Life; a cruel conundrum of endless suffering with spontaneous bouts of reprieve where one was allowed to be happy and at peace. How is one born in this world, given a beautiful thing called a family only to see it taken away? Was it meant to happen or had it been mere happenstance? Could it have happened to someone else if it had to happen? Why had it happened to me?
William “Billy” or “Bill” Batson was born on this earth just like any other child. He grew up, went to elementary school, and then to middle school as his family made money and taught him life’s values. The life of a child had its ups and downs but none that he had to worry about yet. He was free to be who he wanted to be and do what he wanted: sports, art, music…as he entered high school, he had his first kiss and even dated a girl. It was a typical life—one that many forsake because they’ve never had it taken from them.
It happened so quick. It happened so sudden. It didn’t even make sense. Billy was sitting in class, taking a horrible calculus test when the principal and two police officers poked into the classroom and asked the teacher for a moment with him. Billy turned in his test to continue working on it another time and stepped out into the hallway. When he saw the cops, he feared that he must have done something wrong.
Oh shit, it’s about the underage drinking… he thought. Had someone squealed on him at a party? They were going to take him to jail! His parents were going to be furious! His parents were dead.
The news was dropped on him like an anvil and for a moment, he didn’t even believe them. No one knew how they died. Their bodies were just found still wearing their work clothes. They were both archaeology professors at Fawcett University. As much as he wanted to think the principal and the police were all insane, he found himself starting to believe them. He cried unintentionally as though his heart believed them even if his mind didn’t. It just made no sense!
Before he knew it, decisions were being made for him as though he didn’t have a say. They mentioned orphanage, group home, leaving school for a while. So much stress was building up in his skull that he saw his sanity thinning. Billy ran out of the office. The cops tried to chase him, but he outrun their fat asses. He didn’t run home for he knew the cops would wait for him there. What was the point anyway? His parents were dead!
Billy disappeared for three whole days. The Fawcett City Police Department and the community searched for him. The police even requested super heroes to search for him. Billy had traveled out of Fawcett City to Milwaukee. His plan was to head south before the winter kicked in. He had no idea where his life was taking him. Everything was spiraling out of control and he couldn’t bring his mind back. He was just running. Forever running until he couldn’t anymore—until he was tired of feeling sad. He never made it to Milwaukee. He stopped in Sheboygan, and he had the craziest idea to just kill himself. He didn’t have the balls to slice his wrists or take a bunch of pills, fearing that they wouldn’t be fast enough. He didn’t want to dive in front of a vehicle and somehow miraculously survive—and who knew in what condition? He had the strange feeling to just drown in the chilly waters of Lake Michigan. The lake just happened to be within his reach, and the interesting thing about Northerners is that they tended to mind their own business.
Billy traveled down to the lake and walked into it until he felt the water soak through his worn and grimy shoes. It felt like cold glass fragments washing over his toes and ankles, but he continued until he started to shiver. He crossed his arms over his chest, his lips went blue, and he made it up to his hips until he started to mentally panic,
This was a stupid idea!He was so cold that all he could do was take baby steps back toward shore. He started to wonder if his legs had frozen over because they felt like planks of wood. He didn’t get far. Something grasped the backs of his ankles. Billy started to panic and attempted to lunge away when his feet were yanked out from under him. He was dragged into the cold water, sinking deeper and deeper, watching the surface grow further away and endless blue surround him. The lake didn’t look like a lake anymore, but he was in a body of water. He sank deeper and deeper into an abyss.
Billy gazed down at his legs and saw black tentacles wrapped about them. The blue beneath him became dark as a black silhouette appeared beneath him. The tentacles were drawing him straight to it. It was the face of a monster whose teeth resembled those of a human skull. Its jaws were open and Billy realized that the tentacles came from inside its mouth. It was drawing him in! A plume of bubbles left Billy’s mouth on a horrified scream as he was pulled into the monster’s mouth. Its teeth closed above him, blotting out all light, and he was no longer surrounded by blue. He was surrounded by darkness.
The tentacles were no longer about his ankles. He felt a breeze sliding through his soaked clothes and hair, drying them. Was he falling? A bright light suddenly appeared in the darkness, stinging his retinas as he brought his arms before his face to guard his eyes from the glare. Billy passed through the light as though it had been a puddle in the darkness and emerged on the other side in space.
There were stars. Comets whisked by him and massive planets like none in the universe he was familiar with surrounded him. There were other creatures, colossal like the creatures of the deep, but were more like a living nightmare. They had numerous legs, tentacles, and eyes. Other creatures were birthed from their flesh, spreading across the sky like squids. These creatures were as large as submarines and when they howled it was low and ominous. He felt the decibels vibrating his core until he thought he would be ripped apart. Billy landed on a large rock. It was more like an asteroid in the foreign cosmos he was in.
The fall had winded him, and as he slowly came to, he pressed his hands against the stony floor and raised his shoulders.
Before him were six giants, wearing black cloaks. Billy was on his knees, gawking at the beings unsure whether to refer to them as man or creature. One of the beings had octopus-like tentacles dipping from its hood and whipping about the floor. Another being’s breath left its hood on a black cloud with bits of sparks, swirling within it. The third was rotund, a spherical blob draped in cloth that quivered with what sounded like laughter. The fourth was the one who addressed him. The fourth one was slender and the cloak clung to its skeletal body. The skeleton frame was human-like in nature except for the two crescent-curled horns that were on its crown.
“William Batson,” the creature knew his name!
Billy trembled as he remained on his hands and knees. “Is…is this hell?”
The fat one shook more vigorously with laughter.
“This is
life!” the fourth entity answered. “You are dead. You and the rest of you humans live in a rotting existence. We brought you here so that you could live.”
Billy tried to wrap his brain around what the creature was saying. “Are you saying that this is the real world?”
“Yes!”
The six entities nodded in approval.
“Why did you bring me here?” Billy asked.
“You were chosen by the Great Old Ones. You will be our vessel. You will show your world that we exist.”
SummanusHasturAmmutsebaZathogAmon-GorlothMynoghra“What are you saying? Are those names?” Billy asked.
From beneath the robes of the six Great Old Ones slithered tentacles that crawled toward Billy. He scrambled to his feet and attempted to run, but reached the edge of the floating rock. Below him was nothing but a blackness that had no other meaning. Billy glanced over his shoulder to see the tentacles still approaching him.
“They are the names of the six Great Old Ones before you.”
Pushed to the edge, Billy couldn’t think of a worse fate than falling forever into darkness. He leapt from the rock before the gods’ arms could reach him; and as he fell, he noticed the rock had thousands of root-like tentacles dangling from it. The unearthly appendages snagged him in mid-air, burrowing into his clothes, flesh, eyes, nose, and mouth. His agonized cries were drowned out by the roots that ripped him to pieces and absorbed him like water. The six gods converged in a circle, extending their claws, hands, limbs, and tentacles in the center of the circle. From their flesh seeped a sanguine liquid that dripped and formed a dark puddle. Surfacing in the puddle, curled in a nude ball was Billy, slick with blood or whatever the crimson, amniotic fluid was.
“You are alive no longer as William Batson, but SHAZAM!” the fourth entity proclaimed.
SHAZAM!
SHAZAM!
SHAZAM!
The chorus of the Great Old Ones startled Billy as he awoke in a hospital bed in Fawcett City. He learned from his nurse that he had been found unconscious in an alley and was out for three days. Strangely, his clothes had been soaking wet despite it not having rained that day. She figured someone might have tried to revive him with a bucket of water. Had it been a dream? When the nurse left, Billy slid out of his bed and inspected himself. It had felt so real! On his right shoulder, as though clawed from his flesh with a knife, was a
strange symbol.
The last thing he remembered of the dream left his lips on a whisper,
SHAZAM.The hospital was struck by lightning, causing the power to temporarily go out. The lightning had sprouted from the EKG, the ceiling lamps, and television to electrocute Billy and transform him into the champion SHAZAM. As SHAZAM, he heard the whispers of the Great Old Ones and felt the presence of magic ancient and new. Billy figured he had become a hero—or at least, he believed himself to be one. He had to keep his new power a secret. No longer did he feel that his life suited no purpose. His life had a new meaning.
Billy was placed into foster care with his new family called the Vasquez. Having heard of the story about his parents, they felt sorry for him, and figured that he was about to be old enough to be out of their hair soon. Billy was able to return to high school and graduate, and he later got a job as a journalist. Currently, he is using Journalism to pay for his bachelor degree in Archaeology with a minor in Ancient Civilizations.
