Text: Odilius Vlak / Artwork: Eddaviel

Place and Date: Santo Domingo, DR/ 6. 14. 2016.

What Happened: A Paradimensional Phenomenon in the National Library.

Briefing of the Case:  An outburst of sudden madness of the equation E = mc² caused by the publication of a science fiction and fantasy anthology.

Results: Collapse of the frame holding together Mass/Energy and Time/Space, matched with an unhealthy fusion between an aspect of the linear time [the future], and a fragment of the universe’s total mass [the Sun: a yellow dwarf G2V type star at the center of the Solar System].

Here the facts.

  Just about the moment of the event inauguration, the reality crumbled down; atomized in thousands of virtual space time fragments emulating the would be publish book’s cover: Futures on the Same Path of the Sun.

  But it wasn’t a hologram, but: «A dimensional gate!,» exclaimed Eddaviel, the illustrator.

  The Sun augmented its plasma to a Hell 666 level. The first casualty was the factory, that kind of straw in its eye. Next, it centrifuged the apocalypse burning out the word «Futures» from the title.

  «Its real purpose is to incinerate our real future,» deduced Eddaviel. «Hurry, let’s jump into the portal before it gets close.»

  He landed just on top of the central planetoid: the ancient Square Flag —supported by the axis of that technological wonder made in the Caribbean. 

  His boldness was imitated by the seven writers anthologized —frozen till that moment by a reality crazier than all their fictions.

  Odilius Vlak was the first who followed the order. He jumped right after his accomplice in the crime of imagine, proud to be the victims of their own fantasies. Then went Morgan Vicconius Zariah, Markus E. Goth, Peter Domínguez, Rodolfo Báez, Manuel Antonio Gonzáles Cabrera, and Moisés Santana Castro.

  Isael Pérez, editor and high priest, stayed behind in his SANTUARY, in order to invoke allied forces.

  Once all of them were inside the cover’s dimension, they saw disappear, from within the crystal dome, the rock crowned with the last symbol of the past human cycle: The Statue of Liberty’s torch. Only the isolated planetoid of Quisqueya withstood the external solar blaze. Safeguarded by the primordial Tainos gods, the African orishas and, of course: by the Catholic cross.  

  «I got it! It’s not a drawn sun but a written one; your imagination created it, not mine.»

  Everyone turned toward Eddaviel. Or was it him? Seated on a log was the anthropomorphic version of his logo: Eggoviel. Flatten head, the ink of his hair cutting a half moon face, big eyes, no nose and a thin stroke shaping his mouth; a superhero cape with a medieval touch; tight clothes including mummy like banded forearms; a couple shamanic collars; that damned sword with a Final Fantasy like blade and a hilt akin to an African wizard’s staff, specially by the skull that jointed it to the metal. 

  «A homicidal sun!!! Hahahahahaha…!!! —I beat that’s the mad planet from Odilius’ story,» joked Manuel

  «We’ll find whatever it is very soon,» promised Markus, aloof and solemn, as if he was hunted by the same visions than his character Agirá Al Maneft.

  Seven doorways emerged from the floor of the structure upon which rested the planetoid’s axis; the titles of each story engraved on their lintels:  Start; The Elephants Invasion; The Hunting Visions of Agirá Al Maneft; The Last Descendant of Glashadia; The Weird Bones from Antarte; A Brief History of a Galactic Genocide, and Georythm at the Speed of Light.

  A discussion took place over which doorway choose, hinting at the fact that the election would imply guilt by default. Peter argued in defense of his genre, science fiction, pointing out that it was not just about a fictional sun going mad, but of a future that ended up being its victim. Reason enough to place the origin of the sun in one of the fantasy stories of the anthology. Markus and Manuel retorted that a devouring planet sun was a beloved subject of apocalyptic science fiction, and that if the question was extinction, probable Vicconius’ story was the only one that could plead not guilty.

  Rodolfo confronted Eddaviel with an obvious fact: was his book cover’s sun that made the mess; that he confused their minds suggesting their imagination fathered the serial killer star; and that, after all, they were caught in the alternative reality of his illustration. And as if it wasn’t enough evidence:

  «You jumped first into the portal.»

  The Eggosword shined blue; the skull sockets burnt with the plasma of the devil possessed sun; the three waterfalls plunging to the sea from the island, turned into lava. The catastrophe reigning outside the planetoid swept its interior. Dominican Republic was about to join the mass extinction that made the Solar System a long forgotten memory.

  «Congratulations!» granted Eddaviel. «Now, let’s end the 3D narration of the abduction of this futures, can I count with you? Don’t forget: I’m a visual narrator. In any case, it’s much more ‘wahoo!’ a solar apocalypse that an invasion of elephants…»

  He rose the sword emulating the best pose of He-Man, Conan the Barbarian, or Lion-O from ThunderCats. The planetoid shot itself direct toward the sun… Then, just when the visual narration was about to have a suicidal ending, the VIRGIN OF ALTAGRACIA appeared and, in the same way she did with the fugitive earth from Georythm at the Speed of Light, she pushed back the planetoid, the sun, and the rest of the illustration’s graphic elements, to their original positions.

  Eddaviel stared at Odilius in amazement. The latter cleared everything up:

  «Sorry broth, but the last version of our fictions is done by the readers. And there’re a lot of them waiting just now in the National Library, eager to narrate with their own imaginations the cover’s scene, from its past to its future. So, let’s get back that, with the blessing of the VIRGIN, this Paradimensional Paradox will only delay for a couple of minutes the start of the event.»

  And in that way, the publication of the first science fiction and fantasy anthology of Dominican Republic, took place without any more invasion of the fantasy into reality.

  The rest is a wonderful story. Including the seven published in that emblematic book of the speculative local fiction; including the crazy cover’s adventure that, surely, every freak that have looked at it so far, have imagined an ending less apocalyptic than Eggoviel’s.

  What best proves it is that the authors are still alive.