Sins of The Innocent
Source: https://twitter.com/QUASARCAKE/status/1452696077241520136
Entry 17 Hope
“Done flirting with your boytoy?” Our steps take us away from our vehicles and into the crater. We walk down the outer rim to the inside. It’s kind of like walking down a hill.
“What on Earth are you saying?” We reach the bottom of it and find ourselves on a road. It’s full of empty vehicles and silence. We travel along the road, looking at an old building that sits off to the side of it.
“I mean…You guys just kinda look like a thing.” Our walk continues. It’s so eerie. Not any signs of life…outside of the manmade buildings and all that. No birds chirping. No wind blowing. No trees growing. It’s…odd.
“A thing? Like we’re dating? That kind of thing?”
“No a thing like…from outer space.” I stick my tongue out at him, taunting him and egging him on to further respond. The city in the center of the crater is remarkably empty. No more than an abandoned town, which is to be expected. Our footsteps echo, bouncing in between the hollow buildings. The sound carries through the alleys and streets, if any bits of life were around, it surely would’ve been alerted to our presence by now. The depressing, greyscale world that surrounds us is almost sensory overload. It’s odd. Usually too many colors or bright lights do it but…this place…it’s just…dreadful to be in.
“Is that because my beauty is out of this world? Hahaha…but I assure you, we are not a thing. Between each other or from outer space. He’s my partner and I’m his.”
I raise an eyebrow and smirk. “Oh…you’re his partner? And he’s yours?”
“Ugh…you are most certainly the same annoying brat as last time. What did I do to deserve this? Something a millennium or so ago. Perhaps even a past life. An unjust punishment laboured upon me for upsetting god.” Krono places his face into his right palm, letting out a sigh. His hand moves up towards his hair and he brushes it back.
“You are so dramatic. It’s a joke man. Lighten up.” I bump his left shoulder with my right, letting a slightly too loud laugh out.
“Hah hah. Ouro Kronii. Truly the Queen of comforts and delights, to ensure your evenings are smooth and sailing. Hire her today!” He sticks his tongue out at me and we both laugh. My sights return to the soulless town. Devoid of people it’s nothing more than ruins. Monuments to mankind’s achievements ring hollow with each one of our steps forward. I look back at our path traveled so far. It’s lonely. That’s what it is. Soul crushing loneliness grips this space without relent. Even the wind is still, nothing so much as a breeze even brush up against us while we’re here. As if nature itself already has given its final breath and fell to the sands of…time.
“Hey Kronii. I think we’re coming up on the uh…box? Thing? Whatever it was Space wanted us to find.”
“The box? We’re coming up on it? Like it’s over the horizon ahaha.” I stare at him, holding little back of my laughter.
“Yeah well…it’s a big red box down the road. So…I mean…it’s the only thing that stands out here. What else if not this big red box?” He shrugs his shoulders and begins to jog up to the box.
I don’t doubt him. It’s the first thing with colour in…the entire crater. It’s…honestly it’s hard to believe it’s even real. Seeing so much dulled out colour…all these shades of grey…I feel sick just thinking about it.
“Hey don’t just grab it idiot!” I shout at him, he’s made it to the box and is crouching down and poking it.
“What if it’s a trap or something comes out of it or it’s cursed?” I raise my eyebrow at him as I approach the two.
“Your friend would make you pick up such a horrible box like that?” He stops his poking and looks up at me.
“She’s literally the embodiment of chaos man. What do you think is gonna happen if you don’t exercise proper care?” Tapping the box with my foot I stare down at Krono. He has a grin painted on his face but nods at me and picks himself up.
“So what? Is this Pandora’s Box or something? We open it up and the world ends yeah?” His grin grows from ear to ear, and it makes his face feel twice as punchable.
“Look around you, world already ended. I’m just saying you might get hurt or something.” I turn my head left and right, looking around at the empty area. This box being out here in the middle of the street is the literal definition of suspicious.
“Well if the world already ended then what’s the harm in opening this up? This thing isn’t even a box…it’s more like a briefcase. Is this really what we needed to find? You’re her friend, is this something she had used before?” He smiles at me and taps the box with his foot.
“I don’t know. We…don’t talk much anymore. We just need to bring it back. Don’t make it complicated.” I roll my eyes and reach down towards it, pulling it back up with me by its handle. The locks on the side are unlocked…is that on purpose or…Actually…forget it…we have it, lets just go.
“Alright fine. I guess that’s that then, right? Nothing is here. The box is secured. Easiest trip of my perfect life.” He laughs and the starts walking back up the path we came from. I stare into the empty street that was ahead of us and down at the “box” in my left hand. Well…that is that I guess.
“Hey!” I shout at him. “Make sure you don’t turn around. Since we’re going back or whatever we can’t look backwards.
“Oh right, thanks for the heads-up doll!” He lights up a cigarette and keeps moving forward. Sigh I look down and then turn towards him, no turning back now…
My steps follow Krono’s, the silent town seeing the sun hide beyond the horizon now. Our light on its own time limit as we exit. The long, hollow shadows of the buildings around us cast themselves. I’d prefer getting back home before night falls. What an awful feeling this place is leaving me. It’s so lonely…
“We’re almost out! I can see Armando’s figure in the distance!” Krono shouts out, he’s careful to keep his gaze still forward in fear of the warning he was given.
“Great! Now we can go back and talk about how this was a massive waste of time!” I shout back at him. There was nothing down here, just the ruined Earth from Sana’s attack. Barren of life, just the haunting images of empty buildings, parks, schools. Nothing notable or worth reporting back. What did they even send us here for? No Gura, no Watson, nothing but our failure.
“Hey you wanna stop by for a drink before returning to your council buddies?” Krono shouts out again, guess he was just as bored. We walk past the first, and final, dilapidated building, it’s clearly been abandoned since the calamity but looking back at it...I wonder how many people went in and out of there for their day to day lives…I wonder how many survived…
“No! I just want to go home!” I answer with an annoyed tone in my voice. Why are we here? Why did Krono even come? Why did I agree to it? I should just reset time on this whole day and stay home with Mumei…
“Alright missy! No need to give me that tone ahaha.” His laughter trails off as we approach the border of the crater. I think I can start to see his partner show up on the horizon. We should’ve just taken the car in, disturbing the peace my butt!
“Hey how far do you think we have left; my legs are starting to ache.”
“Oh, I’d wager…5 or so kilometers left, including the climb up the rim. Not too bad considering we trekked that whole city already!” He’s proud of walking that much. Probably going to take this back to his friends as a story he can brag about. “Oh, hey look at me I’m Krono. I got to spend the whole day with a super-hot chick.” Why does being around him infuriate me so much…
“Kroooooonnniiiiiiii.” A voice shouts from out of nowhere.
“What? What was that Kronii?” Krono stops in place and shouts out.
“I…I don’t know? How the hell would I know you idiot?” I shout back with some anger in my voice. Don’t ask me stupid questions like that!
“Kronii please…I…I need…” The mysterious voice shouts again. Wait…that’s not…no…what? It couldn’t be!
“H-Hey! Wh-where are you? I’ll get you Mumei!”
“Mumei? What the hell…who the hell is Mumei, Kronii?”
“She’s…she’s my roommate…she’s…she shouldn’t be here…”
“Oh for the love of…Kronii be realistic here! Why would that person be out here?”
“I don’t know! It’s…but I can’t…”
“Kronii…don’t you dare. We'll look around after exiting this god forsaken area! Don’t do it now! You can’t turn around!”
“God damn it…I know you’re right! But…I have to know…I need to confirm it!” I take a step back.
Krono starts walking backwards towards me until he stands right in front of me. He keeps his body forward then turns to the right of me then looks at me. His gaze is sharp and determined.
“Not. Now. Kronii. Go on then. Move.” He demands of me.
“Krono get off your fucking high horse.”
“Kronii this isn’t the time to bicker, we don’t know what or who is out here. I’m not jeopardizing the task based on a single voice that decided to play games with us as we approached the exit. Think about it! It’s a trap!”
“Oh please. A cool guy like you shaking in his boots because of this. Get real!”
“Kronii we went the ENTIRE day without seeing or hearing a thing. Now this happens! Be realistic! They want to trick you, it’s the biggest cliché in existence!”
“Yeah, and now something is happening! And you want to leave as soon as it happens?”
“Kronii!”
“I didn’t know you guys ran such a cowardly agency.” I stick my tongue out at him and slowly turn around.
“Kronii no!”
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In an instant, I see something dash towards us. No…more like…flying towards us. Low to the ground. It’s…black…kinda…red…purpley…Horns. Long hair flows at its back. Female I assume…is it a monster? A demon?
“You should’ve listed to your boyfriend there sweetie! Because despair has ascended and is coming for you!”
It flies straight into me and grabs me by the shoulders, pulling me away from Krono.
“Aghhh damnit Kronii! Just…hold on! I’ll…I’ll get you!” Krono starts to turn around and I shout at him.
“Don’t worry about me! Just get yourself to a safe place! I’ll meet back up with you later”
The sound of my voice fades as I’m carried back to the old building we passed up not too long ago.
“Yeah, don’t worry. She’s property of Hell now!” The mysterious stranger shouts to Krono as she pulls on me. I’ll go along with your ride for a bit. I’m not leaving this place without any clues.
Sprinting as fast as he can, Krono returns to Armando. His breaths are heavy, laboured, pained and his ever strong, determined voice is shaky and crackly.
“Hey! Hey! Hey. We gotta. Armando!”
“Dude Krono…one thing at a time man.”
“Did…did you see it? The thing? The ugh…”
“Take a deep breath. See what? Where’s Kronii?”
“Ok…ok you didn’t. Then…whatever. Armando!”
“What?!”
“We need to chronoshift in there! Kronii…that idiot looked backwards and got dragged away by something.”
“I can’t do that dude.” Armando stare into the space of the crater.
“What?! What do you mean you can’t do it. I gave you an order!”
“Look Krono…this place man…It’s different. I can’t do it. Not in there at least.”
“Wh-well why on Earth not man!”
“Because…” Sticking his arm into the crater area, watch in hand, he takes a deep breath and stares at me. Inside the crater the hands of the watch stops moving.
“Is…is this…Time…it’s…”
“Yeah dude. Time is frozen in here. Or maybe…time doesn’t exist here.”
“A-and you deduced that all on your own?”
“Well, I thought you guys would’ve noticed. Your both time wardens or whatever right?” We…I didn’t…I don’t think Kronii noticed either?! How…did we both miss that?! What the hell?
“And…when did you notice?”
“I don’t know…an hour or so ago. I just was practicing some poses and stuff and my arm accidentally pushed into the barrier.”
“And… you had your watch in that hand when it happened?”
“Yeah man…I felt time stop…Or not really stop…I felt the absence of time. It…whatever this place is Krono, it’s not good.”
“Time…isn’t recorded in here? Is that a fair deduction Watson?”
“Yeah…about as good as we can get without going back inside. Should we…”
“No…no…I was in there all day and didn’t notice a thing. Going back with that knowledge won’t change it. Tell me more, what do you think?”
“Well…like I said…time isn’t in this…area…whatever it is. I can guess that it probably isn’t natural to this world…probably isn’t even natural to this universe.”
“So…it’s…you’re saying it may have been put here?”
“You can go along that line of thinking. We can’t confirm or deny it yet.”
“And so this place…time is nonexistent.”
“Correct. There is no flow of time here. Forward or backward.”
“I see…Thank you Watson.”
“What are you thinking about Krono? What’s going through your head right now?”
“If time doesn’t flow here…either time doesn’t exist yet…or time ended…”
“Time doesn’t exist…or it ended…”
“If the first is the case…then this might just be an anomaly that we’d normally solve.”
“And if it’s the ladder?”
“Then…this…place…was made by someone…Someone far more powerful than I or Kronii…”
“Made? Someone made a place at the end of time.”
“Being at the end of time…is like being outside of time. There’s no recording, because there’s nothing left to record.”
“What does that mean Krono?” Armando scratches at his moustache and wiggles his nose.
“It means…only another Time Warden could’ve done this. One with complete mastery over their ability. If this is from the end of time…then…Th-that’s it!”
“Wh-what is?” Armando asks, his expressing slowly getting more and more fearful.
“This…this is a reality marble…and an amazing one at that…The person that made this…they’re…they’re way beyond our measure…they’ve seen the end…”
“The end? Of like…time?”
“Yeah…yeah…the end of reality itself. They…shouldn’t even exist…This mystery…just got a whole lot more dreadful Watson. A lot more…If I didn’t notice the change inside…then…I’m intrinsically related to whomever had created it…Kronii too”
“So…What are we going to do? Wait for Kronii?”
“Yeah, I’ll wait for her. Go back to the nearest town, get some food, drinks, first aid supplies, a blanket, get anything and everything. We might be here for a while. Take the car and use as much money as you need. My wallet is in the car.”
“O-ok Krono. Stay safe man. I can’t lose you. The Ministry would have my ass…”
“I’ll be fine. Just get the stuff and come back safe yourself kid.”
“R-right. See you in a bit Krono.” Armando walks over to the car and get in. He starts it up, waves at me and then drives off.
“Another me…a Kronii or a Krono though? And…such a devious little creation they’ve made. What are you stranger? Why this world? And why us? Are we threats? Or are we allies? Ugh Kronii…you idiot…Come back soon…