CHAPTER 3- My Brother, Myself

Chapter 3- My Brother, Myself

I found myself in a bright white room, with an odd-looking black pond, a few inches away from my feet.

“Hey, over here kid” said Master Sho at the far end of the room.

I was about to hop through the pond, when Sho shouted; “Jude, no no no! Move back slowly, very slowly”

I was confused, but I listened. I took very slow paces backward as the pond leaked out. The further I moved, the closer the black liquid came. I picked up my pace and so did it.

“Master Sho, it’s moving!” I screamed.

“Just keep moving back,” he replied.

Suddenly, the black substance caught my left leg. I tried prying out, but its grip was strong.

“Master Sho! Help!” I screamed.

“I can’t Jude, this is your realm”

“What do you mean by ' my realm?” I asked, as I struggled.

The grip got tighter and stronger, and I yelled. But Sho just stood there like a statue. I turned back and hopped away as hard as I could.

“Master Sho, please help! What is this?” 

“That is the dot of chaos within your realm of order. Before we can begin, you have to overcome it.”

“Don’t get scared Jude, fight it”

Yes…... The energy surged through me, I felt power cursing through my veins, and finally, at last, I was pulled into the black pond, drowning and choking. Sho was frantically shouting something, but all I could hear was “blop.. bla… bla…bla”. At this point, I gave up and I stopped struggling, then, I died for the third time.

I was afloat in the abyss, when I opened my eyes, I saw darkness. Maybe I was blind. I reached out with my hands, I stretched further till I held it…… Till I grabbed the light.

“Ahhhh!” I gasped from my bed in my room, my very own room.  I was disorientated, dying was still scary, that second of nothingness still felt like forever. 

I heard a knock on the door. I guess some practices are quite common even across galaxies and dimensions, as I stared at something similar to Lord Prime Adi, however, its smoke was more brownish with a green light at the center, for eyes. 

Now I was wondering; “What did it use to knock?”. It clearly had no hands and no legs, an ever turbulent cloud, with sparks of green light which cumulate at its center. 

“Hmmmmm, are you aroused by clouds?” It asked

“Ehhhhhhhh” I shrieked!

“I am not sure if I can aid your arousal. Should I move around and shock your genital?”

“Ehhhhhhh” I shouted once more.

“Your reaction is confusing. I thought sexual life forms are attracted to what they stare at. I’m flattered and would love to help, it would be very educating.” It said rather excitedly.

A loud laughter echoed from the doorway.

“Ah! Master Sho, that’s great. You are also a sexual being, also human. Would you mind satisfying his needs while I check his vitals and prime energy status?”

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh! god forbid” I shouted

Sho busted out laughing, almost crying even. 

“Craya, he isn’t aroused or anything like that, he is a fresh prime, and isn’t used to seeing other life forms yet” said sho, as he tried to gain his composure.

“Really……….” It said while thinking to itself and staring down at my pants.

“Oh yeah! No tent or bulge formed. I forgot Lord Prime Adi’s explanation of a bulge check from humanoid primes”

I realized who I should be mindful of.

“Hmmmm, his vitals are okay, but his prime energy is too turbulent. Wasn’t the stabilization transference ritual successful, Master Sho?” Craya asked, rather worried.

“Yes it was, he just hasn’t calmed his dot of chaos” he replied.

“Oh, really, but that shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Yes Craya, but for some reason…….”

“His dot of chaos is extremely strong, and might overtake his realm of order.” it interrupted.

The room went silent. They were really worried.

“Master Sho, what ritual, what are you guys talking about?”

The stabilization ritual, the hullabaloo where Master Shrock and Sho performed the spectacular light show, was done to keep the raging waves of order and chaos in new primes to a halt, and create a balance. Their character or nature determined what realm they would possess, either order or chaos. And with training, they gain control of the dot of their counterpart realm. This was relatively easy because, in its entirety, these dots were not really the prime’s true nature, but just a dot, an interference, an error. My case, however, was different.

“I have never seen a dot possess the traits of a realm” said Craya.

“It’s almost as if…...” Sho paused as he pondered

“Craya, hold on reporting his results, and Jude hold still, don’t leave this room” he said as he left the room.

I crawled back to my bed confused, but what could I do with what I could not understand. All I managed was a yawn.

“Oh! the 24-hour sleep cycle. This would be my first time seeing a human sleep”, said Craya.

“What do you mean, don’t you sleep” I asked

It laughed…” Oh no, I can’t really, and there are tons of creatures here. Some sleep, some don’t, some hibernate for months, some years, and some in hourly cycles like you do now.”

“But the moon is out, Craya.”

“Oh no, that’s an illusion by the room’s system. It adjusts to the nature of every organism”, it replied.

I was amazed, and with that I got hotter, I began to sweat.

“Oh! Is this how humans sleep?”

My body got hotter, and I shivered as my chest tightened before falling unconscious. 

I don’t know how long, but I woke up in an infirmary with my brother lying right beside me, with Master Shrock and Sho in front of us.

“Bro, you don wake up?” said James.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

The room was silent, as both masters seemed to be waiting for someone. In no time at all, Lord Prime Adi walked……. To be frank, they float, they freaking float. Lord Prime Adi floated into the room. 

“Boys…. It’s nice you are awake. But I bare terrible and great news.”

“ Oh boy!” I thought to myself.

Apparently, we were the first type of primes in all of infinity to be what we were. That was the good news, an educational discovery, but what we were in itself was bad news.

“As humans, you are twins, two separate individuals born of the same embryo, but distinct”

However, to the system of infinity, we were two possibilities of the same entity. Our birth itself was an error in the system, our birth in itself was a prime. We weren’t twins but the same individual outcome born in the same reality. 

“Omo! We are the same person, like the same, the same. Not bros, but the same”, James exclaimed.

“Yes, and that is why you both are not able to control your respective dots.” replied Adi

We were both the same, hence the dots were also our true nature in a sense, it wasn’t an error or a glitch in our nature, it was our nature. No, it was more than that, the dots were a connection to each other’s realm. Therefore, I was not fighting with my dot of chaos, but with my brother’s realm of chaos, and so was he with my realm of order. And that was where it hit us.

“BUT WE DIED!” we both shouted.

“Yes, you both died, fighting a realm is impossible, talk less of taking control of it. And if this continues, both of you will be the first set of primes to experience true death, and cease to exist.”

The only solution was to keep one person stable while the other would be phased out of reality, because there could only exist one nature of an error, one nature of a prime. 

“With that explanation boys, there is nothing I can do but to have one of you commit suicide.” Said Adi, rather excited.

Master Shrock and Sho were both silent. 

“Bro, it’s like my journey don end, it’s your time to take over” said my brother. 

“Huh”. I was truly dazed. James had always done everything on a whim. He never considered outcomes or possibilities. He would never weigh his decisions. He just went with……. The simplest answer. But not this time……. this time, I wasn’t just going to accept his whims.

“Smoky cloud Prime, this isn’t a debate, let me die, and let Jude take-over”

“NOOOO!” I shouted

“James is a fighter, he is stronger and better” 

“Jude hold….”

“No, Master Sho, you know it yourself, I am very indecisive, always scared and asking for help at all times. James is better” I interrupted,

“Jude no way! It has to be you! Shutup!”

There he went once more with his tirade. I had always been quiet, always forced decisions on him, but I couldn’t let my laziness and cowardice bring about this burden. Truth be told, I was too lazy to carry the burden of guilt. This wasn’t like my parent’s demise, and yeah, who the heck was he to tell me to shutup!

“You shut up…. Shut up, shut-up. SHUT-UP! I said over and over at the top of my lungs. We are both the same person, right? So, I am not dying. James, you win all the time, but this time you can’t. I won’t lose you but be with you always, and nothing can change that.”

There was a brief silence. And finally…..

I beckoned to Adi…... “I will die.”

Hmmmm, I was doing something heroic for once and…… I was oddly…… Happy.

They unhooked the machine off of me, and the pain started. I held my chest tightly. I was sure that I made the right decision. I wasn’t really dying; I was just one form of James fading out of existence. He had been the main character all along…. I knew it, I was just a caricature, a shadow. This end was right.

I was about to fall over and lose consciousness. I looked towards my brother to see him smiling maniacally…. As he slowly said, “Goodbye, Idiot”

At that moment, I resented the man I called my own blood. I died again. For the fourth, and very last time.

And there was peace…….