Part 12
Theodosius Barnes and Wade Wells moved into the opposite corner of the room at the Professor's words. Quinn and Rembrandt looked stunned beyond belief.
"What do you mean, Professor?" Quinn asked numbly. "How can this world be anything but real?"
"It is pure fabrication, Mr. Mallory," the Professor said in a deliberate tone that was not condescending, more like a very difficult explanation. "A very clever one. Very intricate. But it is light and shadow..." Arturo said, casually knocking a Ming vase to its demise in broken pieces on the floor, "nothing more."
"Professor, what's wrong with you?" Wade asked. "This is a great world. Quinn and I are talking about getting married. Rembrandt's going to raise Malcolm here." She looked at him with fiery consternation. "You must be delusional or something."
Maximillian Arturo looked into the eyes of Wade Wells with sadness and regret, yet with a palpable underlying fiery will that constantly motivated him. "I only wish I were, Miss Wells." He once again began to walk the floor. "I tried to convince myself of that. Just an old man, gone soft with age, seeing things. Alas, I've seen too much for that to be true." Arturo pulled out a concealed dagger and plunged it deep within his chest well before anyone could think of stopping him. Allowing Quinn and Rembrandt to get a close look first, he then removed the blade and held it in his hand.
"This world is an illusion, Mr. Mallory. Tailormade for yourself and Mr. Brown." The knife then fell to the floor.
"A few parlor tricks don't make this world any less real," Wade responded with more fear, more desperation now. "Quinn, you can't believe him!"
Quinn was completely befuddled and one look at Rembrandt's face showed that his old friend felt the same way. "Wade... I..." Quinn started, still unsure of what he would say.
Professor Arturo continued, unabashed. "In fact, Quinn, nothing about this place is real at all, save for yourself and Rembrandt. Not Mister Barnes here, not Miss Wells, not even myself."
"Quinn, do you hear him???" Wade asked. "H-he's not thinking clearly or maybe he's hallucinating, or... oh, God, Quinn, maybe he's really gone off the deep end."
As Quinn seemed drawn to Wade, Rembrandt stepped forward. "You said this was all part of an illusion. Whose illusion?"
"My guess is that our esteemed host would know more about that than I. What is it, eh? A computer simulation? Some form of mass hallucination?" Arturo replied.
"That's preposterous," the old man replied. "The whole thing is ludicrous. Ravings of a madman who hasn't yet recovered from a severe blow to the head."
"IF what the Professor says is true," Quinn interjected, attempting to add some form of rationality to this discussion, "why are you telling us this? And why are Wade and Mr. Barnes trying to dissuade us from it?"
Sadness crossed the Professor's face. "I cannot allow you to live out this sham of a life. As for Miss Wells and Mr. Barnes," he sighed, "they are quite simply afraid for their own lives. For if you are to realize the truth, they and everything about this world will fall apart."
In one lightning quick maneuver, Arturo the timer from Quinn's pocket and activated it. The earth around them began to rumble, just as it had whenever Malcolm entered it. "The vortex is your only way out, Mr. Brown, Mr. Mallory. You must go, now!!"
"He's crazy, Quinn!" Wade yelled. "He wants to kill us all!"
"I know a way to de-activate it without frying the power chip," Theodosius Barnes suddenly volunteered as fissures started to appear in the ground. "Quinn, give me the timer and I can save all our lives!"
The Professor spoke with a still-calm determination. "You must leave, Mr. Mallory! Now!"
Wade fell to the floor. As Quinn bent down beside her, she made what seemed like a final plea. "He just wants to tear us apart again, Quinn. He must be a double from another world or something. Please, Quinn, give Mr. Barnes the timer! If not for me, then at least, for our baby." Quinn looked at Wade with a mix of shock, amazement and fear.
Malcolm was thrust hard into the wall during a particularly violent tremor. Rembrandt rushed to his side. Calling out his name frantically, the Crying Man was finally quieted by Malcolm's soft voice saying, "Please, Remmy... stop the shaking... stop the shaking..." Malcolm, bleeding from several places muttered some other words which were unintelligible and then blacked out.
Arturo tried to bring a sense of calm logic to the situation, but there was still urgency in his voice. "Quinn... listen to me. Your lives are riding on this. The lives of your friends, Maggie and Colin. Of your own Wade... your own Malcolm. You must.. go.. now."
Quinn looked at Wade, seeing the look of fear and love in her face. She was his Wade in every feature, every emotion, every word she spoke and deed she did. Rembrandt looked at Malcolm, bleeding, broken. "Professor, I..." Quinn started, "...can't. I just can't! This can't be happening. It's not real!!"
"Now please, Quinn," Mr. Barnes cooed soothingly, "give me the timer."
The Professor rushed forward, knocking Wade out of his way. Theodosius
saw what he was going to do and it was now too late to do much about it.
He, and everyone else here was going to die soon. But he wasn't about to
let Rembrandt and Quinn die with them. As he pushed his two comrades forcefully
into the vortex,
a bullet from Mr. Barnes' coat pierced his heart. Professor Maximillian
Arturo died. Two seconds before the rest of the world did.
Well, that world anyway. Quinn and Rembrandt were reviving groggily. The first images either of them saw was that of Maggie and Colin hovering over them.
"...think they're coming to!" Maggie exclaimed.
"Brother!" Colin said, wrapping his arms around Quinn.
"Why are we here? What happened?" Rembrandt asked confusedly.
"Nice to see you, too, Rem," Maggie said, sarcastically. "We were all patched into some kind of computer simulation that read our minds and fed us back what we wanted to see. Just your average run-of-the-mill mad scientist trick."
"I was back in El Segundo with Susannah. We were married." Colin said with a depressed air.
Maggie gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah, I was back on my world with Steven, Colonel Rickman was nowhere to be found and I was flying jet fighters. Didn't take me too long to figure out what was going on, not as long as it took you guys, anyway. What happened in there?"
Quinn Mallory sat throughout the entire discussion with his eyes glazed over. "I really don't want to talk about it right now, ok, guys? How long 'til we slide?" He asked mechanically.
"About a minute," Colin said. "It's a good thing you guys came out of it when you did."
"Yeah," said Rembrandt, without much enthusiasm. "Good."
The vortex opened and Colin, Maggie, and eventually Rembrandt filed through. Quinn hesitated, if only to give his experiences here one last tribute. As he prepared to enter the vortex, a figure emerged from the shadows: Theodosius Barnes. His eyes looked sunken in, his face ashen and gaunt. He spoke only one word. A question.
"Happy?"
Quinn jumped through the vortex and idly wondered what would happen to the tears that fell.
The End.
