Silver Creature

All the village can do is look up, count down the days, and hope that they will still be able to hold their loved ones on the last day of the cycle. Their necks ache from craning up at the sky in fear. At least this cruel method of population control has certainly fixed their postures.

The moon was only a sliver in the sky last night. Today is the last day of the cycle. Today, the silver creature comes.

The sun sets and reveals a pitch-black night. The creature comes from the skies in a storm of fire and light. It has always existed above and has always bestowed the village with its violent presence below. The black night signaled the creature’s ready descent onto the village. It spent each cycle getting into position, taking its fill of people, and returning to its orbit around the world. It was ready to feed.

The armored creature opened its great mouth and a blinding ray of light shot down, enveloping the northeastern corner of the village. Every life the light touched was instantly pulled into the creature’s mouth, never to be seen again.

The village elders had decided long ago that these deaths must be revered as glorious sacrifices. Unfortunately, this did not translate well to the evangelists who saw the sacrifices as divine rewards. They looked up not in fear, but in hopes of pinpointing the correct focal point of the creature’s pulverizing beam in their bids for canonization. They all died in agony with smiles on their faces.

The beam disappeared along with the group of grinning simpletons. The air was quiet and the sky was dark. The calm after the rapture was never quite enough to relax the goosebumps and clenched fists. The creature would be back with renewed hunger next cycle. They had another month to kiss their loved ones and hope this cycle wouldn’t be their last.