The Dying Man

Seen a lot of pocket universes recently. There was one filled with rolling, flower covered hills, and soil wet with blood. Another was an abandoned, overgrown playground, where I could hear the faint cries of children calling for their parents. Then another looked like a decrepit medieval village, with diseased corpses stacked in the center of town. And yet another was a cavern, walls covered in grey fungus, and the constant sound of strange echoes in the distance.

I destroyed all of them. I will not let any trace of the Fears survive.

There’s still more of these pocket universes out there. I can feel them. I can feel… everything now. When I look at my hand, I no longer see just a hand. I see a massive collection of subatomic particles spinning around each other. When I take a step, I’m fully aware of the reaction that transfers energy altering my nervous system that my foot has touched the ground. It’s weird, but somehow it feels so natural.

I can also sense the Earth. It’s still there. Just a single timeline, the last remnant of the entire multiverse, being held together by the Manufactured Newborn. I’ll return there soon. Once I’ve dealt with everything else.

As I moved through these universes, I found another Fear. Although this meeting was rather different from my last encounter with their kind.

The universe was a wasteland. Black, cracked ground went on for miles without any variance or even change in elevation. Looked even more boring than the desert had been. I walked around for a while, hoping to find something interesting before I destroyed the place. That was when I heard the voice.

“Well, well, you finally decided to pay my humble home a visit, boss.” The voice sounded like someone trying to gargle phlegm while simultaneously swallowing a fist full of gravel.

Given the recent hostility I’ve been encountering, I immediately got ready to fight. “Where are you?”

“Where am I? Why, I’m right here. 

And over here.

And here too.

I’m everywhere.” I’m assuming the sound that followed was laughter, though it sounded more like someone coughing up their lungs.

In response to that, I punched a hole in reality.

“Alright, alright, jeez.” The voice said. “No sense of humor. Well then, allow me to introduce myself. Hello, Nyarlathotep, my name is the Dying Man, and it is ever so pleasant to meet you.”

Still no sign of where the voice was coming from. “Yeah, yeah, nice to meet ya too, now stop fucking hiding and get out of here.”

More of its laughter. “And just how to you expect me to do that, boss? I’m a body surfer, and in case you hadn’t noticed, there aren’t any bodies left anymore. EAT snatched up the last few humans before the world ended, the bastard. And while I usually would leap at the opportunity to take over such a fine young lady as yourself, that fleshy container is already hosting an Outer God. And I don’t fancy my chances tangling with you over ownership of your little meat shell, boss.”

Still kept looking around, expecting some kind of attack. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t call my body a ‘meat shell’, kay thanks.”

“Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it. You wanna keep yourself stuck in that thing, I ain’t gonna judge.”

My teeth were grinding in frustration at this conversation. “The fuck do you want? I’ve got a lot of stuff to destroy, so I’d rather you not waste my time.”

“Woah there boss, no need for this anger. I was just hoping you and I could have a little chat, something for me to pass the time before I disappear.”

That last word caught my attention. “What do you mean, disappear?”

“Exactly what it sounds like I mean, boss. What am I supposed to do now that everyone’s been killed off? I’m the Dying Man, not the Dead Man. Corpses are useless for me. What good is the embodiment of death when there’s nothing left capable of dying?” More of its hacking laughter. “What did one of you humans say? Oh yeah; And with strange aeons, even death may die.” Another round of laughter, which slowly died away. When the Dying Man’s voice came back, it was much softer. “So how’s this gonna go down? Are you going to smash the whole place up and kill me quickly? Or just walk off and let the damage you’ve already done finish me off?”

I looked at the hole I’d made in reality. Cracks were already spreading from it, expanding the emptiness. I hadn’t spared a second to thinking about the consequences when I made it. It was just a spontaneous act of anger.

“I… I didn’t….”

“What this, boss? The great Nyarlathotep shouldn’t be feeling doubt. I’m a Fear, aren’t I? The hated foe! Hurry up and get to the manslaughter!”

There was a part of me that wanted to do just that. But mostly I just felt uncomfortable about the whole situation. Yeah, the Dying Man was a Fear, but it wasn’t doing anything to me. Before this point, I don’t think the Dying Man and I had ever actually met, which is a big difference when compared to all the Fears who kept actively trying to screw up my life.

As if reading my mind, the Dying Man said, “Can’t do it? You never did got the cold blooded murderer thing down. You always needed some excuse to justify it first. I’ve seen it a million times before. People like you who need someone to be pointing a knife at them before they’re willing to shoot.”

“Shut up.” Can’t exactly say it was wrong. I just wished it would attack me or something. It would have made the whole thing simpler. “I need a drink.”

“Then why not make one, boss?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll just wave my hand and magically make one appear out of thin air, shouldn’t be too hard to do in this empty wasteland.”

“Yeah, why not do that?”

I just stared at the spot I’d last heard the voice from. “I was joking.”

“And I wasn’t. If you want something to drink, just go and make something to drink. There’s no reason you can’t, boss.”

“No reason except its fucking impossible for me to just make things spontaneously appear out of thin air.”

“Is it now? How did you get that little notebook of yours, then?”

I pulled the book out of my coat pocket. “This? I got this when I was being held by the government.”

“Really? That’s pretty impressive boss. Holding onto the same notebook after all you’ve been through. Most people would have dropped it during that whole apocalypse business. But you held on! Even when you threw away the coat that you had been keeping it in, you still somehow kept it!”

“I….” I had taken the journal out of my last trench coat before I’d thrown it away, right? And then I must have just carried it in my hands until I got my new coat…?

“But that’s not even half as impressive as your ability to keep writing utensils on hand! One would expect any regular pen’s ink to have dried up by this point, but you’ve managed to keep on writing anyways!”

Pens? Um… yeah, I… I had lots of pens. I had to have them. That’s how I’ve been writing things down. I just couldn’t find or remember any of them at the moment.

“But most amazing of all has to be your writing speed! You’ve been hunted almost nonstop since the Slender Man tore down Red Cap’s place, but you’ve still written pages of material in the brief moments of calm! It’s almost as if the words are appearing on the paper!”

I started flipping through the notebook. I could remember thinking about writing everything in it. But for the last few entries, I couldn’t remember actually writing them down. And yet they were right there on the pages. “But… I mean… how….”

The sarcasm finally left the Dying Man’s voice. “Because you’re a god. You wanted a record of what’s happened to you, so it became reality. It’s the same principle with making a drink. You want something. Now make it exist.”

Pondered that for a while. Then I tried thinking “I really want a drink” as hard as I could. Nothing happened.

“It’s not working.”

“Well of course it’s not, boss. You keep trying to think with that meat shell’s brain instead of your own mind. Just pull back from it, then give it a whirl.”

Didn’t understand exactly what it meant, but I tried following the advice. Don’t know how to describe the feeling exactly. It was sort of like letting go of my own body. And suddenly, I could see the molecules all around me. Making things out of them was so easy. I just had to move a few atoms around, form some chemical bonds, and….

A small globe of whiskey appeared a few inches from my face. It instantly fell, and splashed on the ground.

“Ah, yeah, you should have made a glass too, boss.”

I almost didn’t hear the Dying Man. I was too excited about what I’d done. It had been so simple! “This is… this is amazing! There’s so many things I can do with this!”

“Glad you think so, boss. Now you’ll be ready for when the Rake tries jumping his little ambush on you.”

“…. The Rake what?”

“Oops, did I say something? Nah, just ignore that. I didn’t say anything about the Rake getting the Black Dog and Intrusion together and waiting to attack you in the Empty City.” A chuckle.

Okay, cool, four Fears all in the same place. That would speed up the process of wiping them out. But one thing I had to know first. “Why are you telling me this? Why help me?”

“Don’t look at me like that, boss. I can already see you trying to go and put me in a neat little ‘Good Fear’ category, so you can differentiate me from all the ones you put in the ‘Bad Fear’ box. That whole black and white morality thing you keep trying to push on everything is just plain creepy, especially given what you are. Just because someone helped you doesn’t mean they’re a good person. Especially considering you’re not exactly a shining paragon, Mrs. Genocide.”

“The Fears were the ones who killed all those people!”

“I am a Fear, boss. And while I can’t speak for the others, I was certainly content to just laze around and slowly murder people one by one, up to the point where you went and blew up two universes at once.”

“I had to save Lisa!”

“Of course you did. And I’m sure all those people who got caught in the collateral damage would perfectly understand. You might even get a chance to explain it to them when you meet with Archangel. You’ve certainly been a boon to him, considering all those billions of souls you kindly sent his way.”

“If you don’t shut up right now I will tear this whole universe down.”

“Ooh, you’ve got me quivering in fear, boss. Eh? Get it? Fear?”

This time, I was fully aware of what the consequences would be when I smashed another hole in reality. This one was much larger than the last, and within seconds it was spreading across the universe.

As the sky fell apart like glass, the Dying Man spoke, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. “Why did I tell you about the Rake’s ambush? Why not? They’re going to die soon. Even if it’s not by your hands, their time is almost up. So many of us Fears are determined to live forever. But I know better than them all that’s impossible. Nothing lasts forever. Everything dies. Everything except… you and the Slender Man.” It paused, and I expected more of its laughter, but none came. “That shell you’re in, that’s going to die. I can see the timer ticking down. Not much more time left on it, boss. But you… the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep… there’s nothing. When I look at you or the Slender Man, I don’t see any sign of death. No decay. Nothing lasts forever… except for the two of you. When I look at you, it’s like I’m looking into eternity. And that terrifies me.”

Those words were still in my head as the universe collapsed and I had to move to the next one.