The Evil

Night, mid spring Journal entry 444

The Change

We were together, you and I, for a number of years. With you I experienced the most magic I never knew existed in this world. I also experienced the darkest depths of a human soul. The insanity that love can cause.

But none of that matters now, we are not afforded such luxuries anymore.

Now all there is, is survival.

The current year, I’m not sure. Standard clocks and calendars have long been abandoned. There is only day and night. The Evil has taken over all of existence. We don’t know exactly what The Evil is, only that it is a shapeless entity that consumes everything it touches. The Evil purged the earth and continues to decide who lives and who is “put down” as they call it. If a person is of means, has connections, or can be manipulated they are not only spared but live in The Upper. A place of plenty, of light, and leisure. Everyone else is sent to live in The Lower slums dark, wanting, and hopeless.

I am in The Lower. Everyone I know is gone. You are the only one I don’t know the fate of. In my heart I know you’re down here somewhere, you would never succumb to The Evil like so many did and I can’t bring myself to consider the alternative. It has been months, maybe even over a year since the Evil has taken over. I have no reason to believe I’ll ever find you, and even less reason to believe you are still alive.

We don’t really know the criteria of who in The Lower is allowed to live and who is put down. We don’t even know if there is a criteria. All we are certain of is that all of us have lost the majority of those we know. Either to The Upper, or to death. Communication was severed before The Purge, a great and terrible event where families were ripped apart and many, many of our loved ones were sent to be put down. If you were not in direct contact with someone while The Purge was being carried out, you had no idea if they went Up, Down, or died.

Those in The Lower each has seemingly meaningless Assignment we must work on each day. At random, our Assignments must be submitted to The Council for review. If the Assignment does not meet the approval of The Council you’re put down.

We are allowed limited “free time” where we can go to the “movies” which are just propaganda for The Evil and how necessary it is. We can also go gamble our few dollars at cheap shanty casinos or wander The Lower and try to simply exist. We have generations old cars to try and get around though there is nowhere to actually go. The cab drivers are not to be trusted. Though they are Lower like we are, they work for The Upper in hopes if they expose enough Rule Breakers they may be granted access to the Upper in their last few years of life.

It is after Assignment Hours and I go into the movies if only to have a semi comfortable place to sit and rest.

And I see you.

You are thin but it is you. In that red beanie you always wore.

Against every sensible thought in this senseless palace I rush to you, instantly forgetting all the misery for just a little bit. Everything around us melts away and there is happiness and safety and magic and wonder. We are actually smiling and laughing. The small heart shaped locket I managed to keep leaves an imprint on both of our sunken, dehydrated chests.

A booming voice comes over the theater’s loudspeaker, but we hardly hear it in our joy:

“WELL, this will certainly take the focus away from today’s movie.”

We leave and hail a ramshackle cab to head to the “Casino” to just be together, still absolutely elated we found each other. You open the door for me and as you go around back to get in the cab the driver slams into reverses and hits you. Badly.

I’m absolutely terrified. In this place, if a Lower gets injured they are nearly always and immediately killed. There are many methods of being put down. All are tortuous. I run out and throw myself onto your injured body, just waiting for “The Vampires” or something equally terrifying to come get you.

But no. Nothing comes. Somehow you are OK. Shaken, but OK.

We end up wandering to the “Casino” on foot. The games here are childish, and nearly impossible. We enter a room where all you need to do is get a ball into a small paper cup. The game costs a very precious $2, and if you get the ball in you get $3 back.

Something has started to change in me. Suddenly I can see the rigging on this game, albeit fuzzy. I can just make out how to aim and how to get around the unseen cheat of it, and I make in 2 of the three shots! I am rewarded with $5, and this is a big deal. You are very proud.

We are still glowing even just being near each other as the sun starts to sink. In The Lower women must report back to their sleeping quarters before the sun sets. If they don’t they are fair game for the creatures of the night. Men do not have this requirement, and are not allowed near the women’s quarters. We hold each other tight one more time, and whisper where to meet tomorrow. The heart shaped locket further imprinting on our chests.

I am running home with floods of others who have realized they have also stayed out too late. People are quite literally clawing at each other to get up the hundreds of steps to get inside. Someone digs their sharpened nails into my shoulders to try and climb over me, but I manage to make it inside.

“The House” is just one big warehouse filled with rows of cots. It’s dirty and it’s putrid but it is safe, so to speak. I get into my cot when one of the doors open and a House Watch booms:

“ALLISON what is THAT THING you were with today?!” The Evil does not see us as people.

“It’s not what it seems. He is just using me for pleasures and I know that.” In attempt to lie my way out of our apparently forbidden interactions today.

But it’s too late. The wall opens and The Giant that lives in the house emerges. The Giant is one of the creatures that judges your actions and decides your fate. That fate is always death.

“Allison, come with me.” He is calm, almost gentle in his tone but I know that doesn’t matter. I know I am going to die. I should be afraid, and to some extent I am. But for some reason, I stand with no sign of fear in my eyes. My hands do not shake as I put on my best clothes (which are just old ratty pajamas) my legs do not fail me as I walk past the hundreds of eyes belonging to my housemates. The Giant is rarely used as a judge, saved only for the most heinous of crimes.

I step through the huge doorway and the wall closes behind me. I am in a large room dimly lit by candles. There is a slight damp musty smell but it is like mountain air compared to the warehouse itself. There is an altar at the back wall with amulets, potions, crystals and several other objects I can’t make out. There is a throne behind the altar and a mirror behind the throne.

In front of the altar there are two small tables. Each table has what appears to be an egg on a tall silver pedestal. One of the tables has a chair behind it and there you are. Sitting awaiting your fate. You must have known I was coming due to the other table being there, and despite this being the end, you smile that I am there. I find it odd that there is no chair in front of my table.

“Sit” as the Giant motions towards the empty table. I take a seat on the ground, close by you but not close enough to touch.

“You will both drink this poison.” The Giant is referring to the egg-like figure on the tables.

“Under nearly every circumstance this will prove fatal. Allison, however, you may survive this.”

For a moment I am relieved, I have a chance. That moment is fleeting as I realize he did not say you may have a chance. But you are happy, you are willing to do this with me so I might live to see another day and with one last smile and no hesitation you take your egg and consume it.

“NO!” I scream over and over

There must be some sort of backup plan for those who hesitate to meet their fate as the Vampires start to come out of the mirror behind the main altar. They are not vampires as you would think but rather stout, goblin like creatures. Blood red, scaly, oozing skin with long, dripping fangs used to rip your flesh chunk by chunk.

As hundreds of vampires start to ascend on us I grab my poison and swallow it whole. Maybe if I take it we can at least die together, in one piece.

But I am not dying. I am changing, evolving almost. Suddenly I start to take the form of the Vampires, but in form only. My mind is still mine. In fact, the fog that we all walk around in living in The Lower is lifted. The feeling I received when I found you in the theatre is back and strong.

I am a fully formed Vampire, but bigger, stronger, faster, glowing white. This confuses the actual Vampires and they start to fly in an upward spiral. I go after them, breaking their wings and ripping them open two and three at a time.

From nowhere you are next to me again, in the same form as a White Vampire. Together we battle them all as one by one they fall to the floor of the Giant’s room screeching in agony.

The chaos is over we descend slowly, circling each other as we change back into human form. The Giant is gone, and there is a strange peace to the room. The world itself is no different. The Upper and the Lower still exist. But we are different. We are not like anyone else in this world now. We have a glimpse into the rules the Evil is playing by.

A hidden door opens and we find ourselves in a small courtyard. The gardens are unkempt, the fountains are dry and cracked but compared to where we live, it is paradise. There is a small granite building in the courtyard, a home almost. Standing in front of the building is a tall, slender woman. She has silver hair, alabaster skin and emits a sliver light. She is not smiling, she is not happy we have arrived here but she must follow the rules.

She hands each of us one piece of the same crystal. It is a clear crystal that refracts every color of the universe. The two pieces are tear drop shaped but flat at the top where they are to be joined together someday.

We hang each of our pieces in the windows of the building, as I begin to go around and will the trees and flowers back to life in this new place we find ourselves in.

This is not the end of the entire story. But it is the end of this one.