No Longer Willing

Nicholas stood on the cliffs of a new world, the wind ruffling his unkempt hair. The waters rose below him against the sheer cliffs, slowly shedding layers off the hardened stone. The black waters glistened under the moon’s light that rose through the sky above. Their pale light illuminated the white caps of the waves as they crashed toward the shoreline. He turned back towards the open fields behind him, watching as his horrifying creations fought one another for control over the land. He sighed and stepped from the cliffs, levitating over the raging ocean below him. The sounds of the fighting monsters faded into the background as the wind rushed past Nicholas’s ears.

Using the silver shimmer, Nicholas navigated over the ever-turbulent ocean beneath him. Slowing his pace, Nicholas allowed himself to observe his surroundings. He had moved past the stirring ocean and found himself in calming swells. A calm wind surrounded him as he floated inches above the peak of the waves. Syncing his breathing to them as he calmed himself. With each rise of the swell he breathed in, passing underfoot, he held his breath briefly before breathing out as the swell passed by.

Nicholas, lost in thought, spoke to himself.

“Here I stand alone once again, this time with more sorrow in my heart than once before. Somehow happiness always leaves me with the bitter taste of defeat. An emptiness that affects others, the truest form of empty.”

Large bubbles started to rise to the surface of the water, along with them came the wails of the creatures that lived in the depths of the seas. Their strange and varied cries resonated through the air as the heat from their breath boiled the water around them.

“Not even the conflict of the beasts below the seas could cheer me up this time. Somehow the emptiness inside me consumes all that I try to fill it with. A never-ending pit in my stomach that consumes all, even my very emotion. Left empty of life and meaning, I start wandering once again. Looking for the thing to fill the hunger that lies within me.”

Nicholas continued his march across the landscapes. Remaining but an arm’s reach above the land as he went. Encountering many people along his way, he watched as they fled from his being. An act that used to excite Nicholas is now nothing. He has no desire to pursue them, just the want to lay on the ground and sleep, a desire that consumes most of his days. The others just aimless wandering. Without his desires, he lacks the passion to act as he once did. A beacon of blight now less than a flame that struggles to keep itself alight.

Nicholas’s feet started to clip the ground, his feet dragging through the muck until he finally found himself lying down in the grasses. Falling face first, he lay in the blood that dripped from his nose. He could feel the grasses tickle his skin as they withered and shrunk in form, recoiling from his blood. Slowly all turned to ash as they reacted to Nicholas’s toxic presence. As time drew on, the ashes stirred with new life, parasitic insects started to crawl and fly from the ashes draining the life of the flora and fauna around Nicholas. The longer he stayed, the more his ash spawn started to develop. Before long, beasts were climbing from the ash, terrorizing those who had started to gather to watch Nicholas. As those who remained fought with the creatures that spawned from the ash, Nicholas’s caustic body started to burn into the planet, his body slowly carving its way through the stone it laid upon.

Slowly etching his way down, Nicholas descended further into the planet, his body picking up speed the longer he lay still. Falling through massive caverns, Nicholas quickly made his way to the center of the planet, where he discovered a sphere of cold energy. Not even the cold of space could compare to the frore of the center of the planet. His thoughts fell blank as he concentrated on trying to warm himself. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not move. The frozen air of the center of the planet freezes Nicholas solid. He continued to struggle against his frozen limbs, trying relentlessly to shatter the ice that continued to form over his skin. Layers of ice flaked from him as he struggled, but more would form before he could move freely.

Slowly he came to terms with his new icy tombs. His struggles lessened, and his mood lowered. Curling into a ball, he allowed the ice to form around him. The ever-hungry pit in his stomach slowly eats away at Nicholas’s physical form. Sealing him from the world, he sat alone on the ice, no longer willing to fight back.