For Government class we were asked to create a short story based on the pictures from
Bill Sullivan's Turnstile Photography Project. We had to pick one of the people from his pictures to base out story around.
Here is the link to the assignment description. Below is the person I have chosen and my story.
Kain Fleskedere
Kain Fleskedere was just like every other human on the current earth. He was alive, he worked, he slept, he had emotion. He would like to tell you that he enjoyed being alive, but truthfully, he didn’t. He couldn’t imagine how anyone would enjoy it.
Walking onto the subway he looked around at everyone else. Everyone was doing their own thing. Listening to headphones, reading the paper, talking business, texting, laughing, silence. They all gave off this impression that everything was ok or that their life had some significance that led them to the subway at this very moment. Or at least most of them did.
But deep inside, they all knew. They all knew what they really were, or at least had an idea about it.
Kain hated it. He hated waking up in the morning knowing what would happen after he died, the random thought of it on the subway. Every waking moment leading to another reality, one he could not control.
Every step, every birthday, every second, led to the burning fact that he, along with everyone else, would eventually become monsters.
The year was 2085. Yes, 2012 never happened, it had always been some stupid cult theory. And yes, the government did have secrets. They were holding an alien captive, they did have top-secret advanced military weapons. But secrets were no more. In 2050 on the 12th of November to be exact, the new president Anwar Reanold decided that if we wanted to have a complete trustworthy, working society, secrets would have to be told. Every lie and every secret the government had ever made and kept was told to the public. Everyone had a right to know everything, at least everything about society and the world.
The year to come was complete chaos. Talk shows and radio only talked about the new truths. People were more alert, more judging, but most of all, more scared.
The most impactful truth that President Anwar himself explained took everyone by surprise. The question, “what happens to us after we die?” was no longer such a mystery. Government had always known the answer, for it was all kept on record. Kain thought it was just one of those things that no one should ever know. For it changed your perspective on your own life, forever.
“I know in our modern society, this will be hard to hear. We apologize greatly for keeping this a secret for so long. You sitting at your TV or radio may not believe me. You may rage, scream, hate us, but please be assured, this is no joke.”
Kain was only twenty-one when these announcements were being made. He was invited to a party that night but decided to stay home to watch the broadcast. Hell, everyone probably did.
“Throughout our history we have recorded and analyzed what happens to a person after they die, physically, spiritually, and mentally. These studies have been going on since the beginning of time. The findings have always been known to man, however we have kept all that we know about it between our governments. I admit we have been too scared to tell the people.
My citizens, my friends, death is only the beginning. We have kept this in for too long. Death is the start of a new life, a new being completely. All those fables and myths you have heard as children, all those stories, are true. Vampires, werewolves, zombies. Things like korrigan, bahamut, Spirits, demons. All those things exist. Those are only a few of the millions of…creatures we know about. What does this have to do with your death, you ask? Well these beings are created out of our own deaths. We become these things.
We don’t know how and why this happens. We just know it happens.”
The president continued his speech and showed videos of changings from human to creature, for those who needed visual proof. In this broadcast Kain learned a few things.
- After death humans were brought to a part of this world that no alive human could ever enter unless they were an “After Death Government Official”. These areas were in every community, yet they were concealed and protected.
- You could easily tell what type of being a human would turn into by looking into their personality, physical features, and thought process.
- All beings, besides one group, have at least a hint, if not a lot, of “humanness” still in them.
- He would turn into one of these beings, sooner or later.
For a second, he did not believe a word the president said, but only for a second. Mass suicide began after the broadcast. Kain thought this was foolish, because they could still turn into those monsters. He guessed that some people just couldn’t live with the fact of what they would become. The year of 2051 became know as “The Year of Chaotic Truth”.
Looking back now, Kain thought that people were dim-witted.
“How could we be so stupid?” he said lowly to himself on the subway. He stared at the people by him. The lady across from him would surely become a forest spirit. The man two seats behind him, a chakora. The people that would become the more dangerous beings were rarer to see. There weren’t that many of them alive in the same decade.
It was so easy to figure out who would become what. Kain didn’t see how it was possible when the broadcast first told him this, but now, it was so evident. You only had to study people, the way they act, what they say, how they moved, and Kain liked to study people. How could he not figure this out before, how could anyone, who didn’t know the secret already, not figure this out before? He assumed it was because people wanted life to get better, not worse. They were curious, but they didn’t really want to know everything. Everyone was just too high on life, just the way it was.
Kain could feel the eyes of people staring at him. He was used to it. They knew what he would become. They could tell once he walked through the doors of the subway. The way he walked like no one could stop him, confident, slowly, surely. The way his dark eyes showed determination. For a man of fifty-six years, he looked quite powerful.
But don’t get him wrong, he didn’t mean to appear this way, he just did.
He was intelligent and an architect that worked for the city of New York. After the broadcast and a few years into his job he knew exactly where the beings of New York “lived”. Ironic he thought, because they weren’t really alive. He worked on some of the barriers that separated the world of the living and the world of the dead. He was never allowed passed the barriers though.
He stayed on subway until all of the public had left, for today he was going to take a look at one of the barriers to see if it was sustainable. The track outside split into two paths and the subway merged onto the left one. It became pitch black until the subway made it’s way into a huge lit up cavern that reminded Kain of a stadium. He was not afraid, he had been there before.
Outside of the subway stood a construction worker who worked for the government’s After Death Officials. He was awaiting Kain’s arrival.
“Hello Mr. Fleskedere, right this way please.”
The worker led him to the left side of the cavern and up a stone stairway. This stairway led to light and less musty air. He could feel a breeze now. The construction worker was leading him right to the barrier. They reached the top of the steps to find themselves in the city again, only this part of the city was deserted, as far as he could see. This was the city of the dead, and if he just walked ten feet further an invisible wall would stop him. Kain found it interesting how this “world” was still in New York. It was just only accessible by the route he took.
“Alright, so we were just worried about the barrier cuz there’s this new creature, a zombie to be exact, that keeps trying to run through it.”
Kain rested his hands on the barrier looking through the invisible wall like a child looks through the glass at a zoo exhibit. The zombie must have seen them coming, because it started sprinting straight at them.
“Yup that’s the one, I would stand back if I were you”
Kain stayed there though, staring at the zombie. The zombie hit the barrier, which caused it to fall back. It regained itself, heavily breathing, and came into the same stance as him. Kain could swear he was looking into a mirror. His eyes betrayed him for a second, flinching at the sight of it. It looked so human, so alive. It had too much confidence. He wondered if it could still think, understand, if it could remember who it used to be. Could it really just be a cold-blooded flesh eater? No control over it’s body, no feeling for its surroundings? Kain didn’t want to believe that. No. He wanted to have command over himself. He didn’t want to become the only creature known to man to have no self-control, no conscience being, no hint of humanity left. He wanted to be able to understand himself, when he became one of those things.
One of those things. That’s what he was.
Five months later
It was dark. He couldn’t move or say anything, but he could hear them talking.
“We have to hurry before it awakens.”
“Which Citizen is this?”
”Kain Fleskedere. Male. Age fifty-six.”
“Poor Kain, I knew the fellow. He was a good man.”
“Well he is now zombie classification, he will not know you.”
It was light now. Too light. He had awakened, there was no one around. He wanted people for an instant. Comfort. Then that feeling left. He wanted flesh. He would search for it. He could smell it now. He ran towards it. He would get it. That is all he wanted.
* A place I saw in a dream
*Robber Barons
* Love Triangle
* The f
