Microstory 2102: You’re Only Hurting Yourself

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Oh my God, the coppers must think I’m preeeetty stupid if they legitimately believed that I was in Chicago. I literally told you in my last post that I wasn’t going to mention any specifics about my location, and immediately after, I claimed that I was going to be on the Chicago River? You didn’t think that I would catch that “mistake”. It was a total misdirect, meant to accomplish two objectives. First, I wanted to see if anyone who might have been looking for me was trying to use my blog as a resource. Second, I wanted to gauge the response. For my part, I think it was blown way out of proportion. They had the whole city lookin’ for me; for one little guy who hasn’t hurt anybody. You people need to get your priorities checked. A part of me wanted to continue to waste their time and money looking in the right place, but I’m not vengeful and petty like them. So this is the truth, I’m not anywhere near Chicago. I chose it, because I’m moderately familiar with it from my experiences in my home universe, and because I had already made a minor connection to someone there. He was one of the people who answered my ad that was looking for other aliens. I haven’t talked to that guy in a long time, though. Make a list of every place you think I would hide out, and then cross it all out. I would never hide where someone might think to look for me. That’s Lam 101. I never said anything about Philadelphia. Why don’t you check there? Or I know, how about the entirety of China? My advice, cut your losses, and move on to more important cases. As I said, I never hurt anybody, and I won’t. I have no reason to. I’m not dangerous, I’m not angry. I’m just trying to get home. Anyone who doesn’t understand that probably has easier access to their own home, so I’m asking for a little sympathy here. Stop looking for me! I’m not worth it! You’re only hurting yourself. I ran, and I understand that I caused a problem when I did that, but I’m telling you now that you will never find me, so if you continue the investigation, it will be all on you. I will accept no responsibility for whatever resources are expended on it, or whatever it ends up costing the taxpayers of this country. Just leave me alone, and everything will be okay. Yours truly, the ghost.

Microstory 1870: Nullified

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I can’t tell you how many regrets rest on my shoulders that will burden me until the moment I die, which is coming up soon. The biggest thing I did with my life, however, is not one of them. The day I pulled that trigger was the proudest of my life, second only to the day when that choice was validated. I never officially admitted to any wrongdoing. I pleaded not guilty because of a loophole. You see, they charged me with murder, and I still don’t count my actions as murder. It was self-defense; I did it in protection of others. That’s not murder, so we went forward with the trial. I didn’t do that in the hopes that I would be set free—the evidence against me was insurmountable—but I wanted the facts to get out there, so the world would understand why. I didn’t care how the judge and jury saw me. I wanted everyone else to judge me for themselves. The verdict was a bonus that made the whole ordeal taste sweeter, but it wasn’t necessary. Several years ago, a pharmaceutical company made a breakthrough in their research, which made lifesaving medicine ten times cheaper to produce, and ten times more effective. It was revolutionary, and should have been the best news for millions of people. Instead, the company buried the true cost, and only promoted the benefits, which allowed them to charge more than they were before, and it was already really inexpensive, sometimes prohibitively so. The General in this army of scoundrels was the most evil of them all, and he shall remain nameless, because he’s dead now, and justice prevailed, even though it did not bring back the estimated 56,000 people who died as a result of his wicked practices. He could have saved them, but he chose not to, and it was for that reason that I chose to send him to hell. But it was no choice at all.

I didn’t know anyone who suffered from the disease, let alone died from it. It was because of the children. I was outraged when I found out, as were most others. But I trusted in the judicial system, because that was what we were taught to believe. I have mixed feelings about it now. He was going to get away with it. The jury found him not guilty, and he was just going to walk. His purse might have gotten lighter in a civil case, but he was a billionaire, he didn’t care. Someone had to do something. Others tried, but they couldn’t get close. I was fortunate enough to have been working at the hotel where he was staying while the government worked on reopening his assets. No one pays attention to the invisible maid, so I found it easy to slip in with a revolver my late father left me, and which I wasn’t even sure would function. I didn’t make him beg or suffer like he did so many others. I told him why I was there, and then ended his life painlessly. I won’t get into how the trial went. It would have been brutal for someone who hadn’t resigned themselves to their fate, but I was comfortable, and like I said, I regret nothing. After a few hours, the jury returned with a not guilty verdict, despite all the facts, including my admission that I did it. The judge called it jury nullification, but there was evidently nothing she could do. I was already becoming a folk hero, and if they thought it was hard to find an unbiased jury before, it would have been impossible after all this publicity, so declaring a mistrial probably would have probably just been a waste of everyone’s time. The prosecutor chose to let it go, probably out of a secret sympathy for my decision. Now, according to my attorney, all I needed to worry about was a civil trial. But this never came to fruition, because no one cared about him.

Microstory 775: Fat Lady

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Keres are demons. Keres are, in fact, evil demons, which is an important distinction. They belong to a special class of demons, amongst nearly two dozen others, most of whom are also evil. Demons did not evolve on their world naturally. Instead, they were genetically engineer from something the scientists who discovered it referred to as The Sinister Mass. It was this completely inexplicable collection of presumably ancient evil creatures, who were somehow forced into coalescence, and theoretically jettisoned into interstellar space. The demons they created from this eventually turned on their creators, and started using their resources to travel the galaxy, searching for a home. They ended up finding one on a planet that was colonized by humans, and it was here that they built a stronghold. Each class of demon has their own little niche. Some like to torture, some like to trick or lure people into traps, and others simply use brute force, and attack. The Keres are cleverless warriors, bent on the eventual destruction of mankind. Though they do not need to feed on humans to survive, they prefer it, and enjoy it. While other demons encouraged infighting amongst the humans, for the pleasure of watching the show itself, the Keres used this as an opportunity to choose their victims from the battlefield. The humans quickly caught wind of what they were being tricked into doing to themselves, and created a peace, for the sake of the species’ survival. The Keres were forced to satisfy their hunger through other means. But one of their kind was somehow born completely different. Larger and slower than the other Keres, this Ker, named Nilda, never developed a taste for human flesh, and this led her to feeling sympathy for them. As time went on, and other Keres mocked her for her differences, Nilda became more and more human. During the human internal conflicts, she used her position to make it look like she was following Ker custom, but she was secretly working against them. While they believed her to be choosing her food, and eating it privately, she was actually building a personal army of elite fighters. Upon discovering what she had done, a demon named Nemesis trapped the fighters in the Hemera cage, and prevented them from aging. It was his job to maintain the balance between the demons, and the humans, so he kept them alive, knowing they might be useful one day. It was a good thing he did, because when the humans decided to rise up against their oppressors, after centuries of hell, Nilda’s Valker Warriors would prove to be their second saving grace.