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 The man who called himself megoth, or, as he said it, Megoth, finally spoke after he covered himself in one of Jake’s blankets. Megoth had gone for Kelly’s at first, but after a girlish cry of no, he took Jake’s. Jake muttered something incoherent under his breath. "So", Megoth spoke, "we have a lot of catching up to do." "Let me start", he continued, after a moment of silence from Jake and Kelly. "I’ll tell you what I remember, for a lot of time has passed since we last held palaver. It was right after I spoke with Kelly, right before I left to go home for the holidays. I got a message from one of the megoths, one of the smarter ones, anyway, a message that he was attempting to crossover. I was excited, this has never happened before. He said the closest door, so to say, be in Manhattan, in some alleyway downtown. I took the train there before going home. "I got there, made sure that no one was around, and then he came over. There was a ‘fwsssh’ type of sound and a bright light, but instead of one person, three came over. Without saying a word, they grabbed me and threw me into the door, which remained open. I tried to get back, but in the process, the door closed on my hand. I lost it. That was... that was ten years ago." Jake looked at him in sullen disbelief. Ten years? But it was only ten months Evil Megoth said he was here. "Ten years?", Kelly asked, also feeling some disbelief, "but the bad one said he was only here for ten months..." Megoth thought about this for a long while. Jake had a good chance to look at him, real good. Not an ounce of the baby fat, Megoth was lean and muscular. His face looked much older than 28 or 29. He must’ve gone through a lot, Jake thought. Megoth finally broke the silence. "Time must be different, I... I guess. I actually don’t think he sent me to his world, either, but another one. He probably thought that it would kill me, which, as you see, it did not. The world I was sent to..." He looked pained by this, talking about the world he was banished to. Kelly felt horrible. The boy he had grown up with in Brooklyn (although they attended different high schools, their friendship had stayed due to the Scouts and other stuff they had in common, video games, comic books, and even chicks) looked like a man who had seen hell and now wore it on his face. Kelly felt horrible, and then relieved. Relieved it wasn’t him. "What was the other world like?", Jake asked. "Yeah", Kelly added, "were there any hot chicks there?" Megoth smiled a bit, his lean face dimpled in a way neither Jake nor Kelly had ever seen, this was a totally different person. "Well, Jake, let me answer you first. The world I was sent to, I dubbed it ‘Mid-World’--" "Like from the Dark Tower books?", Kelly asked. "Yeah, Kelly, that’s where I got the idea from. This world had moved on. If there ever was a government or society of any kind, it had been dissolved a long while before I had gotten there. But, as bad as that sounds, I did okay for m’self. The door had taken my hand, yes, but it left a clean wound, as if it was never there to begin with. I quickly adapted, and with a bit of luck and a lot of skill, I was able to build a new hand, got a gun, and began working as a bounty hunter of sorts." "So that’s when you lost the weight, right?", Kelly asked. "Weight, what do you mean?" "Uh... nevermind..." This hung in the air like smoke, Megoth, Jake thought, a bounty hunter? The fat kid from down the hall who first (unsuccessfully) introduced him to D&D now a hardened bounty hunter with a fake hand and a mullet? It was too much to take it. Way too much. Sure, they’ve seen a lot of fucked up things in their time at college (and at home since college began), but this was the strangest. Jake couldn't help to think that it should’ve been him. He would have been better off, wouldn’t he of? He shook his head of the thought. This is all my fault. This, all this, is my fault. Why? Why was someone trying to kill him? Was it his powers? But, there were others... maybe even right here at school! The way Mercy knocked Evil Gothie through a solid wood door... the way Kelly was able to withstand the mind blanker, even Megoth himself... Jake then made the pact to find this head of security Hector talked about (or was it a janitor? He couldn’t quite remember) and get some answers. "And to answer you, Kelly", Jake jumped at the sound of his voice, he had gone so far into his head he didn’t know how long Megoth had been talking. "Yes, there was a lot of hot chicks in Mid-World. Actually, I have yet to meet one without the hair of the color of fire. Yes, they are all redheads. I was with one of them when your door opened and I found myself back in your dimension." Your dimension, Jake thought, he said your dimension, not "mine". This is not his world any longer. "You were with a chick wearing your trench and a shirt, dude?", Kelly asked, very amused. That is so something Megoth would do. "Well, sure. I mean, if you were a bad-ass bounty hunter, wouldn’t you bang chicks wearing some of your gear?" They all laughed. It felt good to hear Megoth laughing, Kelly thought, and it surprised him a bit. He hadn’t realized how much he missed his friend. "Is that... is that Pok... Albert?", Megoth asked. "Yeah... he actually saved us..."; Kelly told him what had happened. He told of how the two "freshmen" and a girl who was under mind control drugged Jake, forced him to have sex with her ( never got with Faith, eh, Jake, Megoth had asked when told Jake was seeing (or had been, it’s been two days since "The Pictures") Mecca. Neither Jake nor Kelly told Megoth about September 11th, it wasn’t the right time), then tied him up, knocked out Kelly, tied him up too and so on. Megoth sat there with smiling. "So, you let John and, uh, Jeff? Jeff was his name, right? You let them operate the machine? Wait... is it still here? The machine I mean?" Jake and Kelly saw a glint of hope in Future Megoth’s eyes. They knew what it meant, of course. A lean, battle tough mullet wearing 28 or 29 year old Megoth bounty hunter had no business being there, even if it was their Megoth. He wants to go back, who can blame him, Jake thought. But... but maybe... "Yeah, it’s still in the closet. Can you... operate it...?" "No. Kidding. Yeah, of course. Tell ya what. I’m going to set myself of exactly where I left, so it would look like I never left. I will get myself right before I got pushed through the door in Manhattan to come here. And I will send my evil counterpart to a place so dreaded, so bad; he will most surely meet his fate before the sun meets the horizon. A Three-Way-Megoth-Swing, if you will. The only problem, the machine will be gone, for good. Don’t worry, I’ve made... I’ve made a good life for myself there. I’ll... I’ll be okay." "Wait", Kelly said, "If you take yourself before you went into the portal the first time, won’t that nullify you right now? I mean, if you never went in, you would never be right now..." Jake’s head hurt from this. Time travel, he thought, time travel and dimension jumping. What a strange semester indeed. "No", Megoth said, "well, yes, if time were a single entity. But it isn’t. Paradox’s is a theory, and that theory is wrong. Time is always in flux, always branching off in different directions. Trust me. I’ve had a lot to think about in my time on Mid-World. It’s possible, I think. No, I know. I mean, in some ways, I’ve done this already, and I’m still here, y’know?" "My head hurts. Hey, before you go, do you know who the Sixteen are? Evil Gothie mentioned that it is them who are after me..." "No idea, and I don’t think this has to do with you at all, Jake, so don’t feel guilty", but it was no use, Jake did. And would. Megoth, with all his brains, didn’t realize he was a cog in the Kill Jake Bruno Wheel. Let it stay like that, Jake thought. Let it stay like that. "Our time has been short, but delightful, I never thought I’d see you two again. Though it is in the cards, we might... uh... we might meet again, and that’s all i have to say about that. I’m going to configure the machine, and jaunt back. I have got the worst case of blue balls, like, ever, know what I mean?" "Yeah, I hear that." Jake. "No idea what you mean." Kelly, smiling. The three of them walked into the closet they have spent way to much time in in the past. Without a word, Megoth smiled at them, waved, and was gone in a blinding flash of light. Jake and Kelly looked at each other, eager to see their friend come back, once again.    
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EVERYTHING JAKE is TM & (C) 2000-2011 by Mike Rosenzweig. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
