Echoes of Tommorrow's Past - Part 8 (My Original Novella)steemCreated with Sketch.

in story •  7 years ago  (edited)

The time was coming up to ten minutes past ten and "Leon's Bar 'n' Grill" about two blocks away provided the perfect takeout solution. A promised window of twenty minutes from ordering up a storm via phone (off their somewhat limited menu) to getting it delivered right to your front doorstep. A quick, greasy one-stop shop. Though failure to adhere to their promotional guarantee resulted in a free meal at no extra charge. It had now been almost 18 minutes.

Dolores checked the clock on the wall twice within the last thirty seconds. "What do you think, babes?" She asked with a dry wink. "Maybe a bit of luck is finally gonna come our way tonight?" James was neither hungry nor in the mood to join in her tedious game of countdown. The spat on the way home from Dr. Grey's office was still fresh in his mind. Even several hours later, he found her sudden changes in temperament disturbing to say the least. Thirty minutes of bickering leading up to over four hours of the silent treatment. And now, the complete opposite to everything proceeding it. Joyous, unabashed delight as if all was right with the world. His feelings of segregation could have been the understatement of the year, he thought.

Every minute that passed by reminded James that sleep would take him at some point. Though where that would be was another matter altogether. An unrelenting sentiment of fear and dread were the only things keeping him awake. An unfortunate side effect being a heavy head and clouded mind confining him to a state of perpetually nullified senses. But his tattered consciousness still remained active. The main objective taken care of for now. An only defence against the real enemy that was now his own mind.

As if time itself skipped a beat, he found Dolores standing in front of him, holding a brown paper bag as delicious aromas wafted from within it. "You alright, James?" She asked. "I was calling you to come give me a hand with the bill. The food arrived one minute before the time limit expires. Can you believe that?" James did not respond, but instead stood up, making his way into the kitchen. The very thought of food at this point was enough to induce vomit.


A long, rubbery string of cheese dangled from the sizeable cheeseburger. He fingered the strands back in, only to pressurize a dollop of mayo out the other side. It hit the plate, spreading out like a five pointed blob. Since sitting at the table to dine, they had reverted back to the uncomfortable silence. Dolores bit down on a small morsel from the corner of her pizza slice. Oblivious to the fact she was being watched by James.

He studied her face, realizing this was the first time he had been able to collect his thoughts since God knows when. Not even twenty fours hours ago, his mother's face had somehow etched itself upon his wife's. Figment of his imagination or not, it had appeared as real as he saw her at that very moment. He contemplated further.

This artificial auditing system he had been hindered with almost since birth. Leaving a trail of detailed footprints along some binary timeline. James wondered how many times had he bore witness to that final fleeting glance of his mother before her horrific demise? Apart from the countless reruns in his head, he had tallied up three separate events in the physical realm. And because of this twisted version of a blockchain recording absolutely everything in sequence, how many individual snapshots had he snatched up last night alone? Four? Five? There was no way of knowing for certain. What was known was that life-defining singular image had been copied and pasted numerous times over within his personal filing cabinet. Never to be deleted, never to be changed, never to be tampered with. Just sitting there, fused into an invisible unending digital track. Our own personalized blockchain. Possibly the world's most revolutionary technological change in history. In effect, maybe too perfect.

"Could you pass the salt?" a voice called out from across the table. He awoke from the trance-like stupor and a flood of tingling despair cascaded down his spine. His mother, Debbie, was looking straight at him. Dead, black eyes locked onto his. The same smile, lip curled up on the left. Only this time a stream of matted brown hair fell upon her narrow shoulders. A further additional element to complete this portrait of utter horror. He shut his eyes, mouth trembling with fear. A second or two of nothing.

"James, what's the matter?" A familiar sound to his ears to ease the tension. He fixated on those words using every last bit of concentration he could muster. It was Dolores flowing through his eardrums and providing a shred of hope under the veil of madness. She is the one sitting opposite me, he kept repeating in his head. The chair grated upon the laminate floor in front of him. "Don't move!" He yelled. "I'm begging you! Please just stay there!" He gripped the sides of the table, fingers leaving smudges of grease as he did so. His hands shook with enough force to send two plates rattling to the edge and smashing into hundred of shards upon impact with the ground.

Dolores attempted to speak but was cut short again. "Wait!" He screamed. The shaking of his hands subsided to mild shudders. "Now listen carefully. And I mean very carefully. You are not going to do this to me anymore. This bullshit ends right here, right now." Dolores watched on in terror as her confusion gave way to a new understanding. He was speaking to himself. "I'm going to slowly open my eyes. And when I do, my beautiful wife will be back in the room. Just as she was a few seconds ago. You understand? Good. I'm going to count to three and everything will be back to normal. 1..."

She held a hand to her mouth, too terrified to move or say anything. Their quiet evening was turning into a nightmare from hell and all she could do was stare on in hopeless anticipation. "2..." An uncontrollable need to shriek as loud as she could grew inside her, but all that was offered up was a blank expression of disorientation and bewilderment.

"3...". He slowly opened his eyes and looked upon her again. A piercing screech shattered the air like a sledgehammer. James pressed both hands up upon his head, seeing something in her face that seemed to hack away at any stability he had left. James clutched at huge clumps of his hair on his scalp. "What in God's name!" He cried out, tears streaming down his face. "Stay the hell away from me! Don't come near me! Please!"

As pure survival instincts kicked in, she rushed over to the kitchen counter where her handbag sat. At the exact same moment, James fled from the room in outright hysteria. She emptied the contents out, spilling lipstick, a few coins and notes as well as a small black diary. But mixed in within the clutter, she spied what she was looking for. A small, silver-backed business card.

Grabbing the cordless receiver lying on the counter next to her, Dolores punched in the number embossed in white numerals across the front. In the background, she could hear the thud of shoes scrambled up a flight of stairs. "Doctor. I need help fast." She began as soon as he answered. "It's James. He's having another meltdown! It's even worse than before. What shall I do?" She listened, clasping her head with one hand whilst issuing a series of rapid nods. Somewhat relieved, she hung up and made her way into the hallway. The lights from the landing above cast long, parallel shadows of the upstairs banister upon their cream colored wall. Scared to make a sound, Dolores ascended each step with caution. Her mind bellowed out to get away as fast as she could, but the notion was cast aside a moment later.

Dolores took in a deep breath upon reaching the top. "James... Listen to me. Someone's on their way here to help us out. Just hang on and tell me where you are?" Only the deafening sound of silence was returned. She shuffled to their bedroom door and noticed it was slightly ajar. A ubiquitous house rule was to keep it shut when the room was empty. "You in there, James?" She muttered. "Baby, everything will be OK." Dolores pushed up against the door, turning on the light and peeking inside.

James was crumpled in the middle of the room, quivering while exhaling hushed sobs. Feeling the unpredictability of the situation she was in, Dolores called out again from the relative safety behind the chink in the door. "Baby, just stay there. We got some people coming over to help us. Just a little while longer now. They're almost here." Her words of calm consolation masked the unflinching panic she felt inside.

Everything fell quiet, before he let out a muffled groan though still frozen in place, collapsed like a fetal ball on the carpet. "I can't take anymore of this, Dolores. Kill me. Just ask them to kill me and be done with it."

(To Be Continued)


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Hope you enjoyed this story, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)

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Yet another beautiful release :) love your work and hope to see more releases soon.. Much support and much love from me friend, all the best.
-goldie

Bless you, bro! Thanks very much, that means alot! :)

I'm sorry I have missed the beginning of your story as I have been absent from Steemit for a few months. Just saw your post and thought I'd jump him (as you do!). Without knowing the earlier details, this chapter alone grabbed me, and kept me reading. I now find myself wanting to know more.

Hey @naquoya!

I'm currently on holiday so apology's for not getting back earlier. I remember back when you were posting your story for "nanowrimo" and how impressed I was with your consistent level of work. So any compliment coming from you is grounded in unabashed talent and excellence. Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my story.

Humbling comments indeed, sir. :)

I appreciate you saying that, and yes the NanoWrimo was a lot of work. I think I got a half decent story out of it, but it does need work. Still, it was a very good experience. Enjoy your holiday, and thanks again for the reply.

Wow, that was a ride! I felt like I should be running away...then when the spike of adrenaline went away I was really worried about him..super powerful stuff when you create those kinds of feelings in the reader, bring the characters to life like that! Amazing job my friend :)

Thank you, lovely @dreemit.

The constant barrage of all these negative events have put him into a recurring state of psychosis but there's a little bit more going on here that I'll explain in the next chapter. Thank you so much for the support and words of confidence, @dreemit.

Still on the beautiful Island of Crete. Woke up around 10 minutes ago and already rushing out the door, lol! Will be back home in London soon. The weather and scenery out here are something else! Hope you're keeping well and I'll catch up properly with you soon! :)

Oh man, this chapter is so engrossing! Best one to date, in my humble opinion. To start, the first paragraph is a story all to itself haha! The tense eating, the claustrophobic feeling ... brother, you depicted those so effortlessly. I keep thinking I got a bead on you, and you just keep surprising me. I'm really learning a lot based on how you write, which is great!

I don't know how you do it, you shifted from the claustrophobic feel of James, paranoid of everything that is happening, to the horror that Dolores felt as she stood there helpless so seamlessly. Hall of fame stuff, brother!

Hey there, @jedau!

I'm just finishing up my holiday so apology's in advance for any delays in my commenting. Thanks so much for the feedback! Your words describe the exact feeling I was looking to convey so hopefully I'm doing something right, lol! Is it a ghost? Is he just imagining the whole thing? Well, this story is going to skew at a serious tangent soon so I hope you like it.

Bless you as always for some of the best comments I could ever hope to receive. There's no one like you, man! Thank you so much! :)

No worries about any delays, brother! I will be taking a break as well soon, so apologies for the delays there as well. I have you auto-voted to 100% so I won't ever miss your post no matter what :D

There's no one like you, man!

It's a good thing your story doesn't involve clones, or else this would be totally ironic!

Don't take a break too long, bro! You got an ever-growing following here on Steemit, man! :)

I really don't want to. It's just that, I don't have any stories written yet for the first time in my life hahaha! I slacked off until I got writer's block >.<

This story let us waiting for the next one ... it was such a good story !!

Thank you, @fcbnews! :)

Crazy! I suspect I'd have a better handle of what was going on if I started from the first chapter (which I'm planning on doing), but that chapter rocked! Very impressed. Looking forward to more!

Thank you, sir! Coming from a talented writer as yourself, that means a lot! :)

I dunno about all that talented junk, but you deserve the compliment. This is an excellent piece of fiction!

You're too kind. But trust me when I say you're a man who certainly knows his way around the English language!

Keep on pushing strong with "A Darkness Below", bro...

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I was waiting for this one. Do you intend to publish them all together in a book eventually? Even if it's self published? I'd love to have these in print. ^^

Thanks, @aguayojoshua. For now, Steemit is the platform I love to use but I may produce a compilation as time goes on.

Thanks again for stopping by... :)

No problem! I think you're very talented.

I enjoyed every bit of it. "Every minute that passed by reminded James that sleep would take him at some point." Good one, thanks for sharing @ezzy!

Bless, @jimscope. Much appreciated and thank you for stopping by! :)

This post received a 17% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @ezzy! For more information, click here!

wow i am happy to see such a talented writer on platform i upvoted
i have wrote a inspirational story please have look

https://steemit.com/sports/@diverse-thinker/biggest-enemy-of-human-an-account-on-personal-experience

Thanks. I'll check it out...

Interesting to read this post ... thanks @ezzy

Thanks for stopping by, @jondahl. :)

Thanks again ... hope we can share information ... Thank you @ezzy

Yet another nice post. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you. :)

WOOHOOO! Superstar, son! Incredible chapter! God, even more drama and thrills than the one before last! How in the hell are you doing this? I mean, the flow and pacing! Astounding and sheer brilliance come to mind. I can't tell you how much I love your writing. Very, very, very well done, @ezzy.

It has been mentioned in previous posts if you intend to publish any of your stories. I'm serious when I say you should think about it. Your ideas are original, very well told and so impactful. If you do decide that, you have your first customer right here! Absolutely fantastic! I'm just waiting to see the paths you are going to take us on with this one. Masterful and masterclass, @ezzy.

Hey there, @myb!

Missed you on the last chapter! Hope you are well! And let me tell you. Every time you leave a comment, I'm almost speechless! Thanks so much, man! :)

For now, I'm absolutely loving Steemit as the level of appreciation I'm receiving for my work is absolutely reward enough. Maybe I can think of "kindle-type" publishing at a later date, but things right now are great and believe me when I say, I'm humbled by every vote I get.

Always so glad to see you stop by. Lookout for more very soon, sir! :)

Top notch as always brother!

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Thank you, buddy! :)

Congratulations @ezzy
You took 54 place in my Top 100 of posts

Thanks. :)

Wow, just simply Wow!!! Love it!