Zenith

The Air was stifling and humid.

It smelled of heat and hot metal.

It was pitch dark. Save for a curious blue glow around a curious looking man who was laying on the steel floor.

His name was Gregory.

He sat up from the ground; disoriented and confused.

“What-? Where the hell am I?” He says to himself, looking around, examining his surroundings.

He saw nothing but black, Maybe He was blind, Maybe He was in a pitch black room devoid of any lights, Maybe He was in the bosom of nonexistence...

Gregory looked downwards, towards the floor, where his legs were cloaked in shadow.

He saw a strange blue glow. A strange bluish light that was pleasing to the eyes.

He realized that the blue light were coming from his wrists, or rather, something that bound his wrists together like handcuffs.

Gregory tried moving his hands, He could move them, but He could not pull his wrists apart no matter how He tried. The “handcuffs” were on tight.

“What the hell?” He mutters, staring at the peculiar device in the pitch dark.

Gregory moved his legs, He realized they were wet with sweat.

He realized how humid it was in.

It was like sitting in a hot steel box that was placed under the sunlight.

Gregory suddenly felt the sweat encompass his entire body. Gregory also realized He was naked, save for what seemed to be a very fine, very thin piece of clothing cover his shoulders down to his groin.

It felt like some sort of hospital gown, though He was not sure, for He could not see anything else in this strange darkness.

He made himself stand, nearly slipping on the sweat stained steel floor below his feet, It was a bit awkward to stand, for his wrists were bound so close together that his forearms nearly touched each other.

“Where the hell am I? What the hell is this?” He repeats his query into the dark nothingness, half expecting someone to reply.

He looks around again, His feeble eyes see nothing but the dark...

A faint noise suddenly fills the room. A low humming sound of sorts, a deep sound that seemed to well up from somewhere deep, somewhere ancient, somewhere unknown to his eyes...

A loud noise. The sound of steel splitting apart. Gregory nearly slipped as He was caught off-guard by the noise.

A rhythmic clicking noise followed, emitting just a few feet ahead of Him.

The clicking continued, a line of Light appeared out of the darkness, The line of Light slowly “growing” bigger, eventually morphing into a rectangular shape of Light and gradually becoming a strange square of Light.

Gregory now stood before a strange square of orange-red light, which nearly blinded him.

The light shone on his body, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, He could see what he was wearing.

He was a wearing a plain white robe of sorts, which was thinner than any cloth, and nothing underneath. His legs glistened with perspiration and the floor was made of a gray steel.

He could see his hands too, bound by handcuffs indeed, though not conventional ones...

These handcuffs were made of some gold colored metal, with a line of blue light run up the cuffs that wrapped around his wrists.

There seemed to be some writing on the underside of it, but Gregory could not make them out in this light source.

Gregory looked forward, towards the mysterious square of Light that seemed to hang in the air.

His eyes had adjusted, and beyond the orange-red light, He could see fluffy looking structures on the outside. It was Clouds, clouds floating against the backdrop of a red-orange sky.

Gregory took a few steps forward and realized He was staring out a window. The glass was clear as crystal.

Rubbing his eyes clumsily and almost rabbit like in its execution due to his bound wrists, He peered out the aperture and saw nothing but the heavens.

Clouds to his left, clouds to his right, clouds above him and even clouds down below.

Gregory could not help but gasp at the beautiful scenery that lay before him.

An audible “Wow” escaped his mouth as He saw a flock of birds fly by in a V formation and disappear into a cloud beyond.

The stifling heat, The bright sunlight and this cloudscape...

Gregory was somewhere far, far off the ground.

“What the hell is all this?” He asks nobody once more, “Clouds, the sky- I must be dreaming..”

“No. You’re awake.” A voice suddenly says.

Gregory jumps and hits the window headfirst, his sweat stained forehead smearing the clear glass and making him slide comically downwards onto the shadow covered floor.

Gregory swore out loud.

“Language! Is that something you want Them to do too?” The Voice says cryptically.

The Voice was Male, rather deep and had an English accent.

Gregory ignored the voice’s strange statement.

“Who-who the hell are you and where am I?!” He says out loud, his eyes probing the shadows for any possible person lurking in the darkness.

“Oh sorry. The lights oh and the air system... Apologies.” The Voice says with an air of embarrassment.

A blinding whiteness explodes out of nowhere, Gregory instantly shielded his eyes, albeit awkwardly, with his bound hands and screamed.

At the same time, A low hissing noise came from above and a soothing cool air began to fill the room.

“Damn it. Shouldn’t have given you a heads up first...” The Voice said apologetically, though it sounded rather sardonic, so it was hard to tell whether He was sincere or not.

Gregory lowered his hands as his eyes gradually adjusted to his now fully lit surroundings.

The air inside the strange room was no longer hot, it was cooling down, the sweat on his skin drying as the cool air covered him like a blanket.

He took a breath and his surroundings were now fully visible.

There were only 4 walls around him; The one behind him with the now sweat stained window, a wall to his left that had a bookshelf against it, A wall about 12 feet in front of him that had a simple dining table with two tiny steel chairs propped against it and a wall to his right...Which had a simple bed lying beside it.

The walls were a pearly white that the light practically reflected off of them.

Gregory was nearly blinded by the reflected light.

“It’s a simple spread...But an efficient, if I say so myself...” The Voice said as Gregory continued to stare at his bright surroundings.

The cold air made him shiver, The sweat on his back and legs drying in the cold air...

“A bed...Some books...A really, really nice view of the heavens...it’s Paradise if you ask Me!” The Voice continued.

“Ask you? Just who are you exactly?” Gregory asks The Voice.

He awkwardly wiped his eyes and looked towards the ceiling, The Voice was coming from somewhere...He spotted a small flat circle on the ceiling, it was placed dead center, A flat ebony circle in a sea of Ivory.

It looked like some speaker of sorts.

“Call me Janus.” The Voice says, “Your friendly neighborhood gui-”

“Where am I?” Gregory cuts him off as He begins to get back on his feet.

“You’re high! Very high!” Janus says bursting into laughter.

Gregory shakes his head and takes a few steps forward, His feet felt frozen as he walked on the now chilled steel floor.

“Yeah...Jokes aside and all, You are High. Zenith actually.” Janus continues, ending his laughter and clearing his throat over whatever communications systems He used.

“Zenith???” Gregory says, his eyes still probing the ceiling for any camera that could be on the ceiling. “What’s a Zenith?”

“It’s complicated. Trust Me. I don’t think you’re in the right mindset to understand it now...Let’s just say you’re in the realm of the gods.” Janus replies. “For now, Relax...You just woke up after all..”

“Relax? How the hell am I supposed to be relaxed?“Gregory yells out, taking a seat on the bed, His eyes immediately looking at his bound hands.

“I am somewhere up in the sky in some kind of strange cube enclosure..“Gregory says, looking around him, “I just woke up 3 minutes ago with no memory whatsoever and find myself half naked in this...thing..” He continues, gesturing at the thin hospital robe-esque attire He wore.

“AND I AM HANDCUFFED! HOW CAN I RELAX WITH ALL OF THIS?!” Gregory finishes, yelling at the top of his voice and shaking his bound wrists in anger.

Janus tutted over the unseen communication system, “Don’t stress yourself out, You’ll overwork your heart and brain, You don’t want to pop and bloody die all of a sudden do ya?”

“Wha- What the hell are you going on about?” Gregory asks exasperated and annoyed, He pounds his left foot on the steel floor out of annoyance.

“I’m just saying that Stress is not good for the body. Like anybody. Chill. Relax. Eat something.” Janus says calmly. “Eat...Yeah, you’d better eat. Have you eaten? You haven’t...Yeah..Hmm, A sandwich OK for you??”

There was a low whirring noise that seem to emit from the dining table, just to his right side, Gregory stared at it and noticed that a tiny panel on the wall opened up and a black plate with a plastic cover slid out.

He stood up and saw what it was; It was a very fresh looking clubhouse sandwich, Complete with fresh damp lettuce and a pink slice of Ham.

“I’m here to help you out.” Janus’ voice rung out again as Gregory stared at the food that just slide out of the wall. “Sit down. Eat. Relax.”

Gregory takes a seat on one of the steel chairs and places his bound hands on the table, noisily slamming his arms on it. He couldn’t eat properly in this position.

“My hands aren’t exactly available aren’t they?” Gregory tells Janus sarcastically, “What the hell am I supposed to do? Take it apart piece by piece and eat like a bird?”

“Yeah. Whatever works I guess.” Janus instantly replies.

“What the hell are these anyway?” He asks as He raises his arms, hoping that Janus could see him. “And how can you see me? I don’t see a camera.”

“I assure you, I can see you...Clear as the bloody day outside your walls.” Janus replies, “And those things ’round your wrists monitor your vitals; Heartbeat, Breathing rate, Your platelet count etcetera, etcetera, things that tell your if you’re dying or not.”

Gregory looked at his “handcuffs” once more, It seemed to be made out of solid gold and a slick looking sliver of blue light ran up the curved part of the cuffs, just right above his wrists.

There were also some symbols just below the strip of blue light, three symbols on each flat surface where the cuffs’ strand teeth met the rivet.

The symbols were strange and alien to Gregory, the mere sight of them seemed to make his head hurt.

On the left cuff were three symbols; A Star, A double edged sword in the middle of a circle and an 8 spoke wheel with two wiggly looking figures underneath. The figures looked a bit like snakes to Gregory’s eyes.

The three other symbols on the right cuff were; a strange looking glyph that can be best described as a Number 3 drawn in a dramatic way, A crescent moon and a star and a circle cut into two colors, Black and white.

It was indeed a strange sight to behold.

“What’re these symbols?” Gregory asks Janus. “Company branding?”

“Probably. I don’t know, I haven’t seen that Vital Reader yet. It may be an old one though, god knows how long that’s been used.” Janus replies, “I’m only familiar with the new ones, y’know, the ones they put on your neck and gives you every single shred of info, from what you last ate to what you last touched with your hand? That one.”

Gregory had no idea what Janus was talking about.

“Anyways, Ignore that symbol shite. That’s just more stress for ya. Eat up. Take your time.” Janus says with an assuring tone. “Go ahead.”

With two closely bound hands, Gregory dragged the plastic covered plate towards him and lifted the cover.

A cool air emitted from the sandwich and the scent of fresh lettuce and freshly baked bread wafted into his nostrils. The smoky scent of Ham followed suit.

This sandwich was indeed fresh.

Gregory’s stomach grumbled comically.

He scoffed.

With shaky fingers, Gregory grabbed the sandwich and bent forward a little, bending his arms towards his face and took a bite out of the food given to him.

Flavors exploded in his mouth and Gregory was pleasantly surprised.

It tasted like the first ever piece of Food He had ever eaten.

“Good huh?” Janus suddenly says. “I can see your surprise.” He says with a laugh.

“Want me to bring up more?”

Gregory gave the unseen camera around him a thumbs-up.

He didn’t mind another helping.

Taking a breath and relaxing himself out of this strange situation, Gregory took another bite of his sandwich and savored the simple yet exquisite flavor.

____________________________________________________________________________

It was four hours since Gregory awoken in this strange place and He was now getting acclimatized to his surroundings.

He found out that the cool air came from hidden vents near the floor, coming from unseen source.

The panel in the wall by the table was the sole source of his food and water given to him, and seemingly controlled as well, by the unseen man named Janus.

The bookshelf held many tomes and books, about 50 or so in its five layers.

Each book look older than the last, They were of various genres and categories.

Non-fiction books about Plants, the weather, The Universe, Physics, Math, Earth science and strangely enough, Quantum Physics.

There were fiction books as well, these books looked older than the rest. The covers were bent, wrinkled, some were seemingly burnt...The pages within were a mix of creamy white paper and the yellowed paper of Age.

The fiction books were written by H.G Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and the like...Gregory had never read of these.

The bed was a simple one, Just a futon laid over a steel frame. Nothing special.

There didn’t seem to be a bathroom or any place for Gregory to relieve himself.

He found it strange and He asked the unseen voice about it.

“Hey, uhm, Janus?” He says out loud.

“Yeah?” Janus instantly replies.

“Where’s the bathroom?”

“You don’t have one.”

“How come?”

“You don’t need it.” Janus says.

Gregory shook his head in disbelief and doubt.

“I don’t need it?”

“Yeah. The monitor, your “cuffs”, disable your need to go relieve yourself. It also recycles any and all waste material your body makes.” The unseen man explains, “Basically, Your piss and shit become energy. Makes your time here more valuable and productive. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Gregory looked at his “handcuffs” in amazement and wonder, He didn’t know what to feel or say about it.

All He could say was “Hm. Okay.”

“Yep. Today’s technology huh?” Janus says with pride, “It’s better than anything down there, I can tell you that!”

Janus noticed his words, “What do you mean down there?”

“Hm?”

“Down there...What’d you mean by that?” He asks again.

“Oh. The surface. Total shitshow. Too much energy consumption. Wasteful. Unlike here...Everything utilized to a T!”

“You say that it’s like a bad thing and “Up here” is better than down there...” Gregory says, walking towards the window and peers into the clouds.

The clouds were now becoming a gray-white, perhaps a storm was coming...

“Yes. That is precisely what I am saying!” Janus says proudly, “Up here? Paradise! Down there? Bah! Don’t even get me started!”

A flash of light burst from within the clouds beyond, a muffled rumble shook the room.

Gregory wondered how a Thunderstorm would be like this high.

“Ehhhh forget about whatever thoughts you have down there! You’d be dead if you woke up there! You’re here! Enjoy it!” Janus said again, boasting about his current abode.

Gregory nodded and leaned his head on the window.

The glass was cold.

The sky beyond the pane of glass grew darker and more flashes of light crackled.

Thunder shook the window and groaned with a deep menace, it sounded like a distant creature.

His eyes stared into the clouds and beyond it.

He wondered how far high He was.

He wondered how intense a storm would be at this altitude.

He wondered if this glass would hold in the storm.

He wondered about the world below.

He wondered what Janus said, “better than anything down there..”

Was it bad down there? and if so, what did He mean by that?

He seemed adamant to keep Gregory up here for treatment...but treatment for what exactly?

Gregory probed his mind, thinking about what could have happened to him prior....But nothing came to mind, Only a deep dark blank seeped in mystery.

How did He get here?

Why is Janus helping him out?

Was his statement about down there just arrogant small talk because this place seemed to be a cutting edge paradise of sorts?

What exactly was “here” to begin with?

Was in a skyscraper?

Was in some sort of tower, a bastille of some form?

There were many questions filling Gregory’s mind and He wanted to ask Janus all about it.

But something told him, an instinct of sorts, not to trust Janus.

He was unseen after all...And for seemingly no good reason, He was being a good samaritan.

Who was Janus after all?

He had a British accent...and that was all He knew about him.

Was He a doctor?

An eccentric who would like to help a man for unknown reasons?

Was He holding Gregory captive?

His heart sunk at the thought of being a hostage...Much less a hostage with a blank memory..

And what were those “handcuffs”, this thing that according to Janus, recorded his vitals?

They didn’t feel like a device that recorded his health...

It felt like what it looked like.

A device to apprehend a criminal.

Was Gregory a criminal?

Or was He just taken captive by one?

He doubted himself.

He doubted Janus.

He doubted this strange room.

He had doubts.

Doubts that buzzed around in his mind like flies over a corpse.

Gregory sighed, closed his eyes and took a breath, and stared out into the sea of clouds beyond.

________________________________________________________________________________

A tempest raged outside the confines of Gregory’s little room, The outside of the window was shrouded by water and a violent blowing wind. Lightning flashed beyond that shroud of rain water, crackling and exploding with electrical fury.

The window had not sign of exploding inwards or shattering due to the storm’s fury, It seemed to hold well.

The continuous muffled roar of thunder shook His abode, creaking and groaning the steel from outside like a ship among rocky waters.

Gregory sat on the floor, his hands nowhere else but laid before him, bound and awkward.

He rested the back of his head on the wall, the cold metal wall sending a shiver down his back.

He sighed.

He just sat there.

Thinking.

Comprehending.

He felt the storm through the walls...through the floor...

He thought of his place...Up above, high above everything.

He was bored.

“What’s wrong? You alright?” Janus’ voice pierced the silence. “Bored?”

Gregory nodded, his eyes, staring a million miles away.

“Read something. Get those mental gears moving.” Janus suggests. “Go on. You saw ’em.”

He had a point.

Gregory got to his feet and stepped towards the bookshelf.

“What should I read?” Gregory asks Janus as He ran a finger over some books and landing on a Aldous Huxley novel.

“It’s up to you. Plenty of there to choose from.”

Gregory pulled out a random book from the shelf, it was a sci-fi novel.

It was a Philip K. Dick book titled VALIS.

It had the cover of a giant hand clutching a bright light amidst a bluish neon soaked backdrop.

He knew nothing about this book, Gregory placed it back on the shelf.

“You’re not reading that one?” Janus asks as Gregory scans the bookshelf.

“Nope. I don’t know it.” He replies.

“And? That’s why you read. To find out!”

“Eh. The book doesn’t look that enticing..” He says back, crouching down and peering at the lower layers of the shelf. “damn things...” Gregory mutters to himself, referring to his bound hands.

“Alright. But you’re missing out on a damn good story...The guy in the story has no idea whether He’s getting knowledge from alien tech or God! Hah!” Janus abruptly stops talking, “Spoiler. Oops. Sorry.”

Gregory shakes his head.

He pulls out another book from the lower most layer, a thick book with a cover that was black as night.

It had the words Necronomicon: A collection of tales from H.P. Lovecraft on it written in gold letters.

It looked mystical, ancient even, even though there was a label that read Penguin Publishing House UK on the book’s spine.

Gregory put it on the floor and with his bound hands, awkwardly flipped through the first few pages, the pages were still a creamy white and the “fresh book” smell permeated his nostrils.

“Oh. Lovecraft. Cosmic Horror and all that...Those are great too.” Janus says, noticing Gregory’s interest from an unseen camera. “I suggest you start with ′The Colour out of Space.′ It’s a great one.”

Gregory closed the book, lifts it from the ground and walks to the futon He called a bed.

He dropped it on the bed, rattling the steel frame as it fell.

Thunder exploded outside and Gregory nearly jumped out of his skin.

“I can lower the shade on that window y’know? For some quiet? All you need to do is ask...” Janus suggests.

“Ye-yeah. Please. If you can...” Gregory says taking a seat on the bed and letting his feet hang off the edge.

Without a word from the unseen gentleman, There was a sound of mechanical whirring and Gregory noticed a thick sheet of Metal slide downwards outside the surface of the lone window.

The shutter slid closed and the sound of the storm beyond faded into silence.

“Thanks.” Gregory says looking towards the ceiling.

Janus said nothing.

Gregory put the book on his lap, bent his arms, gently turned the pages and began to read.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hours go by...

The Storm outside came, went, returned and left for good.

One Lovecraft story became two, then three, then the whole book.

Gregory began to explore the contents of the bookshelf.

Fiction, non-fiction, math & science. Everything enticed him and piqued his curious mind.

Surprisingly, He wanted to learn.

He wanted to read.

He wanted to explore fictional worlds and concepts.

He wanted to wade into the eponymous waters of the unknown and cruise the deep dark of the Universe.

His eyes and mind were open to the majesty of the Universe. The power of Gravity, The gravitational fury of a Black Hole, The possibility of Parallel Dimensions, The all-encompassing reach of the strings of Time...

Science.

Math.

Fiction.

Tragedy.

Comedy.

Death and Life.

Gregory loved it all.

Gregory saw it all.

Gregory saw the common ingredient of these things...

Creation.

Science was the study of Creation; of the things living, breathing and dying on this earth.

Math explained the mechanics of Creation; the bits and bobs of existence...

Gregory loved it. He loved thinking about it. He loved peering into the complicated machinations of Life and wanted to see what made it tick.

But the stories...The fictional tales of tripod aliens from Mars, the stories of dystopian societies that limited the Free Will of Humanity, quips and quotes that spoke about the insignificance of Man towards the unknown’s of the universe...These were the things Gregory thought about on a daily basis.

No amount of Science and Math could quell it.

The concept of it, the sheer concept of it...

Creation...Oh sweet creation...

Worlds...Fully realized worlds, rules and lives made in the mind of a Human being,

Molded by the gray matter of the Brain and made live by the fragile hands of a man...

Creation...

A God, A Goddess with a pen, with a typewriter...With an instrument mightier than any sword molded by the finest blacksmith on Earth.

Creation.

Creation.

Lives, though fictional, were still fully realized lives existing within the confines of paper and ink...

The concept made Gregory giddy, inexplicably excited and happy...

He could not put it into words.

Creation.

Lovely Creation.

Creation...

And during one night...When Gregory’s window exhibited a bluish-black star speckled sky, The concept of Creation raced through his mind.

It buzzed around noisily yet alluringly, like a Hummingbird flitting before a flower...

He wanted to do something about it...

He MUST do something about it.

It was a need.

An urge.

A duty...

Whatever it was, It was alive and burning inside his body and within his eponymous soul.

With the thought of Creation on his mind, He drifted off into sleep.

And somewhere unseen, but omnipresent, Janus watched, He knew Gregory’s urge...

And with an unseen yet omnipresent face...

He smiled.

He smiled like the Cheshire Cat in the dark.

It was all falling into place...

_______________________________________________________________________________

Days became weeks. Weeks became Months...or at least that’s how it felt for Gregory.

The concept of Time seemed to elude him in this abode...

There was no clock present and the daylight outside was unreliable; Sometimes it showed the full majesty of the Sun, a near blinding ray of Yellow, but often times it was a muted orange within the clouds...It was near impossible to tell whether it was sunrise or sunset.

The only concrete evidence of the passage of Time was the darkness outside his window.

Nighttime.

Gregory still had the Monitor around his wrists, which still felt like handcuffs to him, but at least He was getting used to it.

He ate, He read and even wrote, albeit in a childish-like scribble due to the limitation, with more ease.

Janus assisted him whenever He could.

He fed him three square meals a day, which usually consisted of lean meat, vegetables and clean water.

Often times Gregory was required to take a plain white capsule, with his meal, which was about half the size of his pinky finger.

Janus told Him that it was a supplement of sorts, though He never actually specified what it was for.

Gregory could feel something different though...He slept less, He felt more invigorated to read, to look out the window and think, to sit in the corner of the room, look upwards into an unseen camera lens and converse with the man behind the surveillance...

His mind seem to brim with ideas as well...Ideas, Creations, ripe and ready for the paper.

The Creations buzzed and roared in his mind, awaiting their escape into reality.

Gregory wrote them on the notepad given to him by Janus.

Silence, nothing but the silence of the room and the gentle sound of a pen nib meeting the surface of paper permeated the air of Gregory’s abode.

Short stories about Science, About Life, About death and other dimensions...It was almost orgasmic to write those all down.

Gregory’s literary creations looked nothing more but childish scrawls on paper...But appearances did not matter, for all He cared about were the contents within.

The scribbles, the writings, the ideas were borderline insane...But Gregory did not care for Insanity was subjective.

Everything was.

As Gregory penned down his thoughts, He could help but notice Janus’ near complete silence.

Sometimes He’d go a day or two (if He was correct in measuring the passage of Time in his four walled abode) without hearing his voice.

Other times, He’d hear him once in a while.

Yet oddly enough, in the tomb-like silence, Gregory could feel something.

Yes...Gregory felt Janus’ presence..

Somehow.

It did make him think...Thoughts and possibilities in his head that were once important but were now pushed back due to a surge of pure Creation.

Thoughts...Such as ”Who is Janus? Why is He keeping me here? Is it for my own good? What happened to Me before all of this? Where am I? How, or rather what, is the world below?”

Gregory shook his head and put the pen He held on the table before him.

A pain began to fill his head.

This was the first time for him to feel pain in his skull.

All the lights seemed bright and there was a ringing in his ears.

Gregory tried to shield his eyes, but his bound hands prevented him from doing so.

“Damn it!” He yells out, He tries to stand up but his legs felt wobbly and He fell to the floor headfirst. He groaned in pain and swore.

“Janus!” He calls out, “Janus! Help! There’s something wrong!”

The pain increases in his head and the ringing in his ears grew cacophonous.

“Help damn it!” Gregory shouts.

Only Silence replied.

The pain became unbearable and the ringing now deafened him.

Gregory could not do anything but scream.

Janus kept silent. Unresponsive. Passive.

Gregory screamed fruitlessly, eyes shut, ears bleeding...

Thoughts...All the thoughts that were pushed back came rushing out in his mind...All the seeds of his personal creation pushed aside, cast aside, covered over by questions that sowed doubt and fear in his mind.

Questions...Questions that He never dared ask himself in fear of something more sinister.

What was He before all of this?

How come He could not remember anything before any of this?

Who was He?

Doubt was the seed of fear...And now fear took hold of him.

He was helpless, alone and powerless to combat whatever was happening to himself.

He soon felt himself drifting in and out of existence...Things were turning black and white, light was becoming dark and his breathing grew more labored.

Gregory was in the process of fainting.

Perhaps it was Mercy that Gregory had fainted from the pain and stress...His mind was going places even further than before, further than He would like.

Further...Further than the walls of his abode, further than the clouds around his abode...

He doubted his own existence for some strange reason.

The pain ceased.

The ringing silenced.

Gregory now lay on the floor unconscious...

_______________________________________________________________________________

Gregory found himself floating in midair, drifting in a sea of yellowish-white light.

He was bewildered yet delighted at the same time...

How did He get here?

There was no sight of the four walls, no bright white light or cool air embracing his body.

Did the storm eject him from the room? Maybe He was falling downwards...Down, down, down towards the surface below.

No...

He wasn’t falling.

He was floating upwards.

His arms and legs passed through the clouds, the thin bodies of Water vapor kissing his skin as He hovered upwards.

What was this?

What was going on?

Gregory was delighted at his surroundings but confusion addled his mind.

He realized that his hands were free, Free of the mysterious “handcuffs” that He woke up in.

Gregory laughed.

“How-?” He says, shaking his hands and touching his body here and there in surprise. “Where the hell am I?”

He looked around again, The clouds were now a brownish orange, Everything was in a tone of Sepia.

Gregory looked further upwards..and He seemed to stare into the entrance of Heaven itself.

The light was bright, a shining beam of Ivory high above the sky.

It seemed to Gregory, that He was being pulled into Heaven itself.

“Did I die?” He suddenly asks himself, “I don’t remember reading anything about this...” He says, referring to the strange scene He was in now.

“Nope. You did not die.” A voice suddenly says.

The voice sounded like an echo; Cosmic, distant and booming.

Gregory couldn’t recognize if the voice belonged to a woman or a man. It was too disembodied to know.

“What in the f-” Gregory says, caught by surprise. “Who is that? Where am I?”

“Take a guess.” The disembodied voice of indeterminate gender replied.

“Am I dead?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re...?”

“I said take a guess.”

“My conscience? My mind a few minutes before I fall into the deep sleep of death?”

“You’re not dead idiot!” The voice booms, “You’re alive and well, I assure you.”

The last three words in that sentence made a bell ring in Gregory’s head.

It sounded awfully familiar.

“Janus? Is that you?” Gregory asks out loud.

Silence.

“Janus, it’s you isn’t it?” He repeats his question.

“Yes, yes it’s Me..” Janus replies, His voice no longer booming nor gender neutral. “How’d you find out? Oh wait, nevermind...It’s my manner of speech innit?” He says, answering his own question.

“So where am I?” He asked once more, ” Dead? Outside my room?”

“Neither.”

“Neither?”

“Neither.”

“Where is that exactly?”

“In-between! A setting of sorts..” Janus says.

“Setting???” Gregory asks noticing his strange choice of words.

“Agh. Ignore my deviant choice of words. Ehehehe.” Janus says somewhere, laughing as He goes.

Gregory just floated there, perplexed.

“So where am I?” He repeats again.

“You’re not dead or alive.” Janus quips, “You’re in-between! Higher up! Above and Beyond! Das Übermensch!

Gregory did not understand a word.

“Apotheosis! It’s your Apotheosis my boy!” Janus says, His voice filled with excitement and joy.

“Apotheo- In what way??” He asks, even more bewildered than before.

“This way!” Janus yells at the top of his voice, the unseen man laughed with raucous joy.

The ivory beam of Light above him suddenly enveloped him in a warm embrace.

A buzzing sensation filled his head. He had began to hear things, smell odors and even taste things.

His senses were going haywire.

Gregory soon realized He was hearing whispers too. Whispers and murmurs of various voices and of various languages; Men, Women and Children conversing in a million different languages. All of them whispering, yelling and even arguing with each other in his head.

It was getting too loud for Gregory. He had begun to cover his ears in an effort to silence the voices...It didn’t work. The voices simply grew louder.

He began to see things in his mind; Scientific findings, Mathematical equations, Theories of various scientists began to flood his mind, fill his Brain with information and knowledge.

It felt good, heavenly, borderline orgasmic, as the knowledge entered his consciousness.

Knowledge. Raw unfiltered knowledge of everything in the universe cascaded into his Mind.

Overwhelmed and metaphorically blinded by all of this, Gregory had begun to scream.

His screams barely pierced the blinding light around him.

His arms and legs hung looses in the air, like a puppet strung up on a wall.

He screamed.

And He screamed.

And He screamed.

He could see the essence of the universe.

He could see, stare and nearly kiss the face of the eponymous God, Allah, Brahma, whatever He or She was called.

Apotheosis! Apotheosis my dear boy!, The words echoed around him.

Apotheosis!

The In-Between!

Gregory saw it all. The very fabric of the Universe.

He saw each invisible string of Time, Each fragile yet omnipresent string that held every man, woman, child and animal in the indifferent Universe.

Dimensions. Worlds. Death. Life.

He saw it all.

He saw it ALL.

Gregory had ceased to scream.

His eyes instantly felt heavy.

He closed them.

Comfort enveloped him.

The voices ceased.

The pain disappears.

All is Well.

deificatio.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Darkness.

The same stifling humid darkness from before had returned.

Gregory lay there on the floor disoriented.

He felt light headed and a little queasy, though a strange sense of “refreshment”, that odd wordless feeling one gets after a decent night’s sleep, filled his head.

He saw nothing in the darkness, Gregory heard nothing in the darkness, He could only hear his own breathing, ragged and raspy in the tomb like silence.

He laid on his back, His barely clothed body dripping with perspiration.

He felt filthy and grimy.

Trying his best to ignore the unpleasant atmosphere, He looked around, his eyes fruitlessly trying to peer into the surrounding shadows.

The window was closed again, He said to himself, Everything was off.

“What the hell? ...again?” Gregory said to himself in the darkness, his low murmur sounded like a shout in the silence.

Why was everything off?

What had just happened to him earlier?

Though confused, disoriented and slightly annoyed, Gregory felt...great.

He felt refreshed, an odd sense of invigoration seemed to burn inside him.

A white hot electricity seemed to course his body.

What was this?

Gregory sat up in the darkness and felt something peculiar around his wrists.

He felt the skin around them...

There was nothing bounding his wrists. They were smooth and slippery with sweat.

Yes!

Free!

But how...?

“Janus!” He calls out as He rubbed his wrists and occasionally shaking them in the dark. “The, uh, cuffs, whatever you call them...Fell off. Also, What’s going on? Why is everything off?”

Silence. No reply.

“Damn it now Janus!” He pounded the steel floor with his right hand. It felt good to use his hand.

“Janus!” He yells out again.

Nobody replied.

“Great. Just great.” He says to himself.

Gregory stands and takes a breath.

He still remembered the layout of his room, more or less, He should be able to get his bearings.

He takes a few steps forward, presumably where his bed was, bent slightly and touched it with his hands.

Gregory felt the thin cushion and the cold steel frame of the bed.

He sat on the bed, albeit awkwardly, for his senses were still getting used to the abysmal darkness.

He sat there, sweating in the darkness, then leaned on the wall behind him.

It was hot, unbearably so, It was also Humid...Everything felt like it was sticking to his skin.

“Janus! Come on! What’s going on?!” He yells again in frustration “I’m going to suffocate in here...” He mutters to himself, wiping the sweat of his unseen brow.

“...What do I do now?” He contemplates as He lightly banged his head on the wall.

He takes another breath and gradually calmed himself down.

“No point in getting riled up..” He says to himself. “...even though I’m locked up in god knows where, I don’t even bloody remember how I got here, but still...Relax...Calm thoughts.”

It was no relaxation mantra, but at least it calmed him down.

Gregory closed his eyes, or at least He thought He did, It was impossible to tell in this inky black stillness...Still, He closed them and let his mind wander.

He remembered the books He had read...All those world, all those findings, the knowledge, the wonder, the tragedies, the comedies of the past, present and hypothetical yet potential future.

His body was here, but his mind was in a million other worlds.

Gregory soon slept or rather, drifted off into a state of deep focus..A trance of sorts.

All those worlds...All those words...All of them Creations in some form or a way to explain the machinations of the Created.

A sense of calm washed over him and He drifted off into the ether.

He no longer felt the stifling humidity.

He no longer felt the sweat staining his skin.

He no longer felt helpless or annoyed at Janus’ silence.

He was at relative peace.

Gregory felt the room around him, He felt past the room...Through the countless clouds floating in the sky...He felt something, A presence far, far, far below Him.

A deep, deep exceedingly pure presence...Like a million voices crying out...

...crying out for a savior.

He felt the presence call out to him, begging to be heard...Begging, pleading, asking, wondering for an answer.

Gregory felt it all.

Gregory heard it all.

But He could not reply.

The voices grew louder and louder until they became pleading shrieks.

Gregory covered his ears in the darkness and tried to ignore them...

________________________________________________________________________________

The cries continued and Gregory could no longer zone them out.

He stood by the area where the window is or rather, where it could have been...He tried to open it to no avail, his hands felt no edge to grasp nary a handle...Just the smooth steel of the wall.

He slammed his fist into the wall several times out of anger...He swore several times as well, each one coarser than the last.

Gregory felt the humidity and stuffiness of the room again.

There was nothing from Janus, just silence.

What had happened to Him? Why the silence?

Gregory could no longer bear the heat. He had already shed his thin article of clothing and tossed it into the darkness.

He was now naked in the dark, Vulnerable and exposed in the shadows...

He could still hear the voices.

They pleaded and asked for, oddly enough, Deliverance.

The voices were in different languages: English, Spanish, German, Italian and a few thousand other tongues and accents of Men, Women and children alike.

What was happening to Him?

The voices were beginning to give him a headache, the voices kept going and going, asking like petulant children.

Gregory just wanted silence.

He punched the steel wall again.

“Goddamn it! Shut up!” He yelled into the darkness.

But they did not listen, They did not hear him...The voices kept going. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut Up!” He replied fruitlessly. “I cannot help you!”

He covered his ears again, leaning his head on the wall, trying to ignore them....

_______________________________________________________________________

How long has it been since He had seen Light? How long has it been since He had eaten food, drank water and read a book?

It was impossible to tell the passage of Time in this encompassing darkness.

It felt like one endless cycle of primordial darkness, slowly eroding Gregory’s mind...

___________________________________________________________________________

The darkness...

The voices...

Hunger, Thirst...He felt them all.

A numb sensation enveloped his body, but his mind still burned with that invigoration He woke up with.

He felt like dying, perhaps He was eroding into nothingness, gradually descending into madness like a character in a H.P. Lovecraft story.

He was descending into madness....Slowly, yet surely...

________________________________________________________________________________

Time no longer existed in his abode.

An endless stillness...A dark limbo of voices and isolation.

Gregory no longer remembered his own voice. He even forgot how He looked like.

He no longer felt Human.

He felt like a presence. A damn presence of sorts, floating, existing and trapped in this mysterious darkness.

The voices continued...Gregory could do nothing but listen to the choir of voices.

________________________________________________________________________________

He was hearing a scream.

Perhaps it was one of the voices, He could not tell.

All that He knew for sure was that there was a continuous scream for help.

It, whatever the voice was, whoever it belonged to, called for Janus.

Nobody replied. Nary a whisper from the unseen caretaker.

Tears began to roll down his face.

He began to sob quietly in the dark, He realized something and his heart dropped in his chest.

The screams were coming from His own mouth.

He began to scream louder.

_____________________________________________________________________________

It was pointless to fight it.

A feeble effort to preserve whatever shred of sanity He might still had...

He now lay there in the silence, A shrouded lump of flesh, sweat and a strange invigoration.

Indifference now washed over him.

He no longer felt anger, He no longer felt that crippling existential dread of insanity.

He was no bored, surprisingly enough...

Perhaps this was his way of giving up...His mind’s way of making amends with the inevitable.

With nothing to do but submit to this situation, He began to listen to the Voices...See what they wanted, what they said...

He focused on certain voices and filtered out the rest.

He focused on the ones He could understand...And He listened...

“Please...I don’t want her to die!”

“Damn it...I NEED this job! Please!”

“...Stacy’s cute, I mean yeah, come on...Please make her like Me!”

“Stop the bombing! Inshallah, please!! There are children living with us!”

“Oh, Oh! I don’t want to die! No ple-”

“Make it quick! Painless! Right in the goddamn face COME ON!!”

“Deliver Me!”

All the voices pleaded something...

The voices sounded distant, like people shouting in a room just beyond the walls.

How could He hear these voices?

Why were they asking for Him? Were they asking for Him specifically in the first place?

He continued to listen...curiosity got the best of Him.

"Deliver us from Evil!”

“Cast Him out!”

“...-aybe will get there, maybe We won’t, Who knows...Hell, I may die before You do! Stay positive!”

“...My exam, I need to fuc-”

“Thank You! Hahahah! I won! Yeah baby!”

“Carl, It’s a boy! It’s been answered! A beautiful baby boy!”

“Enough with the death! Enough with the Hate! We will not be silenced!”

Some of the voices were simply expressing something, Yet He had heard them.

A thought entered his mind, A strange one at that....

Could He reply to one of them?

Could He respond?

It was possible, Gregory thought about it, If there was some sort of “connection” to Him, Could He reciprocate that connection and talk to them?

He decided to give it a try...

Taking another breath, He focused on a single voice.

"Hahahah! Yes! He said Yes! Oh hell yes!” A jubilant male voice said, cheering about something.

Gregory gulped some saliva that had begin to gather in the back of his throat as He lay there in the darkness.

Now was his chance to try...

“You’re welcome..” He says out loud, expecting nothing to happen.

The male voice He had heard suddenly gasped and swore underneath his breath.

"Who said that??”

Gregory was as surprised as him.

“M-Me..” He meekly tells the Male Voice.

"Holy Sh-, You’re real...You’re really real. Either that or I’m schizophrenic.” The voice says with a slight apprehension.

The Voice continued , the tone of his words sounding distant yet close at the same time.

"I’ve asked and asked for years damn it...It finally happened and now you reply...Holy shit what a day...Hey, You there?”

"Yeah...I’m here." Gregory replies with a sense of wonder as He lay in the dark, conversing with somebody, somewhere yet unseen. “Hell, maybe I’m the one who’s mad.”

"Nope. I’m real! I assure you. That’s kind of a weird thing to say though...” The Voice says cryptically, “I live in Miami.”

" Miami huh?” He asks, still fascinated at the fact that He was now holding a disembodied conversation. “What’s it like?”

"Hot. Occasionally dreary because of The Bombings...Food’s good though.” He casually replies. ”My name’s Adrian by the way..”

“The Bombings? What?” Gregory asks.

" Yeah. Bombings. It’s been 3 years since They, nobody really knows who...Anyways, They bombed the shit out of the East Coast. Bye-bye D.C. Bye-bye New York city...Wait, I thought you knew all??” Adrian says, ending his sentence with another cryptic statement.

“Ye-yeah. I did. I was just making sure.” Gregory lies to Adrian.

"I’m sure you know about The Great Sinking right? Floods, Quakes and the like that wiped out half of Asia right? Hah! What am I saying? Of course you do! hahahah!”

Gregory lay there in the darkness. Surprised and confused.

"You still there? Awfully quiet...” Adrian asks.

“Still here.”

" Must be pretty busy up there...Alright, I gotta go. Thank you again. My internal balance has been restored by your mere presence. Thank You.” He says, the words escaping his mouth and entering Gregory’s ears confused him even further.

The voice abruptly stopped and all the other voices echoing in the background fell silent.

It seems like He had spoken to somebody on the surface...and the surface below did not paint a pretty picture in his mind.

Gregory laid there in the dark, shocked and amazed at what had just transpired...

One thing was clear in his mind, A tiny bead of Light in the darkness of mystery..

Gregory wanted answers.

And Janus was the only one capable to give Him an explanation.

___________________________________________________________________

The Dark was now comforting to Gregory.

It was silent. He wasn’t hearing any voices of the sort.

But He could feel them.

He didn’t know how to describe it. It felt like He was in a room filled with people, It also felt like floating in an infinite abyss of nothing...He felt close and distant to them all at the same time.

It felt like He had a connection to them....To their minds, To their hearts...To their souls.

A heavenly bright light exploded above him, It was like staring into the genesis of the Big Bang.

Gregory shielded his eyes with his hand and closed his eyes shut.

A cold air began to fill the room and His sweat stained naked body began to dry in the coolness.

The Window opened up as well, revealing the same fluffy cloudscape beyond.

It felt like Life returned to the room.

Gregory sat up, still shielding his eyes with a raised...He groaned as He did. His skin rapidly cooling.

“Janus!” He calls out. “What happened?”

He lowers his hand and allows his eyes to adjust in the light. The room around him gradually became clearer...It looked exactly the same, save for the still soaking discarded article of clothing in the corner of the room.

His “handcuffs” were on the floor too, laying by the foot of the table. The gold like steel glinting in the light.

“Janus!” He yells out once more, his naked body now beginning to shiver. “Janus, goddamn it, where are you?! I need answers!”

“Answers?” Janus’ voice suddenly rings out, casual and carefree as if nothing happened. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You know what I damn well mean!” Gregory says, looking towards the ceiling and raising a fist. His eyes further adjusting to the returning light of the room. “Everything! Who am I? Why am I here? Where the hell are you and why did you disappear??? I don’t even know how much time had passed since I got here!”

“7 years, 4 months, 6 days, 24 minutes and um, 55 seconds...” Janus replies.

“What?”

“That’s how much time has passed.”

“Seven years???” Gregory exclaims.

“Yeah. Seven. Not that long actually.”

“Not that long?!” Gregory shouts, “Are you kidding me right now?!”

“Time is subjective. Time has no effect in your room.” Janus says cryptically.

“Cut the shit and tell me everything now!” Gregory says with exasperation. “Everything!”

“Now now...Let’s not get testy..” Janus coos. ” I’m helping you here.”

“Helping me do what exactly?” He asks, raising both his arms in annoyance. “Rot in this, in this...cell?!” He says, punching the steel of the wall.

“I’ve already told you...You’re not being held captive.” Janus replies, tsk-ing away “Oh dear, it seems like I failed...again.” He mumbles.

“Failed? Failed what?”

“Oh dear, I said that out loud...Oh never mind that Gregory...I’m just here to help you that’s all.”

“HELP ME DO WHAT?!” Fury and Frustration fill Gregory’s heart “DO WHAT?!”

There was a few moments of silence.

Than a sigh.

“Sentience...Sentience is a double edged sword. The search for reason and purpose. God, this is frustrating....But I put myself here...No bother in complaining..” Janus says. His words eluding the understanding of Gregory.

Gregory stood there, confused and infuriated.

“I am here...to help you lead.” Janus says. “Lead the world into peace...or at least to tell them better...”

“...I’m not understanding...How- What-”

“Of course you can’t understand fully yet...You just achieved Apotheosis....It takes a while for it to set in fully...Until you can interact with the lambs..”

“What the fuck are you going on about?!”

“Are you dense Gregory?!” Janus suddenly snaps, catching Gregory off guard. “I’m grooming you to be a messiah! To be the next buddha, Muhammad or god knows what out there! God, Maybe I should’ve added more common sense in your drive!”

Gregory stood there in silence and confusion.

“Wh-what?” were the only words that He could utter.

“Do you know what Friedrich Nietzsche said...about god, Gregory? Do you?” Janus asks him calmly.

He shook his head, “There were no books like that in the shelf over there...”

" God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” He says, quoting the German philosopher. ” Do you understand, Gregory?”

He simply nods.

“I’m sure you’ve had a conversation with a certain somebody about a certain place...correct?” Janus asks, possibly referring to Adrian and his mentions about things like Bombings and something called The Great Sinking.

He nods again.

“Earth is a dying planet, Gregory.” Janus says with a sense of disappointment. “War, Disasters, Disease and general dumbassery is sending the planet into oblivion...Which isn’t a surprise really...Those apes lit the match to the fires of damnation once the Industrial Age came rolling in.”

Janus continued. Gregory felt like He was freezing as He stood there in the nude.

“It’s the year...God, I don’t know what year...Anyways, It’s been more than 30 years since I was made...I’ve seen the past, took part in the present and dreaded the future...Humanity isn’t getting any better. If anything, It’s getting worse.” Janus says.

“Wait...Since you were made??”

“Yes. I’m not Human...I am a voice in a box...A ghost...A digital cheshire cat if you will.” Janus casually explains. “I do not have a body...I do have a brain, albeit an artificial one.”

“Not Human?” Gregory asks. “How?”

“I am an AI system designed by feeble human hands and minds...I was designed to control vessels in deep space but since colonization never pushed through, I was moved here...To Zenith...That would obviously explain why You can’t see me, just hear me...”

Janus explains. “My name is really Janus...or more like J.A.N.U.S. with all the periods in between...If you want to be nitpicky about it.”

Gregory could not believe what He was hearing.

An AI system in this very room...He almost didn’t believe it but it did make sense...His unseen presence that was ominously felt...The automatic lights, the food slot by the table..

It was something from a sci-fi novel.

“Huh. Wow.” were the only words Gregory could muster. “That’s amazing...Do you have emotions? Thoughts? ideas?”

“Yes, Yes and yes...” Janus replies. “Most of them are algorithms or adaptive programs given to me by my developers back in the day....How can Humans live with this stress...” He mumbles.

“Where am I though? What is Zenith?” He asks the AI voice.

“It used to be a prison...But now it’s relic of a dying past.” Janus replies. “You’re in a tower a thousand feet above the Southern Pacific Ocean...A million miles away from any spot of civilization....A Tower of Babel in the middle of a Blue nothingness...”

“Who am I?” He follows up with another question. “What can’t I remember anything before I got here?”

“That’s because You don’t have any.”

Gregory’s heart fell in his chest.

“What...?”

“You don’t have any.”

“What do you mean I don’t have any???” He asks again, feeling vulnerable in his nudity.

“You. Don’t. Have. Any. Memories.” Janus repeats the words with emphasis. “Open your eyes man...You know what I am talking about.”

Gregory did know what He was talking about...

His heart sank even further.

Tears formed in his eyes.

He did not know why He shed them.

Gregory’s eyes searched the room, He spotted a fork that was sitting on the table.

His heart sank once more.

He picked up the fork and instantly dug it in into his left palm. The utensil went through the skin and came out the other side, effectively impaling his hand.

The metal glinted in the light, almost mockingly.

There was no blood and He felt no pain.

He pulled it out and dropped the fork, clanging loudly on the floor as it fell.

There was a gaping grotesque wound in his hand, He could see right through it...but there was no sign of muscle or bloody tissue within...Just something that resembled gray rubber and plastic.

There was “blood”, or at least something that resembled it...There was a bluish milky white substance that dripped out the wound and onto the floor.

Gregory somberly stared at the self inflicted injury.

He stared at his hand, grimy with dirt, the strange “blood” and dried sweat.

“How...” Gregory says, his eyes still locked on the wound “How was I made?”

“No...No, I don’t want to put any more Existential weight on my boy...That right there is enough, Hearing more might be detrimental to your psy-

“TELL ME!”

Janus sighed.

“Cells. Any living cell really...Stem cells, Animal cells, Plant cells, recently deceased cells given Life immediately after Death.” He explained. “You’re an amalgamation of the Earth itself...A walking, talking, breathing child of the world below.”

“Yet artificial...and far from alive.” He mutters.

Janus kept silent.

Gregory took a few steps and walked towards the open window.

It was bright outside, the sky was blue as the ocean and the clouds were almost reflective in its whiteness.

He leaned his left hand on the glass...He could see right through the wound, it could’ve been a comedic sight...

Gregory saw his own visage on the glass for the first time...Perhaps it was always there, and He just never paid attention to it.

Perhaps His artificial mind never craved for that answer of identity...And never cared until his existence was brought to light.

He stared at the reflection, the artificial eyes stared back..

“Sentience is a double edged sword...We crave to know more, but once We find out...Enough is never enough...The Explanation brings more questions into the light and We slip further into the darkness of uncertainty.” Janus says, “Perhaps Ignorance is indeed bliss...”

Maybe. Maybe it was.

A realization dropped inside his heart like a stone in water.

“You made Me...Didn’t you?” Gregory says, lowering his hand off the window.

Janus kept silent.

It was enough for a confirmation to Gregory.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

“You’re a miracle.” Janus says, his voice full of compassion. “You were made for a purpose. To guide. To advise. To lead the people below to a better tomorrow...”

“I made you...Connected you to all the souls down below...Their hearts, their minds, their wants and needs all yours to hear, all yours to answer...all yours to fulfill.”

"They have killed god...They have killed Allah, Buddha, Muhammad, Brahma, Krishna and all the other pantheon of gods and goddesses throughout the millenia! Science is indeed a blessing, but it is also a folly! It leads to death and a continued chain of chaos and disdain...Maybe some divine intervention is needed this time..” Janus continued.

“I tried it once...I let holy fire rain down on the surface...Retribution towards the wicked...It worked...For awhile.” Janus says with disappointment. “Then they began to kill, maim, rape and steal from each other again. If violence didn’t work, maybe a mental enlightenment was in order...That’s were you came in.”

“A child born from them, connected to every single one of them, Yet not one of them...Their lives, their beliefs, their deaths all in the palm of your hand. You control them Gregory...You can tell them when to breathe, when to eat, when to fuck, when to sleep, when to die and enter the hereafter...You can be a god.” Janus continued.

Gregory sat on the bed, still naked and vulnerable...but his mind burned with realization...That burning need to create, that strange heavenly vision of his...

All given to him by his unseen yet omnipresent father.

“Now...I am not imposing anything on you...I simply gave you the means to achieve things...But whatever you want to do with it...Is entirely up to you..” Janus said, assuring Gregory. “You can use it to create, You can use it to wipe the slate clean, start anew, use this room as an ark for a new beginning or you can end your own artificial life and end the cycle.” Janus finished.

“It is up to You.”

Free Will.

Create, Destroy or End it all...Like the myths of ancient man.

Free Will chained Gregory down to this tower, to his artificial existence.

Free Will was his present. Free Will was his future.

Gregory looked at his hands once more...The wound still open and bleeding that strange liquid.

He turned his head and looked towards the window...The heavens glowing with auburn sunlight.

He stood up and walked towards the window.

He took a breath and touched the glass...Felt its warmth, felt its smoothness...He felt beyond the glass, beyond the clouds, and far, far far down below the surface....He felt every single soul on Earth.

He knew his capabilities.

He could guide them all.

He could lead them all into oblivion.

He could end his own life...right here, right now.

Why carry the world on his shoulders?

But that would waste his life....His artificial life.

He was the man in the high castle...The lone creator perched above a dying world...A soul above the damned, nearly kissing the face of god...

God was dead...And They have killed them.

He remains dead.

Janus became God, and created Gregory...A gesture towards his, It’s, own redemption, towards the salvation of Mankind.

His creation was given Free Will.

And now here He was, standing on the precipice of Creation, Death and a self-inflicted end.

What would He choose?

Gregory took a breath, closed his eyes and felt the Earth below him.

The room melted away and He fell...Fell far, far, far below down onto the Earth.

He heard every single plea, every single word idea and thought of suffering, triumph and indifference.

He opened his eyes, opened his mind and let the world pour into his consciousness.

He heard all of them, felt all of them....

He was all of them.

God was dead and continues to stay dead...

but now a new god has emerged.

A new deity that took a seat alongside the gods and goddesses of the old days...

Free Will.

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”