Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 36

The Thing

The lightbringer, she and all the farmers left together to find a new home. They knew the soldiers would find the farms, after all an underground city can’t go without cultivating something on the surface. She was glad to at least have the farmers, but all she could do was spend the day crying over her dead children and saying things like,

It doesn’t matter where I go, the capital will follow me and kill anyone who helps me.

They traveled eastward along the coastline until they spotted an island in the distance. They chopped wood and bound ropes to build rafts and oars. She told the lightbringer,

I lived in that lonely island for many, many years. No one will find us there. It has enough provisions to sustain us for a long time.

They sailed the calm waters that separated the island from the rest of the continent and set foot in a beach. They dragged their rafts with them inland and hid them under covers. It was a small island, with only a mount, a forest and some sandy beaches on its shores. There was an immense run-down mansion in the forest where they would live for some time.

The mansion took months to repair. Vegetation had overrun every room, there was no furniture left and the ceiling was just one continuous leak. But she had had the foresight of building it with brick and stone instead of wood, so it would last centuries unattended. After repairing the mansion, they began cutting down nearby trees to build houses for the former farmers.

She wanted to organize a simple, close community. Both she and the lightbringer were tired of being leaders, so they tried something new: democracy. Both thought it was weak and stupid, but it made sense if they were only a handful of people who could all fit in one room to vote.

The first weeks were rough: she barely left her room, ate or even spoke. But the lightbringer was always there, cheering her up with stories and jokes, or just listening to her. Slowly she regained her will to live. The houses were finished and finally it seemed like they had a chance to live in peace. Then one day her people started coming up to her for help, some scared to death.

They all feared the same thing: there was something in the forest. At night they could almost see it, lurking, watching them. One by one, the people in the island stoped eating. They convulsed intermittently, their skin parched and their teeth fell out. Some lost their mind and wandered off into the ocean or jumped off a cliff.

It wasn’t just the adults. Kids who just a week before had been running around playing games now withered and died. In just a few days, the whole colony was wiped out. She and the lightbringer were left alone.

Now they hardly spoke to each other, spending most of their days in silent confinement. He reflected on his past life, drowning his sorrows in a sea of red wine that eventually was gone too.

One night, weeks after all her men and women had died, he saw it. It came from the sea, and he caught a glimpse of it when lightning struck the shore and shed some light on its dark figure. It was a barely-material shadow with a shape between an amphibian and a snake. In the darkness he was able to make out huge spider legs emerging from its center while its snake-like body filled with huge eyes. Then all the eyes looked at him for a second, freezing him where he stood.

He followed it with his eyes until it rammed into the mansion with a loud hissing sound. He took his sword and ran to the kitchen in the lower floor, where he thought it had crashed. There was no light in the mansion, only the occasional lightning outside. He searched the lower floor room by room, but there was no sign of it or of any damage to the mansion. Then he slowly walked up the stairs. He searched the upper floor.

He thought he heard a whisper so he followed it all the way to her room. He put his hand on the knob. It was unusually cold. He opened the door to find it, standing there. The Thing was much smaller but still retained its shape. She was standing face to face with it, and she screamed,

You know your cheap parlor tricks have no effect on me!

The Thing turned itself into a faceless human-like shadow with a large white grin.

Better?

Its voice was deep and seemed to echo in your head. She yelled,

Why are you here? Leave us alone!

It was always smiling, even as it spoke,

You know why. I know it was you. You sent them to my city. It took me a while to find out about your little mischief. I’ve come here to hear you admit it.

Get out!

It laughed at her,

You can’t boss me around, I’m not that miserable pet slave over there.

A second pair of eyes popped in the Thing’s back and looked at the lightbringer briefly, then the eyes disappeared. She threw lightning at the Thing but it passed through it, scorching her room’s wall.

Look, I have all the time in the world. You don’t. If you don’t want me around, you better confess.

She looked away in shame. The lightbringer asked,

What is it talking about?

She hasn’t told you? Aren’t you a cute pandora’s box. This whore—The Thing was so disgusted by her that it had to pause—made a deal with the same people who centuries later put her in prison. She lied to them. She told them I was planning to take over the whole world and told them where to find and murder me and my people claiming we were “dangerous”. We! Who only wanted to live in peace in our city!

Then it screamed loudly, growing larger and using several mouths each with its own voice,

You cunt had to murder them, didn’t you?

A pair of eyes and a mouth opened on The Thing’s back, and spoke staring at the lightbringer,

They sieged us, starved us and gunned us down. But the best part is why they did it. I thought about it for a long time, but only recently learned why. She wanted everything, the whole world for herself. She couldn’t leave even a small patch of land where me and a few people could live under our own rules. She knew we would have defeated any army she threw at us, so she called a force that she knew we couldn’t defeat.

And once my whole city was destroyed, guess what, she took over the world. But she did so in a subtle, sneaky and backstabbing way so her little friends wouldn’t understand. But of course they eventually did and put her in prison, which is where the bitch belongs.

She looked at the lightbringer and begged him,

Don’t listen to it, look at what it has done to us.

The Thing chuckled and said,

Done? No, just wait for what I will do. You doomed yourself when you sent those dogs on me. I loved mankind and wasn’t ready to sacrifice them before. But after what you put me through? You convinced me to bring the end. But first I’ll do to you what you did to me—

No, please.

It continued despite her cries,

I’m going to pay a visit to all those little tribes you have scattered across the world. Don’t think I can’t see them. The underground city? I told the capital about it. I’ve always known where your little projects were, just as I knew you’d get out of jail. I’ve been waiting until you were free, free to feel the pain.

The lightbringer stepped forward,

I will kill you, coward.

No you won’t.

She went down on her knees and begged,

Please don’t, not them. I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll turn myself in. But please, leave them alone.

The Thing was impervious to her cries,

I always knew why you really did it. It was never about the land and the power, was it? No, it was something else.

She stopped crying.

It was because you enjoyed watching us die. You enjoyed the pain it caused me. I know you were there, watching.

Please, I’ve changed.

The Thing kneeled down and stood close to her face.

Dear, you will never change. No one really does. You can’t help yourself, I know that. But I can help you. Just admit you did it because you enjoyed it.

No.

Fine, have it your way.

It flooded her mind with the vision of one of her communities’ descent into madness. It had done to them what it had done to the community she had brought to the island. She begged him,

Stop, please!

Admit it.

She looked at him with her vilest contempt.

Fine, yes, I did it! I enjoyed watching your city burn. I’ve killed millions for no reason, I make no sense… There, is that what you wanted to hear, you fucking psycho?

But this time there was no reply. The Thing had vanished, leaving behind only the shadow of its smile.

She started to tremble, knowing what was coming next. The lightbringer wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair until she fell asleep. But she woke up screaming in horror many times that night and throughout the following weeks. She could not rest one minute, as she was forced to feel as each of her communities was consumed by cannibalism, rape and murder.

The Thing destroyed everything she had built and made her watch every single second of it.