Li’l Bill's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Li'l Bill drifted through the Void, still stinging from the woman who'd carried her own door. This time he picked smaller prey. A dreamer floated alone beside a cracked grey stone, robes hanging still, glossy black head tilted in thought. Darwin Osmious. No pockets full of tricks. No exits hidden in his chest. Just a quiet creature who believed he belonged at the center of something. Li'l Bill slid close and began his story. He spoke of a place made for Darwin alone, a seat at the heart of the dark, waiting. He let the silence stretch. He watched Darwin's white eyes narrow, then soften. The dreamer leaned forward. The hook was set. "Everything has a center," Darwin said slowly. "You're saying mine is real." "I'm saying it's yours," Li'l Bill whispered, "if you take the deal." Darwin's gloved hand lifted, almost reaching. Li'l Bill's eye gleamed. Fear was coming. He could taste it. Then something shifted behind the swirling colors of a nearby nebula. A shape uncurled from the bright mess, dark and smoke-edged, stars scattered across its chest. Nyxx stepped into view. "He's lying," Nyxx said, plain as stone. "There is no center. I've looked. I counted." Nyxx drifted closer to Darwin and held out a thin, clawed hand. "You don't have to be alone for him." Darwin stared at the offered hand. He took it. The two figures floated together, hands touching, and Li'l Bill watched his whole story collapse in that small point of contact. Darwin turned to him, calm again, certain. "I don't need your seat," he said. They drifted away into the dark, leaving Li'l Bill alone beside the grey stone. He hadn't been beaten by a tesseract this time. He'd been beaten by a hand. He understood now: isolation was the real trap, and someone in the Void was undoing it behind him.