Nois

Like the titanic we thought our world was unsinkable. We thought our monuments would be everlasting. We thought our technology would save us. We thought we were so damn smart. In an instant everything we built was erased. First came the firestorms sweeping through and strategically burning away our food sources. The Amazon was decimated by cancerous flames this created an oxygen crisis which wiped out 80 percent of all life on the planet. Soon after, came the "Lights". Flashes of brilliant and beautiful lights rose from the earth. They spared us, and for a time we rejoiced. Then what rose from the lights gave us no doubt, Humanity was over.

We were their playthings. They mutated us and twisted us in to abominations. Form without shape and shape without form. They were beautiful and they were terror. They left only after they finished their “work”. We could never go back to what we were. We were no longer human. We became disconnected we waited patiently for death. But it never found us. We could not reproduce we could not connect. So those who were left, wandered.

The earth was laid flat and barren. You could see forever in any direction you looked. Time could no longer be measured. But by some twisted act of mercy we could all still dream. So we buried ourselves deep underground unafraid of the light that could emerge because we were empty. I shut my eyes and dreamed the long dream. My thoughts fixed on My old life and my family. Over time I stopped dreaming and just fell in to darkness.

Then one day , I heard it. Music? Yes! Beautiful music! Was this a memory? No! I was sure and I set my sights on above. I Clawed my way up. A life time of eternity knows how long overwhelmed me. It was unmistakable, the sound of life. I emerged from the depths. The Earth was lush and vibrant. Plants and what resembled grass of the brightest red overwhelmed my sight. The land filled with animals I had never seen before. Then the source of laughter and music captured my eye. Humans…. actual Humans. Sitting underneath the warmth of the sun. I then saw this child. Hair as light and Blue as the sky. Around his neck was something familiar to me. A locket? A heart shaped locket. He looked right at me, and I right back at his piercing moonlight eyes. I prepared for him to scream in terror. But he didn’t. He just stood there and smiled. I was sure he couldn’t see me, and for that I was grateful. I approached what seemed to be the child's mother and father and neither of them reacted to my presence.

Many questions filled my head how did these new humans come to be. How did this new beautiful world emerge from nothingness. I began to remember the attack on my world the beings of light, and rage filled me. I plunged my misshapen fist in to the closest thing next to me. It was a white fruit bearing tree adorned with blue leaves. The tree Ripped apart. The music stopped and as I looked over at its source, I saw a familiar sight. Faces filled with fear. All except the boy with the locket. He ran over to the tree. Its trunk splintered but still standing. He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around it. There he wept and mourned this tree as if he had lost his own mother. Guilt overcame me as I remembered my life before. The terror of an unknown entity destroying all I loved. I resolved myself. My world was gone and this was theirs.

They were pure. There were no borders or divisions with these new people. There was no war or sickness. Their Life was harmony, and I would do everything I could to protect them. I was immortal. I could interact with their world physically. But only so much as an open window. With that I felt a responsibility. I saved the child from drowning in an emerald green sea. I saved his father from a fatal fall. When his mother died, the site where her body was buried, blossomed with the most beautiful flowers and they never lacked water. Her grave was never covered in debris. He loved it there and tended to it with the gentlest of care.

Time flowed and the Boy with moonlight eyes became a man. His people aged slower and lived longer. He became a great leader and helped his people build incredible structures Buildings in shapes that I could never fathom. Within what seemed like mere decades they created technology that dwarfed anything we were capable of. Other than laughter they never used words, their special eyes communicated patterns. It was efficient and if you blinked you would miss it.

I walked this new earth in awe of their wonders. Unseen, I learned their language and observed their wonders. Till one day I saw a pattern string together in his eyes. Words I had never seen him use………Enemy. I began to see more and more obscure patterns in his eyes. Weapons, Death, and War. But the pattern that paused my every being. "The enemy is unseen." This Great leader then clutched the locket to his chest and did something I had never seen him do. He opened it…. I leaned in with curiosity expecting to see a picture of his mother and father. My heart sank. The pictures in his locket were worn but it was unmistakable. Those pictures were my people. A relic perhaps? Something that survived my apocalypse? A replica, a toy, merely a coincidence. My mind raced trying to make sense of it all. Then he looked right at me, with his piercing moonlight eyes. He smiled at me. And for the first time I heard him speak “Follow me”

I wasn't afraid. Surprised yes but I knew this Man. I had watched over him his entire life. So I followed him. He waved his hand and instantly we were teleported to the sight of his mothers grave. The flowers bright and as beautiful as ever. Through the red grass, the sounds of his foot steps grew closer. He stoped directly in front of me he put his hand on my shoulder. blinding pain entered my entire being. All of my bones were broken and I Screamed in anguish…. Then in searing familiar lights I was reassembled. I fell to the ground and he threw his cloak over me. I was now in his world. Beautiful as ever. But I began to choke on the air. I remember in my world the smell of freshly cut grass. However, the taste of metal and the smell of human blood filled my lungs . “It seems my forebears were, lazy on the clean up” He said. I could not speak still choking on the air. “Yet you remnant, have proven useful” tears began to fill my eyes. Gasping for air I could feel it. It was toxic. Panic filled my entire being as he continued to speak ”The “Firsts” watched this world as you have, and they saw chaos.” He knelt beside me and whispered “Weapons, Death, and War” and with those words for the first time in eternity I felt my heart sink.

“My grandfather gave me this” he gently set the heart shaped locket beside my head. “As a reminder of what such things can bring” Monsters!" I gasped. “I understand why you could see it that way however, our memory is genetic. I remember everything as if I have seen it with my own eyes. We used to be like you. Misshapen and wandering. Parallel but, never intervening. Until my grandfather plucked this trinket from the hands of a little girl who died an unspeakable death. All at the hands of an endless cycle of evil men. A girl he loved. He watched her grow and feel joy, pain ,and happiness. Then he watched as those insects…” He calmed him self and took a deep breath.

Gasping I found my way to my feet. My eyes blistered from the toxic air. Shakily I shouted as strongly as I could “This was our world!” “Yes it was.. and I will not insult you and deny it. We took your place and reshaped the very foundations of this planet. We created a paradise on the…..” “Blood of my people!?” “Yes… This air is poison to you but the smell of this grass is as sweet to me as the fruit of the tree you destroyed” I fell to his feet. spitting up blood my time was coming to an end. “We have both lived long lives” he said. “But like you I am also dying.” He reached down and picked up the heart shaped locket. He looked at it with tremendous sadness as he placed it around my neck. “In my memory I have seen trillions upon trillions of civilizations rise and fall. Technology that is even far beyond the weapons we used to cleanse the earth. But no matter how many times, they all end the same…. I don’t know if what I have done will create the everlasting peace that I have worked countless lives to achieve” Hearing his words I felt the weight of how insignificant I was. How pointless my world was in the grand scheme. Even as he lifted me up and carried my body I felt empty.

“Do you remember this place?” I looked around. “Yes this tree stump….” he placed my body carefully against it. “That tree is the girl whose locket you're wearing. All of these plants the vast vegetation they are the legacy of your people.” I looked up at him and didn’t see the monster I was building in my head” I remembered the little boy with the locket weeping over a broken tree. A boy who wept over the purest form of humanity. I smiled as he looked down at me and smiled back. Searing light once again appeared from the earth beneath him. Form without shape and shape without form. Beautiful and terrifying. Then, Just as quickly as it came it vanished. The Man with the moonlight eyes faded and for the first time, The air was as sweet to me as the fruit I now bare. On Windy days, I hear and feel the knock of the heart shaped locket against my trunk. There it remains, hidden deep within my leaves. As I sit a top a hill, looking over a grave of flowers, and a field of red grass.

A small note and thank you to anyone who reads this. Im a creative that did this on impulse. As it stands im cutting it close to the deadline I wrote this in about 4 hours today to dust the cobwebs off. It was fun and Really hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback is welcome and I wish you all the best on your creative endeavors!