

He asked himself that question again and again.

There was only one answer.

He had been stupid.

Utterly stupid and now he was paying the price.

A harsh price but that was just the way of the world.

No second chances.

Make one mistake and you’re finished.

Days would go by.

Food was thrown down to him from above. So Silus still wanted to keep him alive.

Greg couldn’t understand why this was so.

Why torture him in such a way?

Why leave him to rot in the dark for such a long time.

Absolutely nothing made sense anymore.

After a few weeks Greg stopped trying to understand.

He’s lot now was the darkness.

Darkness inside.

Darkness outside.

That was it.

More weeks went by, and then something strange happened.

The despair that Greg felt evaporated.

He had grown used to the darkness.

After another few weeks he actually began to feel that he rather liked it.

At least at the bottom of the pit, with constant food being thrown down to him, he had nothing to worry about!

And then after the passing of more time, now weeks months and years had become one, Greg made a friend in the dark.

Greg couldn’t remember how they started talking.

It felt like his new friend had always been there, not just in the pit, but with him at his side on his journey of life all along.

He just hadn’t bothered to say ‘hi,’ not until the pit – and well now there was no one else to speak to, so he might as well speak up to the friendly soul he shared the darkness with.

He was called the Face of Fate.

‘How long do you intend to stay in the pit?’ said The Face.

‘I thought that much about it,’ Greg replied. ‘As long as I have to I suppose.’

Then The Face asked him some questions.

‘Do you want to be free?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know what being free is.’

‘Do you feel like a prisoner?’

‘All the time. Even before the pit I felt like I was in a cage. I couldn’t go anywhere. I had enemies on all sides. I don’t think I can be free.’

‘Do you like being a prisoner?’

‘I don’t like it. It’s just there is nothing I can do about it.’

And The Face asked Greg once more:

‘Do you want to be free?’

This time Greg answered: YES.

‘I can help you,’ said The Face.

‘Can you free me from the pit?’

‘I can free you from EVERYTHING.’

‘Help me.’

‘I will help you, Greg. But you must help yourself first. Are you willing to let go of everything you know to be real?’

‘Nothing is real to me anymore,’ Greg replied.

‘Open your mind, Greg. Let me enter your brain – and the journey will begin.’

‘How do I do that?’

‘Lie down and relax,’ said The Face. ‘Think about NOTHING! Just relax. Let all thoughts fly away!’

Fly away!

Fly away!

When Greg opened his eyes again he saw a thousand million colours…

That is to say Endless colours.

Colours going on forever into the abyss so that even the abyss was full of colour.

Colours that had no name.

Colour had no meaning in this land.

It was almost too much for Greg to bear, to begin with, but the Face of Fate was there to pick him up and guide him.

‘Follow me!’ said The Face.

And Greg followed The Face, by many strange twists of vibrant Gloon and Cherry Splasm Bloor, up jewelled stairways of shining Floorshell, by lakes of glistening Tollandon, and by ravines filled with screams of banshees toiling in the red and yellow waves of Embriscien.

Finally they reached a precipice, the edge of the great blue Mountain of Gond, the end of their journey. The Face of Fate turned and around and said to Greg, ‘Are you ready to breath in the power of this world?’

‘I am ready for anything,’ Greg replied.

‘Know something friend Greg,’ said The Face, speaking in a solemn voice. ‘You have a good heart. Your heart will affect the power you wield. You will wield the power for good. And in turn you will do much that is good in time. But you must know that it cannot last, for there cannot be good without evil. The balance cannot be broken. One cannot be at all without the other.

‘You cannot have red without blue.

‘You cannot have stars without human minds to write them.

‘No pleasure without pain. No life without death. And no death without life.’

‘I understand,’ said Greg. ‘I am ready for the power.’

‘Are you ready to wield the power forever?’

‘I am!’

‘Why are you ready?’

‘Because I know that everything in the universe is one, a circle. Nothing ever ends.’

And The Face of Fate cried – ‘And so thou shalt wield the power!’

A streak of bright green light flowed into Greg’s eyes.

The power was leaking into his brain. Greg could feel the power flow from his mind into all his sinews. It melted his whole body into a pool of slime, and then out of the puddle pulled him back up and reshaped him from the liquid into something new.

Something completely new.

‘Greg you were but now no longer!’ said The Face of Fate. ‘Now you live and breathe as the Amazing Mr Carnival Man!’

Inside a streak of living lightning he returned to the world.

Greg no more.

Now Mr Carnival Man.

He looked at himself in the reflection of a lake.

Now he was a creature from another world!

He was a jester, with spikes, and wings, and elfin features. Beautiful and terrifying!

And he could move like a bird, but he also felt like had the strength of a typhoon, and that he could pull up trees!

He could be here there and anywhere in a streak of lightning.

‘Silus I will find you!’ he cried into the sky.

He found Silus, in his office, with Penchy and three other shady characters – business associates.

The three strangers fled in terror, jumping out of windows!

Penchy hid in a corner, and was shaking like a frightened puppy.

Carny looked down at the frightened dwarf – but could not find it in himself to take action against the man. He felt only pity for him. As evil as the man was his cruelty had never been plucked out of desire. The little man had found himself in that dark place by following a long and sad road of trauma and hardship.

Carny looked into the dwarf’s heart and saw this.

He felt the dwarf’s pain.

So Carny forgave Penchy.

‘I forgive you Penchy. Go now! Return to your family. Make haste afore I change my mind and remember the evils you did me!’

Penchy fled in terror and was never seen again.

Now that Penchy was dealt with Carny turned his bright eyes to Silus, the man who had really been behind all his troubles and pains.

The man who had tricked and betrayed him.

The man who had left him to rot and go mad inside the darkness of the pit.

It was time to have revenge and deal justice to the villain!

Carny could see fear in the eyes of his enemy.

He had never before seen Silus look this way.

His face had become a mask of terror.

Finally Silus understood the shape of things: his evil actions, deeds that had made him powerful, now struck back like a viper - the universe had turned its back on him. The sun and the moon that had once danced to his tune had sunk into the hills and now he was stooping beneath the shadow of the Amazing Mr Carnival Man.

‘What will become of me?’ he said.

Carny knew already what he was going to do long before the man asked.

And so Carny replied, ‘I will deal with you as you dealt with me.’

He grabbed Silus by the throat and drawing him to the edge of the pit, ‘Know thy evil with thine own eyes,’ and with one stroke of his hand he threw the man into the deep dark hole.

Carny stood still and waited for the screams of his enemy to end, and then walked away.

He had defeated his enemies, but there was something in his heart that began speaking to him, relentlessly pouring words in his mind. When he looked into himself he saw that it was not once voice that was talking to him inside his soul, but thousands of voices, in song, singing in unison. Like a thousand birds singing with the arrival of the sun, a thousand songs were playing in and around the harpsichord of his soul.

There were no particular words being used inside the soul at the centre of his soul, but Carney felt that he understood what the song was all about.

He was needed in the wide open world.

There was still more work to do.

And so he set out, striking suddenly like lighting whenever there was any kind of evil at work.

Anything sinister, no matter how small, how great and terrible, The Amazing Mr Carnival Man was there to smite, drive out and to avenge.

He was everywhere at every time, a stream of purity and hope being continuously transfused into a nearly deceased planet.

When the Earth had been plucked out of the slime of destruction, polished off and put back on the shelf beside the other planets, The Amazing Mr Carnival man sat aside the sun, somewhere warm and bright, so that he could look back on the world, and it was safe, and have some much needed rest.

The Amazing Mr Carnival Man slouched on his bed of eternal ebony, looking about at the stars and planets he sighed and thought: “My work is done.”

Then the Face of Fate appeared, above, below, in all directions its voice spoke. ‘It is never done!’ it said.

After that Carny spent seven months meditating on the moon. While he sat ruminating on that great rock, The Face of Fate appeared again, and started speaking out of the abyss.

He told Carny a story.

This was it:

‘I found Silus in the pit. I trained him as I trained you. Now he has emerged from the pit and has in his hands the same powers like you, only he carries the shadow fully in his heart, and so great evil is flowing through him and out of him. You must face him now! You will meet him on the field of stars where the ultimate battle will be fought.’

So Carny heard out the words of the Face of Fate, and looking up into the dark he cried out in a voice that echoed in the corners of ten thousand stars: ‘Then I shall meet him and we shall do battle on the fields of eternity!’

And so the Amazing Mr Carnival Man set out into the stars to confront his old foe.

The battle lines were drawn between the two powers between the giant gas giant Jupiter, and the invisible volcanic orb known by the Zhenevellian Sprites as the Nor Bela – Eye of the Abyss.

At the foothills of the burning mountains of Nor Bela, Silus came forth ready for the fight.

He had been brooding many long days while down inside the pit, stewing in a pool of venom, dreaming about revenge, till the Face of Fate gave him the power to try and take it.

And so there he was. Silus, with the power of evil flowing right through him.

He was as great and might as a mountain, dark than space, and his eyes burned with a fury far greater than the heart of a new-born star.

They met in the jaws of eternal doom, between the great peeks of dark energy and they wrestled like two great storm clouds.

Back and forth they went.

Forming and reforming.

But they could not defeat each other.

They just went around and around.

“I cannot beat him!”
Then Carny thought, “There is no point in this!”

And so he sat down.

And Silus continued to attack him, but he could do nothing.

Carny just sat there, unaffected.

Silus saw that there was no point in fighting his enemy, so he simply gave up and withdraw into the darkness. He was out there, in the shadow, but he did not strike back with violence.

They both realised the fight was futile

Neither was going to win – one power was never going to better the other.

So they kept apart, but still remained in the universe.

‘Why could I not beat him?’ said Cany, looking down into the flow of endless colours.

‘You can never defeat each other,’ the Face of Fate explained. ‘One for all and all for one, but not one without the other. That is impossible. There must be two, always two. Not one mightier than the other, but in balance. That is what you have seen today. Rest now, make camp in the field of stars, and be ready for the journey that will take you around the world back here again – to the point in the universe where all things and anything is real. Be at peace! Live. Dream. Walk. Rest. Sleep. This is your journey!’

Carny heard the words of his mentor, and breathed out a great gust of air, that eventually swept over the world, to be breathed in again by a billion other living things.

THE END

Also take a look at:

My Games

Play Given 'em Hell
Play Elfin Quest
Witches Brew a short text based adventure game!

Also take a look at:

My YouTube Channel

My Books