The Empire Lives!- Chapter 2

BREAK
Why won't you die in peace? Jimmy lifted and plunged the sword back down. Again. Die goddamn you! And again. Just fucking die! One more time.
Wheezing, Jimmy glanced up from the bloody mess. The creatures and goat-women clapped, surrounding him.
“The king is here! Long live the king!”
“Get away!” Jimmy swung the sword around, chopping off heads and slicing torsos in half. The wounded fell and resurrected with thicker flesh and clapped louder.
What magic did that wizard work on me? No, that old cat can't do anything like this, he's too busy powering the empire….wait a minute…. I've finally lost it. I died dancing over scalding coals, and this is hell. I never left to collect taxes and dug, or found a vault, and there is no wizard lion. There is no cockroach, and there is no hope.
The clown swung until his nimble arms couldn't, and then he ran like a madafocka, but from the strange morbid creatures he could not hide. He did not leave their sight, nor did he escape a foot from them.
Into their hands, Jimmy was snared, and the corridor turned into the royal courtyard made out of stone walls mortared with human brains. They gave him new eyes and a red king's robe and propped him up on his throne made out of thorns, but it was burnt down with righteous flames from hell.
He fell, and spent years with them like a peasant, learning their shape shifting ways; first for survival, then for habit.
He found himself fucking a creature in the form of a six foot triple stack hamburger with bacon and fries wedged inside.
Hmm, it's so moist and tender, goodness gracious. Ahhhuh. He opened his eyes for the first time in a long time. Yummy goodness! I need more burgers!
A large cockroach sprung out from the bun into Jimmy's open mouth. He ripped it out, chucked it away and threw up over the hamburger; it ate it up. Slurp Slurp. He did it again. More slurp slurp.
A giant roasted chicken prepared itself to sit on them both, but the smell of vomit appealed to it very much, so it bashed Jimmy over the head with a wing and smacked the ingredients out of the hamburger, leaving only vomit-soggy buns. The other creatures stuffed the burger inside any hole they could. Someone decided it was time to rip people apart and have their blood bathe the attendants of the royal courtyard.
Jimmy, his head up towards the ceiling, face red, pulled his hair. This is my home, full of temporary experiences that do not satisfy me, where is my happiness? O forget it, why don't they just let me go? If I look down, I can't get enough! Curse my nature! He ran over to the giant roasted chicken soaking in the vomit left behind. A swift kick, and the chicken rolled over.
Stumbling up, the roasted chicken charged, it's form changing into a six-tailed fire-breathing female dragon.
Jimmy broke into a sprint, but the creatures pushed him back. A burst of heat lit him up. He turned into a clown of gold, and the dragon placed him on her back.
The creatures bowed down to him and the dragon, and worshiped them.
Face perplexed, Jimmy sat on the dragon's back, looking around the royal courtyard. What happened? Reins to the dragon formed in his hands. This is more like it, now we must find a way out.
On the far-side of the courtyard, a slippery slope leading to a magnificent doorway with glorious light shining out called him by name.
“Fly away!” Jimmy tugged the reins with all his might, and the dragon flapped her wings, waking the creatures from their worship.
They launched spears with ropes tied to the ends into the dragon.
She wailed and spit fire, her wings flapped harder. Jimmy held on for dear life. More spears pierced through; one zipped through the skull. They crashed into the ground.
The creatures grabbed the clown made out of gold and threw him into a cage, with the title of king of kings engraved in every bar, in the middle of the courtyard. Too dangerous to let free, they performed their unfathomable acts around the cage for their king to watch for twenty nine thousand years.
Jimmy cried and banged his head against the bars. I just want to be free...loved...and happy, why is that so hard? He tugged on his accursed red robe. I hate this ass backwards place, I was better off dancing over scalding coals. Why does it feel like I'm missing something, and every second turn into more empty space?
The dragon carcass lifted her head, a spear through the skull, and said, “You are a king of gold, yet you cry like a peasant as I lay here dead because of you. All I wanted was for you to love me and my children, but you wanted everything else, so here, take everything.” The creatures lifted the carcass and threw it in the cage with the clown. The carcass turned into a heap of gold, diamonds, jewels, rubies, and pearls.
Beautiful alluring naked women rose from the treasures with jars of the finest wine and seduced the clown made of gold. They whispered sweet sayings of power and righteousness to his ear.
Ah yes, he nodded. Yes, I am the king, the only king. They stroked him with good rhythm. A king of gold. A king of all. Jimmy groped the women, hurting them gently. More power, they said, give us more power. Soon, he was biting and choking them, slapping the senses out of them with a crooked smile. A laughing fit once a motionless coldness wafted in the bones.
I get it now, I was confused, a king told to be a slave clown. These creatures have been trying to show me this the entire time, let me thank them greatly.
He pried open the bars of his cage and ripped out a beating heart from the nearest savage and held it up high. “For your services, you will be repaid! Now bow before your true king for here I am and forever I'll be!” He guzzled the heart down.
An imposing wave of mysterious joy rolled through the congested courtyard. They killed, stole, raped, and gorged on their own flesh with vigor and prowess along with their king.
Every now and then, the king glanced over his shoulder to see if the slippery slope to the magnificent doorway had dried.
It'll dry up someday, and when it does, I'll go and see what the glorious light as for me, but for now, I will continue my reign, who else can do it the way I can? They killed that cockroach on sight so I didn't have to. They said it was the one that had been my master...so be it, if it was, then better dead, that deceiving bastard...I was never going to leave anyways, the only escape is death.
The six-tailed fire-breathing female dragon came back to life as mere bones and broke out the cage; she stayed in that form as land-dweller, slaying all and any, but the king. She knew her place, and knew it was better to play her part then not; she would be disposed and replaced with someone else who would play, she knew this much. The dragon was an older beast, older than the empire; she too had been captured and was made to reproduce hellacious creatures and learned stoic submissiveness.
The courtyard enjoyed what they considered a grand success for many years.
Little did the king know, those creatures he danced and killed with were the same ants he danced for over scalding coals.
An undesired respect left unrequited because of the empire's covet for the clown; love and hate, supply and sustainability. They craved his self-mutilating approval of their power over something, anything. Such a pure shot, he gave to them, freely as a pastor passing out fliers to an empty church service.
But like an actor stuck in character for too long, Jimmy lost himself among the creatures, the empire's only clown, a creature of habit nevertheless.

Little did they know, their little old friend, Willis the cockroach, had left his body to make amends with the breaker panel he had a professional install, and since then, neglected. There he spoke with the electricity that powered his house, now made prison. This is how it went down:

“What have you done?”
“Nothing! I walked in the house and there was this fucking ant watching news on my TV asking for more pizza. I told it to get out and I called the police, but they didn't give a fuck! I posted it online, and people thought I was some idiot! Those fucking ants came at me and beat the fuck out me until I smaller than Lil Bill Joe Billy Williams from the Marca-Marca TV show and took me to a city right under my damn bed man, it was crazy! They turned me into a cockroach! I didn't even do anything wrong, I swear. Yeah, okay. So some things were fucking me, but that was rape! I was unconscious, or I woulda fucked them up, I never wanted that! Or to be eaten and shitted out, okay? I'm fucking traumatized! I don't know if I'll ever be the same?!”
“I saw, I am in the house. They've been here since the construction of the house. I know because I saw them from the power pole outside, and in the other houses in the neighborhood. They're everywhere, and have had a form of control so powerful, yet so minute it goes by unnoticed, but a careful study reveals the extent of their reign and it's cause.”
“So you're telling me they have a right to be here? Fucking up my shit like no body's business? I don't think so, I'll kill them all I promise.”
“Young cockroach, you have yet to reach the level of leader of one, let alone, Emperor of your own empire to contest the ants, why do you act so bold?”
“I'm not a cockroach, you know this. I'm Willis the human. The human that runs the house you power.”
“Well, if you were human you certainly wouldn't have been able to fit inside the breaker panel, but I see that you do as the moment being now, young cockroach.”
“Well, you shouldn't be talking, you don't even have a physical appearance.”
“What a weak argument.” A bolt of electricity zapped the cockroach. “The sad part is you can't handle the truth, it would slow you down, but that's the norm for your type. Real easy to stall.”
Willis, burnt to a crisp, legs folded up, died in that realm.
“Do you see what I mean? I don't have to try, and I annihilate you. There are rules to this place. You'll have to figure them out on your own.”

Of course, Willis screwed himself silly, didn't ask for help and managed to get zapped into the royal courtyard filled with shape-shifting creatures and a skeleton dragon with a golden clown king.
Everything they did was fruitless. Willis wandered the floor, dodging steps, limbs, pieces, bodies, and blows, and ate of their corpses and feces to maintain himself for centuries.
Oh my god, these fuckers are insane, they won't stop! Don't they ever get tired of this? Please make it stop! They can't have consciences, they can't be real things, they can't be of any benefit to anyone!
Why do I have to suffer like this? I've been a cockroach for so long now, I don't remember what it is to be human. I'm stuck traveling these floors covered by their disease, eating and living off it. How did I get here? My sentence was only for seven thousand years, I know it's been longer now. These creatures will never let me go. We were well on our way out of the ant empire, but that's history.
I don't want to run no more, I want to them to accept me...they look happy?... no! What am I saying? They'll kill me...what am I thinking? I've been dead long time.
Dead to the real world. All my co-workers and bosses from the Rent-A-Bot store; all ancient history now, posing in museums visited by hybrid alien-humans of the future looking through the glass...they all forgot about me after the second week I was missing...hell, they never did remember me, never gave a fuck. I was another talking-face, too noisy and too proud, too demanding.
Ha! What do I care about those dweebs? I'm a recycled cockroach on it's nine thousandth life cycle. I am cockroach, not Willis, but I wish Willis was here... I'm more lonelier here, in this crowd, then I was in the fields. Sigh, always the unlucky one, everything goes wrong as I keep trying harder.
Where is the clown? Did they rape and kill him like they did me? Ah, why should I care? Bitch ass wanted to kill me, and why? Because I found better things to do without it on my shoulder weighing me down...Oh...well... I've died plenty of times now. I'm sure I've paid my dues with him. How can he blame me for all this? If he does, or did, he is stupid and the clown gig was the best thing going for him, but he fucked it all up getting lost...or should I say forgotten by me? Shut up, I'm not the cause of the problem here! Okay? I just care too much, is that so bad? I wanted him to be awesome, even if he was just a stupid clown toy.
I wish I could take it all back, everything. I wish I never woulda seen it in that store, it was on sale!….I wish I never woulda bought the house. I wouldn't be a prisoner in it, I wouldn't be seeing all this. Shoulda bought a boat.
The cockroach ran up the spine of a zebra eating a cheetah being recorded by a masturbating camera crew of men and women, and caught a glimpse of the dragon and her clown king. He gasped, and nearly fell off the zebra.
“Get de focking dissss-gusting cockaroach off de shitttttty zeebra fer de camera would ya pleasssssss, Wilmer?! Fer fock's sake! Put yur dick down! We need de monies!” A camera-woman said, being finger-blasted by a co-worker as she fondled another woman's breasts being eaten out by a greasy bald headed goblin recording it all.
The empire had gone to deeper depths, and recorded and projected their acts on the stone walls and ceiling, for the clown king would get tired and would want to sit back and take it all in, but on the big screen, up-close, and louder.
The clown king lay on the spine of the skeletal dragon, receiving oral sex from a zombie as he stared into the ceiling; a footage of gunmen opening fire in a busy cafeteria as towers are brought down outside the windows ran on a loop behind the ongoing ritual of people ripping and blood rain.
It's one of them, their king. Fucking king, would you look at that? Seeking out it's most sick desires while I'm forced to eat the shit that comes from it's actions. It was always capable of all this; the fragile toy, it'll cling to anything that gave it the spotlight for it's act. I shoulda known I was dealing with trash, it didn't even try to save me or search for me.
This is what it really wanted, this is the monster it truly is; it knew where the vault led and made me fall down, knocking myself unconscious, so it could rule without me bugging. It's story about being captured and forced to entertain the empire a lie to hook me into it's plan for revenge.
But in this sea of chaos, it is the only thing that knows me, the only thing that worked by my side. It was a helping hand, making it easier for me to escape, lowering my work load, but this plan failed me horribly. I felt something in my gut when I bought it, there was something evil and enchanting about the damn thing, it's why I bought it. I wanted to scare the shit of the ass-lickers at work with it. I could see the shades of evil hidden in it's painted eyes, molded smile, and rehearsed act. Why didn't I take better care of it and teach it to be greater tool for my deeds? Instead, I abused it's power and it worn off and I didn't improve the tactics. I left it to get lost on it's own.
“De cockaroach! Wilmer! Get it off fooock!”
A camera-man rolled his eyes, paused his self-pleasure, and went towards the cockroach on the zebra.
I'm just a cockroach, how can I fix all this? I can't even save myself. How will I get it to see with those eyes they gave it?
The man approached dangerously close, readying his hand to smash the bug.
Will I just keep running? Is that what I really want? To stay here and stagnate with these creatures of hell? I know there is a real world out there!
Smack!
The cockroach jumped onto the dying cheetah below; the zebra hoofed the man's genitals. The man reeled back and screamed.
They laughed at the camera-man; the zebra eye's lusted for him. It overcame him and twisted him to it's will, and it beat his face in with hoofs.
The greasy bald headed goblin laughed and recorded it as it came over the women. The laughter poked, then stabbed, and twist. The zebra bit open the chest, ate his heart out.
“Resistance to destruction is futile, you know you love it.” The zebra said, mouth munching. “No matter what you do, no matter how great or vain, you will die! A meaningless meal for a higher power to consume!”
The camera-man shaped-shifted into a monster of the night. It overpowered the zebra and devoured it. The monster grew ten feet taller, and stomped the camera crew dead.
“No one deserves to live in pleasure when there so much pain! I'll eat you all!” A primordial monster, hidden deep in the inner workings of the empire; a special being of the empire, lurking in the darkness, finally creeping out to snatch something to eat.
I must try something! In chaos, order must be established, somewhere! The cockroach scurried off the cheetah and went back into the madness surrounding the monster, rising up the spine of another creature. “King nothing! You sick fuck! Look at me!”
The monster reared it's hideous face at the cockroach and smashed the creature it was on.
The lower half of the cockroach, crushed; eyes on the monster, no prayers, he inched away with the two legs left working. An eyeball from the creature he was on rolled out the socket, pupil on him.
“You let me die and no one will save you from yourself, king nothing!”
The clown king glanced over his shoulder, yanked the zombie's head off, and stood up. “What blasphemy is this, beast of the night? You dare call me king nothing? I don't need salvation, I am perfect. I shall strike you down!”
Confusion.
“Forward then! Nothing would be better than the blood of a golden king!” The monster pounded toward the clown king and dragon.
They met at the middle of the royal courtyard, dragon and monster. The clown king launched himself through the air, manifesting a weapon in his hands. A large red and white candy-cane shattered against the monster's head.
Why would I create that? A candy-cane for weapon? King nothing, huh?
The monster swatted the clown king across the courtyard; crater in the stone wall.
The six-tailed dragon bit into the jugular vein of the monster, the blood washed over her bones, and her flesh regenerated with a thicker coat of scales made of steel. The monster wrung her neck, the edge so close and fine.
She wrapped her wings around the monster and hugged it, and with the fire out her mouth, she put it to sleep as she healed the deep wound, but a large scar was left. She was sick, the monster's blood too red.
The dormant monster learned to love her in it's own way, and she let him. They had a child, a baby girl. She was full of power and love and grew to be a great warrior-princess, sword and shield, before the courtyard's eyes.
It still lives! The cockroach, still crawling away, knew her by name. “Adira! You gotta kill the monster, it'll kill again!”
“Now's not the time, cockroach, we must save ourselves from the king first!” She ran to the cockroach, sliced and bounced skulls off her shield. “Here, I'll give you some room, but you have to give me some time! We need you to protect my mother!” She slayed the enemies around the cockroach, a clear area of thirty feet.
She leaped over to the clown king plastered to the stone wall and forked him out.
“Wait? Where are you going?” Willis reached out as if he would be healed if he touched her foot. Why would she tell me? I'm dying here! A crack traveled from the crushed to his head, touching something, and he was dead.
She stuck her sword into the center of the crater, clown king over her shoulder, and made a large hole. She jumped through; the creatures flocked to the hole, climbing over each other, morphing into larger beings.
The monster glared at the hole it's only daughter had gone through, claws and fangs out, then glanced at the dragon; she fought off pesky creatures around her that demanded the nurture they saw she gave to the monster on the other side of the royal courtyard. It's eyes rested on the cockroach, so clear in the open space; something had happened. It knew it dealt a deadly blow, but the cockroach, still crushed, became new. The monster stomped forward.
The edges blurred and closed in on Willis. At least Adira and Jimmy got out of this hell. The monster and the creatures cast their shadows over him, it was time.
I will overcome, good things happen to me. The human inside me is always in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. Everything that happens is perfect for me. I see my highest good at all times.
A bolt of electricity from the ceiling struck the crushed half of the cockroach. Millions of tiny cockroaches rushed out of him, and the monster smashed the main vessel.
Willis went everywhere across the floor, between their feet, in the shadows.
“Come to me! Together we can hold them off until Adira comes back!” The six-tailed dragon said. A swarm of cockroaches climbed up the dragon. She took off the ground, soaring in circles above the royal courtyard.
“You'll need more than just wishful thinking cockroach! You are the reason the clown king has my daughter jumping through the hoops, and you will pay for it. Dragon, you've chosen what you want.” Spears flew through the air.
I am strength. I am speed. I am safe. A wall of cockroaches jumped off the dragon. The spears wounded the wall, and the dragon remained unharmed. She blasted fire upon the creatures below, clearing another space on the floor. The wall of cockroaches fell with the spears, landed in the open space.
“Gather yourself all together now! I will breath fire into you that will not consume!” She hovered over the open, eyes filled with electricity.
Cockroaches from the four corners of the royal courtyard came together as one in the clearance. The dragon opened her mouth, streaks of light shot out her eyes to fuse with the fire, and she gave rise to a massive titan of cockroaches held together with flames and electricity.
The monster ate all the creatures in the royal courtyard for maximum power.
Willis pulled out the spears that pierced him and clapped them together, and formed a great battle-ax. Onward, he ran.
Monster and Willis collided in a mess of deadly blows. Ax deep in the flesh, fang and claw into chest. Frantic blows as death approached both.
The monster struck a deep nerve in the titan. He fell on one knee.
The six-tailed fire-breathing dragon gave out a scream. She dove into the primordial monster and pinned it to the ground.
“Can't you see? Me and you are meant to be one flesh, why do you let those cockroaches strike me?”
They locked eyes, and she knew if it died, she would too.
“Just move a little to the side, I'll kill it once and for all!” Willis stood and raised the battle-ax over his head.
“Stupid bitch, fuck you!” The monster speared it's hand into her soft belly.
She roared on her hind legs, the gap between them connected by the deadly act.
Willis swung downward, severing the arm, ax stuck in the ground; the dragon moaned and flew away to lick her wounds in a corner. The monster lashed the other set of claws to the jaw.
Down to both knees, vision blurred, things obscure, Willis lost battle-ax grip.