The Knocking on the Wall

“Present” and “Past”, “Here” and “There”. Interweaving threads of emotion cast around a torrent of space and time. Where can you stay if the very thing you fear is yourself? Do you succumb to the madness of the emptiness? Or will you struggle through the binding chains of despair? Questions asked that will never be answered. Existing in the “Present” and “Past”, the “Here” and “There” is the thing all beings fear more than any, the malice of pain. Made whole by the suffering of the universe’s interweaving threads of fear, it came to stay. Sitting between what we could see and what we couldn’t. Waiting patiently for the day it might reach out it’s hand to someone and feel warmth. It has existed since before and now, walking alongside creatures and waiting only a few feet away from them. Only when its eyes lifted to the Sol system did something unexpected happen, it smiled. A smile that defied everything the universe set in place. It was nothing more than a concept, an idea made whole unintentionally by the life brought to be.

The growing emotion of curiosity crippled the very ground so many empires stood upon. The more solidified it became, the more the universe trembled. Its desperate attempt to save itself, where it had stood before. The concept was cut from the weave, left in an impossible void of nothing. No light, no sound and no life. It sat alone in an infinite emptiness, a warning to it. Even if it had been born of nothing but idea, it could surely understand what this meant, couldn’t it? In this thought, it’s only response was to smile one more time before it vanished from thought.

With it gone from thought, the Sol system calmed as the universe finally let out its last tremble. All was quiet and still for an eon, rising to its feet after long battles of survival, Humanity stood its atop the peak of their world. Their achievements were minor at best compared to the scars that laid in space from before. The only thing noticeable of them was what had been thought to have been lost, the malice. Greed and desire burned in their hearts, craving for more they turned their gazes from the wasteland they had made to the sky. Once more the universe trembled, it trembled at their desire, their pure malice hidden deep in their emotions. They’re weaves of emotions riddle with knots they could not be saved, only delayed. So once more the universe sought to correct that which should have been lost. Gifting the few with knowledge of itself, the malice of Humanity began to boil in disparity of their own kind. The gifted few became the lords of the many, enslaved and forced to bow to their betters. The malice the universe feared was turned inward, sacrificing the few planets close to them for the many beyond.

As time went on, the lords became complacent and everlasting in their greed of power. Their “Golden Age” was at its peak, science and understanding had never reached such heights in others. Only the malice allowed such a thing, for their greed to be satiated they had to pursue all that was unknown. Conquering the final planet of the Sol system, once more they looked beyond. Their malice had only grown since the lords of the many took power. However, as all good things come, so do they end. As a butterfly beats it wings to move air, so too did the abuse of the lords tip their “Golden Age” to one of rebellion. Leading the charge against them was their own warriors bound by mind and blood to honor their every word. Reclaiming things they had lost, the many overthrew the few splintering all among the planets of the system. Smothering the ashes of death, a lone man pondering why it had come to this sat on a simple bed in a cold steel room filled with humming.

As if answering his thought, a knock rapped on the wall behind him. How could that be possible when the vacuum of space was on the other side. A growling stomach dispelled his doubts to nothing more than hunger. Shifting away from the unease that swelled in his heart. Nothing but his imagination could produce a knock outside in the endless vacuum. His continued wandering across the worlds as they had before with hunting and selling of goods filling his pockets. It came again as a month passed by, the knocking on his wall. His heart thumped with unease once more, shifting in his bed he left it as rocks hitting the side of his ship. The next day the knocking came again, louder than before. He was drifting among the outer planets, close to the Sol system’s edge. Before his eyes was nothing but faint glowing stars in the distance dancing among themselves. The knocking had made him jump, for he sat in a lone chair of his ship in the cockpit. It came from behind him the same as before only no wall was there this time.

Again the knocking twisted his heart to a knot of fear and unease. It wasn’t possible, couldn’t be possible. Yet it was, even with the knowledge of the former lords still within his reach, he could not explain this. The impossible and unknown had come again to Humanity, a man from a bloody war alone was its sole witness and victim at the beginning. Sweet beading down his face, his breath rapid and his heart beating in his ears. The louder and louder the knocking rang in the cockpit, beckoning him. His hairs stood on end and chills ran over his body in waves. In hesitance, he shifted his gaze slowly to the window. There it was, the thing forgotten and left in between all that was known. He could feel it, even if he could not see it’s form he knew it was there. Something beyond life gazing back at him from the vacuum. One final time, the knocking came and with it something that caved the man’s mind whole. A smile on the other side of the glass.