The Annihilation of Foreverland

watch how Foreverland was being manipulated. It was a risk to let the kid’s mind run free, but they were ready. But it was still a risk . A risk worth taking . The reward was far beyond his imagination.
    Danny Boy was a jewel.
    There was still the girl and there was Reed. They would be dealt with. For now, he needed to discover the potential Danny Boy had unveiled.
    The Director reached for a tray next to the chair with two glass tubes. One contained a needle – two inches long – soaking in a solution with a thin cable extending from the end of it that went all the way to the third floor where rows of computers would help transform his mind into Foreverland. The boys – when they took the needle – would come to the Director’s mind. Foreverland wasn’t a computer program, that was too artificial. It had to be organic. But the Director needed the assistance of his computer network to keep his mind stable, so that he could create the world of Foreverland, where the boys would find their thoughts. Where he would eat their souls.
    Well, to say he ate their souls was a little dramatic. Their identities – whoever they are – were absorbed by the Director’s mind. It made him bigger, stronger. It made him more.
    And he liked that.
    And his mind would continue to expand. Once the girl was gone.
    The Director pulled the needle out and punctured the second glass tube that greased it with electrolytic salve. Careful not to touch it with his fingers, he lifted it to the hole in his forehead. The tip made contact with the stent just below the skin.
    The Director took a deep breath. He pushed it through the stent and into his frontal lobe.
    His vision quivered.
    His body quaked.
    He laid his arm at his side and closed his eyes.
    Foreverland.

39
    The grainy world was all that Lucinda knew.
    There was no land to walk, no object… for her to lay her head. She existed in its endless vacuum. In the swirling gray of… voices.
    The sound of static.
    It was continuous in the Nowhere.
    It was lonely.
    Until a shockwave began.
    It rippled outward, stimulating the grains of gray… excited atoms. The voices began to chatter, fleeing from an object that began to take shape. It was the color of sandstone, a pedestal with a triangular fin atop a circular disc. It was always the first to appear before Foreverland was reborn.
    The gray scattered around it like insects. Colors bled from the base of the sundial. Lucinda hid deep in the Nowhere as… grass and trees and buildings and sky was born. She prepared to find her savior, hoping that he might bring her peace.
    That he might bring them all peace.

40
    Danny floated in the bodiless darkness. He escaped the suffering, forsaking his body for the needle. But he carried the image of Reed’s naked body shivering in the cold.
    The fan would blow on him. The sprinklers would mist.
    But Mr. Smith would arrive with something much worse.
    Danny couldn’t fail.
    Solid ground formed beneath him. He was next to the sundial. The entire camp had arrived, forming a half-circle around him.
    “Welcome, dirtbag.” Sid was a monster of fleshy muscle and blue, snaky veins. “I’m dedicating this round to your misery. I’m going to invent ways of torture, invent things even the Director wouldn’t dream of doing to another human being, Danny Boy. There’s going to burning, there’s going to be cutting and ripping… just, all sorts of fun stuff.”
    He popped his knuckles like snapping timber.
    “I’m going to do those things to you, Danny Boy. I’m going to do them all night long.”
    Foreverland was quiet. No one flying in the blue sky or miniature warriors racing across the Yard. They were all around the sundial to watch Sid perform surgery. Whether they wanted to watch or Sid told them to, they were there.
    “Try to run, Danny Boy, and we’ll catch you. Call for help, we’ll shred whoever shows up.”
    Does he mean Zin?
    “It’s going to be the longest day of your life, my friend. You’ll beg me to stop, but you missed that chance, son. You already sold your soul to devil.” Big toothy grin. “And I bought it.”
    He paced around the semi-circle, rolling his head like a mixed martial artist warming up for a big fight. He glared down at Danny. He was nearly twenty feet tall, and growing. Muscles writhed like snakes. He pulled a long breath through his nostrils. It came out like exhaust, blowing hotly in Danny’s face.
    Danny looked around.
    “No one’s coming, Danny