by David Beers
Veritros didn’t answer her.
An orb erupted from beneath the water, directly under the bulge. Black and piercing, glowing; it illuminated everything around it, shining through the tossing and turning water without difficulty.
Rebecca took another step back.
For seconds, the shining black orb didn’t expand nor shrink. It merely sat beneath the water, the size of a cantaloupe.
Then it started growing slowly, but without pause.
Rebecca stood, watching, unable to pull her eyes away.
The black orb didn’t simply replace the space it took over, it consumed it. Without a mouth or any orifice at all, Rebecca saw it eating.
Everything around flowed into it, being ripped apart—the fabric of its existence shredding—and then absorbed.
Rebecca’s mouth opened as the horror of what was happening took hold. She wanted to scream, to let out some sound that could possibly describe the terror she saw.
It’s going to fucking eat us!
No sound came out, though.
The orb grew, blackness taking in more and more of the river, the water now being dragged into it. Rebecca watched as one side of the river reversed direction, even as the other side picked up speed. All of it being pulled to a single destination.
And that’s when Rebecca first felt the tug on herself.
She looked down and saw her hand raised, her fingers outstretched right toward the black orb. Her shirt fluttered in the air, though no wind existed. Wanting to go to the orb.
Rebecca turned to run, her feet slamming against the dirt beneath her.
She made it only 10 seconds or so before her clothing simply ripped off of her body, flying back toward the river. Rebecca struggled forward, still trying to put one foot in front of the other, yet her body was no longer moving. It was if some giant wind was forcing her backward, yet she felt nothing against her skin.
She turned her head to the left, wanting to see the black orb, but when she did, her flesh froze. There was no river, no bank. The structures that had been there were no more, and in their place? Nothing. Simple blackness that seemed to glow, beckoning her to come. To join. To let it feed.
Rebecca saw the truth. It was nothing. The world was being replaced with nothing, no space, no time—only consumption.
She tried to turn her face back in front of her, to continue running, but it wouldn’t move. She looked down, at her arm, and saw her skin rippling toward the blackness. Being pulled to it.
A tree rushed by Rebecca, nearly hitting her and killing her instantly. Its roots hung in the air, dirt trying to fall with gravity, but unable because of the strength of the orb’s pull. As the tree flew closer, it started ripping apart; first in giant chunks with splinters fraying everywhere, and then those pieces began to thin. Looking surreally like liquid, though retaining the same color of the tree.
Rebecca didn’t understand even as she watched the blackness eat the tree, a million pieces of watery green and brown.
NO, she thought.
And then she—along with everything around her—was sucked into it.
The pain was instant and tremendous … and then over.
There was no rest, though, not even a moment’s. Dead, but not gone, Rebecca had a view from above Earth. Far, far above, as though she was a satellite outside the atmosphere. She could see the illuminated black orb, appearing as if it might be in the center of the world. Consuming. Eating. Flesh, bone, steel, lava—all of it the same to that light.
And then the world was no more. Only the black nothingness; the only reason Rebecca could see it was because of the stars. They were now being pulled to it, long white streaks moving across the sky. All of it heading—space itself—being pulled to that blackness. Feeding insatiably.
And from a distance, Rebecca watched it all go. Every single bit. The entire universe was fed into that black substance, until there was no more universe. There was no more time. There was nothing.
She couldn’t fully understand it even as she looked on. How there could be nothing—not time, not space, not matter—but it was gone.
The Unformed had taken every single bit of it. David had described it to her before, saying it was like a white planet, but that’s not what she saw. She saw a universe that had once been, and now nothing existed in its stead. Not the Unformed. Not even time.
That, Veritros had told her, is what is coming. That is what your brother is bringing.
Rebecca didn’t know if she could explain it without showing it, but she tried. Humans may not be good at much, but if nothing else, they are exceptional at trying.
Raylyn leaned back in her chair, their transport flying through the air. Rebecca had finished speaking moments before and Raylyn stared up at the ceiling, seeing the universe as Rebecca had described it.
Her hands had stopped shaking, her eyes dried. She wasn’t calm, per se, simply lost in what had been described.
“It’s not coming to conquer us?” she asked.
Rebecca chuckled. “No. Humanity thinks so highly of itself that it believes a god might actually care. If one exists, it doesn’t care. The Unformed certainly doesn’t. It’s simply going to finish this whole experiment.”
“I just always thought we’d end up in chains, the weapon floating above us all, telling us to march harder, faster, building things like pyramids.”
“Only humans can think up something as pointless as a pyramid,” Rebecca said, sounding humored by the whole thing.
“So, what? We’re going to show up at the Nile River and fight him? And if we lose, then that comes true?”
Silence followed her question, stretching so long that Raylyn finally sat up and turned around. Rebecca was staring at Nicki, her eyes still gazing forward without any intelligence in them. Every once in a while, she blinked, but that was it. Everything was on autopilot.
“Yes,” Rebecca finally said. “If we lose, that’s it.”
Raylyn looked away, out the window, understanding coming to her. It’d been hours since she connected to the True Faith, her nanotech feeding her as much information as she could take in. Large scale revolts grew like weeds across the globe, whole cities falling again. Any order that the True Faith had reestablished was gone, mutiny ruling.
“No one’s coming,” she said.
Rebecca looked over to her. “What?”
“The black … Its moves were perfect. No one is going to the Nile River. Only us. Us three. The Ministries are burning, Rebecca. At least within the True Faith, all resources are being used to stop the rebellion. No one is coming to stop him.”
Rebecca turned, facing Raylyn’s chair completely. “No one is sending anything to the Nile?”
“No. I don’t have the clearance to see everything, but there seems to be a lot of confusion up top with the Priests.”
Rebecca’s eyes dropped to the floor, and she shook her head. “I’m not sure it would matter if they showed up. It didn’t with Veritros.”
“What do you mean?”
“They don’t tell you anything about her, do they?”
Raylyn was quiet for a second, thinking about how to best answer. The immediate answer that bubbled to the top of her mind had been a recitation of True Faith doctrine. With an effort, she stifled it, and went a bit deeper. “Basically, they tell us she’s a killer, and that Corinth stopped her. There … There isn’t much talk about the Black, about her either.”
“They make you fear It, and then they keep you from talking about It. If you fear It, you won’t join It when It comes. If you don’t talk about It, then you won’t worry about It.” Rebecca kept looking at the ground. “In Veritros’s time, the Ministries went to the Nile, and they launched everything they possibly could at her. It was a battle maybe unlike any to come before it, and in the end, they couldn’t harm a hair on her head.”
“Is your brother as strong as her?”
“He’s stronger.”
Raylyn saw a flash of Lynda’s hand being sliced f
rom her body. She shut her eyes hard, trying to block it out. She regained some control after a moment and reopened them, looking toward Nicki.
“You think she can stop him? For real?”
“I don’t know.” Rebecca looked at the nearly comatose girl. “But there’s no one else.”
Nicki hadn’t gone anywhere this time. There was no black universe, nor any neon one. She had simply stopped listening. It wasn’t an active choice, but rather a passive one that slowly came over her as Rebecca spoke. She just … slipped away; she could still hear the words being spoken—only she paid them no attention.
Perhaps her mind was finally breaking, or maybe she had checked out of this life, but either way, the result was the same. Nicki had entered a state of nearly unbeing. She was alive, capable of movement, but she wasn’t taking any action in the world any longer.
All of these people wanted something from her; Nicki had thought she might be able to find a bit of peace in that neon world, if for nothing else than everyone being alone. Yet, she’d been refused residence, pushed back out into the world.
And even once returned, in a building that should have been empty—if not completely destroyed—people found her. People that wanted something. And these?
They had wanted the most hilarious thing Nicki could imagine. Nicki had hardly understood what any of the others wanted, but it hadn’t really been action out of her. The thin man, the crazy one, he had wanted to kill her. Or maybe possess her. Nicki didn’t know which. The kidnappers had wanted to take her somewhere, and the fat man who wore robes had wanted to force her in front of the Black.
All of these people wanted to do something with her, but they hadn’t wanted her to do anything.
These two women were different. They wanted Nicki to act, and what they wanted her to do … Well Nicki would have laughed at it if she wasn’t so damned defeated.
Kill the weapon.
That was when she slowly slipped into this unbeing, because what was the point in being? She wasn’t fighting the weapon, not with all the gray static in the universe.
Nicki’s father was gone, and she’d killed him.
So why not just stop being, just unbe.
Because whatever is happening on Earth, whatever is happening with the Black, none of it really matters in the end. Even the Black is going to wind up facing the creature that put me and you here.
The words spoken by the woman from that black world floated through Nicki’s mind. Laurel. As if reminding her of something that she was trying to forget. She forced them way, not wanting to think on them.
When Nicki finally understood her father was gone, her will to keep going died as well. Her will to survive. She didn’t even consider what her return might be doing to others, still not seeing what everyone else did about her. All of these people chasing her, hounding her, wanting her for something … the reason behind it all was lost on Nicki.
Yet in at least two other people’s minds, Nicki had taken an ungodly sized presence in them. One wanted to kill her, the other to contact.
The second one finally did.
Your father is with me. He wants you to know he’s okay.
The words were distant, somewhere deep inside Nicki’s mind, and not something she really wanted to hear. It could have simply been lost in the other voices—those from outside, as well as the memories that floated through from time to time.
Except for the mention of her father.
That piqued Nicki’s interest, and slowly, what consciousness still existed made its way to the words.
Your father is with me. He wants you to know he’s okay.
Nicki lightly touched the words with no more than a feather’s weight. Understanding came very clear then, of who had sent the message … yet, that wasn’t correct. Not only understanding of whom, but understanding of everything about them.
It was the thin, crazy man that had shown up at her house, a gun in his car and ready to strangle her.
Fear like an uncoiling snake ripped through Nicki’s consciousness, bringing her just a bit further out of her unbeing. Those sitting next to her in the transport saw her face twitch.
The thin man wasn’t lying, though—Nicki understood that as well, immediately. Her father was with him. More came to Nicki as she remained with the words, more about the man himself. His wants, his wishes, his fears, his hates. All of it flowing through her like water through a sieve. She resisted at first, tightening and not liking such knowledge. It seemed impolite, knowing so much about a person, but as the seconds passed, she relaxed some.
Finally Nicki saw where the man was, the very room he sat in.
I can see through his eyes, she thought—her first actual thought in hours. And she could. The man was staring straight ahead across some huge room.
That’s him! her mind shouted, almost against her will. That’s Dad!
Please, the man said. You’re hurting me.
His voice was a plea, and Nicki realized …
He’s near death, she thought. I can kill him right now. I can snap him out of existence.
She didn’t release him, but held firm, toying with the idea. Because he had come for her, hadn’t he? He had been ready to kill her without hesitation. And the other people in that room, those besides her father? Nicki couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw the Pope too. Another person that had wanted to grab her, take her, use her.
Why shouldn’t she kill this man? She hadn’t been able to kill anyone else that tried to harm her, so why couldn’t this one hold the place for all of them?
Nicki teetered on a dangerous precipice, one she couldn’t see.
Rachel Veritros thought she was seeing it, though—perhaps for the first time.
She’d watched Nicki descend into a deep place inside herself. Veritros could hear Nicki’s thoughts, and although she’d tried shouting at the girl, tried to break through whatever barriers she’d erected—she’d been kept out, though this time by Nicki.
The girl simply wanted nothing to do with anything at all.
A thought occurred to Veritros, and when it did, she stopped her struggle.
What if this is beyond you? What if you never even had a choice? What if everything that’s happening right now has been ordained long before?
Now Veritros listened to Nicki’s thoughts, those of murder. Veritros did not have a clear view of everyone involved in this, but the ones she could see all had blood on their hands. No one was innocent, least of all Veritros.
And yet this young lady had been tossed around on a ship that sat in the middle of a hurricane, thrown from end to end, and she still had no dirt on her. She was as pure as one could be in such an awful, awful world.
Murder had never mattered to Veritros. The first—lifting that man high above the trees until he suffocated—had been the same as the last. They had always just been a means to an end. This girl, though, had never seriously considered such things before. Her hands were clean, and Veritros thought …
It’s not possible.
It’s simply not.
Yet, she had seen the woman inside the black glass house, and had that not been the Prophet’s mother, long dead? Stepping out from some world that Rachel didn’t understand and having a conversation with this girl? And what had she actually said? Rachel didn’t know for sure, but when Nicki returned to Earth, the devastation Rachel expected hadn’t returned with her. She thought surely the woman would tell her of the Ministries’ evils, and the need to destroy them all—thus wiping out any last hope of stopping the Black.
Yet, it hadn’t happened.
It’s not possible, her mind repeated.
Yet, Rachel Veritros thought she might be seeing clearly for the first time.
Because she herself had been given free rein to come and go to those that touched the Unformed. She had been able to hide, speaking when necessary and remaining quiet when prudent. Only now, as the end raced forward, was she kept away.
Listening to Nicki contemplate mur
der, Rachel prayed. Not to the Unformed, and maybe not even to a god, but she asked all the same.
Let her make the right choice. Please.
Jackson Carriage recognized that he couldn’t speak. The girl’s hold on his mind was too tight, his vocal chords nearly severed. And yet, if he didn’t do something, and quickly, she was going to kill him. It felt like a vice grip on his brain, large metal blocks pushing on either side, ready to squeeze him to death.
Unable to speak loud enough to be heard, Jackson stood up. His body was rigid and his eyes stared straight forward; he dared not look left or right, thinking to lose focus now would end him.
He took only one step, like a broken robot.
Daniel stood then, though he didn’t move. He only looked at Jackson.
He couldn’t step any further. She was gripping his mind, not letting it go, nor squelching it. She was waiting, seeing everything he saw—probably with clearer vision.
Daniel came then at a half jog. Jackson remained still until the man was on him.
“What’s happening?” Daniel said, his voice a harsh whisper.
A thin thing, words barely escaping Jackson’s lips. “Make her stop.” Leaves skimming over pavement, barely audible, but it was all he could do.
That and hope Daniel understood.
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“Make … her … stop.”
That was it, there were no more words. There was little time left. All she had to do was simply keep holding on, and Jackson would die. She was too strong, her presence too great. She was a goddess and he less than bacterium.
Daniel’s face furrowed, his eyes narrowing as he peered into Jackson’s.
“Nicki?” he asked.
Jackson could say nothing, could hardly think any longer.
“Nicki,” Daniel said. “Are you there? Are you in there?”
There was no answer. There couldn’t be, because Jackson couldn’t possibly do anything else.
“Nicki, it’s Dad. If you can hear me, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I love you, honey.”
Stop … her. Jackson thought the words, slowly, but he couldn’t say them. He cared nothing about these two, not anymore. He only wanted the pain to end, and if possible, to live.
