#6 Johnny: The Deplorable Dream

Storyteller: Dr. Stephen Phinney | Resting in his lap was a map printed on a handkerchief. It was a map of a place only known by the spirit world.

Johnny, The Day After, is a flash short story series. Join Johnny in his degenerate journey into the mystic world of the new global Chancellor. Experience his loneliness, pain, sorrow, and rebellion as he adjusts to being one of many who are left behind after the Rapture.

New to Johnny? Read Chapter One HERE | Chapter Two HERE | Chapter Three HERE | Chapter Four HERE | Chapter Five HERE

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Johnny was exhausted by the day's events. The sunlight of the setting sun had sneaked in through the window and crept toward the chair where Johnny was sitting. He was lying bare-chested, readying himself for bed, rubbing dried tears from the corner of his eyes. His frail body was weather-beaten by his constant anxiety.

His mind was drenched in loneliness and despair. Resting in his lap was a map printed on a handkerchief. It was a map of a place only known by the spirit world. In Johnny’s bewilderment, he wondered where it came from.   

The map was embroidered with scarlet red thread yet projected an image floating above its cloth. The mysterious map appeared alive, with moving paths that led to a pulsing X. The letters were not in a language Johnny understood. They do not linger; they, too, are in motion. The rocks and mountains reflected dark images of sorcery. At the top of this map was the face of a beast, a man-looking beast. It, too, seemed alive. Johnny interpreted this man-beast to be a supreme power of sorts. The paths to this image showed some mastery over the smallest items on the map. The images reached out to Johnny and pulled him into a deplorable dream. 

Johnny’s dream seemed more real to life than life itself. A voice cried out to Johnny as he stood in the center of a map.

Nowhere in the Christian Bible will you find a word rejecting my coming to rule from the mountain of humanity. I am, the I am. I am the ruler of the earth and all who walk upon it. Anyone who rejects me, I will deliver my wrath and cause trouble and distress to all those who refute me. I will deliver only those that support me. I will whip away their gloominess and clouds of darkness and fortify their cities. I am he; believe in me.

As Johnny looked over the shoulders of the beast, he saw a king on a white horse slowly approaching the beast. The beast shrilled in panic, shouting…

Ignore the man on the horse. He is coming to take my domain. I will defeat him. I will shatter his towers of strength. Come unto me, Johnny, before it is too late.

As the map beneath his feet shook, he awakened.

Johnny was awakened in a pool of sweat, heart racing, parched throat, and trembling with a bewitched fear. He sits up, staring blindly into the wall of his darkened living room. A great war ravaged his frail mind. His passions could only see the lust for conquest and power. He shouted into the darkness; I will not be left behind again. I will join forces with the beast of the mountain of humanity. Johnny is determined to assist the global Chancellor in fighting against the King on the white horse, even if it takes a bloody slaughter.   

Johnny pondered the true nature of good, evil, and the shades in between, attempting to discover the demise of his slow fade. His mother often spoke out on the seduction of a deluded bewitched mind — but from what he believed, this couldn’t possibly be what is happening to him. Or could it be? Contemplative and haunting are his thoughts as he settles with the fact that maybe, just maybe, he is becoming one with his new father – the world Chancellor. Johnny asked himself, Have I become my father’s worse fear?

Coming up next: JOHNNY’S GHOSTLY CONFIDENCE