Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Teaser...

ENTROPY GATE - DARKNESS AFTERMATH

prolog

Entropy Gate
Darkness Aftermath

Chapter one

Rain falls. It falls and falls and crashes through the rafters. It eats away at the streets and sidewalks. It gouges the ground with an unrelenting fervor.
Rain falls every day. Each and every day the thunder crashes and the clouds spew out their innards. It just never stops. No. That isn’t true. I’m twenty-nine years old. In my entire life I have experienced two days without rain. Now granted, it wasn’t two full days. It was three hours the first day. Strangely enough, it was on my eleventh birthday. And then it stopped for an hour on my sixteenth birthday.
Rain falls. And those two days of respite, I could not enjoy the sun. I felt a strange warmth on my skin, but there was nothing to see. I am blind. We all are. Marrick, Delt, Father, all of us. Every single one of us on this world is without sight. Delt says that the radiation caused our blindness. Father says its God’s wrath because of who we are.
Rain falls and we can’t even see it. I have never seen color or light or rain. I am told, by the elders, that rain falls from clouds. Clouds are in the sky, which is somewhere above me. But how high, I can only guess. Seven generations have lived here. Here, of course, is Home.
I’m going to miss Delt.
And Marrick.
And Father.
And the rest. I’ll miss them all.
As I walked through the deep mud of the central street today, I came across a body. I felt his face, his hands, his clothes. It was Delt. I am certain.
They’re dead. All of them. I hope to be able to explain why they died. Why so many died at my hands. Why it all had to happen. And I hope and pray that God will find it in his heart to forgive me. I tried to do what was right, but in the end, it came down to the sword. It came down to the blades. I tried to save them, but I failed.
Rain falls. It falls and washes the blood from my hands.
My name, as it was given, is Sister Gwyn. I am told that the title of Sister was given to holy women on Earth. I have no knowledge of Earth or of true holiness. What I did was not an act of God, but an act of survival.
Rain falls and I realize that I have rarely known the feeling of dryness. Except in my heart. My heart is dry. Dry now that it has all ended.
Rain falls, but it can not wash away my guilt.
This is the darkness aftermath and I am the survivor…

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