PART ONE
As the new sun blazed high in the clear azure sky it's light reached across the seemingly endless body of water. It was the first of many new days to come in this young world but for the man that would live to see them all it was at an end. He stood still upon the calm and clear water as if he were standing on dry land but he knew he wasn't and if only for one moment he thought that could be a bad thing. But like most random thoughts it was quickly filed in the miscellaneous part of his brain destined to never again reappear.
His bare feet registered the warm water as it gently lapped up against his pale skin and for once something in the world felt good. He took a deep breath, placed his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. A gentle summer breeze moved all around him and rustled his slightly large white tee shirt. The wind also tussled his ginger locks about but not enough to cause concern because the man who stood upon water knew something else was coming, something far more subtle and insidious.
For a moment he let his eye lids slide in a vain attempt to sense the specific nature of the disturbance or perhaps it had simply been a very long day. After sensing nothing or at least nothing that he was familiar with his eyelids moved upwards exposing his dark green irises. They both seemed to reflect the calm around him but somewhere behind those eyes lurked a deep dread. As he remained still in the first few moments of this new day he could only wonder how it all began.
Wonder and speculate was all that he could do since the actual memories had been taken from him. In all his searching he never understood why someone would take such specific memories but again he had his speculations. Whenever he felt comfortable and was safe to do so he told others of his journey and with the exception of one individual they simply chalked up his missing memories as the result of having just been born. He knew this was true of most people but he had always had a unique memory, one that held onto every piece of information he came across, willingly or unwillingly.
For most people, storage of information was not a problem but recalling that information was but not for him. At will he could recall any information his senses had collected and filled away in his brain save for one small gap. He could remember quite clearly the moment he was conceived and the nine months, two days, three hours and five seconds he was nestled away in his mothers womb. For him it was the most comforting memory he had and one he always looked back on when confronted with the dangers he life seemed to attract.
All he was missing were fifteen-minutes because he remembered being pulled from the womb, being hit with a shower of bright light and seeing his fathers face. Before the memory faded he had seen his fathers gold watch and as a new born he obviously could not discern it's purpose nor anything else he was experience. With that incredible gift and curse of a memory as he grew older he would note the time, it was eleven forty-five PM then his memory ends. It then resumes with him wrapped in a warm blanket in a dark room. He remembers the time as twelve AM and it would not be until later in life that he would realize just how utterly bizarre those fifteen missing minutes must have been.
A shiver began to run up his spine and once again his eye lids closed over his eyes. Now he could sense the dread to come though it was not clear just what form that dread would take. Whatever it was, it could only be bad but then again if you call something dreadful it can only have one purpose. Naming things he had realized early in life usually led to terrible consequences but sometimes it led to good things but mostly bad. He removed his hands from his jean pockets and placed his arms behind him as if he were a soldier at ease.
Despite his outward calm, he was not feeling easy at all because monsters rarely induced the opposite emotions, something he has learned the hard way. With his eyes closed he could feel the sun light leaving the world around him. Dark clouds seemingly from nowhere began to gather and the warm air was replaced by sharp cold breezes. The warm water quickly became ice cold and was no longer clear, instead it had become dark like night. He felt all this in one swift and jarring moment but he resolved not to fall victim to the events that were upon him.
Once again his eye lids ascended but the green irises were now enveloped by a deep blue and they seemed to shimmer. He watched the horizon grow darker and darker then watched something take shape from the darkness. It wasn't large and didn't have glowing red eyes unlike some of his previous encounters but instead it was nearly five feet nine inches or the same height as him self. It walked across the water not making a sound which ordinarily would be disturbing if not for the fact the dread approaching him looked exactly like him self. The only notable difference was that the eyes were pure white and instead of shimmering, they looked like small flames.
This thing was angry because it knew why he had come such a long way and that in all likelihood he was going to loose and badly. He looked into the dreads white burning eyes, his lips parted and formed the words “I have come to take back what is mine” and the dread responded “I'm not inclined to give up something of such great value without a trade of equal or greater value” and for a moment they both stared at one another not moving despite the raging storm that surrounded them.
“You are correct and that I do have something of great value to trade” he said with a slight hint of arrogance.
“Present me with this thing of value and maybe we can come to some arrangement before the storm takes us both” the dread replied which led to the closest thing he had ever had to an evil smirk in the entirety of his life.
“Your life” he said with a barely restrained grin and for just a moment he thought he saw the dread shutter with terror but that might have just been the wind.
“What makes you think that you can defeat me then take what you want?”
“Because of who I am, where I have been and where I am going” he said and this time with no grin but simply honesty. The dread seemed to think over the possibly for what appeared to be a very long stretch of time then finally responded.
“You can not be, it is not possible and I will not believe it until...”
“The name is Artice Modesto” and this time the dread was visibly shaken but not enough to drive it away before it said “If you take my life and your prize you will never be free of the curse” and Artice Modesto pondered that little bit of dark prophecy for a moment and finally responded by simply saying “Five, four, three, two and one...”
The clouds, the ocean and everything except Artice Modesto and the dread closed in around them. In this space not even a sound was present, only the eerie glow of their eyes remained but the dreads glow seemed to be dimming and his body was withering away slowly. Artice extend his right arm outward and plunged into what was left of the dreads chest. From the darkness he extracted a tiny ball of blue light, the size of a marble. But for Artice it was much larger than that and he watched as the entity lost all resemblance to him and return to the nothingness.
Before the entity vanished it managed to communicate one single word and that word was “Midnight” and now it was Artice's chance to shutter but there was little time to get wrapped up in his fear as he had enveloped him self and the dread into a tiny pocket of enclosing reality it was still shrinking and he had to make a quick exit. Artice still holding the blue orb began to spin around slowly then faster and faster until he was a mere blur. Suddenly every atom of his being split apart and just for a brief moment there were millions upon millions of Artice Modesto's.
Those millions upon millions of atoms began to spin on their own and break apart then those broke apart. The process repeated it's self over and over again until it could no more. The pieces of Artice Modesto vanished and the pocket of enclosed space imploded taking with it what remained of the dread. Where the pieces might end up and if they would reassemble correctly was a huge risk, one that Artice would have never taken before but what he was after was worth the very fabric of reality it's self. For he had finally retrieved the very thing that could free him and it was the last piece of a puzzle that would lead to the missing fifteen-minutes of his life or at the very least another migraine .
Subject: "MODESTO" Part One 
Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:08 pm
