The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 94: Memory Palace

“Did-Did Ben just activate Attribute Amplification?” Ian asked, almost stunned. John looked on in awe as a strange barrier was constructed. It was a sphere that shone in the darkness. They all ran up to the sphere. It enclosed both Ben and June inside, locking everyone in and everyone else out. John explained,

“When Ben and I went to tame the Mosasaurus, we found a beacon and he got this weird gem. Maybe that’s how-”

Ian turned to John with wide eyes.

“That’s it! The gem to unlock Attribute Amplification!”

Patricia seemed so confused.

“I don’t understand though. We would have been able to kill June off pretty easily. Why did he have to intervene and activate his Attribute Amplification? It’d be a waste and would deactivate his attribute for quite some time too…” Patricia wondered. Chris shrugged. He was just as confused as the others.

“I’m not too sure either. But something is telling me that’s not really ‘Ben’. I mean, from what I remember, he hasn’t killed a single person.”

“Wait he didn’t kill anyone? Don’t you need to kill at least one person to use it?” Landon realized. Ian nodded his head in confirmation.

“You do. Maybe Ben has killed one or two people on the island and we never knew…” Ian murmured, “But if that’s the case we’ll only need to wait a minute. Then the amplification zone will collapse.”

But as they waited outside of the golden dome,

Nothing happened.

They waited for a while. The stars in the night sky still twinkled, waiting anxiously alongside them. Carlos wiped the sweat from his eyebrow, even more worried than before. Five minutes had passed and still, nothing.

“What is going on in there?” Carlos asked, “How has it lasted this long, and why is Ben taking so long?”

Don’t worry pal… he doesn’t know why either.

~

June wandered the forest, unsure of her surroundings and of her current state of mind. Had Ben really just did that to her?

June’s thoughts were interrupted as the forest cleared away, leaving a large plains biome to her waking. It was still night time. The constellations seemed even more beautiful in this night sky than it did back on the ARK. There seemed to be even more constellations in the night sky. A few supernovae had occurred too, leaving permanent explosions in the darkness. It was like multiple universes had collided with one another.

“It’s beautiful,” June thought. She briefly recalled Ben’s Attribute Amplification. Memory Palace. Has this been a place Ben has been before? If so, where was it? It seemed so mystical, dream-like, and unknown. She had known Ben transferred to Terran High just near the beginning of their senior year, but what type of past did Ben have?

“Who are you?” June asked as she saw a large castle in the distance.

It resembled June’s in a way, but at the same time it was much more large and grand.

June walked up to the castle. There was a large moat and a drawbridge. Large stone walls surrounded the castle. There seemed to be more near the back. She crossed the drawbridge and entered the castle.

Inside was a large dining hall, with a red carpet in the middle leading to a set of stairs which ascended to the upper floors. There were large stone tables scattered all about the dining hall. It seemed eerily empty. And quiet. There was not a soul in sight. She looked around. This palace felt oddly familiar to her. Not familiar in the way that she had been here before personally, but in the way that she had been here before in a dream.

June could spot blood splattered across the red carpet.

June shuddered. She didn’t know who it could have been. But it didn’t matter. She moved past the red carpet, and into a hallway tucked away near the back of the dining hall.

She walked down the hallway, faster and faster until she reached the outside world once more. As she looked outside she saw some stone paths leading to a plaza filled with an assortment of amenities. Movie theaters, malls, and restaurants. Set in the plains, there was a large hole in the ground, seemingly created from nothing.

June walked over to the hole slowly and peered inside. It led into a deep, dark abyss. She got goosebumps and backed away from the sinkhole. She looked around the area again, and decided to let her heart lead the way.

Her legs took her to an even more familiar place.

A restaurant.

She stepped inside. She could smell a variety of cuisine, but mostly tacos. Nobody was there except for her and a mysterious figure sitting at a candlelit table. She quickly stepped back and activated her flames. As the figure turned her way, June gasped as she felt the implant in her wrist disappear. June looked at her left wrist and saw it was gone.

“W-What have you done-” June paused as she looked up at the figure.

It was Ben.

The flower still sprouted from his right eye, its petals glowing bright like their implants. His implant was unusually dim and the strange void that clustered around his left eye like a black hole remained. He was wearing a plain white shirt and black sweatpants. He squinted his eyes at her.

“We can talk face to face now,” the man said, his voice oddly clear and concise. He almost sounded like a robot. A robot that sounded human. It was an odd trait. It most certainly did not sound like Ben.

“Who are you?” June asked. She slowly walked over to the figure, taking a seat facing him. The doppelganger stared at June some more. Then, he placed his head on his left hand, propping it up.

“It’s me, Ben,” he lied.

“I know you’re not Ben! Ben would never hurt me!” June lashed out, spit flying all over the place. The figure didn’t seem shocked whatsoever by her outburst. June asked, her eyes filled with rage,

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO BEN?!”

The figure stared on, unamused by her temperament.

“You’re right, he wouldn’t have,” the man claimed calmly, “He… has a soft spot for those with unrequited love. It’s from his past. He has felt that way before too.”

The black void continued to swirl round and round on his eye.

“But since you’ve crossed the line, he let me take over.”

June stared at the entity in horror. What line had she crossed? Couldn’t Ben see that she was so much better than his scummy friends? She hadn’t crossed a line!

“What do you mean he’s felt that way before? He’s loved someone else?”

The man nodded softly.

“Yes. He has. The first was unrequited,” the man replied smoothly, “The second was never meant to be.”

“And the third?”

The flower bloomed even more at June’s question.

“The third really was something else,” he cooed, “He’d never met someone like her before. I admit I took interest in her too. Maybe… I could bring things back to how they were. She seemed to have more knowledge about our ‘world’ than even I.”

“What do you mean knowledge of our world?” June asked, confused.

The candle was still lit. Its light is unreflecting in the entity’s eye.

“You don’t know?” he smirked, “It’s all just a story. A long story with its roots engraved in tragedy and unnecessary pain and conflict. You have been a major cause of it on this island along with someone else. You are evil. And no amount of ‘love’ can save you from that.”

The constellations sparkled in the distance.

“This is for their entertainment. So they can laugh. So they can cry. So they can hope again,” he explained in a chilling manner, “So they can be shocked that one of these characters knows. Knows that they're watching. Knows they’re reading these white lines on the teal blue screen. All just clustered in the little quotation marks… and then they gasp. Wondering how I know.”

The moonlight shines even brighter. The other constellations also sparkle in curiosity. The Key Master grinned, his smile reaching his ears and seeming unusually large. He was a demon in an angel’s body.

“You’re crazy. Whatever you are.”

“I’m not crazy,” the man whispered silently, “And neither was she… That mystery girl. She knew they were watching too. I took great interest in her. I wanted to make her my new host. But her mind palace truly was indestructible. Maybe one day.”

The moonlight shone into the restaurant. June wasn’t even sure how to feel about all of this.

“Just… Just let Ben go. Please… I know him best. He doesn’t want to be controlled! He doesn’t-”

The black void surrounding Ben’s left eye faded away for a moment, revealing his bloodshot, rageful eye.

“You don’t know anything about us,” Ben growled.

The void returned and the entity chuckled at the expression on her face.

“Don’t worry. I’ll kill you right now. I just wanted someone to talk to about my problems. The things I’ve felt… You do have my thanks for that. But you are still the source of my existence.”

“Before I kill you. I’m the Key Master,” the entity smiled.

The Key Master stood up from his seat and leaned over, tapping his finger on June’s hand. Immediately, June’s brain lit on fire, and she let out a scream of pain as thousands of memories that weren’t hers flooded into her mind. Vivid dreams of her being killed by strangers and friends alike slammed into her like a truck. June collapsed to the ground, foaming by the mouth. The Key Master walked past June’s body, the flower’s power slowly fading. It began to wilt, its petals drooping softly. As June let out a scream of pain, the Key Master leaned forward and placed his finger to his lips, hushing her.

“Shhhh,” he whispered in her ear, “I want to make this as unenjoyable as possible for our dear constellations. So shut. Up.”

June’s mouth disappeared. She had no mouth. Yet she wished to scream. June would be like this for a long, long time. The Key Master got up. The flower had fully wilted by now. The Key Master sighed and looked at the constellations in the night sky YOU.

“Having fun?” the Key Master asked quietly with a giggle, “Don’t worry. Me too. I don’t blame you.”

“Just know that this was for me. Not for you.”

The world around them began to crumble inwards, and the flower fell out of Ben’s right eye, landing on the ground and flickering away with the rest of the world. The black void that blocked Ben’s left eye disappeared.

Then it was over.

~

Ben was back to his senses. He looked around. All of his friends rushed up to him, screaming over one another in worry and grabbing onto him, looking him up and down and shaking him around. Others held up their fingers.

“How many am I holding?” Paul asked curiously with a bloody nose. He held up his middle finger.

“One,” Ben muttered. Then he shook his head in confusion, “Wait… I thought June beat you up so bad that-”

“No no I’m okay! Really nothing a bit of brew can fix up,” Paul replied, rubbing his face, “Although I can still feel the sting. I really am just a punching bag aren’t I? But what about you, are YOU okay? You were acting up earlier-”

“I’m not actually too sure what happened,” Ben replied, “I… Just kind of blacked out and now here I am.”

“Well June is dead,” Patricia pointed out, looking at June’s lifeless corpse. Ben blinked his eyes.

“I guess I did that.”

John walked up to Paul, a bit worried.

“You okay? I know you wanted to spare her-”

“It’s okay. Really,” Paul replied. He almost seemed disappointed and hurt by the outcome. His eyes swallowed with pity and he turned away from the dead body. He quickly glanced back at June. He stepped forward and gave her a little kick in the head.

“Perhaps I was wrong. Nobody changes for good.”

The night was somber and gloomy. Ben’s Attribute Amplification had lasted one full hour. When the others explained what happened to him, Ben didn’t believe it. He seemed truthful about it as well. He really didn’t recall ever doing something like that.

There were a lot of casualties because of the fight.

John’s albino capybara walked up to them and snorted. John nodded in confirmation. They knew where to go next as they had planned. The Book Club Camp.

They began their travels there, without a word leaving their mouths. Their thoughts still lingered on what had just happened with Ben and his strange freakout. None of them had seen this strange side of him before. Not even his closest friend Paul.

It certainly was odd to think about. But after a while, they brushed it to the side.

…

“I hope you enjoyed.”

“Freak.”

…

“You won’t see me for a while.”

“But when we do meet again.”

“I’ll know.”

“You better watch out for yourself.”

Because one day I’ll come for all of you.