Within the Beyond
By Andrew Hawnt
Compendium 2020 – Story 27
The skull's eyes blazed with ghostly fire. Merrick held the skull before him, light from its flames flickering over the bearded face that smiled at the new arrivals.
“Right on time,” Merrick said. “Is this really necessary?”
Four of them had arrived, emerging through cracks in the ground that had split apart like yawning mouths. They had surveyed their surroundings with a mixture of horror and rage. The dark grey wasteland seemed infinite around them, dotted here and there by dark, dead trees, overlooked by the swirling purples and blues of the Soul Sea, the edge of death. Rain fell around him, but vanished as it met the ground. This was a strange place indeed.
The four Knights were clad in black armour that Merrick had seen many times before. He knew that if he were to lift their helmet visors, the suits would contain nothing but souls trapped in penance for the sins of life.
“You know this must end,” the nearest Knight said darkly, the gilded, bejewelled scythe grasped tightly in his fists. “Merrick Sandweather, you have exhausted the opportunities we gave you to move along. It has been decreed by the High Reaper that for the crime of trying to steal this plane of existence you are sentenced to the Second Death.”
Merrick waved around himself. “You see the house I have built from what I could scavenge? I took the materials from the living world. They were being wasted. I have my books and enough art supplies for many years. I need no food or water on this plane. I am causing no issue by being here.”
The second Knight stepped forward, clearly desperate to raise the scythe to Merrick and take him apart. “Insolence. Your body died, but you refused to go into the embrace of the High Reaper's conquests. You took up residence on an astral plane where no man should be able to exist!”
“I studied arcane rituals for years to understand that I could escape the clutches of death. Even though I am not alive, I cannot die while I'm here. I am causing you no trouble, so why not just leave?”
The Knights stomped towards him, each raising their scythes in a line of coordinated intent. The first yelled at him, its voice thundering across the endless plains. “You are the first, but the secret can be discovered and then others would follow, Merrick! You must be eliminated before all of creation is decimated by legions of people refusing to die!”
The Knights rushed into battle, and Merrick whispered sacred incantations. The skull spat fireballs at them, each charged with unpredictable psychic energy. The Knights swatted the blasts away with their scythes and advanced closer. Merrick fired more fiery volleys at the newcomers, desperately trying to take them down, but to no avail.
Scythes descended, and Merrick was torn apart by their enormous curved blades. They made short work of him, as his astral body still resembled his human form in many ways. Merrick fell, his body shredded and his soul being dragged away into the darkness of the Soul Sea. The flaming skull went out and rolled away on the cold ground.
The Reapers stood back and watched his devastated body face into dust that fell away on the uncanny breeze of that empty plane. As he died the Second Death, the Reapers turned and invoked their cracks in the ground to open again. With scythes still at their sides, they marched into the cracks and began their journey back to the underworld.
The cracks closed and vanished, leaving just the strange shape of Merrick's scavenged house on the dusty wastes of Limbo alone in the night.
Ashes began to fall before it, then swirl and connect to one another. Quickly the ashes became skin. As the skull's eyes began to burn once again with eternal fire, Merrick become whole again, smiling from beneath his hood, he took in his surroundings. Just as he had left them.
He picked up the skull. Felt its warmth.
He looked to where the Reapers had been. They would come again, no doubt. One day they would understand that in death, he could achieve immortality. One day they would learn that not everyone would give in so easily.
By killing Merrick, all that the Reapers had achieved was to prove that he was right.
He toyed with the skull. He was already prepared to face them again. It was, after all, a matter of life and death.
Merrick stood and guarded his house.
(C) Andrew Hawnt 2020
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About Compendium 2020:
Compendium 2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt that consists of 52 original short stories, flash fiction stories and vignettes given away for FREE in 2020. Featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror and more, this began as a personal quest and due to the weirdness of 2020 has become an ambition to provide free distractions for anyone who needs them. About Andrew Hawnt: Andrew is based in Nottingham, England. Known for his music journalism career, comics writing and film critique work, Andrew is a prolific writer and is the author of a growing stack of books, including the cult hit VHS Ate My Brain. He made the movies The Demon And I and The Demon And I: Birthrite completely in lockdown with cast members filming their scenes remotely, and new films are coming. Andrew is also the creator and presenter of the YouTube shows Planet Hex and Turn One Shock as well as the video versions of the Compendium stories. http://facebook.com/andrewhawntauthor http://instagram.com/andrewhawnt http://twitter.com/andrewhawnt
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