Mountebank Warning

Begin Communication to Dimension 46759

Call me Inspector and hear my story. This is how I met my death. It came by the hands of someone I wouldn't expect - myself. No, not suicide although I guess that's what you could say it is. People screamed for me to by hanged even though the incident happened years ago. No one cared that I was dying anyway. They wanted me dead. I didn't blame them. I had caused many deaths myself. Even my own daughters.

Names Gina Russo, death by mob. Well, that's what they think anyway. A ball under the arm, a building about 7 stories high. It all works out. Impossible? Not really, people have survived higher. I think the highest on record is about 10 stories. Yes, I faked my physical death. Am I still living? No. I'm a vegetable and the only way I'm writing this is the amazing technology of the future... And my sidekick Daniel Orbis.

I love Daniel, he's my (adopted) little brother. I'm sure he'll be blushing while reading this, he always was a little shy. I hope he succeeds in getting this to the public. Several publics actually, across several dimension and galaxies. Yes, we can do that and yes, it is still quite new here. Damn, if only Mrs. Dickens could see me now.

Anyway, off track. I was an Inspector for the Galactic Police of Galaxy XV693, Planet V10X6 (They weren't very good at naming things. I mean, the place we originated from was called 34RTH and that place is now a nuclear waste-ground.) and I was on the case of Percival Michel or 'Mountebank' as he called himself. I personally thought the name was ridiculous but the man himself was a force to be reckoned with. He weaved spells and curses into books he wrote and captured innocent peoples' minds. Missing peoples reports were piling up as days went by. More and more people went missing and they all lead back to one book, 'Vol De Vie' by Earle De Mountebank. There was no publisher and all book stores that had the book in stock said that he came from an anonymous sender. They couldn't trace it.

The case looked cold until a letter was sent to me. I remember the fear, the dread, the utter hopelessness as I read it. He had my daughter. Little Sandie, only three years old. She didn't know right from wrong, she just knew her heart. It was a mistake to let her follow that even though I never wanted her to grow up like me, a heart made of cold, cold ice and hard rock. He wanted me to drop the charges or he would kill her. How could he kill a child? Was he that psychotic? I didn't know, I would never know. The letter was a lie. It was a cover for a spell, a control spell. He controlled my mind. He didn't kill Sandie. I did. With my own hands. Though, not through my own will. Next was my neighbour, Mr. Drake and his son Allan. He stole my body and made me watch and he... no, I... No... We. We killed them. We killed them all. The whole of Slitchdown Road... and the guards at the police station, and the guards at the palace. I had no control but I'm sure, if I had tried to fight it, it would have went. But I didn't. I sat and watched. I felt the feeling of the blood dripping through my fingers. I felt it all, I saw it all. I saw the life drain, I didn't do anything.

I was useless.

I heard his laugh in my head, where I was trapped. It taunted me, it goaded me. I didn't do anything. My subconscious was closed off from the rest of my body. I didn't fight it. The light around me faded and I was sat in darkness. The darkness of my own mind.

Days? Hours? Minutes? I don't know but time passed and slowly memories started to deteriorate. I started to forget. I felt a presence near me but my eyes had long ago stopped working due to the darkness, the blackness. He taunted me sometimes. He gave me an update on who my body had killed. I didn't react, I was empty. The names he said to me were worthless, I didn't remember them. Why would I? Some of them, I still don't. Not all of my memory has returned to me. I doubt all of it ever will. Blank patches. Little glitches. Forgotten memories. Like my Ex-Husbands name. Little Sandies voice. Who the Queen is.

My mind was trailing again, I apologize. It does that often. I mean, I do that often. I am it.

When the light came back, I was mostly primitive, only remembering basic things such as breathing, eating, sleeping and drinking. Don't ask me why I had to do that in my own head, I don't know. I had created a forest (even though I couldn't see it) and I hunted. I loved the feeling of the blood. I don't know whether the blood was real or not. I could never tell if I was actually feeling it or if it was my mind but that didn't matter. I opened my eyes, my real eyes, so a town that felt so heavy on my shoulders. I didn't remember it. I didn't remember Shoreville. I didn't even remember my own name.

But I recognized the feeling of home. And I ran. I ran until my (mentally) unused legs screamed. As I entered the town walls, my head flooded with memories. I remembered things. My name, my age, Shoreville, my apartment... My Sandie. Then I was flooded with the memories of after that... I remembered the blood, Mountebank, the killing.

Someone screamed.

It took me a minute to realize it was me. The scream was coming from me. People looked out of windows. Confusion crossing their features before it morphed into anger.

"Monster."

"Savage."

"Inhuman."

They dragged me to the centre of the town. They showed me the mountain of bodies piled sky high in the middle. When I looked away, they forced me to look. I begged, I pleaded. Told them it wasn't me, I was possessed. Of course they didn't believe me. I, my body, killed their loved ones, their family, their friends. They shouted abuse at me. I deserved it but I ran. They ran after me. I ran and ran, a mirror of my earlier self. But this time, I knew. I needed to die, to disappear. Climbing to the only flat roof I knew of, the mob below me not following, but surrounding the building. They taunted me. "Jump." They said. So I did.

Placing a smooth red ball into my arm pit, I jumped. Falling always feels like flying, I found, until you hit the ground. It's like living in a dreamland when reality comes cruelly crashing in. With reality, came the fear. The crippling fear of death, of there being nothing after life. The mob was silent, staring at my body as it slowly bled out. Then a slow cheer happened. It got louder and louder and it dispersed. One person was left. Daniel. He looked so sad, so betrayed it hurt me so much more then my wounds. "D-Dan... iel..." I gasped out. He looked at me, hatred burning in his eyes, "It... It wasn't... me..." Then the darkness was back. I didn't see Daniel move. The presence was back. But it was... Different.

I counted this time. Three days. Three days the darkness was there. Then a white like opened. I heard voices.

"Wake up."

No... I should be dead...

"Wake up, please..."

I should be in Hell for what I've done.

"You're all I've got..."

What?

"Please... Gina... Please..."

Daniel... Dan...

"Wake up."

"She won't wake up. She's comatose, it's been two years."

Two... Years? I counted three days!

"Two years of her responding! She's still in there!"

"Even if she wakes up, she'll be paralyzed all over her body. It's better just letting her-"

"No! Never! I will never let my sister die!"

You go, Daniel!

"Even if its better for her?"

What?

"Are you sure you're not holding on to her for all the wrong reasons?"

No, Daniel, don't let me die... I need you...

"She could be in so much pain and you're just keeping her here."

"I need her..."

I felt something in that moment. I felt wet drops hit my skin, a hand touch mine. I needed to fight, I knew it. So I did. I fought for days on end, I fought until my eyes twitched, my fingers twitched then... My eyes opened. Daniel was not there. He wasn't there to see me awaken. I sat there, looking around the room until the door opened and a tan man stepped in, he looked worried, "What am I going to do? He won't give up." He said to the air before he spotted my eyes open, "Monster." He snarled, "You should be dead! Just like the ones you killed! The only reason you're not is because your stupid little brother forced us to keep you alive... 3 years. 3 years since it happened and you know what's happened? Because you didn't die, Daniel has Cancer. He took your Karma. He is going to die because you didn't. Sweet Daniel, how did he end up with a sister like you?" His eyes then widened and he ran out of the room. I felt my heart break, he was right. I should die. I still should.

But that doesn't matter, in that moment I convinced myself to be selfish and see Daniel one last time before I formed a suicide plan. One than would actually keep me dead this time. But Daniel... Daniel was so happy to see me awake, I couldn't. I still can't. I'm living on borrowed time and I need your help. You know my side of the story so, please, help me. Fight him, fight Mountebank. He travels across dimensions and enslaves people, he makes them kill. He makes them bloodthirsty and hated. Fight him. Don't be me. Fight him and stop him, please.

Remember me, Gina Russo. The one who lost everything to him.

End Communication to Dimension 46759