Ella in the Dark

This is the next chapter of The ShambElla Saga, where we last left the Queen of the Damned lost through the mystic portal of the EYEGOONS. Here is a table of contents for those who wish to start from the beginning:

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Ella in the Dark

Without form, and void.

Ella could sense her self, a spark waiting to erupt in a vast emptiness, but there was nothing to catch on, no other senses to feed her perception.

She was Ella. Her best friend in what remained of the world quipped she was Queen of the Damned.

It was true. The Damned seemed to listen and speak to her where otherwise they remained silent.

Colt and the goons. Siris. David and the Beast.

Sam. Her dear Sam.

He didn’t get his bum leg from working an honest job and admitted as much.

They flocked to her. Why?

Without form, and void.

She was aware of only her self, but from that single element struggling to spark, the darkness crawled with possibility, for what might the light reveal?

Could she speak, what would she say?

But she could not. There was no speech here. Only insatiable hunger. Hunger for any experience.

Any experience at all.

Is this the empty belly of God? she thought.

Her whole being shuddered.

Something inside her caught on something outside.

The spark fired and there was light.

It was all light now; yet still without form, still void, except:

Before her stood a man, pale, naked, shaking.

He covered his face with one hand, his genitals with the other.

“David,” she said.

Slowly he moved his hand away from his face and looked at her.

“Who are you?” he said. “Do I know you? Are you the angel—” and here he paused, and next came the child’s voice from the man’s mouth, “—the angel come to save me?”

A sob broke from the emptiness.

Whether it was his or hers she did not know.

The world broke around them, a shattered mirror, and each falling shard was her reflection or his, and sometimes, she couldn’t tell the difference, and she didn’t understand why.

Then the shards shattered again and scattered to dust, obscuring the light into bleakest shadow, darkest night.

Without form, and void.

She shook inside the vacuum. She vibrated with indignation at the imposition, at the sheer, cold malevolence of this hungry belly, at its indifference to the man and the boy, the woman and the—

—little girl found a cat, still alive. Its hind legs were crushed, but it mewed a pitiful lament from the side of the road, its paw weakly scratching at the pavement. He’s struggling to spark, young Ella thought. That thought would stick with her the rest of her life, and she would think it secretly, deep down in an isolated place. She would encounter this poor cat again and again, forever half smashed into the unforgiving road. Struggling to spark, she would think every time she had to watch someone die; but today it was just the little girl and the helpless feline. She ran home to ask her mom to please, please help her save the poor kitty, but Mom sent out Dad, and the girl was not allowed to go, and she just knew—

Without form, and void.

The vast belly growled, and she felt its rumble, heard screeching deep down, far away inside it, as if a pack of feral, savage animals fought for a piece of meat.

She smelled carrion; tasted the sour acids of dead stomachs exhaling vapors in bloated distress; saw nothing but darkness.

There was no light inside this formless hunger.

There was no soul within this void.

How could such a thing have a name?

Little David whispered:

It cannot see for it has no eyes. It cannot appreciate beauty, for it has no feelings. There is no light, no warmth, no heart, no soul. Only hunger. Absolute, insatiable hunger.

David the Man screamed:

RELEASE ME! DESTROY ME!

Intertwined with his screams, the Beast growled,

GIVE IT MY NAME, IF YOU MUST!

a bestial burst of belligerence,

REDEEM ME!

an implacable imposition,

OR DAMN ME IF ONLY TO SAVE THE CHILD!

a prelude to a demonic devouring.

STARVE THE BEAST!

Without form, and void.

All of it was gone. Just shadow now, just night, and all was black as if the light were lost and she was aware of her self, but she was fading, struggling to spark, just a thought floating aimlessly in a vast, seamless waste.

Struggling.

Struggling to spark.

Struggling to spark, scratching at the surface of eternity with a consciousness as feeble as the dying cat’s paw, Ella found her voice:

“LET THERE BE LIGHT!”

And there was.

The cat again, back end crushed, by the side of the road.

His front half black, with a white dot on his forehead.

His back half white, tragically soaked in red.

He mewed and looked up at her with wet, agonized eyes.

She bent down, gently cupping his head in her hands, no longer a little girl but a grown woman.

“My father did what he thought best, and I don’t blame him for putting you out of your misery. It was the right thing to do in that cruel world where we were all in such a hurry to prosper that we paid no mind to the creatures of the forest and field.”

As she spoke to the pitiful creature, she knew it was not just Ella speaking, but a greater consciousness, a continuity that informed her, a light that was always struggling to spark.

“I will heal you and take you from here, though I know you are just a memory. I will name you David, and we will be your companions. Undoubtedly, you are hungry, but I will feed you with love rather than out of need, and together we will starve the Beast.”

Before she could cup the mangled creature in her hands, it jumped, fully reformed, into her arms, and the rest of the scene disappeared.

Without form, the void issued one last, weak growl, speaking its name.

As the rumble of the unsated stomach receded, another took its place.

David leaned into her chest, purring, and she hugged him and stroked his fur.

It was then that she noticed, at the white end of his body, at the very tip of the tail, a black dot.

Whether it was David’s thought or her own, she could not say, and it didn’t matter:

There’s always a little light in the darkness and a little darkness in the light.

Ella turned away from the void and back to the light whence she came.

She would raise her voice for all the Damned who struggled to spark, and consume the Beast with its own hunger.

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