Wow, I haven't updated in a long while. Anyways, this is a short story about Rosette and a boy she met in her dreams. The story may in fact tie in to the other story, Chrono Crusade: Horns of Time. Anyways, enjoy.
By the way, this story is done to Rosette's Point of View.
Don't own CC.
The Grim Future
I had a dream. I was in a room. The room was dark…very dark. I was sitting on a chair…all alone.
It was cold. Why was I here? What was I suppose to do?
There was a light. There was a boy. He was roughly the same age as me. He had black hair, brown eyes that were gentle but cold. He was dressed in black. He came towards me. I remember being scared and at the same time curious about this boy. Our eyes met.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The boy didn't speak of his name. He just stood there…quietly. Then he asked me, "Would you like to see…the future."
"The future?" I asked him. "Why?"
He asked me again, "Would you like to see the future?"
Was I supposed to see the future? Yes? No? There was no definite answer for me. After a while, I replied to his question. "Yes…I would like to see the future."
He gave a bow and then snapped his fingers. The dark room began to become brighter and brighter. Then there were shouting. Lots and lots of shouting. When I opened my eyes, there were people running about, holding pieces of paper and shouting with it at each other. The papers littered the ground.
"Where are we?" I asked the boy.
"Stock market," he replied to me. "The date: Tuesday of October, 1929. This day is known as Black Tuesday. The end of the golden age in this nation and the start of the Great Depression."
"The Great Depression?"
"An economic slump lasting about 10 years. It will affect the entire world."
I didn't know how important the stocks were at the time. I knew that our money was coming from somewhere but I didn't care. The Order took care of all of my necessities. I watched how the countless men and women ran around; shouting at each other, wavering those pieces of paper in their hands like crazy people. I didn't know how to make sense of any of it.
"How does it end?" I asked the boy. He then snapped his fingers and the people disappeared. It was black again. Then it became a mixture of grey and white. I then realized that we were floating above the sky. There was also smoking coming from the ground…and the smell of gunpowder. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in the middle of a battlefield. People screaming, shooting and I ducked from the shots. However none of the shots got to me…they just went right through. We walked through the battlefield.
"The world at war…again," the boy commented.
"Again? The world is at war again?" I couldn't believe it. After all we've been through during the Great War, we were doing it again?
"World War II. We resort to violence in order to solve our issues."
Why? Why was the world at war again? I couldn't understand it. All the senseless violence and destruction. Nobody wanted that…I didn't want that.
"The Third Reich started this war."
"The Third Reich?"
"Also known as Nazi Germany."
"You mean we're fighting the Germans again?"
"That's right. However this war is far more worse than the last one though."
I then shouted at the boy. "We're killing the same way only with different machinery! How can this war be any worse than the last one!" Then I smelt something other than gunfire. I couldn't put my finger on it. It was something burning but it wasn't something I smelt before. I closed my eyes to find out what the smell is. I couldn't. When I opened my eyes I found something horrible. We were in the middle of burning bodies. It was horrible…how could anyone do these things?
"What is the meaning of this!" I yelled at him. The boy just stood there.
"This is the cost of war. Human hatred, despair and greed manifested in action and in physical form. The people responsible wanted their country, no, the entire planet purified and reserved for only one race…their race."
I was at a lost for words.
"However we all have a part to play. Instead of finding ways for peace, we fight until no one is left standing. That is the role of war. To destroy the weak to make room for the strong. It is that very principle that these people are following."
I watched how the soldiers dumped the dead bodies within the fires. As they brunt, the soldiers didn't give a care. I couldn't take it anymore…
"I've seen enough…Please take me away."
The bodies, the smell and the fires disappeared but then followed with a bright light. We were again floating in the sky. As we sailed through the blue skies, I wondered more about the war. How did it end? How did it work out? We saw more images from the skies. We saw soldiers raising a flag on a hill… we saw countless ruins of buildings…we saw people crying and weeping. The only words to describe this sight was destruction and chaos. My heart sank as we saw more people fighting, more bloodshed and more destruction.
"Why are you showing me this!" I yelled at the boy who was looking with me. "Is this what the world is going to go through! Why!"
"Why? Because us humans will make the same mistake over and over again. We will falter over our own ignorance and greed and we will fight over petty things. That is our fault…that is human frailty."
Everything vanished and we were back in the black, empty space that we started in.
"You too are subjected to this…human weakness. You, of all people should know this feeling. However you don't call it frailty…you call it denial. You put it to good use no matter what the odds are."
"And those images? Why did they represent?"
"They represented the future you wanted to see. That was only a glimpse of the future that humanity is destined to walk upon. Would you like me to show you the rest?"
I answered the boy. "No…"
"No?" the boy questioned me. I didn't want to see anymore. If the future will present itself like this then I didn't want to know.
"Are you frightened of the future? Are you scared of what you might see?"
"No more. I don't want to see any more. Burning bodies, blood, people suffering…"
"And you can't do anything about it, can you. You cannot stop it. Funny…it's just like that time four years ago…"
"What?" Did the boy know my past as well?
"You had lost the ability to fight back. If your brother wasn't so jealous of your good fortune and happiness things wouldn't have been the way they are now. Such an unfortunate boy…"
How could he have known? It seemed that he knew everything about me. Why was he doing this? Why was he doing this to me! He snapped his fingers again and this time the room was white. Then screens appeared and each of them played something different. On one screen was a man who was giving off a speech among the crowds. Another screen showed government officials debating with each other. I also saw people wearing different things, new buildings coming from the ground up. More battles, more bloodshed, more people getting hurt. More buildings, more structures. It was overwhelming.
"What is all this?" I asked the boy.
"This is the future. This is progress. It happens though the lessons that humans remember."
I kept looking on the screens. Suddenly all the screens turned off…all except one. I looked upon it and it showed of a boy who looked familiar. He was working on something…he was punching in something with his fingers and kept looking at the thing in front of him. He looked like…he looked like…
Another man, chubby with a black mustache came over to him.
"Joshua, where's that paper!" the man yelled at him.
"Sorry Mr. Gravin, I'm just printing it off right now…"
"I want it in 10 minutes. Get to work!" he stormed off.
As I watched the screen, my heart was racing. Was that really Joshua or another person with the same name. The screen turned off and I looked at the boy.
"The future can present a lot of things. A lot of surprising things…" I did see a lot of things. Some of which couldn't be explained and some of them could be explained. I wonder what happened to my friends…my brother…Chrono. The lights dimmed and I was left in the dark once again.
I was left alone…only the voice of the boy was all I could hear.
"Was that Joshua that I saw?" I questioned the nothingness.
"Well that depends on what you think you saw…"
"Who are you? For the last time, who are you?"
The boy's face showed itself. "I am someone who has been keeping an eye on you for so long. I am someone who would like you to see what kind of future you are leaving behind."
"Do you know me?"
"I know about your past. I know about your present. However I don't know about your future because you have no future."
"Are you…God?"
"No."
"Then what are you?"
"An agonist, my dear. An agonist. Do you know who they are?"
"What's is an agonist?"
"They are people who enjoy the pains and sufferings of others. If I was God, would I enjoy your pain? No. I would cry. I enjoy your pain. Therefore I am not God."
"Why do you enjoy my pain? What did I ever do to you?"
"It's all about you, isn't it? All about you. It is for that exact reason. It is because of looking after your own needs that the incident occurred. Then you try so desperately to rectify that mistake so you can act like it never happened. You are someone who thinks about her own needs instead of the needs of others while keeping the appearance that you are helping others for no gain at all. You're a hypocrite."
I had enough. Enough of the boy's voice. He showed me the future and what will happen and what he showed me was awful.
"I don't care what you think of me. I don't care about what your thoughts are. As long as I keep doing the things that I do, I will make this world a better place. That I assure you."
The boy's face disappeared. He whispered as he left, "foolish sentiments. You will be making choices that will end in your defeat."
"But they are my choices. That all that matters. As long they are right to me, they are good choices."
"Choices…Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without."
I awoke to some chatter. I was back inside my own bedroom and Chrono was there over me.
"How are you feeling?" he asked me. "We were scared when you collapsed all of a sudden."
"I'm fine," I reassured him. "I'm just fine." Was it all a dream. Will it really happen? And what of the boy? So many questions but I didn't want to answer any of them. I just wanted to sleep.
Sorry for this.
It was a random thought, really. You see the boy you just read about and who interacted with Rosette is in fact a psychological manifestation of…well…me, the author. I wanted to do this for a while now but didn't really know how to go around it. Dreams are a good way to do the impossible and being a manifestation you can do whatever you want.
Mind you that I agree with the agonist thing to a certain extent. That's my view and if you choose to flame me for it I won't blame you. Just keep it to a minimum. I hope that you enjoyed this little…story.