SC: Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Five: In Which The Oracle Explains About Unseen Physicks

    With everything that had been happening, it would be suffice to say that Flake was feeling very overwhelmed by everything that was going on.  He was having a rough time, considering he still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock he had when he woke up, and he still felt like throwing up when he had this slime thing forced down his throat but Jack unexpectedly appearing out of thin air was… well, almost to much to handle.  And then Snow and Rose rushing in right after... 

    However, despite everything, he knew one thing- he had to get everyone out of this place.

    “Everybody!  Get out of the room right now!  You’re all going to get caught!” he exclaimed, as loud as he dared.

    “We can’t leave you here now that we have you!”  Jack started unlatching the buckles on Flake’s chair.  “Hurry!”

    HE’S COMING! Rose wailed in Flake’s mind, clearer and sharper than ever before.  WE NEED TO LEAVE!

    Flake panicked.  The world swayed in and out.  Uncomprehensible voices were ringing in his head, memories flashing and worlds collapsing, whirlwinds of events and dates spinning around and around…

    He blacked out.  And everything turned to chaos.

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    The third baby.  Waiting to come out to the world.  One second it is there, other second it is gone, swaddled in invisibility cloak and taken away.

    Other ones.  Taken from just about everywhere.  None work.  All but two survive.

    Broken chairs, books strewn everywhere.  A man in the middle of the room, crying.  So many failed experiments.  So much gone wrong.

    Screaming, wailing.  The sky overhead is purple and red, and lightning strikes the skyscrapers of the city below.

    A boy.  A boy dumped into a world full of mystery, never able to go back to where he is supposed to be.

    Nothing.

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    Flake was in his bedroom sitting on his bed.  It felt like such a long time since he had been in his room, and it felt really weird that, after all that happened, the room looked exactly the same.  As if everything could be normal again.

“Bear with me for a bit, Flake.  I know this will all be very confusing the first time, but it’ll be okay. “   The old man- the Oracle- was seated on the rocking chair.  “There is a lot I want you to know.”

“Like what?  And what’s going on in the lab?  Is everyone safe?” Flake asked, sitting up.  “And- and what’s happening to me?  I just suddenly blacked out…”

“I am afraid that is a result with me merging with you, though that does give me a chance to talk to you like I am doing now.  But as for your friends, I’m not sure of their predicament, and going to see will mean losing my connection with you and will possibly result in you going insane, and then you wouldn’t be any help to them,” the Oracle said.

“Insane?  What?  Why?  What’s happening?  What do you want to tell me?”

“Always full of questions, aren’t you?  I’ll get to all of that is a second.”  The Oracle was acting way too relaxed for Flake to feel comfortable.  He wanted to hurry, but it was clear that the old man wasn’t going to go any faster into answering his questions than he intended.

“The reason you were feeling so disoriented after you woke up and why you had that flashback of random memories before was probably a result of the merging I did with you earlier.  The side effects could have been much worse, so consider yourself lucky.”

“Merging?”

“Remember that voice you heard when you were unconscious?” the Oracle said.  “That was me, asking for permission to merge with you, which means to be one with you, if you understand.  It actually worked out pretty nicely, considering the circumstances.”

“But why did we have to… merge?” Flake asked.  “As far as I know it didn’t do anything.  And why didn’t you merge with anyone else?  And how come, if this would fix everything, didn’t you do it before?”

“Because I can only merge with you, my boy!  You are the only one that would survive.”

“And why?”

“Because you are part of the prophecy!  And since I am the Oracle, you are mine,” he said with flourish.  “I know that might be hard to understand, and it does involve a lot of complicated Unseen Physicks, but you’ll get it.”

“Well, technically Snow is also part of the prophecy too,” Flake pointed out.

“That’s just what you assume, not what you know, Flake.  Yes, if I could have merged with her I would have, because that would have saved us a lot of trouble, but I can’t.”

“So… Snow isn’t part of the prophecy?” Flake said, now thoroughly confused.

“I didn’t say that,” he said indignantly.  “And we are wasting time.  I need to say the things I really need to say.”

“Does that include why we need to merge?”

“Yes!  You see, according to certain rules of Unseen Physicks (which you can learn about in college if you want to major in it), the certain spell that John -or kidnapper guy to you- wants to create will not work if one of the ingredients is partly merged with an abstract being.  Now, you might not know this, but John is very close to creating the spell he wants, which will potentially destroy the universe as we know it.  Oracles are bound to certain laws not to mess with the future, but in the case of apocalyptic events, we can do something to change it, which is what I’m trying to you.  Trust me, merging with you is the best option.”

“...okay,” Flake said.  “And also, I have another question.  You know those prophecy things that you were telling me earlier?  What did they mean and did they take place yet?”

"You are talking about the ones I gave you right?"

"Yeah, those.  Though it would be helpful if you explain all the others too..."

“They meant what you thought they meant and yes, they did take place, though technically prophecies don’t ‘take place’.  You see, prophecies don’t predict the future, they are more of a catalyst for the future.  It’s like helping the future along by making you do what you need to do faster, because you think it is preordained.  And if you are someone who doesn’t believe in that kind of thing, and you completely ignore the prophecy and not let it get in the way of your actions, the prophecy will most likely not happen, so you can’t say that all prophecies have certain deadlines or due dates where it will happen, because there is no such thing as ‘will happen’.  There is always a way to make it not happen,” he explained.  “So, if you excuse my rambling, you can’t say ‘did it take place yet?’ as if it will definitely take place and it’s just a matter of when, because that isn’t the case.  And you can’t ask ‘what did they mean?’ because they don’t have meaning, they simply have purpose, the purpose to make you do certain things in order to help along the future.  Did you catch that?”

Flake slowly shook his head.  “So the prophecies were… meaningless?”

“Not entirely, but they- oh, never mind, you wouldn’t understand,” the Oracle said exasperatedly.  “I’ve told you what you needed to know, so you can wake up now.”  He snapped his fingers and Flake could slowly feel himself lose consciousness.

“Wait.  Wait!  I forgot to tell you about leaking portals and separate dimensions and self-sacrifice…” the Oracle shouted, but the old man’s voice was already fading away.

Flake woke up in a flash.  We have to get out of here, we have to hide! Rose was shouting in his brain.

He took a brief look around and saw that nothing had changed.  The whole conversation had lasted a brief second.

Flake!  Where is the trapdoor? Rose asked him.

“What trapdoor?” he said.

You said he went into the basement right?  Where’s the trapdoor?

He tried to remember.  After the kidnapper guy fed him the slime thing, he had went to the basement by swinging the bookshelf on the left side of the room…

“The bookshelf!”  he exclaimed.  “Everyone, prevent that bookshelf over there from swinging open!”

But it was too late.  The bookshelf swung open.

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