The Reckoning of Jake

It was over. There was nothing more Jake could do, for he had done it all. Every ability, fact, and idea had been explored. And it hurt so badly, his whole life dedicated to doing everything and now there was nothing left. Nothing but death.

On the wall of this strange room at the end of the universe which he stood in was writing. His own language, one of the many he created for the sake of it, although it was by far his favorite. Thousands upon thousands of entries to some journal. All signed Jake.

37,908 Jakes before him, all recounting their tale of roughly the same journey to Everything. A wave of satisfaction rushed over Jake as he thought about the fact he had done everything, only to be quickly crushed by the idea that there was nothing left to do.

Jake #37,909 wanted to die now, a relieving death to no longer be worried about doing things.

Jake #37,909 was 10 years old that day. His mom brought him to a store filled with musical instruments. Jake #37,909 sat at the piano, and felt as if it were calling his name with how sleek and elegant it looked. He decided then and there that he would dedicate his life to piano. Then he held a guitar. Such a neat, versatile thing it was. The aesthetic was rich with whimsy, and it created beautiful sounds that felt like a magical forest. He knew he must master the guitar.

But, a bow? This thing that looks like a giant guitar, but instead of your fingers you use a bow? Oh, your fingers too. How interesting. Ah, there's a tiny one! One that goes high, one that goes low, and all in-between too.

A glint of what looked like gold caught Jake #37,909's attention. what was that ridiculous shape? There were no strings, and the buttons made no notes. "Blow into it," his mother told him. So he did, but nothing pleasant came out of it. He tried again and again and again, until once a beautiful, crystal clear note came out.

Jake felt inspired by the power he held to breathe and create such sounds with a large weirdly shaped instrument. There were more! But first, that note, one more ti-

Hey, it won't work anymore. Jake #37,909 had only by chance formed the perfect shape with his mouth, and he knew then and there that he must practice to bring that sound, that beautiful sound, back.

"Would you like to have an instrument? I could even get someone to teach you."

Jake pointed to every single instrument in the store. He wanted all of them. "Honey, we don't have the money for all of that... Nor do you have the time to get good at all of them!"

That was bullshit. Why? Why couldn't Jake learn them all, master them all? Time. Time was limiting him, so he must beat time.

"Hello," murmured Jake #37,908. "I've been awaiting you."

"Who are you?"

"Why, I'm you. The previous you. It is your turn to take up my mantle."

"What mantle? What do you mean?"

"You are Jake #37,909, and I am the one before that. Just as I took the mantle from Jake #37,907, you shall take it from me."

"What is this mantle? And why?"

"Not a single Jake could kill themselves. The First tried for eons, until another came. Then they tried together, until Jake #1 killed Jake #2. The only way for us to be at peace. And so the First established a system. Each newly arrived Jake kills the previous, then waits and explains this to the next."

"What. So I kill you, and then wait for someone to kill me? What if I don't want to? What if I don't kill you, or don't want to die?"

"If you will refuse to kill me, then I guess I will kill you and wait for #37,910. If you do not wish to die, then you may choose not to. But be truthful; Aren't you curious? What it's like, to be dead? I am."

"I've been dead, I was in a car crash and they resuscitated me."

"But there's more, more beyond that glimpse of death... You were alive enough to be brought back, and there is clearly something you must have missed. It's the last thing we must explore, and we can finally be free."

"What if I'm not ready?"

"Do not worry, you have plenty of time to mull it over while you wait for the next. Read the Collection. It contains the history and entries of all before us. It is truly quite spectacular. Now, kill me, Jake."

Jake #37,909 shuddered at that, it felt like killing himself without the pleasure of eternal peace. But he did, he ended #37,908 swiftly without a word. Another thing he has done that he didn't know could exist. Another... A new discovery. Jake had another thing to do.

The Collection waited to be opened.

JAKE 1:

I have made it. This forest is the final place. It shall be my place of rest. I have constructed a table, and a platform for it to sit upon. I have completed the universe, succeeded in every endeavour. My curiosity burned through my skin, shedding my blood until I satisfied it by getting started. My journey was nigh eternal, but I have finally found the end. I leave this book to whoever else may venture this far. I, Jake Bretlow, have conquered reality and time. Now I must rest.

I cannot die; I am trapped. I sought to understand and control this universe, but I have trapped myself in it. I can destroy, but for some reason I cannot destroy myself… I do not know what to do. I will continue trying.

Another has ventured this far! But, not who I expected. In fact, the only person I did not expect. It is me, another me. From a different universe.

Jake

JAKE 2:

I killed Jake 2. I hope there is a third, I must die soon or I shall go mad and tear the universe apart. Because of this, he cannot write anything.

Jake

Entries for Jake 3 through 789 were blank.

JAKE 790:

I’ve done it! I built a whole room around the Collection. I am not sure where these artifacts are from, but there is a ball of glass or crystal or perhaps plastic, which lets me view other universes. I can observe the young Jake who is to replace me as he is a child. I know that his journey has just begun, but I can see now the beginnings of it to gain a sense of how much longer I must wait.

Jake

Jake #37,909 glances to his right, and notices a ball on a stand that sat upon a shelf. He stood and approached it, expecting to catch a glimpse of some other universe, but none came. He grabbed it, carefully wrapping his hands around the sides. No vision came. He placed it upon the table and went back to the Collection to see if he had missed something. All he saw was look into the orb and view the next Jake to come after him.

The orb remained blank and void of all color. Not just blank, but it somehow absorbed color around it. It tore apart spacetime in the area it occupied, and it portrayed the absolute meaning of nothing.

“What… Why won’t it work? Is this some multiversal prank? Why won’t you show me?”

The orb made no sound, as an orb typically does.

“What the fuck. Forget it,” Jake #37,909 muttered before tossing it aside.

The orb, being glass, shattered into many pieces upon impact. The sudden sound and fragility of such a supposedly powerful item surprised Jake, who whipped around to see a small ball of darkness where the middle must have been before. It had rings of the same darkness circling around it, creating an oddly mesmerizing figure.

Jake, never one to halt his curiosity for anything, especially safety, reached toward it. A chilling wave washed over him as the darkness enveloped his finger and crawled up his arm. Reality shifted, and Jake saw the room, both intact and destroyed, a forest, and nothing at all. Jake #37,909 saw the entire lifespan of that place, every Jake everywhere all at once.

Jake was never destined to beat time, but rather to embrace it.

Every joy lost meaning as it was repeated endlessly all at once, and all pain seemed to grow exponentially. Slowly, the vision faded and Jake #37,909 returned to his present. Still, he had not seen a Jake to replace him, even throughout all time. But he had seen something gutwrenching.

The First. He created the collection, and he created the Loop. He could not bear for his legacy to end, but needed peace. So he created the Loop. One Jake after another, a never ending cycle of pain and sorrow. All because Jake #1 couldn’t let go of his ego.

Then why was there nothing after Jake #37,909? No successor, no Jake, nothing. The Loop took up an infinitesimally small and stable space in a higher dimension, and could not be directly destroyed. Jake #37,909 knew this because the First planned it from the beginning. Knowing everything was a blessing and a curse, because there truly was no way to directly break the Loop. But he knew. Jake #37,909 knew the only way, the one thing he could do.

One last thing to do.

The darkness reformed around his left hand, and he ripped through spacetime until he reached Earth #1.

And he broke the cycle.

As Jake faded away, he finally felt satisfied. He had truly done it all.