That time I told him that he could control this world. I hoped he would control it fully but he still could not. And finally I showed him a book. The book was the most important thing in the whole world because it was him. He didn’t believe me. He didn’t put two and two together. He grew angry and burned the book and all of the memories he stored away up to that point. When he appeared again he was a new person. He had to start from scratch and this time he was completely controlled by his creator, he had no say in anything. Do you see where I am going with this?”
I could no longer feel the cold. Something in that story froze me in a different way. There was some part of me that was reaching up to the surface. A part I hadn’t heard from in a while. I tried to fight it. This older part came with emotions I didn’t want to feel. I suppressed it. I fought it off as long as I could but it won out. All the negative emotions bubbled to the top. I felt scared and alone and worst of all saddened by the loss of a friend. I fell to the ground, everything trying to rush my mind at once. I fought harder. Memories were not as strong as emotions. I kept them from coming. I stood up and faced the sorcerer.
“I don’t know what you just did, but I am going to try and pretend it did not happen.”
“No, let it out. Become Lawrence Foster Brickem again. Control your own destiny once again.”
“I would appreciate it if you would help me find my desire now.” I said dangerously.
“You can’t hold it back forever. You can only continue once you return to your real self. I know; I’ve been through this before myself. We are the same. We both came from the same place and are hoping to go to the same destination. Ambrose was the same way. Do you remember him, Lawrence?”
“I don’t know an Ambrose.”
He took me by the shoulder and we disappeared from the frozen landscape. We appeared in a small room. A man was sitting by a desk. I could not see his face. He was typing on a computer.
“Where are we now, sorcerer?” I asked angrily.
“Why don’t you look at this man? And hurry, I can only be here for a few seconds.”
I went around the desk until I could see the face of the man sitting in front of the computer. He looked very familiar. And then I saw his eyes. Everything rushed back to the surface. I had no control over it. I put my hands on my head and fell to the floor.
17. The Power to Control and the Villain
I remembered everything starting with jumping off the cliff the first time. I remembered all the adventures and all the people. And I remembered everything the wizard said to me about how we were the same. I tried to piece it together. He mentioned that we were different than other people. We were going somewhere, to a far away destination. I needed to know more.
I sat up. The wizard stood before me. We were in the darkness. I could see him and he could see me but there were no light sources. It didn’t matter anymore. I knew I wasn’t on Earth, at least not the Earth that I once knew.
He looked down at me sadly. I was a mess inside and out. My head hurt from having all those memories thrown back in at once. I was doing all I could to not scream and start crying from the shear intensity of it all. I looked up to him. I needed what he knew.
“Can you tell me the rest now?” I said. My voice was rough.
“I’m sorry, Lawrence, but I can’t. I only told you that much because I needed the real you back, the real you that you tried to destroy when you burned that book. You have to uncover the rest yourself. It won’t be hard. You are almost there.”
“What do I do?”
“You now know that you can control this world. Control it and bring the answers to you. If you can’t do that then you can wait for them to find you. I think you are almost finished with this journey. The way will reveal itself, just be patient.”
“Where is Ambrose?” I asked.
“He is gone.”
I already knew that he was gone but it was different to actually hear it. The small bit of hope that told me he could still be alive vanished. I was supposed to help him find his family and I failed. He would never again feel that wonderful feeling he talked about. It was now up to me to try my best to survive. The wizard did a lot to help me. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have faded away as well.
“Why did he die?”
The wizard thought before he answered. “He was forgotten about.”
I looked at the wizard to explain. He smiled, nodded, and then disappeared. I was alone again. I hated being alone. It gave me too much time to think about everything. All I wanted to do was finish whatever this was and be done with it forever. I wanted to see that destination the wizard talked about. I wanted to know if it was real.
I stood up and closed my eyes. This was it, time to find out if I really did control this world. My mind produced a picture of where I would like to go. I imagined a road going up a hill. On either side was a fence. Beyond the fences were fields. A few trees could be seen in the distance.
My eyes opened and I was standing on the road that Ambrose and I walked not too long ago. I felt the nice warm breeze and listened to the trees rustling quietly. It was so serene there. I leaned against a fence post and looked around at everything that came out of my mind.
I really was in control. But what did that mean? What else could I do? I closed my eyes again. This time I thought about a canoe on the sun. I pictured it in my mind just the way I saw it last time. There was whitish water with some yellow in it. Up above would be a yellow haze. I opened my eyes and found myself gently rocking in a canoe by myself on the sun. I put my head back and let the boat rock me. It felt so nice that I didn’t want to go anywhere else. But it was time to see how much I could really control.
I went back to the road and thought of a little tree right near the fence. One appeared right there. It would be nice to have a little dog. I flipped around at the sound of barking to see a little dog. This was unbelievable. But I could think up more than dogs and trees.
I scanned the fields. As I did large stones popped out of the ground. They were then covered with ivy and then moss and then ice. One shattered into a million pieces. A wave crashed down in the distance. The wind blew to incredible speeds and then died down in an instant. Animals of all sizes ran through the fields. The road I was on turned to gold and I started running. Fireworks went off in the sky and thousands of people were in bleachers cheering me on to the finish. They disappeared and were replaced by Tangerines with arms holding Axes. Buildings rose up to the sky and planets came down to meet them. The sky was streaked by shooting stars that came in every color the universe had to offer.
I got tired of running and blasted off the ground into the air. I zoomed by the buildings and the planets. I raced the shooting stars through the sky, beating all of them. Water and rock came up and swirled around me as I flew higher and higher with no problem. With a great burst of power I shot the swirling rocks and water higher into the air and blasted it all away. I landed and was back on the road with the fences and the fields.
Next I decided to try something different. I thought up a little apartment with a couch. I opened my eyes and discovered the small apartment I thought I lived in. Except now I knew it was never mine. I don’t know where the memory came from or why it was there, but it wasn’t mine. Nothing existed for me before the cliff. My life started there.
I sat on the couch and tried to think up how to get the answers I wanted, or my deepest desire as the other me called it. The first thing I had to do was find out what was in my way. I tried to think up a way for the world to show me what it was that hindered my progress.
The small apartment was gone. An image was coming toward me in the darkness. It took shape around me and I was in a barren landscape. I stood on brown stone and there was nothing else in any direction. There had to be something here. I didn’t see anything in my way.
A person appeared. It was Heradus in
his green royal clothing. I stared at him, unsure what to make of his sudden appearance. He came up to me.
“I am the one who stands in your way.” He said threateningly.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I asked my mind to show me what was in my way and he appeared. But what did I have to do? Fight him? He didn’t look like the Heradus that I knew. His eyes stared blankly at me. He was expressionless.
“Hello.” I said awkwardly. “Why are you here?”
“You need to defeat me.” He said.
That took care of that question.
“What will happen if I do?” I asked.
“You will find out the answer you want.”
That settled it. I somehow had to defeat him. I thought back to how he floated away after I helped him. I used that to build my anger up against him. If he could have helped me I wouldn’t have had to go through everything else. This was it. I readied myself and then ran at him. I tried to punch him but he dodged and ran away. I chased after him.
Trees sprouted up and grew tall. We were running through the woods toward his castle. I had to stop him before he got there. I imagined a wall and one appeared right in front of him. He ran right into it. I grabbed his arm and we hurtled through space and landed right outside the sun palace on its bright walk. We wrestled on the ground and I got the upper hand. I pushed his head down towards the