Another dimension in a forgotten land, 1001
Nico's wooden house stands in a grassy field, with meadow flowers as far as the eye can see. If you walk far enough into the field, you can see the edge of a gigantic forest, stretching across the mountains for miles and miles. The house is occupied by the young blonde Malika and her teenage son, Baltar. Nico and Malika got married soon after she became pregnant with Baltar.
They’ve been living a great life until three years ago. For no reason, Nico walked out of the house without saying a word and disappeared into the forest; he hasn't come back yet. His wife, Malika, has never been alone before, but the care of their son, Baltar, keeps her going. Every day she gathers a little firewood and sets traps in which, every so often, a scrumptious animal is entangled.
Baltar, who clearly has his father's sturdy build, helps her chop wood for the winter and nails up the holes in the roof when it starts to leak again. In the evenings, they sit in front of the fireplace talking, encouraging each other as they keep Nico alive by talking about him.
"Mom, do you think the forest God told Dad to walk into the woods?"
Malika looks up for a moment: "I don't know, Baltar, but surely, dad must have had a good reason for walking into the forest." She strokes her hands through Baltar's pitch black hair.
"Mom, is he dead?"
"No, Baltar, Dad is not dead; you must never think this; he will come back." A tear runs down Malika's cheek, which she wipes away by wiping her face with her forearm.
Nico
Well, what was Nico doing, walking into the woods all silently? He was an orphan and learned very early on to take care of himself. He went from orphanage to orphanage until he was sixteen and left. Nico met Malika as he traveled through her village. Malika had enough of her abusive father and she left with Nico. They walked as far as they could, and the two of them built a wooden house of their own in the middle of nowhere.
That is the wooden house where Malika now waits with Baltar for her husband to return. Nico was searching for himself, and this search made him walk into the deep, dark forest. When he left the orphanage, he never expected to find Malika. Nico feels like he has no foundation. He went from being a nobody with nothing to being a somebody with everything. He loves his family dearly, but the need to find himself is untouchable.
For years now, Nico has been living alone in the middle of the woods. It took him a while to feel safe in the woods. The first few months were anxious. Regularly, he heard aggressive dogs barking and howling. In the night, there were the fire creatures. These creatures barked just like the dogs, but they gave light. They were always in a large group and moved side by side, like a long glowing worm slowly approaching as it rolled through the dark forest.
Nico would run further into the woods until he didn't hear or see them anymore.
He has a thick black beard and long black hair. His hands are hard from the calluses and his face looks battered, like a bum. A tree house that is safe enough to hide from danger and spacious enough to sleep in.
Hitmel
Spears, a club, a bow and arrow, his old knife, and a fishing rod are his only possessions.
He washes himself in streams that flow down from the mountains; he fishes in the lakes; or he catches a rabbit for his supper. He doesn’t kill boar and deer because there is too much meat on them. Nico learned this when a group of wolves came to get his uneaten meat. Once they were done, they surrounded Nico's tree house, and if it hadn't been for a big brown bear, they would still be there now.
The bear chased the wolves away and sniffed around. Nico threw all the remaining meat out of his tree house; the bear ate it all and left. It was the first time Nico had really been terrified in the wild. Once he got used to the wild life, he could start focusing on himself and on eventually returning to his family.
It is a chilly morning, and Nico is fishing by the lake.
"Have you caught anything yet?"
It's Hitmel. Hitmel is an eccentric figure. He encountered him when he had been staying in the forest for a month or so. Nico was pondering when a man appeared, who introduced himself as Hitmel Ledki. He is bald, with normal posture; his clothes are made of animal skins; and he has a familiar face, like a lost uncle or something.
Nico actually wanted to be alone all the time, but he has to admit that it’s also nice to have a conversation once in a while. They became friends, and since then, Hitmel pops up now and then.
"I haven’t caught anything yet, Hitmel."
"Did you think about what I told you yesterday?"
"Refresh my memory, will you?"
Hitmel smiles and sits down in a cross-legged position on the other side of the lake.
You Never Will
"We were talking about your family, Nico, and what happened to them."
Nico replies rigidly, "I walked into the woods one day, and they stayed behind; that's what happened."
Hitmel puts a grain stalk in his mouth and lies down on his side.
"Oh, but two weeks ago you told me that they were slaughtered by a beast."
Nico pretends not to hear Hitmel and remains focused on his fishing-float (a bite indicator).
"Why don’t you go back, Nico? If you haven’t found yourself by now, you never will."
Nico's sharp gaze breaks. He knows deep down that Hitmel is right. He's been living in the woods for years, and he misses his wife and son.
He starts to think—I should be grateful; Hitmel doesn't even have a family to return to. Maybe this is it? Maybe this is who I am? Maybe I was searching for someone that was already there the whole time.
Nico suddenly jumps up, "You know what, I'm going home right now!"
He climbs into his tree house, grabs his bow and arrow, and his club, and he asks Hitmel to come along, to meet his family. Hitmel accepts the invitation, and together they begin the journey home. As they make their way through the forest, Nico asks if Hitmel never regrets his eccentric existence.
Hitmel replies that he, like Nico, had a family, but that they were slaughtered by a beast.
Nico looks back at his eccentric friend: "You know, you shouldn’t joke about that."
"It's true, Nico," Hitmel says, "haven't you realized by now that I am your conscience, personified in Hitmel Ledki?"
"Sure, Hitmel, so that would mean that you don't actually exist!"
Hitmel laughs, "Just look back, Nico."
Nico looks back and sees that his friend's gone: "Hey, where did you run off to?"
What Happened?
Right in front of Nico, so close, like it’s coming from inside of Nico’s head, Hitmel's voice sounds, "I am you and you are me."
Nico falls backwards and stares at his surroundings, but he can no longer see Hitmel; he can only hear his voice. Hitmel's voice speaks again, "You haven't been looking for yourself, you've been running from what you have done, Nico!"
The words echo through Nico's head—"I am you, you are me; you’ve been running; my family slaughtered by a beast; by a beast, by a beast; slaughtered, slaughtered..."
Nico sinks to his knees and throws up. Again it echoes through his head—"I am you, you are me, me, me."
Nico tries to grasp what his friend told him—Hitmel is quite a strange name. I never really thought about that. Nico begins to puzzle with the letters of Hitmel's name—Hitmel Ledki. Hi mel Led kit. Like litH med. I'lL dike tHem. i kilLed tHem... I KILLED THEM!!!
Hitmel Ledki must be an anagram for "I killed them." Nico has goosebumps all over his body and shrugs off Hitmel's ideas that slowly start to make sense.
He strolls on through the forest, trying to dig into his memory—the barking fire creatures, of course: those were the authorities looking for me; the glowing worm I was so afraid of, those were people with torches and dogs; that's how folks comb an area, side by side—oh God, don't let this be true!
Nico looks ahead, and he sees light looming through the forest. This means that he is near the edge of the forest. A little later, he sees his house looming in the distance. He starts running over the field as fast as he can toward his house—what could possibly have happened to my family? What have I done to them? Why, why, why? While Nico sprints over the field, a flash from the past enters his head.
Ghosts From the Past
"Malika, I'm going into the forest to set traps."
"That's okay, Nico. I'll stay in bed a little longer; be careful!"
Nico is halfway across the field when he realizes that he has forgotten his knife. Disgruntled, he slowly walks all the way back home. As he walks past his son's window, he sees the oil lamp burning softly. He gazes through the window and sees his son, Baltar, lying on his bed with a dark figure on top of him.
In the soft light, it looks like an animal. Nico remains frozen in place.
Its lower body moves over Bartar's lower body, slowly from front to back. Baltar's hands rest on its hind legs. Instead of throwing the beast off him, it appears that Baltar pushes the beast even more firmly on top of him. Nico’s still nailed to the ground, not daring to make a sound out of fear that it’ll startle the beast and hurt his son. The beast seems to be whispering something to his son. Now Baltar grabs the paws of the beast and it begins to move from front to back again, faster and faster.
A high-pitched scream escapes from Baltar's room. The beast whispers something and licks Baltar's lips. Then it gets up and walks toward the door—thank God, Baltar is still alive.
When it leaves Baltar's room, the light from the hall falls on the beast, exposing its identity in its entirety. Nico places the side of his hands on the window and puts his head between his hands so he can get a good look at the beast, but to his horror, he sees that the beast is Malika.
Nico stops running as he arrives at his old, completely abandoned house. The front door lies on the floor in the living room. He slowly walks inside. The further he walks into the house, the more memories come back. Another memory assaults him.
The Beast
Nico understands what he just witnessed and he's losing it—my wife and my son; I’m betrayed by my own family.
Nico runs around his house and kicks open the front door. The naked Malika is startled. He looks at his wife. His eyes are pitch black; he silently grabs an ax from the corner of the room and slowly starts walking towards Malika.
Malika has nowhere to go. She screams, runs into Baltar's room, and slams the door shut. Baltar lies still in his bed.
"It's your father; he knows everything!"
Malika dives into Baltar's bed and throws the sheets over the two of them.
Nico walks into his son’s old room. He stands with his back against the wall, staring at Baltar's empty bed, a look of horror on his face, and again a flash penetrates his head.
Nico kicks in the door to Baltar's room. Malika and Baltar are lying in bed under the sheets, trembling with fear, holding each other tightly. Nico walks over to the bed.
"Please, don't do it," begs Malika; "it's my fault; please spare Baltar."
Without hesitation, Nico holds the ax high above his head and shouts, "My family, my only fucking family!"
While screaming loudly, Nico chops the two to pieces. When he is done, blood is dripping from the ceiling and it’s spread out on all four walls. He throws the ax on the bed where two minutes ago his family, now dismembered pieces of meat, lay, and walks silently out of his house, straight into the forest, disappearing from the face of the earth for years.
Nico falls to his knees and starts crying his eyes out. As he walks back into the living room, he can only focus on one thing—my family, my only family; everything is gone.
He sits down on a chair and grabs the oil lamp.
A desperate, "Please, forgive me?" echoes through the empty house. He twists open the cap of the oil lamp, pours the oil over his head, and lights a match. Nico, the house and all the unpleasant memories burn to the ground.
Another dimension in a forgotten land, 1002
A wooden house stands in a grassy field, with meadow flowers as far as the eye can see. If you walk far enough into the field, you can see the edge of a gigantic forest, stretching across the mountains for miles and miles. In the distance, a man comes walking out of the woods. Malika looks out the window and sees her husband walking towards the house with a couple of dead rabbits hanging over his shoulder.
“Baltar, daddy is home, and it looks like we’re eating rabbit tonight!"
Like a spear, Baltar runs out of the house to greet his father, who welcomes him warmly.
"Alright, son, calm down; you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in years."
Baltar carries the rabbits as father and son walk inside their house and disappear behind the closed door.
Epilogue
What happened to Nico will remain a mystery. Why and how can someone commit the ultimate act of killing his family and himself and end up in a parallel universe? Is it that one just shifts to any reality at random, or does one have to die to wake up in another dimension, as another version of himself, at another age, without even realizing this, forever and ever?
Does this mean that Nico could die, or shift, or simply wake up one day and be back in the nightmare of his family betraying him? Who knows, all Nico’s aware of is that he’s happy and well. Maybe that’s what they mean when they say, "Seize the moment." Because it could all change in the blink of an eye.