The Acolytes of Crane "Updated Edition" Read Online Free

I
gasped. Was it a tiny spaceship?
    The
object bearing the multicolored radiance steadily hummed as it deliberately
glided toward me. Its trajectory was in line with my window sill. Now, it was
as if anti-freeze was being poured into  the crevices in my brain. Panicking, I
inched to my side away from the hovering object, feeling the full effect of the
“flight” instinct. In doing so, I fell off my bed and thudded clumsily against
the floor. Panting, I sat up on the floor, placed my hands at the edge of the
bed, and peeked over my comforter that was bundled upward.
    ‘What!
Is this for real?’ I exclaimed.
    The
object was foreign and weird. It had a jewel the size of a quarter linked to a
necklace. Finally, as if surrendering, it stopped glowing, quickly descended
right before my eyes, and landed on the apex of a blanket wrinkle. I leaned in
and held out my hand to scoop it up. Suddenly, like the projector at a
drive-in, it emitted a luminescent array of cryptic characters through the
darkness, against my bedroom wall. The message read—
    Theodore,
you may be our only hope. Keep this around your neck, because someday it will
be the only thing preventing your death and the ruin of the multiverse - K. T.
    —or
something like that. The glowing message simply vanished before I could commit
it to memory. I brought my hands closer to grasp the amulet, supposedly the
premonition of my fate. Once in hand, it felt warm, like the side of my TV.
When I thought it to be safe, I gingerly lay the strings around my neck.
Reluctantly releasing my grip on the amulet for a few seconds, I clicked
together the links at the ends of the necklace. As my eyes grew wide with
wonder, the necklace itself miraculously retracted to snugly fit my
pencil-shaped neck. Cool . Once the necklace was secured, I clasped the
amulet itself as if I could never let it go. Didn’t want to risk it, you see.
What kid wants to die, or ruin the multiverse?
    “As
I crawled onto the bed, I wondered what the multiverse might want with a dork
like me—and who was K. T.? I figured it to be a dream. I gripped the prismatic
jewel firmly, and continued to hum until another day of grounding diminished. I
fell asleep.”
    I
stop recording. I look at the gloomy walls of my prison cell, feeling at one
with my just-concluded parable of me falling asleep. I yawn. Enough talking. I
will sleep for now in this place in hell, having had the satisfaction of
venting my past.
    I
turn off the tablet and allow it to charge. Lying down on the mats causes my
side to sting. I roll over to position myself in a way that is comfortable,
with my back against the floor.
    Staring
down multiple barrels of a chain gun is a situation not too far from the normal
reality outside of this fortress. Closing my eyes, I fantasize about my escape
from prison for the hundred and fourteenth time.

 
     
     
     
     
    3 Theodore: The tragedy at taylors falls
     
     
    True
freedom is the product of defeated burdens and an admiration for one’s past.
Those days, I must have deserved a brief liberation.
    I
sit in prison, with a tablet in hand, providing intelligence to the Multiversal
Council—which itself deserves nothing from me. I know they proclaim their
neutral position, but I still will alter information slightly to avoid
implication. I slide my finger across the screen to record, and I start:
    “Alright,
finally, my grounding at home had ended. Exhilarated, I felt as if I were ready
for ‘lift-off.’ It was the end of one of my longest stints in ‘ Crane County
Jail .’ That morning before school, as I lovingly rubbed my amulet which lay
on my chest, I reminded myself that the vision of it flittering about in my
room was not a dream—perhaps linked to my fate—but real on all accounts.”
    The
very next day was several uneventful hours at school. On the bus, heading into
the direction of the Red Bricks, I once again admired my amulet. I had
daydreamed about it so often in class, that two