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Johnny Reb in 'Return to the Lost Valley' Part 5
Character by Tim Frady Story by Wayne Clayton
Johnny stared at the reflected image of himself, but it was not that found within the frame of a mirror. Before him stood a solid being which looked as real as any man Johnny had stood against. The only difference being it spoke with anothers voice, the voice of Kilaratuu, the self proclaimed Scribe of History.
Somehow in this chamber locked away in the earth Kilaratuu had been granted the power to recreate images and events from Earths past. To toy and manipulate them at will, for what purpose Johnny Reb could not fathom. All he knew was that this creature wanted to control him just as he now controlled the Johnny Reb stood in front of him. A Johnny Reb from his past no doubt.
Behind the figure in the distance a door way appeared in the mock stone walls of the temple battleground Kilaratuu had created.
"JOHNNY REB...CURSED MAN. DEFEAT ME AND YOU SHALL BE SET FREE IF THAT IS TRUELY WHAT YOU WISH?" Kilaratuu's words fell from the mirror Johnnys mouth
"I COULD CREATE FOR YOU THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD, FILL THIS DOMAIN WITH SUCH DELIGHTS IF YOU WOULD BUT CHOSE TO STAY"
Johnny grimaced as he watched his mouth utter the words of Kilaratuu.
"Step aside boy or else I'm gonna punch a hole right through your shadow puppet"
The room vibrated with the hollow laughter as the figure before Johnny raised his hands to fight.
"SO BE IT CURSED MAN, WE SHALL SEE WHO WILL BE VICTORI....."
The Johnny Kilaratuu created lurched back as Johnny finished his sentence for him with a fist. Shaken he recovered within a blink of an eye and then grinned a bloody grin at the original Johnny Reb.
"AH HOW TYPICAL OF MANKIND, ALWAYS EAGER TO DRAW FIRST BLOOD"
The two Johnny's began to circle one another, each one testing the others nerve with probing jabs. Trying to find the others weakness. Johnny was no stranger to the bare knuckle fights, he had once gone 120 rounds with old John Henry, but he feared matched against himself the fight might never end.
Soon Johnny felt the sting of the others fist. He had hoped that Kilaratuu had underestimated his strength but the ringing of his jaw told him otherwise. Ducking to one side he countered with a series of punches which found their mark with easy. But the Johnny before him seem not to show even the slightest reaction. Prehaps this Johnny did not feel pain or maybe did not know how to mimic it.
But Johnny did and soon he found himself on the floor struggling to find his feet as a right hook slammed into his ribs.
"KILARATUU HAS WATCHED YOU WELL JOHNNY REB, ALL YOUR WEAKNESSES ARE KNOWN TO ME"
As Johnny rose up he replied with a vicious headbutt which for the first time caught the mirror Johnny such a blow that he too fell into the dirt.
"You might look like me but you don't know me?" growled Johnny as he followed up by ramming his boot into the belly of the downed man.
Leaping to his feet Kilaratuu's puppet roared is contempt at Johnny.
"I HAVE WATCHED MANKIND SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME,I HAVE SEEN HOW THEY DELIGHT IN WAR AND DEATH"
"Your Creator may of given you eyes to watch over the Earth but he fail to give to eyes to see into the hearts of men. For eons you had done nothing but watch, and yet you have not understood what you have seen"
Johnny once again found himself lifted off his feet as his mirror self drove and elbow into his gut.
"I HAVE SEEN YOU JOHNNY REB REVEL IN SO MANY BATTLES, EVEN NOW I SEE HOW YOU THRIVE ON THE THRILL OF IT"
Inside Johnny felt his rage beginning to boil. He quickly recovered himself and unleashed an axe handle to the jaw of his living reflection.
"You know nothing!! Men don't look for War, each man fights for his own reasons, Reasons you'll never understand because you've never had to go to War. You just sit on the sidelines and watch, you'll never understand how War changes a man, the price he has to pay..You don't know how it feels to watch your friends cut down by the machine guns in No-mans land while you remain un touched, or to share a joke with a man one minute and see him torn apart the next by the falling shells. To hide underground as a hundred shell rain down on you hour after hour, to sit in the darkness and hear grown men crying for their mothers as they wait for death to find them."
"YOU DON'T KNOW!! YOU DON'T KNOW!!" yelled Johnny driving his fist into his own face over and over.
Slowly Johnny's rage subsided and he found himself looking down at his mirror self, his face bloody and brusied. His bloodshot eyes staring up at Johnny through the swollen welts. Then it spoke once more with the voice of Kilaratuu.
" THAT IS WHY I WANT YOU TO STAY, SO KILARATUU CAN LEARN TO UNDERSTAND, TEACH ME WHAT MY CREATOR DID NOT "
As Johnny watched the body he now cradled like a child began to fade from view, so too did the anger Johnny had bottled up inside of him for the past four years of hell. He finally knew he could no longer escape the ghosts of his past. They had followed him like his own shadow into the heart of the Jungle. It was time he lay them to rest. Time to find peace.
Looking up he saw Kilaratuu hovering above him like a Barrage balloon out in No-mans land.
Johnny rose to his feet and turned towards the soft glow of the globe shining like the moon over the Smoky Mountains of home. For the first time in years he now know his fate was in his own hands and nobody else's, not the faceless Generals, not the Bosches not even Kilaratuu's, his own.
Calling out into the darkness he issued his demands and awaited the reply.
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