Chapter 3 - The Ginstone
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Okay, I'm going to be honest. The breakfast was awesome. Apparently, Felicia isn't only beautiful, she was a good cook as well.
She fixed me up a plate of three blueberry waffles, buttered them just right, made me homemade orange juice (yes, homemade as in freshly squeezed, not grown in the room), my favorite brand of milk, and Irish coffee. It doesn't sound all that great, but trust me: you'd have to try it before you say that.
As I finished, I realized everyone was looking at me. "Okay, okay! Jeez!" I quickly finished, and forced myself from licking the plate. I got up, gave Felicia my thanks, and we were underway.
Right before Tom opened the door, I realized how cold my feet were, so I looked down. Well.
"Yo, Tom. Have any spare shoes? I.. don’t have any." When I looked down, that's when I realized I wasn't even wearing my clothes. I was dressed in some plain, white sweats.
"Oh. Mind telling me who had the balls to redress me when I was unconscious?" Felicia leaned around Frank and Tom to say,
"Hmm. Funny thing. The person with the balls to get you into warm clothes, that was me. Also, I saw all your dimensions and saw you aren't as big as you act."
Frank and Tom's jaws both dropped, and Frank's mouth motioned a 'DUDE!' and Tom's did a 'BURN!'. I suppose they didn't want Felicia turning on them too. Whatever.
"So, about some shoes?" Frank turned around and grabbed a pair off the table next to the door. "Thanks." I put the shoes on, and we walked into the hallway.
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I motioned for someone else to take the lead. Tom took the offer and led us down the hall near my bedroom (I still don't think it qualified as a bedroom), and took a right further down the hall. The floor wood turned to rock, and steps were carved into the decreasing sloped stone. I hoped none of us would slip into the darkness below. The steps wound around in a massive circular spiral. We walked so far down, I began to wonder how the rocks didn't break apart after going through so much ice, but I pushed that thought aside.
After several minutes, the staircase ended and we stood in yet another hallway. Upon reaching the end of this one, however, we found ourselves in a very alien environment. It was a lot colder, and I had only begun to take in the characteristics of the room we were in. If you could call it a room.
I noticed six separate stalagmites near the middle of the room, all about ten feet from another one in the middle, which seemed to be glowing. The room itself was ridiculously enormous. It was as big as a football stadium! "Jesus Christ..." As I took in the room, I realized the entire thing was being lit by the stone in the center of the room. Sure, it was a bright stone and all, but it was about as bright as a 60 watt. There was no logic for it to be able to light this whole 'room'.
"Um.. so what is that?" Tom, once again, took the liberty of answering my question.
"Well, you see, while you were blacked out, we conducted every kind of test possible on the rock, aside from direct contact, of course. We cannot gather any data whatsoever on the stone, and we really don't know what to do." Felicia reluctantly said, and Frank nodded.
The surrounding stalagmites all had stones at their points, just as the center one did; they just weren't glowing anywhere nearly as brightly as the center one.
"Have you touched it yet?" Tom looked at me like I was insane.
"Are you out of your mind? We can't even run tests on it, and you ask me if we've touched it!?”
Disregarding his response, I started walking to the stone as casually as I could manage. "Hey, what'ya think you're doin’?!" Felicia actually looked amused at Tom's reaction. Frank facepalmed while moaning, "He's gonna touch it." As I got nearer to the stone, it kept getting brighter. So bright, in fact, I was starting to have trouble seeing, even using my hand to block the light.
As I got closer to the stone, I began to hear waves, as though on a beach. Then, when I touched the stone, time stood still. The light dimmed to the point where I could see, and there was an ethereal phantasm of me standing before my eyes. I rubbed my eyes to clear my eyes, but it was still there. "Now I've seen everything." I looked at my reflection, and thought, ‘Am I drugged? In a coma? Am I dead?’
That's when the other me began to speak. He had the same voice as me, but stronger, and it echoed in some impossibly way. He spoke more slowly than me too, as if aged somewhat.
"Gin. I have been waiting for you to find me, ever since I arrived on your planet." Yep, definitely shrooms. Whatever. I'll humor the thing, whatever it may be.
"So, what are you exactly?"
He laughed with my voice, and said, "No, Gin, you're not dreaming, you're not in a coma, a drug induced stupor, or insane. In fact, you're now the most sane person on the planet." Hmm. I've read stories like this, where the main character teams up with some random alien and it back-stabs him in the end.
"First things first. One, who are you? Two, do you have any crazy powers I need to know about? Three, why aren't my friends moving? Four--" He cut me off with a wave of his hand.
"We don't have much time. My name is Erlking, and I don't have any super powers. Your friends aren't moving because the stone my essence is currently residing in has slowed your brain's cognition and perception of events outside my influence."
"Oh." I felt a little faint, but I tried to remain firm. "So, why were you, er, waiting for me, exactly?" He had a gleam in his eye, and he reminded me of the way Tom looked earlier; it set me on edge.
"Androthul. A villain of sorts where I am from, and I managed to use my civilization's technology to transfer my essence into an unbreakable stone, a material known - in your language relative to ours - as Metacarbon, and I needed another species to help me fight.
You see, though, I can't hold this transformation long--" His image began to flicker. "As I was saying, you get the gist. Now, release me from this stalagmite, and I will do my best to save your dimension from the likes of Androthul." It was hard to believe the guy. I just met him, me, whatever. What the hell.
I picked up the stone, and his image vanished. So did the glow, but I could now see in the dark as easily as if it were day. I saw my friends unfreeze, "Great! You turned out the lights!" Always positive, that Tom.
Hmm. My mind’s new occupant said he didn't have any superpowers...
I don't. The sound startled me, and I nearly dropped the stone. Oh, that's just great. Now it's in my head. But how am I able to see in the dark now, when my friends can't? Beats me. Huh. Oh well.
I walked over to my friends, holding the stone triumphantly. "I give you... the Ginstone!" This time it was Tom's turn to facepalm, Felicia tried to stifle a giggle (Wow, isn't that a first), and Frank clapped.
"So, what now?"
Tom replied, "We report back our recovery, and we bring it with us to Boston for a press conference, of course!"
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