It’s All Circular
A child walked slowly, their feet scraped the ground with exhaustion, their body incapable of pulling them up from the curb. Their skin had been stained black with grease, their hair was slick, and stuck together in large clumps. Their eyes showed the death that their mind and body felt. Looking ahead they saw smoke pillars reaching into the sky, the faint red glow of the furnaces tinted the black columns with a hint of dynamic oranges and reds. A person walked past them with a particularly strong perfume which agitated the child’s nose, causing them to sneeze a black goo onto the sidewalk. “Urgh, filthy urchin.” The woman called out as she gave the child a wide berth. The child did not notice, she barely heard the calls of anyone anymore with the ringing in her ears. Her eyes were bloodshot, and ached from the previous days work, the caustic chemicals in the air of the factories felt as if they rested on her eyes, slowly eating layers of her eyes, even when she was home. She looked down at a well-worn watch on her left wrist, and for the first time in the morning her face showed expression, fear. She started to run towards the factory, down the steep city streets, the concrete getting blacker the closer she was, and more slick. She tripped several times on the way down, her knees scrapped in the process, but once again, there was no notice as she sprinted as fast as she could through the large iron doors of the refinery. She threw her metal toolbox into a cubby hole and moved her way through the factory floor, clocking in on the time machine next to the main office she checked her watch again, there was a sigh of relief as the seconds hand still had a few ticks before the hour started. With a brisk walk she made her way to a conveyer belt that she was to work on, she took a small tool belt and a hand powered mechanical claw. She scrambled onto the conveyer belt where she was just one among many, examining the products that scrolled past, handling the bad products from the line, and dumping them down one of the many shoots that followed the production line, she had to walk constantly to avoid being taken away by the endless movement of the belt. Embers and smoked filled the room that her, and all her fellow workers worked in. Approaching lunch time, she was starting to faulter, her head started to become light and her feet felt as if they were lead. Despite being worked to the bone she was starting to fall asleep on her feet, between each drawn out blink the ladder to leave the conveyer belt got further away until it faded from her vision as she fell backwards, seeing the walkways, and the ceiling, then darkness. When she awoke she was stuck in a mountain of stage one refined metals, each time she moved she would slide as the lose product was dislodged, allowing the girl, and the goods to slide further down the mountain. She eventually found herself at the bottom, too tired to move she just watched as more metals would be slowly making their way to her by way of sliding down the gentle slop of the mountain of goods. She would have cried if she had the hydration, but the heat of the factory was nearly so bad that even sweat would sometimes evaporate before it could do anything other than sizzle on her skin. The factory had a rhythm to it, everything happened just when it should, and it did that for twenty-four hours a day. The only inconsistences were the heavy footsteps of the fat men that ran the floors, footsteps that felt like they were capable of disrupting even the girls heart as she could feel the man approaching. His looming figure leaned over her, sweat flowing from his bulbous form, hit pocked skin was flushed from the heat, and his hair receded from the chemicals that floated through the air. He snorted as he poked the girl with a stick, he looked over his shoulder then strained to lean down, grabbing the girl by the cuff of her ankle he dragged her from her lying position, and back the way he came from. He took no care to avoid anything that was on the floor, his mouth curving upwards each time he felt the girls body catch on any of the plethora of tools that he had left on the ground. All around them there were other children, running around they did their best to clean the shop floor that the man dragging the girl dirtied like it was his actual job. Going past the coal pits he approached the furnace, the open doors roared with enough heat to dry the mans face, and make it redder. He squinted as he looked into the flames, and with little effort he swung the girl with one smooth action. The heat was intense, so intense that it was over before she even had time to think that the flames felt like they were getting hotter. The man backed away, nearly stepping on several other children who had gathered to pay their respects for the girl, and in return they nearly joined her. The man took his discordant rhythm with him as he left, slowly fading away until the children could not feel the vibrations from his movements, nor could they hear the stomping of his feet. They looked to one another for the shortest time possible before they turned back to their work, their hands bound with what used to be white bandages, now coal black. The children all took their place back where they were expected to be, the girls little brother was crying as he did what he was told. “You!” Called a voice that dripped with age, “if you keep that up, you will join your sister. Your incessant sobbing is slowing you down, sort out your emotions, be a man.” The little boy paused for just a second before taking in one big sniff, sucking up all the snot that was dripping from his nose. His eyes seemed to dry almost instantly, but the whites were scarred with red lines. He went back to work, making sure to keep a good pace for his employer, to keep himself out of the fire of the furnaces. The hours ticked by, and soon enough it was time for a shift switch, the next group of workers coming through the doors they stopped in their tracts. It was as if time had slowed down, they watched as the employers struggled to chase after their children workers, doing their best to stop them from leaping head first into the furnaces, their faces filled with a solitary moment of peace right before the heat claimed them, turning them to ash. It didn’t take long before the already drained kids from the shift switch started to run into the chaos, they took the opportunity, and they fought back in the only way they could, by dying. There was hope in some of them that this would be the end of everything, not just their suffering, but that this would cause the factory to shut down, saving all the other children out there the dread of being enslaved by the refineries, but under their hope was a nugget of realism that knew that was a foolish dream. Some of the employers tried shutting down the factory, but they found that either the emergency stop buttons did not work, or that it did not matter that they stopped the machines, they couldn’t just turn off the fires, there was not enough water in the town, let alone this building to stop fires of such magnitude. The Foreman run up a series of winding stairs until they reached a large dark wood set of double doors that she slammed through. “Sir they are dying.” She said with a panic. “Yes they tend to do that, they are frustratingly weak this batch.” The man answered calmly. “No sir, they are killing themselves. We have lost over half the workforce already.” The man snapped the pencil in their hand, their eyes stayed focused on the paper he was working on. The Foreman could hear the mans breathing increase to a quite roar. While keeping his head steady he closed his eyes, just to open them already focused on the Foreman. “Then why are you up here telling me this, and not down there fishing those children back to their cages?” The Foreman stammered over herself as she gestured down to the working floor, the chaos that was happening below. “There is nothing I can do sir. There are too many, and they know the platforms better than any of us.” The owner of the company looked down from their window view of his factory, he watched as the adults stumbled over themselves as the children were vaulting the dangerous conveyor belts as the ended everything by leaping head first into the instant incineration of the immense fires. The owner of the companies face twitched as he watched his work force go up in flames. His eye twitched, and beads of sweat started to form as he began to understand the situation that he was in. The foreman looked to her boss with expectation, but when he did not move from the window she knew she had her answer. She backed out of the door and stumbled her way to the outside world, her body shacking as she tried her best to calm her breathing. Shakily she got her keys out, climbed into her car, and left the factory in her rear view mirror. The owner of factory calmly walked to his doors, closing them, and securing them with the many locks he had installed. He breathed out purposefully as he made his way back to his desk where he say carefully, ensuring his back was straight, and his attire was uniform. He placed his hand delicately on the receiver of his phone, lifting it off he pressed the touchpad on the holder, cycling through the menus until he found his way to a number that was labelled, ‘Investor’. The connection tone inspired more sweat and a dry throat as he awaited the inevitable silence that would be followed by the voice of the woman he was contacting. There was a click, then silence. “Well, out with it.” The voice said from the other end of the line. “The, umm, workforce.” The man chocked on his own saliva, clearing his throat he continued. “The Workforce…” “Yes, you have said that one. You are wasting my time.” “Gone, it is all gone.” There was a short silence that the owner felt as if minutes had passed. “You will need to elaborate. Because I have invested a large sum into your company, and by the sounds of things I am going to be waiting longer for the returns you promised.” “They… They killed themselves, they jumped into the furnaces, all their wranglers are various degrees of injured from trying to, well, wrangle them.” There was another click and the line went dead. The owner of the company put the receiver down, reseting its connection before picking it up again and connecting to another number. “Honey it is rare that I hear from you at work. How is your day going?” A sweet voice called from the other end. “Hey beautiful, I just wanted to say that I am having some issues at work, it may be a late one.” His voice was warbling on every second word. “That is fine, I knew that this was going to consume our lives when you decided to take on the venture. I believe in you honey, we are a team, we will get through this together, and …
The K.A.C
Three friends walked in a rush, they were trying to be quiet, but hushed one another loudly till they were basically shouting at one another as they made their way down a dimly lit back street at night. “Couldn’t we have just driven down here? I am sure it would have been quieter than us fucking about down the street.” Charlie said as he flickered his torch towards the other two. “Come on, it is all a bit of fun.” Alex replied, beckoning Charlie to follow. “Besides, I told you, the paranormal mess with cars, do you really want more car problems than you already have?” Kit asked Charlie with a grin. Charlie rolled their eyes with a smile, catching up to the other two. “You know for someone who knows so much about the paranormal, you would think you would be able to actually find them. How many years have we been doing this?” Charlie said pushing to the front. “We have been over this, the paranormal are fickle. I saw them when I was a kid, I am certain of it, I will be able to find them again.” Kit said with confidence. “Especially now, with the rise in paranormal reports?” Alex added. “Especially now, this is why we have to be out all the time. We have to find our little slice of paranormal. I refuse to be left in the dark when so much is happening.” Alex and Charlie laughed. “Come on Kit, this is just a phase, a trend.” “It’s not a phase mom, it is who I am.” Kit interjected jokingly. “No, for you it isn’t. I mean for the internet, the internet just goes through phases of what is popular, and for whatever reason now it is ghosts, and the extended paranormal.” Charlie finished. “Don’t listen to him Kit, he doesn’t know anything. We shall be the most famous ghost hunters.” Alex said, leaning against Kit’s back. The two of them posing like a movie poster. “Paranormal investigators.” Kit corrected. “Not just ghosts, but all paranormal oddities that may be out there.” Charlie smiled. “Are you going to start a ghos… paranormal hunter video series like all your favourites then? Because I don’t think we brought a camera.” Kit groaned, and they all continued walking. “No Charlie, I won’t be doing that. You and Alex think that is a lot funnier than it is when you suggest that. Those are not the people who are making the discoveries, it is the random videos that surface on forums, and the mis-reported police occurrences that have all the real stuff. Besides I don’t want to make a shitty web series about finding paranormal things, I want to be like an actual investigator.” “The difference being?” Charlie asked sincerely “The difference being, one is an actor playing a cop, the other is a cop on the streets. I want to be the person who has the collection of artefacts that seem mundane, but they are cursed objects that they are keeping safe. They have a library of books that are hand written by them, and the countless others out there that have had real experiences, they travel the world, touch dozens of cultures, find cures for things that are uncurable…” There was a long pause, Kit stared off into the distance, lingering on the last line as the other two looked down to their shoes with pained expressions. Charlie walked up to Kit, resting a hand on their arm they got stole Kit from their thousand yard stare. “Then we will keep this up, I’ll even help you set up the K.A.C so we can start running these as business expenses.” Kit looked confused, mouthing out the letter they were clearly trying to decipher what they meant. “The Kit, Alex, Charlie paranormal hunters. The K.A.C Paranormal Hunters, sounds pretty good right?” Kit smiled, wrapping an arm around Charlie they kissed their forehead with exaggerated pressure, and sound effects. “I knew I kept you around for something you beautiful human you.” Kit exclaimed, drawing an enormous smile on Charlie’s face. “Come on, we are nearly there, we should really shut up, especially since it is like midnight.” Alex paused, pulling out their phone they lit up their face as they checked the time. “Or actually a little closer to one if I am being honest. We still got to get set up, and the paranormal hours are just over an hour away so we should hoof it.” The three of them all agreed and started to jog towards their mark, an old home that had been abandoned due to the fact that it was too close to a cliff face that was slowly degrading and the council had deemed it a red zone for living. The three friends stood on the other side of the street, staring through the overgrown front yard to the otherwise new looking house. “I thought that ghosts and shit were supposed to be in creepy places.” Alex said sceptically. “No, that is trashy horror movie nonsense, they just need to be forgotten places, or at least that is the theory, a place that once held much life, then was suddenly abandoned. I think there is something about the energy of the space that allows for the other dimensions to merge with ours. Because if you look at all the videos online that look credible, they are all in places that were once popular, but have since become deserted, or at least used significantly less.” “What about that one you sent to us the other week, the one where there was supposedly that apparition in a very populated hotel complex?” Alex inquired. “Well if I had to guess I would say it is because the paranormal thing got lost in the complex halls of the hotel, and was panicking as it was trying to escape. Or maybe it had a traumatic event that was holding it there, like a murder, or maybe the paranormal aren’t even ghosts, but something else, maybe another dimension bleeding into ours, or even another world and universe, the possibilities are just endless. We really know nothing, but we will change that.” “Well damn, I got shivers. You are good at speeches, you are going to make a great mysterious leader of massive, and ominous paranormal company that let’s face it, won’t need to follow the laws due to its significant status.” Charlie said, walking across the street. “I am motivated, lets go find something that no one has seen.” Alex and Kit followed across the street, the light by the driveway dying as soon as Charlie stepped foot on the other side. He turned back to the others with a sly grin as his head faced them, and his eyes were turned upwards. “Oh, this is a great sign surely.” Kit grinned as Alex looked around nervously, the two of them running across the street faster, but still in silence. Kit stopped just shy of the curb, then jumped with both feet and landed on the curb, looking around in anticipation they shrugged. “Worth a shot I guess.” Alex stopped where Kit stopped and made an announcement. “You did it wrong, you have to put your soul into it.” They jumped onto the curb and the light turned back on, they froze in a slight hunch as their eyes were peeled wide, the other two looking at one another in amazement. “You will have to teach us how to do that Alex.” Charlie chuckled as they turned to walk onto the property. The grass rising to his waist, dropping a hand down he touched the heads of the grass where the seed pods had started to develop, the individual seeds dropping to ground Alex felt as if everything was moving in slow motion, they could feel the seeds for an instant, their journey, how they felt as they descended to the ground, but as quick as it started normality returned. They looked up and Charlie and Kit were already approaching the house, shining their torches over the structure they seemed to be muttering something to one another. Alex cleared their head, and caught up, trying their best to not sound concerned. “What are you two talking about?” They asked. “Well Charlie was just pointing out that the house has only been abandoned for like a month, and we are in summer.” “So?” “Well, it is just a little weird that this place has already had this much growth, and this much disrepair on the property.” Alex looked up at the peeling paint, and the rotten exposed wood, then around at the cracked white concrete that had tall shoots of grass growing from them. “Maybe it was not being maintained before the red zone declaration.” Charlie said, comforting themselves. “Are you kidding, this suburb would murder someone for letting a property look this trash, if it wasn’t for the fact that even the land around the house is deemed too unsafe to work on I am sure there would be some kind of clause that would mean the owners would have to keep the lawns mowed to a perfect two inches.” “You have your journal right Kit?” Charlie asked as they walked up to the front door. “Yeah, a couple, with a couple pens, just in case.” All three of them stood at the front door, their view of the main road obscured by the overgrowth. “Well here we stand, on the precipice of discovery, we do this for you Kit, and we don’t leave until there is evidence, we die, or the sunrises.” “A bit dramatic?” Alex asked as they felt second hand embarrassment from what was said. “I am all about the drama, now let’s see if anyone is home.” Charlie pressed the door bell, and a faint, discordant chime could be heard echoeing through the house. There was a long pause as all three of them stood waiting for the sound to stop, it drew on long enough that there was an unnerving energy which quickly faded as the bell stopped, and nothing happened. “Well, I guess no one should mind if we pop in then.” Charlie said as they grabbed the doorknob turning, and pushing it open. The door did not creak, it made no sound, and only Charlie seemed to be the one that noticed, while the others were already marvelling at the discordant interior. Kit pulled out some floor plans that had been scribbled over with a red pen. “This house is perfect for paranormal housing, because it had so many weird little additions to it. The floor plan was already kind of weird, but after all the little additions that left awkward crawl spaces, and strange room shapes I reckon things could easily get lost here.” Charlie and Kit wandered in with pure curiosity, Charlie closed his eyes squeezing them tight he turned off his flash light, holding it for a short moment he opened them again and started to walk around again as Kit shook their head in disbelief. “You will never not impress me with the fact that you just have amazing night vision.” “What can I say, I am better than other people. Besides, if we are hunting paranormal you need yourself someone with shadow eyes, eyes of the night, dark vision, there is a cool one in there somewhere.” “I don’t doubt it, let me know when you get a good and I will write it down.” “Not a hundred percent, but true vision is currently the coolest. Just leave a note that we need to come back to that.” “Noted.” Kit said as they put an exaggerated dot down for a full stop. Kit turned around to see Alex shyly looking around, flicking their torch more than usual. “You okay Alex?” “Oh yo, this is a weird staircase I am descending.” Charlie said, disappearing down the hall and out of sight. “Yeah, I just. This place feels …
Initiation
An individual ran through the cold of the night, their breath laboured as they could taste iron in the back of their throat, and their breaths had turned into laboured heaving. With each exhale they let loose a torrent of phlegm and white vapour. Where once their arms had been driven through the air like cutting blades, they were now limply shaking by their side as their feet started to stray, and their knees began to faulter. Those of Hollow can push their bodies to the absolute extremes, but even they reach a point where their bodies give out, the woman collapsed to the ground, bile from her stomach was pushed out from the shock of hitting the ground, all the actual contents of her stomach had been expelled many kilometres back, eaten by the thing chasing her. Despite her erratic breathing that forced her whole body to rise and fall filling her ears with the sound of faltering lungs, she was still able to hear the horrid hissing of the thing that was slowly lurking behind her. She knew could tell by the feel of the vibrations in the ground that its feet where right behind her, the intense heat of its many breaths was heating her back, even though her back was already warmed from the intense muscle strain of her journey. Each head of the nightmare that stood behind her had a different stench to its breath, a different monstrous cry as it inched ever closer to its pray. The woman didn’t even have enough energy to cry out as one of the many heads started to swallow her right leg, or even when a second head started to snake its way up her left leg, not gnawing and gnashing the flesh, but crushing it with immense throat muscles. Her vision started to blot out with shimmer patches from the pain, quickly consuming her whole vision, but she didn’t need her vision to hear the crackling of teleportation from a Hunter, their was no sound at all, until the deafening strike from a hammer came crashing down into the nightmares spine, it was both the sound of too many bones crushed under the weight of the blow, and the sound of several nightmarish cries, from mouths with too many throats, then there was relief as the woman fell unconscious. There were many moments of near life as she was transported, they were filled with blinding white light, and an all-consuming pain that started in her legs, radiated through her muscles, and tore up her lungs as every breath in felt like needles stabbing her lungs from the inside, and every breath out was only slightly better. Her ears rung, but they were still working, they could hear the chatter, and how her environment changed. At first sounded like the crisp crunch of nearly frozen leaves cracking, then there was the cacophony of a vehicle, it was loud, and sounded as if every part of the machine was taking turns at colliding with every other part. Then there was a moment muttering, her vision had not returned at this point, but she was able to make out shadows, and it appeared as if there were people, many of them moving around. Her next point of consciousness had her passing under an equidistant set of even brighter white, and the steady hum of electronics filled the air. Finally the next few instances of consciousness were remarkably the same, the same hum of a small machine next to the right side of her head, her vision was still blurred, but now could see the faint touches of colour, and many bright lights around the room filled the rest of her vision with white, the kind of white that caused a migraine, and felt as if it was pushing a thick piece of metal into the back of your eye. Soon she was able to smell again, faint at first, but without a doubt the smell of blood and chemicals filled her nose, with the distinct smell of grease lingering as an after scent. Then there was a strange darkness, it was not unconsciousness, but she was unable to move, and she could feel her limbs being pulled at, she could feel her flesh tearing, and bones not only snapping, but being ground down. She could feel all of it, but there was no pain. There was the whirring of high speed blades, and the sound of many power tools that she recognised, but she was confused as to why she was hearing them. Then, there were mutterings, and eventually words, but by the time she could actually make out words they were of a farewell. “We have done all we can do.” “Will it be enough?” “That is up to her, I have others to see to.” “I guess I just wait then.” There were many more instances of varied sensations, until finally her eyes forced their way open through swelling, and a crusting of yellow mucus that lined the middle of her eyelid. When she struggled to breath a full breath she engage manual breathing, and forced air through her broken nose, creating a dull hiss as she did. She flexed her jaw the little it would move, and her eyes slowly absorbed the environment she was in. There were grey walls that dripped water periodically from various points in the cracked concrete ceiling, a simple tube light lit up her room, and she could see through a grime covered window that there was another light just outside her cramped room. “Where am I?” She muttered out, her mouth barely moving. “You.” A deep voice came from beside her, “are in one of the many medical facilities hidden by the Hunters, you have done well Constance, if you survive your recovery, you will make an excellent addition to the ranks.” Constance turned her neck slightly, the muscles in her neck rigid like rock, creaking as they moved. Looking at the gargantuan man in the corner of the room she could not help but notice the plague mask that sat on the seat next to him, and the hammer weapon leaning up against the wall with the head sitting on the ground in a small indent where it was set down too hard. “But I didn’t finish.” Constance slurred, “I was going to die, why did you save me?” The mans eyes were black, with the faintest cracks of red veins cutting through the darkness. He was covered with scars, his lip was missing a small wedge, revealing a sharpened tooth tipped with metal. He groaned an exhale before taking a deep breath. “The challenge isn’t exactly doing the tasks at hand, it is about doing your best to accomplish the task. Most of the tasks aren’t achievable with skill, luck perhaps, and while luck is beneficial in this role, so is the ability to push yourself until your body fails. If you had fallen even one step sooner, I would have left you in the field, to be devoured. You live, because you have the strength to live.” “But I am weak, nothing but ash to the flame of the world.” “When ash gets wet it turns to paste, when the wind blows it floats, when it hits ground it rests, when stood on it moulds to the boot, and when pushed it disintegrates. You were not only pushed, you were shoved, stepped on, beaten, and nearly eaten, and yet here you are, you are a nothing like ash, you yourself are a tiny flame, so much potential, rest now, we can talk when you wake.” Constance nodded ever so slightly, letting her head to return to its resting position she slipped from consciousness. There was weeks of flitting in and out of consciousness, each time her body healed a little more, and everything hurt a little less. By the time she was able to sit up she finally noticed that her hands were wrong, looking at them there were ten fingers again. Three of them were fully mechanical, while another had the end joint made of metal. Constance looked at them closely flexing her hands they moved as she would expect any other finger to move. “My, my. It has been a while since I had ten digits, it feels so much better than seven and a half.” “I am glad to hear.” A woman said walking into the room. “That was my work, that along with the legs.” Constance looked down at where her legs were, the blankets above them made them look like her legs, but she still ripped the stained sheet off of her to reveal her new legs, the left was fixed from the knee down, and the right from the middle of her thigh. They were remarkable thin for a metal prosthetic, barely thicker than her original legs, not that they were around to compare to. “You will have a couple of weeks of getting used to them before the Hunters can use you, but don’t take too long, they don’t wait forever.” “I, ughh, who are you?” “I am your mechanic, my name is Siktel. I am just checking to make sure that there is no rot, these prosthetic have a tendency to be rejected by the host. Hold still.” Constance was too dizzy to protest, so she just watched as Siktel prodded the skin around the prosthetic, poking at her with the end of her pen. “How long?” Constance asked. “Hmm?” Siktel responded. “How long do they wait? The Hunters.” “Ah right, I think the longest I have seen them wait for an initiate was two weeks after full consciousness, they give time for recovery, but they are not patient, hey wait…” Siktel said as the skin she was investigating moved. Constance turned her legs to the edge of the bed and pressed her feet onto the ground, getting a feel for the toes. “That works for me, because I am very restless.” Constance could feel the world turning around her, her head felt as if it moved even after she had stopped. Siktel moved around the side of the bed, kneeling on the floor. “Don’t move again, or you won’t make it to the hunters, because I will rip my prosthetics from your body. Those who have my mark do not disrespect me and live.” Constance froze, it was a mild relief to be still, although she could feel the itch of wanting to be healthy, to be ready for commitment. Her stillness was broken as Siktel grabbed her hands and investigated the connections. “Well, flawless as always.” Siktel said as she stood up. “To be honest I have never had a rejection, and I was not going to let you be the first.” “How would you stop me from being the first, isn’t it up to my body to decide whether it takes to the metal?” “Well it is, but it is also up to me how much you bleed out from your neck when I stab it with a screwdriver. Can’t reject my prosthetics if you are dead.” “Well that is one way to false a statistic. Can I move now?” “You can move all you like now, providing you can. This is my last check up, so I don’t care what you do.” Siktel took of her gloves and let them slap onto the ground, setting up a puff of dirt. She then walked through the door and disappeared down the corridor. “Alright Constance, we have it. We do not lay where we fall, we are not ash, we are the flame, we dictate what burns.” Over the next week Constance forced herself to move, vomiting from a strange sense of motion sickness over and over again, but eventually she was walking around the room as if nothing had ever gone wrong. She marched herself out of the room and down the halls until eventually she found …
An Exciting End
Two people in ill kept white tie stood on a hill top smoking, their eyes glazed over with boredom, their fingernails housed dirt, and their shoes through to their shins were covered in mud. The deep depressions into the hill a clear indicator of where they came from. Down the hill the mud was slightly drier as the fires from the marque’s were spreading to anything that would take their heat, and cooking anything that was too wet to catch light. They passed the one cigarette between them, taking turns with what little stimulation they could share. The roar of the fire was nearly as loud as the screams of the people that were panicking down below, with the distant sounds of emergency vehicles beginning to compete with the orchestra of noise that was happening. As the smoke rose into the air the light of the fire travelled through it, creating a pillar of light into the sky that was illuminating the nearby clouds, and the surrounding forest where it once lay in the darkness of night, only to be interrupted by the golden glow of small decorative lights, and now the harsh red flicker of the fire. One of the people bit their lip, pulling the stick from it they brought it back into their mouth before spitting it to the ground as they passed the stub of a cigarette back to their companion. “Well, that is one way to end a night. Job well done I would say, ae Imogen?” “To be honest it was the only way we were going to get any level of excitement out of this wedding.” The two stood in a long pause, their breath visible as the night became colder. “Yup, riveting.” “Shut it Riley.” Imogen said, taking their long black hair out of the bun it was in. “It just keeps on going, when do you think it will end?” “I mean, it is hard to say. But I assume the small tent town will go, at a minimum. The fire department may be here before the forest catches on…” Imogen was interrupted as there was a large explosion from one of the tents, cascading fire and shrapnel through the air, raining down on the other tents, cars, and in turn the edges of the forest. “Well, I guess that was the kitchens tent. I had forgotten about all their gas-powered stove tops.” “They had a whole restaurant in there. It was ridiculous how much equipment they brought out here. They might as well have had it somewhere in the city.” “But then they couldn’t get all these views, or experience nature.” “Nature? They put up so many tents, and walkways that they were barely outside. Not to mention all the air conditioning units, and the million bug zappers. Rich people don’t know how to experience the outside world anymore.” They two people watched as one of the guests was running in heels across the soft soil outside the tent, struggling to pull her feet up from them sinking into the ground. Her hands holding her elegant dress up, and away from the ground. “What one earth, is she seriously concerned about her dress?” “To be fair on that one, running in those tight dresses is probably impossible unless it is pulled up. However, the decision to keep the shoes on is confusing me.” There was a second explosion as the fire spread, and further equipment started to feel the heat of the fire. “And there goes the generators.” There was a second explosion in the same spot, mush larger than the first. “And that is the fuel bowser. Jesus you can feel the hear from here.” “It is kind of beautiful though, in its own way.” Imogen said as they tilted their head to the side. Riley saw Imogen adjust their view and decided to try the same. “Does the head tilt help reveal the beauty?” “No, but I was curious if it would look any different if I tried.” “You have an interesting brain, I appreciate it. I think I would suffocated myself in the chocolate fountain if it wasn’t for your constant stream of jokes about the guests.” “Mmm, what a delicious way to go. I mean with how thick that stuff is, and how warm I assume it would be horrific, but tasty none the less.” “Can we ask for anything more in life than a tasty death?” “I mean we can’t ask for a tasty meal.” “I know right?” Riley shouted, disturbing the low mumble that the two had going all this time. “It was like the chefs forgot how to cook when they got to us, I guess we weren’t important enough to get any real food.” “Oh didn’t you hear?” Riley raised an eyebrow, looking across to Imogen. “Apparently, clive heard the wedding planner talking to the chefs about how much effort to put into the meal for the… help.” “Gross, I hate that term. Did Clive happen to describe what was said?” “Yeah, essentially they felt that if the food that was served to us was seen by guests to be too close to what they were getting, they would feel like they were being cheated out of good food, and were just being fed sub-par food. So they artificially created bigger divide in quality so that they did not feel like they were being encroached on.” “Well that is actually disgusting. I can’t believe that people actually think like that.” “They are not people though, rich people lose people statis once they hit a certain point, they just become avatars of money, which is why they hoard wealth, they are trying to get their kind back together.” Imogen let out a small life with the hints of a grin breaking the bleak look on their face. “That is actually genius, it makes so much sense now. They are not greedy assholes addicted to endless streams of money, they are merely an inanimate object occupying a meat suit to collect their family back.” “Oh woah, I think I prefer your description much better. I might have to integrate that into my life going forward.” The two stopped talking as the screams of others started to change, and upon focusing on the instance below them they could see people burning to death, rolling on the ground in desperation, or even just aimlessly walking until their bodies fully collapsed. Imogen and Riley both recoiled from the sight, their stomachs turning. “I don’t think I was prepared for this much death.” “Even at a distance, this is not great, or good, or anything positive. I know we talk shit about these people a lot, but I obviously don’t want them to go through this.” Imogen half turned, checking the ground behind them they fell backwards, staring up at the sky they let their stomach settle. Riley smiled shyly, following suit they felt the ick in their throat start to recede down their throat, uncomfortable in of itself, but a good sign of getting better. “Do you think that maybe we were a bit rough on them? I am feeling weird about everything we said now.” Riley said as they passed their hair through their hands repetitively. Imogen let out a long exhale in exasperation. “You have to be kidding me, I know what is happening isn’t great, but to be honest I have no sympathy. They don’t even speak like humans, they don’t deserve the same kind of empathy that we give to our own.” “Our own?” Riley said awkwardly. “Come on kid, this really isn’t hard, we are in a class system, and that system is ranked by finances, we are not the bottom, but we are fucking close. Those pricks down there are not even the richest, and they hold wealth that we could never dream of seeing. Why? I’ll tell you why, so they can throw these massive weddings where they spend more on one day than we will earn combined in five years.” “Come on, it can’t be that much.” “Really? Because I heard the wedding planner talking about it over the phone to someone, and I know for a fact that the number mentioned was ten times our wage. So if the both of us wanted to throw this party, we would have to not spend any money, while working for five years each. Don’t defend them, I am sick and tired of people not being comfortable insulting people when they need to be. They talk big, then they feel bad because they said mean things, and then they make excuses for the hoarding fucks, and they continue to get away with what they are doing because we are too busy being stuck in a cycle of hating, empathising, and arguing.” Imogen sat up, screaming out for an instant before they started to clutch their knees close. “Look at me go, I am helping perpetuate the bullshit system by getting mad at you. Go team.” Riley slowly sat up, looking back down into the carnage they made their eyes lose focus so they didn’t have to see anything. “Did you know you call people kid when you think they are stupid?” “No, I call people kid when I know they are doing something stupid. Don’t give them a second thought, they couldn’t give a fuck about you.” “Look I don’t like them, but can they all really be that bad?” “Okay, let’s go through the list. There was the old man you groped everyone working on the wait team, and if anyone kicked up a fuss they were removed in case they caused offence to our guest. Or how about the endless stream of people who ignore the parking wardens to try and get a closer park so they don’t have to walk as far, just to get angry with the wardens for having a shit system, that was only shit because everyone acted like an entitled cunt and feel justified calling us stupid. Or the collection of people that hit on us, then call us sluts and smack shit off our serving trays when we turn them down, and even talk loud enough for us to hear them talk about how they had to turn down the helps incessant advances to their friends. Or this, this one is good.” “I get it.” “No you don’t.” Imogen yelled. “So listen. What about the times when we were talked about like a charity case by them, talking about how it is nice for us to find purpose, and be put in a positive environment by these generous benefactors that pay us as close to minimum wage, call us fucking idiots, slow, and trying, while half of them came from old money and have never even known what it is like having to actually budget for anything. They are not humans, not anymore, they forgot how to be.” “Are you telling me, that you can look me in the eye and say that those people down there deserve what is happening to them?” Imogen turned to face Riley, their eyes red with rage, casting a heat from their intensity they spoke clearly. “They deserve this, and more.” “Well if they deserve this, then what do we deserve, there are those poorer than us, to them we are the same monsters.” “We deserve a fucking break, we are not what THEY are. We do have more money than others, but the difference is if can’t work we die, if we donate any kind of money there is a good chance that our quality of life will be negatively affected, while them, they could give away millions without anything in their life changing so don’t pull that bullshit with me, I am sick of this conversation, I’ve had it too many times before.” “Maybe, if you keep having this conversation with people it means that you are a minority with what you think, and maybe …
Big Beginnings
A planet rolled and moved through the emptiness of space, it basked in the golden glow of the nearby sun as it turned gently. Above the world a deity stared down at the planet with excitement in their eyes, in their hands they held a large rock that a soft green powder was floating out of. With a malicious grin they waved their hand, and all the powder flowed back into the rock. With everything contained they threw the rock down at the planet. The humans of the planet were unaware of what was to come, they looked up at the sky as this enormous asteroid broke through the atmosphere, the green powder poured out, catching in the wind tunnels that surrounded the planet it covered the world in a fine green mist. As it descended upon the planet the air was filled with green, and small shiny flakes from the metals in the asteroid, it was beautiful. People stood outside with their phones, calling to one another to look at the spectacle, some people saw this as a sign of the end times, and retreated down into doomsday bunkers, sheltering themselves from the green powder, while half of the planet slept, and was unaware that they were breathing their last breaths. The green powder invaded the lungs of everything with lungs, taking root it spread a fungal bloom of mycelium through the intricate aspects of the lungs, their expansive root systems bound the lungs until they were unable to move, suffocating the host. In less than twenty-four hours, almost all mammalian life forms were suffocated, and left to rot where they lay. Then what happened next removed the humans as the top civilisation, overtaken but what the powder did to the fungal, and insect population of the planet Excress. Down on the surface of the planet, down by where the feet of the humans would have tread, down where their rubbish laid, there is more trash than ever before as the buildings holding everything owned collapsed, letting their goods loose upon the world. Where once they would have been seen as a burden, now they are seen as safety, shelter, even a home. As one civilisation fell, another has grown from their trash, and their bones. After leaving to find others, the deity returns with a collection of others, they all floated down to the surface of the planet, invisible to any prying eyes from mortal creatures they observed the new civilisations that had started since their departure. The original deity grinned ear to ear, while the others sighed, rolling their eyes at their comrades’ excitement. But despite their desire to bring others to see their creations, as soon as they found what they were looking for, it was almost impossible for anyone to get their attention. Beneath the deities eyes was a small, humanoid mushroom creature, running through the tall grass, where their very life was held in the combat of their own will, versus the will of the things chasing them. The mushroom leapt and slid its way through the difficult terrain, the heavy pounding of many legs behind them. They could hear the plant life behind them being crushed, and pushed aside where they had just had to volt through it all. It was not long until the mushroom tripped, sliding into the dirt the foot falls surrounded them as two comparatively enormous tarantulas stood either side of him. Under the mushroom man was its pouch, where inside was a small book with strange runes carved into the cover. “Oh my, look what I just found,” the mushroom said in a bad acting voice. “This looks like one of the books from the great tarantula library, why isn’t it fortunate you two happened to be here at this moment.” The mushroom humanoid raised the book above their head, keeping his face pressed down into the dirt. The spiders chittered at one another before one of them reached out, taking the book from the mushrooms hand. The Tarantula who took the book wandered off as the other moved around the head of the mushroom, letting it look at the side of his face where once his cap obscured it. Its voice was low, and spoke with a rumble that shook the mushroom to the core. “You live, not by anything less than the fact that you were able to acknowledge when you should have been eaten.” The spiders many eyes lit up with a green energy, telekinetically lifting the mushroom man to his feet the tarantula forced the mushroom to stare into the tarantula’s eyes. “If your ilk come through our domain again, we will bind you, you will be dragged through your city walls as we march upon your kind, and you shall watch as we destroy everything you call home, and after mangling you, we shall leave you to those that value your flesh.” The green glow in the spiders’ eyes faded, leaving nothing but black voids for the mushroom to stare into, they swallowed heavily, grasping their bag they nodded slowly, whispering under their breath they replied in the voice of a scorned child. “Understood.” The tarantula stepped away from the mushroom man, flicking dirt back on every foot fall, covering the mushroom man in a thin veil of loose dirt. The mushroom man stood very still, their body was tense, and shaking. They dared not move until the destructive sounds of the tarantulas disappeared into the distance. They took a deep breath as they realised, they had not been breathing since the tarantula stood them, the breath breaking their tense stance the loose dirt fell from them as they collapsed to their knees crying. Weeping loudly, they made no effort to be aware of their surroundings, their body still shaking as struggled to manage their breathing, their head spun, as their breaths became shallower, and the ability to hold their eyes open became even harder. But just as they could feel their consciousness slipping, they managed to bring their breathing under control, and slowly the black patches in their vision shrunk, and slowly over many minutes they became stable. They wiped the drool and snot from their face as they let out a long sigh, breathing in heavily through the breathing holes on their face, and out of their mouth. “I can’t believe I am not dead. I can’t believe they didn’t notice.” They said looking back at the groove that the spiders made through the undergrowth. “I need to keep moving, they will be back at their library soon.” The mushroom man stood back on weakened legs as they began to march away from the spider’s library. The further they moved, the sturdier their knees became, their breath became more strategic, and their purpose drove them. They ran till their body ached, and the sun began to set, painting the sky red. As they passed through the tall grasses, they passed over branch, stone, and bottle caps, and an increasing pile of human refuse until eventually the tall grasses rapidly fell away and they were looking upon a city made of human garbage. The walls were made from a collection of natural woods, and refined ice-block sticks, and chopsticks. The buildings were painted plastic takeaway plastic containers, and the city was lit with a collection of solar powered fairy lights. The inhabitants were a wide variety of fungus that walked around like people, there were some insects that walked among them as equals, and other insects and fungus that had not developed as much that had the mind of animals, and were kept as pets, or pack animals. There were even some bio-luminescent fungi that were still inert like the fungus on Earth, they were dotted around the streets to bring light on the ground level, while all the fairy lights hung far above, illuminating the high-rise buildings. The mushroom man moved through the entrance of the city with their head lowered, using the large crowds to hide their visage. Their tattered clothes were unassuming, and contributed to him blending into the mix of fungal and insectoid hubbub. “What are you doing back here Morr?” A voice called out from behind Morr. He paused for a moment, grasping at his satchel he slowly turned around. “Hey Amon, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Morr replied, keeping his eyes aimed at the ground. Morr is a plain brown looking fungal humanoid, while Morr peacocked his vibrant red, and white colours as he approached Morr. “You didn’t expect to see me in my city? Don’t make me laugh Morr, there are a lot of critters here that want you dead, or bleeding. Why have you come back?” Morr did not respond, forcing Amon to look over them, spying the tight grasp on the satchel he snapped his fingers, from behind Amon a large locust stomped over, ripping the satchel from Morr’s hands. Morr’s arms outstretched with it until the bag was lifted beyond his grasp. “Now why do you want to hold onto this so bad ae friend?” Amon was passed the bag, and he delved his fist inside, pulling out a single piece of paper with a myriad of runes, and minor incantations. Amon’s face scrunched up as he tried to understand what he had, his eyes opened wide as he realised what he was holding. He pushed the paper back onto Morr, but Morr did not take it. “Take it back, take it back and get out of here.” The Locust behind Morr squatted down, leaping into the air their wings started vibrating, allowing the Locust to fly off at speed, the sound of their wings fading as the sounds of stomping came from the other direction. Amon let go of the paper and it fell to the ground. “I am sorry, but whose city is this Amon?” Morr asked as he grinned. Amon’s eyes filled with fear as he started to run to the far side of the city, pushing through the crowds that have heard the commotion beyond the walls, but have not yet acted as they try to figure out what is happening. Morr picked up the piece of paper out of the dirt as the front gate guards called out. “SPIDERS!” The front gate was struck by an unstoppable force, pushing it flat in an instance as a tarantula stood upon it. The guards on the top of the wall moved to get to position, but were struck down by jumping spiders that leapt from the far side. “Where is what belongs to us?” The tarantula screamed through psychic powers. The city dwellers screamed, turning tail and running to the back of the city, only to find that the spiders had already surrounded the city, pouring over the walls like a wave of limbs and fangs. The tarantula eyes started to glow, and the city started to fall. The same-coloured glow from their eyes illuminated the city structures, causing them to crumble. The screams of the civilians were competing with the psychic enraged screams that emanated from the minds of the powerful spider psychers. “Where is the script, where is the page?” One of the spiders screamed as its eyes darted around the city, trying its best to find Morr. The guards of the city did their best to hold back the torrent of spiders, but despite their best efforts, the most they could do was slow it down. Morr was in a dark alley, hiding from the cacophony that he brought down upon the city, and while in the muck and grime of the city he started to recite the words that were written, their voice resonating as the magic bound to it. The runes on the page lifted from it, surrounding Morr with light, and strange coloured particles. One of the tarantula’s spotted the familiar glow and charged with everything they had at the faint light leaking from the alley way. They stomped their way …