{"id":46,"date":"2017-03-19T07:17:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T07:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/?p=46"},"modified":"2022-12-24T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T22:23:16","slug":"zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think I need a new name<\/em>, he thought to himself as he sat down on the overlook he had just found. \u00a0He let his legs hang off the side and swung his bare feet back and forth like a child on a porch swing. A passerby might have mistaken him for some carefree spirit pondering the small nothings of a simple life, but, alas, there were no more passersby. \u00a0And carefree, he was not, for he was nothing. \u00a0He had nothing. \u00a0He felt nothing. \u00a0He felt nothing unless the fire was upon him, and he had no desire to call it forth. \u00a0He loathed it. \u00a0If ever he was capable of feeling anything at all, he was certain that he would hate the fire.<\/p>\n

Maybe I should just let them have me.<\/em><\/p>\n

He thought for a while about a name. \u00a0His old name was meaningless in this new world. \u00a0He had nothing. \u00a0His purpose had been taken. \u00a0His will. \u00a0His ambition. \u00a0His love. \u00a0He was nothing more than a rotting pile of apathy wandering aimlessly waiting to die.<\/p>\n

Apathy. \u00a0That might be a good name. \u00a0Apathy. \u00a0No, even that is too much. \u00a0Nobody? \u00a0Nothing? \u00a0None? \u00a0Fuckface? \u00a0Dead Stupid Pathetic Empty Jackass? \u00a0Ugh.<\/em><\/p>\n

He could see the city from that overlook, and it seemed almost normal, the barren chaos\u00a0that it had become notwithstanding. \u00a0He dared not let his mind wander, so he began to imagine he could see little people in the far-off city, like little ants leading little lives. \u00a0Over there was a banker granting a mortgage to a newlywed couple for a tiny house just outside the city. \u00a0And over by the apartment were children playing some kind of game in the street while poor little Johnny sat by himself off to the side because nobody ever picked him for a team. \u00a0Oh, and there\u00a0in the window was a man and woman arguing over what to get for dinner. \u00a0And next door, another man and woman arguing over a recent infidelity even though they were both guilty of it on multiple occasions and neither would ever leave the other. He looked over to the park in the distance and imagined\u00a0a man stabbing a woman over and over again and he wondered if there would ever be enough holes in the woman for the man to be satisfied.<\/p>\n

Damn it all. \u00a0He would find no peace. \u00a0It had been weeks since peace had left the world, and it was not returning. \u00a0And now they were coming. \u00a0He didn’t know how he always knew, and he didn’t really care enough to think about it. \u00a0His quiet respite would soon be interrupted, yet again. \u00a0He sighed.<\/p>\n

It was almost second nature at that point, summoning the fire. \u00a0He called it from somewhere behind the pit of his stomach, deep in the recesses of himself. \u00a0He could not think of words to describe it. \u00a0He did not know why it was there. \u00a0He did not know why he could summon it. \u00a0But summon it, he did; for they were upon him.<\/p>\n

The first to reach him grasped out and found nothing but air where he had once sat. \u00a0The fire had given him speed and\u00a0in an instant, he was on the opposite side of them. They turned immediately toward him as if\u00a0they had been expecting his sudden teleportation. \u00a0But he cared not for their expectation, and he let loose his fire.<\/p>\n

A giant torrent of flame erupted toward them, yet still, they came at him, slowed but only a little. \u00a0And then, like always, the fire brought that damned emotion with it and his\u00a0emptiness pierced his heart\u00a0and he cried out to them.<\/p>\n

“You have taken everything! \u00a0You have taken everyone!”<\/p>\n

As if a dam had burst inside him, his flames poured forth with even greater intensity, and they began to melt and burn.<\/p>\n

“You took my mother!”<\/p>\n

They could no longer move forward for the force of his flames. \u00a0They still struggled toward him despite their inevitable demise.\u00a0 Pieces of them melted into entrails of molten goo whilst other pieces burned to ash and dissipated into the gale of his fire. Yet, they did not cry out. \u00a0They did not falter. \u00a0Then all sensation became lost to him and he could only pay heed to his loss and his nothingness.<\/p>\n

“You took my Samson! \u00a0You took my Persephone!”<\/p>\n

Tears welled in his eyes and he could no longer see. \u00a0The flames turned white and illuminated the sky.<\/p>\n

“I HAVE NOTHING! \u00a0I AM NOTHING! \u00a0THERE IS NOTHING!”<\/p>\n

What remained of their forms began to disintegrate entirely. \u00a0Every bit was reduced to char and ash, even the molten goo,\u00a0but the flames did not quell. \u00a0Even when nothing at all remained, the flames did not relent. \u00a0He found himself laughing, giddy on the raw emotion the fire had brought with it.<\/p>\n

Am I enjoying this?<\/em><\/p>\n

And with that thought, the spell was broken, and he released his fire and sat where he had been standing, still giggling to himself, in spite of the emotional vacuum left behind after releasing the fire. \u00a0So I am nothing and I have nothing and now I’m high on that\u00a0damn fucking fire. \u00a0I couldn’t even turn the stupid thing off when there was exactly\u00a0zero percent of the things left, not even a toe, not even a single bit of ash. \u00a0<\/em>He smirked. \u00a0Ha! \u00a0I think I’ve just thought of the perfect name.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I need a new name, he thought to himself as he sat down on the overlook he had just found. \u00a0He let his legs hang off the side and swung his bare feet back and forth like a child on a porch swing. A passerby might have mistaken him for some carefree spirit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-them"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7UkFD-zero","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonclement.me\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}