Along the walls where shadows fall

He flinches from the light

His soft foot-falls like panther paws

Come creeping through the night

With owl-ish eyes, vile and wide

He navigates the gloom

Straight he flies through witching skies

Portending death and doom

He finds a hole and like a mole

Hurries through the crack

And once inside he needn’t hide

He’s primed for the attack

While you sleep, the wolf-man creeps

Right up to your bed

His lips curled, his fangs furled

He reaches for your head

Instincts strive, wanting life

Eyes open in the dark

But eyes lie, the shark beside

You hidden like a snark

The snake slides, curls up beside

His scales scratching your skin

You want to scream, do anything

That gets you far from him

But it’s too late, an unfortunate fate

Has befallen as you slept

To Satan’s delight, from the feral night

A bestial creature has crept.

.

I am but one

looking to be two

through false starts

And misplaced steps

In parks where

soft whispers fade

on the cold wind

under starless nights

When love burned

so bright but

died under natural light

a signal to go alone

On walks to breath

in one by one

the memories of two

but I am but one

Cringing does not do enough to express how poorly this went. I had just gotten an account on Zinder. It was going ok. I only posted three photos of myself, but didn't upload a genetic sample (what happened to romance, right?). I chatted with a couple humans and even one very extroverted fembot. And then I met her.

Our tastes fit together like puzzle pieces. 22nd Century literature and three-dimensional movies gave us endless discussion. I would hum through my shift at the zavod, counting the minutes until I could message her. Metro rides to and from work no longer punished me; it was merely more time to talk. This girl had seen all twenty four Pirates of the Caribbean movies. She owned her own paperback copy of The Old Moleman and the Cyber. I woke up one day, picked up the phone and sent her the message:

"Hey. Dinner tonight?" I waited, excited but confident. Surely, I wasn't the only feeling this. She had to sense this connection too. I sat up in bed, staring at the screen. Each moment stretched out into an empty abyss. My foot nervously wagged at the foot of my bed. But before pessimism could creep in, her reply popped up.

"Absolutely."

That night, I nervously fiddled with my tie. And then with my belt. And my shoes. But I was sure it wouldn't matter. She wouldn't care what I looked like. Despite my rationalizations, I still felt bad for not ironing my shirt. Part of me wished I still had that old road runner. I wanted to drive up, wind in my hair and sunglasses on. But all those were foolish thoughts.

I strolled into the lobby, confident. A waiter approached me; she was already here. I was led over to a small, decorated table. There sat the most gorgeous being ever. Her hair, her eyes, her smile, they all sparkled like stars over Olympus. I approached her, trying to contain my glee.

"Jeremy?" She asked.

"Yes," I replied. "Have you been--"

"-- Jeremy Wilder?"

"Yes, I am! Here to--"

And she disappeared. The hologram of my infatuation disappeared to reveal a smaller, humanoid android. On its chest plated read Tharsis Municipal Court

The droid slapped a manila folder on the table.

A mechanical voice scolded me. "You have been served. Please arrive at court on the scheduled date."

On a tidally locked planet in the habitable zone around an average middle-aged yellow star, the locks untightened: astronomers there predicted a timeline in which rotation would begin. First there would be a wobble of the terminator, expanding it as it shimmied to a width of a kilometer. The invading dwarf planet that was approaching toward its slingshot around their star followed an arc that would last a year until it was flung, accelerated, back out into the universe to set other worlds spinning.

This dwarf trespasser would sidewind its way through the maze of worlds along its way, and as the sinusoidal vacillations of gravitation arrived, the people here would witness their terminator widen as their world rocked back and forth, until on one oscillation the momentum was enough to maintain one direction at the expense of the other.

Rotation would ensue.

For the first time light would know dark and dark would see light. The peoples of each side of their world would meet for the first time. The Grand Light of Lux addressed his people:

“My fellow companions on this historic journey, welcome. We stand here in the Babel Basin behind the wall that separates the two sides of our tidally locked world, Janus. Our side faces the light, the giver of all life, and the other side is unknown to us. Until now!”

His people cheered wildly.

Across the great wall, the Deep Umbral of Pitch addressed his people:

“My fellow companions on this historic journey, welcome. We stand here behind the wall that separates us from the people of light. Our side of Janus faces the universe, with its promises and its future, away from the blindness that stifles their view of what we are privileged to see. We have never met. Until now!”

His people ululated riotously.

Each side heard the noise of the crowds on the other side, and when they did, they were stunned into silence, until the respective leaders led the cheers again. The Terminator Clock of Lux ticked down, approaching the strike that would announce the first wobble, that increase in width of twilight from that of the ancient wall’s thickness toward a widening that would move both East and the West at the speed of anticipation.

The Grand Light of Lux addressed his people:

“The daredevil explorer and visionary, Mistun, who straddled the ancient wall, saw nothing in the darkness before he fell away from us, never to be seen again. And so, we have no knowledge, on this historic occasion, whether those who received him will be friend or foe. We can only hope his message to them was clear. Today, we will either gain from optimism or suffer from reckless endangerment. The Terminator Clock strikes soon and we'll all know. I say we embrace optimism, because we are the children of the light!”

His people again cheered.

The Deep Umbral of Pitch addressed his people:

“I have here the beast who calls itself Mistun. He came to us with two more holes in his skull, claiming to bring us greetings from the lighted side; but this beast brought us disease and misery. We keep him here, impaled, as a reminder of those who fell ill from the evil humors he brought to us. This was his gift? Nay, it was truly an invasion. But we prevailed!” More ululation erupted. “When the terminator expands, as our learned and mystics have predicted, the changes to our world will be upheavals, from the weather to our very way of life. Finally, they say, we will no longer fear the tumultuous storms that our side pulls in from the heated opposphere. But we should mistrust and fear the beasts there, like this Mistun, who know only the blinding ignorance of light—not the ambitious curiosity of those who venture into the darkness, feeling their way, hearing their way, even tasting and smelling their way. Eyes were made for beasts like Mistun and the race from which he hails. Eyes were made for light, which we have never needed before. Imagine the distraction, if you can, people of the Pitch. Our Terminator Pendulum will begin to swing soon, and we will be forced to deal with the destiny of the entire Janus. I say to you, rotation is no gift, but a curse.” The Deep Umbral of Pitch pulled the tassel to his right, which tightened the impaling fasteners that held Mistun fast.

Mistun cried out.

The Terminator Clock on Lux struck; the Pendulum of Pitch began its swing. The wall that ran North-to-South in the Babel Basin on theterminator of Janus began to tremble, along with the land beneath it. Cracks began to spread along its expanse. The people of Lux saw the crumbling of their great barrier to the mysteries of the darkness on the other side; the people of Pitch sniffed the air and heard the rumbles and smelled the dust and airborne debris from the disturbance. Both peoples of Janus witnessed their great divorce crumble into a heap of rubble, allowing them, for the first time, to face each other.

The peoples of Lux and Pitch threw a stunned silence at each other. The daredevil Mistun began to cry from the recesses where his eyes formerly sat, which was not lost on the Pitch.

“They all have them! These eyes—they all have them!” shouted the Deep Umbral. “I can smell them!”

“And we see you!” shouted back the Grand Light of Lux.

“But can you smell us?” the Deep Umbral called back over the pile of bricks and mortar that was previously their shared wall. Lest he insult the Pitch, the Grand Light offered a response of diplomacy.

“No, you do not smell,” he answered.

“Oh, woe,” muttered the daredevil Mistun, who now received the olfactory glare of the Deep Umbral. Thus, the metaphor of a handshake between peoples spoiled quickly to the rot of xenophobes.

“We? We do not smell? We smell excellently.” The previously ululaters now roared jingoistically.  “You do not smell us, but by the shadows we smell you! You dare to insist we have no smell for you to smell. What is this? Is this your final statement? Your declaration of war?”

The Grand Light of Lux panicked. He saw across the heap of stones and blocks the people of the Pitch; he saw the daredevil Mistun, impaled and incarcerated. He turned to his advisors, but they were mute and paralyzed by clueless hesitancy.

“Tell us, oh Deep Umbral, what the people of Pitch require from us. Do not misunderstand our culture or our overtures.” Conversely, the advisors to the Deep Umbral were very forthcoming.

“We smell the discord and their confusion. They smell bad.”

“Then we should smite them?” the Deep Umbral asked.

“Smells like it,” one of the advisors said.

Mistun cried out, "“You do not know of what you do! I am here to show you the way. There is no wall that can separate everyone, and I am Everyman. And I forgive you. Smell me…you know I am right.”

The Deep Umbral released the tassel. The spikes receded.

“That smells good. You smell good, daredevil,” he told him.

“Olfact, my Deep Umbral, olfact! For you are great and odoriferous.” The Deep Umbral’s advisors began to quieten.

“Is their smell your smell?” he asked Mistun.

“That, and more,” he answered.

“That pleases me,” the Deep Umbral said. Then, turning to his people—the Pitch—he called out. “Let us eat their smell!”

Mistun sighed. This was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Fragrant or foul.

The terminator continued to widen. Atmospheric shifts created and filled the vacuums that made the winds: the people of Lux smelled the people of Pitch. The Grand Light of Lux turned to one of his advisors.

“They really do smell,” he commented.

“Not so loud, my Grand Light, not so loud.”

You can only hold back your heart

For so long.

Before you know it,

It’ll leap out of you

And scream,

“I want to see the world.

I want to feel real pain

So I can prove to myself

That I can heal

And love again.”

There was once a girl — an ordinary girl — named Lana. There was nothing special about her; she was plain faced, had no real passions or goals in life, and she lived in a little town by the ocean named Seabury. She had never felt love before nor really even had a crush. Her best friend, a boy named Ivan, wants to leave Seabury to explore the world. And he wants Lana to join him, but as I’ve previously mentioned, she had no real aspirations and therefore no desire to leave. But, the truth is, no one knows the real Lana — the Lana she keeps hidden from others. She has the ability to talk to animals. And not only the ability to talk to them, but the ability to turn into an albatross. She’s friends with a seal named Lucious, and a seagull named Ferris. For as long as Lana can remember, she’s had this ability. She tried talking to her parents about it, but they never believed her. She eventually gave up and from then on, tried to keep her abilities as well hidden as possible.

Suddenly, there’s a new girl in town: Abigail. Abigail is the exact opposite of Lana. She, too, has special abilities and though she doesn’t outwardly admit this, she uses it to gain people’s approval and acceptance. She has the ability to get animals to speak English only temporarily and transform them into humans. She also has the dark ability of blood-bending and mind control. She comes from a long line of witches and warlocks. She immediately tries to befriend Lana due to her fascination with her strange gifts, but Lana is wary.

There was once a girl — an ordinary girl — named Lana. There was nothing special about her; she was plain faced, had no real passions or goals in life, and she lived in a little town by the ocean named Seabury. She had never felt love before nor really even had a crush. Her best friend, a boy named Ivan, wants to leave Seabury to explore the world. And he wants Lana to join him, but as I’ve previously mentioned, she had no real aspirations and therefore no desire to leave. But, the truth is, no one knows the real Lana — the Lana she keeps hidden from others. She has the ability to talk to animals. And not only the ability to talk to them, but the ability to turn into an albatross. She’s friends with a seal named Lucious, and a seagull named Ferris. For as long as Lana can remember, she’s had this ability. She tried talking to her parents about it, but they never believed her. She eventually gave up and from then on, tried to keep her abilities as well hidden as possible. 

However, she’s forced to use these abilities when all of a sudden Ivan goes missing. He’s the only human who has ever understood her and tried to be nice to her. She considers leaving his case to the police, but when they suddenly find a rotten body on the shore, they call off the search and say he’s dead. After consulting her animal friends, she realizes it’s not Ivan at all, but the grocer’s son, George. What was seemingly a opened and shut case, is now a search for a murderer and Ivan who, conveniently, disappeared. Is Ivan a murderer? If not, where is he and what happened to him? Why was George murdered?

#fiction

I don't know what to do with them yet, but these are some recent ideas I've had. They're not fully formed ideas, just inklings.

1. Artica

Normal girl, Isla, one day walks into the transportation beam and is transported to Artica — a land hidden from the eyes of all humans, except her. 

Artica is the land of all heroes and alien species; a place of peace and prosperity. It is the land where government officials meet and heroes and aliens hang out. No mere human has ever visited it. To make it even stranger, Artica is on a time loop in the 16th century — the time the peace treaty between the species was signed. 

Isla was adopted as a baby and never once stopped to question her true origins. Although she did seem to have a 6th sense, she didn’t think too much into it. 

But when she finds herself in this strange place and time, she begins questioning everything. Is it possible that her parents weren’t human? And if so, who and what were they? How will she ever get home?

2. Origins

Don’t you ever wonder where you came from? And why? What about where your ancestors originated and how they came to bring about your current reality?

Well, Valentina didn’t. As far as she was aware, it didn’t concern her in the least. But she's forced to care when she’s shot back in time to the 16th century when her ancestors traveled from Spain to Mexico. And from there, when people from the states came to Mexico.

She is forced to live the life of her ancestors, along with them while being unable to tell them her identity in order to prevent a butterfly effect. But what happens when her distant grandfather falls in love with her? Or when she gets separated from her ancestors and is forced into a life that makes it seem impossible to get back to 2015. 

Important questions:

- How will Valentina get back home?

- Will she gain an appreciation for this ancestry and her life?

- What will be different when she comes back?

- How will she be different?

- Will she have to pretend to be a boy?…

In the darkness...came a thought. "What if I were not alone?"

Then another thought came, "What if I could make it so I wasn't alone?"

Then another thought, "Why is it so dark? First thing's first..." and a 'snap' of their fingers and a sudden big 'bang' was felt...

Then there was light, "Ah, much better..." thought the one who creates. Looking at all of the lights! Then thought, "Perhaps we should put some order to things..." and with a swirl of their finger...the heavens in the stars were put in order.

Then leaning on their elbow, watched for a millenia as the stars and heavens put themselves into order. Until one moment, when a peaceful planet, with oceans and seas, and lands full of trees caught their eye and thought. "My, that looks quite lovely...perhaps there should be others such as me that should be there, too"

But the one who creates didn't know quite how to do it at first. They put there finger onto the lands and they broke...into a bunch of pieces. They looked around to see if anyone saw but...they chuckled because they remembered...they were the only one around.

"Pity, that..."

Then they eased up pressure...and was able to move the things back to where they were. Then they went to waters and lands, pointed and said..."let the lands and waters give forth life" And it did...in abundance. They smiled and were pleased.

Then said, "What's missing?" And then they reached into the ground and started to draw a figure, like a child in a sandbox. They reached down and gently breathed into it. And the form took shape of flesh and breathed on its own. The creature stood before them and said, "hello"

The one who creates nodded and was pleased and said, "Hiya"

In the ancient history of the Sins of the Father series began long ago (15 billion years) after all-powerful beings called celestials fought each other in a great civil war, which resulted in the death of one universe and the birth of another. In the outcome only three had survived (Creator, Life, and Death). Together they founded a new paradise and crafted new lifeforms in their own image, to rebuild what was lost in their world. Two worlds were the most promising, yet one was given more attention than the other. It became a kingdom of light, a sanctuary for the pure. This world was known as Heaven and its first inhabitants were called angels. What these beings did not know was that they were not the only ones to have survived.

Yet there was one other celestial to have survived. This entity, known only as Corruption, made its way to Heaven to try and take control of it. The three ruling celestials fought back and beaten Corruption back. Beaten and broken, Corruption scoured the universe until coming across a second world, and within his last breath shaped its inhabitants in his own twisted image. The world died and forged from fire and brimstone. The inhabitants became violent and manic, preying on one another. This sickened world became known as the Inferno (or more commonly known as Hell) and its corrupted inhabitants demons.

Eventually after millions and millions of years of development in the known universe, a third would eventually be molded. Yet that is a story for another time...

#sinsofthefather #fantasy #fiction #mythology