A Tale of a Hero (Diria’s Mistake 3)
Once upon a time, a classic opening for a happily ever after. But unfortunately for us, (me the narrator, and you the reader), we know all too well that if the world was all about the “happily ever after’s,” this world would indeed be a better place.
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the “heroes.” So here starts the unexpected journey of Jessie.
Jessie wakes up, vision blurry, her body flooded with pain. Everything that has happened in her life seems to be nothing more than a jumbled, nonchronological string of events.
Where am I? She manages to think through the ringing in her ears, reaching up to hold her head, pain shoots through her arms, she wipes mud off of her face, her lungs burned as she deeply inhales.
It was difficult for her to think, as flashes of memories all seemed to push and shove, wanting her attention. Screaming yelling, crying, love, anger, hatred, all reverberating through her thoughts causing her to scream out loud. Silence followed after her scream that echoed through the dark.
“Why am I here?” She thought hard.
When you get there, you have to remember, it will be hard but da;klfja;da;kdj;alkfja…….
“But what……..Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!” Pain shot through her body again, disrupting her attempt to decipher the one clear thought that she finally had since she had waken-up discombobulated.
She opened her brown eyes and looked at her surroundings finding herself in a dark alley. The walls were metallic, she sat in a small crater filled with mud.
What am I supposed to be doing? Think….think….. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to think of anything that would make sense of what was happening. Once again, all of the memories bombarded her mind, fighting to take precedence. It felt as though her head was going to explode, beads of sweat formed on her forehead making her clench her head with both of her muddy hands. She was about to give up when she heard a small voice.
“Jessie….Jessie, focus when you get there, you will be out of synch with time, and your memories will be;jfjjadkajl;fjalfka;kjf, but afk;jdlsjdf ja, your mission success is crucial.”
Mission success? Jessie was confused more than ever. And worst yet, she found herself naked in a crater, her brown body covered in mud, in a strange place that was only best to be described as a science fiction movie. She had never seen an alley that looked like this. Two shiny metal buildings, their surfaces like mirrors, the ground that surrounded the crater, also metallic.
Jessie painfully struggled to her feet. Every muscle fiber in her body seemed to be on fire, but fell down again.
Remember, focus on the word f;dkj;ajkdjf……The voice whispered again through the rest of the jumbled jargon rampaging through her mind.
“Okay Jessie…..I’m naked, covered in mud, in a place I don’t recognize, and all I can do is remember my name….focus on what word?”
She Closed her eyes again…….Key……
“Focus on Key? Okay……” Jessie, (without anything else to go by), closed her eyes tightly as she repeated the word, “key,” in her head, over and over again.
Key..jda;lkfjda…Key.dfjlaf;kjaf;;kljdKeykdjaf;k…Keykldj;owpuecn;a;d, Key….Your mission jf;kajk Key;;akjdfkfa kjd;k, Mission…Key, KEY, KEY, KEY, KEY!”
A flash of light pierced the darkness in Jessie’s mind. Memories stitched themselves together. The time line in her life started to become coherent again. Laughter, love, pain, happiness, dark, scared…
THE MISSION:
“I come from beyond, the future!” He struggled to get the words out, his body riddled with holes that seemed to have been cauterized. His clothes were tattered and torn, number 33 was written on a warn shirt. Blood spattered as he coughed, attempting to draw in another breath as he continued to finish the message. “They said to find Jessie!”
Jessie’s face twisted with confusion as she continued to hold the dying man that fell about thirty feet from the air, right in her backyard. She watched the whole thing. Lightning coming from nowhere right above her yard, with no clouds in the sky! The rumbling it created shook her whole house. The electronics in her home went haywire, the lights exploded in the living room causing her to scream. Then the man fell from the sky!
“Are you Jessie?” He whispered, his blue eyes looking deeply into hers, with so much hope. He grabbed her arm tightly and asked again, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth, “are you….Jessie?”
Jessie was at a loss of words, but nodded yes.
WHO IS THIS? Why is he looking for me? How is he asking specifically for ME??!!
The man’s eyes widened as his grip tightened and he brought her ear closer to his lips, “ you must stop Diria! AT ANY COST!”
Diria? Who the heck is Diria, what the hell is going on?!
“I was sent to find you! You are the only one that can do this!” The man managed to say before he started to go into a coughing fit.
Blood hit Jessie in the face making her quickly flinch away, dropping the man’s head on the floor. She wiped her face, while she ripped her arm away from the man’s tight grip.
“What the hell is going on? You need medical attention, and how the hell do you know my name? Who the hell is Diria?”
The man continued to cough. Jessie stood up and made her way back inside to get her cell phone off of the coffee table to call for help, but found that the screen was completely blown out.
“Damn…” Jessie lived miles away from civilization, and that was her only phone. She just moved in not too long ago, the living room was still riddled with boxes.
A hand grabbed her shoulder, and what felt like a barrel of a gun was shoved against the small of her back, and she instinctually froze.
“You need to find Diria! He’s damned us all! He’s opened hell, everyone is dead! You knew him! You’re the only one that can stop him! PLEASE!”
“Okay okay okay, I get it, find Diria! I’m the only one!” Jessie tried to stay calm. She tried to remember her de-escalation safety training that she had received from the hospital.
Don’t antagonize the patients that show aggression! That thought repeated in Jessie’s head over and over. It gave her some type of comfort; it made her feel like she was in control.
“Now listen!”
The injured man with the coughing fit? Where did he get this energy?
“You’re going to stop that damn mad scientist! He killed us! HE KILLED US!”
He shook Jessie, causing her heart to race uncontrollably. She didn’t feel like she was in control any longer, tears started to roll down her face. The object that felt like a gun dug deeper into the small of her back, almost feeling like it was piercing her skin. She screamed in pain.
“Jessie listen!” The man quickly wrapped his forearm around her neck and held her tight, choking her, causing her to whimper. He wreaked like sulfur.
“You’re our only hope.” The once crazed man was now talking in a calm voice into her ear, “they said you would think that I was crazy, but I’m not. No, no no no no. Thats why they sent me, because I could make it, I was the only one that could keep my mind, my memories, my thoughts. We’ve had training, but you, you don’t have the luxury, so I’m going to give you a word, do you understand?”
Jessie, now uncontrollably sobbing, shook her head yes.
“Good Jessie, good, good good. The word is key. You repeat that over and over again, and it will allow you to remember. Say key Jessie.”
Jessie tried but couldn’t, her throat was being crushed, she started to blackout. Her vision began to fade, her body numb. Right before she blacked out, her body was hurled into the air onto the couch. She coughed, grabbing her throat, her limbs tingled.
“Sorry Jessie, I’m so sorry Jessie,” The man said in a soothing voice attempting to comfort her. But all it accomplished was Jessie’s eyes, looking at her attacker, in anger mixed with fear, as she continued to cough.
What is that metallic object in the man’s hand? She couldn’t make it out.
“If you only knew Jessie, but soon you will. Hell, hell Jessie! Did you smell the sulfur on me Jessie!” The man violently grabbed his tattered red shirt with the yellow 33 on his chest and shoved the fabric in her face pushing her head into the couch cushion.
She inhaled and almost gagged as the smell of sulfur filled her nostrils.
“Thats hell! Thats hell Jessie. That damn scientist! You see Jessie, he opened a rift! TO HELL!”
The man took the shirt away from her face. She could finally breath again. Jessie looked up at her attacker, his eyes, they were crazed, no longer blue, but white, he was losing it.
“I don’t have that long Jessie, my mind,” the man grabbed his jet black hair pulling, trying to maintain his ability to stay sane, blood started to gush out of his mouth now worse than before, dripping down his pale chin. The holes that riddled his body began to bleed, he screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Jessie sat up on the couch, as she watched the man scream in agony on the floor, his body started to convulse.
Is he going into shock? What the heck is going on!?
The man’s body stopped abruptly; silence filled the air.
Tears continued to pour from Jessie’s eyes. She sat, staring at the man who attacked her, who said all kinds of crazy things to her, who fell from the sky. She was confused and didn’t know what to do, her body shook as she continued to sob, afraid to move from the couch.
Then the man took a deep breath in, his limbs went straight out, and his body floated in the air, causing Jessie to scream and curl into a ball on the couch, hoping not to get attacked again.
“Jessie, they have me, hell has me! I need you to listen. When you get there, you have to remember, it will be hard Jessie, but you have to! Everyone is depending on you! Jessie, Jessie, focus when you get there!”
The man’s right arm broke with a loud snap making Jessie jump. It twisted in unnatural ways, folding towards his body causing him to scream. But he continued on.
“You will be out of synch with time!”
Snap! His left leg broke in several places, but that man continued, pushing through the pain, “and your memories will be jumbled, you won’t remember anything! You need to find Diria!”
Snap! His right leg, contorted, another snap, another scream from the man, but he continued, “He will be two blocks away from you, just go straight! that’s where you will start, that is where he will be, go straight!!!”
Snap! His left arm popped and snaped and twisted, blood poured from the man’s body. It dropped to the floor, he moaned, in pain and agony, his body’s limbs misshapen, his breathing labored as his lungs filled with blood, but he continued, “clothse.will be by a dums…t.”
The man’s body laid motionless on the floor, a puddle of blood pooled under the man’s corpse. Steam rose from his body, filling the house with a sulfur odor that was too much for Jessie to bear. She ran outside, and was light headed, and collapsed on the ground.
Thats the last thing she remembered before waking up naked in this strange place.
I guess he wasn’t crazy….Or I am…. she thought to herself as she looked for a dumpster. what do I have to lose? Jessie shrugged to herself, hopefully he was telling the truth, or I’m going to be in a strange place naked.
She was still in shock from everything that had just transpired. A man falling from a weird lighting storm, seeking her, calling her by name? Being attacked by that man, and then the way he died, and the smell!
Jessie finally located the dumpster, get up girl, the mission, the mission, have to find Diria.
She slowly managed to get on her feet, her equilibrium was in shambles, and everything that she looked at shook violently. She stumbled to the dumpster, falling to her knees several times like a drunk, scraping them badly. But she was so determined to get to the dumpster, that she didn’t notice. She just wanted to get some clothes on.
Just like that strange man had said, there was a pile of clothes, by the dumpster!
Is this a dream? Jessie thought to herself as she picked up the green shirt and looked at the blue jeans and white shoes, this has to be a dream. This can’t be happening….
She put on the shirt and blue jeans, that didn’t quite fit. They were a little too big, but at least she was clothed. She struggled to get the shoes on, but finally managed.
Okay…off to find Diria, where did that man say he was again?
She looked down the alley in both directions.
Which way was straight? He didn’t tell me what way I needed to go, he just said go straight! Well, maybe in the direction of the dumpster?
Her head wasn’t right yet, and she struggled once again to her feet.
A little better this time, she thought as she was able to walk in a straight line, her vision finally stable, but her body still felt strange.
I wonder how much time I have? Two blocks away?
Jessie looked up at the sky and noticed strange clouds. She’d never seen clouds move like they moved, the clouds looked alive. Why were they glowing red? She stopped and put her hand to her brow as she squinted to try to make the objects out that seemed to be coming from the clouds. Not falling, but just there, in the clouds. Her eyes started burning. Then the smell hit her.
Sulfur!
Oh my gosh! IS IT TOO LATE!?
Images of the man’s body being tortured, his limbs, snapping, his screams…they filled her mind. Jessie didn’t want to end up like that. She didn’t ask for this. She needed to find Diria, because whether or not she thought it was fair, she just needed to find him.
He can stop this! Thats what the man said, Diria can stop this!
Jessie bolted off in a full sprint, running as fast as she could, ash was now falling into the streets, the temperature was rising. She looked up as she continued to run, to see where the objects were, but nothing, they were gone.
“Run girl run!” She yelled at herself. “One block to go!”
The ground started to rumble violently, and the ashes that were falling from the sky like snow were now embers.
Hell is coming, I have to find him, I have to keep going!
She looked up again, still nothing.
Finally, she reached the end of the second block. Her breathing hard, her body exhausted, but she didn’t notice. All she could think was;
He didn’t say anything after the second block! Did I go the right way? Where is he??!
“DIRIA!!!!!” Jessie yelled as loud as she could. She listened, nothing. “DIRIA!!!!!!!!” She listened again.
“Yes?”
A voice from behind. Jessie spun around and saw a small figure in front of her, who looked like he was thrown out of a bar and into an alley, like in the movies. His brown eyes wide, almost like he was surprised to see her. His blue jeans had mud on them, and his forehead bled as though his head was hit by something.
“Jessie is that you?” Diria asked, it seemed like he was in shock, or as though she wasn’t supposed to be there.
“How do you know me?”
“You died…..” Diria took two steps back away from her, and put his hand to his mouth. “What did they do? What did they do!”
“You need to stop hell,” Jessie said, as she looked up at the sky.
The objects where back. What seemed to be millions of objects, getting closer this time. Strange voices started to fill the air.
“No,” Diria replied, “no stopping hell, its already done.”
“What do you mean no?” Jessie looked back at Diria, “he said that you can stop this! He said that you damned everyone to death, and that you can stop this!”
“No….” Diria shook his head, “I lost you once, I can’t lose you again.”
Diria took a step towards her and gently grabbed her hand. Jessie’s first instinct was to pull away, but the way that he did it, the way that he held her hand was so loving that she didn’t.
“I was going to let this place burn in hell, although it was an accident, and they laughed at me when I told them. They told me that I was crazy. But no, they brought my dear Jessie back. How could they do this?”
“Do what?” Jessie said in confusion, then her eyes darted in the direction of a scream.
“Bring my wife back to me…”
Jessie looked back at Diria in shock. She didn’t know him! She never fell in love with this man, this mad scientist! How can this be?
“No not again,” Diria said angerly, “I won’t let you die again. Come, we need to stop hell…”
