Soma Point
For many years, Once-ler has observed his Uncle Ubb's daily ritual. Every evening, right after supper he would take his 20 gauge shotgun, a bottle of whiskey, and go out onto the back porch from sunset until dark. He had tried to ignore it for such a long time, but curiosity has its ways. He stands at the screen back door, looking out at his uncle; sitting on a worn wicker chair, gun in his lap and bottle of whiskey in his hand. Periodically, he takes a swig from it as he stares out into the field behind their house. Finally, curiosity gets the better of him, and Once-ler steps outside onto the back porch.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Uncle Ubb?" he asks, cheerful. Ubb says nothing, not even breaking his gaze to look at his youngest nephew. After a few moments of silence, Once-ler speaks up: "I'm gonna look, too, if that's okay." He crosses his arms and leans against the wall of their antebellum mansion. Just as he was beginning to get bored and contemplate going back inside, he sees something moving in the distance. Through the break in the weeds, he sees something: naked, milk-white skin. It is vaguely human, though its spindly limbs are twice as long as they should be. Its head is plain and egg-shaped.
"Go inside, Once-ler." Ubb says, raising his gun and leveling it in the direction of the creature.
"What the hell is that thing!?" Once-ler asks, panic in his voice.
"Go inside right now." Ubb says through gritted teeth. The young man turns, running as hard as he can back inside, the screen door slamming behind him. He hears the bottle of whiskey drop to the wooden porch and shatter, followed by three gunshots. Once-ler, unsure what to do, goes to the dining room and sits, silently at the table, trembling slightly.
"What was that? What the fuck was that!? Jesus Christ! I-I have to stay in here-what the hell was that thing!?" He looks around, the silence just making his anxiety worse. "Why the hell isn't anyone else concerned about this?! Three gun shots, and no one gives a fuck?" He buries his head in his hands, his ebony hair slipping through his thin fingers. After quite a long time, Ubb walks into the room, the shotgun slung over his shoulder. "What the hell was that, Uncle?" Once-ler asks, frustration barely concealed in his voice. Ubb just looks over at him as he places the shotgun back in its cabinet.
"Don't worry about it, Once-ler. In fact, pretend you didn't even see it, okay?"
"How the hell am I supposed to do that? It looked like it came right out of hell; right in our own back yard, and you tell me not to think about it!?" The middle-aged man shakes his head.
"Just don't think about it, Once-ler. It's dead. Go to bed."
"Yeah, like I'll be able to do that..." he says, sulking as he wanders off to bed.
As he lies in bed that night, he hears a scratching against his bedroom window. Thinking it is just a branch, he rolls over, trying to ignore it and get some sleep-his mind still buzzing from the nightmare he had just witnessed only a few hours ago. The scratching grows louder, as if it is trying to piss him off. Already in a bad mood, Once-ler gets out of bed and walks to his window, intent on snapping the branch scratching his window and ending its unwanted shenanigans right then and there.
As he pulls back the cadet blue curtains, he sees a pure white face with a perfectly round maw lined with rows of pointed teeth, an impossibly long, coiling black tongue and huge, staring black eyes gazing back at him. Its long, tapering hands scratch at his window. Once-ler screams and pisses himself. Falling backwards, he does the only thing he can think to do; scurry backwards until his back hits the opposite wall. His family enters the room just as the beast breaks through the glass. As it lunges at him, Ubb shoots the creature, dead center of its body with his 20 gauge. It smacks into the opposite wall, black blood splattering against the light wood floor and pale blue wallpaper of Once-ler's bedroom. Without speaking a word, Ubb walks to the flailing, dying creature and shoots it, point blank, in its egg-shaped head, splattering snow-white flesh, bone, grey matter, and black blood all around.
"There, it's dead." He turns to Once-ler. "I told you not to think about the damned thing, Once-ler. You see it, it sees you. You think about it, it thinks about you."
"But you said you killed it!"
"There are more than one. If there is one of something, there has to be more, boy." Chett chuckles, pointing at Once-ler's crotch.
"Once-ler pissed himself!" he says, guffawing along with Bret.
"Shut up, Chett." Ubb says. Isabella says nothing, and Grizelda stands, wide-eyed and silent. "Once-ler, clean yourself up, get dressed, and come to my study. I have to talk to you." he turns to his little sister. "Isabella, you tell the others. You know what's going on here just as well as I do." The normally head-strong woman nods.
After cleaning himself up and getting dressed, Once-ler enters the family Patriarch's office to find Ubb sitting behind his nicely polished wooden desk, a shotgun resting on it with a case of rounds.
"Sit." he says, motioning to the chair opposite of his. Once-ler does as he is told and Ubb stands up.
"There is something about your mother and I. We've chosen to keep it secret from you and your brothers." He turns to face the young man, unbuttoning his shirt. Once-ler knits his brows, unsure of what his uncle's going to do. "Isabella and I were born and raised in a place called Soma Point, far from here. Soma Point isn't a normal place." he says, dropping his voice. His shirt is now open and on his bloated abdomen, near his navel, is an odd, esoteric symbol in jet black. It is a black mass with black tendrils extending from it, coiling in swirling, undulating patterns. A single eye dominates the center of its body. "In Soma Point, every 25 years, six children are born with this mark." he sighs. "On our 25th birthday, we are taken away by creatures like those two I killed today."
"Does mom have that mark?" Once-ler asks, his voice quiet, barely above a whimper.
"No. She wasn't born at the right time and I am grateful for that." Once-ler puzzles over something for a moment, then asks:
"You're way over 25, Uncle Ubb. Why weren't you taken away?" A sad smile crosses his lips.
"I ran. When I was 20 years old and your mother was 14, the two of us ran. It had never been done before. Our mother helped us escape." he hangs his head, "I try not to think about what happened to her because of that." He looks back up. "Even so, we never truly escaped that place. Your mother is lucky. She got to live a somewhat normal life after Soma Point...haven't you ever wonder why your Aunt Grizelda and I have no children of our own, Once-ler?"
"Well, maybe I figured-"
"Marked people like me cannot have human children. Those who are Marked can only breed with those things that I killed today. The results are inhuman abominations called Brotherhood Assassins."
"Why?" He asks, disgusted.
"Many years ago, Soma Point was at a turning point. Crops were failing. People were getting sick and dying and no one could do anything about it. The town Vicar in those days, Babson Wright, found an old god. He, along with the three other founders, pledged our town to that demon so that Soma Point could thrive. They cursed us."
"Why are you telling me this, Uncle Ubb?" A somber look crosses the man's face as he sits back down, fastening his shirt.
"How old are you now, Once-ler?" He asks, lacing his fingers.
"I'm 22; you know that, Uncle Ubb." Ubb gazes into the younger man's eyes.
"Because they failed to get me, they want you as a replacement."
"What about Chett and Bret? They are 25."
"They're too stupid to be of use for anyone. Even demons have standards." he scoffs. A sick look crosses Once-ler's face.
"Am I...they're not going to make me...breed with those things, are they?"
"I don't know," he says, shrugging, "They sure as hell will try, though." He scoots the gun and ammunition to his nephew. "That's what this is for, Once-ler. You have to leave. Pack only what you absolutely need-and not that damned guitar-and leave tonight. Take this gun, stay safe. Never stay in the same place twice or for too long. Try to stay in large crowds. The Brotherhood hates witnesses. It's how Isabella and I stayed alive for so long."
"What about you guys? What if those things come back?" Ubb smiles and laughs a little.
"Once-ler, please. You saw me handle those two today. I've killed a damn sight more than that over the years. I can keep the rest of the family safe if any come back. Your mom knows how to handle them, too."
"Then why can't I stay here? Why do I have to go out there all alone?"
"There is a chance that they won't come back with you gone. I am so sorry to have to do this to you, Once-ler, but I have to think of the family as a whole." Once-ler holds back tears. He can't believe this; that his family would abandon him like this.
"So you're just going to send me out there to die!?" tears roll down his cheeks and anger and betrayal burn in his voice.
"Once-ler, please! Try to understand!"
"No! Fuck you!" He looks down at the shotgun on the walnut desk. "Why not just kill me now, Ubb? You're sending me out there to die-let's not pretend that that isn't what this is-"
"It isn't-"
"No, it is. Just take that goddamned gun and blow my head off right now. That way I won't suffer." He cocks his head to the side and raises his shoulders in a mocking manner, "Unless that's what you want?"
"Once-ler, listen! You may not believe it, but you have a better chance out there than you do in here-"
"But you just said that you can handle any of them!"
"One person is a lot harder to find than six. Despite the fact that you're tall as hell, you're boney and have always been able to hide well and run fast. You really are safer out there than in here! Listen to me!" Hurt, Once-ler snatches the gun, slings it over his shoulder, and takes the case full of shotgun shells in his other arm.
"Fine. I'll go pack, but I never want to see any of you ever again."
"It would be better if you didn't."
"Fuck off, old man." Once-ler says, leaving the room and heading upstairs. In all-out sobs, Once-ler throws changes of clothes, a spare fedora, and some blankets into a backpack. He ties the munitions case to the back through the tent-straps, and grips the shotgun in his hands. Without even so much as looking at his family, he steps out the front door and is gone.