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Aaron and the Void

Part Two: Battle with the Sorcerer

By Po IveyPublished 2 years ago Updated about a year ago 23 min read
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Aaron and the Void
Photo by Pagie Page on Unsplash

This story is a continuation of "Driving For Mr. Chen," which was a finalist in the Vocal+ Fiction Awards.

Aaron, Mystic Dan (returned to human form) and Janis took the "SpaZZ" using sublingual ingestion; which meant they put it under their tongues and then spent the next twenty minutes trying to deduce what they were supposed to feel. That anxiety was quickly put to rest when they began to engage in a spontaneous, euphoric and engaging game of free word association. Mystic Dan had the clear advantage. The whole thing ended with them spilling out of "Limited Acres" and onto the nighttime streets. The rain had stopped and the sidewalks smelled like fresh laundry. Aaron eventually put his concerns to rest and let the spirit of the night take hold; as Janis had suggested.

"This is excellent!" Aaron announced directly to the full moon, as he almost walked straight through a red light.

"Dial it back some!" Said Mystic Dan. "You're acting crazy."

"He's a first timer," Janis explained.

Aaron continued to speak a long dialogue about his one high school experiment with psychedelics.

"It sounds like it just didn't work," Mystic Dan said, responding to Aaron's story about standing in front a mirror and waiting for "something" to happen.

Mystic Dan had somehow gone from being a man who thought he was a cat, into a responsible, but bohemian sixty year old.

"I spent three weeks researching it. I had the whole thing planned out," Aaron explained. "With my friend Steve...I think we were just disappointed it didn't work the way our other friends described. We spent four hours walking down a bike path and trying to figure out if we were 'getting visuals."

"Sounds like a fail if I ever heard one," Janis said.

The pleasant view of the moon and the stars that accompanied it took the place of the conversation. They walked silently for a long time. Aaron broke the silence in what seemed like an hour later.

"How did you become a 'street shaman?" Aaron asked Mystic Dan.

"I was trained by my predecessor, he was a powerful healer and psychic. He was the first person I ever met who could contend with sorcerers."

"Where did you train?" Aaron asked.

"Florida."

"How do you face a sorcerer?" Aaron asked.

"It takes an iron mind and a mastery of Jeet Kune Do. A sorcerer is trying to get into your mind at every moment; if you fight him it only makes him stronger."

"That sounds like Jessica from the Kinko's I dated three years ago," Janis said. "She seemed really nice at first; but then she ate my soul."

"That's called draining," Mystic Dan explained. "You don't want to get drained."

"What do we do if we run into a sorcerer tonight?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, let's hope we don't," said Mystic Dan.

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The effects of "SpaZZ" were as advertised. The pleasant walk evolved into an epic quest without a well defined goal. Aaron still wasn't sure if it was just their imaginations. He continued to pull on the thread he had been fooling with. He thought about Lucas in college again, and wondered if he started with this same enthusiasm; before he turned to the dark side. For a moment his mind was haunted with both the fascinations and terrors of completely letting go to the universe. He wondered what Lucas had seen, tasted and felt before he got lost. He started to develop an unsettling, but nagging desire to walk across that chasm.

Would there be no return?

"What the hell are you thinking about right now?" Janis asked Aaron.

"I really don't know how to explain it."

"Whatever you were just thinking about; you were definitely reading way too far into things."

Janis' statement only made things seem more confusing.

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Magic Mike took them to the house of one of his "Medicine Dolls." Which was a moderately sexist way of explaining the various beautiful women around town who invited Mystic Dan into their lives out of spiritual aspirations.

Aaron was unaware that San Diego contained secret, alternate dimensional mansions that held wonders beyond previous experience.

"Where are we right now?" Aaron asked, walking into a house he had never seen before. "What street is this?"

"I told you! This is Catherine's house!" Mystic Dan said snappily, while violently jarring his head to one side.

They were greeted by a disinterested, ragged man at the door; quickly let in, and then proceeded up the aged, wooden stairs to the room containing the woman in question.

Mystic Dan's outlook had changed dramatically again. Something about being around one of his "medicine dolls" made him become much more serious and intention driven.

Aaron didn't care either way; he felt like he was walking up the stairs into a beautiful film, written and scripted by his hearts deepest, but most buried dreams. Mystic Dan and Janis talked to the five people sitting in the center of the room; while Aaron watched them talk. He didn't have to do anything but exist. He watched all five of these new people; and thought about who they were and what their stories were. What a beautiful tapestry life and the universe were. What fool would dare try to explain it all. He started to realize the suffering and restrictions in his own life were merely the product of his own-

There was laughter from the corner of the room. A beautiful and free laughter.

"Ha! Is this dude on SpaZZ?" Asked the woman sitting in the corner of the room. She had been staring at a computer screen.

"We are all on SpaZZ!" Mystic Dan interjected harshly.

Janis had departed to the other side of the room; to an attractive woman in her twenties; who must have been the concierge at a hotel, or something similar. She was still wearing her work clothes, and was receptively listening to Janis tell a story about an unknown subject. Aaron tried to reach back to the philosophical breakthrough he was having; but suddenly noticed the woman in the corner of the room (who had laughed at him) again. She was still staring at him. Her computer was still on, now shifting into screen saver mode like it was in on the vibe too. She looked like she worked from home. There was a half burnt cigarette still smoking away in the broken, crystal ashtray next to her.

"What the hell is this?" Aaron wondered.

"Doing some work?" Aaron asked haphazardly.

She continued to stare at him in a manner that was both mystical and confusing.

"Is there something wrong with her eyes?" Aaron thought.

She picked up her cigarette, took another drag, clicked the computer mouse three times and then looked at Aaron again.

"Do you work from home?" Aaron asked.

She crossed the room and walked up to Aaron.

"Dude, let's get out of here!" She said.

"What?"

"This guy with the giant bag is freaking me out. Let's get the hell out of here."

He stared back at her for a moment; not sure what to say in response. For whatever reason; he could hear Lucas' voice in the back of his mind.

"And then there will be nothingness forever...entropy will have become complete, with no hope of returning back."

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Her name was Priscilla, and she did work from home. She was a "system's account manager" for a large local company that managed medical records for 80% of San Diego county; and several surrounding counties. They walked down the street, outside of the alternate dimensional mansion. No one seemed to have noticed or cared that they left together.

"I took some SpaZZ earlier," Priscilla explained, as they started to traverse into the bustle of the inner city. She kept talking to Aaron like she already knew him.

"I just started doing all my work early once I hit 'phase one' of SpaZZ. Now I am three days ahead."

She seemed perfectly comfortable talking to Aaron like she already knew him.

"I...took...SpaZZ," Aaron explained.

"That's the whole story?"

"I didn't know what was going to happen to me at first. It was pretty crazy actually. This guy has been pretending to be my cat all week. My new boss at work is the person I fear the most. I've literally been trying to block this man out of my mind for the last six years. Tonight was highly refreshing. I don't know where your house came from; or who you people are, but I've been feeling the most profound sense of beauty and freedom for the last hour."

Priscilla looked up at the sky and laughed. The way she laughed made it more obvious she was what Aaron called a "California Girl." Which was his exact type.

"Dude, that's perfect!" She said. "That means you are on 'phase 3.' We are perfectly aligned now."

"Are you magic?" Aaron asked.

"That's not healthy," she said.

"You sure?"

They continued to walk deeper into downtown San Diego while talking about everything. Eventually Aaron stopped talking completely and just listened to her; which she either didn't notice or didn't care about. Aaron ended up learning more about systems account management than he knew possible.

"You look like one of those people who have something constantly haunting them," Priscilla said to Aaron suddenly, while lighting up another cigarette.

"That's what I was saying," he replied.

"What is it?"

"It's..."

"Did someone tell you something so horrible it's been haunting your soul."

"That's exactly what it is."

"I'm an empath."

"Really?"

"I'm just joking. We are on phase 4 now, by the way."

"My roommate in college, Lucas. He was always blasted out of his mind on one substance or another. It wasn't that terrible at first. I learned to work around it. Eventually he ended up with what I call "acid reflux."

"That's brilliant."

"One night it went to the extreme point. I don't know what the hell happened to him. He refused to let me leave the dorm room for three hours. When I finally went to sleep he just started laying on the floor below my bed and went on a long, terrible dialogue."

"What did he say?"

"He started talking about how the universe was completely meaningless. How the conclusion to his psychedelic journey was realizing everything was truly empty and meaningless; with no escape."

"That does sound like acid reflux."

"I should have just laughed it off. I know that's the right response; but his words have haunted me ever since that night. I see his perspective everywhere now; I see it in peoples faces. It's like he is right. And now he is my boss."

"He's your boss now? Why did that happen?"

Aaron didn't know what to say after that.

"Where do you live?" She asked.

"I live at the 'Limited Acres Apartment Neighborhood."

"You actually live there? You know it's called that because there used to be free roaming cats in the 80's. It was a huge problem in San Diego. It was a SERIOUS problem. So they named it 'limited acres' to imply there wasn't a feral cat problem there."

"That's got to be the reason," Aaron said.

Aaron's sense of the world was shifting into a more dry and introspective realm of being. He was starting to think 'phase 4' was a lot like being Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" after his dad's car's speedometer couldn't be fixed.

"You don't talk to much do you dude?" Priscilla said. "Fair enough."

They had reached the densest part of downtown San Diego; when Aaron suddenly had a phone call. He stared at his phone for a long time as it rang. It looked like a foreign object that was hard to classify. He couldn't believe that he was seeing a restricted phone number listed from China, Guangdong province.

"Hello?" He said into the device.

"Aaron!"

The very familiar voice of a comforting Asian man was instantly recognizable as "Mr. Chen."

"How did you find me?" Aaron asked.

"I had your number from work," Mr. Chen explained.

Aaron wondered how he hadn't thought about that before.

"I read your letter," Aaron replied. "It didn't explain anything."

"Mr. Chen apologizes. That's why I called. I wanted you to know that I am all O.K. now."

"What happened?"

"Mr. Chen was being bullied by the Chinese Government. Don't trust them, they are awful people. They used something from Mr. Chen's past to hold him hostage. But Mr. Chen took care of it. So, no worries. You are lucky to live in a free country Aaron. It's not like that in China."

"Can you tell me more?"

"I can't. I just wanted to see if you were doing well."

"I...am," Aaron said; realizing he really was doing well when he heard the words come out of his own mouth.

"Sorry about your cat."

"What?"

"You probably realized Chen is my last name. It's a common Chinese surname. My first name is Bo. Sorry if you were confused about that."

"I...never really thought about it to be honest."

"Okay Aaron. That is why you are an honest person. I am glad you are doing well. Mr. Chen is going home to play the Final Fantasy VIII remaster. On PC. Enjoy your psychedelic experience...just remember, it's a trip not a change of residence."

"What...?"

It was too late. Aaron heard the call on Mr. Chen's side end, all the way on the other side of the world. There was no way to call him back.

"Who was that guy?" Priscilla asked.

They had covered a surprising amount of ground while the phone call took place. They ended up in the Little Italy part of downtown San Diego, after going through the historic Gaslamp Quarter. Trendy venues and night time pedestrians had turned into a small, genuine serving of Italian culture. Aaron had only been to this part of town one other time. He was about to tell Priscilla about his old job for Mr. Chen; and the heavy metal band van, when he was suddenly punched in the face and sent flying into the sidewalk by an unknown assailant.

At that moment he could hear Lucas' words echoing again.

"The lives that exist due to matters configurations will have already been long gone..."

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"You think you are better than me!?" Asked a burly, ragged man in his twenties.

The man began to inspected his own fist after having punched Aaron with it.

He was Caucasian, but donned a Rastafarian style. He was wearing a tight tank top, that accentuated a thoroughly developed, but overly strained chest. He stood about six foot four and wielded at least two psychological disorders. Aaron wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline, the night he was having, or psychic insights from the SpaZZ, but this was definitely Marlene's boyfriend. He didn't know what Marlene had been telling her boyfriend; but the look in his eyes implied he wouldn't be listening to reason anytime soon.

"What the hell man!" Priscilla said, quickly rummaging through her purse; most likely for pepper spray or a similar form of criminal repellent.

"Marlene told me all about your little games!"

"Look fam," Aaron said, trying to guess what language he spoke. "I don't know what Marlene told you, but we are just co-wor--

"Piece of s!#$!" Marlene's boyfriend yelled, kicking Aaron in the chest while he was on the ground. "Do you know who I AM!"

"I am not sure who you are," Aaron said, trying to climb back up.

Aaron was surprised to find himself unafraid.

"I AM A NINETEENTH LEVEL SORCERER!" DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME!"

"Are they...real?" Aaron thought.

He tried to remember what Mystic Dan had said about facing sorcerers.

"You need an diamond will and a mastery of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?"

"You really think you are better than me?" He asked, getting so close to Aaron's face Aaron felt like he was being devoured. "Just some punk who lives in a building that used to be a morgue? Ridiculous...I'm going to consume you now, forever....taste my sorcery."

Aaron wasn't sure what that meant exactly, nor did he want to find out. The thread he kept pulling on was manifesting in more direct and literal ways by the minute. He was beginning to think everything was real. He tried harder to remember what Mystic Dan had said about sorcerers. He could only conjure up memories of Mystic Dan grooming himself by the window like a cat. He should have been terrified at that moment; but he wasn't. At all.

Aaron stood up calmly and looked his nefarious opponent dead in the eyes. He looked straight through the dense, black aura of the sorcerer and began to speak.

"Do you know how long it takes to assemble an IKEA chair?" Aaron asked.

"Do not harass me with your mortal games!" Marlene's boyfriend insisted.

He was holding his hands open while facing each other, three feet apart, and appeared be summoning some sort of sorcerers dark energy.

"Do you really know what it takes to assemble an IKEA chair?"

"I won't be toyed with!"

"This is so hot," Priscilla said.

She seemed to have forgotten about whatever was in her purse.

"I am the seventeenth descendant of the Fraternal Order of Sorcerers. We are a lineage one thousand years strong. We live among you...and we are powerful! Someday we will rule the earth."

Aaron finally managed to remember Mystic Dan's advice about sorcerers.

"It takes an iron mind and a mastery of Jeet Kune Do. A Sorcerer is trying to get into your mind at every moment; if you fight him it only makes him stronger."

"That's the spice!" Aaron said out loud.

"Our power grows with each generation...do you really think Marlene likes you more?"

"Yeah right dude," Priscilla said. "You look like a college dropout."

Aaron continued to explain.

"It's incredibly hard to assemble an IKEA chair. You think you would just flip through the manual and set it up; and then it's done. Nothing is further from the truth. You have to face your worst fears to assemble an IKEA chair. It takes a week, or longer. You have to dare to explore the unexplored. You have to raise a grown man like he is your cat. You have to take SpaZZ and go to a different dimension; and then MAYBE, maybe you can assemble your IKEA chair."

Priscilla laughed hard and looked at Aaron like he was the coolest guy in the world.

"I don't understand at all!" Marlene's boyfriend protested.

"The point is...you win. Have it your way. Have whatever you want my Rastafarian brother. I'm going home to finish my chair."

"Well...uh...,"

That was about all Marlene's boyfriend could say. The crowd from Little Italy (that had gathered due to the scene) began to disperse after that.

"Goodbye dude," Priscilla said to Marlene's boyfriend while smoking her cigarette.

Marlene's boyfriend just sort of started mumbling and then sadly walked away.

Aaron and Priscilla walked away after that too. They exited Little Italy and headed back to the historic Gaslamp Quarter.

"What the hell is a sorcerer?" Priscilla asked Aaron.

The sun was coming up and they were almost back at her house. Aaron was surprised to find it looked like a normal house you would see anywhere.

"They are the worst," Aaron explained. "They'll drain you."

Aaron turned around confidently to give Priscilla a kiss.

"Thanks...," she said as their lips touched. "Nothing worse than getting drained..."

"You're my girlfriend now right?" Aaron asked.

"Uh...no," Priscilla explained. "I have a boyfriend. He works at the zoo."

Aaron was haunted by Lucas' words again.

"Did you know that the preying mantis females decapitate their male lover after they are finished mating?"

Priscilla apologized and then ran quickly back into her house as the morning light became complete.

Aaron should have felt sad at that moment; but he didn't. He didn't feel one drop of resentment, frustration or disappointment. Mystic Dan and Janis would have to wait. It didn't matter. He would see them again later. He had to be to work in exactly one hour; and there was only one thing left to do...

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Aaron entered the doors to Mary Anne's with determination. The harsh automatic chiming sound rang out. He went to the back, grabbed his apron, put it on over his clothes and made his way to the burger frying station. Marlene came around the corner, having heard the chime.

"You're here late," she said.

"I still have fifteen minutes."

"Oh...well I got here today early too."

"You don't work today," Aaron said, laughing.

"Is Lucas here?" Aaron asked.

"Kind of," said Marlene. "He was squaring out all the tables in the lobby fifteen minutes ago. Now I think he's in the back waiting for this crow he keeps talking about to show up."

"Perfect," Aaron said.

Aaron went back to the burger station and patiently fried patties while he waited for Lucas to return. It was another twenty minutes before he did. Lucas walked towards him, did a sharp ninety degree turn and joined Aaron at the burger fryer.

"Hello Kyle," he said with a monotone.

"It's Aaron," Aaron explained.

"I'm pretty sure it's Kyle."

"Whatever, boss...," Aaron said. "I wanted to say thanks."

"Thanks?"

"Yes...thanks, to you. For being a friend. They say it takes a true friend to make you face your worst fears."

"Who says that?"

"I don't know...someone."

"I've been having the craziest week," Aaron explained. "I've met all kinds of people I've never even known existed. I've heard about ten different narrators tell their side of the story. I've been hearing them explain how the world works. It's a brave new world. I keep thinking...who's right? How is it really? How should I look at it? You know what I realized...Lucas, my dude."

"This conversation wasn't covered in the Mary Anne's handbook."

"Then go freestyle."

"What did you realize?"

"How do I see it?"

"How...you see it?" Lucas responded in a monotone.

"Yeah, what's my perspective."

"Perspective is an anomaly caused by the lizard layer of the brain structure. It's a neurological compensation for-

"I don't know what you're afraid of Lucas. Sometimes there is a void in the world that taunts us. Makes us feel like we never had a choice. But to submit to darkness is a cowards act. You've condemned yourself to a realm of philosophical victimization based on a commitment abstract statements."

Lucas stared at Aaron for a long time after he said that. They locked eyes awkwardly for an amount of time that should not be legal.

"What's your perspective?" Lucas continued.

"That's what I realized. I was trying to fit everyone's advice into a narrow slot and then seal it up."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It's like one of those kids toys where you have to fit different shaped blocks into the matching slots."

"That's also an IQ test."

"Either way; I was trying to cram everyone's ideas into the same slot. Some of them are square, some are rectangle. It's been driving me insane."

"Insanity is simply one form of--

"Of course it is. What I never thought about was 'how do it see it.' And now I know how I see it it. Everything is great; that's how I see it. It's fine. It's perfect and beautiful. So thank you for being a friend Lucas. Thank you for making me look into the void. You're a good friend. You're my best friend! We should get burgers sometime."

Lucas stared into Aaron's eyes for a long time again. That weird feeling like he was trying to look into his pineal gland was still there. Aaron wasn't sure what kind of response he needed to get from Lucas. Maybe it didn't matter. For a second he could have sworn he saw Lucas' soul through his eyes and saw the material that obstructed it. It kind of looked like a flaming syringe. Aaron was prepared to spend the next ten years wondering what the hell that meant exactly.

"Oh...dude," Lucas said.

"Yes dude?"

"I think Marlene needed my help with something."

Lucas just walked away after that; without saying anything else. Aaron went back to cooking hamburger patties. Whether his words helped Lucas or not; he didn't know. He felt better now; the sense that Lucas owned a part of his soul seemed to be gone. Maybe that was good enough. He flipped the hamburger patties for another twenty minutes. He watched them peacefully cook as he felt the sunlight from the small window across the kitchen. He cooked them perfectly. Eventually, Marlene showed up and started telling him a story about how her boyfriend "totally beat up a guy in Little Italy last night."

She looked very pretty that day.

"Sounds like some rough stuff went down," Aaron replied, laughing a private laugh.

Lucas disappeared for about an hour. No one was sure where he went. Aaron and Marlene took over his managerial duties again. Eventually he came in the main door as Aaron was cleaning the front lobby. Lucas was clasping a large sheet of white paper in his hand.

"Lucas? Where did you go?" Aaron asked. "We can't just do all your work for you."

"Check this out!" Lucas said.

He tossed the large sheet of white paper on the table Aaron had been wiping down.

"What is this?" Aaron asked.

"It's a drawing of me and you. Just look!"

Aaron wasn't sure where Lucas had gone, or where he had gotten a full set of art supplies. He had made a drawing of Aaron and himself standing on the top of a mountain with a rainbow shining vividly above them. The rainbow pierced through the entire sky. There were also clouds and some stars in the sky. There was another, smaller mountain in the background with what looked like a family on a hiking trip. It was hard to make out what they were exactly, as they were drawn with a series of dots. The drawing looked somewhat crude and rushed; but there was a definite folk aesthetic to it that couldn't be denied. The ground beneath the mountain they were standing on appeared to contain a variety of plant and animal life. There were also various quotes from what Aaron guessed were lyrics of nu-metal bands. Lucas and Aaron (the versions in the drawing) appeared to be holding tabs of a psychedelic substance and, strangely enough, Aaron was holding an abnormally large cat in his hands.

"This is us high atop the mountain of perspective Aaron," Lucas explained. "We are standing within the clouds to represent our mastery of insight. It also represents the duality we form. Both the dark and the light."

"Looks...tight."

"I bet you never thought about it that way."

"What does the cat represent?" Aaron asked.

"It's a cat."

Mystery
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About the Creator

Po Ivey

Po Ivey lives in Madison, WI, where he writes fiction in his free time. His inspiration includes Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. He write's about the nuances that make the whole world a cast of actors. He also plays music.

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