In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater Page 3

  “Shit!” He yells as he tumbles down. Trash explodes around him as he lands hard on his feet.

  He’s fine.

  Even a fall that high can’t hurt him.

  He smirks.

  …

  It is one week later, Cole sprints down an empty city street. His best friend Julio shows up running behind him, smooth talking, light skinned, ambiguous, handsome bachelor. He’s a smart mouth most of the time and no one actually knows what race he really is, and he won’t tell. Maybe Hispanic.

  Cole huffs and puffs as he picks up speed. The wind and hot sun caresses his face.

  He smiles.

  This is what he’s been missing, this feeling, this high. The feeling of excitement and pushing your body to the limit.

  They run toward the wall of a two-story building. They close in fast and jump up the wall, scaling it like parkouring monkeys and end up on the roof of the building.

  Easy.

  They continue to run across it, pushing their limits as they jump from rooftop to rooftop. The gaps get bigger but they’re not at their limit yet. Cole could do this before he got his powers. They jump over AC units, vents and leap onto the next unknowing business.

  The street passes below them as they run, nobody notices they’re up there yet, but the last time someone called the cops.

  Assholes.

  Cole eyes the biggest gap, Julio gets there first and clears it just by a hair. He cheers as he lands and turns to Cole. Cole speeds up and charges for it. He can do anything now. He nears the gap and jumps when—

  His watch dings, it zaps him, sending a shock-wave down his spine, into his legs, and turns them into jelly. He slips off the edge. With a slam he lands hard on the ground on his shoulder and flips on his back.

  Back on the ground, a display pops up on the watch, Sync 72%, and disappears. He gets up and brushes himself off. A pile of old mattresses lie there waiting on him to his left.

  Of course he missed it. Even with his healing abilities his body is still fortified, a fall like that didn’t even waver him. But does he have a limit?

  “Oh shit!” Julio peers over the edge. “Are you alright!? Did you fall on the mattresses?”

  Of course not.

  “Yeah…Sure.”

  …

  Cole and Julio sit on the edge of a rooftop, eating breakfast from their lunchboxes, staring out into the smoggy morning sky of LA and the distant skyscrapers and mountains that litter them.

  “Hey, Cole, quick question… but uhh… should you even be working out yet?” Julio asks.

  Cole likes how he asked him after the fact. “Really? You’re going to ask me now? After all the stuff we’ve just done?”

  “Whatever man. I didn’t think about it until now, I mean you’re just oddly spry for someone who was crushed in a fucking car just three fucking weeks ago with your legs all bent backwards and shit. But that’s all I’m saying,” Julio says raising his hands. He is kind of a potty mouth.

  “Okay, man, calm down, it’s just that…” Cole thinks on it, he looks into the sky and at the clouds. “I feel too good to wait too long. I can’t just stop doing what I want to do.”

  “Anybody can stop doing anything if they put their mind to it.”

  “It’s easier for you than it is for other people, Julio.”

  Cole’s going to continue on, no matter what anybody says. He needs this. It helps him forget, and to not remember the things that he wants to forget.

  “Just don’t complain to me if—when you get even more fucked up then before,” Julio says.

  Cole shrugs, nobody will stop him. He looks at his hands, with this power nobody can anymore.

  “Seriously. Don’t,” Julio continues.

  Cole’s vision blurs out.

  There’s only blackness.

  Earth is gone.

  He blinks, flames and screams enter his world. All he sees is an alien world, a city. A place of a once majestic civilization in flames. Alien buildings burn and fall. Inhuman screams ring out in the air, like gales of wind hitting a leafless tree.

  So much fire and burning, the remains of whatever culture that prospered here has melted away, indescribable from other burning mounds.

  Above the city, thousands of ships destroy this world. They are just scribbles of lights in the blood red sky, beams erupting from them. Cole stands in the middle of this, but not a part of it, just a watcher.

  Seven angelic winged beings fly away from the horror and ascend into the sky, they shine too brightly to see what they are.

  “Cole,” a voice, Julio’s, but Cole ignores it.

  The clouds part as a giant shining sphere descends from the sky. It burns like a white star. Cole shields his eyes away as the light from it explodes out.

  “Cole!!”

  Cole snaps out of it. He’s back on Earth, on the rooftop. His heart beating at two hundred beats a minute.

  He’s safe.

  His phone is going off. What was that? Maybe it was too early to work out again. He needs to see…tell somebody about this. His heartbeat finally slows down. What the hell is going on?

  “I knew it, you have a fucking concussion!” Julio yells.

  “What…no… no I’m fine.” But not now, he can’t tell anyone until he figures out more about what’s going on.

  “Are you going to pick that up?” Julio asks. Thora is calling. Cole hits ignore and puts it back in his pocket. Not now.

  “No.”

  “Problems,” Julio asks.

  “No.”

  “Come on, tell me, man.”

  Cole gives in, he doesn’t want Julio to pester him, plus he is kind of his best friend.

  “She’s staying with Erin to help with their new born, but it’s all bullshit.”

  “Why?”

  “She said she wanted a divorce before my accident and I told her I didn’t remember anything immediately before it.”

  “And you’re acting all distant because she hasn’t brought it up right? Well let me tell you what’s wrong with her,” Julio says. Cole looks at him. “The bitch got cold feet.”

  Cole glares at him.

  “Sorry man but bro to bro she doesn’t know what she wants. She’s going to stay away thinking of a way to blame you for everything.”

  Cole doesn’t answer him. Julio relaxes back.

  “Well, is she still coming to your party at least?”

  Cole just shrugs.

  …

  Thora sits in a rocking chair in the Bell’s house. She’s in the living room, cradling baby Neil. Erin Bell walks in, dressed to the nines, nice cocktail dress, nice black heels, putting in new diamond earrings, nice everything. She walks up to her sister, Carissa Quoin, who’s on the computer across from Thora.

  “Don’t be too late,” she tells Carissa.

  Thora just watches.

  “It’s my first night as a reporter I can’t make any promises,” Carissa giddily replies. The excited look on her face disgusts Thora.

  Thora’s in a bad mood; Cole isn’t picking up.

  “What’s the guy’s name again that you wanna set me up with?” Carissa asks.

  “Julio.”

  “Oh yeah, Julio, the mysterious traveler. Nobody knows about his past but he’s been hurt before, keeping him closed off, hiding behind a facade that needs to be broken open to see the true and sensitive him. That Julio?”

  “Julio is anything but closed off.”

  Arnold Bell walks in, just a typical middle-aged man, with a belly to suit.

  “Don’t you have your own place?” Arnold asks Carissa.

  “Just printing a few things off, Arnold.” She grabs a paper from the printer, giving Erin a kiss and running out the door.

  “Come on Erin, we’re going to be late,” Arnold says. They head for the door but Thora grabs Erin’s arm.

  “Don’t talk to him about me, alright? I want to talk to him myself.”

  Erin finishes putting in an earring. “Okay, I won’t. Are yo
u going to your new place in downtown tonight?”

  “It’s not my place, it’s only a room and it’s temporary.”

  “I told you that you can stay here as long as you need to.”

  Thora nods in disapproval.

  “Okay hun, don’t keep Neil up too late.” Erin bends down and kisses Neil and leaves. Thora just sits, rocking Neil back and forth waiting for the night to end.

  Deconstruction - Weak

  Cole wakes up. He clutches his chest wheezing from an immense pressure. He sits up and tries to calm himself, but a sharp pain stabs him. He rubs his arm to try to relieve it.

  It works, slowly, he breathes in and out. The pain soothes away. He wipes his brow of sweat.

  His clock on his night stand says it’s five o’clock in the morning. He’s in his room in his house in the hills.

  It’s a week before he found his powers and only a day after Thora left.

  He’s alone.

  He gets up and limps to the bathroom, his cast slowing him down.

  He rummages through the medicine cabinet and pulls out his heart pills. He takes one as he washes his hands and face in warm water. The running water soothes his mind.

  He remembers back to yesterday. The day he drove Thora away, the day of his check up with his doctor. He was about to let Thora back into his heart until he got the news from the doctor. Cole has developed a heart problem, thanks to the accident and he’ll never workout again.

  The next time he’d seen Thora he exploded at her in anger and she left. She isn’t a saint but he shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that. Now he’s left with nothing.

  He takes off his shirt and looks at his body, his skin is dry and tight around his bony frame. He lost over thirty pounds from his time in a coma.

  Thirty fucking pounds.

  All that he worked for is gone, all those years fucking gone. He punches the mirror. It doesn’t even crack under his weak blow.

  He doesn’t know what he’s going to do now.

  …

  It’s a few days later, the day before he found his power, his reason to live in this mad world. He lies on his bed, on the covers. His room is a mess, empty potato chip bags and other junk food lie on the floor and on his bed. Clothes are flung everywhere and he hasn’t showered in days.

  It has been like this since Thora left him. He has no reason to do anything. He has to just wait for his leg to heal so he can go back to work. But why even go to work? The only reason he got that damned job was to pass time between Thora and the gym.

  The television is on, it’s a Maury marathon and another man has just found out that he’s not the father. He dances around on the screen.

  This is what Cole has become.

  A pathetic fool.

  It’s five o’clock in the evening. A suicide letter is on his nightstand; it’s one he’d written a long time ago. A time that he’d felt had passed but now he feels like nothing has changed since then, so he might as well use the same damn letter.

  He picks up his phone and calls Julio. But it goes straight to voicemail. Cole sent five texts to him already, all of them asking for his help and getting no reply. His phone dies in his hand. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s charged it, but it’s not like he has a reason.

  He gets up. It’s too early to do anything, he wants to go in his sleep. He needs to do something to pass the time, he’s too anxious to stay at home. And he wants to see the stars for one last time.

  …

  Cole sits on a bench at a beach in Malibu, a nice secluded area. The sun’s just set, the orange fringes simmering just slightly off the dark blue coast. The stars start to peek on the dark blue that blankets the sky.

  Cole envies the stars, up in space, free to sparkle without troubles or fears and to give heat to the planets that surround them, yet far enough away to not heed the problems of the people who worship them. Stars are free. Maybe when he dies he can join them. But even then that would be too much, he just wants it to end, to be done with all his problems and his failure of a life.

  He thinks of everybody who’s died because of him, because of his failure to become a man and save them and how he has nothing left anymore. He has no more wife to provide him love, no hobby to keep him from his dark prickling thoughts, nothing to stop him from killing himself.

  Cole cries, he feels the deep emptiness inside him, the hopelessness, the darkness he tries to run away from, the darkness he’s tried to push away from, the darkness he’s tried to work out of himself.

  The darkness he lied to himself about. He needs to escape it, even if it means death.

  “Cole?” A woman walks up and sits next to him.

  “Erin?” Cole says.

  It’s Erin, how did she find him here?

  “What are you doing here?” Cole asks.

  “Julio called me. He said he missed your calls, he’s out of town and told me to come find you here.”

  “I’m that predictable.” He tries to wipe away the tears, he doesn’t want her to see him this way.

  “If you have a problem why didn’t you come to me?”

  “I don’t have a problem.”

  “Cole, you’re a grown man sitting on a bench crying in the middle of nowhere. You have a problem and you need to tell people about things. Just because I’m a friend of Thora does not mean I’m not a friend to you.”

  She puts her hand on his and looks into his eyes. Hers show worry, she’s afraid for him.

  The darkness suddenly creeps back, it went away when Erin showed up. But socializing only pushes it so far away. He exhales and cries again. Why can’t he escape it, why does everybody he loves leave him?

  “I’m scared,” he mutters in tears. “I’m scared everyone will leave me. I’m scared that everything I do is for nothing. I’m scared that all of my fears are coming true. I couldn’t save them. Not a single one. I’m so alone. I’m so fucking scared.”

  Erin grabs hold of him and he cries in her arms.

  “I’m alone…” he cries. “I’m so alone.”

  “It’s going to be okay, you’re not alone, you have me and Julio. It’s going to be okay.”

  She repeats those words in his ears as he continues to cry. It’s going to be okay.

  Thanks Erin, for everything, no matter how pointless this is. But he knows nothing inside him. No matter what he attempts to place there, whether it’s the gym or a love, it’s all a lie, it’s all useless. He is tired of trying to find a meaning. There is no god. There is only darkness.

  No matter how many friends he gets, no matter how many people love him, it’s still not enough to pierce the loneliness in his heart, the emptiness. The universe worth of darkness and the loneliness of the stars.

  It is hours later at eleven. An hour before the day he discovers his powers. Cole cleans up his room. He folds up his clean clothes and throws away the dirty ones. There is no need for them anymore, nobody is going to want to go through them.

  Even though Erin calmed him, it just soothed his thoughts and cleared his mind. Cole knows now that he wants to do this. He has no regrets or self-doubts about it, he just hopes that whoever finds his body won’t go through that much trouble.

  His bed is made and his suicide note is on the nightstand, divorce papers are in the drawer. He left Thora with everything and gave Julio and Erin something’s they mentioned they liked.

  He pulls a full pill bottle out of his pocket and reads the back. Taking more than recommended dose will result in serious illness or death. He places it on his nightstand next to some sleeping pills and dresses in his pajamas. He still wants to feel comfortable when he goes.

  Cole gets into his bed and under his covers. He takes a sip of water and swallows three pills and keeps doing this until all the pills are gone.

  He turns off his lights, closes his eyes and empties his mind. The darkness starts to go away, fading into loneliness which fades into emptiness. This is how he wants to go, peaceful, painless. There is glowing star
in the distance of the emptiness, he tries to push it away but it continues to approach him. He lets the emptiness surround it, just cloaking it but he can feel it’s there, but this is good enough. He doesn’t fear death anymore, he welcomes it.

  He lets all his problems fade away.

  He just wants to sleep forever.

  3 - An Execution

  The Hawaiian sun sets over a beautiful coast, its radiance melts into the dark blue sky. Somebody or something descends from the clouds. Slowly it lands on the warm sands of the beach, the other beach-goers don’t notice it. It’s Leif, a Serephin, an alien.

  He has oddly distinct human features, except that he’s seven feet tall, has sickly green skin, a slightly horizontal shaped head, and two holes that bore out of his face from where a human nose should’ve been. A scar runs diagonally across his face with many claw marks on the left side. He wears dark silk robes.

  Leif bends down and grabs a handful of sand.

  It begins here.

  The forging of the perfect.

  The sand in his hand glows white, a gust of wind whisks it into the sky. Each individual grain glows like a firefly, disappearing into the air, as specks of pure energy. Leif lets the sand trickle from his five fingered hand as he stands.

  A Delta passenger airplane flies in the sky in the distance. Leif turns to his side, lifts his arm and points at it in the shape of a gun. With a flick of his thumb, the plane explodes into a million fiery pieces. Leif’s arm drops as he watches the hell rain over him.

  …

  At the White House, the president strides down a hallway with a sense of purpose. The Secret Service and his personal secretary trot alongside him.

  “The meeting will begin when you arrive, Mr. President,” his secretary addresses him.

  The president doesn’t answer, he can’t; too much is on his mind. The human race has finally done it, they have finally received a message from the confines of outer space, however it’s not a message of peace but of a threat.