021. Greed

Title: Angels’ Cloud (Part 7)
Type: Series
Genre: Steampunk
Characters: Zachary Harrison Decker, Damian Reyes Cortez, Angeline Summer Edwards, Pavia, Mortimer Julius James
Prompt: 021. Greed
Word Count: 1,350ish
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Mortimer's more than he first appears to be
Warnings: Nasty family life

Mortimer sat in the chair near the fireplace. “Thank you. As I said, my name is Mortimer James; I’m the eldest son of the banker Eustace James.”

“I know Eustace James, and I’ll agree there’s some resemblance,” Zachary said.

“You know my father, how?”

Zachary smiled; he had no desire to give this kid a lot of information, but perhaps a little would get them at least moving this along. “My family’s rather well-off and we conduct our business affairs in his bank.”

Mortimer nodded, “Then you know my father. You know he drinks hard and sleeps with any woman who so much as looks at him.” He stopped and looked at Angeline, his cheeks turning red. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

She smiled, “Not a problem, Mr. James, and my name’s Angeline Edwards, this is my uncle, Damian Cortez, and since he neglected to tell you his name, this is Zachary Decker.”

Mortimer reached down and touched Pavia who was sitting near his chair. “And this fine fellow?”

“My dog, Pavia.” Zachary looked at the mastiff, sometimes he wondered just how much sense that dog did have.

Mortimer smiled and nodded turning back to Zachary. “As I was saying, my father drinks hard and plays hard, as does my younger brother. They both have an insatiable appetite for making money so they can play and live in the fashion that suits them both.”

Zachary looked around, “And obviously you have a love of learning and care not for those things.”

Mortimer smiled, “And you’d be correct. It’s not that I don’t think money’s important, I do, and I feel it should be invested in proper fashion to ensure it always being there. But as for going out and making more and more of the stuff than I could ever use in three lifetimes, that I don’t understand. I’m also not interested in women or drinking or gambling.”

“You don’t like women, Mr. James?” Angeline asked.

Zachary chuckled; did she actually sound crushed at that thought? Well, damn, who would have thought the ever so irritating scientist could be attracted to a poor bookworm locked up in an insane asylum?

Mortimer looked at her and smiled, a wide charming smile that Zachary was sure had just melted Miss Edwards’ icy heart. “Oh, I like women, Miss Edwards, a lot. I just’ve never understood the need to use them, or to go through them like one goes through a mediocre book. Enjoy for a bit, and then move on without ever picking it up again.”

“Can we get back on track here?” Damian growled.

“Sorry, it’s just I haven’t actually talked with anyone in ten years, I’m afraid my social skills are a bit lacking.”

“Ten years?” Angeline said. “But you said my father’s here.”

“And so he is, and yes I’ve spoken with him off and on over the past six months, and at first he was sane and we had many jolly conversations about all manner of things, but still there was nothing social about it; and because the Super was here when he arrived, I thought he was just another poor soul.”

Zachary rubbed his hand over his face, confused, this conversation had wandered all over Christ-creation, he had to get it back. “Enough, please, we just need an explanation. How about I ask questions and you answer, will that help?”

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry, I’ll try to do better.”

“Thank you. Now, without a lot of side trips, how did you get here?”

Mortimer smiled, “Okay, I’ll try to remain on the road without wandering off the trail.”

“Thank you. My question”

“Yes. When I was fifteen and my brother thirteen, my father decided there was just no hope for me, so, he called the Super here, apparently he’d heard of this place at his gentlemen’s club, and paid a lot of money to have me disappear. Which as you saw, is easy to do. Unless you stumble onto the path, or are brought here specifically, no one even knows this place exists.”

“Why not just kill you?” Zachary asked.

“Oh, my father could no more kill me than the families of the others here could kill them. Most of us are sane when we’re brought here, but most go mad within a matter of months. You see, once you get through the door, there's no way out. You’re stuck here until you die.”

“There’s a way out,” Zachary said with conviction.

“You feel it in your bones or you know what it is?”

Zachary had to smile, the kid was clever and he most certainly had all his faculties about him. “I know what it is.”

“Ah, but do you know where it is?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Oh, I was so hoping this was the case. I just knew you three had not simply fallen through the darkness.”

“No, we took the path purposely, as you’d already gathered,” Angeline said.

Mortimer nodded and rubbed his chin. “Good. Anyway, my father never expects to see me again, but that is not my plan. I know where the exit is, but I have no idea how to get it to work.” He looked at Angeline, his expression softening. He shook his head, “And neither did the Professor. I had such hopes when he came in saying he was looking for Angels’ Cloud.”

Angeline sucked in her breath, “Did you take him to it?”

Mortimer snorted, “Of course not, it’s only a myth. What in the world would it be doing here? Besides, if I knew how to get out of here, even if it took me to another dimension, I would’ve been long gone from this place.”

 “Angeline, it’s never been here. Your father didn’t have all the information, the only thing that’s here is the Spirit Sphere.” Zachary realized he should have told her that before, but he was used to keeping information to himself, and sharing wasn’t his first thought.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“It’s the key to activate the crystal once we find it.” He rubbed his hand over his face because this was the one part he really wasn’t sure about, “I’m also hoping it will lead us to the crystal.”

“Damn,” Damian said. “We still don’t know where the crystal even is?”

“No, not really.”

Mortimer raised his hand. “I might be able to help with that?”

“How?”

“Can I see the book that brought you here? I’m assuming you have it with you.”

Zachary’s hesitation must have been obvious, because the kid snorted, “Oh, come on, look at me. Do you really think I can get past you two and the dog? The only way I could achieve that would be if I had the ability to teleport myself elsewhere, and believe me, if I had that ability, I wouldn’t have grown up here.”

“Are you saying you’ve been here since you were fifteen?” Angeline asked, clearly shocked. “And you’re still sane?”

Mortimer laughed, “My being sane may be debatable, but yes, I’m still very much aware of my surroundings. There’s a reason for that, my father wanted me locked away, not destroyed. There was always the possibility I might be needed to return to the bosom of my family, and being crazy might not have worked out too well. So, my father continues to pay the Super extremely well to keep me in such luxury. In other words, I’m able to have any book my heart so desires, or anything else, for that matter. I’ve been writing my memoirs, hoping someday to find my way out of here.”

Zachary removed the book and handed it to the kid who took it as though he’d given him a piece of the finest silk. He actually stroked the fine leather cover. “I do so love these books the most. There are such treasures in them, and if I could only leave, I'd seek them out.” He looked at Zachary and smiled. “I’ve learned of many such treasures, but alas, I’m bound to this one wretched piece of earth thanks to my father.”
Angels' Cloud Part 6


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045. Enigma

Title: Angels’ Cloud (Part 6)
Type: Series
Genre: Steampunk
Characters: Zachary Harrison Decker, Damian Reyes Cortez, Angeline Summer Edwards, Pavia, Mortimer Julius James
Prompt: 045. Enigma
Word Count: 1490ish
Rating: PG-13
Summary: They didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this.
Warnings: Crazy people

"I simply must get through!"
"Sorry, you're much too big. Simply impassible."
"You mean impossible?"
"No, impassible. Nothing's impossible." Zachary mumbled half to himself as the bottom of the door began to slide up.

“What the hell does that mean?” Damian asked as Zachary started to kneel so he could get through the door.

Looking up, Zachary’s voice showed his impatience. “Don’t you ever read anything but the race forms?” The man was seriously beginning to get on his last nerve.

“Yes, I read the paper as well.”

“Well, you won’t find the quote in either. Lewis Carroll wrote novels, you might try one once in a while.”

He crawled through the opening and entered a large empty room, gleaming in its white cleanliness. The walls and floors were shinny as glass. He looked around for a moment hoping he’d find the way out preferably before Damian could open his mouth.

“The door’s over there, at the end of the hall,” Angeline said.

Thank the gods she wasn’t like her uncle. He could actually get to like her. Maybe. Zachary nodded and led the way to the two-story door, Pavia’s toenails sounding loud as bullets in the empty white space.

He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d expected when he pushed the door open, but what he saw was actually ten times worse than anything he could have imagined. The sterile white they’d entered through hadn’t prepared him for the decrepit appearance of the large room they’d entered.

There were poker tables and pool tables in abundance, so apparently this was the rec room. But, frankly, none of the stray beings standing here and there (or crawling) looked like they had enough brain power left to know how to use the items in the room. Most of the occupants seemed to be crowded around a TV at one end of the room.

“These poor souls,” said Angeline standing beside him.

He heard a sniff and turned to see Damian pull his brandy out of his bag. A look of repulsion distorted his features. Yes, it smelled bad, but the man was being rude. At least he didn’t have to live here. When this was over, he could return to his favorite leather chair in his well-appointed men’s club and read his damn racing form. Unlike these poor fools who looked like they’d been here so long they’d become part of the furnishings.

The sound of heels clicking on the worn tile floor caught his attention as Pavia leaned into his leg. He reached down and patted his friend on the head, offering what comfort he could.

Zachary watched a young man approach them. He bright blue eyes were alight with wary anticipation. Unlike the others, this man didn’t look like he’d checked his sanity at the door, but had insisted on bringing it with him. Perhaps he hadn’t been here long. He was, admittedly dressed oddly, but he was clean, and rather good looking. He had the features of an aristocrat, which really made Zachary start to wonder just what the hell they’d fallen (literally) into.

“Hullo,” the young man said cautiously, as though they were a puzzle he was trying to figure out. Well that made two of them. “I didn’t know the Super was due to pick up more unfortunates, especially not a group that included a dog.” He bent down and held his hand cautiously out towards Pavia. Without more than a cursory sniff, Pavia moved forward and allowed the man to pet him.

Zachary raised his eyebrow, he’d never seen Pavia take to a man that way. The dog had no problems with women, but he was generally leery of men. He accepted Damian because they’d known him for years.

“Who are you?” Zachary asked the man.

Giving Pavia a final pat on the head he stood and held out his hand. Zachary took it, the man’s grip was firm and his hand warm.

“You could call me the welcoming committee, but that’s because I’m the only one here who’s ever been able to put a coherent sentence together for more than a few months.” He looked at Angeline and his eyes lit up and his smile widened. “I’m Mortimer James.”

Zachary watched as Angeline blushed and smiled, “How do you do, Mr. James.” She apparently thought he was handsome as well.

“I do fine now that someone as pretty as yourself has shown up.” He turned back to Zachary, “So how did you wind up here since the Super’s not here and isn’t expected back for the rest of the week.”

Before Zachary could answer, Angeline reached in her bag and pulled out a photograph, “We’re looking for my father, has he come through here?”

Mortimer smiled and nodded, “The Professor, yes, I should have guessed he’d just wandered in here, but since the Super was in residence when he showed up, I wasn’t sure.”

Angeline’s face filled with so much pleasure and hope she practically glowed, “He was here then? When did he leave?”

Mortimer’s eyes grew sad, “Yes, he’s here, but I’m afraid he didn’t leave, or at least not in the physical sense.”

Zachary looked around and got a really bad feeling. Angeline’s face crumpled and this time the tears came as she buried her head in Damian’s shoulder. He looked at the young man, “He’s dead then?”

“No, unfortunately for him he’s very much alive, only his mind is dead, just like everyone else you see around here.”

Zachary was becoming very suspicious of the man despite Pavia’s sniff of approval. “What about you, who are you and how long have you been here? You seem to be completely in touch with reality.”

Mortimer laughed. “You could say that. But not here, please follow me, I’ll take you to my room and we can talk.”

“I don’t damn well think so, we need to find my niece’s father,” Damian growled as he held Angeline to him.

Mortimer smiled and nodded. “We will, I promise, I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt such a delicate flower who smells so wonderfully of roses, but please, let me explain first. You’ve just stumbled in here, haven’t you, you don’t know anything about this place, and that makes you all too dangerous to be wandering around.”

Suddenly a door closed nearby and Mortimer looked panicked. “Please, we can’t stand here, you must come with me now, or all will be lost, for you and for me.” When he tried to move them along, only Pavia went with him. “Please that’s an attendant, there aren’t many, but there're a few and if they see you, I’ll only have to find you and free you, if you still have your wits about you, that is.”

Zachary looked at Damian who shrugged and said, “There are two of us and the dog, I somehow doubt this scrap of a boy can bring harm to us, and if he’s correct, we need to be somewhere much less obvious, the people wandering around us are no longer existing in the same dimension we are. Did you see the one crawling on the floor stalking the man in the brown coat?”

Zachary nodded, “Unfortunately, yes, I did.” He looked back at the kid, who probably wasn’t much younger than he was, “Okay, lead the way, but you better not turn us in.”

Mortimer shook his head, “Believe me, I need you more than you need me. I knew eventually providence would come my way, and I’m not stupid enough to punch it in the face.”

They followed the kid who skittered through the hallways like a gazelle. They took two stairways before they ended in a room at the far end of the hall on the third story. “I like to be by myself. At the moment no one else lives up here but me.”

He opened the door to his room and Zachary was amazed. The walls were lined with books, there was a desk covered with stacks of papers, pens, books. His suspicions came back full-blown. He rounded on the kid, “Who the hell are you?”

“And where is my father?” Angeline was no longer distraught, she was mad, just like he was, they’d all been made a fool, and more fool him because he was trusting Pavia’s instincts as much as his own.

“Wow, don’t attack. Christ, just let me explain.” He looked at Angeline and his eyes softened once more. Zachary wanted to snort, the man was smitten with Angeline. Well if he’d been locked up in here, even for a day, although by the looks of the room the man had been here years, he’d be looking at any woman with an ounce of sanity that way.

Reluctantly they all took a seat; he actually had a nice sitting area, and a fireplace. The room was very large, more like a suite than a bedroom in an insane asylum.

Angels' Cloud Part 5

Angels' Cloud Part 7

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010. Dark

Title: Angels' Cloud (Part 5)
Type: Series
Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy
Characters: Zachary Harrison Decker, Damian Reyes Cortez, Angeline Summer Edwards, Pavia
Prompt: 010. Dark
Word Count: 1400+
Rating: T
Summary: The path to the Vortex takes an unexpected direction
Warnings: Extreme fantasy elements, visions, swearing, the "f" word

(Since it’s been seven months since I’ve last visited this story, a bit of a recap:
Angeline Edwards and Damian Cortez have asked Zachary Decker to help them find Angeline’s father and in the process hopefully the find Angels' Cloud, a crystal that purportedly opens a doorway into an alternate reality. Zachary does research and finds that if they appear on Morrison Mountain on the next full moon, they’ll find the path to the Vortex of Insanity where they’ve discovered they need to go first. After arguing about money, and Angeline threatening to end the search if Zachary doesn’t take her money, we find them standing on the mountain with Zachary wondering if they’re going on or leaving in the morning.)

Angeline’s expression crumpled and for half a second Zachary was scared to death she was going to cry. Her anger he could handle, but tears were completely beyond his ability to deal with. He was raised by his father and uncle; he had no experience with women since his mother had abandoned him and his father to their books and travels when he’d been no more than five.

To his eternal relief, Angeline squared her shoulders and looked at Damian, “No, we’ll go forward. Do what you damn well please about the money; I just want to find my father.”

“Fine, then we ‘walk into the darkness with the rising fullness of the moon’,” Zachary said refusing to acknowledge that she hadn’t been talking to him.

“What the hell does that mean?” Damian asked.

Zachary rubbed his hand over his face. Christ, what had he gotten himself into? An emotional female he didn’t know how to handle and a dandy who was going to piss and moan at every turn.

Damn his insatiable curiosity. The weight of the book in his bag pulled at him. If only it hadn’t made such a convincing argument that the crystal did exist. He didn’t want to travel through it, he was happy as hell in this reality, he enjoyed his computers and technology; but he just couldn’t help needing to know if it really did exist.

Such was the curse of the Deckers. Because of the men’s crazed obsession with knowledge not one of them had ever been able to stay in a relationship with a woman. Every woman they had ever married had left taking the female children with them and leaving the males behind to be corrupted by the curse. It was the very reason Zachary had every intention of being the last Decker; the line would end with him.

A beautiful woman suddenly appeared before him, forming in the cool mist that was settling over the mountaintop. She was so clear he swore he could touch her. Her vibrant hair reminded him of flames in a hearth on a cold winter’s night; her eyes were the clear blue of a cloudless sky and freckles sprinkled across her pert nose.

Zachary had absolutely no idea who she was.

He started to raise his hand to touch her, when the vision faded as Angeline answered Damian, “It means we head east.” She gave Zachary a dirty look before following Pavia who was already moving in that direction.

“Oh, of course it does,” Damian muttered. “Anyone could figure that out.”

“It’s only as logical as it needs to be, Damian,” Zachary barked as he cautiously took the lead behind Pavia. The vision had jarred him; he knew he was seeing the damn future again. What could she possibly mean to him? The first answer to enter his head he rejected. Despite what his father and uncle had always told him, he had most certainly not just seen his future wife. Fuck.

Pavia stopped, his tail straight. Zachary walked up and stood at the dog’s side, shoving the woman out of his thoughts. Now was not the time, he’d deal with it if he ever met her. In this case, he really hoped his vision was unreliable. “What is it, boy?”

He no longer heard the ground crunching behind them, so fortunately Angeline and Damian had both stopped as well. Pavia growled low in his throat and Zachary looked into the darkness ahead of them. Ah, good. “Well my children, we’re here.”

“And that would be where, exactly?” Damian asked.

“At the Path of Darkness, if I’m not mistaken,” Angeline said, excitement lacing her words. It was obvious she shared his love of discovering the unknown.

“Exactly,” Zachary nodded, trying to see beyond the deep, rich blackness that sucked in every ounce of light surrounding it.

“Okay, now that we’ve found it, what next?” Damian asked.

“It’s a path; we follow it, of course.” Zachary fought his desire to leap into the darkness as he took Pavia’s collar in his hand and cautiously stepped forward along with the dog. Curbing his excitement, he hoped this was not going to be a major mistake. They were standing on the top of a mountain, after all, and he was placing all of their lives in the hands of a book he only believed was accurate. Taking a deep breath, they walked into the blackness and discovered what was without a doubt a perfect example of the first step was a doozy.

He held tight to Pavia’s collar as the ground dropped from under his feet, and they fell slowly through space. He felt like Alice falling in the rabbit hole only this hole didn’t have cupboards on the walls and there was no orange marmalade jar, empty or not. Only endless darkness. He certainly hoped the others had followed, or they’d be parted forever. Or at least until he could get back to them.

The instant his feet touched something solid, he let go of Pavia. Good thing because his knees buckled and he impacted the ground, hard. The first thing he noticed was the intense fragrance of flowery cinnamon followed by a combination of thousands of other floral scents; the second was that he could see again.

If they’d followed the path of darkness, it had led them into a world of extreme and intense beauty. He was in a patch of carnations, but flowers in every color of the rainbow covered the ground illuminated by a bright full moon. He pushed to his feet and inspected Pavia who was standing on his left. At least wherever they’d landed it was still night.

“Oh my, this is the most beautiful spot I’ve ever seen,” Angeline said as she landed on her butt beside him.

He held out his hand to help her up, but she barely noticed as she let him help her stand, all her attention on the surrounding area.

“Damn, that was a ride,” Damian said as he rose from where he’d unceremoniously landed in the flowers.

Beautiful or not, these people were his responsibility and he had no idea where he’d led them, not to mention Pavia’s well-being. “Hum, interesting. Too bad the moon is so bright I can’t see the stars, but it does look like it’s pretty much in the same place as it was when we were on the mountain, so I’m assuming we haven’t gone too far from where we were.”

“We sure as hell aren’t on a mountain anymore,” Damian said.

“No, we’re not. But that doesn’t mean anything.” Zachary removed his bag and put it on the ground, pulling out the book that had led them this far. “Okay, we’re supposed to walk into the eye of the moon.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Damian asked with his usual sarcasm, which was growing very old, very fast as far as Zachary was concerned.

“It means we walk to our right,” Angeline answered as Zachary put the book back and stood. He looked right and saw what she meant. On the face of the moon was a shape that looked exactly like an eye.

“Lead the way then, Angeline,” Zachary said, motioning her forward.

Walking through flowers that in some places were as tall as Pavia, Zachary felt like they were wandering through a fairy tale.

“I thought we were supposed to be in the Vortex of Insanity,” Damian mumbled.

Zachary snorted, “I don’t know about you, but this place seems pretty insane to me. Seriously, do you think miles of intense flowers growing and none of them dead is normal?”

“Damn, you’re right; they’re all in perfect bloom.”

Angeline had stopped and was examining one of the blood red flowers. “They’re night blooming flowers.”

“They only bloom at night?” Damian asked.

“Yes, during the day they close up, they might even die off. I know there are some species of flowers that die during the day and come back to life at night. Some have jokingly called them Vampire blooms. I believe this is one of them.”

They continued to walk for what seemed hours, but the moon never changed positions in the sky; Zachary pulled out his pocket watch, midnight exactly.

Suddenly the flowers disappeared, and an old three story building with cracked brick and barred windows appeared. It stood alone among a forest of trees reminding him of sentinels behind it; nothing was in front of it except for long, uncared for grass.

“The Vortex of Insanity, if I’m not mistaken,” Zachary said.

Angels' Cloud Part 4

Angels' Cloud Part 6

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