Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

sense, they never really stopped happening. Every moment you ever treasured, every friend you ever valued is still there, separated from us only by time; the past is still happening and always will be.
    It's only we who have moved on. I won't tell you about my childhood. It wouldn't mean much to you. Things were very different nine hundred years ago. But I had two wonderful dogs, when I was a boy. Hound dogs. Marvelous trackers. I was never happier than when I was chasing through the woods with them, on the trail of a scent.
    "They both died when I was ten years old. They developed growths. Nothing we could do. So I put them to sleep, rather than let them suffer. I still miss them. But I only have to close my eyes to be with them again, and I know that back in the past, a boy and his dogs are still scrambling through the woods in hot pursuit, happy as the day is long. I have no need for a place like this, steeped in false nostalgia and a need to hide from reality. This was a place for
    weak people.
    "And now it's a battleground for Shub's creations. These aren't toys, or treasured childhood playmates; they're Furies in training. This whole world should be scorched and forgotten, a sick experiment that went horribly wrong."
    There was a long pause. "Well, thank you for sharing that with us, Deathstalker," said Toby. "I just know we'll all find that a great comfort in the days to come. I guess it's my turn now. Personally, I think you're all a bunch of softies. There isn't a damn thing in my childhood that I miss."
    "All right," said Evangeline. "Tell us about your no doubt appalling childhood.
    What terrible and twisted events turned you into the revolting person you are today?"
    "Oh, I was born a brat," Toby said cheerfully. "I just perfected it as I grew older. My dad died when I was very young. Mum ran away, rather than bow down to Uncle Gregor. He was a control freak, even then. I made life miserable for a long series of nannies, tutors, and armed guards, and ran riot at every school they sent me to. Never had any friends. Didn't miss them. Didn't care for Bruin Bear and his adventures either—soppy things. I was much more interested in the real world, and how to mess with its collective head to my own advantage.
    "This led, naturally, to an interest in politics. I'd always had a special affinity for dirty tricks and double-dealing. All of which came in very handy during my career as a PR flack, and now a journalist. I get to be obnoxious, intrude into people's private lives, and mess with billions of people's heads every time I put out a broadcast. Life is good. Or at least it was, until I ended up being shifted from one war zone to another. When I said I wanted to cover exciting events, I didn't mean I wanted to be part of them."

    "Don't you ever miss your real parents?" said Evangeline. "The ones you never knew?"
    "No," said Toby flatly. "I didn't need them. I made my own life. I've never needed anyone. Except Flynn, of course. Someone's got to point the camera in the right direction. Tell us about your childhood, Flynn. Now that should be a story worth hearing."
    "Sorry to disappoint you," said Flynn. "But I had a perfectly happy, perfectly normal childhood. No great traumas, no great losses. I love what they tried to do here. A place where everyone could be happy. It must have been a wonderful world. Before Shub came."
    "What do you toys make of all this?" said Finlay. "I don't suppose you ever had a childhood. Unless it was your lives before Shub came. Do you remember anything of that time?"
    The toys looked at each other, and in the end it was Halloweenie who spoke. He was sitting at Julian's feet, curled up into a bony ball, staring at the flames in the fire. "We all remember something of our lives as just toys. We were programmed to forget nothing, so the memories are still there. But our memories only have meaning from the point Shub came and woke us from our sleep with a poisoned kiss. The Furies gave us intelligence, wrapped in Shub programming.
    They gave us free will and then tried to tell us what to do with it.
    "None of us had a childhood. We were born fully formed into consciousness. I'm a Boy, but I don't really know what that means. We understand so little about what it means to be alive. All we have to base our lives on is the characters we were created to be. So we never know if we're the kind of person we are because we chose to be, or if we're just following our old programming. Life is