Fulfilling Wishes...One Nightmare at a Time

By the time Dr. Geek was able to breathe semi-normally again, I had already opened a gateway into a world of darkness and shadow that was my haven of sorts from the world of the Living. This place was alien and forlorn, a world without inhabitants (for the most part). It was also a place that I could take someone to and know that I would be free to do with them as I pleased.

For poor Dr. Geek, this was his Guantanamo Bay, his Abu Ghraib, his own personal ‘renditioning’.

You see, I had discovered this place in my time with the Merlin. He had taught me how the various layers of the ‘onion-verse’ were interconnected by special tranisitional places that fit the traditional descriptions of the various ‘elemental planes’. The planes most commonly speculated to exist were Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The most commonly visited planes were those of Spirit, as I myself had already experienced with John Red Bear’s assistance. But I had remembered that Papa Locks had seemed to use some sort of Shadow Magick to be able to travel from place to place quickly, so under the Merlin’s tutelage, and using my now innate mastery of shadow, I had discovered how to open portals into this gloriously desolate world. Even the Voices deep inside enjoyed my forays into this place, it was one of the few places where I could find peace from their incessant whispering.

As the portal leading from the only world Dr. Geek had known closed, he began to struggle feebly in my arms. We arrived at my chosen destination with a slight lurch. I dumped his coughing ass onto the rocky surface that would be his home for the next few hours at least.

I could see him regain the sense to try and look around. I had some sympathy for him, knowing that his mere human eyes would have great difficulty in seeing anything in this environment, so reached into my coat pocket and pulled out an unwrapped glowstick. I gave the thing a good shake, causing it to start glowing in a fluorescent lime green light that barely illuminated our figures.

His eyes latched onto this meager source of light immediately. I held out the stick for him to take, which he did, gingerly.

Using this feeble light, he scrambled to his feet and traced out the limits of the plateau on which we now stood. He looked more than a little shocked as he realized that the whole platform on which we were standing was about 15’ in diameter.

His hair blew in the breeze as he stood near the southern edge, which caused him to back up immediately. He turned to face me, almost kneeling in his attempt to keep a low center of gravity. “Rusty, wh..wh..where are we?”

I chuckled. “Dr. Bernstein, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Suffice it to say you’re definitely not in Kansas.”

He looked at me with a new realization. “You’ve learned to travel as Papa Locks did! You’ve learned to ShadowPort!”

“So is that what he called it? Did you ever go with him on his trips?”

“Uh, no. I never trusted that man, he gave me the creeps.” He seeemed to shudder at that thought. “Why are we still here, aren’t you going to take me back to the US? You know, you didn’t have to hit me, I would’ve gone with you willingly!”

“Would you now? Perhaps you think a little too kindly of me, Doctor. I haven’t yet decided if I will be taking you back to safety.”

“What...why not?”

“Well, first of all, you had a major hand in a lot of evil shit, and I’m not sure I believe your little story about this supposed child of mine. So I brought you here. I’m going to leave you in a few moments, because I want you to take some time and gather your thoughts. When I return, I am going to ask you some questions, Doctor, and you are going to answer them, honestly and completely. If I feel that you are holding anything back, or are lying to me, I’ll leave your ass here for a little bit longer.

“But before I go, I want you to understand a few things. First, that light you are holding will last about an hour before it peters out. When it does, you will find yourself sitting here in the dark again. You’ve seen how small this plateau is, but it is also very high up. You won’t be able to climb down from here, but even if you did, the creatures lurking in the darkness below would make quick work of you. As long as you remain up here, you will be safe from them.
“Second, I would keep quiet if I were you. You see, there are other creatures in this place that fly. Those creatures hunt by sound. There aren’t very many of them in this place, but they always come to investigate loud noises. There isn’t much fresh meat in this world, so you are a rather tasty looking meat snack. Those creatures, though, are allergic to light of any kind. So I will give you two more of these glowsticks. Don’t use them up too soon though, because they only last an hour!

“Finally, don’t think that anyone will be able to find you here. I have chosen this place very carefully. You will be alone with your thoughts and the creatures of this place, until I return for you. So think long and hard, Doctor, about the information you give me about this child and any other damn projects you neglected to keep notes about. If I don’t get the complete story from you when I come back, I will leave you here to die.”

He was looking more and more shocked as my speech went on, he looked to be on the verge of tears as he blurted out, “Why are you doing this, Rusty? I...I...I’ll tell you the truth now! Don’t do this to me! I can’t die in this place!”

“Why? I’ll leave it to you to figure that out, Doctor. Here.” I held out the two still wrapped glowsticks for him to take.

He was still in shock and disbelief at this point, so he just looked from my hand to my face and back to my hand again, but didn’t reach for them.

“Fine” I said as I dropped the two glowsticks to the plateau surface and gathered the nearest Shadows around myself and transported myself to another nearby plateau, far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to see or hear me, but where I could keep an easy eye on him.

Time to sit back and enjoy the show...