New Command

   Jack donned the feminine robe, signifying his new rank and role as Commander.  Although, at this point most of the conflict had been resolved: the three female explorers had been freed of the high-tech prison, a sideways, rotating cylindrical affair set in the mountainside, and their liberation had simultaneously revealed a chamber behind the cylinder wherein the petrified bodies of past victims resided.  And now, Jack had been given his new rank.  He decided to put it to some use, however small.

   "Okay, everyone, listen!  We are going to remove these bodies.  Lay them out in a line out there in the prairie.  We'll have an archaeologist examine them, then give them a proper burial."

   The people around him, those under his command, began the process of moving the bodies.  Jack took off his robe so it wouldn't get dirty.

   The bodies were so ancient that they were more rocks than biological remains.  Each body was set in a stone frame, making their removal simple.  Jack lifted one and carried it down the mountainside and onto the grassy plains.  A dark but brilliant sky rained down warm, orange light.

   He returned with a second body and noticed, to his annoyance, that people were not stacking the bodies in a line as he had instructed.  Instead they were piled up in between bits of colorful sheets.  Not a big deal, it could probably be sorted out later.  He returned to the chamber and, noticing that the last body had been removed, once more put on his commander robe.

   He turned around and gazed down from the mountainside.  It was crawling with the people under his command, going about their affairs, preparing for the journey.  Their activity spilled down into the vast plains beyond, but not so far as to touch any of the mountains that bordered the circular section of grassland.

   He looked down a few yards from where he was standing and saw that a section of earth had been disturbed.  It was dotted with grass and tiny little colored flowers resembling feet.  They twisted and bounced playfully in the gentle breeze.  Jack's anger rose.  His people had not waited to bury the bodies, they had gone on without his instructions!  Time to assert his authority.

    "WHAT IS THIS I SEE?  Are these the bodies?  Lying in the ground?!"  He raised his voice to its highest volume, and was somewhat surprised to hear it echo down the mountainside, raising heads as it went.  "Am I not your commander?  And was it not I who instructed you to lay the bodies in a line, so that they might be examined by an archaeologist?!"

   At this point activity had ceased and all eyes were on him.  "And now, I see that the bodies have been buried, contrary to my instructions.  Who was it that told you thus?  It was certainly not I, the only one to give such a command!!  NOW, LISTEN CAREFULLY!  You will dig up these bodies, lay them down in a line, and an ARCHAEOLOGIST WILL EXAMINE THEM!  After that, we will bury them once more.  Now go!"

   The people nodded and began their work.  Jack looked on, satisfied.  He wasn't to be an unfair commander, and yes, he was perhaps slightly unqualified, but for such a simple matter as this he would tolerate no disobedience.  He certainly wouldn't be a wimp.

   Jack looked on until he saw the work had begun, then strode off down the mountain, his robes blowing behind him, to look for the archaeologist in their large group.  Once he reached the plains, a person stopped him.

   "Hey, that was great," he said to Jack.  "You could hear your voice everywhere.  It was a little scary," he smiled shyly.

   "Oh, good," replied Jack.  "Have you seen the archaeologist?"

   "No."

   Jack strode on, satisfied with himself.  Soon, he would fail spectacularly in his next big test, a full-on naval battle with himself in command of a submarine crewed by veterans.  That defeat would be the end of his short tenure as commander.  But right now, he continued roaming the plains, looking for the archaeologist.

Black Building

  Jack rolled his service cart past the balcony overlooking the first floor atrium and through the double doors.  Two hallways branched off at opposite, forty-five degree angles from the doorway, and each was pitch black.  In fact, the entire building was largely dark, save for a few lights left on for maintenance, such as the one Jack stood under.  Soft, ambient pop music was being piped in through crackly speakers, which Jack found slightly eery, despite the upbeat tunes. 

   After gazing down the dark hallways for a time, Jack started fiddling with his service cart, eager to get on with his affairs.  The cart was a standard unit, outfit with several tools and a cleaning tote, a green plastic tray with a handle, rags, and three spray bottles. 

   As Jack started working, his attention was drawn to the approach of a dark figure from the left hallway.  As it neared Jack's small pool of light, it was revealed to be a girl, medium height, brown hair.  Her face was devoid of emotion, more plain and neutral than Jack thought imaginable from a person.  Jack found it odd that this patron had continued to browse, despite the utter lack of illumination in most of the building.

   "Hi," said Jack.

   "Hello," said the plain girl softly. 

   "Ohp, here," said Jack with sudden realization, "let me grab - "

   He went back through the double doors to a small shelf-table unit full of tape and hastily fished out two rolls that happened to be stuck together.  He returned to the plain girl and offered her his find.

   "I can have two?" she asked.  Jack was finding her demeanor increasingly disturbing.

   "Oh, yeah..." replied Jack uneasily.  "You know, it's kinda dark in here."  He turned to the switches on the wall.  There were two sets of four on either side of the doorway.  He flipped several of them and waited expectantly, but there was no change in the pitch-black hallways.

   "Power's out," said one of the spray bottles in the cleaning tote.

   "Oh shoot, that's right...um..."  Jack was at a loss. 

   The plain girl stared at him for a time.  "Can you stay up here, to read the comic?" she asked.

   "Me? No, no, I'm going back downstairs."  Jack started to back away from the girl.

   "I'm gonna need you to stay up here and read the comic."

   Jack chilled, and fear began to take root.  He was unable to look away from the plain girl as he backed through the double doors and up against the balcony railing.

   "No, no, I'll go back to the front."

   "No, stay up there," the spray bottle said, its voice emanating from somewhere on the lower level.  The spray bottle had abandoned him.

   Jack split: though he was now floating, observing, he was still entwined with Piglet, who now occupied his spot on the dark, second-floor balcony.

   "N-n-no, no!  Bottle!  W-where did you g-g-go?" said Piglet, terrified.

   "Stay up," said the bottle from somewhere down below.

   "No!" said Piglet as he climbed clumsily over the railing and dropped down the lower level.  "I'm such a small animal, after all!" 

    By now even the maintenance lights had extinguished.  A spray bottle nozzle lay on the floor, very dimly illuminated.  Piglet's hysterical motions were only discernible by a bright point of white light, dancing and skittering around, avoiding some unseen foes.  It wasn't long before Piglet shrieked in torment, and his singular light split into reds, purples, and oranges, his shrieks of pain into tiny howls of demonic lust and rage.  The transformed lights continued to scurry around as a group in the dark, now seeking instead of fleeing.

   One more to go.  Then he would raise a tiny army of fingers and toes amputated from the village children.

Fading Fiance

   Jack and the girl, P'ho, sat at a round, concrete picnic table, one of many small constructions dotting the cavernous indoor space.  They had fallen for each other, but now it was time to part ways.

   "Don't worry, we'll see each other again," P'ho said reassuringly.

   "Yeah, I guess..." replied Jack.

   P'ho began to float slowly upwards, her body becoming transparent and incorporeal.  The pair held hands until the motion gently, almost lovingly, parted their grasp.

   "Let's marry," Jack said.

   "Yeah, ok, let's marry," agreed P'ho.

   As Jack gazed at his departing fiance, the high, dark ceiling above faded into a deep black canvass upon which the happy glimmer of city lights sparkled.  P'ho was returning to the inverse land, her mirror world.  Jack gazed in wonder at the city.  Although he was looking up, the view was that of one looking down from a very high altitude.

   "Oh, it's very beautiful," he said.  He watched as P'ho floated up and away, then down towards the sparkling city.