Locke was a troublemaker as a child, at least until he became an older brother.
His sister was born premature, but through the miracle of prayer and medical science, her life was saved, and she was allowed to leave as a healthy baby girl.
Locke did everything he could for his sister. From the moment she was born, he knew he would protect her until the very end. When she was released, he held her the whole way home.
However, like all of us, this story doesn't end happily.
Locke, his sister and parents were driving to a restaurant for his sister's first birthday party, when their car was struck hard by a black van. Even though they all had their seatbelts on, his parents received immense damage to their chest, being two fractured lungs.
His sister got it the worst.
Somehow during the ride, her seatbelt had made its way to her neck, and as the cars collided, she showed no immediate signs of life.
There wasn't a funeral service.
No visiting the body.
In fact, his parents pretended like nothing had happened.
Though in his heart, he believed she still lives.
It was shortly after when a funeral service should have happened, that cheques started coming through the letterbox. At least one per month. Sometimes two. This continued until he was sent off to university.
Through sheer willpower, Locke had achieved a photographic memory. As each cheque came through the letterbox, he would carefully unseal them, catalogue the information, and reseal the envelope.
He majored in criminal psychology and got a job as a police officer, strictly so he can race through to the rank of detective, where he dedicates most of his career to finding the people who sent the envelopes.
So he can find his long-lost sister.
Given barely any leads, the only things he remembers other than quintuple digits are the names Mr Theddy and Mr Kazaki, and now - being stuck in June 7th - he can never find them.
*
The memory becomes blurry, and I am ejected from it.
Immediately, I put the pieces together.
Locke's sister is Ariel.
Locke dies in my arms never realising.
Somehow, time did not move during this episode, and additionally intriguing, time ceases now also.
By some mysterious miracle, we have a chance to escape.
I force my body to move through the stationary time lapse. It's like gravity has increased fivefold. My legs feel like they're about to break, the pressure to keep me still is too greats.
Yet, somehow, every successful step I take becomes easier and easier until I reach Uncle Deus.
I muster all my upper body strength and pick him up, taking him back around the corner where Maryanne and Violet had gone ahead, and then Raphael too.
Time continues from the moment I successfully get Raphael to safety.
The sound of tendrils slashing around wildly replicates the sound of blades hitting porcelain.
I immediately fear for my sister and Violet.
I then dread the fate of William.
I finally concern the whereabouts of Ariel.
The slashes get closer. Somehow, my mind is pulsing like a radar with every continuous step, getting louder and louder until it breaks into a migraine.
I push past it.
Somehow I drag up just enough determination to swing my sword around the corner, narrowly missing our enemy's vital spots, but slashing off a single tendril.
She smirks.
"It had to be you. It's always you." Says the woman I've known as Rioca under her breath. "Give me something new!" She starts to scream, whipping tendril on tendril against my sword, every now and then, one nicking at my face, hands and torso. Yet, somehow, my body moves on its own. It's as if…
I've been here before.
We've been here multiple times.
With every strike I block, I am bestowed a memory of a time in which Rioca had killed us.
I see my fallen allies.
I see my fallen family.
My grip tightens on my blade.
'This has to be the last time', I recite over and over in my mind as if the thought has crossed it many times before.
Rioca's screams turn into a blood-curdling laugh that escalates with every strike.
Her moves are fluid and water-like.
Her slashes aim at my unprotected legs, tearing the material on my jeans.
Raphael sees through my blind spots and reaches desperately for my left leg, touching it with a single finger.
My head pulses, and I remember that the brain is a storage device.
Raphael's memories pour into my head like a faucet into a bucket.
*
Raphael sits in his compound, staring at screens. Every inconsistency dotted down on an a grid that counts the hours between 7AM and 11PM. His eyes dart back and forth, but the one clear inconsistency is the date.
June 6th.
The day before the loop.
Raphael presses a button with a microphone attached and recites;
"Is everyone in position? Remember! catalogue. Information!" His tone appears hopeful. "Report back at 2230 hours!" He finalises as a hand is placed on his shoulder.
He removes the hand and turns around on his swivel chair, and faces Rioca.
"We're not far from saving the world. Is this the accomplishment you were looking for?" Rioca insists.
"It feels good doing good. After the last month and a half executing any enemies, it feels better knowing we don't have to fight anyone ever again after this." Raphael monologues.
Rioca chuckles.
"And good is what we're doing. This was always meant to happen. After this, you'll all be heroes." Rioca recites, as if taking the role of the almighty invigilator. "All you have to do is press the button when I tell you."
The memory starts to distort, as speech becomes fractures. Sentences are heard in pieces, and time flashes forward to 10:30PM when my allies and myself start to stroll through the door one at a time.
Raphael, however, appears dizzy. Groggy, even. He looks lightheaded, and simply points towards a device that closely resembles a tesla ball. One by one, we each place our hands on it and remove them after a few minutes. I am the last to touch it. Somehow, Rioca must have missed me, because she orders Raphael to 'press the button', and his memory goes black.
He wakes up at 7am on June 7th with no memory of the previous day.
*
I am placed back into my own body, shaken yet resolved. Time stays stopped for a moment once more and I attempt to take as many steps as I can to regain my footing. I push Raphael's hand back to keep him from harm's reach.
I take my sword.
I plunge it into Rioca's chest.
Time resumes.
Rioca's confidence transforms into a disgusting mind-melting scream which reverberates through every tunnel in the immediate vicinity, and echoes through every tunnel that connects to those.
"YOU!!!" She begins. "It's ALWAYS you!!!" She continues.
I remove my blade and stab at her again.
And again.
And again.
Her screams getting more blood-curdling, more distorted, more… sadistic. Until…
She stops screaming.
She starts laughing.
She starts melting.
Her skin melts over her dress, which melts in tune, as the figure revealed underneath appears to me a perfect copy of myself. All the way to the new rips in my clothing. The sword, the stature, everything.
But it's still her.
She lunges at me with her sword, tendrils encompassing it in a shadowy form, enforcing its size and shape. Creating a gruesome, thorny mess of a blade, she draws her hand back to swing it. My body brings my sword up to defend myself.
She brings her sword down like a mighty hammer, instantly shattering mine.
I take the initiative through shards of the blade scatter between us.
I duck.
I take the broken sword in hand.
I slash at both of her ankles with a single strike.
Somehow, what could not be done with bullets or sunlight was accomplished with a fractured hilt, and Rioca falls to her knees.
The sword rebuilds itself in my hand as I raise it high.
The skin that encompassed her melts away to reveal a quivering idea of a woman.
Rioca continues her laugh once more.
"Do you really believe you stand a chance?!" She begins. "I know you! We worked together!" She proceeds as bullshit spews from her vocal cords, imitating human speech. "You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me! You wanted this!!!"
"Don't listen to her!!!" Raphael shouts from behind. "She's the only thing between us and tomorrow!!"Raphael's voice carries weight, as I raise my sword higher.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait!!!" She gargles.
I lower my sword upon her legs, slashing at her knees. Then her thighs. Flesh wounds, but somehow the bane of my existence is whimpering in front of me, and I am filled with a sadistic nature. She turns away and attempts to crawl away as her fingernails grip the ground like claws.
I bring my sword up one final time, preparing to deal the final blow, when suddenly.
A sense of humanity.
If mother were to see me like this, she would be disappointed.
Truly, irredeemably disappointed.
I slowly lower my sword, and descend to Rioca's level, placing a single hand on her exposed skin, and experience her side of the story.
*
Rioca's memories are a mish-mash of hossible experiences.
Born into a family of addicts, they allowed her to be taken advantage of for any fix they could achieve.
Tossed away during her childhood, she sat on the side of the road begging for small change as humanity looked down on her for being lesser.
So she turned to petty crime.
Stealing purses, wallets, bags, anything she could grab. Selling to pawn shops to make whatever ends she could meet.
It was my long after this that she got sloppy.
People started catching her.
She couldn't get too far on little legs, so humanity made a game of her.
If she's this strong as a little-un, how much more could she take?
Humanity stopped looking down on her.
It started to spit at her.
Curse at her.
Beat her senselessly.
She became the town punching bag, and all because she was misfortunate enough to be born to parents who tossed her away like trash.
Social Services wouldn't help her.
Child Protective Services wouldn't help her.
The Government wouldn't help her.
On her thirteenth year of breathing, she was a shell of a woman. Forced to grow up too quickly, she used her youth as a honey trap for disgusting men, who would take their time degrading her.
By the time she was fourteen, she had no education, no friends, no family, no place to call home.
In fact, she found out she was pregnant.
Regardless of this fact, she continued as she did until the baby was 8 months. She lay in a foetal position, malnourished on a bench until a group of teenagers were walking by.
Usually her orbiters were grown-ups who want nothing more than to take advantage of her, but now she's approached by people closer to her age.
As they moved closer, they noticed her tattered clothes, her dirty face and hands, the holes in her shoes.
They noticed the bump.
The teenagers, five boys and one girl, who seemed to be on their way home from the convenience shop, found their new reason to hang around.
One boy starts with; "Lookee here! You look like you could be our age!" as two other boys agree. The ringleader, boy one, then begins to put his foot on her already weak leg.
One more grabs her by the shoulder and pulls her off the bench.
The girl with them looks down on her, as she does nothing to stop the other two boys as they begin kicking and stomping on Rioca's face and stomach.
She coughs blood.
Tears roll down her eyes.
The girl notices and implies they've had enough fun, and there must be a defenceless animal they can rag on instead.
The boys get one last kick in.
Upon their departure, as Rioca lays on the cold dirt, blood leaking from her mouth, nose, and lower regions, she hears a voice that calls out to her.
"She who is desolate and without water.
She who is barren and without daughter.
Become my servant and I will quench you.
Join me and I will feed you.
I will grant you that which you desire the most,
I will give it to you tenfold."
Rioca arises to a newfound determination.
Her belly remains bloated, yet somehow harbours no life.
She approaches the teenagers with a stride that could only be described as the 'I've got something to do and somewhere to be' stride.
They look at her as if looking upon a ghost.
Her previously black hair now stained at the tips with her own blood.
One speaks up.
"Back for more, huh? I never seen a girl wanna get fucked up a second ti-"
His words run cold.
His sentence ceases.
The teenagers stop breathing, as tendrils of pure shadow pierce their necks all at once, and the light leaves their eyes on the park dirt path.
Rioca walks away, the voice in her mind getting louder and more dominating.
"That's right. They were in the way." It incites. "And who would get in the way of our little girl?" The voice continues, as it distorts to mimic the voices of her addict parents.
Rioca screams, she holds her head in immense pain as her body slams on the ground all at once. Her continuously fractured mind too splintered to put together a coherent thought.
"You need me, princess!" The voice bellows, as if trying to convince itself. "We're one and the same!" As the voice continues its sermon.
"I'm not like you…" She tells herself as she lay again in the foetal position, clutching her stomach.
"We're basically the same person!" The voice insists. "Here's the deal, I'm gonna hang out here inside you, and when you need me the most, I'll be here for you. You'll never be alone again!" It barters.
"I… don't need it…" Rioca says to herself. "I'm fine by myself… I don't need… humanity…"
The voice laughs.
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You're a riot!" The voice teases. "But you're so right. Humanity is the problem. Humanity was always the problem." It proceed, slowly becoming more convincing.
"Humanity… did this to me… humanity can go to hell for all I care…" She recites as if a prayer.
"That's why you need me, sweet cheeks! We'll take on humanity together! Whadya saaaayyy?" As its tone gets more playful.
More sinister.
"Alright." She agrees. "You can hang out inside me." Her tone defeated. Her demeanour destroyed.
Every second that passes, her mind fractures more and more, until it - as if made of glass - shatters. Making room for something more sinister, as the entity takes ahold and initiates its plan.
Ten years pass.
Rioca Antonella had graduated from every conceivable centre of education, as if being guided by some unknown presence, with flying colours.
This inconceivable accomplishment had her scouted by the Government to assist in a project they insisted would save humanity from its own hubris.
The very people who looked down on her, wouldn't help her when she needed it the most, spat at her and ignored her pleas.
This must have been destiny.
She agrees as if it was her birthright.
Introduced to Raphael, she spends one and a half years monitoring and assisting.
Then she started plotting.
She started suggesting people who were threats.
She implies she knows the future, and these people's existences means the failure of their plan.
They believe her without question.
Her calculations are all perfect.
How could she fail us now?
Those she had the Government erase were too powerful. Their strength could get in her way.
Their erasure guaranteed humanity could not be saved.
Humanity did not need saving in her eyes.
However, somewhere down the line, the Government caught on to her plan, and they agreed.
Humanity has to go.
One and a half more years pass.
Rioca is in Raphael's monitor room.
Raphael presses a button and speaks into a microphone.
"Is everyone in position? Remember! catalogue. Information!" His tone appears hopeful. "Report back at 2230 hours!" He finalises as Rioca's hand is placed on his shoulder. Shadowy, reeking a dirty black aura from the spaces between her fingers.
"We're not far from saving the world. Is this the accomplishment you were looking for?" She insists, her voice low and distorted.
"It feels good doing good. After the last month and a half executing any enemies, it feels better knowing we don't have to fight anyone ever again after this." Raphael monologues.
Rioca chuckles.
In her mind, she bellows out a hearty, lengthy laugh.
"And good is what we're doing. This was always meant to happen. After this, you'll all be heroes." Rioca recites, as the pieces fall together. "All you have to do is press the button when I tell you."
She places a second hand on his other shoulder, then moving her hands up to his head as the murky aura enters his mind.
It lingers for a moment, and disperses into twelve fragments that scatter in every direction.
"With this, humanities fate stays in a cage, for all time." She starts, taking a page from Raphael's book.
"With this, our will is done." The voice simplifies.
"Their fate is sealed. Everyone shall only remember today, forever."