Dark Game

( Dark Game: a story from the musalchemist chronicles. An Off-shoot
from Vinyl Magic and Immortality. It's not necessary to read Vinyl
Magic or Immortality first. Though it may help you to understand who
the immortals at the beginning of the story are if you do. But it isn't
necessary. It won't spoil the story if you don't. The stories in these
chronicles can be read in any order.)

*

The quantum theory - where a single particle of light was shot against
a piece of card with two holes in it.

The question: which hole does it go through?

The answer: both simultaneously.

The light particle splits into a wave and becomes known as the wavicle.
But this shouldn't be happening - how can one particle become
two?

It can't its impossible! But it does, from this it has been
extrapolated that in every moment of every day, the subjective universe
we inhabit, splits into an infinite number of possibilities. Meaning
that for every choice we make however small, another us is making a
different choice at the exact same moment in a parallel universe - in
the end you have an infinite grid like universe; where everybeing is
walking an infinite number of incarnations, in an endless spiderweb all
at once!

*

It was during their travels of the spiderweb, looking in particular for
something a bit dark. That Paul, Joe and Simon came upon a twisted
world. One afterwards they wished they had never come upon. A
terrifying place it was. Full of nightmare creatures and evil. This
world was the darkest one they had ever seen. And one they stayed well
away from in the future. If anything was the epitome of hell then this
world was it. When they returned to Elysium they wouldn't talk about it
for days. The things they had seen on this world had terrified them,
and they told noone where this world was.

From this world they had brought back a diary, it's pages stained with
blood. It had been in the skeletal hands of a dead man. In his last
moments of life he had written down the spine-chilling story of what
had happened to that world. A story that would haunt Joe, Simon and
Paul. A story that came to be known among the Immortals as -

The Dark Game.

These are the final words of Robin Walker. I write these words in a
hope that oneday maybe someone will find them and know what happened
here. As I sit propped up against this wall, my death isn't far away. I
am a writer and a mechanic. Not a particularly good writer, but I like
to write stories nonetheless, just as a hobby I guess. Even though I am
in great pain. I still have the urge in my last moments of life to
write. My pen and paper becoming like my morphine to get me through
this. This will be the last thing I ever write. This will be my final
story:

*

It was getting dark outside. I was sat on the edge of my seat with my
joypad. Staring at the widescreen TV playing the scariest playstation
game I had ever played. The atmosphere and the music of this game were
creepy beyond words. This game was the rage at the moment, everyone was
talking about it. It had been given 10/10 by most playstation mags and
good reviews.

I had got to a point in the game were a telephone was ringing in a
spooky room. I manouvered my character to the phone and answered it.
And a strange thing happened. My screen went all fuzzy and hissed white
noise. I was about to move from my seat, and go and see if my
connection at the back of the TV had come loose; when It came back on
again and weird symbols flashed across it. I wasn't sure if this was
just a creepy movie sequence that was part of the game or whether
something was wrong with my TV. The symbols faded and I saw an image of
myself sat on my chair. When I moved, the image on the TV screen moved
as well. Like there was a camera filming me. But there were no cameras
in the room, I don't even own a video camera. A strange voice started
chanting through the TV in an eery langauge I didn't understand. A
sinister voice, that made me feel cold with terror. My image slowly
faded from the screen and I saw images of my town flash across it; then
the strange symbols appeared again, and the picture on the screen went
all wavy and the symbols looked like they were on the water. Then the
game came back on and my TV went back to normal. It was all a bit
weird.

Then I heard a sound that made my skin crawl. Somewhere outside, I
could hear a strange haunting wailing, like that of a banshee. There
was a powercut suddenly. And I was immersed in blackness and silence. I
Sat there holding my joypad in the dark and I couldn't see anything. I
felt freaked out man.

After a long while when the power didn't come back on, I moved from my
seat; and felt my way into the kitchen like a blindman. It was pitch
black. I rummaged around my pockets and found my lighter and flicked it
on. I saw the kitchen drawer and opened it, got some candles out, then
lit them one by one, and placed them around my living room. Feeling the
comfort of light again: I sat back down in my armchair, and wondered
what I was going to do now my entertainment had being removed.
I looked out of the living room window and couldn't see anything out
there, it was pitch black. No sky, no moon, no stars, nothing but total
darkness. It felt very eery, like something just wasn't right. I began
to feel very spooked.

Snap out of it man, (I told myself) it's just a powercut, get the game
out of your head it's not real: just graphics and animation. But I
couldn't get that game out of my head, no matter how much I tried: at
the start of the game your sat in a house on your own. There's a
powercut and a strange wailing; then a brick is thrown through your
window with a note attached to it.

And there I was sat in my flat with a powercut and I had heard a
wailing. But the thing that got me most was that strange moment when I
saw my image on the TV screen and heard that weird voice. I couldn't
figure that bit out at all. Well at least a brick hadn't been thrown
through my window.

SMASH! I heard my kitchen window break; as if in answer to my
thoughts.

I turned round slowly and looked very uneasily in its direction.
Through the candlelight, lying on the kitchen floor, I could just make
out a brick with a note attached to it. I sat there for ages staring at
it in dis-belief. My hands began shaking. I felt a cold sweat breaking
across my forehead. Could this be for real?

I took a deep breath and went over to the brick with candle in
hand.
There were fragmants of glass everywhere. So I carefully picked the
brick up off the floor, trieing to avoid getting cut on the glass. The
brick was smeared in blood and I felt repulsed by it. But I had to see
what was written on that note. So I carefully untied it and opened it
up. Written in blood were the words:

' Find the Locos to release the town from darkness.'

Underneath there were some strange symbols which I couldn't
discern.

Was this for real?

I wasn't sure, but in the videogame shortly after the brick is thrown
through the window: if you don't leave the house then something nasty
happens to you. Whether this was real or a dream. I didn't want to hang
around to find out if that part came true as well.

I got my coat and put it on. I knew it was dark out there so I looked
for something I could use as a torch. I saw my bikelight stood on my
desk: that would do.

I searched my drawers for some thick strong stickyback velcro and some
batteries. (I have tonnes of velcro, as it always seems to come in
handy.) When I found a good strong piece. I cut it and I stuck a strip
of the velcro on the back of the bikelight and another piece on my
chest. Then I put some new batteries in the light and attached the
light to my chest - like in the game - so I had both my hands free and
could also see where I was going. The velcro was strong industrial
stuff. The bikelight should be quite secure on my chest.

I took a deep breath and paused - I saw my crowbar lent against the
wall. (Probably a good idea to have some kind of a weapon.) I started
to feel a bit daft. This was all in my head surely, videogames don't
become reality. What am I doing man? I went back to the kitchen. I saw
the brick lying on the floor and the note by the side of it. My kitchen
window was still broken. A chill went down my spine. Fuck it, I decided
I wasn't gonna hang around my flat. If it was all my imagination then I
would soon know what was going on when I stepped outside. I picked up
the crowbar feeling the solid weight of the metal in my hands. Then
taking a deep breath, trieing to keep my fear under control, I left the
flat.

*

I walked the streets, it was misty and very silent. There wasn't a soul
anywhere. I looked through peoples windows and just saw empty
blackness. As I walked, the thing that disturbed me most was the
complete silence. No cars, no cats or dogs, no people, nothing. The
place was deserted, there were no signs of life anywhere. I knew
something was terribly wrong. Like a ghost town it was. Just like in
the videogame except this was my hometown. The place I'd known for
years. These were streets I knew like the back of my hand. They weren't
some graphics and 3D animation, they were real.

I wondered where I should start looking for the Locos. I thought about
the videogame. In the game you had to go to the.. I heard churchbells
ringing eerily in the distance.. church. The church it is then.

I heard that strange wailing again, and my blood froze. The world
around me started to change shape and appearance - became even darker;
and my torchlight only just made the world around me visible. I prayed
that the batteries wouldn't run out.

Now that the world around me had changed. I soon learnt what had become
of the people in my town. As I walked: my torch light flashed on blood
smeared walls and I saw glimpses of ripped up corpses lieing on the
ground; mauled and chewed up by God knows what. The smell of death was
everywhere. Somehow I had miraculously escaped this gruesome fate. How
come my flat had been overlooked by this evil? I did not know. All I
knew was the game had become a frightening reality.

I began walking towards the church with a somewhat faster pace. The
nearer I got to the church the more disturbing and twisted the images
became. My torch flashed onto stuff that just got wierder and wierder.
I saw empty wheelchairs with blood spattered all over them. Corpses
stabbed full of intravenous needles like voodoo dolls. I saw shopping
trolleys full of the butchered remains of human beings. And broken
television sets, with peoples decapitated heads inside them staring
back at me. I felt sickened to the core.

I heard a strange laughter coming from somewhere nearby. I turned to
look in it's direction and saw a pale faced man in a white lab coat
holding an intravenous needle in his hand. He had no eyes, they had
been torn from his sockets. But inbetween his empty eyesockets: a big
eye pushed it's way through his skin and looked at me.
" Medication time," he said squirting his needle. I ran away from him.
I ran as fast as I could in pure terror. His laughter echooed and
reverberated supernaturally off the walls around me.

I turned the corner and ran down the road that led to the church. But
halfway down this road I saw that it had been ripped open, and between
me and the church there was a yawning chasm. I looked down it, but
couldn't see anything: just empty blackness. I picked up a stone and
dropped it down, but I heard no sound of the stone hitting anything.
The gap was too wide to jump or cross in anyway. I was desperate. I
looked around me for an alternative route and saw some alleyways. I
heard laughing again: and saw the pale faced man turning the corner,
pushing a wheelchair towards me. I ran down the alleyways.

The alleyways seemed to get narrower and narrower, giving a horrible
feeling of claustraphobia. My torchlight flashed onto garage doors
dripping with blood. And every now and then it flashed on corpses, that
had been pinned up onto the walls. Some of them had been disembowelled,
and the entrails slumped out onto the ground - a revolting mess
underneath them.

I heard a strange grunting sound nearby, and paused - panic making me
shake a little. I heard something shuffling and sniffing. I looked
around for the source of it, but I couldn't see anything. I felt my
adrenaline pumping through me. My heart thumping in my chest.

And then through the torchlight, I could see something in front of me,
making its slow shuffling way towards me. It was weird looking and
covered with fur. It had a strange mouth with four lips, that kept
opening and closing in all four directions. It's eyes were black
unreflective nothingness. (The torchlight didn't seem to reflect off
it's eyes at all.) It's arms were long and out of proportion to it's
body, with sharp-looking claws at the ends of them, that dragged along
the floor. It smelt terrible. A sickening smell that I had to fight to
stop myself from puking. It lunged at me, and I stepped away to the
side and brought my crowbar down on it's head as hard as I could;
feeling the solid connection of it's skull. I felt it's skull crack and
I hit it again in the same spot. I was relieved when it fell to the
ground with a dull heavy thud.

It lay there twitching in a strange way. I knew what I had to do now.
Same as in the game, it made my stomach turn thinking about it. But
there's only one way to kill these creatures. I walked over to it and
lifted my foot above where I guessed it's heart was. Then taking a deep
breath I stamped on it's heart. I stamped on it again and again, till I
felt it squelch under the heel of my boot. The creature stopped
twitching and gave off a final slow choking gurgling sound. The blood
trickled out from it's mouth and chest where I had been stamping on it;
and formed dark pools and rivulets around its still lifeless body.
That's the only way to kill these creatures. You have to stamp on their
heart to finish them. Otherwise they come back to life; and they
metamorphosize into something more dangerous. It was bad enough having
to do that in the game, but in real life it disturbed me deeply.

I heard the laughter behind me again. And I could hear the wheelchair
being slowly pushed through the alleyway. The echo of it's creaking
wheels reverberated around the alleyway walls. I was terrified.

I didn't look behind me, I carried on running through those alleyways
as fast as I could. There were more of the creatures, they were
everywhere; and as I ran I was continually having to dodge and avoid
claws that came at me from out of the darkness. I could hear the
growls, snorts and snarls of these creatures all around me. But I
didn't stop, I kept on running. Sometimes in the game it is best not to
fight but to run. I became aware that there was a mob of these hideous
creatures shuffling and snarling behind me, following me. But thank God
these creatures couldn't run as fast as me, their two long arms slowing
them down.

I emerged from the alleyways and out onto the main high street of the
town centre. The streets were wide and open again, and not so
claustraphobic. I could see the church and made haste towards it. As I
ran towards it: I could just make out the smashed up shops of the
towncentre with my torchlight; and all around I caught glimpses of
nightmare creatures feasting on human flesh.

I kept running. I could feel the pain of a stitch in my side - but I
couldn't stop - I had to get to the church. I was almost there. The
bells sounded deafening now that I was close by - almost there -

But there was something in front of the church door - blocking my
entrance to it. My heart stopped when I saw what it was: it was the
wheelchair. This was too twisted man. I didn't want to go near the
thing. But I walked towards it nauseated. I heard the laughing again
and from out of the shadows behind the wheelchair: the strange pale man
in the labcoat emerged. He wasn't holding a needle this time though, he
was holding a scalpel. As I approached he hissed at me. And opened his
mouth wider than was natural, revealing long needle-like fangs dripping
with slime. He was even more terrifying than those creatures in the
alleyways. Which I could hear catching up with me now I'd stopped
running - I was trapped - I would have to confront him.

I remembered who he was now: he was one of the bosses in the videogame.
You had to defeat him if you wanted to get to the church. I remembered
he had a weakness too. You had to hit him in his eye. It was a waste of
time attacking him anywhere else, it wouldn't hurt him. The only way to
defeat him was by one clear shot in his eye. Only I didn't have a gun
like in the videogame, I had a crowbar, so this would be somewhat
trickier. I would probably only get one chance at this.

I was very tired from all that running; my muscles ached and I was a
bit out of breath. But I drew the strength and the courage from
somewhere, it was survival I guess, raw reality of survival. You either
fight or end up like the rest of the people in the town. And if your
gonna die then you should at least take some of these monsters down
with you, or die trieing. I guess that must be what it feels like on
the battlefield in a war. You have no choice but to fight. Swallow your
fear. Kill or be killed.

So I ran at him, I swung my crowbar round desperately and smashed him
in the face with it - bang on his eye. It was a soft weak area like in
the game, it split open and oozed out blood; he groaned in pain and
staggered about, dropping the scalpel - it clattered on the ground
nearby. But I didn't stop - I lashed at him: striking him again and
again. I couldn't stop hitting him. It was my fear, the madness of
fear, it overtook me and transformed into rage. I felt the primal
energy in me, the primordial fight or flight syndrome. I hated him more
than all those other creatures put together. It was uncontrollable. It
was pure pure wrath. I pounded him again and again. Beating him to a
bloody pulp. He fell to his knees then forwards to the ground twitching
a little. I kicked him in the head a few times, then stamped on his
heart through his back. Again and again till the spine in his back
crunched and I broke through the skin and felt his heart sqaush under
the heel of my boot. He stopped twitching and made that horrible slow
choking gurgling sound.

I paused, panting, shaking with adrenaline, my boot coated with his
slimy blood. He was the personification of my worst nightmare. I
loathed him. I kicked him again. Then I dragged him away from the door
of the church. Leaving a trail of blood behind on the ground as I did.
And I dumped him on the grass, and kicked the wheelchair onto him. My
muscles ached terribly and I was knackered. But I was angry, full of
fury. I heard the creatures snarling close by. And felt like I wanted
to have a go at them all. But I had sense, thank God. I opened the
church doors, then closed them firmly behind me. I slid the crowbar
into the door handles of the solid oak doors to lock them. Then with my
last ounce of strength I dragged a nearby table and pushed it against
the doors as a barricade.

Just in time it seemed. I heard the creatures outside and the doors
began to heave and rattle. I could hear them snarling and hammering and
clawing against it, trieing to get in. The stained glass windows all
around me broke as they threw objects into the building. I backed away
from the doors and turned around.

I was greeted by rows and rows of pews and a big alter with a huge
crucifix at the front. There were many candles about the place; giving
off a soft illumination. The bells had stopped ringing now that I was
here.

I slowly walked to the alter. As I got closer to the alter I could see
a dark figure crouched by it, alone.

I paused, " I have come for the Locos," I said from some distance
away.

The dark figure slowly stood up with it's back to me. The hammering on
the doors and the snarling and wailing of the creatures suddenly
stopped and there was silence. It slowly turned round to face me. It
was a pale faced hooded woman with sunken eyes. " I knew you would
come." she said. She put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a
strange object and layed it on the alter. " This is the Locos."

"How do you use it?" I asked.

"I do not know how to use it." She said. " But you cannot defeat the
darkness without it. And only you can stop it now. If you do not stop
it, then it will spread and devour the world."

"Why am I the only one who can stop it?"

"Because you are the one who brought it here. That videogame you were
playing: it is haunted - cursed. All the other copies of that game were
just normal videogames. But the one you bought wasn't normal. Your copy
of the game was created by a dark society of magicians, a secret cult:
intent on bringing about the end of the world. They created a portal
and disguised it as one of the popular games. Then using clandestine
methods they placed it on the shop shelves. You were the one who found
their dark game. Their deception was perfect. They knew not many gamers
would be able to handle this sort of thing for real. Most videogamers,
wouldn't last five minutes without their Joypad. They would be dead,
long before they reached the church. But perhaps in their
overconfidence they overlooked one thing: that someone as strong as you
would open the portal. And now you must use the Locos and close it,
before it is too late. You must complete their dark game. Only the one
who opens the portal can close it: it is the rules of this dark magic
I'am afraid."

"But how can I? If I don't know how to use the Locos?"

" The Locos will guide you and show you what you must do. But you must
listen for the clues. I cannot help you as I have never been able to
figure it out. This is a game remember. There will be clues around for
you to find. The Locos was made by another secret society of magicians.
They created it to protect our world from realms such as these. Most of
these good magicians are now dead - hunted down by their dark brethren.
But the Locos remains: it is a powerful magic. Each one of those
magicians put a part of their unique selves into it. " She looked sad
suddenly and bowed her head, and spoke in quieter tones. "You want to
know how come I know so much? I was one of the dark magicians. I was
part of their conspiracy, I helped them to make the game. Then I saw
the horror that I had helped them create and I rebelled against them.
No matter how much I tried I could never fully give myself to the dark
paths. Always within me I cannot shake my feelings of mercy and of
love. Seductive though the dark paths are, they never held me. They
hate me now and I have had to live in fear and hiding from them. I have
been on the run ever since, and I have been watching the world waiting
patiently for that day to come when someone would open the portal.
Waiting to try and put right what I did wrong. " She sighed deeply, her
face looked troubled. " Now hurry, " she said. " You have got this far,
but it isn't over yet. The realms have shifted again and we are on the
lightside for the moment. I temporarily closed the portal. Which is
against the rules. I will be punished severly for this. It took a lot
of strength out of me, and I won't be able to do it again. The magic
that opened that portal is too powerful for me to permanently close. It
can only be properly closed by the Locos. I cannot help you anymore.
The next time the realms shift, could be the last time. So I warn you
to make haste. When this town shifts back to the darkside; the darkness
will come looking for you. It knows you have the Locos, and will try to
stop you from using it. "

" But what chance do I have, I don't know any magic, I'am just a
mechanic."

"Have you not listened to anything I have said? Use the Locos. Close
the portal and complete the game. I must go now, I have done all that I
can. " Then in solemn silence with head bowed she walked slowly away,
and passed like a ghost through a wall to the side of the alter.

And I was left alone.

I looked at the Locos. It was a tetrahedron shaped object made out of
some material I hadn't seen before. There were about ten faces on it
and on each face there was a weird symbol. It looked a bit like a
puzzle, similar to a rubik's cube but not a cube. I held it in my hands
and wondered if perhaps it might be some kind of puzzle. I could move
the faces around like you could on a rubiks cube. So I figured that
maybe the faces had to be in a certain order. The only problem was: I
didn't have a clue what any of these symbols meant. I sat there for
ages trieing to figure out what they could mean, but to no avail.

Then something occured to me. The videogame had instructions with it.
Maybe within the instructions there might be some kind of clue. I was
still on the lightside, the portal was temporarily closed. I knew I
just wasn't gonna solve this puzzle without some kind of a clue. I had
to go back to my flat and read those instructions - I took a deep
breath - I would have to hurry before the realms shifted again. There
was nothing else I could do. I walked over to the church doors and
moved the table away, then slid my crowbar out from the handles. I
opened the doors and stepped out onto the street.

I could see the faint reassurance of the moon in the sky. I was safe
for now. But I ran anyway, as fast as I could. All the way back to my
flat. It was ghostly quiet everywhere and lonely and I had to assume
the worst: that maybe everyone in this town was dead, except for me. I
pulled my keys out of my pocket and unlocked my flat door. Then stepped
in and locked and bolted the door behind me. The candles had all burnt
right down. But nothing had been in here since I went, it was how I
left it.

I went over to my playstation and got the game out. I placed the game
on the floor and brought my crowbar down on it again and again,
breaking it into pieces. (If I could save this town from darkness then
I must be sure that game was never played again.) When I was satisfied
that the game was damaged beyond repair. I leafed through the
instructions, but I couldn't see anything that resembled a clue. Not
until on the very last page, I saw a strange alphabet. I found that the
letters of this alphabet corresponded to the symbols on the Locos. But
this alphabet didn't really help me. Just told me that perhaps these
symbols were part of the magicians secret alphabet; or maybe even the
magicians secret names.

Then suddenly I remembered something: the note. There were some strange
symbols underneath the writing on the note. I went to the kitchen and
picked up the note from the floor. I looked at the symbols and there
were six of them; and I could relate all six of them to the alphabet.
Then suddenly the whole puzzle began to click in my mind. I felt for
the first time that evening: the warmth of hope. I could see all the
clues of the game coming beautifully together in my mind.

Maybe these symbols on the note were the combination to unlock the
puzzle. I wasn't sure but it was worth a try. I was desperate
now.

Suddenly I heard the wailing again: the darkside.

The atmosphere went very tense and I ducked away from the kitchen
window. I could hear shuffling outside and sniffing. I crawled into my
lounge, and snook into a corner away from the windows; and examined the
Locos with my bicycle light. I looked at the symbols on the note, and
tried to locate them on the Locos. I could see them.

I heard my bedroom window smash.

Ok I had to be quick. I moved the Locos faces as fast as I could.
Connecting one after another. I saw that maybe all six of the symbols
on the note must connect round the centre of the tetrahedran. I wasn't
sure if this was going to work, but it was worth a try. I shuffled the
faces sorting the one's I saw on the note into the centre line of the
Locos.

As I was doing this, I sensed a presence. It felt like something
malevalent was watching me. I looked up and through my living room
window at the other end of the room. I saw a winged beast with glowing
red eyes; staring right at me through the window - like a potrait of
the devil.

It stepped back from the window into the darkness.

I carried on working on the puzzle - trieing hard not to think about
what I had just seen - I must unlock the Locos, it's the only way I can
fight these things. Must be a warrior, control my fear. Almost there I
just had one more face to connect.

SMASH! The devil creature came hurtling through my window. I was scared
out of my mind but I carried on - trieing my best to ignore what had
just entered the room - I kept moving the panels until I heard a
reassuring click, and the puzzle all connected together and the Locos
began to open up magically before me. I had done it. I was right! I
watched the Locos unlock: like a flower with many petals that opened
out wider and wider.

Then the creature grabbed me by my neck and pushed me hard against the
wall. I dropped the Locos onto the floor. And I was forced now to look
at this uninvited guest. It was huge and scaly like a reptile. With
glowing red eyes and twisting horns that came out of the sides of it's
head. It stank of pungent sulphur. I looked it in the eyes, knowing my
time was up. I couldn't fight such a well-built thing. I prepared
myself in my mind for whatever death this creature had in store for
me.

All the while in the peripheal of my vision - the Locos was opening out
on the floor; it was glowing now in a strange ethereal way and seemed
to be increasing in size. I felt a sharp searing pain rip through my
gut. The creature had pierced me with it's claw and pushed it right
through my abdomen - pinning me to the wall. I was in absolute agony. I
began to cough up blood.

The creature seemed to become aware of the Locos suddenly; and I saw
what looked like worry in it's eyes and it let go of me, retracting
it's claw from my gut. I slumped to the floor crieng out in pain when I
hit it - and I could not move - only watch, as it walked over to the
Locos--then backed away from it suddenly.

"Too late fuckface," I barely managed to say coughing up more blood. "
It's over."

The creature turned to look at me in outrage, then it tried to get out
of my flat the way it had come. But the creature couldn't seem to get
away. The Locos became like a swirling black hole whirlwind; and
started pulling the creature towards it. The pull on the creature
seemed to get stronger and stronger. The creature fought frantically
against the pull trieing to resist it. But it was losing the battle and
suddenly very quickly, very abruptly, it was sucked up into the black
hole emptiness--it's cries becoming swallowed up by it. Then as I lay
there propped up against the wall unable to move. I saw every horror
that has ever been imagined by the human mind, come through my flat and
get swallowed up by that black hole. I saw thousands of the beasts
flash by my eyes coming from all directions--sucked into it. This went
on for some time - until finally there was nothing - and the black hole
slowly dissapeared. The Locos magically closed itself back up and lay
silent on the ground.

I could just make out with my blurred vision: a sunrise through my
broken window. I sensed it was over: daylight, the Locos had closed the
portal. The darkness was gone, the world was saved. I had completed the
game. I sighed in relief and waited for death to come and release me
from this pain. I lay there propped up against the wall for what seemed
like an eternity. I felt death getting close. I closed my eyes.

Then I heard something that made my skin crawl. Something that sounded
very familiar to me, something far away in the distance. I heard the
haunting sound of banshee-like wailing: it sounded like it was coming
from one of the nearby towns. I knew what that sound was, and I knew
what it meant, but it couldn't be real. I didn't want to believe it. I
was hearing things this time surely. It was my mind playing tricks on
me, it had been a long night.

But then a terrible realization dawned on me, as I lay slumped against
that wall:

What if there was another copy of the game?

*

It looked like Robin had tried to write something more, but it was a
scrawled mess, and blood was smeared all over it. Something about the
Locos, but it couldn't be discerned. That must have been the moment
when he had died.

*

Paul placed the diary in Elysium's library. Placed it among the many
other books the immortals had collected on their travels over the
years. It had been untitled when Paul had found it. So he gave it a
title 'The Dark Game' by Robin Walker. And he placed it in the 'W'
section of the library. Though Robin Walker had never been published in
his lifetime. He would have a special place here at Elysium and be
remembered by the immortals. Paul still couldn't believe, how out of
all the places they could have appeared on that world. They turned up
at Robin's flat and found this diary. He wondered if maybe it was
something to do with the mysterious Locos that Robin spoke about. Paul
had brought the Locos back with him too, it was in the museum at
Elysium. A museum where the immortals kept interesting artifacts they
had come across on their travels. The world the Locos had originally
come from had been completely devoured by the darkness, so he figured
it was of no use there anymore. The Locos was a work of art, a
beautiful piece of craftsmanship; and he felt it should have a special
place as well. He never found the note or the instructions that Robin
wrote about, so Paul didn't know how to use the Locos. It would
probably forever remain a mystery. But maybe some things were best left
that way.