Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous: Tim Marquitz (10 page)

And now, that could all be wiped out.

Over some fucking fruit.

I know it will take the Sun centuries to die. Maybe even
millennia. So I’ve been preparing Earth for its long run up to
death. I’ve worked my ass off to give my followers the
knowledge and tools they need to survive.

It took months to get them to understand covey life.
Years to teach them how to build their Dome. Decades to get the Dark
Lands where they are now. And that’s with the quick growing
seeds that thrive in dim light Kerana developed and showed them how
to cultivate.

But don’t get me wrong. I didn’t do all this
for the humans, inferior creatures that they are. I did it for me. I
want people around to worship me. I’m a selfish bastard like
that.

I even tried to make it easier on them. I tried to teach
them how to build a weather system within their Dome. It’s big
enough. They could have had artificial day and night. Bright sunshine
whenever they wanted. Rain for the crops and vegetation that refuses
to grow. Simple stuff.

But these dumbasses just didn’t get it. Just like
they don’t get how to keep green things alive beneath their
Dome. Which is why they have to take their sorry asses to the Dark
Lands for food.

But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, I
kept them alive. For centuries. So I have a right to be pissed off.
The Biloko is messing up my shit.

And it’s a hot mess. Literally.

Wait. Hold up. You have no clue at all what I’m
talking about. Let’s back up and start over. And let’s
start with me because I, of course, am the best place to begin.

My name is Tau. I am a Solar Prominence. Excuse me, I
was
a Solar Prominence. I kidnapped Kerana, the most beautiful
and most talented of the Quintessence.

Yeah, I’m one of those kinds of gods. I just
couldn’t help myself.

Because I kidnapped Kerana, the Sun is fading and dying.
That’s where we’re from. Where I’m from. Kerana is
dead. All because I broke the rules.

I don’t like rules. Especially when they’re
imposed on me.

The Quintessence—the People who power the Sun as
its Core and think their shit don’t stink—made up this
stupid rule that no solar entity is allowed to leave his or her layer
of the Sun. Ever. Which meant, as a Prominence, I was supposed to
stay within the Photosphere. Forever.

Forever is a long time. Especially when you’re
talking Sun years.

But those dumbass Quintessence didn’t really think
Their Stay-in-Your Place Rule all the way through. By the nature of
our very being, Solar Prominences had to penetrate the coronal layer.
When it was time for us to do that dance we so loved to do, we
blasted out of the Photosphere—our vaults powered by the
Solar Filaments and their magnetic fields—and into the
Corona.

How else could the entire solar system delight in our
beauty? And I was gorgeous! You should have seen my fiery red skin,
my lithe, muscular body and my blazing eyes. I was the most talented
Prominence who had ever graced the surface of the Sun.

I’m still gorgeous now, mind you. Just not as
gorgeous as before.

I bet you didn’t know the Sun was such a complex
place. And if you did, I don’t want to hear about it. Keep it
to yourself.

Anyway, ask around about me. Any Flare or Radiant or
Filament (if you can find one still alive) will tell you about my
truly divine talent. And if they don’t, they’re just
jealous.

So I figured that, if there was no harm leaping and
twisting and curling up through the coronal layer, then the
Quintessence wouldn’t have any issue with me going to the Core
during my dark periods. It wasn’t like I was going to do
anything. I was dark; I didn’t have enough power or energy.

Famous last words, right?

But that’s what Kerana does to you. Did to you.
She made you want to do things you shouldn’t. Or couldn’t.
All I wanted to do when I first saw her on my first trip to the Core
was be one of her core-mates. Their bodies twined and wrapped and
locked so perfectly with hers. It was intimate. It was arousing. I
was jealous.

And her glow was—

There just are no words to describe it. I could point
out Kerana right away within the mass of millions upon millions of
red-gold bodies that fit like puzzle pieces to make up the Core.

Eventually, my power and energy were restored by the
Core. But I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay within the
Core forever. I wanted to climb in between Kerana and her core-mates
and insinuate myself into their tessling, but I knew I wouldn’t
fit. I knew it would be awkward. I knew that wasn’t my purpose.

But that didn’t make me want to be with them—with Kerana—any
less each time I returned to the Core during
my dark periods. Her tessling was always in a different place within
the Core, but I was always able to find them. Within seconds. Her
aura, her glow was unmistakable.

It didn’t take me long to figure out when Kerana
had her off periods, when she would climb out of her tessling and be
replaced by someone less beautiful, less appealing. I learned to burn
my light and energy with efficient glee so my dark periods coincided
with Kerana’s downtime as she recharged.

It was quite easy. No one said a word. No one arrested
me. No one banished me to the darkest regions of the solar system. I
was surprised. At first.

I mean, the Quintessence were no joke. They made the
rules and everyone followed them without question, so there was no
need for punishments. No one messed with Them. Until I kidnapped
Kerana.

I had to. Her beauty, her warmth, her energy compelled
me. But she wasn’t feeling me. We just didn’t click. To
this day, I still don’t understand why. I could say it’s
because she was a stuck-up bitch, but I find it hard to talk about
Kerana like that since her death.

I tried my damnedest to show Kerana exactly what she was
missing out on with all of this gorgeousness. I snatched her to one
of the largest and darkest sunspots. Just her and me. I wanted to
make her see I was one of greatest wonders of the solar system. The
galaxy. Hell, the universe.

But her core-mate Angatupry found us after a few weeks.
And he was pissed. We fought seven days straight. I had upset their
tessling harmony when I took Kerana. He and the other four core-mates
could not function properly without her.

I’m not ashamed to say Angatupry kicked my ass
from one solar pole to the other. The Quintessence were badass like
that. They were all about power and energy and strength. But one
ass-kicking doesn’t matter. I got Them back in the end.

After being banished to Earth, I set myself up as both
god and avatar—the Solaris. I cultivated life and culture on
my terms, with my rules. And I did it all with Kerana by my side. The
Quintessence had banished her, too.

They had ruled she’d been tainted by the time we
spent together within the sunspot, and she would never function
properly as a Quintessence again. Which didn’t matter to me. I
was having a damned good time on Earth.

Until the Biloko hordes decided to eat all of my people.

Greedy little shits.

I don’t think. I just shoot.

Two dark green shapes collapse mid-lope and crash hard,
skidding across the forest floor of the Dark Lands, but the other
five Biloko leap over them and keep coming. I let four more arrows
fly—one after the other—and they all find their
targets. An eye. A neck. The heart. Even through the back of the
mouth.

Which leaves just one more.

Lali is almost on top of me. She’s so close I can
see the tears on her cheeks. I can smell the fear in her sweat and
taste her sweet, ragged breath in my mouth. I should probably turn
and run with her right now. But we won’t make it to the Dome in
time. Actually, I probably would. I haven’t been running as far
and as hard as Lali. I don’t have the bear on my back like she
does.

But even if I did start running, I couldn’t leave
her as she started to fall behind. I might be scared shitless—the Biloko’s wicked red eyes
and wicked snouts with wicked sharp teeth are more than enough to scare the shit out of me—but I will
stand ready to die for my treefrog. For my covey-mate. For
Lali.

And then Lali streaks past, and the Eloko slams into me.

I can’t breathe. The wind has been knocked out of
me. I feel like I’m dying. But I’m not so out of it that
I don’t find the short, almost furry grass covering the Eloko’s
entire body surprising. Somewhere in the back of my mind, where it
doesn’t register that I’m about to die, I want to giggle
because that short dark green grass tickles against my skin.

But I don’t because its wide open snout is trying
to tear my throat out. I’m quite large for my age, and the
Biloko are dwarf-sized, but it still takes all of my strength to get
an arrow out from under me and stab the Eloko through the ear. I
don’t kill it, though. I just make it angrier.

Those enormous, curved fangs come at me again, but I’m
able to roll to one side just enough and the Eloko tears into my
right shoulder instead of my neck. The Biloko might only come up to
my waist, but they’re massive. Solid. My leverage is gone no
sooner than I had it, and I’m flat on my back again with a face
full of stinking, mad-as-hell Eloko perched on my chest and stomach.

And then it smiles. The Eloko actually smiles at me.
There couldn’t be a more terrible smile in my worst dreams.

But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, an arrow goes
through its left eye, and that’s how the Eloko dies. On top of
me, smiling.

It was Kerana who named them warblers and treefrogs. As
if I would do some silly shit like that. But it fits. And my
followers seem to like it.

When we first arrived on Earth, Kerana tried her best to
embrace the situation, even though she was dying. Her warmth began to
fade the moment I took her from the Core.

But she didn’t complain. She didn’t weep. I
don’t know what I would have done had she cried. Probably told
her to stop. There are no tears in godhood.

Kerana didn’t want to be a goddess, though, which
was just stupid. I mean, why not? We had just inherited a planet of
nearly eight billion desperate people looking to be saved from the
end of the world. They were seeking a literal light in the midst of
the growing darkness. Me and Kerana might not have been as bright as
we used to be, but we were damn sure brighter than the fading Sun.

So the first thing I did was set myself up as supreme
being, lord and ruler, God the Almighty. How could I not? My comings
and goings were like dawn breaking and dusk falling.

I think I understand why Kerana wanted no part of it,
though. She had been the shit and then some within her tessling and
the Core of the Sun. Prominences could dance like nobody’s
business. Filaments were strong as hell and could launch Prominences
millions of miles into space. And Radiants made us all shine.

But the Quintessence, Their shit didn’t stink
because They were too good to take a shit. They knew where They stood
in the pecking order of the Sun. At the top. Where Their shit would
roll downhill onto the rest of us if they ever gave a shit.

Maybe Kerana was tired of all the hierarchical bullshit
and didn’t want to swap it for goddesshood. Maybe she’d
had enough. Or maybe—just maybe—she wanted to die
peacefully. I’m not too much of an asshole to realize that. At
least, now I’m not. After the fact. After she’s already
dead.

Oh well. Shit happens. Life goes on.

Or doesn’t.

No matter what anyone says, I did my best for her. I
loved her like no one did. Like no one could. Her core-mates, her
tessling couldn’t love her like I could. Eight billion people
worshipped me, but I worshipped Kerana. I treated her as she deserved
to be treated. Like the goddess she wouldn’t become. But it
wasn’t enough.

Kerana needed the Sun. She needed the Core. She needed
her tessling. She was such an integral part of it all. As her glow
faded, the Sun faded. She was like the Sun itself. But better. She
was power, beauty, energy and warmth in its purest form.

And I fucked that all up.

What bothers me about all this is I couldn’t save
her. No matter how much I tried. No matter how much I loved her. And
she didn’t want to be saved. She pushed me away. She
disappeared for decades in some dark corner of the earth. It was
obvious why. She didn’t want love from this asshole.

I tried not to let that bother me. I tried to shake off
her rejection. Ignore it. It wasn’t like I didn’t have
other things to do. I wasn’t sitting around with my thumb up my
ass. I had other people to do that for me.

Humans might be dumb as rocks, but they aim to please.

The best of them was Ruthie. Yeah, that boy’s
sister. Ruthie had nothing on Kerana, but she was a nice distraction.
As long as I didn’t smile. Whenever I did, my dazzling
gorgeousness struck her blind, deaf and dumb for weeks at a time.

Which made a nineteen year old girl that much less
appealing.

But a nineteen year old girl has only so much appeal,
anyway. Especially after the fiftieth one. I wanted Kerana.

The good thing about it all was she always crawled out
of her hole in the ground and came back. Never for long, though.
Infuriating assholes do that. We drive others away. After a day or
two of me begging her to be my goddess-wife, Kerana would go back to
the ass-end of the earth.

And then one day, she didn’t come back again.

My mistake was thinking Kerana would last as long as the
Sun. I should have never tied its ebb and wane with hers. But it made
so much sense at the time. Their mutual decline seemed symbiotic.

I found dimmed motes of Kerana in the exosphere. That’s
where she would go when she hurt the most. It was the closest she
could get to the Sun. To see it better. To feel its weak warmth.