Flash fiction challenge part three – unlocking godhood

Loved the story unlocking godhood started by Poor dicks and continued by Alice E Keyes. here be the links:-

https://poordicks.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/flash-fiction-challenge-unlocking-godhood-part-one/#comments

http://aliceekeyes.blogspot.co.uk/p/meticulous-tie-fling-ranger-from-now.html

as always thanks for reading and be sure to visit the original authors.

thanks

Addy.

 

 

Part One – by Poor dicks

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The cube weighed a ton. Ok, maybe not an actual ton; but it was heavy for something its size. Standing only three inches tall, it weighed as much as the Gott family’s three and a half foot long Maine Coon: eighteen pounds. Arduously, Sophia placed the intricate puzzle box onto her desk; and the cheap, particle board groaned in protest.

---

The young woman had first seen the puzzle box while browsing a crowd-sourced classified ad website. A poster had provided a picture of the cube, stated that he or she had hidden it, and said he or she was giving it away to the first person who could find it. However, that’s all the post contained; at least at first blush.

Sophia had always liked intellectual challenges, and she revelled in this one. Checking the page’s source code, she found the address to three websites. Each website contained a treasure trove of riddles, ciphers, and stenographs. Fast forward two weeks, and she had solved them all. After the final problem was solved, each site revealed a number each – numbers that she figured were latitude, longitude, and elevation.

She was right.

At the coordinates, she found an old cemetery. Among all the rows of grave markers, one stood out among all the rest: a statue of angel. It was not the modern image of a cute cherub or a classically beautiful angel; but it was awesome none-the-less.

The statue stood 7 feet tall and appeared to be carved from one solid block of white marble. While the angel had two arms, two legs, and head; its face was devoid of all features and six great wings spread out from its back. Carved into the base of the monument was not a name, but rather a quote:

‘Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.’

Given the complexity of prior challenges she had faced, this one was oddly easy. Digging at the base of the statue, she found no coffin or corpse. Instead, 7 feet down she uncovered the fascinating puzzle that she had set out to find. With a few light strokes, all the dirt fell away from the cube, as if it didn’t want to stick to the box.

---

The cube was a thing of beauty. It appeared to be made dozens of interconnected differently colored metal pieces. Well burnished, the box practically glowed in the dim light of the setting sun. Running her fingers over the smooth surface of the cube, it felt somehow simultaneously warm and cool to the touch.

Since arriving home, she had wasted no time in setting about solving the puzzle box. She ignored the calls from her family to come to dinner. Instead, she sat at her desk studying the complex, interconnected design. Turning the heavy cube around in her hands, surely a solution slowly appeared to her. Piece after piece shifted, slid, and eventually fell away.

*Bzzt-bzzt*

The flashing light coming from her phone, coupled with its noisy vibration broke Sophia’s concentration. Looking over, she noticed an incoming call from what looked like an asari.

“What the fu…” she muttered to herself. Picking up her phone and examining closer, she saw the name of the caller: Charity, her girlfriend. Rejecting the call, she quickly typed and sent out a message, ‘Busy. Found my box. Working on getting inside.’

Before she could set down her phone, it started to vibrate again and the screen lit up. Sophia didn’t look to see what was on it. Instead, she just turned the phone off and set it back down on the desk.

Letting out a deep breath, she turned back to the puzzle box. “Almost there.” she whispered to it. A few moves later, she placed her finger on the last piece and started to push on it.

Time seemed to grid to a halt. Sophia could feel the weight of the last block as she pushed it way from the core. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of something glowing a brilliant silvery-white. Then she felt an electric tingle start to flow up through her feet.

As it rose up through her body, she looked down. Nothing appeared to be wrong. The bottom most hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up. Looking up, she saw what looked like a little creeping rivers of blinding, silver-white light creeping down through the ceiling of her room. Twisting and turning, the streams of light began to work their way downward, towards Sophia.

Instinctively, Sophia pulled her legs up and kicked off her desk hard. Still watching in slow motion as she hurled herself across the room, she saw one of the trickles of light touch the puzzle box she had been working on moments ago. As she felt the glass of the window behind her break, all the other silver-white tendrils disappeared and the one touching the box started to glow.

A loud, cascading crackling sound ripped through the air and shards of wood exploded outward from her blackened room.

When the lightning struck, a figure could be seen in Sophia’s room for the briefest of moments. It was seemed about 7 feet tall, and vaguely man-shaped. Its skin appeared to be smooth alabaster inlayed with brass around the joints. Perhaps most striking was its head.

It had 7 eyes on its head that glowed gold in the dark. One lay square in the center of its otherwise featureless face. The other six were matched pairs running back towards the side of its head. It had no mouth, nose, or ears that could be seen.

Sophia closed her eyes and time resumed its normal flow. Thick, jagged branches ripped, tore, and poked at her as she felt herself crash violently into the thick bushes outside her home.

Part 2 – by Alice E Keyes

The seven eyed face floated in her mind and she had an inclining of seeing the eyes before. Using the chair’s wheels, she pushed herself out of the bushes and on the sidewalk that wraps around the back of her house to cement patio. The motion of pushing the chair along with her feet brought back childhood memories. She scooted to the patio and when she was in the middle, she kicked off with one foot and spun. Pushed and spun, pushed and spun; again and again until the world was a blur. She drew up her other foot and leaned into the spin to keep it going.

The memory of playground fun flooded her mind.

“Come on, Sophia,” said Tom. “You’re the best at pushing. You make it go the fastest.”

“I’m getting off is she spins it. It’s the spinny-thing-of-death when she does it,” said Susie.

“Okay,” said Sophia.

Susie jumps off, but two other boys jump on when they see Sophia spit in her hands and grasp the bar. Sophia pulls the bar towards her stomach and then back out and sets her feet.

“Ready!” She runs in the worn circle path circle.

“Faster, Faster,” the boys yelled. Her speed increased with each turn. She ran around four times as she had counted each time she the tall pine tree pass in her vision. On the sixth turn, a figure stood before the pine tree. Seven eyes glowed.

She catches her right foot behind the heel of her left and stumbled. The figure stepped forward like a mom’s reaction knowing her kid is about to be injured and will need her. Sophia caught her fall and jumped on the roundabout. The pine tree spun into her view and the seven eyed figure was gone.

Sophia stopped the desk chair, her dad’s chair, from spinning and stared at the house. Her life had been a breeze up to 10 months ago when her dad died. Sophia grew up being good at academics, sports (especially running), and puzzles. She obtained what she desired with ease.

The only failure in her life was the end of the 8 year relationship with her highschool/college boyfriend. His reason for ending it was he couldn’t handle not being better than her in at least one thing. The disappointment from this healed quickly as he was still her friend. Nothing changed except the once a week sleepover at his apartment and the fact he was blissfully happy with a new petite girl friend who giggled.

She found the change a mere bump in her life. Another hiccup was when she broke her arm and the basketball team felt devastated she wouldn’t be playing for the big tournament in three weeks. But, to the doctors surprise, the bone healed rapidly and she was back to her normal active self after two weeks.

She missed her dad and the ache in her heart from his daily absence didn’t lessen though friends told her it would. Beth told her the best way to get over the loss would be to sell the house. The house she grew up in with her dad wouldn’t be put up for sell if she could help it.

She stared at the house which now had a smashed window and a burned out electrical system from the surge of power that shot through the puzzle.

“Okay,” she said out loud. “Time to stop daydreaming about seven eyed monsters and asses the damage.”

She walked through the broken window half thinking the monster would be waiting to explain everything to her. To tell her, the puzzle was a way to find intelligent humans to recruit for their secret spy organization.

The logical part of her thought was how could I let my ego get in the way of seeing a prank- an ultimate internet troll gotcha-an elaborate puzzle game-set up to bomb the lucky solvers dwelling. I wonder if my phone survived was another thought to crossed her mind while eyes scanned the wreckage and took in the incomprehensible sight before her.

“Damn,” she said as she kneeled before the seven puzzle pieces floating around a glowing gold orb. Gently, with one finger, she touched and pushed the closest puzzle piece. It bounced in space but found its same hovering spot.

With a small hesitation of a child taking an un-asked for cookie, she touched the orb.
Images of her as childhood danced around the floating puzzle pieces. One was of her pushing the roundabout. Another of her breaking her arm and a seven eyed figure in the back ground. In fact, all the images showed where she had seen, for a brief second, a tall figure in the background of her life. Once she comprehended the link between the images, they disappeared.

She touched the orb again and the color changed to blue and a faint sound of bass notes started to make a repeating pattern.

Her phone buzzed. She scanned the ground. When she spotted it, a name flashed but she couldn’t read it.

The bass hum from the orb grew louder. She grabbed her phone, tapped accept, and said, “Hello?”

Part Three – by me.

“Hello?” I asked hesitantly, remembering that I turned my phone off.

On the phone there was no voice, just a quiet static. She was about to hang up when-

“*beep* 23, 4, 12, 12 *beep* 4, 15, 14, 5*beep*” the voice was my own, all from different ages. I remember saying some of them. My father asking how old I was when it was my birthday. Times I agreed to see my friends. Telling my mum I will be home in 5. Whoever this call is from has been watching me. Are they watching now?

When I turned around I got my answer. The man or woman, I couldn’t tell, was standing in the corner. It was the seven eyed face. Now I was able to get a good look at it. Its white stone skin was that, stone, it looked like armour but it was as much part of the creature as it was of it. But the armour wasn’t right. Inside it swirled like milky water and in it I could see black ink, float through its body and on its back were its wings.

The lightning didn’t show me this. Two wings on its back spread out. But it was wrong. The wings were broken, burnt to a skeletal frame, and blackened with nightmarish corruption.

Its shoulder was cracked like glass and the black ink seemed to spread throughout its body through it.

All of its eyes were trained on me. Then it pointed at where a mouth should be and then to the phone.

“*beep* 4, 15 *beep* 21 *beep* 21, 14, 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 1, 14, 4 *beep* 13, 5 *beep*”

Another riddle. Mouth must mean speak, communicate; numbers… numbers… language… “Ah”

I went to the remains of a drawer and found paper and a pen. Then using the alphabet and the numbers I translated with a beep being the end of a word.

-Do u understand me-

It read. I looked up at the creature and nodded.

“*beep*21 *beep* 8, 1, 22, 5 *beep* 23, 5, 12, 12 *beep*”

-U have done well-

“Thank you” I said weakly staring at this strange being. Questions built up. Who are you, where are you from, what do you want?

“What are you?” I asked.

“*beep*12, 15, 19, 20 *beep*”

-Lost-

“Do you need me to help you?”

“*beep* 14, 15 *beep*”

-No-

“Then why are you here?” I was beginning to get concerned. Is my life and planet in danger?

“*beep* 20, 15 *beep* 23, 1, 18, 18 *beep* 21 *beep*”

-To warn U-

“About what?”

“*beep* 21 *beep* 18 *beep* 14, 15, 20 *beep* 1, 12, 15, 14, 5 *beep*” as my voice said this, the creatures eyes widened in terror, giving away its darkest secret.

With the last beep goose bumps crawled along my skin. I didn’t need to write this down. Unfortunately I could understand it easily now.

“Why are you telling me this!?” I shouted. My eyes were stinging as I realised the importance of those words.

“*beep* 21 *beep* 6, 15, 21, 14, 4 *beep* 13, 5 *beep*”

-U found me-

“*beep* 21 *beep* 18 *beep* 18, 5, 1, 4, 25 *beep*”

-U R Ready-

“Ready for what?!”

It remained silent

“Are we in danger?”

“*beep* 25, 5, 19 *beep*”

I took a breath and braced myself for what’s to come.

“What is it? What did it do to you?”

The eyes stayed still for a moment. Then they all dropped to the floor, grief filled them.

Like a shot it perked up and stared into her.

Scenes filled her head. A golden city, angels flew high and a golden glass tower streaching beyond the skies.

I stood in this city. I Looking around and found that it was the happiest place ever. Music played, angels danced and flew, sweet smells filled the air and the sun warmed my face.

Then the darkness came.

It was a familiar horrible cold darkness.

I looked towards the sun, but instead I saw it coming. The black smock, it formed into a skull and desended towards the city. A roar like a fog horn screamed through air and into my very soul.

As it screamed balls of smock and flame launched from its mouth came crashing down like missiles. Its black smock consumed the world and I went with it.

 

I came around breathing as if I had stayed under water for too long. It was cold, sweat drenched my clothes and my angel wept.

Black tears filled with soot and ash fell to the floor.

I gathered myself and looked at this creature.

“What must I do?”

My phone beeped followed by more numbers.