Free Kev by Mark A Labbe Page A

He’s
already killed six hundred thousand people. I’d be willing to bet
he is killing the rest as we speak.”
    I stared at the ceiling, trying to wrap my
mind around things, but found my thoughts too jumbled to organize.
I felt hopeless and small. I turned to say something to the girl,
but she had disappeared. I wanted to scream.
    “Well, hello, Turd Fondler,” said B24ME. “Was
the break long enough for you?”
    Ignoring B24ME, I got up and put on my
clothes, then left the room and went down to the hotel lobby. I
found the hotel bar and went inside, had a seat and ordered a green
tea for reasons unknown, having no memories of the odd
characteristics of green tea.
    “We have an excellent challenge lined up for
you,” said B24ME.
    I didn’t respond.
    “Do you want to know what it is?”
    “No.”
    “Oh, okay, a surprise then.”
    I appeared in a large, hot, and extremely dry
warehouse. In front of me, I saw a table, and on the table an array
of weapons, including a machine gun, a throwing star, a sword, and
something that looked vaguely like a squirt gun. I saw a red dragon
appear on the other side of the warehouse. It had to be at least
fifty feet long. It wasn’t moving.
    “So, Turd Fondler, the name of this game is,
‘is it real or is it not?’”
    “Wonderful. How do I win?”
    “All you have to do is get one answer right
and you move on to the next challenge. Are you ready?”
    I eyed the dragon, reasonably certain I would
have to determine if it was real or not. What would happen if I
made a wrong answer? “What if I’m wrong?” I said.
    “We’ll surprise you. So, in front of you is
an Urethan Wyrm. Over fifty feet long, this fire-breathing
monstrosity has been responsible for countless deaths on countless
worlds. Tell me, is it real?”
    I paused. The dragon looked like something
out of a storybook, although its wings seemed far too small for its
body. “Can it fly?”
    “Indeed it can,” said B24ME.
    “Using what? Magic? Those wings aren’t big
enough.”
    “Is it real or not?”
    I figured B24ME had a way of reading my
memories and had pulled this thing from there, so I said, “Not
real.”
    “Wrong answer, I’m afraid.”
    The dragon started moving, turning its head
to look at me. It took a step forward then started flapping its
wings, bringing itself into the air, a long gush of flame erupting
from its mouth. With alarming speed the dragon bore down on me,
shooting more flames from its mouth. I grabbed the machine gun off
the table and fired wildly at the beast, to no effect. The dragon
roared, now much closer to me, and inhaled deeply.
    I remembered the blue cube, pulled it out and
said, “Cube, take me home.” Nothing happened and the dragon
breathed out, engulfing my body in flames. I screamed, my clothes
and flesh burning off, and fell to the ground. Moments later, I
healed. I got up, now naked, and looked at the dragon.
    “I’ve never seen that happen before,” said
the dragon. It breathed in again.
    I looked at the remaining weapons, now
focused on the squirt gun. Water. Fire. I grabbed the gun and fired
just as another burst of flame erupted from the dragon. The second
the water touched the dragon, it disintegrated.
    In front of me, a floating yellow sphere
about the size of a volleyball appeared.
    “This is the Proth Sphere,” said B24ME. “If
you connect to it, it will make all of your dreams and nightmares
come true. Is it real or is it fake?”
    “So, wait. If I guess it isn’t real and it is
real will all my dreams and nightmares come true? What will happen
if I get the answer right?”
    “Is it real or is it fake?”
    I took an inventory of all of the dreams and
nightmares I could remember, remembering few dreams, but many
nightmares. The worst nightmare was one in which a giant nozzle
sucked up the entire universe. How on Earth could this sphere make
that nightmare come true? What if it could? I figured it was safest
to say it was real so I would have some