Top Hat

A top hat.

Brendan could have sworn he had seen a top hat moving through the thick of the green trees to his right. He moved along the trail that he frequented on his daily run, through the massive park in the middle of the busy city.

And as he looked to his side, through the layered backdrop of oaks, elms, and pines, he caught sight of a black top hat moving parallel to him. Just a top hat. He could see no one wearing it. It simply seemed to float along, moving beside him and moving in on him.

He slowed to catch a better look and saw that it was moving right toward him through the greenery. Just before cresting the edge of the tree line where the worn path ran; just before he began to back away from the seemingly levitating hat, a face appeared bellow its thick brim.

The smiling face of a curly haired young man greeted him as the figure stepped out of the trees and onto the path. Dressed in a fine, black velvet suit and long, red-lined cloak, the handsome young man tip his head in a friendly nod.

Brendan was taken aback but managed to nod his hello back as the man seemed to float to him and passed, continuing to the other side of the path and towards the treeline to his left. He followed the man's movement with a quizzical look and the man in the somehow impeccably clean suit turned his head back to look at Brendan with a grin and another nod.

He moved back in through the tress and Brendan watched as the figure of the man under the top hat seemed to fade into the foliage, while the black top hat continued to move through the trees and bushes.

Soon the hat was out of sight and Brendan gave his head a shake as he started to jog along the soft dirt path again. Every so often he would look back at where he had been, but no one was there. He turned back to face forward, and he ran into a looming skeleton figure, wearing a black top hat, and a wide, toothy grin.

Zurn Industries

Looking out from his tall tower of glass and steel, he surveyed the cityscape; his cityscape. A smirking smile pulled his face even more taut than it already was as he watch all the people going about their lives; each one unsuspecting, each one in his grasp; under his control.

He clasped his hands behind his back as he stood at the floor to ceiling glass of his massive office at the topmost corner of the highest building in the city he had watched grow over the years, under his guiding hand.

His gray, tailored suit fit snug against his broad, muscled shoulders and chest. His shaved head and piercing blue eyes added to his commanding stature. Those that had had the rare occasion to meet him face to face, were awed by not only his intimidating form, but by how he looked only to be a man in his late thirties. Yet he was much older than that. Older than anyone would possibly dream.

Everyone, but one that is. The man who now stood on the other side of his big desk, staring at him; not awestruck, not afraid, not even intimidated, but with hatred.

He could feel it, and he relished in it.

“For millennia,” the larger man said in a deep, room shaking voice, not taking his eyes off the scene outside the window. “I had sought to conquer this world. Time and time again I have tried. And never have I quite closed my grip. And always you have arisen to stand against me.”

He turned to face the younger man standing a full head shorter than him, leaner and a little less solid, but only compared to the larger man in the gray suit. His brown suit set off his blazing green eyes even more than they already were aflame with seething hated.

The big man scoffed as he smirked again.

“But this time I have won, my old friend.” he said confidently. “This time you cannot stop me.”

The younger man sneered and hunched his shoulders like a stalking cat. “This time I do not mean to just stop your plans.” he almost snarled with disdain. “This time I have come to destroy you.”

Laughter boomed from the big, bald man as he lean his head back slightly with amusement.

“But you see, that is the beauty of what I have created,” he said as he shook his head with a knowing smile. “I have built this society up to sustain itself only upon that which I give to them. The lives they lead, the goods they buy and consume, the games they play, the idols they drool over, the entertainment they mindlessly give worth to; the business, the money, the religions they worship; I gave them. They are are all me. I have corrupted them and manipulated them so that even those that they think they have put in power, to rule for them, and over them, only do so because I have allowed it.”

He gave a self-satisfied smile to the seething young man in front of him; the same young man he had been facing over and over again through the eons. And this time he was finally going to win.

“I will put an end to your evil once and for all, Zurn.” The man in the brown suit spat. “And the world will finally be free of you. Even if it means my end as well.”

Zurn straighten himself even taller at the sound of his name.

“Foolish.” Zrun shook his head sadly at his ageless opponent. “Do you not see? Even if you kill me, my empire is already built. And it will go on after I am gone, the Children will see to that. My empire is the world! ”

His voice boomed at the end of his speech and he quieted himself again. “So you see, Aiel, either way. I have already won.”

Zurn began to laugh once again and the sound caused Aiel to snap. With a shout he dashed forward and leapt from the desk toward the massive figure of Zurn.

Zurn cut his merriment short and rushed to meet his eternal opponent as he leapt toward him with fists clenched.

The two shouted like mad men as they came together. Aiel's angle carried him careening into Zurn with enough force to send the big man reeling back, and with the smaller man upon his chest, they smashed through the glass of the window and fell out into the sunlit sky.

As glass hit the sidewalk at the base of the skyscraper in shards a few people looked up in time to see the two struggling figures falling toward them and they leapt out of the way. With a sickening splat, the two bodies hit the ground and were nearly obliterated by the force.

Everyone on the street stopped as the busy traffic skidded to a halt, all trying to see what had happened.

Some ran screaming at what they saw, others got sick as they turned away from the horrid scene. But most simply crowded around and took out their Zurn devices and took pictures and videos; within minutes the entire incident could be seen world wide on the Zurn Network.

Everyone watched; everyone talked; until the next day. Then everyone found something else more interesting to watch, to talk about. While Zurn Industries grew silently, the Children of Zurn working in shadow.

The Elevator

William entered the elevator, which three others were already sharing. He nodded to them and pushed the button for his floor as the doors slid closed quietly.

The elevator rose swiftly and slowed at the next floor where two of the passengers got off and another got on with a tip of their hat.

The doors closed again and they ascended the next three floors, where the last two of his fellow riders exited, leaving William to himself in the wood paneled lift.

He had never been uneasy inside of elevators, aside from the small queasy feeling in his stomach when they rose and stopped too quickly.

However, for some reason, a creeping feeling came over him, like something, somewhere, was amiss. He looked over his shoulders as if there were someone still in the elevator with him, but he was alone.

As it raised to the next level of the building, the lights at the top of the lift's doors lit up as they reached the next floor.

The light on Williams' floor lit up, but the elevator did not stop.

He pressed the lit button on the panel for his floor but to no avail as the elevator continued to rise rapidly.

Panic came over him quickly as it neared the topmost floor at a great speed and he frantically pressed the emergency stop button. But that too did nothing.

The light on the ceiling began to flutter as William felt the speed of the lift somehow increase, and he back himself into the corner, holding onto the railings with a vice grip. The entire unit began to shake and rattle with speed. William began to scream.

He did not know how long it went on for, an impossible amount of time it seemed; when, the flickering lights, the shaking, the speed, all stopped.

There was no lurching of the sudden cease of movement, everything just instantly went back to normal.

William, who was crouched on the floor in the corner, stood up slowly and the indicator bell dinged. The light on his floor lit up again and the doors slid casually open.

He stepped gingerly out into the hallway; his hallway. The elevator doors began to slide shut so he stepped fully out as he looked around. Everything seemed normal.

As he walked to his apartment he looked back at the elevator. Its closed steel doors standing like a menacing monolith with a dark crack down its center.

He was going to take the stairs from now on, he thought to himself as he took out the keys to open his door. But when he brought them up to the lock, he saw that there was no keyhole. It had been replaced by a flat, silver panel. He tried the hooked handle but it did not budge.

Confused, William looked around at all the doors along the hallway. They all had the same flat panels instead of keyhole locks.

Maybe the elevator had brought him to a different floor after all, but which?

He started for the stairwell at the other end of the hall and, with a look back at the elevator, began to run. Slamming the stairwell door open, he sped down the steps.

As he made his way down, he counted the floors he descended, and when he had reached the ground level it would seem that he had been on his own floor. But what had happened to it?

He pushed on the door leading to the lobby and it swung open into a marble atrium with a fountain and a concierge desk that had not been there before.

The lobby was filled with people in odd clothing, carrying luggage, with bellhops helping them to the elevator at the far end of the high ceiling room.

Some that were closest to him turned to stare at William as he came to a startled halt.

What were all these people doing in his building? This was no hotel.

The young woman behind the desk turned her attention to William and started to ask him if he was in need of any assistance, but he began to push his way through the crowd, making his way to the revolving doors of the entrance. The revolving doors that had not been there before either.

He pushed himself through the doors and out into the bright street. There, he stopped dead in his tracks.

The street was abuzz with noise. Strange looking automobiles crowded the road, their honking horns echoing around the buildings that rose, towering above him. Dwarfing his own building, which had been one of the tallest in the city.

A group of young boys moved noisily down the sidewalk toward him, on flat boards with wheels on the bottom. Their hoots and hollers snapped him out of his stare and he moved swiftly to get out of their way as they rolled passed. They all wore tight pants and had long shaggy hair.

He bumped into a newspaper dispenser and he looked down at the picture on the front page inside the glass case. It was an image of a war ravaged city street, with bodies strewn about as others ran blurry passed in terror. It was horrific, but the thing about it that grasped Williams' attention was that it was in colour.

He looked from the gory image slowly to the date at the top right hand corner of the paper.

His head swirled as he looked at the year.

Looking up at the sky as an impossibly massive plane flew loudly above the high reaching buildings William took hold of his head in his hands as he tried to steady himself.

It had be 1951 when he entered the elevator a few short moments ago. It had not taken him six floors up, but rather it had carried him six decades, into the future.

The small figure of William on the city sidewalk yelled out in terror and fell to his knees as others just passed him by; another poor, unfortunate victim of modern society, they think as they hurry along their busy way.

Farewell Spaceman

They had explored three fourths of the grid without finding anything more interesting that a rock or two that might have had a minute trace of mineral deposit, but not much else.

The search was slow going in the cumbersome suits, but neither Roger nor Harold minded. For, anytime the monotonous movement in the sifting through of the ashen gray dirt became wearisome, all they would have to do is look up.

Up above them was the inky black sea of space, with its stars shining brightly around the blue globe that was their home; the Earth.

So far away, its constant presence above them reminded the both of them that they were on the surface of the moon; another world. And that thought would re-energize them for hours more.

Harold marked sector 7-I off as 'searched' and they moved on to the next sector; bounding gracefully in the low gravity.

Roger was commenting on a piece that he had picked up which looked to be a meteorite that had impacted with another indigenous rock, when he landed on the ashy surface and kept falling as a sink hole gave way under weight.

A distorted shout came through Harold's helmet intercom and he looked over to see his partner disappearing into an enveloping hole.

He moved cautiously to where the opening seemed to stop and peered down into the darkness, calling out to Roger over the radio. After a few moments of tense silence, Roger responded that he was alright and had only got the wind knocked out of him.

The lights from his helmet flashed up at Harold so he could see that it was not a very deep hole. However, Roger said that it opened up into a cavernous tunnel that went on for some ways under the surface.

After an argument on the proper protocol, Harold used his jet thrusters to lower himself gingerly down to join his partner and then he could see that Roger had been right. It was quite a cavernous space with arched stalagmites and stalactites hanging and reaching from the floor and ceiling

They walked around the stone pillars, noting they must have been form eons before as they were now completely dry of any moisture that had formed them.

The large cave seemed to have a flow to its layout and it led them to the far end of the massive open area to where it narrowed into an alcove. Taking up most of the alcove was a big slab of ancient stone that seemed to be both naturally occurring and somehow, sculpted.

Harold dusted the surface of the top of the slab off and roger gasped with surprise.

Around the rim of the big 'table top' object, there was the straight line of a crack, only it was too level to be natural. It ran the length of the rectangular slab a hand's span from the top. Harold ran his gloved finger along its groove and traced it around the circumference.

They both stood back in silence and stared at the stone altar until Roger said that they should try to open it.

After another discussion about the unknown microbes that could be laying in wait under the lid, it was decided that their suits' filtration system would have to suffice as protection.

They both positioned themselves to push on the right end of the 'lid' and on the count of three, gave a mighty heave.

Expecting much more resistance, the two astronauts were caught off balance when the top slab moved easily to the side and a cloud of dust erupted from within.

Unable to see in the upturned cloud, they backed away trying to wave away the ancient partials that threatened to clog their helmets' filters.

The dust settled slowly and after a few moments they looked to the alter-like stone, its top laying askew across its opening.

And in front of it, standing before them, was a tall, cape-clad figure.

Roger and Harold gawked in awed shock as the figure flourished their long, black cape from around their hidden face to revile a pale, handsome man dressed in an impeccably tailored suit.

The tall man looked from Roger to Harold in their white space suits, himself not protected from the zero atmosphere by anything but his black, vested suit, and smiled a toothy grin. A sharp, toothy grin.

“Good evening, gentlemen.” He said with a thick accent. “Allow me to thank you for waking me from my long slumber.”

Harold looked from the man to Roger, whom did the same; the shock mirrored on each others' face.

“Dracula.” Roger whispered.

“Oh the moon.” Harold stammered as the cape fluttered and all became black.

Wolf Pearl

Deep within the cavern the soft glow beckoned to him. As it did each night.

He had sought out the cavern, and the treasure hidden inside it's far reaching chasm, long ago and its pull on him had never diminished. In fact it had an iron grip on his heart; his very soul.

Each night he would come to the cave, laying amidst the tangled & gnarled forest, and sit in the dark in his ragged clothes to stare at its beauty. The milky surface of his precious treasure reflecting the faint moonlight that crept in to the cave's jagged opening.

The light of which glowed in his once green eyes, now a milky gray to match that of his treasure.

Everyday when the sun's rays warmed the world, he would stumble to the little village that lay on the edge of the great wood, where the townsfolk would treat him like a dirty, barefoot beggar, shunning him as they went about their daily chores hurriedly before the night came again.

He had once been a well kept and handsome man, but in the years since he arrived in the tiny village of thatched roofed houses, seeking the treasure he had heard tell about, his desire to maintain himself diminished as his desire to be near it's warming glow each night grew, until it was all that consumed him.

For the treasure he sought was cursed, and just to look upon its beauty was to be ensnared in its spell.

Once in its grip he was its slave, and each full moon, when the lunar light was reflected in full off its surface, he would be transformed into a wild beast. Part man, part animal he would terrorize the inhabitants of the village, slaughtering their livestock or anyone that was foolish enough to be out after the day's protecting light faded into night.

So it had been for many years, so that none ventured into the forest that was said to hold a treasure beyond measure. Until some foolish adventurer came to seek its glory, only to be cursed to live as its guardian.

He had become the new protector of the cave and its ancient treasure. Neither able to take the massive milky white orb from its cradle in the dark cavern, or leave its grip, until the next came to take his place. Come to try to take the Wolf Pearl.

Super

John walked from his work along the crowded sidewalk; lost in his thoughts of his current project he looked up at the tall skyscrapers that lined the city street.

Out of one of the high windows on the left, a person leapt and floated gracefully down to a casual landing amongst the other pedestrians; no one noticed.

Another finished their conversation with fellow co-workers as they exited their office buildings and leapt into the air, flying off with a friendly wave.

Someone rushed along the street in a blur, moving in and out of the vehicles as if they stood still. Another still, flashed in and out of sight, seemingly into thin air, then back again a block or so further along.

It had all become common place, no one seemed mind, or even to care.

John could not stand it.

When people talked of how they could lift hundreds of times their own weight, see through solid objects, take on the form of anything they thought of, or even that they had the power to climb walls like some creeping insect, he would nod and smile politely, pretending he was interested.

They would asked him what he could do, and he only said he did not like to talk about it, they would not push the issue; some powers were very private in nature, but really they were to absorbed in their own selves to care much.

However, the fact was, John did not have any powers. He might have been the only person on the planet now that did not have at least one super power; he had to do more research into it.

When all of the world woke up one day and suddenly found that they had miraculously gained superhuman abilities, John had just woke up tired from a late night in his lab.

There were of course those that had tried to use their new found gifts for the usual greedy, evil purposes. However, when they found that there were just as many that had chosen to use their powers to stop evil, well the whole battle between good and evil became an epic spectator's sport. Complete with leagues, as a matter of fact.

But John stayed out of that nonsense. He kept on with his work and patiently waited.

Worked and waited. Until he came up with the solution to his problem.

For you see, giving the entire world super powers by accident was easy. Reversing what he had done was proving to be a more difficult project.

But John was a hard worker, and did have the ability to be very, very patient.

Escape

Through the empty streets he runs. The empty streets of the empty city. Tall buildings looming over him as he runs; a small figure against their towering size.

Glancing over his shoulder as he runs he sees no one, but keeps running; running from him.

The ground shakes and he stumbles to keep his balance; windows of the high rising buildings shake and shatter with the vibration. Glass falls around him but he keeps running as he dodges huge shards that explode hitting the ground.

He cannot stop; if he stops, it will all be over; he will destroy him.

Through the streets he races on, running around and over abandoned cars as the ground shakes and heaves; trying to slow his escape, but he determinedly keeps on moving.

Concrete and steel start to fall in great chucks along with the sheets of glass from the tops of the buildings as they begin to crumble down; a voice shouts out for him.

Looking back he sees another small figure far down the long street he had just run along.

No features can be seen, but he knows him on sight; he who has pursued him all his life; he who would not stop; he who would destroy him.

As the other figure shouts out for him again, the ground shakes anew and more buildings start to crumble and crash down, smashing the cars and lamp posts he passes mere seconds before.

The city core ends as he runs on and comes to a far spanning bridge, crossing over a large valley where the multiple lanes of a highway runs along side a winding river.

His chest burns as he races on to the wide bridge, bordered by high reaching wire cables, strung tight to hold the weight of the massive bridge.

Along the middle of the yellow lined road he runs, and the other figure walks deliberately behind him, the city's buildings falling down around him as his earth shaking yell calls out.

In the middle of the bridge, the lone figure slows and stops his run; panting he puts his hands on his thighs to catch his breath. He could run no longer; he would not. He would face his pursuer; face his destiny.

Turning, he stands up to the approaching figure as he steps onto the bridge. Their eyes meet; the same eyes; the same face. Mirror images.

Both outstretch their arms to the side as the thick cables of the bridge begin to waver. Cracks in the road split in jagged lines as the two figures yell with hatred and anger.

From far off the two look tiny on the massive structure that swings back and forth high above the valley as huge pieces fall off, splashing into the river bellow and smashing onto the roadway.

As they rage at each other, the bridge begins to break off from the edges of the sloping ground. More pieces fall as the bridge lifts into the air, the two men stepping forward, toward each other heavy-footed as the noise of their shouts is drown out by the ripping sounds of the steel support girders as they are rend apart from the solid ground.

Higher the bridge lifts as they continue to raise their arms up, until they are directly above their heads.

And then, as they both sense each others' next move, the two drop their arms and dash towards each other. The bridge, a full thousand meters in the sky, drops as suddenly as their arms.

As they run to each other, they scream out one another's name; the same name. And as they near each other bridge hurdles down toward the ground below.

When only a few meters separate the two, they both jump into the air with their fists clenched and pulled back to strike.

In the silence before their devastating blows land, the bridge smashes down upon the earth, erupting in a cloud of dust and debris that covers everything for miles around.

The dust slowly settles. Through the mists, in amongst the heaps of rubble, stripped wire cables laying gnarled and twisted, one figure stands atop a great hunk of concrete, looking down at his unclenched hands.

The only one there ever was. Me.