Flight from the Mystic Moon
I was not cold or warm… in truth… I wasn't sure of anything except that I wasn't where I was supposed to be and even that thought lasted only a few seconds. As if the world moved on by whim or will everything slowed, and by everything I meant the light. The light began to fade and when I looked down all I saw was trees and the night sky… from where I was I'd never seen so many stars… it was so beautiful that a tear dipped down my face before falling. That could have also been from my eyes stingly like you wouldn't believe.
The light disappeared completely and I fell to the ground the last few feet. I rolled on to my side gripping my head as it exploded into sharp pain that lanced through my entire body. The small weight of something falling next to me stopped the pain and in the pitch black of some odd place I picked up what my mother had left in my possession. It had not been her cards as I had expected somehow, but it was her pendant. She had shown me a number of times how it could keep perfect time.
"What the hell?" I looked around and knew for a fact I was nowhere near my home… There was no forest like this within miles and when I peered into that star spackled sky once more I realized I was no longer on earth. "I've gone mad…" Because when I looked up into that sky I saw the Earth. It hung on the black-drop of space next to sparkling gems of stars. "I can't be on the moon…" I knew that much, the moon, our moon was a dead satellite in the sky. Nothing green let alone a forest of trees and grass and air to breathe which I realized belatedly was not an issue where ever it was.
"Van… Find Van." Mother had said it. It had to be a person… a man… she also said he might be dead. And how did she know about where she was going? How did mother know I would come to a place where she knew people? Had she been here before? Had they come to see her? Again the pain throbbed in my temples so I rubbed them till the pain subsided. "Van, Van, Van…" I repeated the name to make sure I didn't forget or say it wrong… the only thing that bugged me was this.
If I was stuck on another planet… so close to earth, how come no-body's mentioned it on earth, on TV, in books? And worse yet, if it was another planet, this Van person could be any-where and nowhere close… if he still lived.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" My voice carried over the trees and I could hear it echo far off… and I could see how very alone I was. There were no lights in the distance from houses or people of any kind… everything was black. "Fuck!" I stood up and grabbed the closest thing to me and threw it as far and hard as I could. Behind my eyes the need to cry stung so I kicked and screamed at nothing to try and stop it. But I couldn't; it was ok though… no one was here on this planet so far… and what if my mother was wrong… what if this is a lifeless place… the entire planet…
It was then that I screamed. I screamed and cried and tossed more random things around to stop the feeling of uselessness.
"I want to go home! Don't leave me here, alone, in this place mother!" I blamed her… it was all I could do. I had the clothes on my back and that was it… I didn't even have my wallet. "What do I do? What do I do?" A faint flicker caught my eye and I saw the pendant mother had given me shine. It hung loosely from my shirt where it had gotten caught up with my shirt which was fraying now. I picked the thread away and lifted the pendant to my face, before me it swung slightly, its pink gem gleaming at me. "What can I do?" It continued to swing back and forth before it stopped sharply then swung hard to my left.
My mother, Hitomi, called her talents with this pendant dowsing. I was not so lucky to be apt with anything like she said she was. I did know that standing here was no good. The only thing that would change was the light once the sun had come around.
I tucked the pendant into my pants and walked in the only place I could thing to go; where the necklace had directed me. My shoes slowly became soaked as dew from the cool night seeped through them and they began to making loud sucking sounds. I pulled them off and continued on foot and in the distance the sky lightened; a flaming red.
And old saying jumped into my head… it was supposed to be for sailors and people who dealt with the ocean, but…
"Red sky at night; sailor delight, red sky at morn and sailors take warn…" A deep set feeling of ill happenings settled on me and a chill which had nothing to do with wet feet crept into my bones. As the sun continued to raise it turned the color of fresh blood and when my feet took me over the nearest hill, I could see the comparison. I could smell blood on the air as a wave of death washed over me. I stepped away and wretched my gut into the grass and stopped only when nothing remained in me. The urge to see if anyone was alive was overwhelming and I ran calling out for anyone.
I witnessed death first hand that day. When I had turned around a house and passed another, a little girl gripped my ankle. I had almost kicked her and screamed, but I bent down and realized the color of blood was not from the sun. She was soaked with it and it was still warm. 'Save me…' Shesaid to me. I pulled my hands away from her to sooth her, but they were drenched in blood. By the time I saw she was falling back, she met with the earth and rolled over. Her back looked as if she had been attacked by some huge beast, an animal. But the cuts were too clean… it had been done by blades… by fine tuned steal… not by teeth or claws.
"Saints above… have mercy…" I dragged myself away and when the smell became too much again I threw up. I had to get out of this place. So, when I'd stopped heaving, I ran. I'd never run so hard or so fast, this day, this morning I could have flown. That was when the earth began to shake… it made me run only faster, but the sound followed me, the sound was horrifying and I could almost hear my bones grinding against each other with how much the ground quaked. Instinctively I flung my-self to the ground and curled up as much as I could.. and the earth stopped its rampage. When I began to look up a flash of grayed silver plunged into the ground just inches from my face.
The adrenaline running through me was all that kept me focused. That was what allowed me to peer up the massive pillar and to stare at my death. Instantly I regretted ever having touched my mother cards. I regretted not believing her… I regretted not screaming bloddy murder.
"Mother… I want to go home now…" Nothing happened. No beam of light came to take me home… I did not wake from this nightmare. "Please…" My eyes locked on to something that my mind could not comprehend. I did what I had left to do and finally screamed.