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“The Apocalyptic Card Dealer” (The Explosion of Reality)

In the year 1980, a popular sports arena in Miami, Florida was filled with spectators who

had traveled from their homes on the breezy March night to enjoy the basketball competition

between the Fireflies and the Coyotes. The cheering spectators gathered together in the

bleachers to stimulate the players with their thunderous cheers of encouragement, and the

Fireflies team was applauded for their efforts while the Coyotes team was unanimously booed.

Daniel Gorier remained silent among the thrilled spectators, and he intently observed the

players who were charging back and forth across the court. A player of the Fireflies team

currently was dribbling the ball toward his intended goal, but a mammoth player of the Coyotes

team interrupted his progress and blocked his path by sprinting to the side of the basket. The

player of the Fireflies was alarmed by the appearance of his intimidating opponent, and after he

collided into the roadblock that his adversary represented, he collapsed backward to the solid

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floor of the court. As the enthralled spectators expressed their disapproval through strident

booing, the referee signaled that the player of the Coyotes team had committed a foul. Chris

Pontius, the cantankerous coach of the Fireflies team, was infuriated that one of his most

cherished players had suffered a potential injury, and Pontius immediately was provoked to rise

from the bench so that he could verbally express his frustration. The fouled player of the

Fireflies team realized that he had sprained his knee as he writhed around in pain. He was

seated on the court floor that was covered with sticky sweat, and when he clasped his arms

around the injured knee, the referee blew into his whistle to notify the audience that the game

had been halted because of the injury. The Fireflies player crawled across the painted circle of

the court and struggled to reach his feet, but the menacing ache in his knee prevented him from

accomplishing his desired task. The referee walked to the wounded player and displayed

absolute indifference because he was convinced that the basketball competition should continue

regardless of severe injuries. Three trainers emerged from the crowd of energetic spectators so

that they could escort the wounded player of the Fireflies to a medical facility where he could

receive the proper treatment. The Fireflies coach Pontius screamed at the Coyotes player who

had violated the rules by causing the foul, and the spectators shared Pontius’ fury while Gorier

climbed down the bleachers to begin a conversation with the coach. Pontius slouched back on

the bench where he could recompose himself, but his attempts to recover from the outburst

were hindered by the appearance of Gorier beside him.

Gorier scooted toward the infuriated coach and exhaled his putrid breath into Pontius’

face, and although Pontius believed that he had been disrespected by the impolite spectator, he

maintained his exterior appearance of tranquility. Pontius motioned for security to remove the

intruding Gorier from the restricted zone, but the security guards who witnessed Pontius’

gesture simply waved to the coach whom they admired. Pontius slapped his hands across the

flaking splinters of the bench in frustration because the security guards apparently would not

escort the seemingly deranged Gorier from the court. Gorier gleefully flashed a smile at

Pontius to celebrate that he would not be arrested for trespassing onto the court, and Pontius

snarled to express his disgust that a potentially intoxicated spectator was mocking him.

On the bench, Gorier scooted closer to Pontius and declared, “That really is a shame

about your star player, Max Haswell. He’s a great basketball player for your army, Coach

Pontius. You know that the loss of one player can cause so many new challenges for your army.

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The death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, caused the

outbreak of World War I between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. That war caused

the collapse of four empires, so the loss of this one great player could be disastrous.”

Pontius obviously was pestered by the drivel that the deranged Gorier was conveying, but

Pontius’ eyes attempted to focus on the basketball game that had resumed on the court. Pontius

shifted his attention to the perspiring players who were rushing across the court, but he

responded, “This game is important to me and to the fans, Mister. It’s more brutal and important

than any war.”

Gorier cleared the foam in his throat and asserted, “So, this basketball game is a war, huh,

Coach Pontius? Did you know that this little game was created in 1891 by a PE college coach?

It was inspired by a smaller Canadian game called ‘Duck on a Rock’ just as World War I led to

an even bigger conflict in World War II.”

Pontius irritably replied, “Well, if the Fireflies win this game tonight, then we go on to

bigger and better things. We’ll really be going to war. Do you understand me, Mister?”

Gorier responded, “All these players look just alike. They’re all big, bulking athletes, but

their uniforms separate them into their opposing teams. The Korean War was a civil war

between North Korea and South Korea during the 1950’s. We’re all humans with the same fears,

weaknesses, and genetic makeup, but it’s our little differences that separate us and lead to

unspeakable violence. One percent of our DNA makes us different; it makes people into

pacifists and warriors, even though we’re all really the same. Maybe, this basketball game is a

civil war, too.”

Possession of the basketball was reversed when a player of the Fireflies team dribbled the

ball out of bounds, and Pontius returned his concern to the competition so that he could chastise

the Fireflies player who had displeased his menacing coach. Coach Pontius summoned the

shamed Fireflies player to the sidelines where Pontius screamed and instructed the player to

return to the bench. Gorier remained peaceful as Pontius shrieked and yanked his hair strands in

various directions, and when Gorier mocked Pontius’ temper with his grin, Pontius screamed at

nearby security guards to remove Gorier from the bench. Pontius darted toward a security guard,

informed the guard about the nuisance, and pointed his index finger to the contented Gorier, but

the security guard stated that he could not see anyone on the bench. Pontius was enraged that the

security guard would not acknowledge his predicament. He gingerly walked back to the

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sidelines where he collapsed to the edge of the bench so that he could maintain his distance from

the peculiar Gorier. The mysterious stranger who pestered Coach Pontius snapped up his jaw to

fashion a smile, and Pontius concealed his face inside the warm comfort of his wrinkled palms to

illustrate his frustration with Gorier. Pontius remained completely distracted from the events of

the exciting basketball game because he was being pestered by the stranger who clasped his

shoulder and who tormented him with bizarre facial expressions. Coach Pontius slapped away

Gorier’s hand from his shoulder and instructed Gorier to cease his harassment, but Gorier would

not relent and continued his conversation after he had procured Pontius’ undivided attention.

Gorier ignored the overwhelming rage that Coach Pontius expressed through his red cheeks and

his enlarged eyes, and as Pontius gritted his teeth in frustration, Gorier flashed another smile

because he was forcing Pontius to reveal all his sensitive emotions.

Gorier continued his conversation by declaring, “Coach Pontius, my name is Daniel

Gorier. I’m The Spirit Connector; I’m an immortal being whose spirit travels from body to

body. I’ve got something to tell you about the world around you; this world is all about balance.

There has to be balance between good and evil and a balance between necessary and unnecessary

forms of conflict. You seem to know everything about these sports competitions. You must

think that you’re a very brilliant man with your knowledge of sports teams, scores, player

statuses, and team numbers, but these sports are unnecessary conflicts in this world. The loss of

your star player is not a tragedy. Do you want a real tragedy? Do you know how many souls

perished at the Battle of Normandy in 1944? Do you know how many soldiers drowned in the

English Channel when the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy?”

Pontius’ irritation prevented him from providing a considerate response, so he glared at

Gorier and refused to discuss his delusional ramblings. Gorier eagerly anticipated Pontius’

response, and Gorier glared at Pontius’ facial complexion in an attempt to analyze his thoughts

and opinions regarding Gorier’s bizarre question. Coach Pontius remained unwavering in his

refusal to answer Gorier’s question, and when Gorier concluded that Pontius would not appeal to

his appetite, Gorier licked his lips and declared, “Let me answer my own question, Coach

Pontius. Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed during the Battle of Normandy.

Operation Overlord was the biggest landing of soldiers and ships in the history of warfare.

Nearly three million soldiers crossed the English Channel, and the battle in Normandy lasted for

more than two months until Paris was freed. World War II was a necessary conflict. Do you

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ever think about all those souls who perished so that you could sit here and enjoy this game?

This game is an unnecessary conflict that was made possible because of necessary conflicts like

World War II. 19,000 American troops died for you at the Battle of the Bulge, but instead of

remembering their sacrifices, all you can think about are sports scores and statistics. All the

battles were necessary conflicts that you’ve forgotten so that you can sit here and watch this

basketball game, an unnecessary conflict that was meant only for entertainment. You’ve taken it

too far, and you’ve got all that human hatred in your teeth. You’re holding all that hatred for

your team.”

A player of the Coyotes team hurled the basketball through the hoop and collected three

additional points, and Coach Pontius gritted his teeth and contorted his fingers as his head

violently shook to illustrate his rage. The Coyotes team now was winning the competitive

basketball game, and Pontius was overwhelmed with grief and sensed that the world around him

was crumbling into pieces. Pontius’ muscles spasmed so intensely that he was unable to

generate a clamor when he unhinged his jaw to scream, and he buried his face inside his

wrinkled palms as Gorier pestered him by jabbing his arm.

Gorier’s index finger repeatedly poked into the hairy flesh on Pontius’ arm until Pontius

turned his head and shouted, “What do you want from me? I just lost my best player, and we’re

about to lose our chance for the big time. Is this what you wanted? This game is a war; it’s a

fight to get to the finals. Can’t you understand that and leave me in peace?”

Gorier solemnly nodded his head and appeared to understand that he had disturbed Coach

Pontius during a significant moment that would define his coaching profession. Gorier

recognized that he had psychologically scarred Pontius simply by mocking the vigorous sports

competition between the Fireflies and the Coyotes, and Gorier flashed another sickening smile to

celebrate his victory. The stings of Gorier’s malicious words had penetrated Pontius’ emotional

shield, and Gorier was prepared to infect Pontius’ sensitive soul with additional admonishments

to savor the psychological warfare. The spectators who were perched on the bleachers

encouraged the Fireflies team with thunderous applause and cheers because the competition

intensified as the ticking clock signaled the approaching conclusion of the game. Gorier alerted

Coach Pontius about the final minutes that remained in the sporting event, and Pontius glared up

at the digital numbers that were relayed from the scoreboard to the lenses of his foggy glasses.

Every second that ticked away from the clock resembled a symbolic gunshot that penetrated

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Coach Pontius’ soul, and his palpitating heart raced more rapidly as the seconds faded away from

the scoreboard. Pontius’s palms rested on the edges of the bench, and the wooden flakes that

peeled from the bench pierced through the flesh of Pontius’ fingertips to form splinters when he

lifted himself to his feet. Another Fireflies player collided into a Coyotes player, and the

referee’s whistle halted the game events after the Fireflies player was “fouled” and collapsed to

the unforgiving basketball court. It was clear that the Coyotes player had deliberately pushed the

opposing Fireflies player, and the Fireflies needed to score one additional basket to achieve the

two points that would secure their victory. Pontius was comparable to a wicked slave master

when he hurled obscenities at the Coyotes player who had attempted to injure one of his

cherished players. Pontius’ screams were so passionate that they nearly drowned out the cheers

of the spectators as the scoreboard relayed the message that only two seconds remained in the

competition between the Fireflies and the Coyotes. Pontius confronted the referee and sought to

intimidate him with verbal abuse, but the referee instructed Pontius to return to the bench where

the insufferable Gorier was waiting for him. Pontius sauntered back to the bench, and he

illustrated his trepidation that his team would be defeated by folding his shaking hands together

as if he were praying. As Gorier remained seated beside Pontius on the bench, an avalanche of

snot and mucus slowly emerged from Pontius’ nose, and he was so overwhelmed with emotion

that crying seemed inevitable.

Gorier scoffed under his breath at the sight of the broken coach, and with malicious

intent, Gorier declared, “Prayer is the last resort of a desperate man, Coach Pontius. Do you

really think that God cares about whether your basketball team wins this unnecessary conflict?

What about all those soldiers who died on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1944? They

prayed to God and begged Him to keep them safe, but they still shed their blood on the beach

and died. Now, if God didn’t help those soldiers who bled to death in a necessary conflict for

your freedom to watch this game, what makes you think that He’s going to help you? Why

didn’t you pray before the game if it means that much to you?”

Pontius’ trembling hands remained folded together as he struggled to maintain his

composure, and he violently shook and gritted his teeth in frustration because he wished to

observe the competition without Gorier’s insufferable taunting. Pontius unclasped his hands and

concealed his face beneath his separated fingers because he was so preoccupied with the final

outcome and with the Fireflies player who had been carelessly fouled in the final seconds of the

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game. Gorier placed his hand over his mouth to muffle the laughter under his breath, and he

glared at the terrified Coach Pontius on the bench. The red gums that Gorier presented in his

subsequent smile informed Coach Pontius that Gorier’s mouth did not contain any teeth, but

Pontius was too focused on the basketball game to be concerned with Gorier’s lack of teeth.

Jeffrey Horowitz, the fouled Fireflies player, pulled himself from the hard court, and

Horowitz limped to his team’s hoop and dribbled the basketball as the players from both teams

formed a circle that enclosed around him. Coach Pontius vigorously panted as he watched the

proceedings with immense anticipation, and Pontius recognized that Horowitz needed to score

both free throws to tie the game. Gorier opened his mouth to reveal the sharp glass shards that

functioned as teeth inside his mouth, and the glass shards were covered with Gorier’s blood.

Gorier spit a large accumulation of bubbling blood from his throat, and the blood splattered on

Pontius’ leg and stained his pants. After Pontius glanced down at his bloody pants leg, his

gaping mouth and enlarged eyes created the horrified expression that conveyed his apprehension.

The jagged glass shards that had protruded from the top and bottom of Gorier’s gums were

covered in the blood that poured from his mouth and that spilled onto the bench, and the glass

fragments between Gorier’s gums clanged together when he smiled. Pontius screamed in horror

at the sight of the bloody glass shards that served as Gorier’s teeth. The pointed tips of the glass

shards converged inside Gorier’s mouth, and the excessive amounts of glass in his scarred throat

nearly caused him to choke. Gorier widened the gap between his gums and smiled with the

transparent glass shards that shimmered under the lights that were hanging from the ceiling.

Gorier tilted his head back to alleviate the heavy pressure of the jagged glass shards that now

served as his teeth. Although Pontius longed to flee from the vicious being whose gaping mouth

was filled with bloodstained glass shards, Pontius was mesmerized by the intense imagery that

flashed across the jagged glass. When Pontius stared at the shiny surface of the glass in Gorier’s

mouth, Pontius was mesmerized by flashing images of past wars that were reflected in the jagged

glass fragments. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the D-Day invasion of

Normandy on June 6th

, 1944, the Battle of Britain, and the Battle of Stalingrad were terrifying

images of warfare that flashed across the glass shards in Gorier’s mouth. The glass shards

resembled shimmering crystals that displayed images of skeletal remains, burning cities, and

dying soldiers who were shedding blood that mixed with the sands on the beaches.

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Gorier retrieved a handgun from his front coat pocket, lifted himself from the bench, and

aimed the weapon at Jeffrey Horowitz, the cherished Fireflies player who was preparing to hurl

the basketball at the hoop. Coach Pontius could not warn Horowitz about Gorier’s homicidal

impulses because Pontius was so beguiled by the horrific imagery that flashed across the shiny

outer edges of the glass shards in Gorier’s mouth. Pontius attempted to lift his fingers from the

bench and to unfasten his lips so that he could shriek, but Pontius’ muscles were paralyzed

because he could not overcome his fascination with the images of warfare that were projected

inside the glass shards of Gorier’s mouth. Gorier turned his mouth of sparkling glass away from

Pontius, and Gorier glared directly at Jeffrey Horowitz, the Fireflies player, so that Horowitz’s

face was reflected in the jagged glass. Coach Pontius and the audience members who remained

seated in the bleachers were incapable of warning Jeffrey Horowitz about the handgun that

Gorier had aimed at Horowitz’s head. Pontius had been hypnotized by the grisly images of

warfare that continued to flash across the glass shards inside Gorier’s mouth, but Pontius still

struggled to overcome his total paralysis so that he could prevent Horowitz’s impending murder.

Gorier adjusted the glass shards inside his mouth so that the reflection of Horowitz appeared on

the surface of the glass, and after Gorier ensured that his grasp of the handgun was steady, he

pulled the trigger to discharge a single bullet that penetrated the left side of Horowitz’s cranium.

An explosion of blood from Horowitz’s skull rained down to the basketball court, and the

deceased Horowitz immediately tumbled to the floor where his face rested in the puddle of his

blood. Gorier had reflected the violent image of Horowitz’s death inside the glass shards that

functioned as Gorier’s teeth, and Gorier retrieved the basketball from the court and placed it on

the bench. He grabbed his mystical sweeper, which was known as “The Circler,” and as The

Spirit Connector, he used the sweeper to connect different human spirits together. Gorier aimed

the tip of the sweeper at the spectators before he pointed the sweeper at the basketball players,

and he swiftly moved the sweeper so that it was directed at the basketball on the bench. The

sweeper caused all the bodies and spirits of the sports players and the spectators to be sucked

into the basketball, and the basketball began to glow with an unidentified red radiation. After

The Spirit Connector used his sweeper to connect the spirits of the spectators and the sports

players together and to absorb their spirits into the basketball, he shifted his focus back to Coach

Chris Pontius, who remained frozen on the bench. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, shot Pontius in

the head to kill him, and after Pontius perished, Gorier used his pliers to pluck Gorier’s teeth

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from his mouth. Gorier collected Pontius’ one hundred and twenty-eight teeth inside a burlap

bag, and the teeth emitted the same radiation that was secreted by the basketball. The Spirit

Connector exited the empty sports arena to retrieve bags of sugar and chocolate from his car that

was parked outside the arena. Gorier returned to the arena with the bags of sugar and chocolate,

opened the mouth of the deceased Coach Pontius, and poured the sugar and chocolate down

Pontius’ throat. Pontius’ deceased body was covered with sugar, chocolate, and blood in the

center of the basketball court. The Spirit Connector carried his sweeper, the glowing basketball,

and the bag of Pontius’ teeth as he fled from the sports arena, and he dropped the glowing

basketball inside the outside dumpster before he disappeared into the Miami streets.

A news report indicated that a horrific plane crash had claimed the lives of fifty-four

victims in the city of Orlando, and police officer Donald Nestor turned off the car radio because

he had endured enough personal accounts of death during his lifetime. The rainwater sloshed

beneath the spinning tires of Nestor’s car as past images of his deceased wife and children

flashed through his tortured mind, and the brief report of the plane crash only intensified his

disgust for the world in which he was shackled. Nestor was currently a thirty-eight-year-old

police officer whose wife, daughter, and son all perished on the same day that he arrested Sam

Greene, a young postman who was convicted of murdering three sports coaches. Four years

earlier in the year 1976, Daniel Gorier had mutilated a hockey coach and two other coaches at

three separate sporting events in Florida. All the spectators and team players at these

competitions mysteriously vanished after the three murders. When Donald Nestor and his fellow

police officers arrived at the three sports arenas where the crimes occurred, they discovered only

the skeletal remains of the murdered coaches. The arenas were empty because Gorier also had

caused the players and spectators to disappear without explanation, and the skeletal remains of

the three murdered sports coaches were drenched in chocolate, sugar, and blood. Nestor arrived

at the scenes of the three gruesome murders in the different sports arenas throughout Miami, and

Nestor discovered that the sports coaches had ingested pounds of the sugar that covered their

skeletons. During three different sports competitions, Daniel Gorier mutilated a sports coach and

caused all the cheering spectators and team players to vanish. Only the hockey puck was

recovered from the crime scene where Daniel Gorier, the unidentified assailant, murdered the

hockey coach, and the detectives procured the baseball and the football from the sites of the

other two puzzling crimes. The hockey puck, the baseball, and the football from the sports

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competitions were recovered from an outside dumpster, and they all glowed with an unknown

red radiation that appeared harmless to the individuals who were exposed to it.

The evidence and circumstances that surrounded these three murders and the

disappearances of hundreds of spectators and team players befuddled Nestor during his search

for clues, and he immersed himself in the investigation for three months until his tireless efforts

linked Sam Greene, a twenty-five-year-old eccentric mailman who suffered from Parkinson

disease, to the bizarre crimes. Nestor could not provide the scenarios that had resulted in the

deaths of the hockey coach, the baseball coach, and the football coach, but he examined the

blood and DNA samples that covered each of the skeletal remains. After the proper scientific

analysis, it was determined that the DNA on the decomposing remains belonged to Sam Greene.

Matching DNA samples were located on all three corpses in the sports arenas, and the detectives

immediately concluded that Greene had murdered the three sports coaches. Although Daniel

Gorier, the Spirit Connector, actually was responsible for the three murders, Greene was viewed

as a suspect because he shared the exact same blood and DNA with Gorier. Nestor arrived at the

post office where Greene was employed to arrest him, and Greene was shuffling a deck of fifty-

two playing cards at his desk. As Nestor escorted Greene from the post office in handcuffs,

Greene insisted that he needed to complete his card game to “balance the positives and negatives

in the universe.” Greene screamed that Nestor had interrupted his pivotal card game, and Greene

contended that cataclysmic events would follow because he was unable to complete the card

game that would create stability in the universe. Nestor ignored Greene’s incessant pleas and

dragged Greene to his police car where he hurled him into the backseat, and Nestor quickly

delivered Greene, the prime suspect in the three murders, to the police station. Greene remained

adamant that he had not committed the unexplained crimes, and he refused to discuss why his

DNA was collected from the skeletal remains of the victims. Investigators attempted to

interrogate Greene in the hours immediately following his arrest, and Greene continued to lament

that there would be dire consequences because he had failed to complete his card game with the

universe. Greene’s aberrant behavior baffled the investigators who interrogated him in an effort

to recreate the three crime scenes, but Greene responded to the intense questioning with icy

stares. Nestor had invested three months of effort into capturing a suspect, so he should have

enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate his success.

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Unfortunately, when Nestor arrived home, he was greeted by yellow police tape that

encircled his home, and the flashing lights of the police cars nearly blinded Nestor as he

frantically charged toward his home in search of answers. Police officers restrained Nestor and

informed him that a gas leak of carbon monoxide had killed his wife and two young children.

Nestor had promised his wife of ten years that she would be safe and secure in their brand new

home, and he had assured her that the new house had been thoroughly inspected for deficiencies

or potential hazards. Nestor immediately collapsed to his knees in the grass and buried his face

inside his hands as the flashing lights of the police cars illuminated his body in the dark. Nestor

concealed his face from the world, and tears soaked into the wrinkled flesh of his hands during

his public display of overwhelming grief. The paramedics carted three gurneys toward

ambulances that were parked near the sidewalk, and Nestor shrieked at the sight of the white

sheets that covered his wife and his tiny children. He cleared the tears that dangled from his chin

as he remained crumpled on the grass, and in his grief, Nestor screamed, “I promised her that she

would be safe. I promised her that I would protect her.”

Nestor was situated in his kneeling position the wet grass, and as his hands violently

trembled, Nestor outstretched his arms and glared upward at the starry night sky. His heart was

comparable to the nighttime because darkness had engulfed his spirit, and only small glimmers

of light that were represented by the stars were present to provide some hope. The sorrow

conquered Nestor’s broken soul, and after the deaths of his three family members, Nestor had

transformed from an optimistic public servant with an unmatched appreciation for life into an

introverted, silent brooder. The day that Nestor captured Sam Greene should have been the most

cheerful moment in Nestor’s life, but at the end of the same day, Nestor’s soul was scarred

forever by the unforeseen deaths of his family members. Nestor became a reclusive police

officer whose newly acquired cynicism and indifference to life and his profession terrified his

colleagues on the Miami police force. After Nestor suffered a nervous breakdown, he

contemplated retirement, but he recognized that still needed his income to support his growing

alcoholism and drug addictions. During the day, Nestor was a depressed police officer who

sleepwalked through his job and who contributed lackadaisical effort. At night, Nestor drowned

his sorrows in beer and cocaine that allowed him to escape from the family tragedy that

beleaguered his mind, and Nestor yearned for his earthly life to cease so that he could reunite

with his deceased family in the afterlife. After a jury convicted Sam Greene for the mysterious

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murders, Greene was committed to a mental institution because he was classified as “legally

insane.” Nestor had transformed into a reclusive brooder who despised his interminable

existence on earth, so he completely ignored the coincidence that his entire family had perished

on the same day that he also had arrested his suspect, Sam Greene.

Four years after the tragic deaths of his wife and two young children, Nestor was driving

across the damp streets of Miami, Florida, and he briefly smiled as his demeanor was improved

by cherished memories of his children. He had been summoned to the sports arena where Daniel

Gorier brutally murdered Chris Pontius, who represented the fourth sports coach whose life had

been claimed by Gorier. The investigators who contacted Nestor hoped that he could explain the

events that resulted in Pontius’ death because the new crime scene closely resembled the sights

of the previous three murders. Daniel Gorier, the enigmatic Spirit Connector, had removed Chris

Pontius’ teeth and had poured chocolate and sugar down the throat of the corpse. Nestor was

immensely disturbed after he had investigated the previous three murders that had occurred four

years earlier, and he was reluctant to revisit the ghastly experiences that were never adequately

explained. Nestor’s car approached the entrance of the sports arena, and a cold shiver instantly

tingled across his spine because the arena’s familiar sights invoked memories of his lost family.

After he locked his car into “park,” Nestor exhaled a deep breath and mentally prepared himself

for the mutilated corpse that awaited him on the basketball court. He appeared to be levitating as

he rushed toward the entrance of the sports arena, and during his journey down the winding

hallway, he slammed down his eyes and exhaled a deep breath before he pushed open the door to

the main arena. Nestor walked past the bleachers and approached the basketball court that had

transformed into a crime scene where cameramen flashed photographs of Coach Chris Pontius’

skeletal remains. Nestor adjusted the rusty badge on his police uniform, but the badge had been

reduced to a meaningless symbol because Nestor had forsaken all the principles that the badge

once represented. After Nestor displayed his badge to the other members of law enforcement, he

climbed under the yellow police tape that encircled Pontius’ skeletal remains. As photographers

captured images of the corpse, Nestor crouched down to inspect the decaying skeleton that was

covered completely in a mixture of sugar and chocolate. Pontius’ skeletal skull was crushed into

dust by the white sugar and brown chocolate that had been poured down Pontius’ throat. The

sight of Pontius’ mutilated corpse disgusted Nestor because the crime scene reminded him of the

previous three murders for which Sam Greene had been arrested. Nestor slammed down his

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eyelids and turned away from the grisly sight, and another police officer who approached Nestor

recognized that Nestor was alarmed based on his sweaty face, his pallid skin, and his shaking

hands. The young police officer identified himself as Walter Snyder, and Nestor’s voice cracked

with apprehension when Nestor quietly muttered his name under his breath.

Snyder appeared energized by the revelation of Nestor’s name, and Snyder declared,

“Officer Nestor, I know that you’ve seen this before. The same guy who was killing sports

coaches and pulling out all their teeth four years ago is back. We’ve identified this victim as

Chris Pontius; he’s the coach for the Fireflies basketball team. The audience members and all

the players from the Fireflies and the Coyotes teams have disappeared, too. It’s just like the

other three murders from four year ago; it’s happening all over again. Our investigators found a

glowing basketball in the dumpster outside; the basketball is emitting the same red radiation as

the football, the hockey puck, and the baseball that you found at the previous three murders. I

know that you’ve seen all this before, so we really could use your help. Are there leads or

anything that you can give us?”

Nestor, the brooding police officer, illustrated his disturbed mental condition through his

expressionless complexion, and he ignored Snyder’s questions as he crouched down to examine

the skeletal remains that were covered with blood, sugar, and chocolate. The pungent aromas of

the sugary concoction aggravated Nestor’s once dormant senses, and he dipped his left index

finger into the red and white mixture of blood and sugar. The grisly image of the decaying

corpse immensely disturbed Nestor because he grasped the implications of the murder scene.

However, his face remained locked in an expressionless, somber stare because he was so

horrified that he was incapable of exhibiting legitimate emotional responses to the

incomprehensible sight. Nestor displayed the competence of a veteran police officer as his eyes

scanned the corpse and as he lifted his index finger to his nose to smell the mixture of sugar and

blood that surrounded the skeletal remains in the center of the basketball court. Nestor knelt in

his crouching position when he shifted his focus from the corpse to Officer Snyder, and in his

monotonous, depressing voice, Nestor declared, “I’ve seen all this before, but this can’t be

happening again. I mean, I put this guy away four years ago. He’ll be behind bars for the rest of

his life. This has to be a copycat murderer. Did you recover any other DNA from the body?”

Snyder, the impressionable young police officer, gulped with hesitation as he peered

down at Nestor on the bloodstained basketball court, and Snyder declared, “Yeah, we’ve also

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identified the DNA of Jeffrey Horowitz and some other basketball players from the Coyotes and

the Fireflies teams. We’re at a loss to explain it, but we also found Sam Greene’s DNA. I know

that it’s impossible since that’s the guy that you put away for these crimes four years ago, but

that’s one of the reasons that we called you. We need your help to make sure that this doesn’t

happen again.”

Nestor became incensed by Snyder’s suggestion that Sam Greene could be responsible

for this crime because Nestor assured himself that he had arrested and had imprisoned Greene for

the murders of three other sports coaches four years earlier. After Snyder presented Nestor with

evidence that Sam Greene’s DNA had been recovered from the sickening crime scene, Nestor

abruptly leaped from his crouching position and glared directly into Snyder’s eyes with a solemn

stare. Although Nestor’s heavy breathing and his snorting indicated that he was agitated, his

cracking voice remained dull and monotonous when he responded, “Look, Snyder, Sam Greene

was a crazy mailman who’s going to rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life. There’s no way that

he was here during this basketball game. Don’t even think, for one second, that he did this. I put

him away for life.”

Snyder admired Nestor for his steadfast dedication to capturing the criminal who

savagely murdered the three sports coaches, and Snyder became sheepish based on his

conclusion that he had infuriated the veteran police officer whom he respected. Snyder’s eyes

wandered to the floor to express his shame, and with palpable apprehension in his voice, Snyder

whispered, “I’m sorry, Officer Nestor; I’m only reporting what Miami’s best police officers

found here. It’s just that we have a lot of missing people and no explanations for anything. All

the fans and the basketball players disappeared, too, and all we have is Chris Pontius’ corpse and

a bunch of DNA samples that we pulled from it. These missing people have families, and I owe

them some answers about what happened here. I know that you never did understand exactly

what happened with the murders four years ago, but you did make an arrest based on what

evidence that you had. You arrested Sam Greene for the murders of the other sports coaches.

Did he ever tell you anything? I mean, did you ever establish a motive for these murders?”

Nestor closed his eyes and conscientiously contemplated his response before he

laconically declared, “Sam Greene didn’t need a motive for what he did; he’s insane.”

Nestor’s apathetic approach to his casework and his lack of genuine human emotions

caused Snyder’s palpitating heart to race even more intensely because Nestor’s aloofness

15

intimidated him. Snyder silently pondered whether twenty years of public service eventually

would prompt him to transform into such a cold, brooding figure, and he was terrified by the

implications of this unsolved case onto which he had stumbled. Nestor abruptly darted away

from the heap of Chris Pontius’ skeletal fragments, and Nestor, the hardened detective, did not

even address Snyder as he returned to the entrance of the stadium. Snyder ignored that Nestor

had blatantly disrespected him because Snyder assured himself that Nestor was a righteous

individual who had been corrupted by his debilitating experiences with these unexplainable

murders. Before Nestor could wander through the door, Snyder accosted him to request

guidance about how to approach his investigation into these despicable crimes, but Nestor

replied with an icy, expressionless stare that horrified Snyder. Snyder longed to display his

courage as he confronted Nestor in the doorway, but after several seconds of awkward silence

elapsed, Snyder relented and stepped away from the door so that Nestor could depart without any

conflict. Snyder followed Nestor through the exit to the outside world, and Nestor walked to his

car as Snyder remained frozen on the sidewalk because he did not wish to impose or to interfere

with Nestor’s personal affairs. Snyder sensed that these deplorable crimes had psychologically

scarred Nestor, but although Snyder exercised restraint and sensitivity in Nestor’s presence,

Snyder still hoped that Nestor would provide him with valuable information about these crimes.

Nestor abandoned Snyder at the stadium where Daniel Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had

unleashed the mayhem that would allow him to disturb the balance between wars, which are

necessary conflicts that ensure freedom, and sports, which are unnecessary conflicts that are

intended for entertainment. Nestor drove away from the stadium and rapidly turned his car’s

steering wheel so that he could begin to drive five miles to the mental institution where Sam

Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, had been interred for the past four years. As Nestor drove

toward the institution, images of his deceased family members flashed through his mental

canvas, but his jovial memories could not alleviate his feelings of desolation. Although Nestor

had no desire to revisit these agonizing experiences and grisly murders of sports coaches, he was

willing to resort to any desperate measures to close the chapter of his life that involved Sam

Greene and these unexplained events.

Sam Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, currently was seated inside a hospital room

with narrow walls and only one window, and he was shuffling a string of monotonous green

beads through his shaking fingertips. Dr. Kevin Steele, the psychologist who had been assigned

16

to monitor Sam Greene’s bizarre behavior, was seated in a chair directly across from Greene.

Dr. Steele stared intensely at Greene as the mental patient clenched the string of green beads that

provided him with the monotonous distraction that he craved, and Greene rocked back and forth

in absolute silence. He wrapped the string of green beads around the index finger of his left

hand, and he used both hands to tie a pattern of three tight knots into the string. He carefully

observed the string to ensure that the three knots were exactly the same distance apart from each

other, and he exhaled a sigh of relief because the knots provided him with the monotonous

pattern that he needed and because he had avoided an encounter with another pair of opposites.

As perspiration poured from his pores to drench his hands in sweat, Greene pinched together his

index finger and his thumb to move the green beads along the knotted string because he needed

to ensure that the beads remained the same distance apart from each other. Dr. Steele’s eyes

glared through his foggy glasses as the psychologist scrutinized the bizarre activities of Greene,

the apparently psychotic former mailman who had been convicted of the murders of three sports

coaches. A tremor suddenly caused Greene’s hands to shake and to tremble, but despite

Greene’s violent muscular spasm, he refused to uncoil his shaking fingers to relinquish his grasp

of the knotted string. Greene had suffered from Parkinson disease since his late years as a

teenager, and Greene’s current struggle to control his muscles reminded him that his brain and

his nervous system were damaged. Dr. Steele lifted his open palm to his chin to scratch his

beard, and he scribbled many illegible comments in his notepad as Greene tightened the muscles

in his shaking hands. Dr. Steele viewed Greene with a smug, expressionless stare, and although

Greene was frustrated by Dr. Steele’s lack of knowledge and his arrogance, Greene remained

peaceful as his trembling muscles continued to vibrate.

Dr. Steele cleared his throat and pointed to Greene’s shaking hands before the arrogant

psychologist muttered, “You know, Sam, we only want to help you get better. You’re never

going to get better if you don’t take your medication. It’s the only way to make your disease go

away. We all just want you to feel better.”

Greene’s control of his muscles slowly was restored as the violent tremors in his hands

diminished, and Greene expressed his rage when he glared at Dr. Steele and responded, “I don’t

want to feel better; I need my muscles to shake, Dr. Steele. I need this pain so that I can

complete the ritual that balances the positives and negatives in this unbalanced world. I need this

so that I can play my card game with the universal equation. You call this condition ‘Parkinson

17

disease;’ this is who I am. I don’t need medication because I’m not sick. You call this

‘Parkinson disease;’ this is part of who I am. I’m not a disease; am I?”

Dr. Steele, the smug psychologist, adjusted his glasses and responded that Greene was a

genuine human being whose physical ailment could be cured with the medication that Greene

stubbornly refused to consume. Dr. Steele clicked his metallic pen and repeatedly tapped its

cylindrical sides against his notepad and the clipboard that was beneath it. Dr. Steele shook his

head in disbelief, and as the palpable tension between Dr. Steele and Sam Greene increased, Dr.

Steele declared, “Sam, you’re not a disease, but you’re very sick. We only want to help you;

you’re never going to get better if you don’t let go of these paranoid fantasies, these delusions of

yours. The truth is that you killed three people, and we want to make sure that the world never

sees that bad side of you again. Now, it’s time for you to take your medication; I promise that

you’ll feel better.”

Greene twisted another knot into the string of monotonous green beads and pushed back

into his chair, and Greene slurred his speech when he frantically asserted, “Look, Dr. Steele, I’m

sorry about the plane crash, but I did everything in my power to try to stop it; please, you’ve got

to believe me. I begged that nurse not to turn off the lights in my room. I told her that light and

dark represent opposites in this broken world, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She turned off the

lights and created a pair of opposites with light and darkness. I tried to close my eyes so that I

wouldn’t have to see the opposites, but the universe forced me to open my eyes. The universe

forced me to encounter the opposites. I tried to complete my ritual so that I could balance the

opposites to win my card game with the universe, but the nurse interrupted me. I lost my card

game, and something bad had to happen because I couldn’t balance the positives and the

negatives. Something bad happened because the universal equation is so unstable. That plane

crashed because I lost the card game, and I’m so sorry. I weep for the souls of the departed; I

pray for the fifty-four passengers who died on that plane this morning. I’m not sick; I don’t need

your help or your drugs. I just need to be left alone.”

When Dr. Steele abruptly lifted himself from his chair, he startled Greene, and Dr. Steele

requested for a member of the hospital staff to provide him with a syringe that could be used to

inject Greene with a powerful sedative. The staff member complied with Dr. Steele’s wishes by

preparing the syringe, and after the staff member placed the syringe in Dr. Steele’s right hand,

Dr. Steele, the arrogant psychologist, instructed Greene to stand erect on his feet. Greene

18

clenched the string of green beads even more tightly as he glided the string across his cheeks,

and when Greene refused to rise from his chair, Dr. Steele interlocked his fingers across

Greene’s two shoulders and forcefully yanked Greene to an upright position on his feet. Dr.

Steele snatched the knotted string from Greene, and Dr. Steele instructed Greene to lie down on

the bed that was adjacent to the two chairs. Greene hoped to remain tranquil and to avoid

conflict with the foolish psychologist, but Greene became horrified by Dr. Steele’s commands.

Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, currently was standing in an upright position, and he

became terrified when he recognized that the two acts of “standing up” and “lying down”

represented a pair of opposites.

Greene pleaded with Dr. Steele not to force him to lie down, and Greene thrashed his

arms wildly as he declared, “Please, Dr. Steele, I can’t lie down. I’m standing up right now, and

‘standing up’ and ‘lying down’ represent a pair of opposites. The opposites will infect the

universe with a pair of positives and negatives that will force me to play my card game with the

universe so that I can balance the positives and negatives. I can’t see opposites in this world, and

I can’t contribute to causing them. Don’t make me lie down; please, I beg you.”

Dr. Steele gripped Greene’s shoulders and exerted pressure on his body in an effort to

force Greene to climb onto the bed and to assume a reclining position on his back. When Greene

suddenly extended his arm to reach for the string of green beads that the psychologist had

confiscated from him, Dr. Steele used his palms to push Greene backward, and Greene collapsed

to the bed into a seated position. On the bed, Greene frantically crawled away from Dr. Steele,

and Greene rolled onto his stomach because he was aware that he would generate a pair of

opposites by lying down on his back. Dr. Steele remained skeptical about Greene’s mystical

card game that would balance the positives and negatives in the universe. Two staff members in

the hallway outside the room watched the physical struggle between Greene and Dr. Steele, and

Dr. Steele motioned for the staff members to assist him so that Greene could be restrained.

After Greene balled his hands into fists to defend himself, Dr. Steele grabbed Greene’s

wrists, and despite Greene’s feverish struggle, Dr. Steele and the other two staff members

successfully turned Greene from his stomach to his back. Greene’s elbows and his shoulder

blades rested on the bed, and the muscular tremors that returned to Greene’s hands indicated that

Greene had encountered a pair of opposites that threatened to disrupt the balance of positives and

negatives in the unstable universal equation. Greene’s entire body spasmed and quaked, and his

19

condition of Parkinson disease informed him that he needed to compete in his supernatural card

game with the unbalanced universe. The two staff members placed their palms on Greene’s

chest while Dr. Steele inspected the syringe to ensure that it was filled with the correct amount of

fluid. Greene imagined that his surroundings were spinning around him as the staff members

restrained him, and Greene began his card game with the universe by snapping the fingers on his

left hand three times. He still needed to clap his hands twice and to scratch his nose four times in

a timely manner to complete the ritual that would allow him to succeed in his card game with the

universe, but the two staff members pushed Greene back and prevented him from slapping his

hands together. When Greene lifted his head from the bed, the staff members shoved him again,

and Greene’s extreme tremors continued to intensify until the bed vibrated along with his

shaking body. When the muscular spasms that swept across Greene’s body concluded, Greene

realized that he was unable to complete his ritual successfully, and his ailment of Parkinson

disease allowed him to recognize that he had failed to triumph in his card game with the

universe. Greene’s hands dangled at his side as he gulped and sighed with dread, and Dr. Steele

injected Greene with the sedative that would treat his Parkinson disease and that would cause

him to fall asleep. The two staff workers applied more pressure to Greene’s chest to restrain

him, and as the fluid pumped through his veins, Greene prepared for the horrific event that would

occur because he had failed to balance the positives and negatives that the pair of opposites had

created. Greene’s muscles tingled as his body became numb, and on his back, he screamed to

express his rage because he had failed to complete his ritual. Six separate imprints suddenly

bulged beneath Greene’s flesh as he contorted his fingers and shrieked in agony, and the small

bulges that lifted Greene’s skin slowly swam from his left hand. The six bulges resembled tiny

parasites that were crawling under Greene’s skin, and after the bulges crept from his left hand to

his stomach, they dispersed into smaller imprints that zoomed in hundreds of directions across

Greene’s body. Dr. Steele lifted the syringe that he had used to inject Greene with the sedative,

and the foolish psychologist waited for the chemicals to influence Greene with their soothing

effects. Greene was unable to move his arms because the staff members were retraining him, so

he repeatedly heaved his head back and forth in response to the physical agony that the hundreds

of dispersed bulges beneath his skin were producing. The bulges resembled tiny hills that rolled

under Greene’s flesh, and the bulges that covered his entire body converged to form a massive

contusion in the center of his forehead. Dr. Steele and the two staff members recoiled in horror

20

at the sickening sight of the converging bulges that were comparable to slithering leeches. Dr.

Steele became pale with fright, and after he dropped his syringe to the cold floor, the two

flabbergasted staff members stared at each other with lifeless expressions to illustrate their

disbelief.

Dr. Steele struggled to maintain his composure, and he commanded the staff members to

restrain Greene so that his abnormal condition could be closely examined. The hundreds of

rolling bulges lifted the skin of Greene’s aching forehead several feet into the air, and all the

bulges then converged to form the unique shape of the letter “K” on his forehead. As the

horrified staff members clasped Greene’s shaking arms to restrain him, Greene turned his head

so that his eyes aligned with the window in the distance. He had failed to complete the ritual that

would guarantee his victory in the supernatural card game with the unstable universe, and the

bulges beneath his skin formed a “K” on his forehead to indicate that he had released a “King”

playing card in his card game against the universe. Greene remained in a reclining position on

the bed as his arms and legs thrashed wildly, and his eyes still were focused directly on the

distant window. The outside water vapor condensed into a liquid that produced fog on the

window, and the liquid mysteriously swirled in various directions across the window glass. The

spiraling fog thickened to form the shape of an “A” on the window, and the fog pushed into the

glass until the immense pressure caused the window to crack. Glass fragments from the

shattered window plummeted to the floor, and the gap in the broken window resembled the letter

“A.” Dr. Steele and the two staff members were appalled that the window had mysteriously

cracked without explanation, but Greene comprehended that the imprint of the letter “A”

represented the “Ace” playing card that the universe had released in its card game with him.

Greene had failed to complete the ritual that would allow him to succeed in his card game with

the universe, so he was forced to present a “King” playing card that the universe easily

conquered by releasing an “Ace” playing card. Greene’s acts of “standing up” and “lying down”

represented opposites that created a pair of positives and negatives that threatened the balance of

all positives and negatives in the unstable universe. He failed to establish a proper balance

between the positives and negatives that the opposites had generated, and he waited for the

horrific event that would emphasize the imbalance of the collapsing universal fabric. Dr. Steele

was startled by the shape of the “A” that the universe had carved into the nearby window, and he

shifted his focus from the “A” shape on the window to the “K” shape that was imprinted onto

21

Greene’s bulging forehead. The two staff members continued their efforts to restrain Greene,

and the sedative that had been injected into Greene’s body caused him to fall into a state of

slumber on the bed.

After Greene had been sedated, Dr. Steele wandered to the nearby window that was

mysteriously shattered, and the naïve psychologist meticulously scanned the collection of jagged

glass that was scattered across the floor. He crouched down to observe the glass fragments

before he lifted his head to gaze up at the shape of the “A” that had been carved into the broken

window. A burning sensation suddenly ignited in Dr. Steele’s chest, and the narrow walls that

surrounded him began to spin as his visual perception was blurred by the mysterious abnormality

from which his body was suffering. Dr. Steele tumbled from the crouching position, and his

head banged into the floor before he rested on his head and clutched his chest to express his

physical torment. The two staff members who had restrained Greene became appalled when

they noticed that Dr. Steele’s entire body was shaking as his heart palpitated even faster with its

irregular beat, and the two staff members dashed to Dr. Steele’s side to assist him. After Dr.

Steele managed to lift his contorted fingers above his head, several tremors surged through his

body as paralysis conquered his muscles, and Dr. Steele experienced slight tingling that

dissipated when his body became completely numb. One staff member placed his hands beneath

Dr. Steele’s armpits and pulled his stiff body from the cold floor, and Dr. Steele’s body had

become so heavy that the staff member nearly tumbled backward to the floor. While the other

staff member watched the scene with great anxiety, the second staff member slowly walked

backward to drag Dr. Steele’s body, and a foamy liquid of vomit suddenly seeped down from Dr.

Steele’s mouth and slid down his jaw. The white, foamy vomit that plummeted from Dr.

Steele’s jaw splattered on the floor, and the staff member whose hands were secured around Dr.

Steele pushed the psychologist’s head up so that he would not choke on the vomit that was

pouring from his mouth at an incredible rate. The flood of vomit spilled onto the staff member’s

shirt as the staff member dragged Dr. Steele toward the exit, and Dr. Steele’s body spasmed and

shook so severely that the staff member collapsed backward to the cold floor. The other staff

member watched in horror as Dr. Steele remained in a frozen position on the floor, and Dr.

Steele, the arrogant psychologist, choked on the vomit that continued to accumulate in his throat.

With a pool of vomit that surrounded his paralyzed body, Dr. Steele expired when his weakened

heart palpitated so fiercely that it exploded into hundreds of pieces inside his chest. The staff

22

member who had attempted to lift Dr. Steele to his feet crawled away from the psychologist’s

corpse, and the two staff members sprinted through the exit and screamed that Dr. Steele

required immediate medical attention. After paramedics rushed to the grisly scene, they

concluded that Dr. Steele had perished because they failed to detect a pulse on the corpse. While

the paramedics placed Dr. Steele’s corpse on a gurney and wheeled him from the institution,

Sam Greene remained in the unconscious condition that the sedative had triggered. When

Greene awoke three hours later, he scooted to the edge of the bed, recognized that the lumps and

bulges beneath his skin had disappeared, and stared at the imprint of the letter “A” that had been

fashioned into the only window in the tiny room.

Greene’s legs dangled from the edge of the bed as he pondered the events that resulted in

the death of Dr. Steele, and Greene repeatedly slapped his forehead to punish himself for being

forced into the mystical card game with the unstable universe. Although Greene had not

identified the corpse of Dr. Steele, Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, sensed that Dr. Steele

had been sacrificed because Greene had failed to triumph in his card game that would balance

the pairs of opposites that he had encountered. Greene longed to gouge out his eyes so that he

would not view any opposites that would force him to compete in his supernatural card game

with the universal equation, but if he removed his eyes, his body would simply regenerate them.

Sam Greene could not deny that the universal equation’s balance of positives and negatives had

been disturbed. In the confines of his room, Greene acknowledged that he was The Apocalyptic

Card Dealer, an immortal spirit that existed to restore balance to the positives and negatives in

the universal equation. When Greene eventually died, his immortal spirit would travel to the

body of another human host, and he would be forced to continue his endeavor to balance the

universe so that he could prevent its collapse. Greene could not escape from his responsibilities

to balance the universal equation, and if he committed suicide, his immortal spirit would travel

from his deceased body to inhabit another human host in which he would assume the same

identity with the name “Sam Greene.” He used his palms to exert pressure on the bed as he

moved from a seated position on the table to a standing position on his feet. His actions of

“sitting down” and “standing up” represented a pair of opposites that threatened the balance of

positives and negatives in the universe, and his hands violently shook in response to the

subsequent tremor that his condition of Parkinson disease had triggered. Greene closed his eyes

23

and completed the ritual that would balance the opposites when he snapped his shaking fingers

three times, clapped his hands twice, and scratched his nose four times.

His arm ceased its violent shaking, and he cherished the truth that he had triumphed in his

card game with the unstable universal equation. His condition of Parkinson disease was

aggravated on every occasion that he encountered a pair of opposites, and he had to complete the

ritual that would allow him to succeed in his card game before the involuntary shaking of his

hands ceased. If he could not complete his ritual in the allotted time before the conclusion of his

muscular tremors, the universe would defeat him in his mystical card game, and the universe

would cause a destructive event to create the balance that Greene had failed to achieve. After

Greene shook his numb hand back and forth to regain feeling, he screamed in agony as the veins

in his right arm detached themselves, twisted in different directions, and wrapped around each

other to form a pattern beneath his flesh. The veins that weaved together into a pattern

resembled an enormous bruise or an infection that threatened to spread across his entire right

arm, and the red swollen mass of intersecting veins throbbed and ached beneath Greene’s fleshy

arm. Greene stared down at the pulsating mound of flesh on his arm, and he observed his

bulging veins as they continued to thrash, spiral, and wrap around each other to contribute to the

pattern that was etched beneath his arm. The pattern of intertwined veins formed the shapes of

three diamonds that bulged beneath the skin of Greene’s right arm, so he had produced a card of

three diamonds in his mystical card game with the universal equation. After he scratched the

itchy mass of swollen flesh, he was startled by a bird that flew through the opening in the broken

window, and the bird fluttered through Greene’s room until it crashed into the wall. The impact

of the bird with the wall crushed the bird’s brittle bones, and the bird released a trail of blood as

it slid down the wall to the floor. The bird clearly was deceased based on its lack of breathing,

the bloody trail that dripped from the wall, and the puddle of blood that drenched the bird on the

floor. The bird’s blood seeped in several different directions across the floor, and the various

streams of blood flowed together and united into a single puddle. When Greene glanced down at

the deceased bird, he recognized that the bird’s blood had separated from its main puddle and

had formed the bloody outlines of two hearts. Smaller droplets of blood seeped down from the

red puddles that were shaped like two hearts, and Greene’s eyes darted from the veins that were

shaped like three diamonds beneath his skin to the bird’s blood that was shaped like two hearts

on the floor. The two heart-shaped puddles of blood that stained the floor represented the card

24

that the universal equation had produced during its card game with Greene, so while Greene had

presented a card of three diamonds, the universe had released a card of two hearts. Greene had

succeeded in his card game with the universe because his card of three diamonds defeated the

universe’s card of two hearts, so Greene had created balance between the opposites of “sitting

down” and “standing up” by completing the ritual. Greene’s veins realigned and repaired

themselves inside his arm, and on his feet, Greene cautiously walked around the tiny space

between the four narrow walls because he was terrified that he would encounter another pair of

opposites. Dr. Megan Davis, who worked at the mental institution, unlocked the door of

Greene’s room and walked inside to address Dr. Steele’s death with the disturbed patient.

Greene stepped over the deceased bird, slammed his eyelids shut, and aimlessly sauntered

around the confining space until he collided into Dr. Davis. The doctor identified herself and

beseeched Greene to sit down so that they could discuss the bizarre events that led to Dr. Steele’s

death.

When Greene refused to comply with Dr. Davis’ instructions to sit down, she relented,

clasped her hands around Greene’s shoulders, and sternly declared, “Sam, I heard about what

happened a few hours ago. Dr. Steele is dead; he had some kind of a seizure during his session

with you. I just want you to know that it wasn’t your fault; you had nothing to do with what

happened.”

Greene conveyed horror in his voice when he responded, “I killed him; it’s all my fault. I

told him that I couldn’t lie down, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I told him that ‘sitting up’ and

‘lying down’ would create opposites that threaten the balance of the universe. He wouldn’t listen

to me, and he wouldn’t let me finish my ritual to win the card game. I keep telling you people to

leave me alone; please, just leave me in here so that I can perform my ritual all day to win these

card games. If you people would just leave me in peace, then, I could keep everything balanced,

and no one else would have to die. I blame myself for every bad thing that happens whenever I

lose my card game with this unstable universe.”

Dr. Davis questioned what she and the other hospital personnel could do to accommodate

Greene, and after Greene failed to respond and remained unwilling to unbolt his eyes, Dr. Davis

was startled by the bloodstained corpse of the bird on the floor. She noticed that the blood stains

had formed the outlines of two hearts, and Greene ensured that his eyes were closed and that he

was distant from reality when Dr. Davis alerted Greene that she had discovered the bird. With

25

his eyes closed and with sweat dripping from his forehead to indicate his anxiety, Greene

shrieked, “That bird died because of me, too. I know that you see its blood on the floor. What

does that look like to you? That bird’s blood is shaped like two hearts; the universe left that for

me. Those two hearts represent the card that the universe used in my last card game. I can win

my card games with the universe as long as you doctors leave me alone, but if you disrupt my

work, bad things will continue to happen. Just leave me alone, and let me try to balance the

world in peace.”

Dr. Davis ignored Greene’s rambling and immediately retrieved a wet mop and a garbage

can from the hallway, and after she used the mop to swab the floor, she disposed of the deceased

bird by placing it inside the garbage can. Dr. Davis dampened the previously dry floor with the

mop and inserted it back into the bucket, and she shifted her attention back to Greene, whose

eyes still were slammed shut. Dr. Davis shook her head and glared at Greene with disapproval

before she assured him that he was not responsible for the bird’s death. Dr. Davis declared,

“Sam, you didn’t kill that bird; it got lost and flew through that broken window. You didn’t kill

Dr. Steele, either; you can’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

With his eyes slammed shut, Greene responded, “My eyes are closed so that I won’t see

opposites that will force me to compete in my card game with the universal equation. I’ve tried

everything to avoid seeing opposites, but I can keep my eyes closed for only so long.

Eventually, the universe will force me to open them, and I’ll have no choice but to look at the

world around me. The universe eventually will need my card game to balance its positives and

negatives. Look around you, Dr. Davis. Are there any opposites that could force me to play my

card game with the universe?”

Greene’s erratic behavior perplexed Dr. Davis, who viewed Greene as an ignorant,

compulsive figure and not as the vindictive murderer whom society had banished to a mental

institution. Greene closed his eyes so tightly that sweat plunged from his eyelashes, but despite

his efforts to ensure that his eyes were closed, the cosmic forces in his surroundings prompted

him to lift his eyelids and to expose his pupils. The universe required Sam Greene to function as

The Apocalyptic Card Dealer so that he could balance its positives and negatives, so the universe

forced Greene to open his eyes and to perceive his environment. Greene rapidly blinked his eyes

and glanced down at the small portion of the floor that Dr. Davis had moistened with the wet

mop to remove the bird’s blood. Unfortunately, only a few tiles of the floor were damp, and the

26

larger portion of the floor remained dry inside Greene’s confining room. The “wetness” and the

“dryness” of the floor created a pair of opposites when Greene captured an image of the floor

tiles in his vision. He shrieked to express his frustration as his hands spasmed and trembled

because his condition of Parkinson disease had been aggravated by his encounter with the

opposites of “wetness” and “dryness.” Before Greene could snap his fingers to begin the ritual

that would balance the opposites, Dr. Davis clasped Greene’s shoulders and slapped down his

shaking hand to interrupt the ritual. Dr. Davis admonished Greene for not taking the medication

that would reduce the tremors in his hands, and she commanded him to lie down so that he could

wait for his vicious spasms to subside. Greene grabbed Dr. Davis’ wrists and lightly pushed her

away so that he could complete his ritual in the limited time before his hands ceased their

shaking motions. Greene extended his right hand and snapped his trembling fingers twice, and

when Dr. Davis wrapped her fingers around Greene’s wrist, Greene concluded that he would be

unable to complete his ritual based on Dr. Davis’ constant interference.

Greene lowered his two hands as the intensity of the tremors gradually diminished, and

he pointed to a dry location on the floor when he irritably declared, “Okay, if you aren’t going to

let me perform the ritual, then, spill the rest of the water in your mop bucket all over the floor. If

the whole floor in this room is wet, then, there won’t be a contrast between ‘wetness’ and

‘dryness.’ My hand tremor is almost finished, so please, get all that water on the floor and erase

those opposites. Please, I don’t want something bad to happen; erase those opposites before my

hand stops shaking.”

Dr. Davis continued to ignore Greene’s pleas, and after his tremors ceased, he lamented

that he had failed in his mystical card game. He suddenly experienced a violent tingling

sensation as the bulges beneath his skin returned, and the bulges resembled frequency waves that

continued to rise and descend during their climb from Greene’s legs to his forehead. The

flashing bulges that rose and fell beneath Greene’s flesh converged at the wrinkles in the center

of Greene’s head, and the bulges formed the shape of a “J” on his forehead. The imprint of the

“J” indicated that Greene had produced a “Jack” card in his card game with the universe, and Dr.

Davis became horrified at the sight of the bulges that converged on Greene’s forehead. In her

panic-stricken state, Dr. Davis darted toward the door of the hospital room, but before she could

reach the door, an unknown entity swept over her body and possessed her. Dr. Davis

relinquished control of her motor functions and her mind, and under the influence of the

27

unidentified presence, she removed a pen from her shirt pocket and a discarded piece of paper

from her pocket. In a dazed stupor, Dr. Davis scribbled the word “Queen” on the crumpled

paper, and after the “J” imprint disappeared from Greene’s forehead, Greene sprinted to Dr.

Davis to assist her. When he yanked the pen from Dr. Davis, she was roused from his stupefied

state, and Greene was fascinated by the word “Queen” that Dr. Davis had inexplicably scribbled

on the paper. Based on the peculiar sequence of events, Greene realized that he had generated a

“Jack” card and that the universe had released a “Queen” card that caused Greene to be defeated

in the card game. Greene collapsed to his knees and whimpered in agony because he had failed

to balance the opposites, so the universe would create balance by triggering a catastrophic

occurrence. The wet mop inside the bucket floated into the air and levitated around the room,

and while Greene expected the bizarre event, Dr. Davis was horrified that the mop was

inexplicably levitating upward until it scratched the ceiling. The mop handle initially floated in a

vertical position as Dr. Davis frantically sprinted to the other end of the room and propped her

back against the wall. Without warning, the wooden mop rotated from an upright position to a

horizontal position on its side, and the mop handle hurled itself through the air. Dr. Davis

remained terrified as she leaned against the wall, and the horizontal mop handle zoomed toward

the wall. The sharp edge of the mop handle was impaled through Dr. Davis’ right eye, and the

wooden handle pushed itself further into Dr. Davis’ eye until it punctured the plaster wall. The

mop handle was frozen in a fixed position, and the immovable mop had pierced through Dr.

Davis’ eye and her brain until it crashed into the wall. Dr. Davis’ gaping mouth and her

swinging arms displayed her suffering as blood poured from her cracked eye socket, and as her

breathing ceased, the flabbergasted Greene recognized that Dr. Davis was killed because Greene

was defeated in his card game with the universe. While Dr. Davis remained impaled into the

wall, the disenchanted Greene collapsed from his standing position to a seated position where he

began his ritual to balance the opposites that the actions of “standing up” and “sitting down” had

generated. In the dark confines of his hospital room, Greene wailed with tears that streamed

down his cheeks, and Greene sat back as he waited for the other staff workers to arrive so that

they could discover that Dr. Davis had been impaled into the wall.

An hour after Dr. Davis’ demise, Florida police officer Donald Nestor arrived at the

mental institution where Sam Greene was being hospitalized for his apparent homicidal

impulses. The police tape that decorated the outside of the building reminded Nestor of the

28

gloomy scene where he discovered that his wife and two children had perished four years earlier.

Nestor rushed from his car to the building entrance where he nearly collided into the paramedics

who carted out the corpse of Dr. Davis on a gurney. Although the sheet that was covered with

Dr. Davis’ blood alarmed Nestor, he abandoned his emotional concerns as he walked past the

police cars and the ambulance that was parked in an emergency zone. When Nestor flashed his

badge and credentials to the other police officers at the entrance, they lifted the tape so that

Nestor could enter the building. A crowd of officers and medical personnel accosted Nestor in

the front hallway, and after Nestor questioned what had prompted all this commotion, another

officer informed Nestor that two individuals, Dr. Steele and Dr Davis, had perished under

mysterious circumstances. Nestor dashed down the hallway to the main desk, and after he

introduced himself to the receptionist, he requested to speak with the patient Sam Greene, who

had been locked inside his room following the dreadful events. The orderly directed Nestor

down the hallway to Greene’s room, and the orderly advised Nestor to be cautious during his

interactions with Greene because Greene had been associated with so many bizarre catastrophes.

Sitting at the small table in his room, Greene twisted the string of green beads around his left

middle finger, and he yanked the string from his finger so that he could pull it in various

directions on the table surface. The string of green beads contained three knots that provided

Greene with the monotony that allowed him to avoid his deadly encounters with potential pairs

of opposites. Another police officer was examining the crack that had been formed by the broom

that punctured the wall, and when the officer bumped into Nestor, the officer advised Nestor to

be careful because Greene was dangerous. As the second officer exited the room, Nestor

retrieved a chair and sat down at the table to stare intensely at Greene as he weaved and twisted a

pattern of knots into the string between his fingers. Nestor introduced himself to breach the

silence, but Greene was unable to respond to Nestor because Greene was so focused on his task

to avoid opposites that would force him to compete in his card game with the unstable universe.

Nestor sensed that Greene was emotionally traumatized based on the sweat that drenched

Greene’s face and Greene’s clammy hands that were paralyzed in a position near his cheeks.

Nestor’s somber expression conveyed his rage when he glared fiercely at Greene, and

Nestor declared, “Do you remember me, Greene? My name is Donald Nestor; I’m the cop who

wanted to lock you away in a real jail cell for all the sick things that you’ve done. I know that

you were perfectly sane when you slaughtered those sports coaches and took their teeth. This

29

institution is really nice; a lot of poor people don’t have the luxuries that you’ve got in here. You

should be rotting in a cell like an animal, Greene, but none of that matters anymore. What

matters is that there’s a ‘copycat’ killer who’s killed a sports coach. You’re going to tell me why

the killer is doing this, and you’re going to help me find him. He obviously loves your work, so

tell me how he thinks.”

Greene appeared horrified and emotionally scarred as he continued to weave additional

knots into the monotonous string, and in a cracking voice, Greene responded, “I remember you,

Officer Nestor; I remember the day that you arrested me at the post office four years ago. You

saved my life. I’m sorry that I’m a little distant, but a lot of bad things happened today because

of me. I’m still a little shaken up about the pain that I’ve caused.”

The nearby crack in the wall intrigued Nestor, and in his raspy voice, Nestor asked, “Did

you make that hole in the wall, Greene?”

Greene nodded and responded, “Yes, and I killed two innocent people today. I swear to

you that I tried to help them, but they wouldn’t listen to me. I tried to save them, but they

wouldn’t let me finish my ritual to win the card game with the universe. I understand that it’s

impossible to avoid pairs of opposites, but I could’ve saved them if they had just let me finish the

ritual.”

Nestor sighed heavily and conveyed his cynical attitude when he declared, “I’m not

interested in feeding your delusions, Greene. I don’t care how you justify your homicidal

impulses; I need you to help me find this ‘copycat’ killer. Answer something for me. Were you

involved in the murder of Chris Pontius? We found your DNA at the scene. It looks like you’ve

been here for the past few years, so I can’t even begin to explain why we found your DNA on the

victim. Do you know who killed him? Has the killer talked to you?”

Without hesitation, Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, immediately responded,

“Trust me, Officer Nestor; I want to help you find Daniel Gorier. He’s the man that you want.

He’s The Spirit Connector; he killed those three sports coaches four years ago. Now, he’s

returned to kill the last sports coach. Gorier has killed his four victims; he has stolen all his

victims’ teeth so that he can begin his work. I need to help you find him before he unbalances

the world. The world is a series of opposites, and Gorier will unbalance the opposites unless I

help you.”

30

Greene’s seemingly nonsensical rambling frustrated Nestor, the brooding police officer,

and as he pushed himself back in his chair, Nestor declared, “Look, Greene, I don’t want to hear

any of this crap. If you know the name of this killer, then, tell me how he got access to your

DNA. Why did we find that matching DNA at the crime scene?”

Greene chomped down on his bottom lip as he carefully contemplated his response, and

although Greene was convinced that Nestor would not believe him, Greene declared, “You’re

not going to believe me, but Daniel Gorier and I are connected. I’m The Apocalyptic Card

Dealer, and Gorier is The Spirit Connector. Gorier is my opposite, and we both bleed the same

blood. I want to balance the opposites in the world; I want to establish a balance of good and

evil. Gorier wants either good or evil to triumph; he believes that a stable balance of opposites

shouldn’t exist. He believes that either good must triumph over evil or evil must triumph over

good; Gorier doesn’t care as long as opposites don’t coexist. I understand the importance of

balancing the opposites in the world; let me help you before Gorier unbalances the world. Gorier

is the man that you want; he killed the four sports coaches.”

Nestor tapped his fingertips on the table surface to convey his irritation with Greene’s

incessant rambling, and Nestor responded, “Okay, so you have a split personality that you blame

for these four murders. Greene, you told me that you blame yourself for the two deaths today.

Are you saying that you’re not a killer?”

Greene defended himself when he asserted, “That’s not what I’m saying, Officer Nestor.

I don’t kill anyone deliberately. Whenever I see a pair of opposites, I have to play a card game

with the universe to balance the opposites. Every pair of opposites represents one positive and

one negative. The world is so unstable that I must exist to balance the positives and the

negatives; I have to make sure that the positive is not greater than the negative and that the

negative doesn’t overtake the positive. My card game balances the positives and the negatives

that the opposites represent. People have died because of my card game, but I didn’t kill them.

Dr. Steele and Dr. Davis prevented me from winning my card game to balance the opposites.

The world is unstable, so something bad had to happen because I didn’t balance the opposites.

This morning, I lost the card game with the universe, so a plane crashed. Fifty-four people died

because of me. All these people are dead because of me, but I didn’t kill them. They died

because the universe is so unstable, and I’m sorry. I also need to apologize to you, Officer

Nestor. When you arrested me four years ago, you interrupted my card game with the universe.

31

I knew that something bad would happen because my card game didn’t balance the opposites, so

the world was left unstable. I read that your family died after you arrested me; they died because

I lost my card game. I’m so sorry for your loss; I feel responsible.”

Greene’s mention of Nestor’s deceased wife and children infuriated Nestor, who instantly

jumped from his chair, reached across the table, clasped Greene’s shirt, and lifted Greene over

the table. Greene’s immense sweat illustrated his terror as his legs dangled above the table, and

after Nestor screamed, “What do you know about my family?,” Greene fearfully responded, “I

don’t know anything. I didn’t mean for your family to die; I tried to warn you that I needed to

finish my ritual to win the card game with the universe. I’m so sorry about what happened; I

could never have predicted that you would be the cop who would arrest me. I knew that I had

failed in my card game; I couldn’t balance the opposites. I knew that something bad would

happen because the world was still unstable, but I didn’t know that the universe would kill your

family.”

Nestor recognized that he was still emotionally vulnerable because he had never provided

himself with the adequate time to grieve over the deaths of his family members, and as Nestor

calmed his temper, he lowered Greene down so that Greene could sit in the chair. After Greene

plopped down in his chair, he became concerned that he had encountered a pair of opposites.

However, when Greene’s hands did not begin to shake and spasm, Greene acknowledged that he

had not completed the actions of “standing up” and “sitting down,” which represented opposites

in the broken world. Although Greene sat down, he had not completed the action of “standing

up” because his feet never touched the floor when Nestor lifted him into the air. After Nestor

returned to his chair, he struggled to maintain his composure and to subdue his violent temper.

Despite his rage, Nestor became tranquil enough to inquire about the deaths of the four sports

coaches and the disappearances of the sports teams and the spectators who attended the four

separate sporting events. Nestor glared at Greene with disgust and declared, “Stay out of my

head, Greene; you don’t know anything about me or my family. I’m not going to let you get to

me. My family died four years ago, and I’m over it. Tell me something. I know that four sports

coaches are dead; the killer pulled out the coaches’ teeth and poured sugar and chocolate down

their throats. The sports players and the audience members at the games disappeared. Are they

dead, too? Did you kill them?”

32

Greene gulped to clear the phlegm from his throat, and he responded, “I didn’t kill

anyone, Officer Nestor; it was Daniel Gorier, The Spirit Connector. He killed those four sports

coaches to collect all their teeth. The sports players are dead, too. The spectators weren’t killed;

they’re still alive. Gorier spared their lives so that he can use them in his work. He’s planning to

unbalance all the opposites in the world; I just want to bring a stable balance to these opposites.

I just want to help you keep the world balanced.”

After Nestor questioned why the killer had removed the teeth from the four sports

coaches, Greene answered, “Sports are unnecessary conflicts. They’re forms of entertainment

that teach people about teamwork; that’s all they are. However, some sports coaches take

sporting events too seriously; these coaches actually hate their rival teams. Sports coaches

mentor their teams; the coaches also are responsible for holding their teams’ hatred for the

opposing team inside their teeth. Gorier killed the four sports coaches to extract the hatred from

their teeth. He needs the human hatred to create Gorot; Gorot is a creature that thrives on human

hatred. Gorier didn’t want the human hatred to escape from the coaches’ mouths, so after he

extracted their teeth, he poured chocolate and sugar down their throats to rot away the rest of the

human hatred in their mouths. Gorier now has the sports coaches’ teeth; he’s going to use the

human hatred in the teeth to create Gorot. Gorier will use Gorot to unbalance opposites to cause

the collapse of the world.”

Nestor shook his head in disbelief, bent his elbows at forty-five degree angles, and

positioned his perspiring palms on his cheeks because he was so irritated with Greene’s foolish

rambling. Nestor sighed and exhaled a large gulp of oxygen before he declared, “Okay, Greene,

you just sit there and believe whatever you want to believe about this unstable world of yours. I

can’t believe that I’m going along with your delusions; I’m just letting you dig deeper into my

head. I’m almost afraid to ask, but now, I really want to know. Why are teeth really so

important to your killer?”

Greene remained as somber as he possibly could when he replied, “Human teeth are very

important to The Spirit Connector. There’re thirty-two permanent teeth in human bodies; Gorier

collected all the teeth from the four sports coaches whom he killed. Human teeth are made of the

hardest substance in the body, enamel. When humans die, their flesh and calcium bones

gradually decompose and rot away. Their teeth peel away and become yellow, but the teeth

never totally disintegrate and disappear into the earth. Teeth also are the keys to resurrecting

33

deceased humans. Humans may die and decompose, but their teeth always remain. Gorier needs

the hatred inside the sports coaches’ teeth to create Gorot; he needs the teeth of deceased figures

to resurrect them.”

Nestor closed his eyes and licked his lips to convey his immense irritation, and after

Nestor questioned what Gorier’s ultimate plans were, Greene nervously asserted, “I told you,

Officer Nestor. I’m The Apocalyptic Card Dealer; I’m an immortal spirit that has inhabited

many different human hosts. I exist only to balance opposites, to keep the world stable so that it

won’t fall apart. Daniel Gorier is The Spirit Connector; he’s another immortal spirit who doesn’t

want there to be a balance of positives and negatives in the world. The Spirit Connector is

planning to destroy any stability that’s still left in this broken world. He is focused on two pairs

of opposites, necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. These opposites are vulnerable, and

if Gorier disrupts the balance between them, the world will fall apart. He’s planning to upset the

balance between sports and wars by using the coaches’ teeth to create Gorot. If you don’t let me

help you stop him, the fabric of the universe will collapse; everybody in the world will die if

there isn’t balance between sports and wars.”

Nestor asked why the basketball, the baseball, the hockey puck, and the football that were

recovered from the four crime scenes glowed with an unidentified red radiation. In his solemn

voice, Greene, responded that the red radiation represented human hatred, which also was stored

inside the teeth of the four sports coaches who were murdered. Greene sensed that the deaths of

Nestor’s wife and children had scarred Nestor emotionally and had transformed him from a

respected public servant into an apathetic, gloomy broader who was addicted to drugs. As

Nestor gawked at Greene with disdain, Greene sensed the tension that the awkward silence had

produced between them, but Greene remained relieved that he had not encountered a pair of

opposites that would force him into his perilous card game with the universal equation. Greene’s

contentment dissipated when a staff member activated the air conditioner, and the abrupt shift

from hot air to cold air caused the hairs along Greene’s arms to become erect. “Hot” and “cold”

represented opposites from which Greene could not escape, and Greene appeared to be breathless

as his gaping mouth gasped for the surrounding oxygen. Greene’s encounter with the opposites

of “hot” and “cold” stimulated his hands to tremble and to shake, and the table vibrated as

Greene’s hands repeatedly smashed against the table surface. Greene’s aggravated condition of

Parkinson disease disturbed Nestor, and Nestor remained silent and fascinated as Greene

34

completed his ritual by snapping his fingers three times, clapping his hands twice, and scratching

his nose four times. Greene’s bizarre ritual perplexed Nestor, and after Greene vigorously

scratched his nose, Greene smiled with delight and declared, “Thank you, Officer Nestor; you’re

one of the few people who’s let me finish my ritual. You’ve avoided another catastrophe by

letting me balance the positives and negatives. If you didn’t, the positives and negatives would

stay unbalanced, and something bad would happen to show the instability.”

Without warning, Greene began to gag on the mucus that had accumulated in his throat,

and Greene placed his closed fist over his lips as he coughed violently. Greene spit out the

bloody mass of mucus that was slowly dripping down his lips, and the blood from Greene’s

throat splattered into a mess on the table surface. After Greene carefully examined the mass of

blood, he discovered that the blood had formed the shape of a giant “A” on the table. The “A”

bewildered Nestor, who remained seated across from Greene, but Greene was relieved because

he recognized that the “A” indicated that he had produced an “Ace” card in his mystical card

game with the universe. An unknown entity suddenly swept over Nestor and possessed his body,

and under the influence of the mysterious presence, Nestor pushed away from the table and lifted

himself from the chair. He picked up the wooden chair and expended all his strength when he

hurled the chair to the hard floor, and the chair had been smashed into pieces. Nestor noticed

that the violent impact of the wooden chair had scratched the floor, and he adhered to the

presence when he placed two chair legs together and dropped them on the floor. The two

connected chair legs were lying in a vertical position, and Nestor grabbed the other two chair

legs so that he could construct a pattern on the floor. He placed both chair legs in slanted

positions near the other two vertical chair legs, and when Greene stared down at the four chair

legs that Nestor had broken, Greene discovered that Nestor had used the chair legs to form the

shape of a “K” on the floor. The unidentified entity released Nestor from its control, and Nestor

collapsed to his knees beside the broken chair and its four legs. Greene remained seated on his

chair so that he could avoid the opposites of “sitting down” and “standing up,” and the bulges

that formed the letter “A” remained visible beneath Greene’s flesh. Greene scooted his chair

over to Nestor and to the pieces of the chair that Nestor had smashed. Nestor was roused from

his hypnotized condition, and after Nestor regained his composure and rose to his feet, Greene

pointed to the letter “K” that Nestor had constructed with the pieces of the smashed chair.

35

Nestor became alarmed at the sight of the “A” that resembled a pulsating blister on

Greene’s forehead, and Greene explained the unusual circumstances when he declared, “Officer

Nestor, I can explain this; it’s all quite simple. The balance of positives and negatives in the

world is so unstable that I must exist to prevent its collapse. The air in this room was hot just a

few minutes ago; someone turned on the air conditioner and changed the air temperature from

‘hot’ to ‘cold.’ ‘Hot’ and ‘cold’ are opposites; they’re positives and negatives that threaten the

stability of the world. I had to play my card game with the universe to balance the positive and

the negative. You see this contusion on my forehead; it’s shaped like an ‘A’ because I released

an ‘Ace’ card in my card game with the universe. Look down at the floor; look at the chair that

you broke. Those chair legs are shaped like a ‘K;’ the universe forced you to break the chair to

form that ‘K’ letter because the universe produced a ‘King’ card in the card game with me. I

completed my ritual in enough time to win the card game, so my ‘Ace’ card defeated the ‘King’

card that the universe released. I won the card game; I balanced the opposites to prevent

something bad from happening. Please, I’m the only one who can help you defeat The Spirit

Connector. Get me out of here, and I’ll do all that I can to prevent the universe from collapsing.”

Nestor still was skeptical about Greene’s outlandish assertions, and although Nestor

believed that Greene was responsible for the deaths of the first three sports coaches, he was eager

to capture the unidentified assailant who had murdered Coach Chris Pontius. He was

apprehensive about releasing Greene from the insane asylum, but he considered the possibilities

that Greene was not completely delusional and that Greene could provide insight into the murder

investigation. Nestor’s depression about the deaths of his family members impaired his

judgment, and as Greene pleaded with Nestor to allow him to participate in the pursuit of the

murderer, Nestor decided that he would release Greene from the institution. The deaths of

Nestor’s wife and children prompted his cynical views of both his occupation and humanity, and

he was convinced that his zeal for life had perished along with his family members. Nestor

glared down at Greene, who remained seated in his chair to avoid pairs of opposites, and despite

his reluctance, Nestor declared, “Okay, Greene, I’ll check you out of here. I already feel like I’m

dead anyway. This is probably going to be the worst decision of my life, but you can come with

me. Just know that this is not going to be a vacation. You’re going to help me find your

‘copycat’ killer, and then, you’re coming right back.”

36

Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, nodded his head to express that he comprehended

the terms of his agreement with Nestor. Greene relied on his connection to Daniel Gorier, The

Spirit Connector, to peer into Gorier’s mind, and as Greene sat in his chair, he scanned Gorier’s

mind and used his ability to see through Gorier’s eyes. Greene discovered that Gorier currently

was standing inside a nearby cave that was located in a Florida state park. Gorier wielded a

burlap sack that contained the one hundred and twenty-eight teeth of the four sports coaches

whose lives he had claimed. The teeth inside the burlap sack glowed with a red radiation that

represented the human hatred that the four sports coaches possessed for their teams. Gorier

plucked the first tooth, which glowed red with radiation, from the sack, and he inserted the tooth

into the upper rock of the cave. After Gorier ensured that the tooth was firmly buried inside the

cave’s dirt and rock, he admired the limestone stalactites at the top of the cave and the

stalagmites at the bottom of the cave. The first tooth that was embedded into the dirt and rock

continued to emit its red radiation, and Gorier retrieved a second tooth that he attached to a

pointed stalactite.

Greene gasped in horror as he viewed the scene of Gorier, The Spirit Connector, inside

the cave, and as he leaned back into his chair, Greene fearfully exclaimed, “Officer Nestor,

Gorier is my opposite; I can see into his mind. I see what he sees; I know what he knows. He’s

inside a cave; he’s got the sports coaches’ teeth in a bag. The teeth are glowing with the human

hatred that the sports coaches held for their players. Gorier’s already inserting the teeth into the

cave; if he plants all one hundred and twenty-eight teeth inside the cave, Gorot will be born.

Gorier will use Gorot to disturb the balance between necessary and unnecessary conflicts, wars

and sports. We’ve got to stop him.”

Nestor decided that he needed to act quickly before he regretted his decision to release

Greene from the mental institution, so he immediately opened the door of Greene’s room and

motioned for Greene to follow him to the outside hallway. Greene hopped from the chair, and

when his feet reached the ground, he realized that he had generated a pair of opposites by “sitting

down” and “standing up” in succession. As Greene’s hands shook to represent his encounter

with the opposites, he quickly snapped his fingers three times, clapped his hands twice, and

scratched his nose four times to complete the ritual that would allow him to triumph in his card

game with the universe. Hundreds of bulges appeared as tremors that rose and fell as they

slithered from Greene’s hands and climbed to his torso, and Greene ignored the burning

37

sensation that engulfed his flesh as he slammed his eyes shut and charged to the door. When

Nestor questioned why Greene’s eyes were closed, Greene responded, “This is the only way for

me to avoid seeing as many opposites as possible. I’ve tried everything to avoid them. When I

gouge my eyes out, they grow right back. I can keep my eyes closed for only a short time;

eventually, the universe will force me to open them to balance more opposites.”

Nestor locked his handcuffs across Greene’s wrists because Nestor still refused to accept

that Greene was an innocent figure who was not responsible for the deaths of the four sports

coaches. As Nestor escorted Greene down the hallway, the bulges beneath Greene’s flesh

converged on his forehead to form a “Q” that resembled a pulsating bruise. The shape of the

letter “Q” on Greene’s forehead specified that Greene had released a “Queen” card in his card

game. Nestor stood in front of Greene, and Greene’s eyes remained closed tightly as Nestor

tugged Greene’s shirt to pull him toward the exit of the mental institution. At the main desk,

Nestor greeted the receptionist with a faint smile, and he stared at the receptionist’s nametag to

determine that her name was “Joyce Patterson.” With his eyes closed, Greene lowered his head

so that the receptionist would not view the shape of the “Q” that was bulging beneath his flesh.

Nestor flashed his badge to the receptionist and informed her that he was a police officer who

needed to remove the patient “Sam Greene” from the facility. As Nestor signed Sam’s name to

check him out, Nestor noticed that the letters on the receptionist’s nametag were disappearing.

An unknown force erased the letter “n” from the word “Patterson” on the nametag, and the

strange entity moved backwards as it caused the other letters in the receptionist’s name to fade.

The only letter that remained on the nametag was the “J” that began the receptionist’s name.

Nestor asked Greene why all the letters on the nametag had disappeared with the exception of the

letter “J” and why the letter “Q” was carved into Greene’s forehead. With his eyes closed and

his head lowered from sight, Greene responded that the “Q” demonstrated that he had produced a

“Queen” card in his card game, and the prominent “J” on the receptionist’s nametag represented

the “Jack” card that the universe had released. Greene’s “Queen” card conquered the “Jack”

card that the universe produced, so Greene had successfully balanced the opposites of “sitting

down” and “standing up” to prevent another catastrophe.

After Greene concluded that he had been victorious in his supernatural card game with

the universe, the bulging “Q” vanished from his forehead, and the missing letters reappeared on

the nametag of the receptionist. Nestor escorted Greene through the exit to the outside world,

38

and although Greene’s eyes were closed, he encountered a pair of opposites when he sensed a

shift from the cold air inside the mental institution to the warm air that engulfed the outside

world. As his hands shook to symbolize his encounter with the opposites, Greene completed his

ritual to triumph in his card game, and Nestor did not interfere with Greene’s ritual as Nestor

escorted Greene to his police car and instructed him to climb inside the vehicle. Nestor ignored

the bulges that returned beneath Greene’s flesh as Greene plopped into the backseat, and when

Greene modified his position from “standing up” to “sitting down” in the backseat, he completed

his ritual again in response to his trembling hands. Nestor climbed into the driver’s seat and sped

away from the scene toward the cave where Gorier, The Spirit Connector, was planting the teeth

of the four deceased sports coaches. The police car sped down the highway in a northern

direction until Nestor turned the steering wheel and headed south, and although Greene’s eyes

were closed, he sensed that the car had shifted from its northern direction to its southern

direction. Greene’s hands spasmed in response to the opposites of “north” and “south,” and the

handcuffs that shackled Greene’s hands also vibrated as Greene’s condition of Parkinson disease

was aggravated. Greene snapped his fingers three times and completed his ritual to balance the

opposites, and the universe forced Greene to open his eyes so that he would be unable to avoid

the opposites that decorated his surroundings.

Nestor adjusted his front mirror to capture a glimpse of Greene, and when Nestor

observed that Greene was engaged in his ritual, Nestor sighed with frustration because Greene’s

seemingly delusional behavior was so extreme. Nestor’s eyes focused on the street when Nestor

declared, “Do you sit and do that all day, Greene? I mean, you’ve been snapping your fingers

and scratching your nose since we walked outside. What are you trying to do? Is this what the

universe tells you to do with your life?”

The bulges returned beneath Greene’s flesh and generated massive contusions that

engulfed his face, and despite the physical agony that his bruises caused, Greene responded,

“The universe is unstable; this is the only way to keep it balanced. The universe is an equation

that consists of positives and negatives; it wants its positives and negatives to be balanced. The

universe told me that this ritual is the only way to balance the opposites. I do only what the

universe tells me to do. Right now, I just want to stop The Spirit Connector.”

Three diamonds sparkled on the back of Nestor’s seat to represent the card that the

universe had produced, and the image of the diamonds quickly vanished because Greene

39

unleashed a “King” card that triumphed over the card of three diamonds. Greene closed his eyes

and amassed all his fervor to concentrate on the elusive location of The Spirit Connector, and

Greene peered into Gorier’s mind and accessed his thoughts to pinpoint the exact location of the

cave. Greene advised Nestor to turn right and to continue traveling south, and despite his

convictions that Greene was a dangerous psychopath, Nestor obliged and drove his police car in

the designated direction. Greene’s psychic connection to Gorier allowed Greene to discover that

Gorier had already implanted one-third of the sports coaches’ teeth into the dirt and rock of the

cavernous structure, and the cave was beginning to glow with the red radiation of human hatred.

During the drive, Nestor adhered to Greene’s instructions to drive in different directions, and

after Nestor reached the interstate, Greene commanded him to turn on the upcoming exit. Nestor

still was skeptical about Greene’s claims, and he was reluctant to drive to this secluded cave

without evidence that Daniel Gorier, the mysterious assailant, even existed.

Nestor contemplated all the unanswered questions that were swirling through his mind,

and he breached the long period of silence by declaring, “Greene, you’re obviously not going to

take responsibility for these four murders. I thought that you would come up with a better

excuse than saying that the real killer bleeds the same blood as you do. If you’re not the real

killer, then, why did the real killer wait four years to claim his last victim? What kind of

message was he trying to send us?”

In the backseat, Greene began his ritual again to balance additional opposites, and

without hesitation, Greene responded, “Gorier waited for four years to kill his last victim because

he needed to make sure that the human hatred that he collected from the coaches’ teeth was

strong enough to create Gorot. The human hatred inside the coaches’ teeth is just as powerful

today as it was four years ago; Gorier now knows that he picked the right victims. He picked the

sports coaches who provided him with the human hatred that he needed to unbalance the

opposites.”

Three hours later, Nestor still was driving, and he was becoming so frustrated by the

exhaustive driving experience that he punched the steering wheel. The car approached a national

park, and after Nestor parked the car, he retrieved a flashlight from his glove compartment.

Nestor snatched Greene from the backseat and watched Greene as he performed his mystical

ritual in response to the opposites of “sitting down” and “standing up” that threatened to disrupt

the balance of the unstable universe. Despite the handcuffs that shackled his wrists together,

40

Greene snapped his fingers, clapped his hands, and scratched his nose as Nestor tugged Greene

across the grassy landscape until they walked toward the entrance of a sparkling cave. Greene

advised Nestor to approach with caution, and when Greene and Nestor entered the cave, Nestor

nearly stumbled over the stones that covered the cave floor. Greene’s hands shook to indicate

that Greene had encountered a pair of opposites, and the shift from the light outside to the

darkness inside the cave created opposites that forced Greene to engage in his ritual. Nestor

activated his flashlight, shined it on the rocky walls, and stepped over the cave boulders as water

dripped from the ceiling. Nestor and Greene reached the center of the cave, and after Nestor

identified red radiation that was shimmering in the distance, he and Greene charged to the

luminous image and halted when they perceived Gorier, whose back was turned to them. Gorier

had inserted one hundred and eighteen teeth into the upper and lower portions of the cave, and

Gorier intended to implant only ten more glowing teeth into the dirt and rock to create Gorot.

Nestor noticed a glowing burlap sack in Gorier’s possession, and Gorier’s mystical sweeper was

leaning against a cave wall. Nestor removed his pistol from its holster, aimed it at the back of

Gorier’s head, and screamed, “Freeze, police. Drop the bag, put your hands up, and turn

around.”

Gorier dropped the bag of glowing teeth to the rocky floor, grabbed his sweeper, and

turned around to greet Nestor with a sinister smile of bloodstained glass shards that served as

Gorier’s teeth. Although Gorier’s bizarre appearance startled Nestor, the indifferent police

officer remained focused and aimed his pistol directly at Gorier as the stalactites and stalagmites

behind Gorier emitted red radiation that illuminated the darkness. As the teeth that were

embedded into the dirt glowed around him, Gorier raised the sweeper above his head, and Nestor

threatened to shoot Gorier if he did not relinquish the sweeper that he had used to connect human

spirits together.

With the sweeper lifted above his head, Gorier glared directly at Greene, who

apprehensively stood beside Nestor, and Gorier identified Nestor as a police officer based on his

uniform. Gorier concealed the glass shards inside his mouth when he communicated with

Greene by declaring, “Well, you must be The Apocalyptic Card Dealer; it’s nice to see you

again, in your new form. You’ve interrupted my work again, Card Dealer, and I see that you’ve

brought a police officer with you. Has The Apocalyptic Card Dealer told you the truth, officer?

I’m The Spirit Connector; The Card Dealer and I are both immortal spirits that compete with

41

each other as we travel from host to host. The Card Dealer wants to balance opposites to keep

the world stable; I want to erase opposites to destroy the world. He wants there to be a balance

between good and evil. I don’t care whether good or evil triumphs; I just want to erase those

opposites.”

Nestor’s pistol remained aimed at Gorier’s chest, and Gorier lowered the sweeper to his

chest before he declared, “Do you know what I do with this sweeper, officer? It’s called ‘The

Circler.’ Everything comes ‘full circle;’ everything gets connected. In the end, we all die; we’re

all connected. As The Spirit Connector, I use this sweeper to connect human spirits together.

Everything in this world represents a variable; all these variables can be connected. All things

can be connected to each other; opposites can be erased. I’m a consolidator; I used the sweeper

to connect the spirits of all those sports players and spectators at the games. I can connect your

spirit to something, too; I think that I’m going to connect you to a tree. It’s nothing personal; I

just want to connect everything. I want to eliminate all opposites, and I need to finish my work.”

With Nestor’s pistol directed at his chest, Gorier extended his arm to point his sweeper,

The Circler, at Nestor, and Gorier then pushed the sweeper through the air so that the sweeper’s

edge was aimed at an oak tree that was located outside the cave in the distance. Gorier, The

Spirit Connector, had used The Circler to connect Nestor’s spirit to the oak tree. Nestor

suddenly was propelled backward to his stomach, and an unknown entity yanked Nestor rapidly

across the cave floor. Nestor ingested the dirt that swirled around him as he was dragged, and

his stomach was lacerated by the incredible force that pushed him toward the oak tree. Nestor

stabbed his fingernails into the dirt to prevent himself from being sucked into the tree, and his

legs kicked wildly as his torso was lifted from the ground. Flying clumps of dirt clouted

Nestor’s face and forced him to relinquish his grip of the cave floor, and Nestor slid on his

stomach until his legs were absorbed into the tree trunk. After the flesh of his legs transformed

into tree bark, he lifted his back from the cave floor and stared up at the tree into which his legs

had disappeared. Ten jagged pieces of bark were detached from the tree, and the pieces of bark

floated up through the air and converged together at the center of the tree. The tree bark had

become a vortex that spun in a circular motion around the center of the tree, and the vortex

functioned as a portal that threatened to consume Nestor. His legs and waist had become

submerged beneath the tree and had hardened into bark, and he was terrified by the ten floating

chunks of bark that spiraled around the center. The floating bark sliced into Nestor’s face as his

42

body was dragged further and continued to merge into the tree, and the spinning chunks of bark

generated a powerful breeze that propelled dirt and rock into Nestor’s face. The clumps of dirt

pelted his face while the floating chunks of bark shredded the large boulders into smaller rock

fragments that carved lacerations into Nestor’s forehead and cheeks. A slimy combination of

bark and tree limbs floated in the center of the tree while the ten jagged chunks of bark spiraled

around the vortex that the slimy formation had created. The mixture of bark and tree limbs

resembled a sticky funnel of mud that had captured Nestor’s right arm and legs. As Nestor’s

body continued to merge with the tree, he glared at the ten chunks of floating bark that rotated

around the slimy vortex, and in a panic, he punched into the vortex to escape from the tree. The

slimy vortex absorbed Nestor’s right arm, and the ten chunks of floating bark repeatedly clouted

Nestor’s face as the chunks of bark spiraled in a circle around the central vortex that had

devoured his arm. Nestor’s legs had merged into the tree bark while his right arm had been

submerged beneath the slimy vortex of levitating bark, leaves, and tree limbs.

Gorier, The Spirit Connector, was amused by Nestor’s helpless endeavor to free himself

from the tree, and Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, sprinted to the mutating tree to aid

Nestor and to prevent his human spirit from merging with the tree. Gorier had attempted to

merge Nestor’s human spirit with the tree by erasing all the characteristics that separated Nestor

from the tree. Nestor needed to rediscover the characteristics that distinguished him from the

tree so that he could escape from the whirling vortex that was surrounded by the ten chunks of

floating bark. As Nestor screamed and thrashed his head back and forth to convey his dread,

Greene advised Nestor not to struggle and to contemplate all the qualities that distinguished him

from the tree into which his body was merging.

As Nestor’s body sank deeper beneath the vortex, Greene stood beside the mutating tree,

and Greene screamed, “Officer Nestor, let me help you. The Spirit Connector is trying to

connect your spirit with the tree. He’s tried to use The Circler to erase all the qualities that

separate you from the tree so that your spirit will merge with it. Think about what distinguishes

you from the tree; it’s the only way to keep yourself from merging into it. Officer Nestor, you’re

a human being whose body engages in cellular respiration to survive; the tree is a plant that

engages in photosynthesis to survive. Think about what separates you from the tree; it will keep

your spirit from being connected to it. Think about being a human being who’s different from a

43

plant. Think about your life; think about your family. It’s what separates you from the tree, and

it will save you.”

When Nestor resisted the menacing pull of the tree, his right arm sank deeper into the

slimy vortex into which the tree had mutated. Nestor shrieked in agony as his legs and his right

arm solidified into tree bark and as the floating chunks of bark lacerated his forehead, and he

managed to turn his head to capture an image of Greene in his vision. Although Nestor was

terrified and was skeptical about Greene’s assertions, he decided to adhere to Greene’s bizarre

instructions because they would provide Nestor with the only feasible method of escape. Nestor

had suppressed jovial memories of his deceased wife and two children and had relied on alcohol

and cocaine to ease his sorrows, but he embraced the past images of his family members as they

flooded into his mind. Nestor attempted to abandon his fright about the tree that was consuming

him, and he filled his mind with fuzzy memories of his wedding, his daughter’s first day of

school, his experiences as a police officer, and his playing baseball with his son. Nestor’s

recollections of his family members failed to free him from the tree bark, so he probed his mind

to further his search for memories that would be powerful enough to unshackle him from the

muddy vortex in the center of the tree. Greene implored Nestor to clear his mental canvas of all

pervading thoughts and to concentrate on a specific memory that encapsulated his delightful

experiences with his wife and children. Nestor searched the databanks of his memory for an

experience that significantly impacted his life, and he recalled the two moments in which his son

and daughter were born. Nestor’s memories of the separate births revealed the essence of the

humanity that distinguished him from the tree, so the tree released Nestor from its muddy vortex.

He was unable to withdraw his right arm from the vortex, and his right arm and legs transformed

from tree bark into flesh. The mutating tree instantly returned to its original condition as a

stagnant plant, and the ten floating chunks of jagged bark plummeted to the ground beside the

tree. In a panicked state, Nestor frantically crawled away from the tree by dragging his palms

across the terrain, and he lifted himself from the ground and scurried back into the cave so that

he could distance himself from the ominous tree. He used his right hand to pad his clothing and

flesh so that he could ensure that his flesh had been restored and that his body had not merged

into the tree bark, and after he regained his composure, he hurried to the center of the cave to

confront Gorier, The Spirit Connector.

44

Gorier dropped his sweeper, The Circler, and his burlap sack of ten glowing teeth to the

dirty floor to suggest that he had surrendered. The limestone stalactites and stalagmites glowed

with the human hatred that was emitted by the one hundred and eighteen teeth that were attached

to the top and bottom of the rocky cave, and the red radiation glowed behind Gorier as he raised

his hands in defeat. Greene’s hand vibrated in response to the pair of opposites because he had

aggravated his condition of Parkinson’s disease, and Greene quickly balanced the opposites by

snapping his fingers three times, clapping his hands twice, and scratching his nose four times.

Nestor withdrew his handgun from its holster, aimed its barrel directly at Gorier, and instructed

him to lie down on his stomach so that Nestor could insert handcuffs on him. Greene walked

from the entrance of the cave to Nestor’s side, and the contrast between the sunlight outside the

cave and the darkness inside the cave created a pair of opposites that threatened the balance of

the universe. The bulges returned to crawl beneath Greene’s flesh, and the bulges formed the

shapes of an “A” when they converged on Greene’s forehead. The “A” indicated that Greene

had released an “Ace” card in his card game with the universe, and a dangling stalactite plunged

from the top of the cave and penetrated the dirty floor. The vertical stalactite had impaled the

floor, and without warning, an unknown force yanked a stalagmite across the floor until the

stalagmite attached itself to the bottom of the vertical stalactite. The stalagmite was locked in a

slanted position, and the stalactite and the stalagmite had united to form the shape of a “J” on the

cave floor. The “J” shape symbolized that the universe had produced a “Jack” card, so Greene

released an “Ace” card that conquered the universe’s “Jack” card. Nestor tightened his grip of

the handgun that was aimed at Gorier, and when Gorier discovered that Greene’s mystical card

game had damaged the cave, Gorier collapsed to his knees, snatched his sweeper, and walloped

the rocky cave wall with the sweeper. Nestor tightened his grip of the handgun and commanded

Gorier to relinquish the sweeper, but Gorier refused to comply with Nestor’s demands. Gorier

extended his arm to point the sweeper at Nestor, and Gorier swung his arm so that the sweeper

would be pointed at Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had

used The Circler to connect Nestor’s spirit with Greene’s spirit, and an unknown entity suddenly

paralyzed Nestor’s muscles and forced Nestor to drop his handgun. A blanket of dust rose from

the floor as Nestor was dragged in Greene’s direction, and when Nestor reached Greene,

Nestor’s legs disappeared into Greene’s chest. Nestor’s torso, arms, and head protruded in a

horizontal position from Greene’s chest, and Greene shrieked in horror while Nestor waved his

45

hands to convey his dread because he was being absorbed into Greene’s chest. As Nestor

struggled to free his legs from Greene’s chest, Greene advised Nestor to contemplate qualities

that separated Nestor and Greene so that their spirits would not be connected. Greene cleared his

mind and concentrated on the clear truth that he was The Apocalyptic Card Dealer while Nestor

was a police officer, but Nestor’s horizontal torso sank deeper into Greene’s chest until Nestor’s

stomach disappeared as Nestor continued to merge into Greene. While Greene and Nestor

focused on preventing their spirits from being connected, Gorier dropped his sweeper to the cave

floor and retrieved his sack of glowing teeth so that he could create Gorot.

Greene closed his eyes to ensure that he would not encounter any opposites, and with

Nestor’s sinking torso and head protruding from Greene’s chest, Greene sprinted in a circle

around the cave. Greene had embraced thoughts of the qualities that separated him from Nestor,

but Nestor could not unshackle his body from Greene’s torso until Nestor filled his mind with

thoughts about the qualities that distinguished him from Greene. Gorier, The Spirit Connector,

recognized that Nestor and Greene were distracted, so Gorier removed two glowing teeth from

the sack and buried the teeth into a stalactite that was hanging from the cave ceiling. The

stalactite began to glow red with human hatred, and Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer,

watched helplessly as his enemy Gorier planted three additional teeth into a stalagmite on the

bottom of the cave. Nestor’s horizontal head dangled from Greene’s chest, and when Nestor

positioned his palms on Greene’s chest, Nestor’s hands instantly were absorbed into Greene’s

stomach as Nestor continued his rapid descent. Gorier flashed a smile at Greene to express his

amusement that he had connected Greene’s spirit with Nestor’s spirit, and after Gorier chuckled

with delight, he inserted two more teeth into the rocky structure and caused it to emit luminous

red radiation of human hatred. Greene yearned to impede Gorier’s efforts to insert the remaining

teeth into the cave, but Greene could not reach Gorier because Greene was preoccupied with

ensuring that Nestor did not merge into Greene’s chest. Greene darted back and forth between

the cave walls as Nestor’s torso sank deeper into Greene’s chest, and Nestor could no longer flail

his arms because his hands had merged into Greene’s body. When Gorier recognized that

Greene did not pose a threat, he refocused his attention on inserting the remaining three glowing

teeth into the rocky cave walls. Greene continued to inundate his mind with the thought that he

was The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and that Nestor was a human police officer, but Greene’s

thoughts failed to unshackle the two individuals whose spirits were merging together. Greene

46

concluded that Nestor also needed to acknowledge that Greene was The Apocalyptic Card

Dealer and that Nestor was a police officer because the characteristics that distinguished Greene

from Nestor would prevent their spirits from merging.

In a state of panic, Greene glared down at Nestor, whose torso and head were hanging

from Greene’s chest, and Greene declared, “Officer Nestor, don’t fight; it’s making you sink

faster. I can help you, but you have to do exactly what I say. You have to think about the fact

that I’m The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and that you’re a police officer; you have to acknowledge

that I’m a supernatural being and that you’re a human being. Our differences will keep us from

merging together; please, it’s the only way.”

Nestor initially ignored Greene’s pleas for him to recognize that Greene was The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer, and while Gorier collected the final two teeth from the sack, Nestor

continued his endeavor to avoid being sucked into Greene’s body. Greene struggled to remain in

an upright position because the heavy weight of Nestor’s body nearly caused Greene to collapse

to the cave floor. Nestor’s entire torso suddenly was submerged beneath Greene’s chest as

Greene frantically dashed around the cave, and after only Nestor’s head became visible, Nestor’s

head resembled a tumor that was throbbing on top of Greene’s chest. Nestor’s screaming head

was dangling from Greene’s chest, and Nestor decided to clear his mind and to concentrate on

his conviction that he was a human police officer and that Greene was a supernatural being who

was The Apocalyptic Card Dealer. After Nestor imagined the differences that separated him

from Greene, Nestor regained the feeling in his body, and he managed to lift his waist, his arms,

and his torso from Greene’s chest because Nestor’s thoughts had prevented him from being

merged into Greene. Nestor’s entire body emerged from Greene’s chest and plunged to the dusty

cave floor, and when Nestor collided into the cave floor, a cloud of dust rose from the floor and

infected Nestor’s nostrils. Nestor coughed and gagged on the dust, and a cold shiver crawled

across Nestor’s spine and caused his muscles to tingle. Greene was relieved that he no longer

would be forced to bear the weight of Nestor’s body, and Greene collapsed to one knee and

panted rapidly to recapture his breath. While Nestor and Greene regained their composures,

Gorier planted the final two teeth into a stalagmite, and the one hundred and twenty-eight teeth

that were planted into the stalactites and stalagmites caused the cave to resemble a giant mouth.

After Gorier inserted the final glowing tooth into the pointed tip of the stalagmite, the human

hatred inside the teeth was pumped through the stones and boulders that composed the cave

47

walls. Nestor crawled across the cave floor as dust swirled around him, and he exerted pressure

on a nearby boulder to pull himself to his feet. Greene and Nestor both sensed a forceful

rumbling as the cave walls began to shake, and several boulders plunged from the cave summit

to the floor where the boulders cracked into pieces. The teeth that had been planted into the cave

rocks glowed even more brightly as the rocky walls shook so intensely that stones and boulders

plummeted from the cave summit. Gorier, Greene, and Nestor nearly tripped inside the cave that

was collapsing around them, and the three individuals sprinted toward the entrance of the cave.

Nestor darted back and forth to avoid the boulders that were raining from the summit, and he

hopped over the smaller stones that were sliding across the floor. After a falling boulder clouted

Nestor’s head, Nestor collapsed to a floor that was covered with a mixture of broken stones, and

Nestor buried his face into the piles of stones as more boulders poured down from the ceiling.

As the cave walls shook, more falling stones contributed to the rubble that covered the floor, and

the dust from the rubble wandered to the cavernous ceiling. Nestor rolled away from the

boulders that crashed down onto the floor, and Greene clasped Nestor’s arm to aid Nestor as he

pulled himself to his feet. Nestor appreciated that Greene had assisted him, and Nestor

recognized that Greene actually was concerned with Nestor’s wellbeing. Nestor and Greene

followed Gorier as he sprinted to the cave entrance and returned to the wilderness of the national

park. While they were standing outside the cave, Nestor, Greene, and Gorier stared at the cave

entrance as a pile of fragmented stones and boulders collected together and rose to the ceiling.

The collection of rubble blocked the cave entrance, and the human hared inside the one hundred

and twenty-eight sports coaches’ teeth caused the cave to transform into a living organism

known as Gorot.

Inside the cave, the sports coaches’ teeth were activated, and the cavernous structure in

which the teeth were buried functioned as Gorot’s gigantic mouth. The teeth glowed red with

the radiation of human hatred, and the teeth chomped through the collection of rubble that

blocked the cave entrance. The cave had transformed into a massive living being that was

composed entirely of boulders, and the formation of stalactites and stalagmites to which the

sports coaches’ teeth were attached served as the creature’s enormous mouth. The creature

known as Gorot sprouted arms and legs that were composed of boulders that were strung

together, and Gorot stood over one hundred feet tall as he towered over Gorier, Greene, and

Nestor. Stacks of smaller boulders and stones were strung together to construct Gorot’s entire

48

body. The three individuals scurried away from Gorot, the enormous monster that was

comprised entirely of stones and boulders from the cave, and the terrain rumbled as Gorot

sprinted across the wilderness of the Florida national park. Gorot exposed the sports coaches’

teeth when he opened his mouth to roar, and he turned away from the three individuals and

rapidly scurried in the opposite direction. Gorot’s rocky legs produced craters when they

slammed into the terrain, and Gorier, Greene, and Nestor watched as Gorot charged across the

grassy landscape. Gorot, the enormous creature of stones and boulders, destroyed the streets that

hindered his progress, and Gorot quickly traveled hundreds of miles and retreated into the

Atlantic Ocean where he disappeared. Nestor was flabbergasted that the human hatred inside the

sports coaches’ teeth had transformed the remote cave into Gorot, a living monster that would

disturb the balance between necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. Gorier proudly

clutched The Circler to his heart as he stood beside Greene and Nestor, and after Nestor regained

his composure, he aimed his handgun at Gorier and commanded him to turn around so that he

could be handcuffed. Gorier directed a smirk at Nestor and Greene because Gorier wished to

celebrate that the sports coaches’ teeth had invigorated the cave with life to create Gorot, the

creature that was composed entirely of the demolished cave.

Gorier, The Spirit Connector, glared at Greene, and Gorier gleefully declared, “You can’t

stop me, now, Card Dealer; Gorot has been born. He’s beginning to travel across the Atlantic

Ocean to the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. I had so many wars that I could’ve

chosen; so many soldiers have been forgotten. I picked the Peloponnesian War that was fought

in 431 BC between Sparta’s Peloponnesian League and Athens. Athens had a powerful naval

force; Sparta had a powerful army on land. So many Athenian soldiers drowned in the Aegean

Sea during the Peloponnesian War; the Athenian soldiers’ bodies were never recovered from the

sea. Their bones and muscles have decomposed, but the Athenian soldiers’ teeth are still sitting

at the bottom of the sea. Those teeth are made of enamel, the hardest substance in the human

body; the Athenian soldiers’ teeth haven’t rotted away, even after over two-thousand years.

Gorot will fill those teeth with human hatred; those Athenian soldiers’ teeth are the keys to

resurrecting them. Gorot will resurrect the Athenian soldiers in the Aegean Sea, Card Dealer;

you’ll be forced to bring out the sports players to keep the balance between necessary conflicts

and unnecessary conflicts. Get your sports players ready; it’s time to start this.”

49

Greene’s facial expression conveyed his dread that Gorier had used the human hatred

inside the sports coaches’ teeth to transform the cave into a living organism that would resurrect

the Athenian soldiers who had drowned in the Aegean Sea. Nestor did not wish to murder

Gorier because Nestor hoped that Gorier could offer explanations about these unusual

occurrences, but Nestor threatened to shoot Gorier if he refused to turn around and to yield.

Gorier dropped The Circler, placed his hands behind his head, turned around, and allowed Nestor

to lock handcuffs around his wrists. Greene also expected Nestor to handcuff him, but Nestor

did not arrest Greene because Nestor discarded his better judgment and decided that he could

trust Greene considering that Greene had rescued him from the collapsing cave. After Nestor

snatched The Circler and secured the handcuffs around Gorier’s wrists, Nestor revealed his

bewilderment by declaring, “I don’t know what you’re involved with, Mr. Gorier, but you’re

going to give me some explanations for all this when we get to the police station.”

Greene followed closely behind Nestor, and as Nestor tugged the handcuffed Gorier

across the grassy landscape toward his police car, Nestor turned to Greene and declared,

“Greene, thank you for saving me back there in the cave, but I still can’t trust either one of you.

There’re handcuffs sitting in my car; I still have to arrest you.”

Greene nodded his head to symbolize that he understood Nestor, and the three individuals

stepped over the craters that Gorot had carved into the terrain when he ravaged the grassy

landscape. The contrast between dryness and wetness in the grass stimulated Greene’s hands to

shake, so Greene balanced the opposites of “dryness” and “wetness” by snapping his fingers

three times, clapping his hands twice, and scratching his nose four times. After the bulges

beneath Greene’s flesh formed the shapes of four hearts on his forehead, a collection of twigs

and sticks scattered across the ground to form of the shapes of three diamonds, so Greene

triumphed in his card game with the universe. The national park was covered with craters that

Nestor avoided as he escorted Gorier across the park, and when Nestor reached the police car, he

hurled Gorier into the backseat. He retrieved handcuffs that he locked around Greene’s wrists,

and he placed Greene in the backseat of the police car beside Gorier. Nestor placed Gorier’s

sweeper, The Circler, in the trunk, and after Greene sat down in the backseat, he completed his

ritual to balance the opposites of “standing up” and “sitting down” that he had created. Nestor

drove the two suspects away from the demolished national park, and while the creature Gorot

swam toward the Aegean Sea, Nestor headed toward the police station. Daniel Gorier, The Spirit

50

Connector, and Sam Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, remained silent in the backseat as

Nestor sped down the highway, but Greene eventually breached the silence by presenting Nestor

with questions.

With his hands shackled behind his back, Greene inquired about the glowing sports

equipment when he declared, “Officer Nestor, you said that you found a glowing basketball at

the scene of Chris Pontius’ murder. You recovered a glowing baseball, a glowing hockey puck,

and a glowing football from the scenes of the three earlier murders four years ago. Those four

glowing objects are shining red with human hatred. Where are they right now?”

Nestor’s eyes concentrated on the road that winded in front of him when the forlorn

Florida police officer responded, “They’re in the evidence that we’ve collected at the police

station.”

In the backseat of the police car, Gorier directed a quick glance at Greene, and Gorier

exposed the shards of jagged glass that served as his teeth when he declared, “Officer, you really

should listen to Greene. Right now, Gorot is swimming toward the Aegean Sea to resurrect the

deceased Athenian soldiers whose teeth are still sitting at the bottom of the sea. I’m going to

upset the balance between necessary and unnecessary conflicts, and if you’re smart, then, you

will stay out of my way. You’re in way over your head. You can’t keep The Apocalyptic Card

Dealer and me from resolving our differences.”

Nestor disregarded that Gorier had threatened him, and although Nestor was bewildered

by many bizarre events, he remained skeptical that Sam Greene and Daniel Gorier truly were

immortal spirits that were battling over the balance of the universe. The police car sped down

the winding hallway, and after Greene closed his eyes to avoid all potential opposites, the three

individuals sat in absolute silence until Nestor pulled into a parking spot in front of the police

station. After Nestor shifted the car into “Park,” Greene pleaded with Nestor to remove his

handcuffs so that Greene would possess the freedom to complete his ritual to balance the

opposites. Nestor sighed with frustration as he reluctantly agreed to unshackle Greene, and when

Nestor pulled Greene and Gorier from the police car, Greene indulged in his mystical ritual to

establish balance between the opposites of “sitting down” and “standing up.” After Greene

balanced the opposites and triumphed in his card game, Nestor snatched the sweeper from the

trunk and dragged Greene and Gorier, his two suspects, into the police station. Greene and

Gorier did not resist Nestor as he escorted them into an interrogation booth where they were

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greeted by Walter Snyder, the impressionable police officer who sought to emulate Nestor.

Snyder recognized Sam Greene as the psychopath who had been convicted of the murders of

three innocent sports coaches, and Snyder assumed that Gorier was a suspect in the recent

murder of Chris Pontius, the basketball coach of the Fireflies team. Nestor plopped Gorier and

Greene into adjacent chairs inside the interrogation booth, and after Greene sat down in the chair,

he began his ritual in response to his shaking hands. Greene’s ritual amused Snyder, who was

impressed that Nestor already had arrested a suspect in the murder of Chris Pontius.

While Gorier and Greene sat silently beside each other at the table, Snyder shifted his

glance from Gorier, The Spirit Connector, to Nestor, and Snyder declared, “Wow, Nestor,

you’ve already brought in a suspect for Pontius’ murder. Why is Sam Greene with you? Man,

he’s got some serious OCD. What’s he trying to do?”

After Nestor propped Gorier’s sweeper, The Circler, against the wall, Nestor stood

behind the chair in which Gorier was sitting, and with a solemn stare, Nestor turned to Snyder

and declared, “Well, actually, Snyder, Sam Greene brought me to this suspect, Daniel Gorier.

Greene says that Gorier killed Chris Pontius and the other three sports coaches; Gorier’s even

confessed to all four murders. Gorier tells me that he and Greene share the same DNA; even

their names sound just alike. I’ve seen some strange things today, and I’m going to get an

explanation from either Greene or Gorier. I need a real explanation, and I’m willing to wait for

as long as I need to get the answers.”

Nestor focused on The Spirit Connector and inquired about his supernatural abilities

when he asked, “Gorier, how did you make the illusion that I was being pulled into Greene?

How did you make it look like that cave got up and walked away?”

Nestor and Snyder leaned over the table on the opposite side of Greene and Gorier, and

the perspiration that covered Greene’s face and palms conveyed The Apocalyptic Card Dealer’s

distress and confusion. Before Gorier could offer a response to Nestor’s burning questions,

Greene interjected himself into the interrogation, and Greene declared, “There were no illusions

involved, Officer Nestor. We don’t have time for any of this. Gorot has probably already

entered the Aegean Sea; the creature is going to resurrect the Athenian soldiers whose teeth are

sitting at the bottom of the sea. Listen to me. I need those four glowing objects; I need the

glowing baseball, basketball, football, and hockey puck that you recovered from the four earlier

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crime scenes. It’s the only way to prevent the unbalance of the opposites; the world will fall

apart if I don’t release those sports players.”

Nestor and Snyder remained skeptical about Greene’s assertions, and while the two

police officers continued their interrogation in an effort to extract information from The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector, Gorot swam into the Aegean Sea. Gorot

stroked his stony arms and legs back and forth inside the sea, and the creature swam down to the

bottom of the sea where he opened his mouth, which stored the cave stalactites and stalagmites

to which the four sports coaches’ teeth were attached. When Gorot glided along the sea bottom,

his gaping mouth collected the teeth of the Athenian soldiers who perished during the

Peloponnesian War. The Athenian soldiers’ teeth were their only physical remains that had not

decomposed on the sea floor, and the sports coaches’ teeth contained human hatred that was

pumped into the Athenian soldiers’ teeth. After the sports coaches’ teeth collided into the

Athenian soldiers’ teeth, the human hatred caused the Athenian soldiers’ teeth to shine with red

radiation as the teeth were invigorated with life. Gorot, which was composed entirely of stones

and boulders from the cave, collected the Athenian soldiers’ teeth inside his cavernous mouth,

and the creature then kicked his legs back and forth so that he could float upward to the surface.

When Gorot’s stony cranium emerged from the sea, he quickly swam back toward the Florida

national park from which he had originally emerged. Gorot climbed from the Atlantic Ocean

and destroyed city streets and buildings as he sprinted across the landscape to return to the

Florida national park where he had been invigorated with life. The stony creature carved more

craters into the terrain of the national park during his sprint. When Gorot arrived at the exact

location where he had been born, he choked on the Athenian soldiers’ teeth that were being

saturated with human hatred from the sports coaches’ teeth. Gorot’s stony feet remained locked

inside two enormous craters that the creature had fashioned into the grassy landscape. The

human hatred inside the sports coaches’ teeth were transferred into the Athenian soldiers’ teeth,

and after the human hatred resurrected the Athenian soldiers, Gorot spit out the Athenian

soldiers’ teeth that had been collected inside his throat. When the Athenian soldiers’ teeth

reached the grass, the teeth were planted into the soil, and the glowing teeth were comparable to

plant seeds from which human skeletons sprouted. The teeth glowed even more brightly as

skeletal feet and legs were released from each individual tooth, and the human skeletons were

slowly assembled as skeletal waists, torsos, arms, and heads were fastened together. The

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hundreds of fleshless skeletons walked through the grass, and after the skeletons lined up in ten

different formations, the skeletons became inactive and froze in the center of the national park

that had been decorated with craters. The human hatred that was stored inside the sports

coaches’ teeth had pumped life into the Athenian soldiers’ teeth, and the Athenian soldiers’

skeletons had been reassembled and had assumed their battle formations in their lines. The

hundreds of skeletons represented the resurrected Athenian soldiers who had drowned in the

Aegean Sea during the Peloponnesian War, and the Athenian soldiers remained frozen on the

grassy landscape that was covered with craters. After Gorot resurrected the Athenian soldiers by

infusing their teeth with human hatred, the monstrous creature dived into the Atlantic Ocean and

disappeared beneath the waves. The skeletons of the resurrected Athenian soldiers embodied the

essence of warfare, which is a necessary conflict to ensure freedom. The skeletons would

become reanimated after they were introduced to their opposites, which were sports players who

competed in unnecessary conflicts to provide entertainment, and the skeletons eagerly

anticipated the arrival of their opposites, the sports players.

Inside the interrogation booth, Sam Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, was concerned

that Gorot had resurrected the Athenian soldiers, and Greene recognized that the resurrected

Athenian soldiers would not be complete without their opposites. All the opposites in the world

governed the universe and allowed it to maintain its essential order and stability, so if the

resurrected Athenian soldiers were not provided with their opposites, the universe would

collapse and would eventually trigger the extinction of the human race. While Nestor and

Snyder continued to demand answers about these bizarre events, Gorier, The Spirit Connector,

remained stubborn and refused to address the matter with the two police officers. While Gorier

embraced silence, Greene’s horrified expression and his clammy hands illustrated his state of

panic, and Greene frantically gasped for oxygen as he swallowed the lump in his throat. Greene

was so distressed about the resurrected Athenian soldiers that he nearly tumbled from his chair,

but he still mustered the strength to glare at Nestor and to declare, “Please, Officer Nestor,

there’s nothing left to tell you. Gorot moves quickly; he’s going to resurrect the Athenian

soldiers. The soldiers are going to be waiting for their opposites; they’re going to wait for the

sports players. The Spirit Connector used The Circler to connect all the spirits of the sports

players and the spectators together; I need to free the sports players from the four glowing

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objects. If the soldiers don’t have their opposites in enough time, then, everything will be

jeopardized. The world thrives on opposites; without them, the world will fall apart.”

Nestor and Snyder both remained skeptical and snickered at Greene’s palpable terror and

his passionate assertions, and Greene continued his incessant rambling in an effort to persuade

the two police officers that the resurrected Athenian soldiers required their opposites. The

hundreds of skeletons remained inactive inside the national park that had been decorated with

craters, and when the skeletons did not receive their opposites, the world began to collapse. The

Florida citizens who populated a nearby neighborhood suddenly were possessed by an unknown

entity, and twenty citizens were stimulated to leave their homes so that they could fight each

other in physical altercations. Two citizens stood beside each other on the street, and two other

individuals who stood a few feet away from the two citizens also positioned themselves beside

each other. All four citizens removed their handguns and aimed them at the foreheads of the

other individuals, and after the individuals simultaneously pulled the triggers, all four citizens

collapsed to the street and were lying in pools of blood. The sixteen individuals who were still

alive charged into one another, and the citizens choked, punched, and gouged the eyes of the

opposing individuals who blocked their paths. The crowd of citizens who were colliding into

each other trampled three of their neighbors, and the thirteen individuals who were still alive

stepped over the seven deceased victims whose bodies were soaked in blood that flowed across

the street. Several individuals were pushed to the street where other enraged citizens jumped

down to the concrete to strangle them, and all the possessed citizens soon were strangling,

punching, and kicking each other in reclining positions on their backs. During the frenzy, two

more individuals perished after they were pummeled to death, and the surviving citizens climbed

over the piles of dead bodies to continue their fracas with each other. One neighbor hurled an

opponent through the front window of a house, and the victim sustained facial lacerations that

caused him to bleed to death on the floor of the inside living room. Other individuals in the

neighbor retrieved rakes, hammers, hedge clippers, and other tools that they used as weapons so

that they could defend themselves. When the gathering of citizens crashed into each other, more

blood spilled onto the streets as the citizens sliced into flesh and stabbed each other with the

sharp tools. Police cars eventually arrived at the scene where the vicious neighbors continued to

bite and claw into the flesh of their opponents. Unfortunately, the six police officers also were

possessed by the unknown force, and the deranged officers drove their cars forward and

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ploughed through the crowd of citizens. Six more victims perished because they sustained such

horrific injuries after their bodies were crushed by the speeding police cars. The six possessed

police officers emerged from their vehicles so that they could contribute to the fracas, and after

more citizens tumbled to the street, the individuals who were standing upright jumped into the

pile of neighbors who were lying in the streets of blood and broken glass. The individuals

pummeled, stabbed, kicked, and clawed each other until all the possessed police officers and

citizens in the neighborhood succumbed to their injuries and perished on the streets. As the

mixture of blood and broken glass seeped down the streets, the unknown entity infected an

airplane that was flying above the neighborhood. The airplane instantly plummeted from the

sky, crashed into the streets, and created a huge fireball when it collided into the neighborhood

homes, and the fireball propelled destroyed concrete and other debris into the sky. The unknown

force had stimulated the neighbors to become violent and had triggered the catastrophic crash

that resulted in the deaths of all the passengers aboard the demolished airplane.

The unknown force spread from the neighborhood and caused more anarchy as drivers

across Florida were unable to maintain control over their vehicles, and hundreds of cars swerved

out of control until they were involved in horrific crashes. The demolished cars were stacked in

piles on top of one another, and the unknown entity traveled from the Florida highways into

more local residencies. As more automobiles crashed to contribute to the piles of other wrecked

cars, three additional airplanes plummeted from the sky and exploded on the highways, and more

possessed individuals gathered together so that they could attempt to murder each other. The

motorists who were involved in car accidents emerged from their vehicles and sought to strangle

or stab each other on the streets, and citizens in other neighborhoods suddenly were possessed

and fled from their homes to participate in more grisly physical altercations. Power outages also

spread across the city as hundreds of possessed citizens looted stores, burned buildings, and

pummeled each other to contribute to the anarchy that the unknown entity had generated. The

resurrected Athenian soldiers remained frozen inside the national park, but the anarchy would

continue to escalate until the Athenian soldiers were graced with their opposites. While cars and

airplanes crashed and possessed citizens competed in violent brawls across Florida, Nestor and

Snyder demanded answers from The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector. Nestor

shined a light into Greene’s eyes to cause his pupils to contract, and when Nestor instructed

56

Greene to explain these mysterious circumstances, Greene whimpered in horror because he

sensed that the balance of opposites in the world had been disrupted.

While Gorier remained silent and composed, Greene stretched his arms across the table

and pleaded with Nestor to listen when he screamed, “Officer Nestor, we’ve wasted too much

time. Everything is falling apart. Show me where the four glowing objects are, and I can put an

end to all this. I promise you that I can fix everything.”

Before Nestor and Snyder could respond to The Apocalyptic Card Dealer’s pleas, another

police officer abruptly entered the interrogation room to impart that airplane crashes and riots

had been reported by the local media. Without warning, a motorist who was driving near the

police station lost control of his vehicle, and the car swerved off the road and crashed through the

front wall of the station. After the airbag deployed, the motorist slammed his face into the fabric,

and although the motorist’s forehead was lacerated by the impact, he survived the crash through

the brick wall of the station. While The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector

remained handcuffed with their wrists locked behind their chairs, Snyder and Nestor dashed from

the interrogation room and surveyed the damage that the car accident had caused. The sight of

the damaged car that had crashed through the brick wall prompted Nestor to consider that

Greene’s absurd claims about the disturbance of positives and negatives in the universal equation

were valid. The unknown force would continue to spread anarchy until the resurrected Athenian

soldiers were introduced to their opposites. While Nestor and Snyder focused on aiding the

injured motorist by removing the rubble that had cracked the windshield, Gorier, The Spirit

Connector, concentrated on attempting to unshackle himself from the handcuffs. As he leaned

back in his chair, Gorier screamed and subsequently whispered some gibberish, and Gorier’s

actions of “screaming” and “whispering” created a pair of opposites that threatened the balance

of the universal equation. Greene’s hands shook in response to the opposites that Gorier had

created, but Greene was unable to complete his ritual to balance the opposites because his hands

were shackled behind his back. Gorier watched with delight as Greene scooted back in his chair

in a futile effort to free himself from the handcuffs so that he would be able to snap his fingers,

to clap his hands, and to scratch his nose. Greene’s shackled hands ceased their trembling and

spasms, so Greene had failed to complete his ritual in a sufficient time period. After the tremors

that bulged beneath Greene’s flesh climbed from his feet to his face, the bulges converged to

form the shape of three hearts on his forehead, so Greene had released a card of “three hearts” in

57

his supernatural card game with the universal equation. The universe caused the separate

handcuffs on the wrists of Greene and Gorier to become so scalding hot that the handcuffs began

to emit clouds of smoke.

Inside the interrogation room, the handcuffs suddenly were twisted around the wrists of

Greene and Gorier. The universe had twisted and burned the circular locks of the two handcuffs,

and both of the smoking handcuffs slid down the wrists of Greene and Gorier and rested on the

floor. Greene and Gorier were able to move their hands freely, and the two individuals hopped

from their chairs and stared down at the two handcuffs to discover that the two circular locks on

each pair of handcuffs had been burned and twisted into the shapes of four hearts. The two

twisted pairs of handcuffs indicated that the universe had released a card of “four hearts,” and the

universe’s card of “four hearts” defeated the card of “three hearts” that Greene had produced.

The rumbling engine of an outside car startled Greene and Gorier, so they dived to the ground as

another car veered from the street and crashed through the wall of the interrogation room. The

car had crashed through the wall of the interrogation room to punish Greene because he had been

defeated in his card game with the unstable universal equation. Gorier, The Spirit Connector,

snatched his sweeper, The Circler, that was propped against the wall, and Gorier sprinted from

the interrogation room while Greene focused on the driver who had been injured in the car crash.

Greene slowly approached the wrecked vehicle so that he could survey the damage that the

swerving car had created, and the car had stopped in the center of the gaping hole that had been

carved into the wall. The bricks that were stacked together at the top of the wall opening

plunged to the wrecked car to puncture the glass windshield, and the bricks, plaster fragments,

and other debris had collected on the car’s dented doors and the windshield. Greene climbed on

top of the car to remove the amassed debris, and after he managed to open the car door, he pulled

the injured driver from the car and dragged him to a nearby chair. Greene placed the driver in

the chair and used his right palm to exert pressure on the driver’s facial laceration that was

gushing blood. When Greene concluded that the driver would survive his injuries, The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer darted from the interrogation room to confront The Spirit Connector

inside the police station.

Two vehicles had crashed into the police station, and while Nestor, Snyder, and other

police officers were clearing rubble from the first wrecked vehicle, Greene and Gorier battled

each other in the hallway that was close to the wreckage. During the physical altercation

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between The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector, more concerned police officers

rushed into the dilapidated interrogation room to provide medical aid to the second motorist who

had crashed into the station. Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, repeatedly clouted Gorier in

the face, and Gorier responded to Greene’s assault by using his sweeper to push Greene to the

floor. When Greene’s back collided into the hard floor, Greene’s hands shook and spasmed in

response to the opposites of “standing up” and “lying down,” so on his back, Greene snapped his

fingers three times, clapped his hands twice, and scratched his nose four times to balance the

opposites. While Greene was distracted by his mystical card game with the universe, Gorier

sprinted through the crowd of police officers who were lifting the wounded driver from his car so

that they could carry him to safety. Nestor immediately recognized that Gorier was pushing his

way through the crowd, and Nestor frantically drew his handgun from its holster and aimed the

barrel at Gorier’s head. Gorier became alarmed that his life was threatened, so he gripped his

sweeper, pointed its tip at the chest of a police officer named David Wilkins, and quickly moved

the tip from the police officer to Snyder. Gorier’s sweeper, The Circler, merged Snyder’s spirit

with Wilkins’ spirit, so Wilkins’ entire body was absorbed into Snyder’s chest. Officer Wilkins’

horizontal head, torso, and arms protruded from Snyder’s stomach after Wilkins’ legs and waist

sank beneath Snyder’s flesh, which had become comparable to quicksand. While the other

officers who gathered together were flabbergasted by the sickening image of the police officer

who was gradually sinking into Snyder’s stomach, Nestor assured himself that he could free

Wilkins before he could disappear into Snyder’s chest. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had

successfully created a distraction by using his sweeper to connect the spirits of Snyder and

Wilkins together. While Nestor and the other officers concentrated on aiding Snyder and

Wilkins, Gorier clutched his sweeper and climbed over the rubble that the wrecked car had

created, and Gorier escaped from the station and disappeared into the public streets so that he

could focus on his work. As Wilkins’ body sank deeper into Snyder’s chest inside the police

station, Snyder’s chest transformed into an undulating sea of rolling skin flaps that devoured

more of Wilkins’s body. In a panic, Snyder dashed back and forth through the crowd of

horrified police officers, and Nestor recognized that Snyder and Wilkins needed to contemplate

the thoughts, memories, life experiences, and emotions that separated their individual human

spirits.

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As Wilkins’ torso disappeared beneath Snyder’s chest of rolling flesh, Nestor relied on

the knowledge that he had gained from The Apocalyptic Card Dealer when he glared at Snyder

and declared, “Snyder, Wilkins, both of you need to calm down, and listen to me. Guys, if you

want to keep your bodies from merging, then, you have to think about the memories and events

that separate you from each other. Think about your childhoods; think about your first jobs.

Think about your families and your kids; your memories and emotions will keep your bodies

from merging together. Clear your heads, and think about the events of your lives.”

After Wilkins’ torso was consumed beneath Snyder’s flesh, only Wilkins’ sinking head

was visible on top of Snyder’s chest. Nestor implored the two horrified police officers to fill

their minds with memories of their lives, but Snyder ignored Nestor’s pleas as he darted around

the station with Wilkins’ head protruding from his chest. Nestor screamed for Snyder and

Wilkins to adhere to his instructions, but Snyder frantically sprinted in a circle until Wilkins’

entire body disappeared beneath Snyder’s chest. The spirits of Gorier and Snyder completely

merged together, so Snyder’s body sprouted Wilkins’ two arms and legs, which were drenched in

blood that poured down to the floor. An enormous flood of blood oozed down Snyder’s body,

and two more eyes, a second nose, and another mouth appeared on Snyder’s face as more blood

seeped from his two mouths and dripped to his chest. Snyder and Wilkins had merged together

to generate a disgusting creature that also possessed four arms and four legs, and the creature

collapsed backward to the floor where the rest of his blood oozed from his body. The deformed

creature that was lying in a puddle of blood perished, and with disgust, Nestor turned away from

the deceased creature that represented the merged bodies of Snyder and Wilkins. Greene, The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer, walked to Nestor’s side, and although Nestor was reluctant to indulge

in Greene’s bizarre fantasies, Nestor accepted that Greene’s fanatical claims were true.

While the other police officers tended to the deceased creature, Nestor abandoned all

doubts about Greene’s claims, and Nestor sternly glared at Greene and declared, “Okay, Greene,

you were right; the world is falling apart. Cars are crashing, airplanes are falling from the sky,

and people are killing each other in the streets. Gorier just killed two officers. Okay, he

probably did kill Chris Pontius and the other three sports coaches. I need to know what I can do

to stop all this; tell me what to do.”

Greene informed Nestor that he needed access to the basketball, the hockey puck, the

baseball, and the football that were glowing with the red radiation of human hatred. While the

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other police officers tended to the wreckage and the deceased creature, Greene followed Nestor

into the evidence room and uncovered the four glowing objects that had been stored inside a

closet. Nestor collected the glowing hockey puck, the baseball, the football, and the basketball

inside a garbage bag, and Greene insisted that they needed to return to the Florida national park

where the cave had transformed into the living creature known as Gorot. Nestor carried the bag

of glowing objects with him as he and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer exited the demolished

police station and walked into the outside streets. After Nestor and Greene climbed into a police

car and placed the bag of glowing objects in the backseat, Greene completed his ritual to balance

more opposites, and Nestor sped away from the police station that had been destroyed by two car

crashes. While Greene continued his ritual in the passenger’s seat, Nestor noticed that the bag of

glowing objects was reflected in the car’s front mirror, but Nestor’s eyes remained focused on

the street that was winding in front of him.

When Nestor asked Greene about the four glowing in the bag, Greene turned to Nestor

and declared, “Do you remember the sports players and the spectators who disappeared from the

sporting events where The Spirit Connector killed the four sports coaches? The Spirit Connector

used his sweeper to connect all the spirits of the sports players and the spectators at each of the

four sporting events. Their spirits are shackled inside each of the four glowing objects. The

Athenian soldiers are waiting for their opposites, the sports players. The anarchy will continue

until there is balance between the two opposites of necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts.

Get to the national park where Gorot was born, and we can put an end to this.”

While the bag of objects shined even more brightly in the backseat, Nestor slammed his

foot onto the accelerator to speed toward the national park, but without warning, two cars that

were in front of Nestor crashed into each other in a violent head-on collision. Nestor activated

the break to avoid striking the two wrecked cars, and when Nestor turned his head to observe the

road, another car lost control and piled on top of the car that was directly behind Nestor’s car.

Three more cars crashed into the pile of demolished vehicles to contribute to the damage, and the

crash ignited flames that engulfed the stack of wrecked cars. Two unidentified citizens were

possessed by the unknown entity, and the possessed individuals retrieved tree limbs from the

sidewalk and jumped on top of the hood of Nestor’s car. The two deranged citizens used the tree

limbs to dent the hood before they walloped the windshield with the limbs to carve a puncture

into the glass. The sharp shards of glass rained from the cracked windshield onto Nestor and

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Greene, and while Greene engaged in his ritual to balance more opposites, Nestor pushed the car

forward to launch the two possessed citizens from the fractured windshield to the concrete street.

As more cars collided into the pile of vehicles that were engulfed in flames, Nestor spun his

police car around in a circle and sped away from the carnage toward the national park. Nestor

drove through a cloud of flames that were sizzling in the streets, and during Nestor’s drive, more

possessed citizens strangled each other, more vehicles crashed to create explosions, and more

individuals were stimulated to burn public buildings. Anarchy continued to spread around

Miami while Nestor swerved his car across lanes of heavy traffic toward the national park.

When Nestor pulled his police car up to the park, the front wheels of the car were elevated

upward and rested in the grassy terrain. Nestor snatched the bag of glowing objects from the

backseat, and after Greene successfully completed his ritual, he and Nestor dashed toward the

resurrected Athenian soldiers that remained inactive in the grass as they waited for their

opposites. After Nestor and Greene sprinted across the grassy landscape, they stumbled onto the

frozen skeletons that were assembled in lines. Nestor gagged at the sight of the bony skeletons

that were decomposing in the sunlight, and he was mesmerized by the skeletons’ teeth, which

were shimmering with more red radiation that represented human hatred.

Greene swiftly removed the basketball, the football, the hockey puck, and the baseball

from the garbage bag, and he stood in front of the inactive skeletons as he prepared to present

them with their opposites. Greene instructed Nestor to maintain his distance, and Greene punted

the glowing football high into the air directly above his head. Greene gripped the glowing

basketball, arched back his right leg, forcefully pushed his leg up, and kicked the basketball into

the sky. He used both hands to grip the shimmering hockey puck and the baseball, and after he

released the two glowing objects, he kicked them into the air. The basketball, the baseball, the

hockey puck, and the football soared into the sky before they plunged back toward the grassy

terrain, and all four glowing objects resembled fireballs that were raining from the sky. When

the basketball, hockey puck, baseball, and football collided into the grassy terrain, the four

flaming objects burned through the dirt and fashioned craters in the terrain as they traveled deep

beneath the earth’s crust. Nestor watched in amazement while the four objects released waves of

red energy that zoomed from the craters and ascended into the air to illuminate the blue sky with

a red blanket. The red blasts of energy that shined from the craters were so luminous that Nestor

shielded his eyes, and when the red waves faded, the four objects that were beneath the earth’s

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crust released the shackled spirits of the sports players and the spectators. Skeletal bones slowly

gathered together to form feet, and the bones assembled human appendages as the bones slid into

place and climbed from the bony feet to the skulls of the skeletons. Over one hundred skeletons

sprouted from the dirt, and the skeletons represented the deceased sports players who had been

resurrected by the human hatred inside the four shimmering objects. The four objects also

unshackled the hundreds of spectators who had attended the four sporting events where The

Spirit Connector murdered the sports coaches to collect their teeth. The hundreds of spectators

emerged from the muddy craters, and after the crowds of spectators reached their feet, they

gathered around the grassy landscape that was covered with craters. The spectators squinted as

they readjusted their eyes to the sunlight, and the spectators sought to become reoriented to their

environment. The one hundred skeletons that represented the resurrected sports players terrified

the gathering of spectators. Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, walked to Nestor’s side, and

Greene commanded the hundreds of spectators to flee from the national park. The crowds of

frightened spectators dispersed and scurried away from the scene of the decaying skeletons, and

Nestor shifted his focus from the skeletons to The Apocalyptic Card Dealer. Greene smiled

because the sports players and the spectators had been unshackled from the four shining objects.

While the spectators continued to rush from the national park, Greene responded to

Nestor’s perplexed stare by declaring, “I told you that the missing spectators were safe, Officer

Nestor. I freed the sports players and the spectators from the four objects. The spectators are

still alive, but The Spirit Connector killed all the sports players when he connected their spirits

together at the sporting events. The human hatred inside the four objects resurrected the sports

players; the resurrected sports players have to fight the resurrected Athenian soldiers to balance

the opposites of necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. The sports players represent

sports, unnecessary conflicts; the Athenian soldiers represent wars, necessary conflicts. The

Athenian soldiers and the sports players need to fight until there’s balance between the opposites;

then, all this anarchy will stop.”

The frozen Athenian soldiers became active when they sensed the presence of the

resurrected sports players who had been unshackled from the four objects that glowed red with

human hatred. The Athenian soldiers and the sports players both were decaying skeletons that

stood on opposite sides of the demolished national park in which Gorot had been born. Both the

Athenian soldiers and the sports players possessed enormous teeth that shined with the red

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radiation of human hatred. The sports players and the Athenian soldiers had been resurrected by

the human hatred inside their teeth, and their glowing teeth were very delicate and could be

damaged easily. If the resurrected sports players and the Athenian soldiers even slightly

scratched their teeth, they would perish because their teeth had allowed them to be resurrected.

While the four objects continued to shine underneath the earth’s crust, the sports players and the

Athenian soldiers prepared to battle each other to determine whether necessary conflicts or

unnecessary conflicts would become the dominant force in the world of infinite opposites.

Nestor and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer hoped to avoid the dangerous melee between the

Athenian soldiers and the sports players, so Nestor and Greene scampered away from the

skeletons to return to Nestor’s police car. When Nestor and Greene reached the parked car,

Nestor concluded that he had achieved a far enough distance from the battle to guarantee his

safety. Nestor and Greene eagerly watched as the skeletal sports players became animated and

lifted their arms their arms above their heads as they were energized with life. The sports

players’ teeth shined red with human hatred because their teeth had resurrected them, and the

resurrected sports players stepped over the craters that had been carved into the grassy terrain.

While hundreds of Athenian soldiers were perched on one side of the landscape, only one

hundred sports players were prepared to battle, so the Athenian soldiers greatly outnumbered the

sports players. In their battle formations, all the Athenian soldiers and the sports players

crouched down, inserted their bony figures into the craters, and scooped up small rocks,

boulders, and sticks from the dirt. The Athenian soldiers and sports players sprinted from

opposite sides of the landscape, and the soldiers and sports players collided into each other and

pushed into their opponents. The one hundred sports players hurled their rocks and boulders

toward the mouths of the hundreds of Athenian soldiers, and when the rocks shattered many

soldiers’ glowing teeth, the soldiers perished. After the soldiers’ teeth were cracked, the

Athenian soldiers’ bones detached from their skeletons, and the skeletons crumpled to the terrain

and formed a pile of bones in the dirt. Many Athenian soldiers gripped a tree trunk and

employed their incredible strength to remove the trunk from the soil, and after the soldiers lifted

the trunk over their heads, they charged into the sports players to pelt them with them with the

tree trunk. The soldiers pushed the trunk into the teeth of the sports players, and when the trunk

cracked the players’ teeth, the players collapsed to their knees and crumbled into piles of rotting

bones that were carried by the breeze.

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The sports players and Athenian soldiers both gathered stones and boulders, retracted

back their hands, and hurled the boulders toward the teeth of their opponents. Other skeletons

tackled their enemies to the ground and repeatedly punched them in their mouths to shatter their

teeth, and the skeletons deteriorated into powder and piles of bones when their teeth were

fractured. The sports players and soldiers continued to aim for the teeth of their enemies as they

launched more stones and boulders into the air, and hundreds of bones scattered across the grass

after the skeletons perished during the fracas. The skeletons impaled their opponents’ chests

with sticks and tree branches, but the branches simply passed through the skeletons and could not

harm them. The Athenian soldiers slapped the sports players with sticks and punched them with

their bony fists, but the skeletons could not be harmed unless their glowing teeth were smashed.

The sports players suffered more losses than the Athenian soldiers because the players were so

greatly outnumbered, and when the players retreated, many of them tripped over the piles of

scattered bones and plunged into the craters that engulfed the landscape. The surviving sports

players gathered together at the opposite end of the park, and the players sprinted forward to

collide into the Athenian soldiers so that the skirmish could continue. More bones from defeated

skeletons rolled down the hilly landscape, and more skeletons tumbled over the bones in the

grass. During the battle between the Athenian soldiers and the sports players, The Apocalyptic

Card Dealer distanced himself from the anarchy, and he repeatedly completed his ritual to

balance the opposites that he witnessed. The sports players retrieved the bones from the

deceased skeletons and used the bones to wallop their enemies in the skulls, but the Athenian

soldiers did not perish and crumble into a pile of bones until the sports players smashed the

glowing teeth of their opponents. The skeletons tossed more stones, sticks, and bones into the

glowing teeth of their enemies, and the crowds of skeletons repeatedly charged into each other as

more bones rolled down the hilly landscape. The sports players gripped tree branches and bones

that became comparable to javelins when the players hurled the pointy objects into the teeth of

the Athenian soldiers and caused their skeletal structures to disintegrate into larger stacks of

rotting bones. Many sports players repeatedly swiped their sticks across the rib cages of the

Athenian soldiers, and the players also used the discarded bones to bash the soldiers over the

skulls. The soldiers responded by using their skeletal palms to push the sports players to the

grassy terrain of craters and more piles of bones, but the sports players managed to defeat the

soldiers by punching their glowing teeth. Tightly packed crowds of skeletal soldiers charged

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across the field toward the sports players, but many soldiers stumbled over the bones that were

concealed beneath the tall grass. The skeletons repeatedly gathered together to charge into their

enemies, and the skeletons exhausted all their strength to push their enemies backward across the

ravaged national park.

Three lines of sports players worked together to yank three more tree trunks from the soil,

and the players carried the tree trunks above their heads to haul the heavy objects toward their

approaching opponents. The sports players assembled in three lines and hurled the three tree

trunks toward the Athenian soldiers, and when the three trunks rained down onto the soldiers, the

trunks eradicated the skeletal soldiers whose teeth were damaged during the attack. Many

Athenian soldiers jumped into the craters to avoid the falling objects, and the other soldiers

hurled boulders that soared down onto the sports players. Several players dived to the grass and

placed their hands over their mouths so that the falling boulders would not damage their teeth.

Although the boulders smacked the skulls of the players, the players’ skeletal structures

remained intact because both the resurrected players and the soldiers could be physically harmed

only if their teeth were fractured. While the boulders were raining down, the players clasped tree

branches that they intended to use as weapons. After all the boulders had been launched into the

grass, the players rose from their stomachs, gripped the tree branches at their sides, and sprinted

toward the opposing Athenian soldiers. The soldiers retracted their arms and hurled more stones

into the crowd of charging sports players, and more players were converted into piles of bones

and dust when the flying stones pelted their shining teeth. Of the one hundred sports players

who had been resurrected by the human hatred inside their teeth, only fifty of the skeletal players

were still alive as the skeletons charged toward the enemies who eagerly awaited them. While

Nestor and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer observed the skirmish from a safe distance, they

ducked to avoid the flying sticks and boulders that the Athenian soldiers were hurling toward the

charging sports players. Before the sports players could collide into the hundreds of Athenian

soldiers, all the soldiers suddenly froze in place. When the fifty surviving sports players

discovered that the hundreds of Athenian soldiers were frozen, the players simply walked up to

the frozen soldiers and punched them in their glowing teeth. The players whose teeth had been

fractured perished, and their bones detached from the skeletons and crumbled into piles that

scattered through the dirt. Greene was startled that the hundreds of remaining Athenian soldiers

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had become inactive and that they could not continue to defend themselves in battle, and the

perspiration that trickled down Greene’s face conveyed his anxiety about the frozen skeletons.

Greene shifted his focus from the inactive skeletons and the piles of bones, sticks, and

boulders, to Nestor, and Greene sensed that Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had interfered in the

conflict when he declared, “The Athenian soldiers are frozen. This can’t happen; there must be

balance between the opposites. Officer Nestor, The Spirit Connector is loose. He’s interfered in

this battle; he’s frozen the soldiers. I can’t let the sports players kill all the soldiers; one conflict

can’t overpower the other. There has to be balance between necessary and unnecessary conflicts,

or the world will fall apart and disappear. Opposites will keep the world together. Officer

Nestor, I need your help. The Spirit Connector has gone on a rampage across the city; he can’t

be far from here. We need to drive around the city. We’ve got to look for the objects that are

glowing red with human hatred; The Spirit Connector has infected them. We’ve got to find them

and turn them into opposites. Opposites are the only things that can keep this world together;

they will keep our reality from exploding and dissipating into nothingness. It’s the only thing

that we can do to hold the pieces of the world together; it can reanimate the Athenian soldiers.

Please, we’ve got to go.”

Nestor had witnessed so many supernatural events that he decided to trust Greene, and he

nodded his head to indicate that he comprehended the task that he and The Apocalyptic Card

Dealer needed to accomplish to prevent the collapse of the unbalanced universe. Nestor glanced

back at the skeletal sports players who were slowly converting the hundreds of Athenian soldiers

into stacks of bones by punching the frozen soldiers in their glowing teeth. Nestor realized that

the universe would fall apart if the sports players successfully destroyed the remaining soldiers

because an equal balance needed to be established between wars and sports, which represented

the opposites of necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had

escaped from the dilapidated police station so that he could spread the human hatred that would

upset the balance between positives and negatives, which were opposites in the broken world.

Anarchy continued to escalate across the city because the balance between necessary conflicts

and unnecessary conflicts had been disturbed. Possessed citizens were shooting and strangling

each other in the streets while other deranged individuals were looting stores and were robbing

houses and banks. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, had traveled through the city streets where

anarchy was spreading, and when he encountered these murders, robberies, and other crimes, he

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reflected images of the violent events inside the glass shards that functioned as his teeth. Many

possessed individuals shot each other, and Gorier captured images of the shootings and the

murdered citizens who were lying in pools of blood. When Gorier gained reflections of the

shootings and robberies inside the glass shards of his teeth, all the other objects that were

reflected by the glass shards also were infected with human hatred, and the objects began to emit

the same red radiation. Gorier reflected images of a vile shooting inside the glass shards of his

teeth, and a nearby street sign and a rock that Gorier had also captured inside the glass shards

began to glow red with human hatred. Gorier sprinted through the streets to capture more

images of shootings and robberies, and more objects shined with red radiation when they were

reflected inside the glass shards. Following The Spirit Connector’s rampage, eight objects in the

city emitted red radiation, and the excessive amounts of human hatred had disrupted the balance

of all the opposites in the universe. The human hatred that radiated from these eight objects also

had caused the Athenian soldiers to become frozen so that the sports players could triumph in the

skirmish and so that balance could not be achieved between necessary conflicts and unnecessary

conflicts. After The Spirit Connector had infected the eight objects with human hatred to upset

the balance of opposites, the Athenian soldiers were frozen, and The Spirit Connector waited for

the sports players to defeat the Athenian soldiers to trigger the collapse of the universe. Inside

the national park, the fifty remaining sports players were punching into the teeth of the hundreds

of frozen Athenian soldiers to transform them into clumps of dust and bones. Every minute,

nearly ten skeletal soldiers perished as the sports players ploughed through the crowds of

Athenian soldiers, but the gathering of soldiers still outnumbered the sports players. To prevent

the collapse of the universe, balance needed to be secured between the opposites of necessary

conflicts and unnecessary conflicts, and balance could be maintained only if the number of

surviving sports players equaled the number of Athenian soldiers.

While the number of Athenian soldiers continued to dwindle inside the ravaged national

park, Nestor and Greene hopped inside Nestor’s police car where Greene situated himself in the

passenger’s seat beside Nestor. As Greene snapped his fingers, clapped his hands, and scratched

his nose in response to more opposites, Nestor pushed his foot onto the accelerator to speed away

from the national park and to enter the city streets. The imbalance of opposites in the world

stimulated more Florida citizens to become demented and homicidal, and the possessed citizens

dashed into the streets in front of Nestor’s speeding police car.

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When Nestor identified that the citizens had become deranged, he glanced at Greene with

perplexity and declared, “What’s going on? What’s wrong with these people? They’re standing

in front of my car.”

In the passenger’s seat, Greene snapped his fingers, clapped his hands, and scratched his

nose, and he declared, “Officer Nestor, this anarchy will continue to spread until there’s balance

between the opposites. There has to be balance between the opposites of necessary conflicts and

unnecessary conflicts, or more people will become deranged in the streets like this. I’m going to

keep doing my ritual to balance the opposites around me. Stay close to me, Officer Nestor. If I

balance enough opposites with my ritual, I can protect you from becoming deranged with the rest

of these people. I’ll keep doing my ritual to protect you; it’s the only way to keep you from

becoming deranged and from joining these people in the streets.”

After Nestor decided to remain close to Greene, Nestor exerted more force to push onto

the accelerator, and the car collided into the possessed citizens and dragged them across the

street. Several deranged citizens leaped onto the moving car to contribute to the windshield

cracks with baseball bats and sticks, and as more glass rained down onto Nestor and Greene,

Nestor slammed his foot onto the accelerator to launch the possessed figures onto the concrete.

More possessed individuals wielded baseball bats and boulders that they used to smash store

windows, and the citizens climbed through the broken windows to ransack the stores and other

businesses. Nestor rapidly turned the steering wheel to turn the car onto a new road that winded

in a northern direction, and he glared through the door window to observe the demolished

buildings that were burning around him. The sights of burning buildings, murdered citizens, and

floods of blood horrified Greene as he turned his head back and forth to survey the catastrophic

damage. Nestor’s darting eyes scanned the streets that were covered with scattered broken glass

and smoldering flames, and Nestor was searching for any objects that were glowing red with

human hatred. While Nestor drove around the city, the fifty surviving sports players managed to

destroy hundreds of the frozen Athenian soldiers by walloping them in their glowing teeth.

Sitting in the passenger’s seat, Greene also stared through the fogged car window to search for

the objects that The Spirit Connector had contaminated with human hatred, but Greene also

recalled that he needed to balance more opposites that composed his surroundings. The flames

that consumed the buildings created reflections on the glass of Nestor’s car as more possessed

citizens flooded into the streets to intensify the calamity.

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Nestor noticed that The Apocalyptic Card Dealer was still snapping his fingers and

clapping his hands in the passenger’s seat, and in irritation, Nestor glared at Greene and declared,

“Are you going to do that ritual all the time, Greene? When will there be balance between the

opposites? Is there any point to this, or is the world going to fall apart?”

While more vehicles that were behind Nestor’s car crashed and formed stacks of smoking

wreckage, Greene sighed with apprehension and whispered, “I don’t know what to tell you,

Officer Nestor. The Spirit Connector has spread anarchy through these Miami neighborhoods;

the anarchy will spread until balance is restored between wars and sports, necessary and

unnecessary conflicts. I’m sorry that everything is falling apart; reality is exploding around us. I

promise you that I’m doing everything in my power to balance the opposites, to keep the pieces

of the world together. Right now, we just need to look for objects that are infected with human

hatred.”

After Nestor pulled onto another street, he identified a shimmering red radiation that was

behind a group of possessed citizens who had gathered together in front of Nestor’s speeding car.

Nestor slammed his foot onto the accelerator to maneuver his vehicle through the demented

individuals so that he could clear a path. When Nestor pulled the car up to the source of the red

radiation, his eyes captured sight of a stranger who was handcuffed to a bench on the sidewalk,

and the handcuffs were emitting the red radiation that represented human hatred. The presence

of the human hatred had greatly disturbed the balance of opposites that constructed the universe.

Earlier that day, The Spirit Connector had captured the image of a vicious murder inside the

glass shards of his teeth, and the image of the handcuffs also had been reflected by the glass

shards inside Gorier’s mouth. Nestor pulled up to the sidewalk, shifted the car into “Park,”

removed his nightstick from the floorboard, stepped away from the car, and approached the

deranged citizen who was handcuffed to the bench. When The Apocalyptic Card Dealer exited

the vehicle, he snapped his fingers, clapped his hands, and scratched his nose to balance more

opposites as he followed Nestor toward the bench. Several deranged individuals accosted

Nestor, and the individuals formed a crowd around Nestor to claw his skin with their fingernails

and to punch Nestor in the chin. Nestor incapacitated the possessed citizens by using his

nightstick to clout them in their skulls, and the unconscious individuals collapsed to the street at

Nestor’s feet. Nestor stepped over the piles of unconscious individuals and walked up to the

sidewalk where he greeted the stranger who was shackled to the bench by the glowing handcuffs.

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The stranger who was seated on the bench vigorously tugged the glowing handcuffs in a futile

effort to free himself, and when Greene appeared at Nestor’s side, Nestor questioned how he

should react to the handcuffs that were secreting the red radiation of human hatred. Greene, The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer, was overjoyed that Nestor had accepted the truth and that Nestor was

seeking advice from Greene.

While the surrounding buildings were consumed by flames, Greene stepped up to the

sidewalk, and Greene contemplated the opposites that constructed the universe when he

responded, “The Spirit Connector has infected these handcuffs with human hatred; that radiation

is upsetting the balance of the universe even more. We have to create more opposites, Officer

Nestor. Opposites are the only things that can hold the universal fabric together now. This

handcuffed man has been arrested; the opposite of ‘being arrested’ is ‘being freed.’ If you free

this man from the handcuffs, you can create more opposites.”

Nestor nodded his head because he realized that he needed to create more opposites to

prevent the collapse of the universe. He slammed his nightstick into the chain that connected the

circular locks of the handcuffs, and after he fractured the chain, Greene helped the individual on

the bench to remove the broken handcuffs from his wrists. Greene placed the two glowing

circular cuffs in each of his hands, and when the possessed individual was unshackled from the

handcuffs, he leaped to his feet and sprinted down the sidewalk so that he could escalate the

anarchy by looting a local store. Nestor had generated a pair of opposites by freeing the

individual, and the opposites caused balance to be restored slowly to the collapsing universe.

Inside the demolished national park, several of the frozen Athenian soldiers were invigorated

with life, and while the other soldiers remained frozen, the few reanimated soldiers collected

more stones and hurled them toward the teeth of the fifty sports players. After Nestor created

opposites by liberating the possessed citizen, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer opened his jaw,

opened his mouth very widely, and chomped into the broken handcuffs that were glowing red

with human hatred. Greene’s supernatural teeth grinded the metallic handcuffs into smaller

fragments that Greene swallowed, and the human hatred from the handcuffs was absorbed into

Greene’s teeth. Nestor was flabbergasted that Greene had devoured the broken handcuffs, and

Greene informed Nestor that it was imperative for him to consume the handcuffs to contain the

human hatred inside the handcuffs and to prevent it from spreading. Greene repeatedly

completed his ritual to balance the opposites in his surroundings, and the ritual prevented Nestor

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from being possessed by the unknown entity that was spreading anarchy across the city. Nestor

swiped his nightstick into more possessed citizens who surrounded him, and after Nestor

incapacitated the individuals, he and Greene returned to the police car and sped down the street

in search of more glowing objects. While the few active Athenian soldiers continued to battle

the fifty sports players in an effort to fracture their teeth, Nestor’s eyes repeatedly darted from

the road that was winding ahead of him to the street signs and traffic lights in his environment.

Several demented individuals lifted trashcans over their heads and hurled them into the street in

front of Nestor’s speeding car, but Nestor swerved his car in a zigzagging motion to avoid the

trashcans that were creating obstacles for him. One of the trashcans that rained from the sky

bounced onto the car windshield to fashion another fracture in the glass, and the trashcan rolled

down the car hood and rested on the street. Nestor’s speeding car dented the trashcans that were

being hurled into the street, and Nestor veered his car from side to side to avoid piles of crashed

vehicles, flames that were burning the concrete, and deranged individuals who constantly jumped

into the vehicle’s path. The car’s swerving motion prompted Greene’s body to sway back and

forth in the passenger’s seat, and Greene’s right elbow banged into the car’s upholstery as he

rocked in different directions. To resist the shaking car, Greene inserted his fingernails into his

seat cushion to maintain his composure, and Greene managed to complete his ritual to balance

more opposites inside the passenger’s seat. Nestor avoided piles of crashed cars and wreckage

by swerving the car from side to side, and his car passed through a wall of sizzling flames that

the possessed individuals had created.

Nestor’s eyes scanned the streets in search of more glowing objects while Greene closed

his eyes because he hoped to avoid opposites that would force him to compete in his mystical

card game with the unbalanced universal equation. As anarchy continued to spread in the streets,

Nestor identified a street sign that was emitting red radiation, and Nestor stepped from the car

and walked toward the glowing sign. The sign contained an arrow that pointed in a western

direction toward another street, so Nestor flipped the arrow to point in an eastern direction to

generate the opposites of “east” and “west.” The opposites stimulated several more frozen

Athenian soldiers to become reanimated with life, and the unfrozen soldiers collected more

boulders and sticks to continue their attempts to smash the teeth of the sports players. The fifty

sports players had successfully transformed over one hundred of the frozen Athenian soldiers

into clumps of bones and dust, but the number of Athenian soldiers still exceeded the number of

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skeletal sports players. The few unfrozen soldiers hurled boulders toward the teeth of their

opponents, and the unfrozen soldiers sought to shield the lines of soldiers who remained frozen.

The unfrozen soldiers straightened their bent elbows and extended their arms in both directions

to protect the teeth of their frozen allies from the stones that were being launched by the fifty

surviving sports players. The sports players assembled in a line that pushed the few unfrozen

soldiers to the grassy terrain of craters and uplifted dirt, and the players reached the line of frozen

soldiers to continue smashing their glowing teeth. Nestor had created the opposites of “east” and

“west” by rotating the arrow of the street sign that was emitting human hatred. After The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer completed his ritual, he exited the police car that was parked beside the

sidewalk, and as he snapped his fingers and clapped his hands, he approached the glowing street

sign. Greene gripped the aluminum pole to which the sign was attached, and he relied on his

supernatural strength to lift the pole from the ground. He snapped the pole into two pieces, and

he chewed the long aluminum poles into smaller balls that he swallowed. After Greene’s teeth

chomped into the glowing street sign, his teeth grinded the sign into fragments, and the human

hatred from the sign was absorbed into Greene’s teeth. Human hatred was disturbing the balance

of the opposites that composed the universe, and Greene had devoured the human hatred to

prevent it from expediting the collapse of the universal fabric.

Greene realized that he and Nestor needed to work quickly to reinvigorate the frozen

Athenian soldiers with life, so Greene motioned for Nestor to follow him back to the police car.

Before Nestor could step from the sidewalk to the concrete street, a crowd of possessed citizens

attacked him, and Nestor used his nightstick to clobber the citizens and to render them

unconscious. Nestor stared down at the sidewalk, and he noticed that one of the unconscious

individuals was donning a wedding ring that emitted the red radiation of human hatred.

As Nestor contemplated how to activate another pair of opposites with the shimmering

wedding ring, Greene stood beside the police car, and Greene declared, “I know what the

opposites are. That man with the wedding ring is married. The opposite of ‘being married’ is

‘being divorced,’ so it’s simple. All you need to do is take off the man’s wedding ring to make

the opposites.”

Nestor crouched down, clasped the unconscious individual’s wrist, and plucked the

wedding ring from the individual’s finger to create opposites that caused more frozen Athenian

soldiers to become reanimated inside the national park. After Nestor dropped the glowing

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wedding ring onto Greene’s palm, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer placed the ring inside his mouth

and chewed the metallic object into smaller fragments that he swallowed, and Greene’s teeth

absorbed the human hatred that radiated from the ring. In a frenzy, Nestor and Greene jumped

back inside the police car, and Nestor turned the steering wheel rapidly so that he could complete

a U-turn before he pushed the accelerator to speed down the street. On the sidewalks, more

possessed citizens burned and looted local stores, and Nestor darted the car back and forth to

dodge crashed cars and other vehicles that were swerving because the motorists had lost control.

Clouds of smoke surrounded Nestor’s speeding police car, and the smoke obscured Nestor’s

vision of the winding road and the objects that composed his environment. When the rising

smoke cleared, Nestor stared through the cracked windshield to observe a gathering of possessed

citizens who were pelting his car with stones. A collection of stones rested on the windshield of

Nestor’s police car, and Nestor was startled that one of the rocks was producing the red radiation

of human hatred. Nestor slammed his foot onto the brake to stop the car, and he exited the

vehicle and walloped the possessed individuals with his nightstick to incapacitate them. After

the demented figures were unconscious on the street, Nestor rummaged through the pile of

stones that covered the cracked windshield. He snatched the single stone that was shining with

red radiation, and as he tightly gripped the stone, the coarse surface of the stone produced a

laceration that dripped with blood from Nestor’s palm. Nestor carefully examined the glowing

stone, and he contemplated how he could use the stone to generate another pair of opposites.

While Nestor clutched the stone in front of his parked car, Greene remained seated in his

passenger’s seat to watch Nestor’s actions.

The Apocalyptic Card Dealer opened the car door and declared, “The stone has a rough

surface, Officer Nestor. To make an opposite, you have to give the stone a smooth surface;

‘roughness’ and ‘smoothness’ are the opposites that you need to make.”

Nestor placed the rough stone on top of the car hood, and he smacked the stone with a

nightstick to flatten the gritty edges of the rock into a smooth surface. The opposites of

“roughness” and “smoothness” stimulated additional frozen Athenian soldiers to become active,

and the unfrozen soldiers successfully transformed ten of the fifty remaining sports players into

piles of bones and powder. Greene walked to Nestor’s side to retrieve the glowing stone, and

after Greene plopped the smooth stone into his mouth, his teeth grinded the stone into pieces and

absorbed the human hatred that the stone stored. Nestor and Greene examined the unconscious

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citizens who were lying in the street, and Nestor identified that an unconscious citizen was

wearing shoes that were both emitting red radiation. Nestor immediately crouched down and

untied the individual’s shoelaces, and by unfastening the tight knot in the shoelaces, Nestor

created a contrast between the opposites of “tightness” and “looseness.” The opposites caused

more of the frozen Athenian soldiers to become reinvigorated with life, and the unfrozen soldiers

charged into the crowd of forty surviving sports players to continue the vicious conflict. After

Greene consumed the two glowing shoes of the unconscious individual, Greene’s teeth absorbed

the human hatred that was stored inside the objects.

Nestor and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer returned to the car, and while Greene repeatedly

began his ritual to balance more opposites in the passenger’s seat, Nestor concentrated on

searching for more objects that were secreting the red radiation of human hatred. Greene had

devoured these glowing objects to prevent the human hatred from unbalancing the opposites in

the universe, but as he slouched back in his seat, he sensed a rumbling in his stomach that

produced agonizing chest pains. Greene had consumed human hatred that was slowly killing

him, so Greene recognized that he needed to devour sugar to eradicate some of the human hatred

that he had absorbed into his teeth and his stomach. Greene recalled that Gorier, The Spirit

Connector, had poured sugar and chocolate down the throats of Coach Chris Pontius and the

other three sports coaches to eliminate some of the human hatred inside their teeth. In the

passenger’s seat, Greene clasped his aching chest, and when Nestor became alerted that Greene

was suffering, Greene declared, “We still have three more objects that The Spirit Connector

infected with human hatred. We need to make them into opposites; then, I have to absorb the

human hatred into my teeth. The human hatred is killing me; I need to swallow sugar to destroy

some of this human hatred in my stomach. Officer Nestor, please, I need to get sugar into my

body to counteract the human hatred.”

While Greene gagged and choked in the passenger’s seat, Nestor pulled the car into a

neighborhood where all the home residents had been possessed by the unknown entity, and the

residents had fled from their homes to contribute to the anarchy. Nestor parked the police car in

front of an abandoned home, and Greene clasped his burning chest as he and Nestor approached

the front door. After Nestor kicked open the door, he and Greene circumspectly wandered into

the kitchen where Nestor opened all the cabinets in search of a sugar bag. When Nestor located

the sugar bag, he removed it from the shelf, ripped the bag open, and placed it in Greene’s hands.

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Greene lifted the ripped sugar bag over his head, opened his mouth, and poured the sugar down

his throat. The flood of sugar covered Greene’s face as it entered his mouth, and the sugar

poisoned some of the human hatred that had been absorbed into his teeth and his mouth.

Greene’s sharp stomach pains gradually diminished, and after Greene dropped the ripped sugar

bag to the kitchen floor, he and Nestor departed from the home and hopped back into the police

car to speed toward the three remaining objects that were shining with human hatred. Greene

and Nestor drove away from the abandoned neighborhood, and they encountered more burning

buildings, stacks of crashed cars, and deranged individuals who were strangling each other in the

streets. Nestor and Greene had generated five opposites that invigorated several frozen Athenian

soldiers with life, but the forty sports players still were destroying the lines of frozen soldiers by

clouting their sparkling teeth to transform them into mounds of bones and dust. The number of

surviving sports players needed to equal the number of Athenian soldiers so that balance could

exist between necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. While Nestor and Greene were

driving beside a playground, Greene’s eyes scanned the slide, the monkey bars, the seesaw, and

the swings. Greene identified that the seesaw was shining with red radiation, and he instructed

Nestor to park the car because more opposites were waiting to be generated. After Nestor

stopped the car, he and Greene sprinted to the glowing seesaw, and Nestor noticed that the left

side of the seesaw board was elevated into the air.

The Apocalyptic Card Dealer carefully observed the glowing seesaw, and as he snapped

his fingers and clapped his hands, he explained how the opposites could be activated by

declaring, “Okay, looking at this seesaw, there only seems to be one pair of opposites that we can

make. The left side of the seesaw is sticking straight up; the right side is aimed at the ground.

The opposites are ‘sinking’ and ‘rising.’ The left side is rising; the right side is sinking. Officer

Nestor, all we have to do is pull the right side of the seesaw up to create the opposites.”

Nestor gripped the right side of the seesaw to push the board up, and the left side of the

seesaw plunged into the ground and rested in the dirt. The left side of the seesaw was “sinking,”

and the right side of the seesaw was “rising.” Nestor generated opposites of “rising” and

“sinking” that stimulated more frozen Athenian soldiers to become active so that they could

compete in the war effort. Greene opened his jaw very widely and placed the left tip of the

glowing seesaw inside his mouth, and he chewed into the seesaw as he pushed it down his throat.

After Greene had consumed the seesaw, he and Nestor returned to the car and drove around

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another neighborhood until they discovered that the window of an abandoned home was emitting

the familiar red radiation. Greene and Nestor walked across the front lawn, and upon arriving at

the glowing window, Greene identified the fog that had condensed onto the window. He

comprehended that he needed to activate the opposites of “cloudiness” and “clearness,” so he

used his palm to wipe the condensation from the cloudy window. After he caused the fogged

window to become clear, he instructed Nestor to smash the window with his nightstick. Nestor

wrapped his fingers around the nightstick and forcefully pushed its tip into the window to break

the glass, and Greene watched as the glass fragments poured onto the outside porch. He

lacerated his gums as he chewed the shards of broken glass, but he ignored the physical pain

because he needed to devour the glass to contain its human hatred. After he wiped the blood

from his mouth, he and Nestor returned to the car and headed toward the final object that The

Spirit Connector had infected with noxious human hatred. Although Greene had generated more

opposites to balance the collapsing world and had consumed the human hatred that threatened its

precious balance, cars across Florida still were crashing, and airplanes were plunging from the

sky. The forty sports players continued to punch the teeth of the frozen Athenian soldiers, and

despite the efforts of the active soldiers to protect their frozen allies, the number of surviving

soldiers had been reduced from over two hundred to sixty-three. Nestor drove through more

abandoned neighborhoods and business districts that were engulfed in flames, and as Nestor’s

eyes scanned his surroundings, Nestor noticed that all the store windows had been smashed by

the deranged looters. The images of the possessed citizens flashed through Nestor’s vision as he

drove down the street in search of the final glowing object. The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and

The Spirit Connector shared the same DNA and were able to access the same thoughts. While

Greene hoped to establish precise balance among the billions of opposites, Gorier sought to

ensure that every opposite overpowered its counterpart. In the passenger’s seat of Nestor’s

speeding car, Greene employed his psychic connection with Gorier to access The Spirit

Connector’s thoughts and visions. Greene’s mind was inundated with flashing images of an

escalator, store windows, marble floors, and elevators, and Greene determined that The Spirit

Connector was hiding inside a local mall that had been abandoned by the possessed shoppers.

When Greene stared into the mind of his rival, he discovered that a fountain was spraying

streams of water, and the water inside the fountain was glowing red with human hatred. Greene

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provided Nestor with the driving instructions to reach the abandoned mall where The Spirit

Connector was spreading more anarchy.

The police car sped through the city of burning buildings and looted businesses until the

car arrived at the mall, and after Greene completed his ritual again, he and Nestor scampered

across the parking lot to the front entrance of the enormous mall. Nestor and Greene crushed the

broken glass that was scattered along the street, and Nestor recognized that The Spirit Connector

had smashed the glass of the front entrance so that he could enter the mall. Greene followed

closely behind Nestor as they both walked into the mall and stepped on more broken glass. The

inside of the mall was entirely pitch black because The Spirit Connector had deactivated the

electricity, and the blanket of darkness swept over Nestor and Greene and obscured their vision.

The impact of Nestor’s shoes with the floor produced squeaking noises that echoed throughout

the dark mall, and Nestor suddenly stepped down from the hard floor onto a lower platform. The

Apocalyptic Card Dealer became silent and stopped directly behind Nestor. In the darkness,

Nestor withdrew his handgun, crouched down, and glided his hands across the surface of the low

platform, and based on the coarse surface, Nestor concluded that he was standing on the top step

of a nonfunctioning escalator. Gorier, The Spirit Connector, was concealed by his black

surroundings, and with the sweeper in his possession, Gorier stood at the bottom step of the

escalator. Gorier secretly aimed the tip of his sweeper, The Circler, at Nestor’s chest, and Gorier

swiftly pushed the sweeper’s tip down from Nestor’s chest to the top step of the escalator.

Gorier had used The Circler in an attempt to connect Nestor’s spirit with the escalator, and

Nestor’s legs suddenly sank into the escalator and merged into the metal. Nestor’s legs

transformed from flesh into metal that prompted his entire body to shiver because the metallic

surface was so cold. The abrupt drop of Nestor’s legs into the metal caused him to relinquish his

handgun, which bounced down the steps of the escalator until it rested at The Spirit Connector’s

feet. The escalator’s top step became a whirlpool of spinning metal that spun in a circle around

Nestor’s body, and Nestor’s torso slowly sank into the escalator’s step, which resembled

quicksand. He was aware that he could prevent his spirit from merging with the escalator simply

by contemplating the characteristics that separated him from the escalator. Nestor embraced

memories of his deceased family members and focused on thoughts that he was a police officer,

and Nestor’s private thoughts allowed him to pull himself from the escalator into which he was

sinking. Nestor’s legs were unshackled from the escalator’s spinning vortex as the metallic

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structure returned to its normal condition, and Nestor’s legs transformed from frigid metal back

into human flesh. At the top of the escalator, Greene helped Nestor to his feet, and despite the

darkness that limited their vision, Greene and Nestor managed to climb down the escalator steps

so that they could confront The Spirit Connector at the bottom. Gorier instantly dropped The

Circler to the floor because he conceded that he could never successfully merge the spirits of

Greene or Nestor to the objects in the mall. When Nestor reached the bottom of the escalator, he

tackled The Spirit Connector to the floor and restrained him while The Apocalyptic Card Dealer

sprinted through the dark mall in search of the fountain with streams of water that were

glistening with red radiation.

During Greene’s sprint across the halls, his squinting eyes attempted to peer through the

darkness, and he hoped to encounter the red radiation that would conquer the blackness. While

Greene searched for the final object that was emitting human hatred, Nestor flipped Gorier from

his back to his stomach so that Gorier could be handcuffed. Nestor planted his knee into

Gorier’s back to exert more pressure, and on his stomach, The Spirit Connector screamed, “You

should be very proud of yourself, officer. You and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer have made

opposites with the same objects that I infected with human hatred; those opposites will balance

the positives and negatives in the universe. You’ve balanced the opposites of necessary conflicts

and unnecessary conflicts; you’ve brought stability to the opposites that hold this collapsing

universe together. I want you to know something, officer. The imbalance of opposites made

people go crazier than they usually would, but the craziness and corruption were always inside

these people, waiting to be unleashed. All people have impulses to kill and to spread destruction.

I don’t create corruption; I magnify it.”

Despite the impenetrable darkness of the mall, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer identified

the red cloud of radiation that represented the human hatred with which The Spirit Connector

had infected the fountain of gushing water. The streams of water glowed with red radiation that

conquered the engulfing darkness. Greene jumped into the fountain of water that was glowing

red with human hatred, and the water drenched his shoes and pants because the water level rose

to his waist. In the water of the fountain, Greene concluded that he needed to create the

opposites of “deepness” and “shallowness.” The water was deep, so Greene cupped his hands

together to scoop out the water from the fountain. He walked through the water as he scooped it

into his hands, and he lifted his hands to his mouth to drink the water that was emitting the red

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radiation. After Greene drank the water in his hands, the water level was lowered and rose only

to his shoes. Greene had created the opposites of “deepness” and “shallowness,” and he had

consumed the water to ensure that the human hatred could not continue to disturb the balance of

opposites in the universe. Greene had created opposites that stimulated more frozen Athenian

soldiers to become reanimated inside the ravaged national park that had been decorated with

additional craters and uplifted terrain. The skeletal sports players had successfully reduced

hundreds of the frozen Athenian soldiers into clumps of bones and dust by smashing their

glowing teeth. All the surviving soldiers were unfrozen, and they hurled more boulders toward

the teeth of the forty sports players to convert them into piles of discarded bones and dust. The

skeletons of the sports players and the Athenian soldiers charged across the grassy landscape,

and they continued to collide into each other and to smash the teeth of their opponents.

Eventually, twenty sports players remained alive inside the demolished national park, and the

twenty sports players peered at the opposite side of the field to observe the twenty Athenian

soldiers who were still alive. The number of surviving Athenian soldiers equaled the number of

sports players who remained standing, so balance existed between wars, which were necessary

conflicts, and sports, which represented unnecessary conflicts. Balance had been restored among

all the opposites that provided the universe with stability, and all the possessed individuals

regained their sanity and returned to their normal conditions as members of society. In the

streets of looted stores and burning buildings, the previously possessed citizens awakened from

their dazed stupors, and the individuals could not recall that they had been possessed by an

unknown entity.

The fountain water that drenched Greene’s clothing spilled onto the floor as Greene

sprinted away from the fountain and returned to the bottom of the escalator where Nestor

restrained Gorier, whose wrists were shackled with handcuffs. Nestor stood behind Gorier and

clasped his wrists, and in the blanket of engulfing darkness, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer

walked up to The Spirit Connector and punched him in the face. Gorier gritted his teeth to form

a smile before he declared, “You’ve balanced the opposites, Card Dealer; there’s balance

between necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts. There’re an equal number of sports

players and Athenian soldiers. You’ve prevented an explosion of reality. You even consumed

all the human hatred that would have disturbed the balance of all the opposites. There’s balance

among all the opposites; there’s stability in the world. We’ve been playing cards for a long time,

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Card Dealer, but it looks like you’ve won. You’ve kept our reality from exploding; there’s just

one thing that you forgot.”

While Nestor and Greene contemplated what Gorier was discussing, Gorot, the living

creature that was composed entirely of the cave from the national park, emerged from the sea

and sprinted toward the mall. Gorot previously had used the teeth from the murdered sports

coaches to resurrect the deceased Athenian soldiers and the sports players, and The Spirit

Connector had used his psychic connection with Gorot to summon the creature to the mall.

Gorot slowly approached the mall, and with handcuffs that shackled his wrists together, The

Spirit Connector requested for The Apocalyptic Card Dealer to reach into the left pocket of his

pants. Greene reluctantly reached into Gorier’s pocket, and Greene removed a deck of six

playing cards from Gorier’s pocket. Greene and Nestor had established balance between the

opposites of necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts, but Greene recognized that the

balance was temporary and that the balance was unstable. Greene, The Apocalyptic Card

Dealer, needed to participate in a card game with Gorier, The Spirit Connector, to ensure that the

temporary balance of opposites would become stable and secure.

In the darkness of the mall, Greene carefully observed the deck of six playing cards, and

with handcuffs around his wrists, Gorier declared, “You know what you need to do. You know

how precarious the balance between necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts is. There are

only six cards in that deck; play cards with me. If you win, then, the balance of opposites will be

safe and secure; if you lose, this temporary balance will be lost forever. Won’t you play with

me, Card Dealer?”

Greene clutched the six cards in his hand and turned to Nestor, who was prepared to

assist Greene through any means that he possibly could. Greene needed to succeed in a card

game with Gorier to ensure that the temporary balance of opposites would remain secure, but

Greene recognized that the balance would crumble if he did not triumph. Greene’s eyes darted

around the dark mall in search of an object that he required, and when Greene located a nearby

trashcan, he sprinted to the can, picked it up, and carried it to Nestor. With the trashcan in his

grasp, Greene fearfully glared at Nestor and declared, “There’s something else that I need to do,

Officer Nestor. We balanced the opposites of necessary conflicts and unnecessary conflicts by

creating our own opposites and by preventing the human hatred from spreading, but the balance

isn’t stable. I need to win a card game against The Spirit Connector to keep the balance of

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opposites secure; it’s the only way to keep us from losing all our work. If I start to lose the card

game, the precarious balance will be lost; our reality will explode. Take this trashcan; collect the

pieces of reality in it if everything begins to fall apart. Don’t let the pieces of reality get away

from you.”

Nestor shook his head with exasperation because he had no desire to indulge in Gorier’s

fanatical delusions and to encourage his insanity. Nestor expressed his disapproval by asserting,

“Greene, you can’t do that; Gorier is crazy. He killed the four sports coaches; he killed two

cops. He’s responsible for the deaths of all the people who’ve been driven crazy in the streets.

Don’t let him get inside your head.”

Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, insisted that he needed to play a card game with

Gorier, The Spirit Connector, when he replied, “I’ve got to do this, Officer Nestor. It’s the only

way to keep the opposites stable.”

Although Nestor was reluctant to sanction a card game between Greene and Gorier,

Nestor complied with Greene’s wishes because he recognized that he could embrace Greene as a

trustworthy ally. Greene informed Nestor that Gorier’s handcuffs needed to be removed, so

Nestor used his keys to unlock the handcuffs and to remove them from Gorier’s wrists. In the

dark mall without electricity, Greene and Gorier walked to a nearby table where they sat down in

chairs that were directly across from each other, and Nestor clasped the trashcan as he stood

perched beside the table. Gorier shuffled the deck of six playing cards on the table, and he

passed three cards to Greene while he collected three of his own playing cards. On opposite

sides of the table, Greene and Gorier stacked their three cards together, and while Gorier radiated

with delight, Greene conveyed his anxiety through perspiration that drenched his cheeks. The

two opponents simultaneously flipped over the first cards that were on top of their decks, and

Greene placed a “Jack” card on the table while Gorier flipped over a card of “two cloverleaves.”

Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, sighed with relief because his “Jack” card had defeated

The Spirit Connector’s playing card of “two cloverleaves.” Greene extended his left hand and

reached for Gorier’s card, and Greene placed Gorier’s card inside his own deck of cards. Greene

shuffled his stack of four playing cards, and Greene’s sweat and clammy hands conveyed his

anxiety that he could be defeated in the card game. Gorier flipped over his second playing card,

which was a “King” card, and Greene placed his second card, which was a “Queen” card, on the

table. Gorier’s “King” card defeated Greene’s “Queen” card, and after Gorier snatched Greene’s

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card from the table, Greene braced himself for the catastrophic event that would occur because

his playing card had been seized.

The escalator, the stores, the elevators, and the other objects in the mall resembled a glass

mirror that shattered into hundreds of pieces, and the pieces of reality rained down and scattered

across the landscape. With the trashcan in his possession, Nestor’s eyes darted around his

surroundings, and Nestor discovered that the mall and the rest of the earth had been reduced to a

blank canvas of emptiness and absolute blackness. Nestor realized that the darkness extended in

infinite directions, and he sprinted across the blank space in a futile attempt to escape from the

engulfing blackness. Gorier had conquered Greene’s playing card, so the temporary balance of

opposites had been disturbed. Nestor watched the tiny pieces of reality that bounced around the

empty canvas, and the hundreds of pieces were comparable to pin balls that bounced from one

side of the blackness to the other. Several fragments of reality collided into Nestor’s chest and

knocked Nestor to the floor of impenetrable darkness. Nestor immediately pulled himself to his

feet inside the blank space, and more pieces of reality pelted Nestor in the face and the stomach

as they rolled through the darkness. The pieces of reality bounced around the blank canvas, and

Gorier, The Spirit Connector, celebrated that reality had exploded into hundreds of pieces

because the balance of opposites was so fragile. Nestor carried the trashcan as he chased the

hundreds of tiny fragments that were bouncing from one side of the blank space to the other.

Nestor sprinted around the relentless darkness and heaved the trashcan back and forth to scoop

up the bouncing fragments that had scattered around the blank canvas. Three fragments of

reality hovered above Nestor, so he jumped into the air to collect the floating pieces inside the

trashcan. Nestor continued his dash around the empty space to amass the remaining pieces of

reality that were floating and bouncing around him.

After Nestor had collected all the pieces of reality in the trashcan, Greene commanded

Nestor to hurl the fragments into the air. Nestor forcefully pushed up the trashcan, and the

hundreds of pieces drifted upward and floated across the blank space. The pieces scattered in

various directions through the darkness, and the pieces converged to reassemble the reality that

had been previously shattered. The objects inside the mall reformed as the floating pieces of

reality were reattached, and the mall and the rest of the earth reappeared after the pieces of

reality had assembled together. After reality had been restored, Nestor returned to his position

beside the table where The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector resumed their

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card game to determine whether the balance of opposites would remain secure. Greene flipped

over his next playing card to reveal an “Ace” card, and Greene’s “Ace” card defeated the card of

“three diamonds” that Gorier unleashed. The card game continued as Greene and Gorier

shuffled their cards and slapped them onto the table, and whenever Gorier released a card that

defeated Greene’s card, reality again exploded into hundreds of fragments that bounced around

the blank canvas. Nestor scooped all the pieces of reality into the trashcan, and after he had

collected the hundreds of pieces, he tossed them into the darkness so that the pieces would

reassemble into the traditional setting of reality. The card game caused the reality to explode

many more times, but on every occasion, Nestor managed to collect the tiny fragments of reality

inside the trashcan before he released the pieces to reform the mall surroundings and the rest of

reality. As Gorot approached the mall, Greene defeated Gorier in the card game when Greene

released a card of “four cloverleaves” that defeated Gorier’s card of “two spades.”

Nestor dropped the trashcan inside which he had been collecting the broken pieces of

reality, and Gorier pushed back in his chair before he declared, “Well, Card Dealer, you’ve won;

you’ve ensured that the balance of opposites will remain stable and secure. Our reality exploded

so many times, but you and the officer reassembled the pieces and kept them together.

Thankfully, I prepared for something like this.”

Gorot crushed buildings and cars and fashioned craters into the terrain during his journey

toward the mall, and when Gorot arrived at the mall, he lifted his rocky fist and slammed it into

the roof of the mall. The inside of the mall began to rumble, and Nestor, The Spirit Connector,

and The Apocalyptic Card Dealer tumbled to the floor as the glass windows shattered and as

plaster chunks of the roof plummeted from the ceiling to the floor. Nestor climbed to his feet

and darted around the mall to dodge the chunks of plaster and other debris that were raining

down from the collapsing ceiling. The Apocalyptic Card Dealer followed Nestor as he

frantically dashed around the mall, and The Spirit Connector crawled on his stomach and

struggled to free himself from the handcuffs that shackled his hands behind his back. After

Gorot destroyed the mall roof, the floor was covered with broken glass and heavy chunks of

plaster. The rocky creature pushed his head through the opening in the ceiling, and Gorot

swooped down to pursue The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, who continued to sprint around the mall

to avoid the debris. On his stomach, The Spirit Connector dragged his feet through the piles of

debris, and he extended his arm and clasped The Apocalyptic Card Dealer’s right leg to trip

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Greene to the floor. Nestor noticed that Greene was lying on the floor among the stacks of

plaster chunks and broken glass, and Nestor decided to aid Greene because The Apocalyptic

Card Dealer had helped him in the past. Nestor displayed compassion for Greene by scampering

back to scene of The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector, who were both lying on

top of the rubble. Gorot’s head swooped down through the dilapidated mall, and Gorot opened

his gaping mouth to consume Greene. Gorier, Greene, and Nestor were standing so closely

together in Gorot’s path that the rocky creature collected all three individuals inside his mouth

and swallowed them.

Greene, Gorier, and Nestor slid down the jagged boulders that constructed Nestor’s

stomach, and the boulders scraped the flesh of the three individuals to lacerate their faces and

arms. During the steep descent down the sharp boulders, Greene managed to grip a stone that

was protruding from the wall of other collected rocks. While Greene was hanging from the

boulder, Nestor wrapped his two arms around Greene’s legs to prevent himself from plummeting

into the dark abyss of Gorot’s stomach. Gorier tumbled below Nestor and Greene, and Gorier’s

head bounced violently against the collection of boulders. After Gorier successfully buried his

fingernails into a protruding boulder, he climbed up the wall of stones until he grabbed Nestor’s

legs, and Gorier swung back and forth as his legs kicked into the boulders. Greene ensured that

his grip of the protruding boulder was secure before he contemplated how he could escape from

Gorot’s stomach. Greene unbolted his jaw to open his mouth very widely, and Greene buried his

supernatural teeth into the boulders that amassed the side of the rocky creature’s stomach.

Greene stored human hatred inside his teeth to prevent it from unbalancing the universe’s

opposites, so when Greene chomped into the wall of boulders, his teeth pumped the red radiation

of human hatred throughout the creature’s body. While Greene gripped the protruding boulder,

his teeth grinded the wall of boulders into smaller fragments, and as he pushed his head forward,

he chewed into the stack of boulders until he had punctured a hole in Gorot’s stomach. Greene

punched the collection of boulders until his head was hanging from the open wound in Gorot’s

stomach, and Nestor’s body swayed back and forth as he clutched Greene’s legs. Nestor pushed

his left leg down to kick Gorier in the face, and Gorier relinquished his grasp of Nestor’s legs

and tumbled down the crag of jagged boulders toward the dark pit of Gorot’s stomach.

While Greene was dangling from the opening in Gorot’s rocky stomach, Greene glared

down at Nestor, whose body continued to swing back and forth as he wrapped his arms around

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Greene’s legs. Greene reached down to wrap his arm around Nestor’s body, and Greene

exhausted all his strength to pull Nestor up across the collection of jagged boulders. While

Greene selflessly helped Nestor in his efforts to escape from the depths of Gorot’s stomach,

Gorier scaled the rocky wall and was perched directly beneath Greene and Nestor. Greene

positioned his palm on Nestor’s back and forcefully pushed Nestor’s body through the puncture

in Gorot’s stomach, and Nestor plunged from the stomach wound and collided into the hard floor

of the mall. Greene, The Apocalyptic Card Dealer, propelled his head forward to push through

Gorot’s stomach, and while Greene’s legs dangled inside the creature’s stomach, Greene’s head

and torso were hanging outside the lacerated stomach. In a state of confusion, Nestor rested on

top of the plaster fragments and debris that covered the floor, and as he struggled to regain his

composure, he stared up at Greene, who was pushing his head into the stones of Gorot’s stomach

to enlarge the laceration. Greene’s head and torso still were hanging on the outside of Gorot’s

stomach, and before Greene could exert the strength to push up his legs so that he could free the

rest of his body, Gorier climbed below Greene and clasped his leg. Gorier tugged on Greene’s

leg, and Greene’s head and torso were dragged back inside Gorot’s stomach of boulders. Gorier

pulled so viciously on Greene’s leg that Greene was forced to relinquish his tight grasp of the

rocky wall, and Greene scraped down across the wall until his body collided into Gorier and

propelled him down the jagged boulders. The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit

Connector both plunged from the wall, and they disappeared into the abyss of Gorot’s stomach

where they both were digested.

After Gorot devoured The Apocalyptic Card Dealer and The Spirit Connector, Gorot, the

living creature that was composed entirely of a cave, retracted back his head and fled from the

mall that he had destroyed. Gorot’s rocky legs sprinted across the Florida landscape, and the

creature retreated into the Atlantic Ocean where he eventually perished because of his stomach

wound. Inside the demolished mall, Officer Donald Nestor silently expressed his appreciation

that The Apocalyptic Card Dealer had sacrificed his own life to rescue Nestor from Gorot’s

stomach. Nestor exited the mall and reentered society as stability and order slowly returned

because the opposites that composed the universe had regained their precious balance.

THE END