Stephen Zimmer - Crown of Vengeance

Even a glance at the deep night sky reinvigorated him. In a moment, he saw worlds of wonder, an endless diorama of possibilities and adventure.

When he read, he loved the authors that soared above the mundane, delving into the infinite possibilities of what could be. It was much the same with movies, video games, or any other type of medium that he might indulge in.

He had often been chastised by his parents for blurring the lines between reality and imagination in his mind. If anything, their berating of him had only made him more determined in his hopes that one day he could prove that there was far more to the world than the common experiences that seemed so all encompassing.

“Wouldn’t it be great, if something totally unheard of, totally unbelievable, happened to us?” Logan commented suddenly, breaking the extended silence.

His eyes still panned across the sky.

“Like what?” Antonio asked.

“Something different. Something unexpected. Something unusual. Something completely exciting,” Logan stated. “It wouldn’t take me long to forget my routine existence.”

“Wouldn’t be much of a loss leaving our world behind,” Antonio remarked, with a bitter smile. “Except for a few friends and family.”

Logan smiled gently at his friend. “Other than a few people, it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

“I have never thought about anything that unusual actually happening, but I’m with you,” Antonio said, grinning.

“We just get so used to the way that things are, and so used to knowing that if we drop a rock, it is going to fall down. We are so used to knowing that the sun will rise, and that fall will go to winter, winter to spring, spring to summer, and summer back to fall,” Logan said. “What if all that was turned completely upside down? Just for once? What if you could think that the rock would rise up, or gravity was a non-factor, that you could even fly?”

“Never given a lot of thought to it, but I do see what you mean,” Antonio said. “It would be something to be able to fly.”

“Me too,” Logan agreed firmly. “Just for once I wish the rules could be different. Just for once. Like this book I once read in school.”

“The rules?” Antonio asked. “What book?”

“Just being able to walk through a simple closet, an ordinary thing of the world, and suddenly finding yourself in a whole new existence.” Logan said, only partly responding to Antonio as he mused out loud about his innermost sentiments. His tone hardened, “A world where we wouldn’t be beholden to the idiots, and could even become kings ourselves.”

“I don’t need to become a king, but a change for the better would be nice,” Antonio replied.

Logan’s thoughts began to drift once again as they continued on down the sidewalk. He held back the regrets about the world that he wished would exist.

Giving disappointments too much attention always left a bitter taste.

The truth was that Logan had often paused when opening a closet door after having read that book, a part of him believing that it was possible to find another world.

It was a part of him that his parents had once mocked, even if they had meant well, but it was a part of him that he was not about to part with.

Derek Decker lay quietly in the welcome repose of his bedroom, a haven at the present moment.

Janus was downstairs, mercifully asleep on the couch. Derek knew that Janus had not wanted to go home that night, as his house had carried an unfathomable emptiness for him without the presence his father. He knew that there was really nothing that he could say to truly console his grieving friend, and that fact burned bitterly within him.

If there was one consummate truth about the physical world, it was that there was always more room for sorrows.

Even though Janus had been listless, as if he had been sapped of his very enthusiasm for life itself, Derek was resolved to keep Janus within some kind of sphere of activity. The abyss of grief, Derek felt, would only be magnified if Janus were left alone to the tortures of his traumatized mind and sorely wounded heart.

An idea had come to Derek’s mind earlier that day.

A mutual friend of Derek and Janus, named Kent McNeeley, had a father who owned a house by a lakeside. The elongated, winding lake, far from secluded, was the scene of many buoyant social gatherings throughout the spring, summer, and into early autumn. One who was disposed to the outdoors could always indulge in the leisure of boating, fishing, or taking hikes in the wooded areas throughout the region. For Janus, a visit to the lake would be a full change of environment, and it would offer a degree of activity that would promise to keep his mind slightly occupied.

After wracking his brain, it was the best solution that Derek could find at the moment to try to help Janus find a spark of life again.

Derek would also have some more help at the lake. Kent McNeeley was a good acquaintance of Janus’, and a very good friend of Derek’s.

He knew that Kent’s father lived in the city most of the year while running his real estate company. There was no doubt that it would take little convincing to get Kent to agree with Derek’s plan.

The decision made, Derek made a mental note to himself to call Kent in the early morning, even if he knew that Kent would not be entirely happy about an early phone call.

Satisfied at settling upon a course of action, Derek finally let his mind relax.

Shutting his eyelids, he rolled over in his bed and finally gave his own body permission to sleep.

Trudging in groggily at almost five in the morning, Erin made only a brief and necessary stop at the restroom, before lumbering on to her room and crashing almost fully clothed upon the bed.

The last two evenings had been nearly mirror images of each other, and she had been left with a sharp feeling of restless dissatisfaction at the conclusion of the night.

Erin was quickly tiring of the increasingly tedious setting of Uli’s apartment, where she, Lynn, Razor, Uli, and some others had wasted away so many hours. The end to the nights arrived only when the natural, irresistible fatigue of the human body finally caught up with them.

On such nights, they rarely saw anything other than Uli’s cramped living room, and Erin was sorely tired of that.

The rising tedium had served as a great motivation to Erin to speak her mind towards the end of the evening. Evidently, the boredom had been present in more than one of the others, as they had readily agreed that the group needed a change in scenery.

She did not make any move to set her alarm clock as her body settled into the mattress. Erin already knew that she would be calling in sick to her workplace, and not because she expected to be ill. She knew that she would be feeling healthy enough once she had gotten a few hours of sleep.

Once it was apparent that everyone needed a hiatus from the little apartment, a full consensus had then been reached for the following evening, one that Lynn, Razor, and Erin had readily agreed to. For once, Uli had shown some initiative in suggesting that they undergo a journey down to the great national forest, located just an hour away from their hometown.

Once there, they could hike towards an outcropping of rock that formed a natural bridge, and choose an optimal campsite in the vicinity for a night of relaxation and merriment. As it tended to be a popular camping area, Erin hoped that they would have some luck and that it would be devoid of very many others that evening.

A more cynical side of Erin mused that it would not be all that different from the past few nights, with the exception of a change of scenery. Virtually the only real difference would be that instead of carpets, walls, and sofas, they would have the bare earth, trees, and rocks as their surroundings for the same activities. Of course, to her greater view, there was little else to do, and it was as good of a plan as any other. At the very least, even if the company and general activity were the same, the ventilation would be much better. section ii