Eons

The hero controls and is fire after a scientific accident on his home planet. A journey through time and space leads to destroying both a dead planet and a live planet.

Eons

Everyone in the room was affected by the blast. The lucky ones died immediately, the rest of us, in a sense, have been trying to join them. His experiment was supposed to change our planet, put it back to the way it was. Instead, it destroyed our home and irreparably changed us mentally and physically.

 

It has been so long since the incident that I have forgotten all of their true names, even my own. After eons of living on this planet, I have found that the human names are best as identifiers. We were all specialists in our own fields, but Jon was the creator of his; his assistant and wife, Serene, loved her home and her husband. They created the experiment to reverse our effects on the planet. The theory was simple: artificially photosynthesis carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, pumping the fresh oxygen into the air and turning the carbon into nanotubes for our ships and buildings.

 

Thanks to our safety equipment and precautions, we were able to stand in the same room as the experiment. John and Serene were the closest, followed by Ella and I, Zeke, Reaper and his wife and the other spectators. We were locked in the room and would not leave until we had succeeded or died, whichever came first. As the experiment was getting under way, everything was great. It was working better than John could have hoped. A sudden surge changed all of that, however, as everything started to go haywire. A quake occurred that was powerful enough to knock a beam loose and slammed into Reaper’s wife, killing her. All I could hear was Reaper screaming in agony at what lay before him. Dirt fell on Zeke, a fire broke out at my station and Ella was attempting to put it out. First there was a bright light, then nothing.

 

I opened my eyes and saw an endless black. ‘Where was I,’ I thought. I tried standing, but couldn’t. There was nothing to move against: No floor, no ceiling, no walls, no … gravity! I was floating! … it was hovering near me, twisting and rolling. Was it a rock … a boulder, perhaps? No, it was a mountain. How does a mountain float? It doesn’t, it wasn’t! I inhaled at my revelation, but nothing went in. I tried exhaling, but nothing came out. That giant rock, no air when I breathe… I can’t be, I would die out here; unless, I was already dead.

I can’t be dead. I’m not ready. I was going to ask her to stay with me forever, and now this. This isn’t fair. ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ Nothing d****t! This is worse than hell. Am I a spirit drifting through space with nothing to see but a stupid rock, d****t! What was I supposed to do? How is this punishment? I have done nothing to deserve this.

 

I cover my eyes and think. I need another chance, one more try at it. I do the only thing I can think of; "I know you are there, you always have been. I can do better, I can be better. I will worship you more, live my life to the fullest and always help those in need. Please, let me prove myself to you, let me show you I deserve life." Nothing happened, neither light nor answer.

 

So I was a spirit, doomed to spend eternity in a desolate place. I was alone, a state I had feared when I was home … home. The happiness I had; my friends, family, co-workers and the love of my life, I will never see them again. Neither warmth from our light nor her touch. No more wandering the woods for hours just to get away.

Days have gone by, or maybe weeks, I don’t know. This is worse than depression, I should know. I had kept my eyes closed for most of this time. I had to see if anything had changed in the "scenery." Then, I notice something different about my sight. Everything seems washed in a red glow. Even the rock is different. Did it grow or did I move closer? I see where it seems to have been broken in two, multiple times, jagged edges thrust from it while dust and debris are on it, but also floating around. This isn’t so bad. I get to study space rock in great detail without having to worry about death. I get to "live" out one of my hobbies. I need to get closer.

 

Suddenly an explosion, not from around me, but from within. I look towards my feet and I see it, a tail, not an animal’s tail, but a comet’s tail. I was a comet, with a tail red orange, emitting fire. I was on fire and speeding towards the rock! The last time I saw fire was when my instrument panel burst into flames at the experiment. What happened, what happened to me and where was I?

 

Somehow, we had all managed to meet on this rock and we had all obtained an ability associated with a fundamental element. John controlled time so he could travel through it at will. Serene gave life and was able to create any kind of life form she could think of. I was fire and Ella was water. We were opposite and had to be careful when touching each other at times unless we were cuddling and just didn’t care. Zeke became stone and found he could not only change the density of his body but also mold rocks with his bare hands. Reaper was Death, a skill which didn’t actually kill so much as break up the molecular bonds of an object. None of had to breathe anymore, not that we could in the vacuum of space. John had time travelled and found out that we were on a rock headed to a new planetary system about two light years away yet it would take us four years to get there. When we asked why we couldn’t just go back home, he sullenly said that the explosion destroyed our home and we were on what was left.

 

We started to play with our newfound abilities. We were either creating something alone or combining abilities to form something new. Reaper, however, took delight in destroying what we built by a mere touch. The worst was when he touched Ella’s leg and it fell to the ground with a splash. As she was screaming (with her facial expressions), and before I could really think, I had pounced on Reaper. I was fast enough to leave part of myself rooted where I was in the form of magma. I grabbed Reaper and forced him away from Ella. With my fiery touch, he began to burn. His skin began to boil then fall off in clumps. His hair was on fire, eyes open with fear. He was burning and I was enjoying it.

 

I was then hit with a wave of water. Ella was stopping me but I couldn’t let go. My hands and arms turned solid from the water, as was my left side. Reaper was able to break free; taking my fingers with him but the damage was done. His skin had all but disappeared as well as most of his muscles and tendons. What remained allowed him to move as before, but the grotesque features of a once normal man gave rise to a new one; his ability was now his name. shortly after this, I found I was able to regenerate what was lost and melt what had hardened. This event established two things: we were gods and Reaper just hated everyone.

 

In a simple growing field off the coast of the Eastern land, he was born. A farmers son, he had access to the tools used to reap wheat. His home was no bigger than a common shack and acres of land were used to play in. All was for naught, however, as his father scolded him for playing so much. His mother tried to comfort him, but she was reprimanded harshly until the day she left, never to return. With his mother gone and his father against anything he thought was unmanly, he never learned how to truly love until he met her. She was thought of as plain by everyone else except for him. Her hair unkempt, her clothes dirty; she was poor. Being a poor farmer himself, this didn’t bother him. He was happy with her and spent more time with her than at the farm.

 

His father did not take kindly to this relationship and one night, after he returned home, he was beaten to a bloody pulp. After relenting, his father obtained his son’s scythe, broke the handle from the blade and threw it into the main fire. Then, casting the blade aside, walked out of the room.

 

Though bruised and beaten, with blood streaming down his face and ribs aching, the son gathered his strength, retrieved the blade and went to his father. With his father’s back turned he took the blade in his hand and swung as hard as he could. Landing just above the right shoulder, the weak blow only cut halfway through the neck. Unable to retrieve blade before his father fell, he caught the lifeless body by the head and jerked it harshly to the left to retrieve the blade and administer a second, final blow. His father had cut him out, so he cut out his father and will not be refused again. As he was leaving, he threw the head of his father into the fire with the scythe pole. His payback completed, he left to find her, scythe blade in hand.

 

On his trip, any person who refused to aid him was cut down in a similar fashion to his father. When the authorities finally caught him, he had killed 33 known individuals. Due to the laws in place during his trial, his abusive past kept him from death but not jail.

 

In his solitary confinement, he began to accept his new persona as "The Reaper," given to him by the authorities for the fashion in which he killed is victims. This led him to become malnourished but not to the extreme. He became skinny, with sunken eyes and concave cheeks and he also began shaving his head completely bald. He also tried to cover himself in black, not to hide in the darkness, but to show his charred soul.

 

He was feared, but not for his crimes outside of jail. Before his confinement, he was with the other convicts. Early on another convict made a comment about his mother that did not sit well with him at which he snapped. He grabbed this convict by the head and squeezed his eyes until they popped out. Grabbing a dangling eye in each hand, he ripped them out completely. To end the insufferable screaming, the man’s head was twisted beyond breaking, resembling an owl’s ability to rotate its head around.

 

Another man tried to stop what was happening but was too late. His arm was broken at the elbow which caused his bone to pierce through the skin, then was thrown against a table, breaking several ribs that punctured his lung. He choked to death on his own blood before help could arrive.

 

The first guard to arrive hit him with his baton in his legs. These were designed to bring the son down, but all they did was enrage him more. Upon grabbing the baton, the guard’s wrist was broken and his hand just flailed around limply. The son then thrust the baton down the guard’s throat, not stopping until his windpipe was blocked and his head was stuck looking up.

 

This is when a woman yelled "STOP!" When he looked over, she was standing there, worry on her face. His anger subsided and warmth filled his heart. In this state, he was subdued, arms and legs bound and was carried away to solitary. All the while, he starred at her and repeated follow until she did. Soon, it was learned that the only time that Reaper was nice, happy and not out to kill was when she was with him. So long as they remained together and were able to go everywhere they released Reaper after his 150 year confinement. As soon as they could, they left to create a new life for themselves.

 

Years had passed since we gathered on this rock and we had time to practice with our abilities thanks to it. I was looking up and noticed something out of place. I saw a bluish red dot, no bigger than any other star behind it, yet moving by them. I could tell that it was planet just by its relative movement. As I was turning my head to show the others, an object approached and passed by. It seemed to be moving in the opposite direction, but we were just moving faster. Not a sound was made as it went by, but parts of it were shiny, almost metallic.

 

Another month or so passed and we were arriving at our ‘new home’ as John called it. That was when the realization hit that we were going to impact the planet. My first thought was to leave, so I did. I did not mean to, I just took off, like a rocket of legend. I was leaving the rock and fast; so fast that I was leaving everyone behind. I quickly did a flip in an attempt to reverse direction, and it worked. As thoughts of excitement ran through my head at this achievement, I slammed into the rock and, as before, instantly turned into magma before reforming myself. I was so caught up in flying, I forget to land.

 

During my flying, everyone else had noticed the impending doom and had gathered. As I walked up, Zeke pointed to a slab then flapped his hands imitating an Albot from home. I shrugged then went underneath as everyone else got on top. I thought about flying again and about using all my strength to lift the slab, but found it to be lighter than expected; so light that I shot off the rock with enough force that we were soon far enough away that I didn’t need to remain underneath anymore. When I joined the others, I had inadvertently caused the slab to start spinning. It was wonderful in that it gave us a great vantage point to watch the ensuing calamity but horrific in what followed. The collision between the rock and planet was so great that we started to get hit with debris. Ella was hit first and she was thrown off. In my stunned state, I noticed a boulder slam into Zeke’s chest then fall to the ground; Zeke didn’t move an inch. As that was happening, I was broadsided by another boulder, this one hurdling me through space.

Time passed by slower this time. For the first time, I felt weak. Not a feeling of giving up, but one of hunger. I hadn’t eaten in years because I didn’t need to, now I have hunger pains. All I could do was smile as it felt good.

I see another planet now, but this one seems alive. As I was flying in for a closer look, I remembered to come in at an angle to avoid another impact. After centuries of no space flight back home, I had forgotten what happened to an object when it entered a planet’s atmosphere. I was astonished when I felt nothing. I knew my fire wouldn’t harm me, but I didn’t know outside fire would have no effect. As there was no pain, I kept going and as land was getting closer, I began to notice buildings dotting the landscape. Soon I was three hundred feet from the ground and the buildings just kept growing. I had stumbled upon intelligent life.

 

Pfffft. I was hit! I never saw it coming, but I felt it. It entered through my heart and exited through my lower back. The pain wasn’t unbearable, just unexpected. When I looked up from where it entered, I notice that I am three feet from a building. Unable to stop, I hit it but, instead of splatting into magma, I broke through. In one side, out the other; tumbling as I do. I fall to the ground and land in my usual way. After recovering, I was quickly surrounded by armed beings giving me orders in a language I was unfamiliar with. I tried to put my hands up to surrender but they open fired before I could. They were shooting me with laser weapons and every shot was aimed at my chest. After five seconds they stopped. I had my hands up defensively and slowly brought them down to see what was going on. Though they were masked, their uneasiness told me they were scared. I had just survived a barrage and was now on fire. The fire was both sealing up the holes and intimidating them.

 

Several years have passed and since my time here, I have learned that they first thought me to be a weapon from their enemy, I am now thought of as a god and their potential savior from the sixty two year war, the planet is called Spe’en, I now speak their language, my name here is en’Oht and that Ella, Death and John were on this planet as well. Everything was going well, the Spe’ens worshipped us as gods and major conflicts were non-existent thanks to our interventions. The only person who wasn’t happy was Death and we were constantly trying to stop him from destroying the planet. That is, until he succeeded.

 

He had somehow created a device that would destroy anything above the surface of the planet. He had placed it on the only moon to the planet and had it pointed at the center of the planet. When he set it off, we were underground enjoying a performance of an ancient battle. After feeling the quakes and tremors and hearing the noise and screams, Ella, John and I went to investigate. Upon opening the door to the outside, the air was sucked out due to a difference in pressure. The Spe’ens died from suffocation. We would grieve later, finding Death was more important.

 

When we spotted him, he was laughing. His bomb had not only destroyed the atmosphere but also left a giant crater. In the ensuing struggle to subdue him, most of the buildings that were left standing were demolished as Death would destroy them while dodging us and our attacks. Due to the large iron content in the planet’s rocks, it slowly became red. The water was all but gone, there was no more life and the Great Spe’en Mountain was fully exposed and was now standing many miles high.

 

When Reaper was finally caught, we had to decide what to do with him. Any place he was put he could break out of, except for something made from a single, solid element. The only place we knew of such prison was in the center of a planet, but we had no way taking him to one without destroying the planet itself. Then John had a revelation. We had destroyed a planet before, exposing (presumably) its core. While he was not sure if he could do it, he attempted to take us with him back in time to when we first arrived.

 

Within a week, we were back where the impact site was and John tried his time travelling. It worked and we were watching time in reverse, spectators in what had happened. Soon we were watching the aftermath of the collision. When it happened, Ella and I raced in with Death in tow; closer and closer to the core. Upon reaching the center, there was nothing solid, everything was molten. I looked at Ella and she had changed. She resembled steam now and was cooling the area. A chamber began to form around her. Once it was nearly complete, I pulled her out then shoved death into the chamber. Between her cooling and his attempted escapes, a giant, solid prison began to form. Before she ran out of steam, she left and I stayed behind to ensure Death did not escape. Eons passed and there was now a solid iron core surrounding his prison. I had been around this core so often that the molten area around it spun, spinning the chamber in turn. When I was satisfied that he was never getting out, I headed for the surface.

 

Upon exiting through a volcano, I glimpsed a new world covered in lush green and water. I began to wander around and was soon met by everyone from the rock. Joel and Serene were drawn into the planet we hit by its gravitational pull which is why they weren’t with us on the Spe’en home world. After embracing Ella for a long time, they filled me in on what had happened during my time as jail keeper. Joel and Serene created a beautiful new world that was full of life. Ella was responsible for the water as, apparently, she could create mass amounts of it at will. John had stated that the explosion Reaper had created was of such intensity that it was identical to that of our home, but since it was on the moon, only managed to split that in two. For a similar explosion, he was unable to travel backwards through time to any moment before it, just like with home so we would not be going to stop the past. Sadly, somehow Death’s ability was emanated through the planet and affected everything but us. On home, some living things would last Millennia, here, they barely lasted a century. Everything died.

 

After the talking was done, I left with Ella to spend some quality time with her. Soon I saw something I didn’t expect to ever see again. Serene had created a life form from home out of memory. Standing near an alcove covered in white fur with pointed ears and claws was my old pet. Ella had named him Chi’nt, after the white creatures on the Spe’en world. Chi’nt did something I have never heard before, he howled at the moon whenever he saw it, day or night. With Ella, Chi’nt, the lush vegetation and all the water, I was reminded of home. It was so reminiscent of home that I gave it the Spe’en name for our home, Earth.

Author's Note

Paragraphs are just to break up the writing. I wrote this for a creative writing class in college and have most mistakes covered. I am really looking for help in filling in time gaps in the story line as it sometimes happens fast. Ideas will be considered but not necessarily used.