UGR - "The Last Minutes Of Sunshine" (568 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.96 on 31 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by kaos-king (antius777) (View user info) at 2007-09-04 15:47:05 EDT
On September 23rd, 1977 the end of the world came and no one noticed.
Currently, I'm sitting on the wooden porch of a large house that can be found in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. My feet spread out before me, I'm scribbling all this down as fast and as coherently as I can, with my back to the cedar siding. It's beautiful here; nothing but forest for miles in any direction and the last glimmers of sunlight giving me the much needed illumination to write these words. When I finish the tale in this notebook, I'll leave it right here and walk off these steps. I'll not seek any kind of sanctuary inside, no... I'll face what comes. I just hope the porch is enough warning...
This is all nonsense. The chances of anyone ever reading this, I realize, are slim. Slim, but considering everything that's actually happened, I should stop my ramblings and get to the point.
I suppose if you really want to take it back to the beginning, we should return to W.W.II. What most of the average citizens of the world don't know, is that Hitler employed more than just soldiers and tanks during their war. He had quite the armada of occultists and theomancers on the Nazi payroll. The Allies had their own "Mage Brigade," but nothing as advanced as the Germans. It was, in fact, near the end of the war that the Axis discovered that the end of the world was imminent - one of the reasons they ended up going down as easy as they did.
Almost all of the Nazi occult information was destroyed or kept under the highest levels of classification. As the cold war bloomed, the United States and its friends found less and less duties for the "nontraditionally incline." Russia still remembered the time of Rasputin and didn't trust working with occultism. Suddenly there was a sizable population of specially trained individuals without purpose.
And that was when they started talking to their few surviving Nazi counterparts that had escaped.
The end of the 1970's. The world would end, and not by Mankind's choice either. No, this would not be a case of war run amok, weapons of mass destruction obliterating the earth. It was something else, something... celestial at work. Perhaps the universe collapsing back in on itself, perhaps reality crumbling around us. Perhaps God would just simply, finally say "THAT'S ENOUGH."
This unit of the so-called "Supernatural," this "Platoon of the Paranormal," they had come together to save the world from the Nazi warmachine. Now adopting a few rogue Nazi leftovers, they began their attempt to save the world from ending. It took decades.
By the early 70's, they had come to a number of conclusions. Although they still had not surmised exactly WHY the world was going to end, they had deduced that the annihilation would be total and complete. Nothing of this planet would be left. This led them to conclude that, indeed, it would be something mystical in nature. Finally, they had hammered down a date for the Omega Point: September 27, 1977.
Preparations began to see what could be done to save the world, to avert the End. However, without knowing the actual CAUSE, every theory attempted to bring about any sway in the seemingly set destiny resulted in failure. Finally, it was decided that if the world itself could not be saved, then maybe at least a part of it could.
The location was chosen in the Appalachian Mountains because, at the time, it seemed both terribly remote and yet easy for all those involved to gain access to. Here, in 1974, construction on the Germaine House began. It was named after the legendary occultist, St. Germaine who was rumored to also have found the secret to immortality. They thought such a name would grant them luck.
Nothing like the Germaine House had ever been attempted before in the recorded history of man. Over two hundred men and women from all manner of faiths and disciplines were involved in its creation. Quantum Numerologist aided in the blueprint designs while Celtic Druids went about scoring each piece of lumber with a blessing. Masonic prayers graced each brick in the foundation and Osho Zen techniques were used in accommodating the windows and doors. The Germaine House slowly rose as a temple to almost every known form of practiced occultism in the world, an homage to the power man had found in itself. It was to be a receptacle of all the human knowledge and achievement after this Earth had passed on, it was believed that the house itself would endure.
They worked hard, they worked fast, and some didn't believe they would finish in time. But they did; four days before the scheduled End of the World. And as soon as they finished their triumph to the human spirit, the fighting broke out.
The Germaine House was meant to hold artifacts, memories, the very essence of humanity. However, a number of the occultist felt that they should take refuge in the house on the End Day. They thought there would be no better way to preserve the human condition than to preserve a few humans. This stance was violently opposed by others. Soon the argument escalated.
I have actually spoken to a handful of survivors of this battle in my time. I do not find myself an accomplished enough writer to try and describe here what the told me about that time. I suppose all I can say is that YOU try and imagine slightly over two hundred of the most powerful and skilled mages in the world waging battle in the forest for days.
And then it ended.
So caught up in their own righteousness, they let the days slip by. Then someone realized the 27th had passed - the world had not ended. Bloodied and broken, all factions came together before the house to check their books, their stones, their cards, their numbers. Nothing. It was as if everything they had been seeing for the past thirty years had been wiped clean. Some wept in relief, some were enraged at the wasted effort, but most were simply confused. So they left. The crisis seemingly averted, the looked back at Germaine House, shook their heads, and left it.
This is the story that has been whispered among the younger generation of occult circles for the last thirty years. That these individuals, so disgusted by all that had transpired, by what they had become on those final days, had left Germaine House standing there in the Appalachian Mountains. Rumors swirled about its existence and many an expedition has been made to find the house over the last few decades. Some claim to have found it, but most of those have been proven to be false. One team went looking for it in 1986 and were never heard from again.
All my life, since my indoctrinate into the occult, I've been fascinated with the lore of Germaine House. I've studied up on every tale, researched every fact, followed up on every clue. I made it my life's work, and ended up becoming one of the foremost experts on the Germaine House Mystery. It was widely speculated that if anyone was to every truly rediscover the place, it would be me.
Honestly, it wasn't that hard once I decided to embark on the actual quest. Besides the vanished 1986 expedition, there were only three reputable individuals still alive who had supposedly seen the house in the last thirty years. I had already poured over maps of the area and deduced a number of possible places the house might sit, but the fact that it had proven yet still unfound nagged at me. So it was to these three that I went to.
Alexander Kinnomen was already dead when I found him. He had passed away from natural causes just a week before my arrival at his home. I pleaded with his son to allow me access to his notes and journals, but it would seem that was to be impossible: they had all been consumed by flames. Kinnomen's last wish was to see all of his life's work destroyed.
By the time I had tracked down Greta L'efant, I realized my luck was to be no better. The ancient Voodoun Priestess was unquestionably insane. At least, I was sure of it when she kept drooling and mumbling, "We all be ghosts, boy," over and over again.
Both Kinnomen and L'efant were part of the original group that had built Germaine House, two had made return pilgrimages at later dates. Douglas Lake, however, was a different story. A specialist in the realms of fortian physics, he had been my predecessor in many ways, the former expert on the house. Supposedly he found it. Supposedly he found it, and had spoke of it not once since that day.
I had made many attempts to contact Lake in the past, all of my efforts ignored. I finally tracked him down in Florida and forced him into a confrontation. I'm not entirely sure what I had expected from the man, but what I did find was fear. Fear and a kind of understanding.
Lake didn't say much, but it was enough. He told me that, yes, he had found Germaine House - it was still standing, as if it had been built yesterday. Lake asked if he could dissuade me from my goal of seeking the house out. When I told him "No," he simply nodded and muttered something about destiny. Then, surprisingly, he told me exactly how to find it through a series of mystical means. Shocked, I thanked him and made to leave when he said one last thing to me...
"The Germaine House. Back in 1977... it was a success."
So here it was, the end of summer in 2007, almost exactly 30 years later after the completion of the house and the failed End of the World. All of my research along with Lake's directions had proven accurate and I had arrived. The land cleared for the house had not become overgrown with a single weed, the treeline in perfect symmetry circling around. The house stood solid, a two story affair with dark brown bricks at its foundation and rich cedar siding. The windows were clean and free of grime, not a bit of stray nature littering the welcoming porch that sat before me.
This was Germaine House and it looked like a suburban family were about to spill out of it into a minivan at any moment.
I'm running out of sunlight here, so I better hurry this up.
Perhaps I expected a treasure vault of uncountable wealth and knowledge inside. All I know is that the inside of this place is even less spectacular than its exterior. It's completely empty, the rooms are barren. I suppose after those who constructed the house fell to battle, they never got around to filling it with mankind's greatness. And by the time the battle had ended, they didn't care.
Utterly empty, except for one thing: a journal. I found it sitting in the center of the floor of one of the small middle rooms. I left it there at first to complete my search, but after my examination resulted in more of nothing, I returned. I returned, read the journal, then laughed, cried and then laughed some more.
It had been left by the 1986 expedition.
They had, indeed, found Germaine House and, in turn, discovered its secret.
They had written everything down in the journal for any other damned adventurer who might follow them, explained all their theories and why they had done what they had done.
I read the journal and it all made perfect sense. I've left it inside where I found it.
I'm leaving this for you.
The creators of the house thought the world was going to end on September 27, 1977. They were wrong. They were wrong, because they were ahead of schedule. They finished Germaine House on September 23rd and that was the day the world ended - it ended the moment the last prayer of consecration passed through their lips blessing this house. They could never deduce what is was that would cause the end, never realizing that THEY were the ones who had actually brought about the end with the construction of this place.
Germaine House was created to guard the human essence from extinction. It was made to be a kind of external dimension so that our memory would endure. But it was built too well, too strong, and at the moment of its completion, its purpose butted with this world's reality.
And this world's reality lost. The world ended.
But Germaine House knew its function, knew its duty. If it was to remain empty inside, it would build a monument to its creators on the outside. And we are simply as Germaine House sees fit.
Would this be it, would this be all of the tale, it would be enough to satisfy you I hope. However, I don't doubt there are those among you who still wish to find yourself inside the walls of this fabled building. And THAT, is exactly why I have left this notebook here on the porch. I'm hoping it's not too late for you and yours. Not too late for you, like it was for those back in 1986 and for me in 2007.
You see, once you enter Germaine House, you have stepped out of the reality it has constructed for humanity. Oh, it may look like it sits here, resting quietly among these trees, but that is an illusion. No, the reality that Germaine House was built in ceased to exist in 1977. The world ended on September 23rd, and we have all been a dream of the house ever since.
A dream that I have just woken from.
And so I will leave this for you here on the porch with the hopes you will read it all and still have the time and the wisdom to turn back. I will not sit here and wither away in the house, no... I will do as those from 1986 did and walk off this porch and leave the dream.
I will take in these last minutes of sunshine, here on this wooden porch nestled among the trees, then I will accept a destiny that's come thirty years late.
User Reviews
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2007-09-07 09:33:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This.Was.Awesome.
Submitted by Nyrea (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:44:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by zwerg (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:04:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ace
Submitted by DrogoRoch (user info) at 2007-09-05 09:09:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn that was good.
Now onwards to read the rest of urg
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-09-05 08:36:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-09-05 07:56:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I disagree with ChaosJester. This is one of my favourite pieces of your work, you don't have to get your hands dirty to write well.
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-09-05 07:38:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Mmmmmm, okay.
Not my favoritest work by you (I think you write best when you get your hands dirty), but it was really well written.
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-09-05 02:21:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Zampano,
I thought that might have been so, too bad you can't get the tilde... fantastic story, eh? I was so absorbed I didn't get any sleep for a few nights.
Submitted by Zampano (user info) at 2007-09-05 00:21:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by supadupapupa
Ranking: 2
Hey Kaos,
Have you read "House of Leaves"? This story kind of reminded me of that...
* ** *
Have you? That's my Uber namesake.
Oh, and, uh, nice story, again, Kaos.
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-09-04 23:50:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hey Kaos,
Have you read "House of Leaves"? This story kind of reminded me of that...
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-09-04 22:38:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was definitely one of your better pieces, perfect timing, not too much of a rush... just beautiful. I am thoroughly impressed. Thank you for this.
Submitted by DirtyHarry (user info) at 2007-09-04 21:11:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-09-04 20:45:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was in Scotland on 23 September 1977. True story.
Now who are you up against? I don't like to be a factor in these things.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-09-04 19:38:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2007-09-04 19:17:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DeadToast (user info) at 2007-09-04 19:05:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5VNe9NTOxA
HOLY JESUS FUCK! I love 50's Christianity propaganda!
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2007-09-04 18:14:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Zampano (user info) at 2007-09-04 17:42:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
To me, this was like an amalgamation of Stephen King's "The End of the Whole Mess," Danny Boyle's "Sunshine," and Hellboy.
Well done.
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2007-09-04 17:11:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-09-04 17:01:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:49:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn you! This could have been a novel, there were plenty enough characters to flesh it out. Not to mention the history and occultism that fascinate millions around the world!
Ah well, maybe you'll get around to it someday.
Submitted by HotWillie (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:49:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:46:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well done.
Submitted by ShapeShifter (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:29:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Holy fucking long but well worth it!
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:17:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well written, held my attention throughout the entire story.
And thank Christ there was no mention of "red rum".
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2007-09-04 16:00:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-09-04 15:57:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-09-04 20:53:21 BST (#)
Ranking: 2
i love the two ways people always try to make sure they've firmly tied in the titles i9n these contests. the title is 98% of the time the first or last line of the story.
is this to really just help it sink in?
-----------
There was a phase a while back when all films had to have their title as a line in the film, got on my fucking nerves.
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-09-04 15:53:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Weird but aces
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-09-04 15:53:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i love the two ways people always try to make sure they've firmly tied in the titles i9n these contests. the title is 98% of the time the first or last line of the story.
is this to really just help it sink in?
from now on, whoever DOESN'T use the title anywhere in the body of the story will get a +2 from me. and their opponent, if he follows title usage rule one or two described above, gets a -2.
i haven't read this yet, except the last line, but you get a +2 on faith. if it disappoints, i'll revise my rating later. i have faith in you though, chaos-king
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-09-04 15:52:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
BLAIR WITCH HOUSE - THE BLOODENING
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-09-04 15:49:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I read it all and liked it.