Forever at Peace

Another short piece from way earlier.

/Forever at Peace/

It was dark in the forest, but a small light glittered in the night. It was tiny, no bigger than a human head, but it filled the glad with a pale illumination that made it seem like the sun in this darkness. The trees were dead, blighted long ago and twisted at odd angles and ways, the ground, a delicate green, the grass appearing to be so fragile that it might break if stepped on, shatter into a million pieces.
There was a multitude of scorched patches and places where meters of ground had been rinded and torn asunder. The sky that was presumably overhead was hardly visible through the treetops, only evidenced by the random blinking of stars here and there. The sound of a smooth stream could be made out in the distance, the calls of some animal made louder by the deathly silence.
At the glade's edge, a tall, young man with long, raven colored hair stood wrapped in a cloak of midnight. His eyes were a clear blue and devoid of all emotion, icey to an extreme and sharper than broken glass. His skin was pale, his features made of sharp planes and ice, and his hair was pulled back into a severe, high ponytail. He stood motionless and nearly became invisible within the shadows, his thin lips turned down in a semi-permanent scowl, the lines clearly etched into the skin around his mouth.
In perfect contrast, a taller man stood in the center, his lightly bronzed skin and short, wild para-colored hair, a mixture of light blue and hot pink, seemed to mock the other man. His expressive, amber eyes glowed with warmth and his constant smile, with lines of its own, was turned on the cold visitor. He was dressed in an oversized hoodie and black cargo pants with an odd number of chains dangling everywhere. His face was soft and his aura softer.

"You're early...."

The frozen voice was disinterested and the face looked bored. The other's was slightly anxious as he answered.

"I know... I was just so excited."

A fine eyebrow rose, but the eyes remained pits of frosted daggers, very disconcerting.

"About? This is hardly your first visit..."

The face appeared to light up even more, a feat to be sure, as the smile grew and the man bounced in placed.

"I know, but I wanted to show you my new spell. See, I made the sphere!"

The icey orbs shifted slowly to the mentioned object, which was floating lazily around the glade, the shadows gaining lives of their own, dancing about.

"... Oh..."

A cold hand was instantly around the others throat and frozen lips were pressed to his with ferocious force, the air knocked out of him almost. Tanned, calloused hands descended upon a smaller waist swathed in a billowing robe as a warm tongue moved to take the cool mouth before it with a moan.
The pale hand grew claws and nearly ripped the throat it was placed around out as the glade filled with a palpable killing intent. The taller one would have been dead had he not immediately jumped away from the still collected, indifferent would-be killer.

"What are you doing?!"

The hurt and fear that filled the voice was heartbreaking and the speaker trembled with a mix of the emotions, his eyes brimming with tears. The gaze that met his skewered him with its intensity and sudden disgust.

"Drop the act, it begins to bore me..."

Amber eyes widened as his mouth hung open and flapped closed just before a murderous look of rage clouded the formerly cherubic features, marring the bright beauty. A rough voice replaced the formerly lulling drawl.

"How did you know...?"

A smirk that was just as cold as everything else took over.

"First, he is never early, late maybe... Second, that man has enough laziness for the world, a spell to light up a glade is hardly on his list of things to do--"

Just as he was fixing to continue, the other man shrieked a word in an odd language and a great ball of burning energy flew towards the dark clad figure. He did not even bother to flinch as he opened his arms wide with a muttered string of words in the same arcane tongue and the flaming sphere struck a wall of invisible force. He gave his attacker a reproving glance.

"Now, now..."

In a sudden flurry of motion, he drew his hands together with another few words and large sparks of electricity crackled to life and danced between his palms. He threw his hands towards his enemy and a bolt of energy lanced out in a great arch and struck its target. The other screamed in agony as the energy danced over the flesh of his face and right side, instantly cooking it and boiling the blood beneath it. Soon, the charred stuff broke, resulting in an eruption of smoking, congealed ooze. Disinterested eyes jumped over the still smoking carcass after it hit the ground.

"He is also a much better kisser..."

"I'll remember that..."

The raven haired youth turned towards the grunting voice, barely able to defend against the spell that was launched at him as the body behind him fell to bits and pieces. He let the sonic energy swirl around and encase him, drawing his defenses in close to his body and let the spell spend itself. As it ran its course he looked to the being standing before him. It could have been called a man, but really, it was more of a hulking golem, one of his more regrettable failures... if he had the capacity to truly regret.
It's eyes were red-veined and its head pressed flat with razor sharp teeth protruding everywhere. Its tall body was lithe and its hind legs slim, though muscular, still unable to bare its full weight. Its forelimbs were huge and muscled, claws dripping with an acidic poison in place of real digits, its tongue constantly lolling out of its permanently drooling maw.
Thin lips curled in utter distaste.

"You were the last time I tried to create a sentient construct with real intelligence... I had such hopes for you... But I never should have given you that particular ability... among others..."

As if on cue, a wind rifled through the still lit clearing and the semi-furred skin seemed to blow with it. Bone, blood vessels, muscle, its very innards were suddenly visible, a gruesome, horrific picture, which would have forced anyone else to look away. Cold, blue eyes remained fixed and critical, as though grading a science project of a disliked student, looking for any and every little mistake or misplaced item.
The beast howled and the wind settled down, its skin seeming to simply reappear. Its voice was guttural at best, a miracle it could speak at all, hardly what its maker was looking for.

"You and your 'high hopes' ruined my life...!"

Manicured brows shot up in genuine surprise, though the voice was still devoid of anything even remotely linked to human emotions.

"You have actually regained your memories...?"

The thing snarled and took a step towards him. All twelve feet and four-hundred and fifty-something pounds of muscle straining to lash out at this man who was even more of a monster than it.

"I had a wife! Children! A family that I loved and cared for... Not that you'd understand that, whelp!"

The immense sadness and crushing despair that laced that sentence somehow managed to come through despite the hatred and anger that comprised it. Thin, presumably pale, shoulders gave an almost-shrug.

".... I am.. sorry..."

The golem stopped everything, even breathing. The voice that had spoken those words seemed to have thawed a bit, seemed almost... genuine, sincere. However, this was the destroyer of countless people, one who would kill you, stab you in the back without so much as blinking should you have the misfortune of standing in his way. This one made a pit fiend seem like good bed company.

"No more of your lies--!"

"I am not lying... I am sorry."

That definitive statement literally took the monsters breath away, ripped it from its chest as its heart stopped beating...

"However..."

The pale lips muttered something as the hand moved in an intricate pattern and before the beast could think his heart clenched and his chest burned, a searing pain that filled his body and forced him to howl a miserable howl that filled the glade with heartwrenching sadness and frustrated anger that mirrored the glazed look in its eyes. As it fell to the ground, its voice spent and its body limp, its still beating heart appeared with a ruby red glow in the outstretched hand of the man just before it blackened and disintegrated, falling to the ground like its owner, nothing but a pile of ash.
Eyes, filled with pain and regret, self-loathing flashing within their depths, gazed upon the massive body as the hand fell to its owners side.

"I am sorry... but I promised him that I would clean up my messes, all of them... No matter how special you were... you were still a mess..."

He began clearing the area before the actual man arrived for their previously planned evening, paying special attention to his fallen adversary, a man with soft brown hair and silver eyes that were now glazed over in sleep, forever at peace, hopefully with the family that had been taken from him...
 

Author's Note

Probably more grammer problems in this one, best to just ignore them.

Reviews

[Richard]

Another good story, like Innocent Corruption. The email you sent me seems to suggest that you don't rate your writing ability very highly, but I disagree. It may benefit from some re-wording in places. For example the sentence "The trees were dead, blighted long ago and twisted at odd angles and ways" would sound better if you removed the last two words. This, however, is just a matter of proof-reading and editing, and I don't know how much time you spend on this.

Regarding you comment about grammar, there weren't any problems I could see. The first time I read through it I thought I saw a mispelling of 'glad' for 'glade,' but I don't seem to be able to find it now. I don't know if I was mistaken or if you have corrected it since then. Other than that, there was nothing I could see.

I would also be interested in including this story in the first issue of Babel's Gate. It would need a little editing, if you are happy with this. The story would, of course, remain your own work and you would still receive full royalties for it's inclusion.