31: Choose

As he hung in front of the next portal, Anton steeled his nerves. Whatever it would show him, it couldn't be worse than the previous one, right? He looked inside, vision blurring, and he found himself looking at a light at the end of some tunnel. 

The hell? He could move, so he headed towards the light. Was he going to get reborn? He stepped through a tunnel exit, and a cacophony of shouting and noise caused him to freeze in shock. As his eyes got used to the bright light, he found himself standing on a large, cobblestone square. All around him, beings were milling around. Demons in all shapes and sizes were talking as they moved around while others were carrying goods to some unknown destination.

Looking up, he saw a beautiful blue sky with blood-red clouds and a white sun. 

"So, finally made it you little punk?" A harsh but familiar feminine voice caused him to jerk his head around. From amongst the crowd came Vice, staring at him with hungry eyes. 

"Glad you joined us, but tell me! Where you the last one? Did you get the reward?" She raised her hand to grasp his shoulder, but everything went fuzzy again.

Staring at the glowing portal, Anton felt curious. The second was better than option one, but what else was there? Floating to the next gateway, he wasted no time and concentrated. His mind grew fuzzy again.

Again he stood inside a long corridor, concrete on the ground and graffiti on the walls. Like the second option, he moved down the tunnel towards the light and stepped outside. In front of him were the remains of an immense bridge, rusted and broken. He recognized it right away, and a surge of nostalgia caused him to turn around. 

The ruins of his home tome, broken and decaying surrounded him. A loud screech came from above, and he stared up. A group of winged demons moved through the air in the distant, appearing to hunt something. As he watched, they dove down, and a high pitched scream followed. 

What was this? Where was he now? Before he could look further, his vision blurred, and he stared at the portal. 

Too short! What was that supposed to be? Was that earth? Could he go back, and perhaps find others? Cursing for a while, he moved to the next portal, only two more still behind it. Staring at it, he wondered what his next option would be.

His mind drifted away, and he saw nothing. Then he realized he had his eyes closed. Opening them, he stared at a black screen with large white letters. Your session has ended. Please vacate the machine. 

Blinking, he moved his hands and found a lever. Turning it, he heard something slide open, and then a soft voice came.

"Please stay calm, sir, the first moments after you exit might be a bit jarring, especially after the experience you had."

Hands rummaged around his head and removed something, and all of a sudden, he saw a face lined with brown hair. It was a girl with spectacles, and she smiled at him. 

"If you would follow me, we have some refreshments at the bar. Then we would like you to grade us if you feel up to it." 

Completely disoriented, Anton climbed out of some pod, sensing cold air around his body. Looking down, he saw he was only wearing shorts. Following the urging hand of the girl, he stepped down, trying to find his balance. A poster on one of the walls drew his attention. On it was the shape of a spiderling, against a demonic background. It said, 'Survive the apocalypse! Try our newest virtual world and show your metal!'

Blinking, Anton looked around to find many more metal pods, oval, and closed around him. At the far end of the room was a bar where teenagers where discussing something. The barman walked up to them, shouting if they needed anything more. Again he recognized Vincent's voice when his vision turned blurry, and he stared at the portal.

That wasn't what he remembered, there hadn't been technology like that yet... or had there. He was getting a bit confused and stared into space for a long time before shaking himself. It didn't matter. He would pick one of those exits anyway.  Hovering towards the single to last entrance, he focused on the gate. After everything turned blurry for a moment, he was hanging in space without any portals this time. In front of him hung a small planet, from what he could see little more than a meteor. 

How the hell did that thing have an atmosphere? Staring at it, he got a distinct feeling he was connected to the small blue marble. He could somehow feel small lifeforms move around in the all-encompassing sea, ready and waiting for something. As if by instinct, he prodded one of them, and he felt an option held in front of him. He saw nothing, and it was more of a feeling, but it was if it should eat the plats or the other lifeforms. Blinking, Anton chose plants, uncertain what the other option might hold, and right away, the small lifeform began eating the nearest plant. 

Wondering what else he could do, Anton barely noticed some of the other lifeforms begin eating plants when the world turned blurry, and he was back in front of the portals. Was he going to be in charge of a planet if he picked that? What kind of option was this?

Unwilling to move away, he stared at the portal. Would he be forever hovering above the world? Or could he roam his creation eventually... He slowly hovered to the last portal, taking a look over his shoulder before focusing on it. This time his vision didn't blur but darkened rapidly before returning slowly. He was hovering in a room he knew well, and with a shock, he noticed the demoness he had decapitated.

She was hitting his previous body, and he finally noticed she was talking.

~ Little one, don't think you can hide in your mind! Not from me! ~ As she spoke, Anton felt his mind drawn to the body, and he wasn't able to resist. Then he felt pain, torment, and agony. He felt as the demoness was pulling parts of his body off, devouring them. No, no! He had killed her, what was this?  

He was just in space, choosing... wait, what was he doing in space? No, that couldn't be right. Hell, what was going on? As he felt his mind begin to fracture, the queen's horrid smiling face turned blurry, and he hovered in front of the portal. He surged back from it, feeling his mind recover. That was evil!

Glad he could pick another future for himself, he thought as he hovered in front of the portals. 

"You have seen the possible futures." The voiced spoke again, and all of a sudden, the portals began rearranging themselves so fast Anton had no time to memorize where what went. Wait, what the hell happened?

"Choose one." The voice said in its horrid emotionless voice. 

Anton motionlessly hung in front of the portals, his mind completely blank as it tried to process the horrible truth. What had he seen? Only two were horrid, one was bad, and the rest would be ok compared to those at least. He waited and waited, but nothing changed, the portals remained, the voice stayed gone, and he couldn't move further than a short distance from the portals before arriving at some barrier.

Finally, sighing deep in his mind, Anton hovered towards one of the portals. It was the second one, the one that had shown him the world of demons.  Please not be random, have someone sit there and change the best with the worst, or leave them as is as a mindfuck. In that case, this would be an okayish choice. Calculating everything one more time, he knew he was stalling. 

He focused on the portal, and everything went blurry.

~ THE END ~