Chapter I
1
For almost sixteen years, Michael Burns knew the end would come. 3/3/2033. Why did he know this? What would happen? Why him? He asked himself these questions daily but, not knowing the answer himself he never received an answer.
Being haunted by the knowledge of the end, he spent most of his days in his third story apartment, listening to music, writing to his online blog, and generally sulking about.
As the dreaded date approached, time seemed to accelerate exponentially; weeks passed by in days, days in hours, hours in minutes, minutes in seconds. He seemed to lose all connection with the outside world as he watched the digital readout on his computer slowly tick away at the date.
On the 2nd of May, there came a pounding at his door.
"Mister Burns, I urgently need you to assist me down in the lobby!" Though he'd been out of touch with his neighbors in The Roscoe Complex, they were all still very familiar. Yet he could not place this voice, this raspy voice of a clearly elderly woman. And The Lobby? This complex didn't have a lobby. Outside his door were several hallways and staircases all connecting down to the Main Entrance and that in itself was no more than a hallway.
The pounding continued, "Mister Burns, it's dire that you help me now."
Approaching the door, he peered through the peephole and was immediately taken aback.
"That's not possible!" he said, as the pounding continued.
"Mister Burns!" the voice continued from behind his door. He regained his posture and approached the peephole and once more peered out into the empty hallway.
The door shook as the voice grew ever more urgent, "MISTER BURNS! It is PLEASE assist me in the lobby!"
There was a loud crack at the door. Michael stumbled backwards, tripping over a chair and falling back into his computer desk. the door began to bulge outwards, splinters of wood spraying across his apartment floor and scrapping across his skin.
"MISTER BURNS! MISTER BURNS! MISTER BURNS!" the voice cried out as the door slammed its way across the room and crashed into the opposing wall, "MISTER BURNS!" despite the door being gone the knocking continued, and Michael coward.
And then there came a softer knocking, barely noticed amongst the louder phantom knocking.
"Oh, hello. Don't mind me, I'm just watching," Said the Man with the Bow tie as he pulled a small metal device from his pocket, "Very interesting this is. There's someone knocking but no one is… all we're missing is the 'nevermore!'"
The phantom voice continued to scream for Michael as the strange man's device cast a blue light and hissed at the door.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, right." He pocketed the device and produced an Identification Card that proclaimed: United States Door Inspector, "my names The Doctor and you are?"
"Michael Burns." He said sheepishly, raising his voice slightly as the pounding continued and the voice howled his name.
"Alright, Mike. Don't mind me, this will all be over with in a tick." With that he reached for the door, propping it up against the wall and turned the door handle. Instantly silence fell upon the room, "That fixes that. For now at least…" he turned to face Michael, "…Now, Michael, Mike, Mikey, I need you to tell me exactly what happened up to me getting here."
Mike explained.
"Alright, and you haven't done anything out of the norm, have you? Been to mars recently? Eaten any bad meat? Upset the local witch doctor?"
Michael shook his head.
"Well then, looks like we've got a bit of a mystery on our hands!"
