The Dawn of Destruction, Chapter Four (clean)

                 The Dawn of Destruction

Interitus 1 – Book One

Chapter Four

 

            “Seth… do you ever wonder what’s out there? You know, like on the other side of all this? I don’t think this is everything… or is that just wishful thinking?”

            Seth glanced up and saw Iris running her right hand across the smooth bark of a tree. Leaves and branches whistled quietly as the mountain breeze drifted through the forest, but her hair was untouched by the wind. It rolled down her back in stillness, and because it was so uncharacteristically motionless, he could not even see the indentation of her seashell earrings in her hair.

            “You’ve been writing a lot to your Chinese pen-pal guy, haven’t you? I swear, Iris, every time you guys talk, you get some kind of existential crisis! You don’t need to worry so much,” Seth said with a grin.

            “Alright, first of all, he lives in Nepal! And it’s not like I’m worried about anything… it’s just that he gets me thinking. He doesn’t live in a city. There’re no computers in his life! He sees the world more as it’s meant to be seen. I guess I just get worried that my eyes have been polluted by all this smoky air.”

            “You wanna know what I really think? I don’t think there’s anything after this, or at least not anything we could really understand right now, anyway. I always try to say that we just can’t know and end the conversation there, but I think I’m just scared to accept the truth. There’s a real possibility that it’s just emptiness. Black and silent emptiness that goes on and on until the end of time… and even longer. I just don’t like to think about death,” Seth confessed.

            “I’m sorry, Seth. I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just that I wonder about it too, maybe more than I used to. I guess I just really don’t want to die.”

***

            “And even after that, I was still the one who brought you there. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. I don’t think you’ll ever forgive me, either. I really wish I could control these awful memories,” Seth whispered into the quiet darkness of his home.

            It had been storming on and off all day. Seth stared out the window at the setting sun as it pressed against the dark clouds in between it and the earth below. A light drizzle decorated the twilight as narrow streams of water meandered down the windowpanes and lavender walls. A low rumble occasionally sounded in the distance. The outside was still, but it was so still that the sense of tranquility was lost; this precarious motionlessness seemed poised to shatter at any moment. But despite the silent fear that raced through Seth’s mind, he saw no threat other than an approaching automobile. It was gray and unfamiliar. No markings or stickers distinguished it from any other generic vehicle. It gradually came to a stop outside Seth’s house, although the driver stayed within his vehicle for a disquieting amount of time.

            After several minutes of unnerving silence, the driver stepped out of his car. He was a well-built, middle-aged man with an honest face, but beyond this, something about him felt inexplicably unsettling. Seth noted that his skin was pale, but not extraordinarily so. The man seemed to glow with faint purple from a short distance, but it was merely a reflection of the setting sun and darkening clouds; Seth knew better than to concern himself with this. The man’s strong arms and thick fingers dangled limply at his side, almost as if his arms were limp. However, Seth decided this was a silly conclusion because just moments before, this man had opened and shut his car door. He looked like he strained his heavy legs as he trudged over to the door, but when he arrived, he released a rapid series of light and frail knocks.

            Seth watched the door for several seconds without moving, but it felt like half an eternity passed in stillness. At last, Seth walked toward the door with curiosity, and then he opened the door to his visitor. When the door opened, Seth discovered what it was that had made him so uneasy. The person on his doorstep was easily the tallest person Seth had ever seen; he had to crane his head just to look at his visitor. Seth had been to professional basketball games several times in his life, and this man looked to be at least a foot taller than any of the players there.

            “Hello. My name is Harold; would you care to step outside?” asked the strong voice of the well-mannered man.

Seth grabbed his key and stepped outside, fairly certain that he was safe in the presence of the peculiar man.

“I need your help. There is a town north of here called Lost Harbor, but it seems to be in imminent danger. Do you have any interest in helping?” Harold asked.

            “That’s a weird… question to ask a random guy in his home. Unless, well, do you know who I am?” Seth asked.

            “I do.”

            “Then you should know that I am worthless,” Seth said.

            “I can fix you.”

            Seth looked back and forth in contemplation. Over the past many days, he had struggled with justifying his own continued existence, ever since he accidentally killed his childhood friend. But now, just at the prospect of finding some purpose in this state, Seth felt like he had a chance at redemption. So after a few seconds of silence, Seth nodded and locked the door to his house.

The commute to Lost Harbor had a silent start. At first, it was characterized with repeated glances to the fog banks that rolled ashore as twilight slipped into darkness. Seth was about as unoccupied as possible, but the tension blocked boredom from ensuing. Despite the spontaneity of their meeting, the ice was far from broken. They stayed silent for over an hour, and the only real distractions were a fuzzy radio and the shimmer of the moonlit ocean.

            “I cannot tell you everything about who I am or how I have obtained the knowledge I possess, but I will tell you this: After spending many peaceful decades in mountains that rake the sky, I have discovered a connection to a great energy that flows beneath the Earth; I can feel enormous rifts in the continuity of our world. In the last four days, there have been two events in this area which caused enormous ruptures in this energy flow. In other words, you Destroyed two objects without converting them into mass or energy. This is an event that has not happened anywhere in at least two thousand years. And even now, the flows of great energy gravitate beneath your feet, hinting at the truth that you control the ability that is causing this. Am I right?” Harold asked.

            Although Seth suspected that Harold was not speaking the full truth, he decided to temporarily trust that the man had a good reason. However, he still could not get over the extraordinary size of the man in the driver seat. It looked like Harold was being squished by the car just in trying to sit there. His long, faded, blond hair poured around his shoulders and danced weakly in the wind from the air vents.

            “Honestly, I don’t know a damn thing about this flow of energy or whatever it is, but it’s true that I’ve kinda caused a deletion of matter. And not just irrelevant particles or like paper trash… you see, I accidentally killed a friend with this thing. It was something I had absolutely no control over; I swear I didn’t mean to! I never meant to cause this, and I never sought this power. I don’t want to Destroy. I only want to have Iris back,” Seth said, his voice nearly breaking along the way.

            “But she does not blame you,” Harold began, “because you did not even know that this terror was a part of you. It picked a random moment to activate, and this was neither your fault nor hers. I felt her essence before she departed, I know that-”

            “Stop!” Seth demanded, gripping his ears as he tried to force the memories out of his mind.

            “You know nothing about her; you’re lying.”

            “But it’s true. Her name is Iris Smith, isn’t it?” Harold asked.

            As the legitimacy of Harold’s words began to sink in, Seth felt an emotion that he could only pinpoint between incredulous and dumbfounded. Up until now, he had never once believed that the dead could communicate, let alone that matter could be Destroyed in the first place. It baffled Seth that there was a person who walked through this world, despite all the wreckage and sorrow, who knew all of this without having ever seen it with his own eyes. Even more baffling was the thought that such a brilliant man was willing to help him. He felt like a death-row inmate scratching off a winning lottery ticket.

            “I know that she wished that you would not blame yourself for this accident. She is in peace beyond our comprehension; she wants you to be at peace with yourself.”

            Perhaps it was too soon. Perhaps it was still premature for Seth to let his self-destructing mind settle, but nevertheless, he felt a tiny relief from the crushing guilt that had overwhelmed him. A tremendous weight felt like it was lifted. While he knew Iris would surely not be content with her own death, he figured it was likely that she would never want him to blame himself. It was just an accident. It was the wrong place and the wrong time—a circumstance of the past that could not be changed.

Despite his newfound relief, Seth knew he would never accept the part that he played in Iris’ death, but knowing that she did not blame him freed him from much of the pain. Harold received Seth’s silence as acceptance. After an appropriate pause in the conversation, Harold decided to continue educating Seth.

            “It is time that I teach you the simple procedure for activating the power you’ve acquired. You begin simply by mentally perceiving and selecting a target. You must press together all of the fingers on your right hand; this circulates the power. For a fraction of a fraction of a second, a purple glow will surround the target, and then your right hand will Destroy it on contact. But this will not happen unless you set aside everything from your world except yourself and your target. Often enough, this will happen just if your eyes are closed. You must have been in a similar scenario with your previous targets.”

            Seth wanted nothing to do with Destruction. He never intended to cause anyone pain; he never intended to hurt anyone anywhere, but he wondered now if his power could do more than merely inflict evil. Perhaps Destruction was more than just a curse. It was easy to assume that the deletion of matter and life must be a malevolent force, but that assumption was limited. Seth remembered hearing the idea that nothing in the universe was entirely good or evil. Everything has, at bare minimum, a small degree of good and bad infused. This power of Destruction could be used to stop dangerous things. It could bring crises to an end as long as Seth did not allow it to corrupt him. It was a challenge worth taking, and not simply for himself and his own redemption, but for the benefit of everyone who needed a helping hand.

            “I want to use what I’ve been given to help people; I will take my pain and embrace it. It’ll drive me with the will to defend others. If this pain overwhelms me, then I’ll know I succeeded. Guide me, Harold. What is it that I must do in Lost Harbor?” Seth said.

            Harold could see the valiance in Seth’s eyes. A satisfied flash crossed Harold’s face as they drove along the winding highway near beside the shimmering sea.

            “A murderous creature came into existence yesterday on the other side of San Diego. It materialized in the place of what was merely absence before; it was given life and body out of virtually nothing. You see, the power of Creation has also been untouched for so long that this world bears no memory of it. However, the vile beast which was Created last night has wandered to the mountains beside Lost Harbor. The bloodshed began shortly after. Because it was Created, I can pinpoint its exact location by reading the flows of energy. However, I am unable to detect its Creator… so I cannot help you find them,” Harold explained.

            With this information, Seth mentally prepared himself to take on the creature, though a part of him still wondered if the power of Destruction could truly be used to help someone. But as he envisioned the coming to fight, he realized that he might have to kill a terrible creature that was nothing but a puppet of the real enemy. If he failed now, he would never have the chance to contend with darker forces. On the one hand, he wanted to protect people from the monster for the sake of life itself. However, he knew that he was also chasing redemption; preserving life and beauty was merely a byproduct. But as he glanced out the car window, Seth noted that that beauty was easy to see here.

            In this world away from the putrid air of city life, everything enchanted Seth’s eyes. The ocean, the mountains, the wilderness, the sky—these were all works of art. They were beautiful sculptures of nature’s unparalleled beauty. As much as he wanted everyone to have the chance to see this beauty for themselves, he knew that some would rather destroy it.

            A sudden phone call derailed Seth’s train of thought, shattering the tense silence of the car ride. Harold chuckled as Seth’s slippery fingers tried to quickly grab the machine.

            “Hi, you got Seth,” he greeted hurriedly.

            “Ay, Seth! Man you never believe who I jus’ ran into! You remember Janice from high school? Yeah man, I saw her fine-ass walkin’ around today and I hollered at her, and guess what!” Phil said into the phone.

            Seth shook his head, slightly embarrassed that Harold had heard every word.

            “I remember her. Why do you ask? What are you up to?”

            “I asked her out! You not the only one gettin’ hoes, see?”

            “Why…? Don’t you remember her at all? She was pregnant during our freshman year. And then again during our junior year. And possibly again, I’m not sure, is this really a good idea?” Seth asked, trying to hide his laughter.

            “Who cares? Man, she fine!” Phil raved.

            “Where are you taking her?” Seth asked.

            “McBurger’s for some of them rib sandwiches,” Phil answered proudly.

            “Oh boy,” Seth laughed.

            “Well anyway, I gotta get goin’ right quick, later man!” Phil said, hanging up.

            Harold chuckled lightly throughout the conversation, although he did appear to try hiding it so as to not embarrass Seth.

            “You see, uh, Phil can speak perfect English, he just… prefers the way he talks. It’s more comfortable for him. I think sometimes it makes people underestimate him, but I don’t really think that’s why he does it. Honestly, he’s the smartest person I ever met,” Seth said for his friend.

            But before Harold could say anything, a weathered wooden sign appeared on the left side of the road. The words LOST HARBOR: Population 22 were etched into the wood. Next to the sign, there was a dirt road that looked like it led to a mountainous cliff. The automobile quickly slowed as it approached the sign. Harold turned onto the dirt road and straightened out his giant back so that he could look ahead. Potholes and boulders scattered the side of the road. Footprints of people and animals covered the dirt path. After a short descent, the beachside clearing revealed buildings near the winding coast. There were less than a dozen homes and a single lodging for travelers. Strangely, the buildings actually made the clearing seem even emptier.

            The small and humble buildings were not empty. People hid themselves inside as if they had no other protection. Harold turned off the engine, and then he and Seth stepped onto the sand. The village was silent. It was so still that the patter of a child dashing through his house resounded throughout the clearing. But as Seth gazed toward the water just a short distance from the town, he saw a horrific sight; seven bodies of various sizes scattered the beach.

An old woman’s cadaver rested on the boundary between the sand and the sea, staring at the sky with a motionless gaze. A horrified expression spanned from ear to ear. Deep incisions in the shape of fangs penetrated through her neck and into the soft tissue underneath. A detached arm floated in the shallow waves, dragged back and forth by the gentle current. As Seth inspected the woman’s corpse, he reached the part which caused him to cringe: Her intestines had spilled onto the sand. The entrails showed multiple incisions from fangs and claws, staining the sand with a crimson pigment. A dark mass dangled from the bloody tangle; the waves tried to drag the organ into the ocean.

            This kind of carnage continued for a considerable distance. However, Seth only found a single corpse that shocked him as much as the old woman. A bloody body rested without any real shape upon the sand, unidentifiable in terms of size, gender, age, or any distinctive properties. This had clearly been the heartless creature’s main meal; nearly every morsel was either swallowed or spilled upon the shore. Bloodstained bones covered the ground around the scarlet sand. Every remaining scrap of skin and entrails had gnaw marks upon them. This beach had witnessed a terrible tragedy.

            The moon beat down on the shore as if it were the sun in the height of summer. The waves and sand and blood basked in the pale glow, as the dark and empty houses reflected the lunar illumination. Harold walked beside Seth as he peered into the depths of the carnage and carrion upon shore.

            “I’m sorry you had to see this, but you need to understand just how dangerous this animal is. Their faces are contorted like that because they were frozen and stupefied before they died. This will be a dangerous fight. But just so we’re clear, the beast is nearby,” Harold said.

            Seth jumped to alertness, prepared his extremities for explosive action, and asked, “Where is it? I want to do this quickly!”

“I can see it. It is only half a kilometer behind us. Hurry now.”

            Seth swerved around quickly, peering through the intense moonlight to look for his adversary. The long, muscular, wolf-like animal dashed swiftly upon the coast toward him, almost as if it recognized him from a distance. However, Seth felt his body freeze when he made eye contact with the wolf; he could not move a single part of his body, nor could he make a sound. It was as if a sonic frequency had paralyzed his body. Seth quickly realized that the monster had stupefied him, just as it transfixed its other victims before killing them. As the animal approached him, Seth heard an inaudible voice whisper to the wolf through a transceiver. The wolf then broadcasted the words at a greater volume, speaking as if through soft susurrations.

            Amplifying the quiet words from the transceiver, the wolf said, “I am Naomi, the avatar of Creation. I need to know your position! I need to know if you will help me dismantle humanity. I need to know if you are willing to converge with the opposite fragment of Omnipotence! I am here to replace God, but will you have the resolve to join me? I need to know if Destruction and Creation are working together or against each other; I need to know whether or not to let you live.”

            At last, the neurological stupefaction ended. Seth regained the ability to react, though this would not do much good because the wolf stood outside of striking distance. Seth looked at his surroundings before responding; he felt compelled to make sure that no bystanders would misconstrue his intentions. But as he came to understand that the wielder of Creation commanded this wolf, he realized that she was the true enemy.

The wolf paused roughly twenty feet away so that it stood at a safe distance from Seth. Furthermore, this distance still allowed the wolf a short enough range to score a quick strike of its own. After sizing up the situation, Seth decided not to try a direct attack on the wolf, although he did not have many other options. In addition, Harold had walked away almost as soon as the wolf arrived. Seth thought about throwing himself in the water, but he did not know if the wolf could paralyze him underwater. So after several seconds of contemplation, Seth closed his eyes and concentrated on the ground below. He threw his right hand onto the wet sand and prepared to activate Destruction.

            “I would rather die than support you!” Seth shouted to the wolf as he Destroyed a portion of the beach beneath him.

            A clamor erupted through the night as air and water charged into the space where the sand had once been. A large bowl-shaped crater swallowed the beach, centered directly on Seth’s right hand. Because he had Destroyed the ground under himself, he fell and crashed upon the wet sand at the bottom of the crater. But because he braced himself as he fell, the landing barely hurt him at all. Dust covered the opening of the crater and flooded into the moonlit air. However, the dust did not hide the wolf as it sprang over the edge and toward its prey.

            “You wish to die? Permission granted!” Naomi shouted through her pawn.

            Seth knew that it would begin as a battle of hands and teeth. As long as Seth moved swiftly enough, making certain to not lose the offensive for even a moment, the wolf would be unable to trap him with its paralytic frequency. At the same time, Seth was at a slight advantage because he only needed one touch to Destroy his enemy. In addition, Seth could sustain multiple bites as long as they were not in vital organs. Nevertheless, the wolf possessed multiple rows of teeth, allowing it to crunch its prey more than once at a time. To make matters worse, the creature moved so quickly that Seth could not possibly match it—despite nearly having the speed of an Olympic athlete.

            As the wolf shot through the air, its shining fangs flailed while Seth dodged narrowly by rolling to the left. A puddle of saltwater on the sand splashed around his shoes. Seth then rebounded into the air, striving to touch the creature’s moonlit pelt with his Destructive touch. The wolf jumped quickly backward, landing in a gradual crouch. His legs compressed like springs, but then they burst forth with incredible speed.

In desperation, Seth threw his left hand onto the wolf and activated Destruction—or so he though. However, something went terribly wrong; he failed to delete the matter which made up the beast, but its motion disappeared instead. Only the energy was Destroyed, not the matter. This also stopped the wolf from snapping its multiple jaws, but its fangs still raked across Seth’s side as the animal fell into the sand.

            Blood spluttered forth Seth’s torso. The incision was barely beneath his left lung. Seth winced as a terrible pain seized his body, but he could not allow pain to stun him after this error. Therefore, Seth feigned a counterattack by thrusting his hands at the wolf since it was still so close. As he predicted, the wolf tried to dodge by jumping upward instead of jolting away. It did this by first pressing its stomach against the ground and obtaining the same spring-like potential in its legs. But because Seth had predicted this, he threw his arms backward and channeled the reaction force into his right foot; he then kicked the animal in the face. Teeth and blood fell to the sand as the wolf slammed against the curved walls of the crater. It recovered quickly, but Seth’s kick had damaged its mouth and eyes. 

            Although wounded, the wolf was now at a safe distance from Seth, and therefore it could easily stupefy him with its sonic frequency. As a result, Seth threw himself onto the ground when he realized that he was about to be paralyzed. He was right, and the dangerous creature emitted the frequency which paralyzed his body. Just a moment later, the wolf sprinted toward him. In the time it took to cross the distance, Naomi broadcasted through her wolf, “I won’t let you stand against me.”

            Seth’s hands were still on the ground in front of him, in the same position as when the wolf stupefied him. Since Destruction did not require any physical action if his hands were already on his target, Seth used his ability to Destroy another portion of the ground. Seth dematerialized a cylinder of wet sand which dropped 30 feet down. The wolf was running too fast to stop itself now, and so it fell into the cylindrical hole. It plummeted until a splash emerged from deep underground. Its paws scrabbled desperately against the sandy walls, but it had no way to climb a vertical slope. The animal was trapped in this aquatic sepulcher—certain to drown. With every wave that rolled ashore, the ocean poured into the bowl-shaped crater on the beach. And with every wave to splash inside the crater, countless liters of water poured into the shaft which buried the wolf.

            In the moment before the creature’s face fell beneath the water, Naomi spoke through it and said, “Seth Freeman! Meet me on the beach by Seventh Street at midnight tomorrow. I would like to meet you first before I tear into this world, but make no mistake. I will start my onslaught then and there if you do not show.”

            Seth listened as the creature’s thrashing grew fainter and quieter. Before long, Seth knew that it was over; the wolf had drowned beneath the sea. He sighed with relief, but his adrenaline was fading. The endorphins had not yet settled in, so he felt the overwhelming pain of the incision in his torso. After Seth climbed out of the crater and walked back toward the car, Harold emerged from the darkness with a prideful grin. The two men exchanged no words. They each climbed into their respective seats and drove away from the scene of the fight, choosing not to say anything to those affected by the tragedy.

            As Harold and Seth embarked on the sleepy trip back to San Diego, Seth felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, even though midnight had passed more than an hour ago.

            “Ayo, Seth! Is you still awake?” Phil said.

            Seth smiled widely when he heard his friend’s voice. He answered, “Yeah, I have a lot to tell you when I see you next. How did the date go?”

            “It was fine I guess… well, at least up ‘til she expected me to pay for her food! Can you believe this hoe? I don’t buy nobody nothing; she must be out her damn mind,” Phil laughed into the receiver.

            “What did you end up doing when they brought you the check?” Seth asked.

            “Man, I was up out that bitch so fast they don’t even know what happen! They try and charge me more than ten bucks for chicken and I say no way! So I jus’ ate at home tonight.” Phil laughed.

            “So what did you eat?”

            “Nothin’ yet! Still waitin’ on yo punk-ass to get here,” Phil admitted.

            Seth smiled and said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”