Disclaimer: Everybody you recognize is... not mine.

Chapter ?: Gary Brendan Michaels

Universes 1035689, 3566795, 9786248, 11357863, 14686553, 15796678...

… August 24, 1984 (Spencer is 4):

Another man is coming to play chess. I've seen him around the park before but he's never asked to play with me before. I wonder how much of a challenge he will be. He's smiling, so he probably thinks I'm just a little kid who can't play real chess. I hate that. I'd better... what was the word Mom used? I'd better disabuse him of that fast, or this is going to be real boring... wait... is it 'real,' or... what did Mom say? 'Really?' Yeah, that was it.

… (two hours, and 6 games won later)

This is boring. This guy can't play. He's still grinning at me, though. Weird. Somebody else come play with me!

… October 2, 1984:

Oh, it's this guy again. The grinning guy who can't play but still wants to play over, and over, and over... Well, maybe he's gotten better. Maybe.

… (2 hours later)

Dad? DAD, where are you? Help me, Dad! It's dark in here! I don't know where I am! DAD! MOM! DAD!

… (1 hour later)

HELP ME! It hurts! It hurts, and this is... he says this is right, but he's wrong! I know he's wrong! What do I do? Dad? Mom? What do I do? OW! STOP! No no ...

… (2 hours later)

I can't breathe. He's too strong. His hands... it's getting dark, I'm scared. I can't breathe. Dad? Please help me?

… …

[The pain's gone. I can breathe, or... wait... I don't need to breathe? Why am I just lying there? Why can I see now? Why aren't I in my body? I don't understand.]

[Welcome home, child. Your time in those universes is done. Do you remember now? You went there to learn what they are like. To understand them.]

A flood of memories returns. Mom, reading to him. Dad, trying to get him to play. And before that, Mom nursing him, cooing. A feeling of being loved. A feeling that's tainted now.

...And before that, darkness, and warmth, and a heartbeat. Being safe, and happy.

...And before that, stars. Stars forming, stars dying, bits of rock revolving around them, and one in particular, in almost every manifestation of the universe... he was sent there to learn from them. Because "children must learn to understand the people who will be in their care."

[What have you learned from being with them?]

[They're bad. They complain when you're smarter, and they hurt you and the people who say they love you still let you be hurt. It HURT. And they weren't there!]

[*sigh* Perhaps once you're joined by the rest of yourself...]

[What do you mean?]

[You didn't always die, child. There are other selves, in other manifestations, that did not die. Once they do, you will remember them as well, and learn.]

[I don't understand.]

[You will.]

… … … … …

Universe 9786248 (one of the Gary Brendan Michaels-death universes):

March 27, 1990

I would have been 10 years old today. Mom is crying. She was so sad when I died that I've forgiven her for not saving me, and Dad too, even though he tried to leave her before I made him stay. But I've forgiven them, so I didn't let them die with the others.

People are bad. People are bad, and they hurt each other and kids who didn't do anything wrong, and they shouldn't still be here so I made them go away. In this universe, at least. I picked this one to stay with, cause this was the one where Mom was nicest, but I couldn't be with the rest of the people, so I made them all go away. The elder says I still have a lot to learn, and I'll learn more when more of my manifestations die, but I already know everything I need to know. People are bad.

It took a while to learn how to show myself to Mom and Dad. They're the only ones I can show myself to in any of the universes. The elder says it's because they're the only ones I was close to in any of the lives where I died when I was four. Like I could be close to any other people... they're all bad. I saw. I saw the way they treated each other.

The elder is wrong. They're bad, and they shouldn't be here. That's why I made them all go away.

Mom says it's wrong to leave her and Dad all alone. But they have everything they need, and they don't have to worry about any other people anymore. I tried to explain that to her. I wish she'd stop crying.