The numbers on the blackboard twisted like black worms before "Zo's" eyes. He wasn't interested in x or y, nor in the equations Professor "Zion" was trying to plant into their rusted minds. He was staring at the old clock hanging above the classroom door. It was a round, antique clock, its second hand moving with a monotonous "tick.. tock," like a hammer striking the coffin of his ambitions.
Suddenly, a strange feeling possessed him. "How long has there been a clock in this classroom?" Zo asked himself. He had spent three years at this school and never remembered a clock being there. But he quickly shrugged it off coldly. "Perhaps the author wanted this," he muttered to himself sarcastically, as if his life were nothing but a poorly written script by a foolish person who loved absurd details.
"Zo! Since you are so immersed in contemplating the unseen, perhaps you can solve this problem?"
Professor Zion's voice was sharp as a scalpel. He was raising his finger in the air, moving it in theatrical circular motions, before it suddenly stopped and pointed directly at Zo's nose. "I will give a random question to whomever my finger lands on.. and it has landed on you, champion."
Zo smiled a faint smile and began to stand up, but in that moment.. time stopped.
Not metaphorically, but literally. The fly that was hovering around his classmate's ear froze in mid-air. The dust dancing in the sunlight streaming through the window went completely still. And Professor Zion stood like a wax statue, his finger still pointing at Zo.
Then, hell began.
Out of nowhere, the ceiling of the hall tore open, revealing pitch-black voids. It wasn't normal darkness, but a void that absorbed light. From those gaps, long black arms emerged, slender like the branches of burnt trees, yet ending in massive palms with sharp nails.
Before Zo could comprehend what was happening, heads began to explode.
"Pop.. pop.. pop."
Muffled sounds resembling the popping of corn kernels, but they were his classmates' heads. The blood wasn't flowing; instead, it was flying like surrealist paintings in the frozen air. The arms were grabbing the heads and squeezing them with terrifying coldness. Everyone died in a single second. The professor, the classmates, even the fly was crushed. Zo was left alone, sitting in the middle of a puddle of red, staring into the void.
Zo didn't ask "Why?", but was instead watching a strange scene behind the silence. In a corner of the room, four semi-transparent ghosts appeared; they were majestic entities speaking with boredom:
"Oh my God, what a mess! How will we cover up this crime?" said one of them, his voice resembling the rustling of trees.
Another replied with a dull laugh: "Simple, we'll frame another human. We'll put a knife in the hand of one of the corpses and leave a fake trail. No one will believe that supernatural powers did this in this primitive world."
The four laughed together; the echo of their laughter was tearing Zo's insides apart, before a massive hand extended, grabbed the lapels of his shirt, and violently dragged him inside the black hole.
Zo found himself falling into an endless white void. There was no up or down, only a stark whiteness that hurt the eyes. From the midst of this whiteness, black smoke began to take shape until it took the form of a tall being, wearing a strange formal suit, but instead of a head, it had a void of cold yellow fire.
"Welcome, new toy.. precious puppet!"
The entity spoke in a voice filled with ecstasy, a yellow smile drawn on the void that represented its face. It advanced toward Zo with dancing steps and said: "I will make this short for you. You are not here to understand, but to entertain the three Rulers of a world very far away. They are bored, and you.. you are their favorite choice for this season."
Zo tried to open his mouth, to scream, to curse, to ask, but the entity interrupted him with a gesture of its hand:
"Oh, let me guess what is going through your little mind! You will try to ask me: Where am I? Why me? What happened to my family and friends? And what is this ridiculous ability? Right?"
Zo nodded in bewilderment, and the entity burst out laughing:
"Well, you are in a transitional void. Why you? Because you are special in a way you do not realize.. or perhaps because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for your family and friends?" The entity approached Zo's ear and whispered: "We killed them all. We didn't want any thread to link you to your old world. Your previous life has been completely erased."
Zo felt a coldness spread through his spinal cord, but the entity did not give him a moment:
"As for your gift.. the Rulers have decided to grant you (Absolute Touch). You can control anything you touch, without restrictions, without conditions, and without logic. Touch a leaf, and turn it into a gigantic tree. Touch an ant, and make it a dragon breathing fire. Touch the sky, and fold it like a piece of cloth.. Imagination is your only limit."
"Who.. who are you?" Zo finally managed to get the words out.
"Me? I am just a mediator.. a servant to the Rulers, and a conveyor of their messages. Now, chat time is over."
The entity snapped its fingers sharply: "Bye!"
In the next moment, the white floor disappeared. Zo found himself falling from a height of thousands of meters into a strange blue sky. The wind was tearing his clothes, and the atmospheric pressure began to disintegrate his body. Zo screamed, but his scream faded with the speed of the fall.
As he approached the ground, the bones in his body began to shatter from the pressure of the air. When he collided with the green earth, nothing remained of him but scattered remains, blood and flesh mixed with the dewy grass.
Somewhere in the upper dimension, a roaring voice of three great entities echoed:
"You foolish mediator! You killed him before the fun began! Fix it!"
The mediator shouted in panic: "Oh, I forgot his physical protection! My apologies, my Lords!"
Once again, the mediator snapped his fingers.
At that moment, something indescribable happened. The remains scattered on the grass began to move as if they were magnetic. The blood returned to the veins, the bones fused together with a terrifying cracking sound, and skin grew over the torn flesh in seconds.
Zo suddenly opened his eyes. He found himself standing in the middle of a strange forest, where the trees were blue and the sky was the color of violet. His body was completely intact, as if nothing had happened.
He looked at his hands, then looked at the grass beneath his feet. He inhaled a strange air filled with the scent of magic and death. He remembered his classmates' heads exploding, he remembered his family being killed, and he remembered the clock that wasn't there in the classroom.
He let out a long sigh, then wiped the sweat from his forehead with a coldness unfitting for the situation, and muttered a single word that summed up everything:
"Pathetic."