tthhee oddiissee Chapter 49

Ro woke up to a dark, shadowy room with only trace amounts of sunlight. It had been overcast and snowing all week, so it hadn’t caught him off-guard. It was unusual for New York to be hit with so much snow this time of year, but Ro chalked it up to the domes causing strange weather patterns.

And while Ro was expecting it to be cold, he wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as bad as it was. Even in the old warehouse space he could count on the heating to work a lot better than this. He looked around the bed, noticing that Sean wasn’t sleeping next to him. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence, Sean usually got up before Ro, but he usually tried to stick around until Ro woke up. Sean had told him how much he loved lounging around in their bed, but there wasn’t much warmth there that morning. Ro just figured he couldn’t stand the cold and was walking around downstairs, but he had the feeling that something else was happening. Something was wrong. Ro should’ve heard something coming from below. Anything.

As he got up, he wrapped his thin comforter around him, wandering downstairs into the warehouse. As soon as he got out of the office, he knew something was wrong. There was no sound. There were no lights. There was no noise at all. Ro rushed downstairs, looking around frantically for Sean. There was no sign of him anywhere. No, no, no, this can’t be happening.

Ro rushed to the fuse box, hoping that some light would help uncover things. He opened up the box and flipped a switch. Nothing happened. Then he flipped another switch. Still nothing. He flipped all the switches. There was nothing. There was no power anywhere on Earth. Ro was stuck in the dark with only the howling wind of the snowstorm outside to keep him company.

“Sean!” Ro yelled.

There was no answer.

“Sean, come on, this isn’t funny!”

There was still no answer.

“Come on. Don’t go.”
There was no sound. Tears started to flow down Ro’s cheeks. “Don’t leave me here, you can’t do this. You can’t leave me.”

Again? Why did I say “again?”

Ro went over to the workbench. He wasn’t sure how it could possibly help him, —there was nos’ one out there to defend himself from— but he picked up the Silver Star and slung it over his shoulder. He didn’t bother getting dressed. He didn’t see there being a point if he was going to freeze to death regardless. No one was going to find his corpse. Not this time.

Ro exited the front door of the warehouse, bracing himself against the piercing cold winds and the flurry of snow. It was strangely peaceful to see the city streets covered in blankets of white snow, undisturbed by the usual sea of cars and people. But it was more disturbing than comforting.

Ro didn’t have a clue as to where to go, but he started walking anyway. It didn’t really matter where he went. He just had to find someone out there in the snow. He was hoping he would find Sean, but anyone would do. As long as someone was around, it would make him feel like he wasn’t dyin alone. Or at least like he didn’t have to die alone.

Ro continued to walk past empty building after empty building. Not a person was around, and the insides remained dark. The bodegas that used to be so reliable were completely vacant. Ro stopped in front of a convenience store and opened the door. To his surprise, it swung open. He had free access to whatever was inside. Ro was hungry and hadn’t bothered getting any breakfast, but for whatever reason, he didn’t bother taking anything. He just let the door slam shut as he continued on his unclear path, unsure, even to himself, where he might be going.

He found himself eventually wandering up towards a train station. This stop wasn’t always busy, Ro had remembered, but there usually had to be at least person there. It all seemed wrong. Perverse. Ro never thought he would miss the sound of the train screeching to a halt, but he did. At least he didn’t have to pretend to watch for a cop when jumping the turnstile.

He got onto the platform for the train. He wasn’t sue which one. It didn’t really matter anyway. Ro sat on a bench underneath an awning. It was one of the few outdoor places that was still dry. He looked out over the snow-covered scenery. It wasn’t the city he knew anymore. He wouldn’t ever see that city again.

Ro walked up the edge of the platform, looking down the train tracks, noticing the same buildup of snow. There was no point in waiting around, there wasn’t a train arriving anytime soon. Without thinking, he jumped down and started walking, following the tracks. Guess I don’t have to worry about the third rail. He didn’t really care which direction he was going, he just needed to be somewhere. He didn’t know why he needed to be anywhere, but he knew he did. Ro usually enjoyed riding the trains in Brooklyn, so much of it was above ground and it was a great way to see a nice slice of the borough, but he cold made Ro wish he had opted for a subway. He could usually count on them to be unbearably hot, even in winter.

Still Ro wasn’t suffering too badly. His body was mostly artificial at this point. He had a memory where the scientists told him his body was built to last forever, if maintained correctly. At least from what they could figure out. Ro was hesitant to let them do much digging. It was his body at the end of the day, and even before the court case, they had to acknowledge that much. As Ro thought of it, the memory seemed a lot less clear, as if it never really happened to begin with. He knew that feeling couldn’t be right. It happened. It had to have happened. So why was he questioning it?

Ro distracted himself from the worrying train of thought, looking out at all the buildings as he passed overhead. It was strange, but beautiful. He never thought he would see the city this dormant. The wind wasn’t nearly as bad as he was expecting it to be, and he found the comforter kept him surprisingly warm despite the snow. He would’ve at least expected it to get a bit more soaked through.

Ro walked all the way to Coney Island without really thinking about it. As he was approaching the station, he looked out the beach. He thought he saw a figure dressed entirely in black out there. He couldn’t figure out why, but he knew it was waiting for him. He could feel it looking right at him. There was something unsettling about the figure, but it still came as a relief. There was still someone out there.

Ro still took his time trudging through the snow-covered train tracks, heading down the station steps and bypassing all the amusement rides, every one of them covered in snow. They would never be moving again. Ro, though he had no strong associations with the boardwalk, still felt himself mourning the fact that it was going to rust away and collapse under its own weight.

As Ro neared the beach, he noticed the edge of the dome for the first time. He had known it was there, intellectually, but he never really looked at it before. It had a slight green tint to it, and you could see the wall of water just outside of where it ended. Ro was impressed at how much it actually did to prevent the effects of climate change. Not climate change itself, of course, but the consequences of it. An uncanny side-effect of the dome was that the sliver of ocean that was encapsulated by it was completely frozen. The water had stopped moving some time ago, leading to a sheer slab of ice meeting the sand. The figure was waiting for him, standing on the frozen ocean.

Ro approached the figure, feeling unease and keeping some distance between it and himself. Ro knew who it was that was waiting for him. He didn’t know why, but he knew.

“Sean!” he yelled.

The figure turned around, and revealed itself to indeed be Sean, wearing the tattered black magician’s outfit they had prepared for installation. He was holding the mask up to his face with one hand as Ro approached. “Hello, Ro,” the Magician replied nonchalantly.

“Sean, what are you doing out here?” Ro asked. He meant to sound more concerned, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t surprised at all, in fact.

“I could ask you the same question,” the Magician shot back.

Ro laughed a bit. “I have no idea. I have no idea at all. I don’t know why I knew to come here.”

“Of course you do, Ro. Where else would you be?”

“You mean ‘Rogue,’ don’t you?” Ro corrected.

“No, I don’t. And you can stop calling me ‘Sean’ as well,”

Ro felt like he should question what the Magician was saying, but it all made sense to him. He didn’t understand why it made sense, but it did.

“I see you had enough sense to bring the Silver Star with you. Although, you didn’t have to.”

“I know,” Ro said, not knowing how he knew any of this. It wasn’t memories flooding back to him, but he suddenly had a sense of understanding that wasn’t there before. “It’d be a pain otherwise.”

“If you say so, I never really understood how it works.”

“I never understood how anything worked,” Ro said with a laugh.

They both stood there in silence for a moment. Ro closed his eyes and cherished the sound of the snow falling, the wind rushing, the creaking of the rides off in the distance.

“This is really how it ends, huh?” Ro said.

“This part ends this way. Sorry to be dramatic. Was it everything you wanted it to be?”

“I don’t know. I had fun, I can say that. It was a nice blend of normal and weird. A throwback that felt modern. Nostalgia for a world that never existed.”
“I’m glad you’re grateful for the experience.”

“Of course, I should’ve known it was coming to an end when you showed up,” Ro said somewhat sarcastically.

“You should’ve, but you didn’t. How could you, you didn’t even recognize me,” the Magician said.

“I should’ve felt in my gut. You did a really good job at Karaoke, you know. I really meant that when I said it.”

“Of course, I’m a performer after all. That’s all a magician really is, you know.”

“Yeah, I think I remember you saying something to that effect some years ago. How long has it been now?”

“Since I said that or since we met? Either way, it’s irrelevant. It’s so long ago it might as well have all happened at the same time.”
“That’s the problem with immortality, I suppose.”

“I guess you’re right. At least, if I truly am immortal.”

“I think you are. I mean, I don’t know why you wouldn’t be.”

“Sure. But I’m not quite the powerhouse you are.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re plenty spectacular.”
“Oh, I’m not debating that at all.”

Ro chuckled. He had felt completely at ease despite the situation. I should be terrified, but how can I be when I have that familiar face across from me.

“How do I get out of here, anyway?” Ro asked.

“Don’t you know? You’ve got the key slung across your shoulder, don’t you?”

Ro stretched the Silver Star out in front of him, casting off the comforter, and displaying his naked body in the snow. It was starting to change, the see-through skin becoming more opaque. “What, this old thing?”

“What did I tell you? It’s the key. It’s always been the key.”

“Yes, you did say that. But I feel like it won’t work the same way.”

“How will it work then?” the Magician asked.

“A bit like this, I think,” Ro said. As he spoke those words, the hammer glowed bright red, burning Ro. He couldn’t help but stare right at it, watching as it heated up. The scars from Ro’s past started to appear on his skin once more and Ro started to feel a lot more like himself again. The hammer exploded into white hot liquid that enveloped Ro. Ro writhed in pain, but seemed to be experiencing some degree of pleasure at the same time.

The world around Ro started to fade, pieces of it seemed to break apart altogether. The masquerade was failing. And the entire time, the Magician watched in silence.