This is a short story I have been playing around with in my head and am now going to just go at it and see how it comes out. It is technically part of the larger story I have, but not an actual part of it as this part will never take place in it. Instead, it is an extra story that deals with the main character.
The world he once loved no longer exists. It hasn’t for quite some time. Earth, as all had expected, was swallowed up by it’s own expanding sun. Now this great warrior was left without a place to call home.
Human beings of Earth had come so far since his first days of life. Many of them still lived on other planets, mingled with other life forms, and slowly forgot their own ways of life. It was only he who knew what it meant to be human and yet he was not one. At best, he was only a shallow imitation of humanity. Once a man of significance who saved that world more times than even he could remember, and yet he could not stop the forces of nature from taking the last thing he loved.
Old habits die hard, but eventually they do die. He maintained many of the planets languages, until he could find no one else to speak them with. He continued keeping track of the calender until he could no longer remember even what year it should be. He would try to sing songs, play games, and celebrate in the many fashions that people of Earth would until he simply forgot each one. He was no longer with friends. Even his own fellow immortal, had met death. It had been many many years since his own name was spoken. He sat there, on a moon, looking out into space, and saw the image of a young woman with golden blond hair. He knew her face, but could recall her name.
It had been countless millenniums since Kayle Rain had even seen the Earth. Now his mind was struggling to hold onto the image of the world he fought to protect. He could still see the faces of those he called friends, of those he once loved. But they were distorted, fuzzy. A woman with red hair. A little girl laughing. A dark skinned man with a bright smile. And a family of three sitting in something once called an apartment. No one knew what an apartment was anymore. The word itself didn’t even exist except for within Kayle’s own head.
But who was this golden haired woman? The face was clear to him, but the name was nothing more than a blank. Emily? Tammy? Sonya? No. Those were others, but not this one. He could see the face of his oldest friend. His name was Caul. He was an immortal like Kayle, and he died protecting a small village on another world. That happened long before the Earth was destroyed. His mind, both old and broken, could not keep things steady and clear as it once could. But even so, the golden haired woman would not leave his thoughts.
“Was she the red haired woman too by any chance,” he asked himself. But no. She wasn’t. She couldn’t have been. The red haired woman was named Christine and was a lover. The golden haired woman was only a friend. Of that he was sure. She had to be someone else. A name he could not remember, but a face of such significance. As he desperately tried to remember, other thoughts took over. He could see this golden haired woman’s daughter. She was all grown up and looked just like her mother. He could see that girl’s father as well. “He looks fimiliar too,” Kayle thought. “Didn’t he die saving a village?”
Then he saw the golden haired woman’s mother. She was a strong woman who loved her daughter. Her name Lila. She once asked Kayle to take care of her daughter on the day of her death.
“That was it!” he thought. “I helped raise her. I saw her grow up from the day she was born. I was a brother to her. I taught her many things. She became the only one I could trust. My one true friend.” All of this was true, but he could still not remember her name. He remembered teaching her many things, fighting at her side, and sitting at her deathbed, but the name simply was not there.
Kayle Rain was confused. A once great warrior, now a beaten man. Beaten by time and dread. He sat on that moon and very well could have stayed there till the end of time had he not heard the cries of a voice out of normal ear shot.
All at once the confusion had disappeared. The images in his mind faded away. The need to know what he was trying to remember was no longer of importance. Instinct took over. A cry for help had become a language to him. He knew distress from a light year away. With that, he was off.
A man of an alien race and his family were being terrorized by several others of another alien race. Earth may have long since been destroyed, but the concept of bullies and murder was hardly an Earth creation. It lived on across the universe. Kayle did not know the reason for the quarrel and he did not care. He knew that innocent blood was going to be shed. That he could not allow. He seemed to appear out of thin air and placed himself between this poor family and their would be attackers. He spoke in their alien language and stated only a single word: “Leave.”
Though shocked at his sudden appearance, they did not hesitate to laugh at his order. There were dozens of them and only one of him.
“Leave,” he spoke again. Understanding now that he was serious, they each made attack on this old aged, but still young in body, warrior. And a warrior he was. With each of their punches, stabs, and kicks, he would evade and counter with a swift blow of his own. Their moves were strong, but clumsy. His were swift and sure. He fought off many, but more still came. Eventually, they started to attack as one. Even though he was a master of combat, there were simply too many of them, and the law of averages catches up with everyone. One of them got lucky and managed to plunge a blade deep into Kayle Rain’s shoulder blade. Kayle turned swiftly to deal with his attacker, and as he did, another grabbed hold of the hilt and forced the blade further in and then dragged it down. It sliced him deep and open.
With what little strength and will he had left, Kayle turned and unleashed a force of power he had not used in a long time. A power granted to him by a single medallion that he found so long ago. He thought he had forgotten how to control it, and perhaps he did, but this time it came to his aid once more. His attackers all fell. Each of them dead. It was the first time Kayle had took a life since he vowed not to to a woman in a land called England. All this and more flashed before his eyes.
Kayle fell to the ground. His face down in the dirt of this foreign moon. The family he had saved came running to pick him up. But he could see none of this. Instead, several billion years of life flashed before his eyes. He could see everything the day he first experienced it. He could hear everything and smell it all too. It was as though he was there again. Living it all over again moment by moment. It felt as though he lived his life over a second time even though it all passed in less than a second.
As the family sat him up, they cried and thanked him. Kayle looked at each of them, but said nothing. They asked what they could do to help even though they knew nothing of repairing such a wound. They asked over and over again what they could do. Kayle silenced them with a gesture. With another, he had them remove the blade from his back. As they did this, Kayle’s body tried to heal itself as it had done countless times before. But he knew this time would be different. He could feel the life flowing out of him like the blood from his back.
Kayle Rain looked at this family, this last group of people he would ever save. He looked at them for the longest time and then he smiled. With that smile he said, “Her name was Stephanie.”
He closed his eyes, the smile remained, the family wept, and Kayle Rain died.
As I said, I had this rolling around my head for a while, but with little detail. A lot of it was made up just now. Really though, it is something I wanted to get down. I know how my main story is going to end, and it is without the death off Kayle Rain. Instead, he is forced to live on and seemingly never die. So i wanted to come up with a “what if” were I to actually kill him off. With that I decided to place him so far into the future that he had too much information in his own mind to be able to grasp it all effectively. Each name and description I gave are all actual characters from the main story I have. Each one is significant in its own way. The significance of “Stephanie” is that she is the one character my main story always goes back to. That story is actually more about her than it is about him. She is the greatest friend of his very long life even though he lives for less than 40 years. A blip in his life really, but a blip that strikes him as significant. Something I am sure that many people can relate to.
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