Sodom’s 10
1-A Song for the End-
By K.R.Columbus
Copyright 2009 K.R.Columbus
Smashwords Edition
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Antiquarian Age Books
By K.R.Columbus
(Dates and titles can change at any time)
-We Shall be as Gods Series-
1st Testament - Vestigial Dream
2nd Testament - The Weaver and the Herder
3rd Testament - Shadows of Me
4th Testament - Children of Exile
5th Testament – Beyond Destiny (January 2012)
-Sodom’s X Duology-
A Song for the End
The World Ends for You (November 2011)
-Hyper Speed Inertia Series-
Battle-Submarine Yamato
-MAGNA MAQUINA Series-
The Mall
The Greatest Machine of All
-YAKUZA RONDO Series-
KUMAGORO
Hall of the Mountain King
-Young Adult’s Books-
-The Treasures of Shamarkand Series-
Wanderers to Shamarkand
Daughter of the Gods
Carnival of Shadows
The Mechanical Labyrinth (December 2011)
-Totemic Haven Series-
Totemic Haven
WildChild (October 2011)
Sodom’s 10
-A Song for the End-
By K.R.Columbus
I speak to your shame. Know you not that we shall judge angels? That saints shall judge this world? – THE BIBLE
Chapter One
-Jonna the Ending-
There is something that hangs in the remnants of our existence, a dangling feeling that overcomes us when we love and care for someone. One could say such a feeling was present when Jonna was born; yes he was loved, but the events that followed his birth marked forever his life and the ones that loved him.
“What name will you give him?” The nurse asked.
“Jonna; like his uncle. He died in the war you know.”
“It is a fine, strong name.” The nurse reassured the proud mother while offering the baby to her.
Jonna was born at midday. A plump little baby with enough energy in his body to take on the world thought the mother as the baby was placed on her weary arms. For a moment she felt the weight of the newborn.
“Let me see him, uncover the windows so I may see him clearly.” She said in a single strand of flanging voice.
With the sound of her voice the baby began to laugh, such a beautifully happy laughter that the nurse twirled her torso back towards the baby as her hand caught the silken edge of the curtain.
“Such a pleasant laughter, he will be fun to have around on a tight spot. Making everyone happy with that smile of his, I…”
Before finishing what was on her mind the nurse pulled the curtains. Even before the light touched the baby something terrible happened. As the first strand of light pierced the room the baby began to cry, to howl with such pain that the mother could not hold him, it was almost as if the baby’s skin was hot as flame; for in that moment she could not touch him. The baby rolled down the bed sheets and fell to the floor with a slight thud that unleashed terrible screams coming from the nurse and the mother. In a normal situation the screams would have come because of the accident, because the baby fell, but it wasn’t so. The screams and gasps that escaped their lips came to be there for another reason; for as the baby’s back was touched by the midday’s light it began to ashen into a sort of tattoo…even before the mark was formed completely on his back the nurse had already crossed the sign of her God upon her body and was far from ready to face what she knew was coming.
“No! Nooooo!” The mother began to scream while hushing her pain with her fists, ending it in a wail of terrible despair. “Nooooooo! I’ll be damned to be given such a curse, why me of all mothers! Why me?!”
Her question was not aimed at God or anyone high above. In truth it wasn’t even a question; it was but a call of ultimate sorrow for herself. The one that dreams were broken in an instant.
It barely took a minute for that sign to be permanently placed upon the baby’s back, one mark on each naked shoulder, the marks of an Ending; two beautiful marks representing black wings and something else an eye inside a triangle.
Both women were petrified where they stood. They had heard about Endings being born in other worlds, they heard the stories of their purpose and what to expect but what to do now? The baby gave them no time to think of anything, because in that instant the infant’s grasp held about the very fabric of the unseen, and as if taking from what’s not there they saw a sort of tracing leave his minuscule hand. A vibration followed the strands. Jonna had tapped into the life energy of the world, for in that moment the slight tremor began to be mimicked by the whole world, by the Cemica buildings, by the very air and sky. It was as if every particle in everything was beginning to get awfully unstable.
Cemica is a very resistant alloy that is used for building almost everything. It feels to the touch close to a marriage of ceramic and mellow plastic. Cemica amplifies light and if needed keeps heat or cold inside a building; all depending on the specifications placed upon the material before being used for construction. For a Cemica building to react to an earthquake is unheard of, after all it is the most stable material ever built by the hand of man, but to say that it did react in that moment was an understatement of outstanding proportions.
The buildings swayed and trembled so terribly that the paralyzed women didn’t know if that truly was the end. What to do? What could be done? I must save my life, I must. These questions ran over the nurse’s mind as the mother lost her gaze upon the unsteady city beyond and her mind followed, it was almost as if her mind had gone away from her. She looked peaceful, yes, but it was a scary unsettling peace. An answer came to her question like a bullet hitting her on the back of her head.
Standing like a tree that’s about to fall the mother pulled the curtains with all her might in a single swing that almost drove her to the floor, hanging chains flew everywhere. Just when the worse was beginning to dawn upon them she placed the curtain over the baby’s naked body. It seemed like that curtain fell forever before touching the baby.
A great sigh was heard, it wasn’t the nurse that was sighing, or the mother; it was the world itself.
Just as the world was calmed the nurse began to sob gently just as from the other room the sounds of screaming and crying followed, something like this had never happened on Earth’s history, earthquakes yes, but the feeling of emptiness and despair that followed after was too great; something that couldn’t be cleansed. Like a blood stain.
As the people of Earth cried in despair for the deadline that had been placed upon them, a single person was full of joy of being alive, and gently, but full of energy began to laugh and smile with such joy and happiness that it was frightening.
As the curtain was placed upon him the whole world was separated from him, he no longer belonged to them, more than they belonged to him for their fate was marked by his arrival. Under that curtain he was unaware of the future that had been placed over his shoulders, something greater than him, something that separated him from the world like a lingering veil. Under that curtain the baby laughed for he believed it all to be but a game, something that when uncovered it would end and an array of kisses would follow. Smile on Jonna, smile for the days that will follow, for the years that will crawl into your existence.
The days did follow and the years did crawl. That day under the curtain was the first and last time Jonna saw the light of day, and his mother.
The government took care of Jonna; they supplied him a place to stay, food, an education with the best teachers, but no more. What about love you might think. Yes, what about love? Let me tell you a little secret, no matter how lonely a person is the world always finds a way to give that person a healthy amount of love. Sometimes things go wrong and some don’t get enough, but it is still there, the primordial feeling, under layers and layers of self protection. It is there.
The person that was in charge of taking care of Jonna was a young man named Icarus Valentin; he was barely twenty when he took on the job and now he was almost thirty six. Icarus was chosen for the job because he was a nurse specialized in taking care of children, and secondly because his mother ran Enkidu; the program that protects Jonna. Apart from the fact that it was her son, Elizabeth Valentin knew another little fact about Icarus that gained him the job; he is kind and has an unnatural way of behaving with people. What better person to do the job?
To face the truth she had her doubts on the first few years, but as Jonna kept growing older she saw that she made the right choice. Even if she regrets it in part.
“Son, don’t get too close to him, you are bound to get hurt Icarus. You know what lies in that boy’s future.”
Her voice was only heard by the wind, and she was happy for that, now after sixteen years Earth is still safe, Jonna is safe, but for how long?
Nobody saw them coming, no planetary security system saw their ship enter Earth’s atmosphere, and no one saw their approach. During the night a single ship infiltrated Earth and landed exactly on top of the secret building that Jonna was being held. For the few that saw the ship it looked like a temple, for every wall of the outer hull of the ship looked as if chiseled out of stone; such intricate designs, and all the lines flaring with blue and purple saturated lights.
It was already too late when Elizabeth Valentin and her crew noticed what was happening, she sent out troops to guard the door leading underground, but it was too late.
They came as if trained by shadows and nestled by serpents.
“Stop right there, this is a government building.” One of the guards shouted with a readied weapon on hand.
In half a second the guards she sent were gasping in pain under the opening slide door leading to the bowels of Enkidu’s underground building where Jonna was being held.
Seeing no other way around this she opened the doors to the tunnel leading down and she met them half way, after all she had been waiting for them for the last sixteen years. Even before she said a word one of the two visitors spoke.
“You cannot hold him forever; there is a price to be paid for such…things.”
“We know what we are doing, we haven’t been hiding him. We have been protecting him from what lies outside.”
“Really?” The figure hissed. “Why don’t you let him be the judge of that? You know what his fate holds, and we are the ones to see that he fulfils his true calling, his destiny. That is our purpose, our meaning.”
“The Society of Endings.” She mused as if savoring the words.
“Yes…” The figure hissed.
She couldn’t see them clearly from her standing point, but she knew that they were dressed in white suits covering every part of their bodies and on their heads some sort of Cemica helmet with the design of a red eye inside an inverted red triangle and a long beak where the mouth area is supposed to be. Elizabeth wasn’t even sure that they were human, something was awfully wrong about them, they gave the feeling of being crowded, as if in each body there were legions of beings…the feeling was overpowering to a mere human being. To meet one feels like meeting a wild creature, something untamed. Yet, Elizabeth knew they were human, after all there are no other beings infected with the Eden strain.
“You are taking him now? No preamble or preparations?”
“That is the purpose of our visit, yes.”
“I have orders to keep him here, safe, but as I see there is no stopping you. Is there?”
“The thing you want to keep safe is not him or her…”
“It is a young man.” She added with a frown.
“The point is that what your people are protecting it’s not him.”
“That’s just obvious and somehow lacking in a conversation as disrespectful as this one. We haven’t even introduced ourselves.” She murmured while looking at the figure before her, daring, but very scared.
“No need for names, this will be the last time we’ll see each other. We are taking him tonight.”
“He doesn’t know.” She said terrified but firm.
“He doesn’t? And on what grounds are you holding him here, what foul lies have you told him?”
“He knows little…we just told him that the world outside is not for him.”
“Cruel and despicable, no wonder he was born to this world.”
“Not everyone is…” She added, feeling the presence of the being overpowering her.
“No. After all he wasn’t cast with the lot.”
“Can we on the least, let him know tonight? My son can tell him. They love each other.”
“Love…that at least is something your world may have in your favor, but that doesn’t spare you from the fulcrum. Do tell him; tell him as gentle as possible...we leave at midnight.”
She didn’t have time to say more, as the figure said midnight their white figures were gone in a flutter of white; like the waving of a stained shirt.
Jonna grew up to be heavyset, extremely pale, but strong. His dark hair makes him look even paler than he is.
That night when Jonna woke up to face his life he saw that it was different, something had changed. As he rubbed his hands against his eyes he saw two things that told him something was different, his room’s main door lay open, and that’s a door that’s never wide open. The other was Icarus, seated on a chair next to his bed, his eyes red and full of held tears. Jonna had seen the man cry before many times, but somehow this time was different, and the difference gathered in his chest like a materialized object and even before the other said a single word he saw what was wrong.
“Good morning Jonna.” Icarus said between gasps.
It was plain to see that Icarus was trying not to make his pain visible, but there was nothing to be done; it was filtering out of his pores like sweat just like there is no cup that can hold the sea.
“We have to talk…”
“Why are you crying?” Jonna asked.
“Someone is here to pick you up.”
“From outside? My mother?”
“No, it is an envoy from a school.”
“A school…I’m to go to a school outside? But how? I can’t touch day light.”
“It’s a special school, I don’t know much about it, but it is not on Earth.”
“Not on Earth…” His breath was held.
Those words echoed across his being, deep and true until he saw why Icarus was crying, he knew already, but still his heart was playing tricks on him, trying to make him see otherwise. Trying to blind him.
“You are coming with me right?” Jonna asked with futile veil.
“I can’t Jonna; they can only take people like you.”
“People like me?” A finger parted the sands.
The mere spaces that divided them got wider as he questioned those words, it was as if something big that had always been there in secret was all of the sudden revealed by the unstoppable push of the present. Yet, something inside Jonna could not gather and place together the array of information that was suddenly given to him. The years in hiding, the many questions without answers and the suddenness of it all was all about to be crumbled down by a few words, and he in his naked humanity could only fear as the seconds lingered between the question and the inevitable answer that followed.
“Jonna, I have never lied to you, I once told you that you were special; someone different from the rest.”
“Yes, but I don’t understand. You are special too.” Jonna said as he came closer and place and arm on the man’s hairy face.
“Jonna when you were born you came into this world with a special gift; you were born linked to our planet. We don’t know how, or why, but it happened before in other worlds. Let it be a touch from the sun and you would die; you are so sensitive to our orbiting sun that it can easily kill you and in the progress destroy Earth and everyone in it.”
“So that is why my mother left me here.”
Alongside the meaning of these words Icarus could see a stream of memories without foundation, a reel of vanishing stock footage made up by Jonna’s mind; an old movie depicting the unseen and untold story about his mother. In the past they had spoken about his mother and father, but after all was said and done they were but shadows in a fake story full of gaps and ill written turn of events.
That film began to melt away, to fade away slowly against a backset of diffused color and light, and gently, but truly it was being replaced with the cold dark feeling of truth.
“Jonna, I know little about your mother, and what I was told by my mother I told you. You know that.”
“I, I know.” Jonna staggered as he took a step back and sat back on his bed.
“I don’t have all the answers, but I know they might know more about you than we do.”
“So there will be people like me. How are we called?” Jonna asked, almost scared of the answer.
“Endings.”
“And when do we…I leave.”
“Tonight…”
Icarus was already gone from the room when Jonna began to pack his belongings, it was easy to pack; he had little, after all, all he had belonged to the government in one way or another. With his eyes slightly swollen and with a tight mouthed expression he took his underwear and folded it as well as he could in a backpack. The whole process took him about ten minutes, ten long minutes of hard breathing and carrying disposition.
“It’s time to leave to the main office; there you will wait with Elizabeth and son.” It was almost sacrilegious to the soldier to mention his superior without the use of ranks, but that’s the only way Jonna could understand it for he knew nothing of ranks.
As two very stern soldiers came to take him away he suddenly found himself before the door he had never seen fully opened, he had seen that door open up for Icarus, he had seen that door as the boundaries of his kingdom and now he was in the threshold of what lay beyond, and it was terrifying to him. It was as if the walls were breathing and slowly trying to swallow his inner self.
Dressed in a long sleeved temperature regulated jacket of crimson color and cream colored cargo pants Jonna placed both of his hands against his face and breathed heavily. Suddenly feeling small and vulnerable Jonna folded his arms around his chest as they began to walk towards the door, one soldier on the left and one on the right. Halfway across the room he stopped as the soldiers followed, they didn’t notice that he had stopped. Only when they were at the door did they noticed, and with distant stares they looked back at him.
Breathing in a bouquet of cold air he saw his breath falter, and as if disconnected his limbs began to get cold and weary. Rubbing his arms he walked forward like a prisoner that’s near his end, holding on to the few memories that slowly were becoming all that there was to hold on to.
He had always been fond of long necked jackets a size or two over his own, the amplitude made him feel comfortable and free, but tonight it brought him little comfort.
“Don’t wander off, just follow.” One of the soldiers said as he saw Jonna peek at the two way corridor.
The corridor was long, made of cream colored Cemica with streams of bluish light along the corners of the walls. The corridor felt desolate and empty; like a hospital without its patients.
After a while the Soldiers decided to walk behind Jonna, they could not allow him to wander, so as the new position was taken he began to walk and if anyone were to see that walk they would have said that he was not walking, he was actually stumbling his way step by step towards his destination. Even if those two soldiers couldn’t see it, or more importantly feel it, for Jonna, that walk was like being purged out of the womb of his mother, strand after strand; like the peeling of a fruit, or the opening of a flower, growing colder and colder as he progressed forward.
The surroundings didn’t change much as they arrived at a door that slowly parted as Jonna stood before it. Inside he could see Elizabeth reading some optic papers while her son moved his gaze to look at Jonna, the stare was cold and in Jonna’s current state it was disastrous.
“Go on in” One of the soldiers said before they left.
His eyes were caught by those soldiers he had never seen, yet by the use of logic he knew that they had always worked here; that thought made his gaze grow colder and slightly distant. But he knew he couldn’t hold a grudge against them, he had seen soldiers on the particle accelerated visual displays in his clothes; they were part of a whole, like what an arm is to a body. He knew that they had to do their job as the body commands; that’s what they chose, and that’s what they are. Tools.
“Come in Jonna…” Elizabeth said.
“Lady Elizabeth, I’m ready.”
“Lady…how many times do I have to tell you that I stopped being a lady long ago?”
“It is just what I call you, and anyhow; it goes well with your name.”
“Does it? I see my son gave you ancient history. What did you thought of it?”
“Pointless at best…” Jonna looked to the left for a second as a strand of hair fell over his eyes.
“Why?”
“What’s the point of keeping history so close in mind, if the new generations don’t work to improve what will come to be an event in such?”
“It is part of human nature…we do remember, and we preach to remember, but it is all a farce, for it is rare if we actually learn from our mistakes. Like the woman that marries the same abusive type of man over and over again…we just can’t help it, maybe it is in our blood.” Her voice sounded distant.
“Mother…” Icarus pressed with his voice, making a point that only she would understand, maybe an undertone on the conversation, a hidden meaning on such mindless trail.
“Yes…yes, I’m sorry. Take a seat.” She offered.
What followed was nothing more than a very long and arduous goodbye, not for caring, or for anything worth mentioning; it was more of a logical thing to do. He spent most of the time playing River City Ransom and Valis 3 on his jacket display. Most of the time they couldn’t even tell he was playing, pressing the pressure sensitive buttons under his sleeves or giving slight commands with the movement of his eyes.
As Jonna talked to Elizabeth about the way the strangers looked, and what she expected them to do, all the time his eyes would trail off towards Icarus.
“The truth, there are many things we don’t know, and maybe no one knows about The Society of Endings, or their home world, but maybe things are better this way. Here in Enkidu you were as in a dream, trapped inside a long dream, without any hopes of waking up, at least now you are near a wake. When you leave Earth you will wake.”
“I’m afraid that I feel the dream is now, and what came before was the real, but who am I to say?” As Jonna said this Icarus looked at him momentarily but seconds after he kept reading a piece of optic paper he had read by then a few hundred times.
Chapter Two
-The Outside Inside-
The first thing Jonna thought about when he saw the spokesman for The Society of Endings was that he was rather deep into what’s coming. The truth, he didn’t had the slightest idea of what just happened that night, all that kept bugging him is the fact that what was before now was no longer, and he would have to deal with that. Things were changing.
The white figure bowed to Jonna as if in deep awe, at this the others in the room could only wonder; because Icarus looked at his mother with concerned eyes. From that point on they knew by heart the part they had to play in Jonna’s story was over, and that from there on The Society of Endings would take care of the situation. But will they hide from his path into obscurity? Whatever anyone thinks, Icarus and his mother will be in Jonna’s mind, and who knows, how much they will whisper to him when the darkness of the night leads into slumber, and the very walls seem to say, loneliness and whimper. Telling lullabies filled with nostalgia and blight.
“Jonna, are you ready?” The masked figure asked.
“No, but I will go with you.”
“Good, the boarding line is ready. We will leave as you see fit.”
He wasn’t fit for anything; he was but a mirage of himself walking on faltering dreams. But then it hit him like a brick, this, these set of events were the things that he have been waiting for his entire life, maybe not this exact way, but deep inside he had been wishing for something like this to happen. Icarus had given him love, unconditional, yet well paid love, and that was something that he will always cherish in his inmost heart, but now, now things had changed and the endless cold feeling in his limbs began to be replaced with a tingle, a feeling of something; an static feeling of an advent event.
Seeing that the time was now and that a parting would not be delayed any longer by his virginity of self Jonna placed his eyes upon Icarus and like he did before he parted that gaze towards the figure in white.
“We better go now, the night won’t wait for me, nor will the world.” Jonna said as his vision was blinded by a light flare.
Even if they didn’t noticed it that was the hardest thing Jonna had done in his entire life, the other he had done a few hours ago, but that one act lead to the other.
He felt slightly naked, but, as things came to be, he noticed that he had been naked since childbirth and that he barely found out that very night; like Eve and Adam upon the tree they noticed there was something wrong and unnatural about their new found nakedness. But who blames the blind for being blind?
Feeling the unseen presence of the legions behind him he wondered what hides inside those masks. Were they human? Did they even care what happened to humanity? It didn’t mattered, he was in their hands and he would learn what they had to teach, let it be a blessing or a curse.
Going out of that room was easy, like the passing of a dream, but as he got to the corridor and saw that Icarus didn’t follow he found that his chest was heavy and somehow disturbed. The two way corridor was subtle under his vision, like an off focus camera swaying one way to the other.
In no time he reached the end of the corridor and found himself in front of a circular entrance with a door that seemed to react to his presence, because as he stood in front of it the door, it opened and revealed a long circular passage. The passage closely resembled an umbilical cord made of optic fiber, connecting the building they were into the Society’s ship.
But why bother when they could have just escorted him out via the main entrance? Elizabeth knew why; assassination attempts. The thing with Endings is that they defy any religion and ancient belief; their very existence signals the end of many things the ancients believed in, but to the ones that had to face those facts face to face sometimes that wasn’t so easy. How far will you go to defend your beliefs? To some till the end is the only answer. Elizabeth had already monitored more than four thousand attempts to harm Jonna, all from Earth, all from people that weren’t supposed to know of Jonna’s existence as an Ending.
What most people know and yet fall into the same trap is that a secret is something horrible to keep, a secret eats at your brain and starts tearing holes into your life, until one peaceful morning without much logic they spurt out, and eventually hurt somebody. The nurse that saw Jonna’s birth was one of the ones that spurted all over the place, sometimes by her own free will and sometimes by the excess of spirits in her bloodstream. By no means I’m saying that she was evil, or ill intended, the thing was that as she saw Jonna being born she saw the end to many of her dreams, the maybe became a possibility so minimal that it became heavier than the secret and eventually she saw no reason in keeping it.
Everyone on Earth had an slight idea of what an Ending was and what they could do, but to be told and to hear is not the same as having to confront a problem, and so when those secret whispers got into the right ears and the wrong intends were born, a slow but sure bomb began to brew against Jonna and his secluded existence. Let it be the fanaticism that can follow a religion, or the slow and painful ticking of a life clock given a deadline, but the enemies appeared and they kept trying; all without Jonna ever knowing that his life was in danger.
Not that he didn’t suspected something, the secrecy and the secluded life he was given to live was sharp in comparison with the lives he had seen on the display, and so his mind made links between holes, bridges between gaps and as Icarus confessed the truth of his existence, he could but listen and take in the details that were lacking in his big picture of the whole. The way he reacted to it all was dramatic enough, but the truth was that it still didn’t sink in; the truth about what he will have to do as the future becomes now.
Before entering the landing line Jonna looked back at the white corridor with blue lights and then looked at the members of the society, they looked at him with muted awe, as if waiting for him to say something meaningful or full of pain. But he wasn’t ready to let such a treat on a stranger, not yet anyway, and so he stepped into the corridor and kept walking, feeling the ambiance of the tunnel and seeing the muted lights of the city beyond; like a colorful behind the cover of night.
Just when he was about to step into the ship he gasped deeply and then held a hand against the material of the umbilical boarding tunnel feeling the way it trembled slightly against the wind.
“How long will the journey take?” Jonna asked.
“It will be almost instantaneous, barely a few hours for the computers in the Temple-Ship to calculate our location accurately. If you want, you can sleep during the journey.”
“I doubt I’ll be able to sleep. Can we speak about, well, being an Ending?”
The figure hesitated a little and then kept walking into the ship, but then looked back.
“It will not be right for me to speak with you about that, that’s why the school was built, that’s its purpose. But if you want I can speak to you about the place where the school was built.”
“I would like that.”
His room on the society’s ship was small, barely the side of a broom closet, or a big closet. At first, when he arrived he was taken by the architecture used to build the Temple-Ship, unlike Earth’s metallic-ceramic ships, this ship looked to be chiseled out of some sort of black stone with red veins. In no way Jonna questioned its functionality, but still he wondered how it all worked and seeing the design of the ship only gave him a deep sense of wonder on how the school would look. With care he unzipped his jacket and unbuttoned his pants after taking his shoes off. He sat on the bed and rested his back against the wall as he looked at the ceiling; the room gave the same impression of an old theater or a Turkish bath.
While he rested his head against the bed the door to the room opened and the same white figure that escorted him into the ship entered the room, he was dressed less heavily, but still wore the mask.
Moving his eyes from the richly sculpted ceiling to the white figure, Jonna raised his torso and then placed his arms between his legs.
“You can’t breathe oxygen?”
“What?” The figure asked, slightly caught off guard.
“You can’t breathe air?”
“You mean, because I’m wearing this helmet?”
“Yes, I would like to see your face.”
“No, no, totally negative.”
“Why? After all I trusted you people enough to take me.”
“You prefer to be left back there? They had you as a captive.”
“Might be, but I didn’t knew otherwise until I was told.”
“We know you knew; Endings find it easy to see true purposes. Motives behind things.”
“Is that so? I wish I knew more about the others.”
“You’ll be with them in no time, human as they are and everything. The answers will come in due time and they themselves won’t be as outlandish as you might expect. Call it an easy way to take care of things; problems that is.”
Figuring out that he might find out more by talking about the figure’s helmet, than about any other subject, he followed to retry.
“Now, back to the helmet.”
“I can breathe fine; the thing is that you are not allowed to see my face until you are part of the school’s community. Right now you are but, well, a soon to be part of.”
“Is there something ugly inside the helmet?”
“Maybe, I wish I knew. Unlike humans we don’t balance people for the way they look, more by the way they act and speak. Their true self.”
“I wish everyone was like that, last time I saw Elizabeth she told me I was beginning to look like a pig.”
“Why? Porcine features aren’t in your anatomy…well maybe overweight, but that is something rather common with you Endings.”
“All of us?”
“Most, since they tend to live sedentary lifestyles there isn’t much room for anything else. But I got to admit that I have seen skinny Endings, but their stories are harsh and full of pain. Does it bother you?”
“What?” Jonna asked with a slight smile.
“Being overweight.”
“Fat you mean? Saying that a person is overweight is pointing out that it is a sickness or something bad.”
“But it can lead to sickness.”
“Well, I myself get plenty of exercise; even if I’m build like a cow. I’m not getting a heart attack anytime soon.”
“Oh. By the way, on our way to the school we will be stopping by another planet.”
“To pick another Ending?”
“Yes. A girl, I think.”
“Can I come with you?”
“If you want, but you will have to wear protection.”
“The sun of her planet can affect me?”
“No, only the one from Earth, but still it is a rule.”
“I understand. She knows we are coming?”
“No, but she is very close to destroying her planet. She hasn’t had a very happy life.”
“If I can help on anything, I will.”
“Thanks, maybe seeing someone like herself can help her.”
“Yes.”
Thinking for a moment Jonna noticed that everyone referred to the school as… well, a school, and this wasn’t right.
“What is the name of the school we are heading, all school have names right?”
“True, but in essence it is not a school, just a place like it. When we get there you will see it more like a really elaborated camp than an actual school. About the name, well that’s another thing that you will have to find out when you get there.”
“Oh. You were going to talk to me about your world.”
“My world…” The figure was caught in thought.
It was almost as if Jonna had said something that sent the figure deep into his mind because he didn’t answered after a long while.
“No, not my world; your world. The school was built in a world dedicated to you Endings; Yharr. My world is somewhere else, far away.”
“Yharr…”
“Yes. Long ago, before humanity was even born a creature named YharrAVeda traveled the nothingness eating void and leaving behind a trail of newly birthed suns. YharrAVeda being a creature of fire and water lasted until one day the water in itself overpowered the flames.”
As if in a trance Jonna paid attention to the story, feeling the residual voice of the stranger, hearing it as if it were a soft purr that was made for the purpose of that story, and as if transported he saw his mind creating the story in his head, and with marvel he was living the story as it was told.
“A great hiss like sigh overpowered the nothingness and when it all had ended only a pulsating heart of heat was left in the depths of the waters, the petrified bones of the creature stand like continents, ever submerged under a foot of water; being cradle to a myriad of creatures that mimic light in a world plunged in perpetual gloom.”
“Why gloom?” Jonna asked, almost knowing the answer.
“YharrAVeda never had the chance to birth the suns that would be in that area of the universe, so it stayed dark. The only light that can be seen is star light; star light that took way too long to get there. To such extends that the star light that is seen on the surface of Yharr is the vestigial light of stars that died out, and disappeared into dust long ago. What is strange about the planet is that every living creature on its surface shines with little lights that point towards the school.”
“Odd…”
“Yes, it is odd but a true fact. Once you get to there I will tell you why.”
That story remained carved in his head, an undying painting of something against a gathering of forgotten dreams he never had in the first place, all of them painted with lingering faithful shades of black, and fitfully given light with blue and purple hues of white. Closing his eyes he dipped into that world and as if living in an ancient painting he saw himself become part of that dark world of Yharr, and in silence he smiled and wept for YharrAVeda which in his dream was gently giving him a gift; a gift of vestigial light.
Even if Jonna had fallen asleep the white figure lingered in the room, taking care of the shadows like toys scattered across a room. For a slight moment the Figure moved his helmet towards Jonna and with both hands he signaled something, a sign that someday Jonna would find out meant good bye.
“Icarus!”
As if clichéd out of the many nights he had spent on Earth Jonna woke up an hour later, alone on the room and grasping the covers with the name of Icarus still staining his parched lips. His mind was trapped in the moment when Icarus told him about his true identity, when he was told he was an Ending.
“Endings.”
“And when do we…I leave.”
“Tonight…” Icarus said.
“No, I can’t leave tonight…I, I can’t leave you.” Jonna said, his voice trailing and gaping.
It was as if his whole existence had been halted, he had to leave behind the one person that cared for him, he had to leave the only person that ever kissed him at night, the only person that was there and actually cared for him. No he wasn’t going to leave Icarus behind; there was no way that he would do something like that.
Getting out of his bed Jonna knelt in front of Icarus and held his face against the other man’s slightly plump belly, wet tears coming out of his eyes and into Icarus’s shirt.
No, there was no way to say good bye…the ties were too deep, the strings too strong. Looking down at Jonna Icarus found out what he had to do, looking down he found out that he had to slaughter what is between them.
“You have to go, for this world, for the choices you will have to take.”
“Why? Why can’t I stay here with you?!”
“There are many reasons, but one of them is more important than the rest. This place is a prison; they have you here because you can’t be out there, because they are scared of you.” He pointed at the walls; referring to the world outside.
“I already knew that.”
“I’m one of them.” Icarus said as he held Jonna’s shoulders.
“What?”
“Jonna, I said I’m one of them.”
“Don’t…” Jonna began but was interrupted.
“Jonna…I’m paid to take care of you. I’m paid to love you. I receive payment for the time I spend here with you. I’m a nurse, and this is but a very hard and long job I have had for the last sixteen years.” While saying this he shacked Jonna as the words came out, gently but it felt like a beating in his eyes and slowly he saw as Jonna slowly tore away from him.
“You don’t love me?” Jonna asked while looking at the eyes of the man he matched with the image of a father, brother and more for so long.
“How can I love you when my life is tied to your existence? One whim from you and my life would end. Don’t you get it?”
Trembling, Jonna curled next to the bed as a different kind of tears began to slide down his face. Gasping for air he began to cry, his eyes becoming subtle lids of pain as the other in the chair was slowly destroying himself with each word he was muttering. Each word that was coming out of his mouth was said with a purpose as they had to be said.
“I don’t believe you; I don’t believe a word of it.” Even if he didn’t believed a word the tears in his face said otherwise, and the trembling of his arms said that Icarus’s words hit right on mark.
Icarus knew that he had to finish it; Icarus knew that he had to finish this mercilessly; he knew that he had to be flawless in order for this to work. Even if flawed, even if torn like a ravaged body upon the corner of a street Icarus knew that the moment was now, this was the moment that all would crumble or come together…this was the moment upon which he would have to kill.
Icarus stood up and approached Jonna and pointed at him as if brandishing a rusty cutlass.
“I don’t care what you believe, I never did. I’m fucking tired of being with you down here in this prison, or seeing your dammed face. Maybe among the ones like you, you will find someone to understand you. The only thing I will regret about your leaving will be that I won’t receive a check at the end of the month. So fuck off and don’t speak to me again.”
With each word Icarus said Jonna got colder and colder, as if a veil had been covering him all of his life and in that moment it had been suddenly taken off. Jonna didn’t have time to say anything back to Icarus because in that moment Icarus turned and left. Stumbling his way out of the floor he grabbed Icarus by the shirt, pleading.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry if I did something. I’m so sorry!”
“Let go off me!” Without thinking too much about it Icarus pushed him towards the floor as he made his way towards the door and closed it behind himself.
Off the floor Jonna ended against that door, hitting it with his hands, crying his way into despair, trying to understand the terrible pain that inhabited his body.
The tears ran until he ran out of pain and all that remained were his reddened eyes and a body becoming colder and colder.
Like back then now on the Society’s Temple-ship Jonna cried his way into despair and once again held the sheets of his provisional bed until full of static as he looked at the ceiling.
“Icarus.” He whispered.
If he had seen what happened once Icarus ran out of that door, if Jonna had seen that, he wouldn’t have left Icarus, never. Closing the door behind he was confronted by his mother, that seeing into his son’s eyes saw what he had done, she saw what he did. With the care that only a mother could give she held her son in her arms and there he became nothing more than a rag doll.
“Beautiful, you were merciless and flawless. But didn’t you go too far?”
“I did what was needed…”
That day Elizabeth Valentin had lost her son to active duty, it took him almost ten minutes to stand from that floor, but when he did, a part of him had already died…the part he had slaughtered to let Jonna go. He wanted to die for what he did, but he knew he had to. He had to.
In the hands of The Society of Endings Jonna was being taken into the unknown, away from the world on which so much had been hidden from him, and soon, very soon he would find out the true purpose of his life. There, looking at the ceiling while a trail of dry tears marked his face Jonna tried to hide away the feelings he still feels for Icarus.
Even as he gasped his way into yet another dream he knew the time for crying would have to end if he was to actually do something useful with his life, but what? What does he feels towards the people of planet Earth? What does he feel towards his mother and father? What does he feel about the future?
Taking himself once again into his mind painting of Yharr Jonna tried to calm himself while floating in his mind’s eye against the surface of Yharr, seeing the vestigial light of the stars and tasting the wind and its flavor of things long forgotten.
“What will I do?” He whispered before letting himself drift into its endless depths, depths with no ending.
Chapter Three
-Namay the Ending-
The society’s ship appeared on planet Shaamairo’s orbit without a sign or warning; it appeared dangerously close to orbit. It had been detected by the planet’s security system.
It was very rare that a Temple-Ship from The Society of Endings was detected by any planet side security, it only happened once before; and then it was by pure chance.
Within a few minutes Jonna was taken from his room to the main cabin of the Temple-Ship, the place was large and well lit, but like the members of the society themselves; there was something wrong about it. The part of the cabin where the speakers were was shaped like a triangle and over the triangle stood a semi circular platform where Jonna now stood looking, and beyond a view screen encompassing the whole length of the walls.
Before him he saw the surface of the planet, thousands upon thousands of shooting stars could be seen ragging the surface of the planet. From Jonna’s point of view the planet seemed to be colored in a haze of amber. It took him a while to notice that the haze part of his observation was in fact an earthquake, but once he did he looked at the Speaker standing next to him with concern.
“The girl you talked about is doing this all by herself?” Jonna asked, while feeling static down his spine and skull.
“Yes, but the truth is so much deeper than that.”
“I don’t understand.” Jonna said a little frustrated.
The Speaker looked away towards the main monitor while speaking something to the others in a language Jonna couldn’t understand, then pointed at some specks of light that were coming towards them at high speed.
“Missiles…” Jonna gasped.
“Fragmentation missiles.”
Standing there next to the Speaker Jonna saw as the missiles approached with killing intent. His right eye caught a glance of a computer running an ID program as he was pushed into a safety seat. All monitors and controls waned in intensity and energy.
“What?” Jonna asked under his breath.
“A blind screening, it seems they want us death.”
As the screens went blind Jonna’s vision faltered, he could feel his end, he could feel it collapsing towards him and it was not the ship, but his own existence that was coming to a halt. It was almost as if everything had been predetermined by the events that came to happen, it was almost as if these set of events had been made with the sole purpose to end his existence; but this wasn’t so. He knew it was just his paranoia taking over.
Just when he almost felt the missiles hit the hull of the ship and a gulf of fire eat him alive he saw that the society’s people were doing something with their hands; and just a few seconds after they all went limb as corpses. The only one that was still standing was the Speaker next to him and the hands of the ones that had gone limp; it was almost as if part of their beings were somewhere else while their hands were still doing their job.
Jonna looked at the Speaker for answers, he didn’t had to ask the question; he only had to look at him to find answers.
“They are alright; they are just guiding us from outside.”
“Outside! They are going to die.”
“You don’t understand us young one, so sit down and stay calm.”
Feeling like a bag of potatoes that’s too heavy to be carried, he began to feel the sudden need to help. But what could he do? Thinking over the events like a child would Jonna noticed that if a girl is making her planet do all these things maybe he, like her, could have some sort of power.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Not trained, not well, but later maybe you will be able to help us with her.”
Jonna knew at once that he was referring to the girl in the planet, but what could he do? If she had been driven to do all of these things there must be a reason for it all. Isn’t there? How to stop an avalanche or a flood when you are barely a twig? No, Jonna said to himself as he saw the spot he was driving himself into, he knew at once that this could lead into despair and that was the worse thing he could do at the moment.
Outside of the Temple-Ship, as ephemeral as the very wind four figures were gliding over the approaching atmosphere; like the ghosts of old stories they moved and stayed, half there and half elsewhere.
Just as the missiles were barely a few meters away the ship plunged nose first into the planet’s atmosphere, not caring one bit about an ill entrance angle.
It only took them a minute to enter the atmosphere and be taken by the dying sun that covered the city below. If those buildings had not been made with Cemica they would have been destroyed hours ago.
Shaamairo’s destruction cycle had begun at early morning as the sun was going up, and now it must be on stage two; because of the falling stars that tear the sky into blue fragments of dying rock.
There was no way for them to have been there before, there was no way, and like Jonna, the girl had entered her sixteenth year last week. Jonna himself was taken first only because he was the closest to the society’s ship location at the time of extraction.
There is still time, the Speaker thought as he assessed the visions given to him by the others. One could stop an Ending on the second cycle of destruction, but on the third there’s no turning back, how long till then? There was no way of telling, all the Speakers knew was that they needed to hurry before the whole planet is engulfed by the girl’s dying gift. On the third cycle of destruction not even the Cemica can stop the destruction that will ensue.
For no reason the fragmentation missiles exploded above them, no fire came out of them, just small particles of a metallic material that rained down upon the Society’s ship like rain.
The ship’s navigators dodged a falling star just in time to see a set of ships that were coming their way. Without time to dodge the incoming ships the very ships avoided the society’s ship. It seemed that they were heading out, leaving the planet behind as they saw the end that would surely come.
“Foolish intends of self preservation, all without avail.” The speaker said looking sideways.
As these words were picked by Jonna he could not understand what the Speaker meant, and as nervous as he was he wasn’t going to find out any time soon.
The ship descended above the tall buildings of the city, buildings so tall that they seemed to defy gravity with foundations of an inch in any direction; like inverted pyramids of dark amber color. The navigators watched as whole ships filled with people flared into their doom and crashed against the face of the buildings.
Opening his eyes after a sudden maneuver taken by the navigators Jonna saw as the monitors began to flicker, and after a while began to speck themselves into clearness, and all until a faint view of the flaring city circled itself into the view screen, from the left corner to the right.
Just like that the navigators came back to themselves, thankfully aware that the blind screening had run its course.
“The seat’s strap mechanism is working fine?” The Speaker asked while looking at Jonna.
“Well I feel like something is pulling my balls.”
“Good, when I tell you press the yellow button under the armlet on the chair; that should release you from the safety strain. Then you will follow me carefully to the next room and do exactly as I say; no room for error, or curiosity. Do you understand young Ending?”
“We are near the girl? Do you know her name?”
“Do you understand?” The Speaker asked once again, this time a little more forceful.
“Yes.” Jonna said as he hid part of his face in the long neck of his jacket.
“In a few minutes we will arrive at her location, but we don’t know her name, or her state of mind. The Empire of Shaamairo didn’t give us any information about her.”
“Maybe they didn’t knew about her existence until recently, is it possible?” Jonna looked directly at the speaker as just as everything shook.
“Yes, it is. In truth The Empire of Shaamairo didn’t gave us any information about her, we just picked up the signal given out by her cycle of ending. We can do that much, but it may be already too late.”
“Who gave you my information?”
“That’s confidential, but we had you in our database since you were born, we were just waiting, waiting for the right time to come pick you up.”
All the secrecy and information that had been kept from him felt like a whole new world apart from his own, a world that he had been denied entry until very recently; and this little fact infuriated him. A hanging vision of Icarus came to his mind and in that vision he could see him going out the door of his room and beyond that room was the world, inside that room the only thing that he could see were chains and lies.
He touched his head.
“This isn’t helping. I feel cheated.”
“We didn’t order Earth to treat you as they did, but as you will come to know, for someone in your situation; you had luck, a lot of it.”
“I really wish…” His voice became faded against the sounds of the ship.