You’re reading Terrific, my original superhero prose series. Looking for commentary instead? Check out the navigation page. Otherwise …
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: A mysterious man named Zebulon has been getting people hooked on artificial bliss. Alyssa followed him and one of her patients through a portal.
Part 3
Alyssa counted six distinct skeletons lying in a heap, each blackened as though they had been tossed on a grill and forgotten.
She had arrived in a primordial wasteland, but the wasteland lay mostly in one direction. Behind her, and behind the still-shimmering portal, was something else entirely.
It looked like paradise—a paradise in progress, rather. The dry, cracked rock extended not too far in that direction, about the length of a jumbo jet. Then, beyond a hard dividing line, a lush meadow full of vibrant flowers and beautiful trees filled the landscape. It was as she had seen it in Zebulon’s mind. An Impressionist painting come to life.
Even the sky shifted, aligning with the environment below. The clouds, the sunlight, the vast sea of blue—each element was unnaturally gorgeous and so inviting. Over there, anyway. Directly above Alyssa was the inky void of outer space. The stars twinkled strangely, and thin strands of light connected some of them to others, forming an incomplete web.
Zebulon and Nelli stood at the end of the rock, mere inches from the grass. Nelli radiated an angelic aura as the meadow spread toward them, one thin row of blades at a time. Zebulon gently positioned her a step back, ensuring she remained on the harsh rock as heaven expanded.
Nelli had limited awareness of her actions. She was utterly content, anesthetized within her own little world of endless luxury, and Zebulon was utterly unconcerned when Alyssa walked over.
“Welcome to my universe, Stranger. What happened to my guards?”
“You didn’t pay them enough. What are you doing to her?”
“I’m giving her life meaning.”
Alyssa’s face twisted in revulsion. “No, not the bullshit answer. What are you actually doing to her?” She thrust a finger back toward the portal. “And whose skeletons are those?”
The smile faded. “Not everyone gets to experience paradise. Some merely help bring it about.” His thoughts weren’t helpful. Heavenly images dominated his mind, but some genuine remorse entered the mix.
Nelli wasted away within her angelic aura, even skinnier than before. It was eating her.
“So you drug them,” Alyssa said, “and that generates what you need to build this world? But it burns them out in the process.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘drug,’ but you are otherwise correct, sadly. Most can last for several sessions, but in the end, the process is not survivable.”
Alyssa eyed the blackened skeletons across the wasteland. She didn’t remember any reports of missing persons, nor had she heard anyone thinking about loved ones who had mysteriously disappeared.
“Who were they?” she asked.
“Their names would be meaningless to you. Once someone gives their life to paradise, they cease to exist. Your universe adjusts, purging all memories and physical evidence of their existence. No one ever need mourn them. In a way, it’s merciful.”
Alyssa thought about the strange gap in her appointments yesterday—the missing patient who never was. She wondered if one of those corpses was that patient, wondered if she had treated that person six months ago. The person had become nothing but a strange hole in her day.
She flushed scarlet. “You—you think that’s mercy?”
Zebulon smiled with benevolence. “No one will know any pain.”
“Oh, someone will.”
Alyssa began to concentrate. Zebulon’s hand snapped out and squeezed her neck.
“No,” he said. “Or I’ll close the door, and I don’t know if I can open it from this side. I confess I’ve been afraid to try.” He released her and pointed up at a star. “That’s where you want to go. That’s your universe. I don’t know of any other way to get up there. Perhaps you have some secret power that enables you to traverse such a distance. But unless you do, I recommend not incapacitating me.”
He meant every word. Alyssa could at least confirm that much. Each of those stars was a universe. She was gazing at her entire reality from an unfathomable distance. She wasn’t even sure how to measure it, or if she was seeing light or some interdimensional equivalent, or what those thin bright lines were. She knew only that Nelli couldn’t remain here.
Inch by inch, the rocky ground softened into fresh dirt, and blades of grass sprang up. Alyssa wondered how many people it took to create a fake heaven.
“You could come back here,” Zebulon offered, “when it’s finished. I’m certainly not creating paradise for myself alone. There’d be no point. I want people to enjoy it. I want you to enjoy it.”
He gazed deep into Alyssa’s eyes and extended a hand in invitation, oozing magnetism against the backdrop of a painted sky.
“We could enjoy it now,” he continued. “Take a walk with me.”
She was curious to explore it, see how real it was or wasn’t. It certainly looked real from the outside.
“I’ll pass. Now you going to release her, or do I need to make you?”
Zebulon let out a weary sigh. “Your world isn’t doing well. People will need this refuge, especially if matters deteriorate any further.” He gestured at the vibrant meadow. “This could be the ark that saves humanity.”
Alyssa pointed at the skeletons. “Tell them that.”
Ice flashed across his eyes. “Get some perspective. I’m creating an entire universe. It can shelter multitudes—it can grant them the peace and tranquility that eludes everyone in our native world. It can save our entire species! What’s a handful of lives compared to that?”
Alyssa, too, had ice in her eyes.
“To hell with your rationalizations.”
She punched him in the throat and kneed him in the groin. While he gasped and doubled over, Alyssa rushed over to Nelli, whose angelic aura was fading. Awareness was returning, slowly—too slowly.
“Come on! Quickly!”
“What …?”
Tugging her by the arm, Alyssa dragged her across the wasteland. Nelli stumbled drunkenly along. Up ahead, the portal warped and glitched.
“Faster!”
Nelli noticed the sky and slowed to a trot. “Those are pretty stars.”
“No! No stopping! We need to—”
Zebulon grabbed Alyssa and pulled her close.
“You fight dirty for a superhero.”
Alyssa was about to fight dirty again, but Zebulon denied her the opportunity. His eyes glowed.
“If you won’t join paradise, you’ll help build it.”
Alyssa resisted for all of a second. Then she didn’t want to.
She experienced every pleasant sensation at once, in its best, purest form. The best food, the best alcohol, the best sex, the best workout. None of it required any exertion whatsoever. She was obligated to do nothing but lounge in the most comfortable bed ever built, content with the certainty that everything was wonderful and would always be wonderful.
Always. Forever wonderful.
A voice, faint and distant, cleaved through the tranquility. “Is my session over already?”
The interruption annoyed Alyssa. She pushed the nuisance aside and enjoyed the perfection. She was now an astronaut, as she had dreamed so long ago, floating freely through the void, snug in her spacesuit, her view full of wonders.
The voice returned, louder this time, more fearful. “Where are we?”
A sea of stars surrounded Alyssa. She floated on her back, as if in a pool, and gazed at the shiny lines connecting the dots of light.
What are those lines?
A different voice emerged, this one belonging to a man. “Close your eyes. Take slow, deep breaths. I haven’t forgotten about you.”
The girl. Nelli. Need to …
Space was so peaceful. She sipped wine through her helmet while a massage released all tension. Everything else could wait.
The lines meant something, though. And those voices …
“What are you doing to her?”
“Close your eyes, my dear.”
What is he doing to me?
A scream sliced through the void. Alyssa shooed it away, then wondered what might cause a scream.
The girl. The skeletons.
Zebulon had begun the process of erasing Alyssa from existence. Even as she realized it, apathy again took hold. Everything she needed was right here. Why go back out there?
Stay. Stay forever.
The girl. Nelli. No.
She didn’t want to. She needed to. Nelli needed her to. Those skeletons had needed someone to.
Alyssa ripped herself out of heaven.
Harsh air chilled her. She teetered under a sudden heaviness. Phantom odors of disinfectants, acrylic, and clove oil gagged her, reminding her of the tedious work that awaited tomorrow morning. The world’s infinite imperfections piled on. There was so much she didn’t want to do—except one thing, one thought that brought a twisted smile to her face.
She blasted Zebulon’s brain and delighted in his agony.
After indulging in another zap, Alyssa jabbed a finger straight up. “What are those lines?”
The image formed in his mind. A map. A map of all the universes and how they connected, some more connected than others. The lines were pathways, funnels, vortices. Her own universe had one solid connection—to Carey’s universe, she deduced. But Zebulon had been coming here a while, and he had noticed a second connection that faded away months ago, right around the time that Dr. Reynolds vanished.
Bony fingers gripped her shoulder.
“How do we get out of here?” Nelli asked, moist eyes full of desperation.
The portal was blinking in and out. But it held for a few seconds at a time.
“Through there. Run.”
Nelli didn’t want to enter the scary light without the superhero. Alyssa thought she misheard, but Nelli indeed perceived her as a superhero.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Alyssa said. “Now go.”
Nelli backed away, then dashed off toward the portal. Alyssa took just a moment to confirm that the girl wasn’t stopping, during which Zebulon shoved the alleged superhero down onto the harsh rock.
He raced after Nelli, who had seen too much. Alyssa tagged him with another bolt, and he stumbled. Nelli made it through the portal.
Her mental force flowing, Alyssa searched Zebulon’s mind. She didn’t care who he was or where he came from or even how he developed the power to create a new universe. He knew the map of all universes, and within that map was evidence of where Dane Reynolds, Warner Pinkney, and Cadelaria Luna had vanished to. Alyssa reached in, grabbed that information, and imprinted it onto her own mind.
The portal flickered. Zebulon was halfway to unconsciousness.
“Might be trapped here,” he muttered. “You and me, locked in paradise. Adam and Eve.”
No way in hell.
Alyssa sprinted across the wasteland. The portal flashed on and off, then stayed off for a few seconds. Alyssa ran anyway while Zebulon crawled after her. The portal returned, then vanished again, then held for a few seconds.
Chancing it, she dove at the unstable light.
And she crashed onto the smooth wooden dancefloor of Mirthful Minerva.
The portal was gone, and it stayed gone, not even a flicker. But Nelli was there, extending a hand to help Alyssa up.
“Thanks,” Alyssa said.
“No—thank you. That man—I—I had no idea …”
The bliss was all forgotten, leaving only shame to haunt her.
“Go see a doctor, get checked up,” Alyssa said, walking toward the darkness beyond the dancefloor.
“Wait. Who are you?”
Alyssa wanted to say she was no one, to forget all about her.
“I’m the Silver Stranger.”
She blended into the shadows, wondering who that hole in her schedule had been.
In Two Weeks: The Improbable Origin of Fantastic Man
"Alyssa ripped herself out of heaven." - what a line! 😱
That was a good three-parter - I hope you'll take it as a compliment when I say that it reminded me a bit of "For the Man Who Has Everything" when Alyssa was dealing with Zebulon's bliss blast (that's what I'm calling it 😆). 😄