“You are the light,” they told her.

“You have to keep whatever fear and darkness which comes to him at bay – keep him from going astray.”

And so she was born from the rays of the sun, the glow of the moon, and the subtle twinkling of stars. Brought into the world a little late, but in time enough to try and save whatever good was left - the darkness has touched him, but he has not succumbed. His soul was anxious and wary.

When she laid eyes on him for the first time, she was astounded. Being created from such heavenly bodies gave her the peculiar ability to see people for more than what is seen by the eyes, deeper even than what lies beneath. She could see the radiant glows of a person’s soul. And this one was not like others she had known before. Most of the time, they were either a certain bright color or a shade that was painfully dark. His was different. It was predominantly orange – the color of intellect, passion and humor all compounded into one beautiful display of light. But it troubled her that the outer-bands of this glow were a solid grey. It was painful for her to see such a bright spirit tinged with darkness. And as he spotted her and started to approach her, she understood what they meant. She understood her purpose. Born of the lights that graced the world above, she was here to save this soul. Why this one in particular, she could not fathom. But she did not question it.

They bloomed together in friendship and in love. She came to know of his past and of his present. She was there through everything. The grey would every so often start to fade when she brought him the finest of happiness that radiated from within her. But it was not so easy. He was so oblivious to the things she would go through. Light being touched by darkness was as painful as skin being touched by hot iron. It ate away at her. And the more it did, the more it turned her human. Soon, she would no longer be a daughter of the sun, moon and stars. She would be a daughter of the earth. But the pain and the loss of her radiance was something she learned to keep off her mind. Because when he would hold her against himself, he would tuck her hair back and whisper to her:

“You are my light.”

And to her, this was all that mattered anymore.

“I’ll just have the pancake stack with bacon on the side”, I said. “And coffee. Black, please.”

“I guess I’ll have the same thing, but cream and sugar with the coffee. Thanks”, Reeve said as he handed the menu back to the waitress, smiling all the while.

We were at an old diner just somewhere along the mountain road. It looked like it hadn’t been updated or renovated since the 70s. The fluorescent lights above us made electric humming sounds that sounded ominous enough if you listened closely, but practically blended into all the other background noises if you weren’t paying attention. The leather on our seats were red, cracked, and sticky - the kind that stick to your thighs if you’ve been sitting just long enough. The wait staff was practically a horde of zombies, just mulling along, trying to get the work day over and done with. I couldn’t blame their lack of enthusiasm.

Reeve and I headed out here tonight for the meteor shower. We could have watched it fine enough from home, but the mountain cliff wasn’t too far and we decided the view from up there would be much better - romantic, even.

He tapped his index finger on the plastic tabletop and waited for me to notice. “You’re spacing out again, hon” he said, smirking.

“Sorry. You know how it is when I’m starving.”

I reached out and held his hand, stroking his knuckles with my fingers. On his shoulder, a little grey spider scuttled along, stopped as if making sure I had noticed it, and climbed down his arm. We had plenty of them at home, and this one probably hitched a ride on him. Maybe it wanted to see the shower too.

I glanced outside and noticed the sky was beginning to change hues - growing small patches of brightness. “I think it’s almost starting,” I told Reeve. “We better go.”

“What about the food?”

“Just ask them to bag it.”

“I thought you were starving, hon?”

“I am but I can eat on the way up in the car. We’re going to miss it, Reeve!”

“Okay, okay. Calm down, your majesty,” he chuckled as he got up to ask the lady at the counter to bag our food for us. She made a tiny eye-roll that he either didn’t notice or didn’t mind, but it got on my nerves.

“Just bag it, they said!” she yelled over her shoulder into the kitchen. “We’ll have it right out.” Her fake smile didn’t help.

As we got in the car, and drove up, the sky had started to shift into almost a magenta and purple swirl. “Have you ever seen anything like that?” I asked him.

“Nope. But there’s no one else I’d rather be seeing it with.”

We parked at a spot overlooking the city below. If we had been teenagers, we would have probably been up here often to make out. Instead, we usually came up here to talk and watch the stars when the skies were clear and the weather was cool enough. As we always did, we sat back on the hood of his blue Toyota, getting the perfect angle for watching the night sky. He held me close, always so careful of me when we’re up here. Probably because when he found me years ago, it was at the foot of a mountain much like this one - except that I was buried under a pile of rocks rather than in his arms. We’d been together ever since. What a fairytale, right? Reeve was a volunteer rescuer back then. He doesn’t do that much now - says he doesn’t mind if I’m the last person he ever gets to rescue. Says it was probably Destiny anyway.

When he says things like that it makes me wonder how much he knows.

As we watched, the magenta-purple swirl started to spread across the sky, and it didn’t take long before the meteors streaked across that expanse.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” I whispered.

“It really is. I’m so glad we came up here for this.”

“You helped me do this”

“I mean, driving isn’t that big of a deal, hon.” He chuckled.

“No not that, I mean you helped make all of this happen, Reeve.”

He looked at me, his face painted half-confused and half-amused. “If you’re talking about me rescuing you again-”

“That’s only part of it. None of this would have been possible without you,” I said as I gestured at the sky and the rain of meteors coming down faster and brighter than it did minutes ago.

“I’m not sure I follow.” His eyebrows knitted together as I straddled him so that he was looking up at me against the neon glow of the sky.

“Remember that dream you had last night? The one where you spilled boiling hot coffee on that co-worker of yours that you don’t like? Kyle was his name, right?”

“I mean I barely remember. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Did you notice anything else? Like maybe me?”

“I told you, I barely remembered it. I don’t even remember most of my dreams. Are you okay, hon? You’re not really making any sense.”

“That’s what made you perfect, Reeve. You never remembered any of it. You never noticed I was there - never noticed what I was doing.” I leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose lightly. Any trace of amusement was gone from his face now, replaced by what was probably the look of dread starting to sink in - I could see in his eyes that he didn’t even know why he was feeling that way.

“Nacha, whatever you’re playing at, I think you’re getting a little carried away with it.”

Hearing him say my name like that was funny. It wasn’t even creative. Never really concealed anything. But he never caught on. I giggled a little at that thought, took him by his hand and led him over to the edge of the cliff, showing him the city below burning.

“I did it, Reeve. You helped me do it. All those nights you slept so soundly - you made it so easy for me to tap into your dreams. I mean, I never expected it would take years to knit everything together - to bridge your world to mine. But here we are. Isn’t it beautiful?”

He gaped, looking down at the chaos erupting below us. I don’t think he even heard what I said. What does it matter though?

He stepped closer to the edge, not really comprehending what he was seeing. As he gawked and tried to wrap his weak little mind around what was going on, I took the opportunity to shed my putrid shell. My “disguise” as you would probably call it. It had been years and it felt so good to shake off that disgusting form I had taken. Finally.

Reeve turned around, and before he got a chance to take a good look at what I truly was, I struck down. Piercers straight into his heart.

It’s a shame that I had to do that to him. And although I was always incapable of loving him the way he thought I did, I’d be lying if I said I dn’t started to develop an ounce of care for the poor fool.

As I stood over the cliff to admire my work, the Weavers had started to take their fill of him. I suppose they were just as starving as I was.

He always thought it was Destiny. He was right - and I reminded myself that afterall, he was just my means to the End.

For those who are not familiar, Atlach-Nacha is known as the Spider God who would bring about the end of the world by weaving a bridge that connected the Dreamworld to the waking world. It’s believed that she was imprisoned beneath a mountain in Siberia. That is until Reeve saved her.

#eldritch

#horror

#apocalypse