Old and New

Really old work.

/Old and New/

It was a flawless sunny day, balmy skies, slight breeze to cool the skin. However, contrary to the current perfect conditions, there was hardly a soul walking on the beach. The sand was crisp, white, tiny shells and crustaceans littered at random. The waves of the sea rolled in gently, calm and cheery, glittering blues and greens. Sea birds whirled in the air, looking for the next meal, the next hapless, fishy victim. As the tide fell back, small pools and eddies were revealed, small, isolated worlds all their own. The creatures within remained oblivious to the events of the multiverse and they were unwittingly better off for it.
A boy, his short blond hair swept neatly to the side, stood gazing out over the ocean, a fathomless being deserving of fear and recognition. It seemed to breathe, to cry out to him, for him. His deep blue eyes surveyed the horizon as his neat collared shirt and pressed pants were unceremoniously sprayed with sea foam, his bronzed skin seeming to glow in the sunlight.
His lips curled into a wicked smile as the wind suddenly picked up, small twisters and dust devils dancing across the formerly serene beach. The waves became larger, angrier and more fearsome, the water darkening to match the blackening sky. As the sky was suddenly and without warning scorched by multiple forks of blue lightning, a funnel came down from the sky and touched the surface of the ocean. The resulting waterspout was a sight to behold, all power and ferocious aggression despite its seemingly limited mobility.
A tall man, his long brown hair flying messily in the windstorm, slowly stalked towards the seemingly hapless child. His clothing was ragged and sad, torn shorts and a barely-there shirt. He could not have been any older than thirty, but his weathered face and metaphorically sodden flesh cast him as much older. His eyes, an equally fathomless gray, seemed ancient and pained as he made it to the twelve-year-old.

"So.... You're it then?"

The boy barely deigned to respond to the quarry as tendrils began to snake from the waters roiling edge. They slowly, languidly twisted and coiled towards the elder and the lightning began to dance around the still growing waterspout, the electrical charge giving it even more power, a dangerous beauty began to suffuse it. The wicked smile of the boys lips bloomed into a maniac's grin as his creation continued to consume the resources offered to it.
The old man's face fell as the tentacles finally grasped him, wrapping around his wrists, ankles, and waist, one swaying in front of his face, sometimes teasing his neck.

"Come now, Jacob..."

The boy turned, finally facing the man. His eyes were brimming with resentment and a sudden emotional surge of powerlessness and acute loneliness. His body said that he was fine with this, that this turn of events was inevitable and therefore fine. He could cope and adapt, move on and become what he was destined to, even if that was nothing.
His eyes, they screamed in anguish, liquid pain swirling within them. As though to mirror this, the sky-high waterspout suddenly became unstable and collapsed, crashing down into its watery realm. A split second later, the whirling motions intensified as the waters surface continued to sink and a maelstrom was born, inescapable, untouchable. The lightning continued its dark dance and the wind began to howl a great, gut-wrenching dirge.
The boy opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by his captive's words and wry grin,

"It's alright. Remember, we've done this a thousand times already. Nothing too bad."

The boy nodded, his soul seemingly tearing down the middle. He closed his eyes, the swirling monster stopping and instead belching a thousand tons of water into the sky, as his lips compressed in a grim line of determination. Suddenly, much like the lightning, the last free tendril lashed outwards, scoring the man down the middle, cutting him open and nearly in half. However, instead of blood and gore as the end result, a bright flash overtook the beach, the water returned to its rightful place in the sea, and the boy teetered unsafely.
As he regained his balance, he looked upon the remains, nothing more than a few ripped and torn pieces of cloth now, and shook his head with a sigh of relief.

"At least I have a better lifestyle now. That was beginning to irritate me. Besides... 'Jacob' suits me so much better."

The boy walked down the beach, whistling a tune to himself that only he and the balmy sky and calm ocean still knew, his gray eyes seemingly even older.
 

Author's Note

I have no idea where I was going with this when I wrote it...