The Years Burn (1071 hits)
Category: UberMadness!Rating: 0.44 on 48 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by UberMadness! (View user info) at 2005-08-02 04:50:02 EDT
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Entry 1
Mike and Stacy. With names like those and a house in the suburbs, you can imagine the kind of life they had together.They had met in college where they were both going for teaching degrees. Mike had always wanted to teach American history and Stacy was going for chemistry. They both graduated in their chosen fields and went to work at the same community college.
The two got along well. So well in fact that the only thing they ever argued about was Mike's smoking. He picked up the habit in college and it drove her crazy. At first he would refrain from smoking when they were together, but she wanted him to quit. Her grandfather had died from lung cancer and she told Mike that she didn't want to lose him the same way.
"Everyone dies," he said. "Besides, who wants to live to be 90?"
"That's not funny. I want you to quit. I love you, but I can't be with someone who smokes. You know how I feel about it. Smoking kills."
He quit once for a month. Then a second time for six months. With enough harassment from her and some of the other teachers, Mike eventually gave up his bad habit.
The only other thing they ever argued about was home repair issues. Stacy mentioned that the water heater had a small gas leak, but he didn't know how to fix it and wouldn't call anyone else. Money was tight and he was a little stubborn, so not only did he not fix the water heater, but he never really thought there was anything wrong.
Other than those small thorns in their relationship, they were as happy a couple as a couple could be. They were always affectionate towards each other, spent time with their families, and volunteered for things in the community. Both were well liked and made friends around their neighborhood.
That was why everyone was so stunned the day Stacy disappeared.
One evening, Mike walked to the neighbor's house looking for Stacy. She wasn't there. Her car was still in the garage, but she was nowhere to be found. They looked all throughout the house and called all the neighbors. Not knowing where she could be, he called the police and told them what had happened.
This wasn't a common thing in their town, but the police still ran through the standard list. Was there a problem with their marriage? Had she run away? Could foul play have been involved? They looked around the house, but there was no sign of anything unusual. They talked to friends and family members and found nothing unusual - no marriage problems, no problems with friends, no known enemies, nothing unusual.
The story was all over the local press and even made some headway into national coverage. It was on the cover of the paper for a couple days until a scandal with the water commissioner knocked it to the second page. The police told him that most missing persons are found within two weeks or they aren't found at all. They told him not to lose hope, but they also stopped calling the house on a daily basis.
From time to time, the police would contact him again with potential leads, but nothing ever panned out. Even three years later, Mike never gave up hope. He told everyone he talked to that he would never rest until she was found. The local paper did a short piece on the woman who disappeared three years ago and interviewed Mike on what progress had been made. The reporter was amazed at his strength.
The day the story ran, Mike came home from school just like any other day. He set down his bag, went through the mail, and listened to the messages on his phone. Then he headed downstairs into the basement.
He walked across the basement, all the windows covered with decorative shudders, and walked up to a big old bookcase that had come from Stacy's grandfather's house. He walked to the side of the bookcase and slid it out about two feet to reveal a door that nobody else had ever seen.
Mike opened the door and walked through into the secret dungeon where he had kept his wife's corpse for the past three years. Her body, hanging from a hook attached to a cable, dangled above a fifty gallon plastic drum of hydrofluoric acid. That acid was the reason why the body was now just a torso.
Shortly after he killed her, he did some research into ways of getting rid of the body. He could bury her in the woods, drop her in the lake, or bring her to the junkyard, but all of those left evidence of his crime. In order to truly eliminate the evidence, he remembered a hypothetical question that came up once with Stacy where among other things, she said that a bath in hydrofluoric acid would be worse than electrocution because of the fact that it would dissolve anything but plastic. As it turns out, Mike had Stacy's keys for the chemistry lab at the local community college. He drove the van down there one day later at night, walked right into the lab, and wheeled out the drum of acid without ever bumping into even one security guard.
He unsealed the drum and lowered the torso in a little more. Murder is one thing. This was theatrics.
"Mike!"
Mike froze.
"Hey Mike, everything ok?"
The next door neighbor, Roger, was at the front door.
Mike stopped everything. He ran upstairs and opened the door.
"Heya, Roger, what's going on?"
"Hey Mike. Not much. Just got home from taking the kids out for ice cream. I noticed you left the garage door open. I wanted to make sure everything was ok. You didn't answer the doorbell and I got a little nervous."
"Oh yeah, everything's fine. Thanks for telling me about the garage door. I was going to take the garbage out to the street, but I forgot. I'd better get on that... this place will start smelling like death." Mike grinned subtilely. "I mean, smell like garbage, you know?"
Awkward pause.
"Mike, I saw the story in the paper today. If there's anything you want to talk about, my door is always open. We're all amazed at how you can be so strong."
"Thanks Rog. I'll let you know if anything comes up. I should be off to bed though."
After their goodbyes, Mike headed back downstairs. The recent questions about his wife had made him a little nervous. The local police were even discussing reopening the case. He wanted to clean things up once and for all.
He returned to the dungeon and picked up where he'd left off. He lowered the body inch by inch into the drum of the now violently bubbling hydrofluoric acid. The remains of the rotted corpse burned away with every unrolling of the cable, just as they had for the past three years.
Once the body was completely eliminated, the only piece left to do was to get rid of the other evidence sealed in this room. Into the drum of acid, he threw the aluminum hooks and cabling that had held the body all this time. The shovel he used to kill her and the metal bucket that held the water he used to clean up the garage floor, they all went into the acid bath.
Once everything was gone, Mike stopped to think of everything he had accomplished. Nobody had any idea of the crime he had carried out so wonderfully. Part of him wanted to tell everyone he knew about his achievement, except for the obvious reasons not to do so. Still, he was going to celebrate, if only by himself.
He turned on the radio and tuned to the classic rock station. "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin was playing.
"Perfect," he said to himself.
Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out an unopened pack of cigarettes and a lighter that he had bought at the gas station on the way home today. He smacked the pack against his palm, unwrapped the top, and pulled one stick out of the box. He leaned against the wall and looked at the drum of acid.
"Three and a half years," he said as he shook his head. "Three and a half years without a cigarette. I'm never quitting again."
He lit the cigarette. Then the house exploded.
As it turns out, throwing all that metal into the drum of acid was a bad idea. Large amounts of acid plus large amounts of metal releases large amounts of Hydrogen gas. Hydrogen is flammable. Think "Hindenburg disaster" flammable.
There probably wasn't enough Hydrogen to blow up the entire house, but it turns out that Stacy was right about that gas leak. Between the two, the whole basement was full of explosives waiting for a spark.
"The bitch was right," was the last thing he thought, fire everywhere. "Smoking does kill."
- VS -
Entry 2
The old man was dying. He wasn't lying in a bed, he wouldn't go like that.He was standing at his study window, I had my arm linked through his, and he was so weak I was supporting his entire weight. He was very, very light.
His eyes roved across the landscape, lively. His breath slurped through cracked lips and he spoke.
"Remember, Nature loves dealing with the details. Don't get too carried away with them. We're just a guide, a general guide. If we get too specific, the balance gets upset, and balance is important. Balance is important."
And like that, so softly, he died beside me.
I settled him in his chair, and called the butler. He brought two men with him and they removed the body quietly.
My father's dying words may seem cryptic, so let me explain.
Ever since time began, my family has had an incredible responsibility. Put simply, we are Fate. It is our job to dictate where the world will go. We write some general directions (as my father said, Nature deals with the details) and the world follows them.
The entire mechanism of our duty was a black book, a stack of parchment, and a huge, dark machine that winked dully in the candlelight.
The black book was the book of Pure History. This was History as it actually happened, absolutely objective, as it was drawn from the writings of my family.
The stack of parchment was history as it was yet to happen. With my father's passing, it was my job to dictate Fate, and that parchment was the History of the world from 1997-2097. My father had filled everything out for the next 100 years. It was vitally important for Fate to stay ahead of the actual world, because if the Earth had no Fate, chaos would take over.
The machine was the Ether. Hulking and squat, its appearance was a blend between a wall safe and an iron spider. Once I had written what was to happen to Earth, I would place the parchment within the Ether and the Earth's Fate would be 'sealed'. The writing would then appear in the black book and become past history.
I took a few sheets of paper from my father's writings, labelled "1998-2001" and flicked through them.
This period was interesting, with my Father's idea of a Communication explosion being accompanied by a time of great Western affluence drawn out in vague but clear terms. So the West was fated for a time of great wealth? I always had a strong academic interest in the future events of the world. I flicked to the last page of 2001 and my mouth fell open. In his concise, erudite hand, my father had written "In the second half of the year Muslim extremists will launch an extremely violent attack on the Western ideology".
It was not often my family would make such large changes to the fabric of the world, but obviously my father had had great plans for his legacy. I looked over at the remaining parchment that had '2002-2097' and looked forward eagerly to reading what my father had in mind.
I took the sheets of paper for "1998-2001" and lay them into the Ether, shutting the heavy iron door with a snap. I pulled a lever and the machine crunched down like a press. A strong burning smell filled the room and I heard a hiss emanate from the book of Pure History.
I walked over to the book and flipped its thick, leather lid. There, in the most recent pages, was the world's direction for the next three years. While these three years had not yet happened, they were as good as history. You cannot go against Fate.
As I moved over to see where my father would direct the world after 2001, the bell rang and I was called to dinner.
In my long robes, I had no recollection of brushing against the tall, brass candle.
****
I had only just begun eating when the butler rushed in, pale and shocked.
"Master," he said, "can you smell burning?"
I was out of my chair and sprinting towards the study before my cutlery hit the table.
I arrived at the door and felt a massive weight slam into my chest. It appeared, upon leaving, I had knocked one of the large candles onto the stack of parchment. I watched in absolute horror as thick flames licked at 2002-2097. Watching the years burn, the true reality of what I was faced with confronted me.
It was now 1998. Beyond 2001, the Earth now had no Fate, no destiny.
The butler rushed past me with a pot of water and hurled it across the flaming sheets. It was obvious they were beyond repair, beyond legibility. I fell to the ground.
****
I sat at the desk, sweating even in the dank air, while the book of Pure History sat heavily in front of me. I read through the last few years over and over. To my knowledge, tragedy like this had never struck my family. Never had the Earth been so close to blindly rolling forward, with no destiny to guide it, save it.
And I had very little time.
Where I worked, time passed far more quickly than on Earth. Such were the actual demands of our responsibility that it was unnecessary for us to have a whole year to write a year's destiny. The three years that Earth had until 2001 was, to me, just under 3 days.
If only I had not placed the year 2001 in the ether. I would have been able to start off with some simple, uninteresting history and get a head start. As it was, however, the world would be in a very complicated ideological and political position in 2001, and I had no idea where my father had planned on going with it.
I wrote draft after draft, with the West apologizing to the Muslims for past mistakes, the West launching massive, coordinated attacks on the Middle East, but always there would be some vague inconsistency, something that involved an illogical or impossible change.
The days rolled by, and soon it was 2001 on Earth and the book of Pure History was shaking at the dangerous possibility of an imbalance between Fate and reality.
I looked at my latest draft for 2002, a Western invasion of Afghanistan. I didn't really like it, there were some big holes there, but I remembered my fathers last words "Let Nature take care of the details", and slammed the sheet into the Ether. At this stage, I really didn't have any choice. September 11 had just passed on Earth, and the world was gagging in shock.
The Ether hissed and I had bought myself an extra day. I had to write more than a year a day in order to get a safe lead, but the world was so complex right now I was hard-pressed just to keep up.
My sleep that night was fitful and unsatisfying.
The next day I was unfocussed and distracted, with sore eyes and aching muscles. When I finally slid 2003 into the ether I knew, KNEW that there were massive inconsistencies. The world was going to be very bizarre for the next year while terrorists, Iraq, Osama, the West, and a whole load of different terms just flew around the boiling pot, confusing everyone.
The next day I awoke to a strange sight. Sunlight was shining off a large hanging on my wall. This was strange as the hanging faced my Western window. Sitting up, my head spun and I realised that I had fallen ill. It took some time before it sank it, but when it did, I almost choked.
It was afternoon, and 2004 had not been written.
I hauled myself from the bed, coughing and aching, and dragged myself to the study. I arrived at the door to find an energy of immense disruption in the room. A soft, electric tingle tugged at my skin and I knew that the Earth had almost caught up with my writings. I felt weaker and weaker as I pulled myself over to the chair. I lifted the quill and wrote "2004" in a shaky hand across the top of the page.
I had barely composed my brain when, with a shriek, the book of Pure History slammed open. I watched, utterly horrified, as a scrawled, messy script began to corrupt the pages. The spidery scrawl sputtered the words "2004" and began to write.
"Too late!" I gasped, and my heart roared against my ribcage like a caged lion.
.This was it, the Earth was writing its own history.
2004. The world didn't know what the future would bring, and for the first time ever, neither did I.
Entry 1:
bart
c1ndy
CaptainThorns
Confuzitron
ConorJS
darko
Jack_McCallum
loki
rad1101
satchel
Spuds002
thorpe
zakalwe
11 eligible votes (13 total) *
Entry 2:
Adamdidit2u
AshyLarry
BLITZKREIG_BOB
bob
Circe
Davros
doctorj24
DonkeyOnTheEdge
ess-arr
Fabit
firefly
indoninja
jack11058
jgreening
JMG114
JonnyX
Kre8rix
Magicaddict
munkeypants
Natsukau
NOWorNEVER
peckerhead
Pentameter
Phallic_Cymbals
RyuFu
salmonofdoubt
Slovin
Snark
sparkle_pink
stevie_says
thecaes
ThineJericho
29 eligible votes (32 total) *
* Eligible votes are those made by users who had either (A) posted 3+ messages OR (B) written 100+ [lowered from 750+] reviews as of the beginning of the UberMadness! competition.
User Reviews
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2005-08-04 10:19:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Both of these were pretty good...
Submitted by sparkle_pink (user info) at 2005-08-04 03:39:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Neat concept, entry 2.
Submitted by peckerhead (user info) at 2005-08-04 01:04:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2005-08-03 20:05:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
2 was in interesting concept, but I just rather liked 1 better.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-08-03 19:37:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
#1 was really great, but #2 had an awesome premise - I just wish it was longer!
Submitted by Spuds002 (user info) at 2005-08-03 16:22:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2005-08-03 16:10:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-08-03 13:05:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
decent
Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2005-08-03 11:07:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Holy crap, #2 was the ROXXORZ!! That was some killer use of the title. Interesting that an objective being such as Fate would choose to label the years in reference to Mr. Christ, but that's neither here nor there. I really liked this post a lot.
#1 read really well and then sort of spun around quickly, leaving me "dazed and confused." Ahem. Actually, I felt like some dude was telling me a story and suddenly punched me in the face while tying the story together. This isn't necessarily negative, it's just how I perceived it.
Advantage #2.
Submitted by Slovin (user info) at 2005-08-03 10:50:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by ThineJericho (user info) at 2005-08-03 06:45:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Actually .. hell, the no comment was pathetic. The second writing deserved far more.
In a word, one of the best short stories I've read in a long while, and that includes countless anthologies of the "Years Best," recently discovered at the library.
No idea who the writer was, I don't even want to guess, but I'll be reading back over his/her work after results are announced, if I haven't already.
Submitted by ThineJericho (user info) at 2005-08-03 06:43:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Magicaddict (user info) at 2005-08-03 05:49:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
#2 - a slightly better concept. However, I must also point out:
Fifty gallons of hydroflouric acid (48 % in water, most concentrated you can buy due to HF's incomplete ionisation in solution) would cost something in the order of $70,000. How a community college could afford to have that knocking around I will never know.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-08-03 03:39:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Entry 1 - He killed her so he could smoke?
Entry 2 - Awesome.
-Dave
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-08-02 19:47:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
the bitch is always right.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-08-02 17:55:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-08-02 16:17:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Entry one was very good, until the super secret surprise ending that ended with a cliche like "smoking kills"
Submitted by ConorJS (user info) at 2005-08-02 16:06:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i hate you both. round three?! goddammit.
Submitted by ConorJS (user info) at 2005-08-02 16:03:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm voting for entry one. BUT! that doesn't mean i didn't hate it. it just seems like slightly more effort was put into it. It kind of seemed like the author already wrote the story, than used it regardless of the theme.
Submitted by satchel (user info) at 2005-08-02 15:38:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by salmonofdoubt (user info) at 2005-08-02 14:13:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2005-08-02 14:05:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn, should have voted for entry two.
Submitted by NOWorNEVER (user info) at 2005-08-02 14:01:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2005-08-02 13:47:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Deadly acid is always fun.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-08-02 13:37:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Entry 2, I liked the concept but I wish you had gone somewhere else than the 9/11 idea.
Entry 1, I liked this story except for the ending, which became ridiculous and comical for no reason that I could see. And there was never any explanation of why Mike killed his wife -- because she made him quit smoking? Also, I don't care how theatrical he was, taking three years to dissovle a body makes no sense. She'd be nothing but bones at that point (especially if she was being kept in a damp basement), wouldn't she?
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-08-02 13:13:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-08-02 13:01:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Uh, this IS round 3, right?
Submitted by doctorj24 (user info) at 2005-08-02 12:59:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Original idea #2, but it sure has too much political leanings for my taste. It was easy to beat #1, though. #1, first of all, you wrote that "the only thing they argued over was" and then in another paragraph wrote "the only other thing they argued over". Do you know the meaning of the word only? Your writing was disjointed and full of logical pitfalls.
A vote for #2.
Submitted by firefly (user info) at 2005-08-02 12:34:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Confuzitron (user info) at 2005-08-02 12:17:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by AshyLarry (user info) at 2005-08-02 10:58:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2005-08-02 10:39:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
2 was great
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-08-02 10:26:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by jgreening (user info) at 2005-08-02 10:10:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
NUmber one got all the way through to Round three?
How the fuck did THAT happen? That post was crap, and has so many holes, and inconsistancies, and frighteningly bad logic, that I am now dumber for reading it.
#2 by default, for christ sakes.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-08-02 10:08:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Meh.
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2005-08-02 09:48:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Number two was kind of cool.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-08-02 09:43:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2005-08-02 09:07:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2005-08-02 08:38:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Entry two probably has the most brilliant concept I've ever read in this competition, let alone on this site. It could be a piece of a much larger story.
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2005-08-02 07:26:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Natsukau (user info) at 2005-08-02 07:20:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Fabit (user info) at 2005-08-02 07:09:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
a cool concept!
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2005-08-02 07:03:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
entry 1 could have been ten times better and entry 2 still would have gotten my vote
Submitted by Phallic_Cymbals (user info) at 2005-08-02 05:37:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hmm...
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-08-02 05:18:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2005-08-02 05:14:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I liked the concept of entry 2, but not where it went.
Submitted by stevie_says (user info) at 2005-08-02 04:57:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-08-02 04:53:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment