Page 2

        My eyes blurred as the room began to spin.  Images and faces had no more meaning to me as I fell into the dizzy motions of the world screwing it self up into a steady cyclone.  The lights flashed once and then the darkness enveloped me.  For a moment I felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nor tasted nor smelled anything at all.  It was the most frightening thing I had ever experienced and for a moment I wondered if I was dead.  Then came the cold.  Only moments before I had stood in the oppressive heat of a desert palace and now I felt the chill, damp air of some cave warren a million miles away from the land where sand and dust formed a dead landscape.  I could hear the steady drip of water somewhere close by, could smell the scent of lavender wafting on the air.  A pale blue light began to shine in the ceiling above me.  It was dim but I could again see my hands as well as my feet planted firmly on the grayish cobblestone floor.
        "Tell me," a voice, soft and sensual said from behind.  I turned to look but was stopped by a pair of delicate, forceful hands.  "What have you come in search of, Damien?"
        "How do you know my name?"  I asked as the hands, attached to that Siren voice slid over my chest and stomach.
        "I know much," she said, kissing the nape of my neck as her hands continued to dance on my torso.  "But why waste our time in idle chatter when I can give you so much more?"
        The light expanded, encompassing the raised dais where we stood.  Before me was a woman, short, slender and tanned wearing nothing but bands of gold around her arms, thighs and stomach.  Her breasts were large and full and only increased the perfection of her hourglass figure.  Her lips were the color of fresh blood, pouting and seductive.  Her hair was short, straight and as black as a starless sky, tied in a small pony tail behind her head.  She was a living goddess, a creature whose mere existence made one want to bow at her manicured feet and pray.  She approached me slowly, her eyes filling with a mad sort of lust as she drew closer to me.  Her head came to my chest as she wrapped her arms around my waist and exhaled heavily into my shirt.  She began to unbutton it at my collar, licking her lips and looking ever more longingly into my eyes.  Her hand slipped in against my bare chest and began massaging the flesh above my sternum.  I looked into her eyes and saw nothing, no reflection, no light, not even pupils or an iris.  They were as black as her hair if not darker.  I quickly broke free of my trance and shoved her away.
        I had been in the middle of the desert only minutes ago and now I was here about to make love to a gorgeous woman with no eyes, no soul inside her body.
        "So," she said, a bit dismayed.  "The matured ones aren't your cup of tea?"  She vanished away in a splashing of water leaving a little girl to stand in her place.  The child was a carbon copy of the woman, tanned with dark hair and darker eyes.  Her hair was pulled into pig tails at either side of her head and she held a lollipop which was cartoonish in size compared to her head.  She too wore only the gold bands and stood there looking lustful at my face.  I turned my head away quickly, disgusted by the perversity standing there in a child's body.  She approached and I stepped away.
        "So age is not the issue," she said in an elfish tone.  "Perhaps I've been the wrong sex?"
        A mans strong, calloused hands took hold of my shoulders and rubbed down to my thighs.  I quickly jumped down from the dais and onto yet another platform an eternity away from him.
        "The pleasures of the flesh fail to entice you," the woman said from somewhere above me.  "Could it be treasures that you seek?"
        The light expanded ahead of me and unveiled a chamber filled in gold, silver and jewels.  Coins and jewelry made of the finest and most shimmering metals formed mountains at either wall with a river of jewels and precious stones running between through a valley of riches.  Statues and suits of armor made of a fine, shimmering purple-silver metal stood as sentinels over the room.  I took a step towards the treasure, a king's ransom in metals and stones and felt the floor shift beneath me.  The statues that held curved swords and hatchets made of the finest silver turned on gears and brought down their weapons with crushing force.  The stones of the floor were ground to dust with a single swipe.  I jumped away quickly and into the woman's waiting arms.  She brought her hands to my groin and stood on the tips of her toes to reach my ears.
        "Greed is a dangerous thing," she whispered.  "Are you sure you wouldn't rather take me instead?"
        I spun around and grabbed her by the wrists, my face flushed with anger.  I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears as I stared down at her.  "What sort of sick games are you playing with me?" I demanded.
        "So you like it rough," she said with a smile.  A bull whip appeared in her left hand and she now wore a spiked collar as well.  "Whip me, beat me, ravage me!  Just take me now, my master!"
        I threw her to the floor.  "Yes!" she cried as her skull struck the cobblestones beneath her.  "Hurt me!  Tear me limb from limb!  Drink my blood and call my name again that I may return and play with you more!"
        I looked over the side of the platform we stood on.  There was nothing below me, only darkness and shadow awaited me if I jumped.  I looked at her once more sitting up on tanned elbows, looking at me as if I were her own personal plaything.  I looked at those black eyes inside her round, beautiful face.  If she had the eyes of a real woman, a blue or green maybe I would have stayed.  I could have seen myself spending hours, even forever in her arms, listening to the music our bodies would make as we made love.  But that was the point I suppose; to spend eternity here instead of trying to find out where here really was.  I smiled, waved farewell and jumped backwards off of the platform.  I fell for miles, the wind whipping faster and faster past my face until I landed softly on another platform.  This one was different from the first two, however.  It was more than a dais surrounded in night.  At either side were statues of creatures unimaginable to most.  The elder gods in all their glory standing watch over those on the dais.  A small fire was lit between each statue, glowing with a powerful blue-white flame reaching upwards and into the nothingness.  A throne, black and carved from a single stone sat at the heart of the dais. It was nothing impressive or ornate, rather a simple black chair centered amid the statues and flames. A small blue globe was suspended in midair beside it, spinning in a slow and perfect rotation.
        I heard footsteps beside me, felt another person near.  I turned to see what new horrors I had thrown myself into and what the woman would be trying to do now.  I was surprised when I looked and saw a jester standing there looking back at me.  He wore the floppy bell hat and jingling elf shoes but was different from any I had ever seen.  His clothes, from hat to boot were black on the right side and white on the other.  The buttons down the middle of his suit were made of silver and in the shape of skulls, as were the bells on his boots and cap.  His face I thought was shadowed at first but upon closer examination was a mask, half black and half white.  On the white side, over the black half of his costume was a smiling face with a star beside the eye.  The other half of the mask was black, sitting above the white side of his costume.  This part of the face was sad with a bright white tear streaking away from the eye.  He held a scepter with a checkerboard pattern winding its way up and around to the silver skull that capped it.  He cocked the smiling half of his face to the sky and continued staring at me.
        "And what's your game?" I asked, almost too tired to really care where I was or who was around me.
        "No games," he answered in an ambiguous voice that echoed of men, women and children all at once.  "I only wish to know your desires.  I can give you whatever it is you seek but I must know what it is that you want the most.  If you wish sex then I will find you a partner who is perfect to your every liking.  If you want wealth then gold and gems will rain from heaven at your command.  If you hunger or thirst I will prepare for you a banquet that will never end.  Your cup shall be bottomless and always overrun with the finest spirits."
        He was beside me now, how I doubt I'll ever fully understand.  He raised his scepter and pointed it at the spinning globe.  "Is it power you seek, James Damien Cross?  If so then command me and I will make you a god!"
        I turned to face the jester, to look into that masked face and see what emotion, if any could be found.  His eyes were as black as the woman's had been if not blacker.  Light could never hope to escape those chasms deep inside the black-white jester's face.  "All I want is to know what is happening here and how I can get myself the hell home!" I snapped.  "Can you wave that little wand of yours and send me home?  If not then send me to someone who can and leave me the hell alone!"
        "As you wish." he said and approached the throne.  He sat down in it and brought the globe to a halt with a tap from his scepter.  "Remember this, Damien," he continued, never taking his gaze from the globe.  "I could have given you the entire world and this is what you have asked me for."
        The blue light, the black throne and the jester vanished, replaced once more by that darkness that was like a living death.  Light suddenly blinded me and I could hear the waves of the ocean crashing against rocks below me.  I still had a long way to go before I was home.