Doomsday Wonderland

The night was unexpectedly quiet.

When there was wind, the row of spherical street lights that hovered overhead would sway about and cast a lambent light on the ground. The aircraft that were massive as whales were floating high above the clouds, and only through the occasional moonlight could they make out their huge silhouettes amongst the dark sky.

“There is one thing you’ve misunderstood.”

Septimus strode into an alley on his left, his robe flapping like a butterfly’s wings in the air. “I’m not here to offer you help, nor I have the obligation to answer each of your questions. I don’t know where Luther is right now, and even if I know, I won’t tell you. After all, the last thing they wanted was to expose Luther’s whereabouts. Thus, for the sake of my own safety, I’m sorry.”

“Why did you come for me, then?”

“Because I’m the one who needs help.”

‘Septimus is in trouble?’

Lin Sanjiu frowned. There were too many questions left unsolved. Worse still, Septimus refused to tell her anything. Forcing her anxiety back to the pit of her stomach, she pitched her voice low and said, “I don’t have time to mess around with you. If you really need my help, then tell me everything. Start from scratch.”

Septimus slowed down. It was as if the things he was about to say were very heavy and he had to stop before he could even speak.

“Hmm, where should I begin,” he mumbled, tilting his head and looking ahead. Lin Sanjiu trailed his gaze and saw several signboards at the other end of the alley. After a few seconds, he began to speak again, “Please give me a second. I need to organize everything in chronological order first.”

Lin Sanjiu gave a slight start. The word “chronology” jabbed into her brain and unwound the knots in her mind. She finally realized why she felt so strange. However, she did not say anything and continued to hear what Septimus was about to say. “Okay, so after Marcie got separated from Luther, unfortunately, the next personality that was born was 12. You know about that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Ever since Luther evolved, all the personalities that had yet to manifest into an individual entity would remain dormant inside of his body. When one of the personalities awakens, then Luther will fall asleep. That personality will take over Luther’s body to cultivate a corporeal body of their own. After they attain a real body, just like Marcie, only then will Luther regain control over his own body. You know all of this, don’t you?”

Although she had forgotten some points, Lin Sanjiu still nodded.

“So, Marcie told me about everything that happened after 12 was “born”. I didn’t see it with my own eyes,” Septimus said with clear enunciation. However, it was better to say he sounded like he was reading from a book. “And Marcie has a bad relationship with me, so I don’t know much.”

“After 12 awoke, he put Marcie back into sleep while he was in control of Luther’s body,” Septimus said, “I don’t really care about that woman who always portrays a holier-than-thou attitude and thinks that she has the moral high ground on every issue. However, what made me wonder is that even after 12 attained his own corporeal body, Marcie was still locked away even though Luther had regained control over his own body.”

“Wait, hold on. So, you are saying that, Luther has stayed alone with 12 for at least a world?”

“I’m not certain about the specific time since I was still dormant at that time.” Septimus shrugged. “By the time Marcie was released, another personality took control over Luther’s body.”

“Who is that?”

“Bliss,” Septimus answered rapidly.

This time, it took Lin Sanjiu several seconds to find her voice. “Then? Did two of them join forces?”

“Why would they join forces? What makes you think so?” Septimus was tickled pink by Lin Sanjiu’s statement. He turned briskly to his left side into a spacious road. The street lights were very far away from each other, and there were apparent black and white stripes along the road. Set against such an atmosphere, Septimus looked just like a shadow.

“Of course, to gang up on 12!”

“Oh, about that…12 has gone missing,” replied Septimus. Every step he took, his robe would flutter along with the wind. “He grew faster than any of the personalities, and he’s the first amongst us to come close to maturity or become perfect. He’s only one step away from becoming a real human being and is no longer restricted by distance. Hence, after Bliss awakened and released Marcie, he was already gone. Nobody knew where he was.”

Lin Sanjiu fell into thought for a moment and then she suddenly had a brainwave. “So…none of you know how he looks?”

Septimus snapped his fingers.

“This…this just doesn’t make any sense. Don’t you need to regroup when you are transferring into another world? During that time…”

“After we arrive at a new world, we will fall off from Luther one by one, but we all never appear at the same time. 12 just needs to get up and walk away. Even if the other personalities see him, they won’t know that he is 12.”

Subconsciously, Lin Sanjiu stopped moving forward. It was only until Septimus had walked out very far away did she snap herself out of her thoughts. As she made a few quick steps to catch up to him, she asked, “Something just doesn’t add up. If 12 doesn’t meet up with the other personalities, how do you guys devise a plan to catch me? There must be other personalities who have seen him.”

Septimus turned around to look at her. He nodded his chin to gesture her to keep up with him, then slid into an alley on his left. On one side of the alley, there were houses posthumans had fitted together while on the other side were the remains of an abandoned factory when the apocalypse had struck human society.

“How can you be so sure that 12 is among those who want to kill you?”

Lin Sanjiu was stumped by the question. It took her several minutes to respond. “If it wasn’t him…If it wasn’t him, then who else?” she muttered as she caught up with the figure in front of her. “After all, I was his enemy in Oasis…”

“You aren’t familiar with 12’s personalities,” Septimus said. No matter if it was his voice or his figure, he sounded and looked just like a wisp of smoke in the middle of the night. “He doesn’t care about who has fought him before at all. He isn’t a person who holds grudges. That is just our normal human mode of thinking. As long as you stay out of his way, he won’t even spare a glance at you. Of course, I’m not sure if he’s one of the people who want to kill you because I don’t even know who they are.”

“You don’t know who they are? How is that even possible? Did you not come in contact with them before?”

“That is the next thing I’m about to tell you.” Septimus sighed. A worried expression crawled across his face, but after Lin Sanjiu blinked her eyes, it disappeared. “More personalities awakened and split from Luther after Bliss, but I know none of them and I don’t know anything that happened afterward. Let me tell you my side of the story. Perhaps you will understand better. When I first awoke to a snowy world, there was nobody next to me other than Luther. His body was exposed to the chilly wind. I looked around, but I saw nobody, not even Marcie. I used his body to live alone in that world for several months, and when I was about to form my own corporeal body, it was about time for us to be transferred into the next world.”

Lin Sanjiu unknowingly bit her lower lip as she listened. She had no idea why, but she felt sad and forlorn for Luther. In her memory, he had always been so happy and positive.

“By the time I came around to my senses, I was already in the Heaven Underworld. At that time, I had no one around me except for Marcie. Luther was nowhere to be seen. She told me to stay there and that she would come back to inform me if she found out anything. Then, she left as well.”

Septimus’s voice turned colder. Even a thick-skulled person could sense that he was not very delighted right then. “I still can’t forget that day when I had no other choice but to listen to Marcie. That woman must be feeling very pleased and delighted to see my sordid side. I despised myself for my ignorance and for being such a weak piece of sh*t, so I ignored her command and left, thinking that it would be much better if I got to retrieve Luther. After all, that way, I might’ve been able to find out where the other personalities had hidden Luther.”

Lin Sanjiu was totally absorbed into his story. She asked after seeing that he had no intention of stopping, “Then, what happened afterward?”

“I kept walking and walking and walking until…I got retrieved back into Luther’s body due to the distance restriction.” Septimus gave a bitter laugh. “But I still didn’t know where Luther was because when I woke up, I was in a dark room. I was shocked at first, but I soon calmed down. I began to grope about in the dark, then I heard…”

“What did you hear?”

“I heard someone breathing.”

When they came to an intersection, Septimus turned left again into another road. “Not only one, but many people. The sound of their breathing filled the air, and I didn’t know how long they had been in the dark. I was shocked, but then I soon relaxed after someone began talking. It was only then that I realized those sitting in the dark were the other personalities.

“They told me I was right on time because that day was the day they were about to announce something. They know you are in the Heaven Underworld. Before I came, they had been sitting in the dark. None of us could see each other, and we could only whisper. After I showed up, they told me they decided to kill Lin Sanjiu.”

“Why the hell do they want to kill me?” Lin Sanjiu said, the timbre of her voice raising an octave higher and she began shaking. She was confused yet angry at the same time. She did not know why they wanted to kill her. “Luther and Marcie are my friends. I’m looking for them not because I want to hurt them! Didn’t both of them voice their objections?”

“I’m not sure about that since I was late. Well, to be honest, I don’t even know if Marcie was there or not on that day.”

Lin Sanjiu was certain that Septimus would not respond to all of her questions. Despite the swelling doubts in her heart, she merely nodded so that he would keep talking.

Septimus turned into a clearing on his left and walked towards what should be a row of rocks in the distance.

“When a problem which requires everybody’s attention arises, everyone will get a signal and we will return to the dark room. I’m confident that 12 must be there as well. I just don’t know which one is him. In the dark, we talk, we make decisions, we argue, we threaten each other, and we follow an unspoken rule. Other than addressing each other by name, we don’t expose our appearances and identities. We change our tone and voice from time to time, so up until now, I don’t know how many personalities have awakened.”

In other words, Septimus might not know how Bliss looked. He only knew her name.

He then let out a half-sarcastic, half-amused laugh. “Of course, I believe that I’m not the only one who has been working tirelessly under the table to get information about other personalities.”

It now occurred to Lin Sanjiu that the personalities that manifested after 12 might be threatened or were under some kind of influence. That was why they refused to show their real identities just like 12.

‘So, the personalities that split from Luther don’t trust each other? But why?’

Lin Sanjiu did not ask the question in her mind but she raised something else instead. “Don’t you feel something just doesn’t add up? For example, time?”

“Time?” Septimus queried.

“That’s right. A new personality will form once Luther finishes traveling in a world. By now, he should have been through at least nine worlds, so I suppose 10 personalities should be the maximum number. But I wonder why and how most of them achieved the “perfect stage” in such a short amount of time. Do you get it now? Marcie hasn’t become “perfect” yet even though she has already gone through two worlds.”

All of a sudden, Septimus chuckled. “Although I don’t know the answer to this question, I know it has something to do with you.”

After spending the night with Septimus, even though she had obtained answers to some of her questions, she became even more confused.

“You really don’t know about that?”

“Of course. Why would I lie to you? I haven’t reached the perfect stage yet, you know. Speaking of which, I need advice from you. Do you think I should become a male or a female?”

Lin Sanjiu could not really care less if Septimus wanted to be a male or a female. Paying no mind to his question, she asked, “Why do you need my help? You haven’t even told me what kind of trouble you have gotten yourself into yet.”

“I need someone to help me find out the identity of the other personalities, and you are the best candidate I can think of.” Septimus quickened his pace and his robe rippled even more rapidly behind him. “I will work from within while you work from outside. With both of us working together, I’m certain that we will be able to find out all of their identities very soon.”

This was actually a tempting allurement to Lin Sanjiu. Right now, she did not know who wanted to kill her, so her hands were practically tied up. However, once she found out who was behind everything, she could solve the problem straight at the root. Besides, according to Septimus, something must have happened to Luther and Marcie, and she was worried about them. After weighing the pros and cons, Lin Sanjiu made a decision.

“Okay, let’s work together,” she concluded, raising her head to look at the figure that was walking further and further away. She positioned herself into a sprinting posture and said, “But since you want to cooperate with me, don’t you think you should show me some of your sincerity?”

As if he knew what she was thinking, Septimus laughed.

Suddenly, a cloud shrouded the moon. The wind grew stronger and a shadow tore through the air towards Septimus. Lin Sanjiu was traveling at a high speed. Just when her hand was about to land on that thin shoulder, the person yanked his shoulder back and then vanished into the shadows behind.

The wind returned to normal and the moon reappeared. Septimus was gone.

Resting on her knees, Lin Sanjiu heaved out a long sigh.

She was certain that the person was Septimus, and this was the second time she had experienced something like this.

The first time she experienced the same thing was when she had followed the man who had blown her aircraft up into the bus. He had just disappeared into thin air without any traces. Right now, she was confident that he must be one of the twelve personalities.

“I have recorded everything ever since you left the hotel,” Mrs. Manas said, “Did you notice? He kept turning left every time at every intersection, so you’ve been walking in a circle. Anyway, that isn’t important. Right now, if we can replicate his walking pattern, we might be able to deduce Luther’s location.”