The Footsteps of Cain

by Derek Kohlhagen

  What are you?

  AH, THERE WE ARE. IT’S NICE THAT YOU’VE FINALLY DECIDED TO ADDRESS ME DIRECTLY.

  There was a sound of a throat clearing.

  I SUPPOSE YOU CAN THINK OF ME AS THE SUPER DUPER LORD AND MASTER OF YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE WORLD, SUCH AS IT IS. YOUR LEASH-HOLDER. YOUR SLAP-IN-THE-FACE, FLAME-THROWER-HOLDING, JUST-ALL-AROUND-GOOD-GUY, TORTURE-PORN APPRECIATER. AND LET’S SEE...WHAT SHALL WE CALL YOU? WHAT KIND OF A NAME IS EJELANO, ANYWAY? IT WON’T DO. NOPE, IT WON’T DO AT ALL. TOO MANY SYLLABLES.

  WAIT, WHAT DID THAT BRAT CALL YOU?

  OH YEAH...VERMIN. I LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT. LET’S GO WITH THAT. YOU’RE VERMIN. HEE HEE...THAT’S HILARIOUS.

  How are you speaking to me? Are you a spirit of the forest?

  There was a burst of laughter inside his head.

  YEAH, THAT’S ME. I’M A TREE. I’M ALSO A PRETTY PURPLE UNICORN AND I LIKE TO DO THE TANGO WITH ALL MY OTHER PRETTY PURPLE UNICORN FRIENDS. YOU AND YOUR BUDDIES ARE JUST SO DELICIOUSLY PRIMITIVE! IT’S A COMPLETE MYSTERY TO ME HOW YOU’VE SURVIVED THIS LONG!

  A thousand miles away, the knife stopped. In a daze, he felt Olhando’s hand enter his chest cavity...felt the violating pressure as the hunter took hold of something inside him, grasping and tugging at it.

  His heart. His core.

  It was the strangest sensation. He felt mostly separate from his body and what was happening to it. Was it the general anesthesia of his failing brain that kept the pain at bay?

  Olhando pulled. At first there was resistance, and then something tore loose. When he withdrew and held up his hand, Ejelano could see he was clutching the gruesome, fleshy orb, which was emptying its contents in streams down his forearm.

  EWW. AND THEY SAY I’M SICK. YOU GUYS ARE CERTIFIABLE. WHAT DID THAT OLD GUY SAY? SOMETHING ABOUT THROWING THAT THING INTO THE FIRE? OH, MAN, THAT IS JUST TOO FUCKING SAVAGE! LOOK, THERE HE GOES...HE’S ACUTALLY GOING TO DO IT!

  Ejelano was only barely aware of Olhando approaching the fire with the disembodied heart (his heart) and drawing his arm back. Ejelano felt removed from it, like he was only dreaming it.

  How am I still alive? How can I be seeing this?

  I’M SUPER DUPER, LIKE I SAID. YOU DON’T DIE UNLESS I SAY SO. PRETTY NIFTY, HUH, VERMIN? I MEAN, I DON’T SHOOT LASER BEAMS OR FIREBALLS OR ANYTHING, BUT I’M PRETTY AMAZING.

  OH! OKAY...SHUT UP! THE BEST PART IS COMING! HE’S GOING TO THROW YOUR HEART, YOUR FUCKING HEART, INTO THAT CAMP FIRE, THERE! MAKE SURE YOU’RE WATCHING...MOST PEOPLE DON’T GET TO SEE ANYTHING LIKE THIS!

  Sure enough, Olhando swiftly brought his arm forward and cast Ejelano’s heart into the raging fire. It disappeared into the flames, nestling into the heat and vanishing behind the opaque, brilliant yellow. Even though the organ was now separate from him, he still thought he could feel it burning...shriveling and popping in the heat. It seared his disbelieving eyes, just as the hole in his body, his heart’s former resting place, seared him.

  The timbre of the voice in his head dropped low, to a place where sinister things live and seethe.

  HEH. OKAY, HERE WE GO. YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS.

  * * *

  Chapter 33 – Olhando

  The moment that the dripping organ disappeared into the flames, Olhando heard a tremendous crack. It was so loud that it beat at his ears like he’d been hit in the head with a club, and for several heartbeats he still heard it echoing in the distance, through the trees. Then a groan rumbled, seemingly from deep under the ground, as if some great beast from a long-forgotten underworld had awoken and was preparing its wrath for the hapless surface dwellers.

  Suddenly, a fissure cut through the ground, running directly underneath the fire, and as far as he could see in both directions. At first it was a hair-thin line, but then it began to widen until it was a narrow ribbon of darkness. The people, his brothers and sisters, stared at it in wonder and fear, backing away and yet not able to tear their eyes from it. It had appeared between Olhando’s legs, and he had stumbled just briefly before he was able to spring to the side, where he could only stare at the fracturing earth with a slackened jaw.

  Amidst the chaos, he noticed Ejelano, who still knelt behind him. The condemned man was now unrestrained, for his guards had lost their resolve the moment the earth had split open and were now backpedaling away from the mysterious crack. Then, the obvious struck Olhando like a blow to the head.

  By the forest...he still lives!

  Ejelano was looking about in a daze, his eyes heavily lidded, but indeed he seemed very much alive. The grave wound in his chest, put there by Olhando’s own hand, still gushed a red torrent of blood onto the ground. The crimson pool at his knees ran toward the newly-formed crevice, splitting and narrowing into tendrils before running off into the black.

  Olhando began to tremble, his fear of the unknown gaining an upper hand on his resolve. Something was very, very wrong.

  His brothers and sisters remained rooted where they stood, staring at Ejelano in horror. Some of them were screaming, some of them merely shaking their heads in disbelief. Banoro was shouting something at Olhando, but he couldn’t make it out in the chaos.

  “Ejelano...?” he ventured, hesitant.

  Ejelano’s lips moved, but not in response to Olhando’s voice. He appeared to be speaking to someone else entirely.

  As Olhando was trying to decide whether to approach the living-dead man, or flee for his life, there was another deep rumble far below him, and the ground beneath his feet lurched. This time, his agility did not save him. He fell roughly to the dirt, like someone had just yanked an animal skin out from under his feet.

  Blinking the pain away, he raised his head to see that the unbelievable crack in the ground had widened considerably. The bonfire teetered for a moment, still blazing, and then toppled into the abyss. Olhando crawled to the edge cautiously, and peered down into the depths. He was only just able to see the wood of the fire, still burning and tumbling down into the blackness, until either it was extinguished by the rushing air or had reached the limits of his vision. In the brief light that he was afforded by the flaming timbers, he saw only the earthen, rocky sides of the chasm. He saw nothing of its bottom; for all he knew, it might not even exist. A wave of vertigo oozed over him, and he was forced to pull back from the threshold and seek the comfort of firm, flat ground.

  Again he looked over at Ejelano, who was regarding the fissure in a daze. Then the wounded man stood up, weakly, covering the horrible hole in his chest with his hands, perhaps in some absurd, futile attempt to staunch the flow of blood. Olhando could only stare.

  I have taken from this man his very heart, and yet he stands! Has my mind completely abandoned me?

  He was not able to contemplate the answer to this very appropriate question very long, for there was suddenly a third groan from the earth, and all at once he saw the edge of the bottomless trench collapsing outward. The soil fell into the hole with an alarming speed, sucking everything in its path down into the depths. It advanced so swiftly that he only had the time to register his people, his family, being swallowed up by the growing chasm. Banoro, reaching out for his wife, who’d fallen in a fraction of a second before him...the Elders...all of them. They fell, one after the other, their shrieks growing more distant but no less disturbing as they were engulfed by the earth.

  He tried to lift himself off the ground to flee the mouth of darkness that pursued him with lightning-speed, but found that there was suddenly nothing to push against, and then he was falling also. He saw Ejelano tumbling below him, having been sucked down just a fraction of a heartbeat before. Olhando raked the air with his arms, desperate to find any purchase to arrest his fall, but found the endeavor utterly futile. The last thing he heard, before the deafening roar of falling earth overrode all else, was his own scream, rising to join those of his kin.

  * * *

  Chapter 34 – Ejelano

  All was quiet.

  He remembered...falling. He remembered the e
arth giving way and hurtling down into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity.

  He remembered hearing the screams of his people, of Olhando, as the earth sucked them downward into...what? Where was he? He only knew it was dark and cold, and he felt a great pressure binding him...pressing him down. It was starkly silent...the absolute kind of silence that the mind cannot abide, so much so that it reflexively manufactures a persistent, phantom ringing in the ears to fill the void.

  He was dead. He had to be. What was more, his fears of what lay beyond the veil of mortality for him had been confirmed.

  Nothing. An eternity of black and cold. His beloved, whose spirit now no doubt danced in the interstices of the boughs, in the canopy of the forest, whose warm smile he would never again feel, would always wonder why he’d never come to join her. He hoped that she was ignorant of his fate. If she knew where he was now, where he would eternally remain, it would surely dim the sunlight that shined through the leaves of her paradise.

  And so, hopeless, cold, and alone, he resigned himself to his destiny, sitting at the head of a frigid forever.

  ARE ALL YOU PRIMITIVE PANTY WAISTS SO MOROSE?

  He twitched, startled by the sudden intrusion in his head.

  Why are you here? Leave me in death, spirit. Let me rot in peace.

  DEATH? HARDLY. I TOLD YOU, I HAVE INFINITE, COLOSSAL POWERS. YOU CAN’T DIE UNLESS I TELL YOU YOU CAN DIE. OPEN YOUR EARS, MAN. AND DON’T GO AND TRY TO OFF YOURSELF EITHER, BECAUSE BUDDY, THAT JUST WON’T WORK.

  The speech the voice used was strange. Although Ejelano did understand its basic meaning, there was a significant portion of it that he found difficult to follow.

  GET USED TO THAT. I’M JUST WAY SMARTER THAN YOU ARE.

  Is nothing in my mind hidden from you?

  NOPE. I’M ALL SEEING, ALL HEARING AND SHIT.

  Ejelano’s attention returned to his surroundings.

  I...I can’t feel anything.

  OBVIOUSLY THAT’S NOT TRUE. JUST A SECOND AGO YOU WERE WHINING ABOUT HOW COLD IT WAS. MAKE UP YOUR MIND. THE FACT IS, YOU DO FEEL, AND YOU ARE COLD, AND THAT WEIGHT THAT’S PRESSING DOWN ON YOU IS A WHOLE SHITLOAD OF VERY REAL ROCKS AND DIRT. QUITE A PREEEDICAMENT.

  A thought entered his consciousness, and he became frantic.

  Where are the others? Banoro? Olhando? Elhadra?

  PUSHIN’ UP DAISIES, ALL OF ’EM. WORM FOOD. TAKIN’ DIRT NAPS. I’VE GOT, LIKE, A BILLION EXPRESSIONS FOR IT. BUT, YEAH...THEY’RE REALLY, REALLY DEAD.

  Ejelano didn’t think that he could possibly feel more despair, but at the news of the demise of his entire village...everyone that he had loved...he found he could still weep.

  I’M BEGINNING TO THINK THAT YOU HAVE OVERACTIVE TEAR DUCTS. YOU WANT ME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT? I COULD, YOU KNOW.

  Ejelano had a realization that pushed fury through his mourning.

  You did it! You were the one! You murdered them!!

  HEY, I DUG A HOLE. IS IT MY FAULT THAT YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS FELL IN IT? I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU SAVAGES, BUT IF I SAW A GIANT, GAPING, MAN-EATING CANYON COMIN’ FOR ME, I’D HAVE RUN A LITTLE FASTER. I KNOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT NATURAL SELECTION IS, BUT TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT YOU KNUCKLEHEADS PROVE THAT IT WORKS.

  Ejelano’s anger still hammered at him, compounded by the fact that he was completely at the mercy of this...thing.

  AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT.

  I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll find a way!

  The voice rang in his head like a mother placating a child.

  SURE YOU WILL, SWEETIE. NOW SACK UP AND PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER. I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU TO PROVE THAT I’M NOT HEARTLESS. HEE HEE! GET IT? IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE ONE ANYMORE.

  Ejelano fumed.

  WHAT? TOO SOON? I SWEAR I’M GOING TO MAKE YOU LAUGH AT ONE OF THESE JOKES.

  Shut your mouth.

  I PROBABLY COULDN’T EVEN IF I HAD ONE. NOW, ARE YOU DONE WITH THE “RIGHTEOUS ANGER” ROUTINE? I SAID I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU; TRUST ME, YOU WANT TO SEE THIS. FAIR WARNING...IT MAY TICKLE A LITTLE.

  In the darkness of Ejelano’s mind, unbidden, there was a faint glow. It pulsed with an ethereal quality, slowly increasing in brightness until it just about blinded him. Or, his mind. Or, whatever sense he was using to perceive it. It was painful to behold, directly.

  It was also oddly...familiar.

  Not the physical presence, exactly. It was difficult for Ejelano to understand, but something about this object was as recognizable to him as he was to himself. Something on a subconscious level told him that he knew this thing very well, told him to reach out and touch it with his own emotion. And by some reason, he found he knew how. He extended a part of himself that he did not quite understand, and instinctively made contact.

  Immediately he saw dark hair blowing in the breeze. Eyes full of laughter.

  His mind reeled in wonder.

  Lena...?

  HMM. YOU GOT THAT FASTER THAN I THOUGHT YOU WOULD, WITH YOUR LIMITED BRAIN AND ALL.

  I feel her! What is this? What are you showing me?

  NOPE, STILL STUPID.

  I’LL GIVE YOU A HINT. THAT, VERMIN, IS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT. THAT GLOWY, SPARKLY BALL IS A CONTAINER FOR THE SUM TOTAL OF WHAT YOU HUMAN INSECTS REPRESENT. YOUR THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, WILL...HELL, THE FUCKING ENTIRETY OF WHAT YOU ARE ALL WRAPPED IN A NICE AND NEAT LITTLE PACKAGE. YOU’VE ALL GOT ONE. IT INHABITS YOUR MEATBAG BODIES AND ULTIMATELY GIVES YOU WHAT YOU ALL AFFECTIONATELY REFER TO AS “LIFE”. IT’S THE REAL ESSENCE OF WHAT MAKES YOU, YOU...NOT THE SUPERFICIAL BODIES THAT YOU CLUMSILY LOPE AROUND IN. ARE YOU GETTING ANY OF THIS? IS IT PENETRATING THAT GOOEY MESS IN YOUR HEAD?

  Ejelano felt a glimmer of understanding. Awe came with it.

  THAT, MY DEAR VERMIN, IS A HUMAN SOUL.

  Ejelano had been taught, long ago, how his people had been created by the life-giving spirit of the forest, and how it had created and breathed life into the first ones from whom they were all descended. He knew that his soul had rocked gently in the boughs of the forest until it was his time to come down, and that on that day he was born into the world and given a body. It was one thing to believe these things; it was completely another to look past the veil and perceive them first hand. His mind was almost overcome by the sheer presence of it.

  The voice, however, sounded bored.

  YEAH, YEAH, I KNOW, IT’S ALL VERY IMPRESSIVE.

  But....

  YUP, YOU’VE GUESSED CORRECTLY. THIS PARTICULAR SOUL SHOULD BE VERY, VEEERRRRY SPECIAL TO YOU. YOU CAN FEEL HER, SMELL HER, ALMOST TASTE HER, CAN’T YOU? THE BOND YOU’VE FORGED WITH THIS ONE IS, WITHOUT A DOUBT, ONE OF THE STRONGEST I’VE EVER SEEN. AND THAT, MY BOY, IS WHY THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH DAMNED FUN.

  CHECK THIS OUT.

  A tremendous tendril of heat bloomed out of the void and struck Lena’s essence, enclosing it in a ball of flame. Images began to sprout in his head, unbidden...terrible.

  He saw Lena on a hilltop, screaming and chained to a gargantuan, ancient tree that had been set aflame so that all its upper leaves and branches were engulfed in the inferno. Behind the tree, a bloody sunset had cast the ugly landscape in an unholy, orange hue. The fires were creeping down the mighty trunk and licking at Lena’s hair, until it too suddenly caught the blaze and drew the flames down around her body in a fiery embrace. Her skin blistered and cracked, and her shrieks were interrupted as she choked on the smoke of her own funeral pyre.

  HOT DOG, THAT LOOKS ICKY!

  No! No, stop, I beg you! Release her!

  I COULD, IF I WANTED TO. THE THING IS, VERMIN, THAT I DON’T REALLY FEEL INCLINED TO SAVE THAT GIRL’S SOUL. YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO CHANGE MY MIND, THOUGH. OF COURSE, BY NOW I’M SURE YOU KNOW THAT I’M NOT THE TYPE THAT JUST HANDS OUT FAVORS WILLY-NILLY. I’VE GOT TO EAT, Y’KNOW? I’M SURE YOU UNDERSTAND.

  Anything! I’ll do anything you want, just please set her free!

  ANYTHING? REALLY? WOW, THIS IS GOING TO TAKE ME A WHILE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING—OH, YOU KNOW WHAT? SOMETHING J
UST CAME TO ME. HERE, I’LL EXTINGUISH YOUR LADY FRIEND FOR A BIT SO I CAN HAVE YOUR FULL ATTENTION.

  All at once, the flames were snuffed out, and Lena was suddenly whole again; her skin, ravaged by the fire a moment ago, miraculously healed. Her head drooped forward. He wanted to call out to her and tell her he was there, but he had the distinct impression that she wasn’t aware of his presence, like he was a ghost, observing her from another plane. Still, his relief that she no longer felt the torment of the blaze knew no bounds.

  Thank you, oh, thank you!

  OH, I WOULDN’T THANK ME, IF I WERE YOU. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF RELEASING HER QUITE YET. YOU SEE, VERMIN, RIGHT NOW HER SOUL IS LIKE A ROBIN, TRYING TO TAKE OFF INTO THE BLUE SKIES OF HER AFTERLIFE, WHERE IT’S ALL HAPPY AND UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS AND ALL THAT SHIT. I, HOWEVER, HAVE TIED HER TO A STAKE IN THE GROUND, SO SHE’S GOING PRECISELY NOWHERE, NO MATTER HOW HARD SHE FLAPS THOSE DAINTY LITTLE WINGS OF HERS. YES, I CAN DO THAT.

  Why? Why would you do such a thing?

  IT’S POSSIBLE I HAVE SOME UNRESOLVED ISSUES FROM MY CHILDHOOD. BUT, WE’LL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO DISCUSS THAT LATER. RIGHT NOW, LET’S GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.

  The voice in his head took on a menacing tone.

  YOU SEE, VERMIN, YOU’VE BEEN A VERY BAD BOY. YOU DID A BIG NO-NO. SHALEER MAY HAVE BEEN A PRICK, BUT YOU WERE THE ONE THAT INTRODUCED HIM TO THE BUSINESS END OF THAT HUNTING KNIFE. AND THEN, TO PUT A BIG OLD CHERRY ON TOP, YOU LOST YOUR MIND AND KILLED YOUR WOMAN, TOO! FROM WHERE I’M STANDING, I CAN TELL YOU THAT THEY FROWN ON THAT STUFF PRETTY SEVERELY IN THAT “BEYOND” OF YOURS. WE JUST CAN’T HAVE FOLKS STABBING OTHER FOLKS WHENEVER THEY WANT, NOW CAN WE?

  The voice paused for a moment.

  WELL, ACTUALLY, IF IT WERE UP TO ME, I’D THINK THAT WOULD BE PRETTY HILARIOUS, BUT SADLY, IT’S NOT UP TO ME. UNFORTUNATELY.

  I PERSONALLY CAN APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT YOU’RE A PSYCHO, BUT I’M BOUND BY HIGHER POWERS TO TEACH YOU A LESSON. SO, HERE’S THE DEAL: YOU KILLED. YOU COMMITTED THE BIG M-U-R-D-E-R. BECAUSE OF THIS, IN A DAD-CAUGHT-ME-SMOKING-AND-FORCED-ME-TO-SMOKE-THE-WHOLE-CARTON KIND OF FASHION, YOU GET TO KEEP DOING IT, OVER AND OVER AND OVER. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE BORN IN THE NEXT TWENTY-THOUSAND YEARS? MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS. BILLIONS, EVEN. I KNOW, I’VE SEEN THEM, LIKE A BUNCH OF BUGS RUNNIN’ AROUND EVERYWHERE. AND YOU, VERMIN, GET TO SQUASH EVERY FUCKING LAST ONE OF ’EM.