History is Doomed to Repeat Itself

10.23.2006-

Chapter 1

10.23.2006-11.20.2006

Pain. In the beginning, that’s all there was. Scorching and white-hot enough to make me feel as though my bones had turned to ash within me. In the darkness there was no room for reason, no room for thought. Only this all-consuming agony that transformed days into months, months into years... years into millenia.

When my eyes did open and my mind became clear enough to realize that I could see something other than the endless void of darkness which had been my existence for so long, I did not know how many ages of man had come to pass. So far as I knew, this world might have been under the reign of some race other than man. Unbidden my lungs drew breath, a sudden involuntary action I was certain my body no longer needed to perform.

This too, like most of my existence, burned my insides so fiercely that I fell into a fit of coughing. Learning to breathe all over again was both humiliating and humbling. Something so simple and subconscious as breathing is easy to take for granted. My joints creaked in protest as I found my way to my feet, taking my first steps as though I was but a child again.

My surroundings were comfortably dark and clearly subterranean, but I needed to see the surface; to take in clean, fresh air and perhaps be graced with a glimpse of the sun. And so, I made my halting and stumbling way upwards from my cavernous refuge.

Suddenly the air grew less stale, the tunnel about me growing brighter. However, nothing could have prepared me for the abrupt and blinding light of the sol-star at its zenith. I threw my hands up before me as though they could actually ward off the ever-present rays. Adjustment came more quickly than expected and I turned my eyes to the world for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. My assumptions had been correct: the world had changed, and it was certainly not for the better.

Where the sky had once been a blue so clear that even tears from the angels could not match the purity of its hue, a dark and gloomy grey pall took its place. The sunlight seemed much more muted than it had before. Cobblestone roads were replaced by rivers of smooth black stone on which motorized carriages rushed to and fro at a pace no horse could ever hope to match. Castles were replaced by steel and glass structures which rose high enough into the sky to make the clouds envious. But where were the farms, the livestock? How did modern man find nourishment? Was it possible that mankind had evolved beyond the need for food in my absence?

The earth had grown noisy and crowded as though tranquility and seclusion were luxuries this new world simply did not have the time nor place for. Strangely, I saw no people walking about, making it very difficult to ascertain if humans still held control here.

“Hey... Are you okay, mister?” A female voice to my left nearly made me jump out of my skin. As I turned to her, I wondered how this slip of a girl could have snuck up on me without my notice.

Her eyes were darkly emerald, filled with an innocence that betrayed her youth to me. They were honest eyes, but they seemed troubled, as though she had a pain she was forced to conceal from the world which was slowly consuming her and twisting her innocence into bitterness. Her hair was cut in a strange manner: long to her shoulders in the front and significantly shorter in the back. The uneven nature of her brown tresses was clearly purposeful, but I was more taken aback by her clothing and jewelry. Rings ran the length of her ears and two more adorned her lower lip. She had on a shirt made of some shining material so tight and low-cut that nothing of her slender frame was left to the imagination, her trousers of some thick and coarse blue cloth that did the same.

“You some kind of pervert, mister?” she asked, seeming annoyed.

I bowed my head apologetically. “No, miss. I am sorry. I had no intentions of offending you.”

She put a hand on her hip, the other arm laden with thick books. The girl must have been wealthy to have so many tomes of her own. “You been drinking? It’s not really normal for a grown man to be walking around at noon looking like hungry vultures’ve been picking away at his clothes.”
I looked down at myself, suddenly embarrassed at how disheveled I must have looked to her. “My apologies again, miss.”

She waved her hand at me dismissively. “Saying sorry won’t get you properly dressed. And I’m not ‘miss.’ I’m Alycia. Just call me Alyce. You got a name, or should I just stick to calling you ‘mister’?”

I thought about it a moment. My name? Had I ever had a name? Who was I and where had I come from? How could I remember the world before and be eluded by my former position in it?

“I... I do not remember.”

She smiled then, amused for some reason. “Amnesia, eh? Maybe you’re an alien abductee or something.” I opened my mouth to speak and she shook her head. “I was just headed home, so you can come with me for now. Get you fed and cleaned up.”

I wanted to protest, but instead found myself bowing my head and saying, “My sincerest thanks, Miss Alyce.”

“Please, no ‘miss.’ It’s just Alyce,” she replied with a little laugh.

We walked together, passing a park which seemed to be a sanctuary of nature in this urban wasteland. There I saw many people out walking, with each other and their pets. On our way, Alyce asked me about many things which I did not understand. What “T.V. shows” did I watch? Did I have a car? Which complex did I work in?

“What music do you listen to?” That one I could answer. I explained that I was very partial to the violin and she smirked. “You’re really old-fashioned, aren’t ya? Where’re you from, anyway?”

We paused at a small two-story building and she looked through many keys before finding the right one to unlock the door. I sighed in frustration as she invited me in. “I do not remember.”

Alyce shrugged. “That bites, but I’m sure it’ll come back to you eventually.”

“I do hope so.”

She directed me to have a seat in one of the wooden kitchen chairs, saying she’d return shortly. Not soon after she left, two large rodents approached me, some sort of weasel. One was black and white while the other was as white as freshly fallen snow. I was about to chase them off when Alyce returned to reprimand them.

“Codo and Podo, don’t mooch!” They flattened their ears and slunk to her obediently. She set down a stack of clothes and scooped them up in her arms, rubbing her nose to theirs and speaking to them like children. “Don’t worry, babies. I’ll get you some lunch in a minute.” She set them back down and gestured to the pile of clothes. “They’re nothing fancy, but they should fit you. Bathroom’s this way.”

She led me down a hallway and flipped a switch inside the door which flooded the room with light. I blinked against the brightness and she ushered me inside. “Happy changing!” she said as she closed the door.

I struggled with the clothes at first; used to complex ties and layers, the simplicity of what Alyce called a “zipper” eluded me at first. Finally, the shirt and trousers were secure and I observed myself in the large looking glass above the wash basin. At least I knew about indoor plumbing. I rinsed my face and hair, feeling much more human afterwards.

When I emerged, Miss Alyce was waiting patiently outside the door. She looked me up and down, approval apparent in her eyes. “You clean up nice, Mister.” she said with a smile. “That shirt looks like you’re gonna Hulk-out, but it’ll do for now. At least the jeans fit.”

Jeans? So that was what they pants were called. “You were in there for a while,” she added. “Ready for a meal?”

I nodded enthusiastically, the hunger of my long seclusion suddenly catching up with me all at once. Re-entering the kitchen, I wondered at what magicks she commanded to have prepared so much food in so little time. I pulled out the chair for her and her confused expression told me that no other man had done her such a courtesy before. When she took her seat, I also sat and we began to eat. It was a quiet meal, both of us too engrossed in our food to converse.

When we both finished, she threw away the paper dishes and put the silverware into a metal basin, running some water on them. “I’ll wash those later,” she said with a sigh. “And now, to studying.”

“You are a student?” The world had come far if it was common for women of all classes to be well-educated.

She nodded as she brought me to the “couch.” “It’s my second year of college... only two more before I get that Bachelor’s in English.” She picked up a plastic wand and pushed a button, filling a black glass box on the other side of the room with light, pictures, and sound. Naturally, I was startled.

“You’ve never seen a television before, have you?” I shook my head, amazed at this strange sorcery. She hit the same button and turned it back off, setting the magick wand on a very short table. Alyce turned to look at me, her eyes very intense. “You know... I’m starting to care less about where you’re from and wondering more about when you’re from, Mister.”

“Johnathan,” I said suddenly, surprising myself. “My name is Johnathan Xander... Masters.”

Alyce was intrigued. “Not what I asked, but progress is progress, I suppose. Maybe in a few days you’ll know where and when you came from and how the hell you ended up here.”

I was confused. “You just found me out on the street, gave me clothes and food. And now you offer me a place to sleep? You are most gracious, Lady Alyce.” She shook her head at the appellation. “But... will your husband not find it odd for a strange man to be in your house while he is not at home?”

She snorted. “Husband? I’m too busy with school to have a boyfriend, much less be married.”

“Your father then. Is he around?”

Alyce crossed her arms. “I live alone, Johnathan. Just me and my ferrets.”

The customs of this new world were strange indeed to allow a woman to dwell alone and unprotected. She leaned closer to me, as if afraid someone would hear what she was about to say. “Are you lost in time, perhaps?”

I shook my head with a sigh. “I-”

“-Do not remember.” she spoke for me. “Don’t worry. It’ll come back to you. Don’t try to force it. I’m in no hurry.” Alyce grinned. “It’s not like I just have hot, young, chivalrous studs fall into my lap everyday, you know. Why be in a hurry to have you discover your true purpose here and then leave?” she added with a little laugh.

That made me curious. If I was indeed lost in time, where -or when- had I come from? Did I have a purpose in being here in what Alyce had called the “twenty-first century”? I looked down at my hands, feeling more lost and confused than before. I brought them closer to my face as I noticed a small marking between my two left forefingers. A tiny symbol had been inked into my skin, a dark blue icon that looked to be both a swirling miasma of darkness and a woman’s hair swept by the breeze all at once.

I showed it to Alyce and she used a machine called a “camera” to capture the image. Then she attached it to a larger machine which reminded me much of the television. She said there was an immeasurably large library of information that anyone with a “computer” could view, putting an infinite wealth of knowledge at the fingertips of the common folk. Surely, we could find a match to my tattoo and some information about it with this device.

The matches for her search numbered less than fifty, which seemed immense to me even though it was apparently a small cache to look through compared to most. She ran quickly down the list, finding that all but three of the “web sites” had something to do with a Mother Religion.

Alyce read the information aloud. “Says here that the mark is from a Lilith cult, the Lilitu. Apparently, most of their followers are women and their female offspring. Men hold essentially no power or purpose to them, except as breeding stock. Any male children are left at shelters...” She paused then and squinted at the screen, grabbing my hand and pulling it to her to inspect the tattoo more closely.

“Ponder, ponder...” she murmured to herself.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well,” she went on, looking from my tattoo to the screen and back again. “Either this mark means you were one of the Lilitu’s studs, or...”

“Or?”

“Or you were the only man with any power in their religion, the male presence which balances with the female... The Pontifex, their high priest.”