In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (10 page)

“It’s
already so late.”

“The
night is still young, I
wanna
take you out tonight,”
she says in her best seductive voice. “I know a place that closes at three.
Plus, it is New Year’s Eve!”

She
takes off his shirt, showing off his hard earned money, locket, and well
weathered scars.

“But
first let’s take a shower.” She takes her clothes off one by one as she heads
toward the bathroom.

Lance
has finally done it, he’s a citizen of one of the greatest countries in the
world, is with the love of his life, and finally has some of his family back
again. He’s living the American dream, or at least his image of it. And now
he’s about to go out to celebrate. But first…

Serena
makes it to the bathroom and turns, she motions with her finger.

Get
in here
.

Lance
and Serena stand in a packed subway train, filled like a pack of sardines,
shoulder to shoulder. Tunnel lights trail past them as the train goes to their
destination.

It’s
filled with all types of people, old, young, rich, poor, joy filled and the
ones who just want to get home. But mostly, tonight, Lance checks his cheap
Casio watch,
it’s
11:55 PM, it’s mostly filled with
young twenty something’s heading towards the busiest part of town for the time
of their life.

He
wishes Serena didn’t take so dang long getting ready. She looks nice, wearing a
silky purple button up jacket and black skin tight jeans. He just wears a pair
of jeans, a simple white Henley and a leather jacket.

Lance
used to hate riding the subway, being so claustrophobic, but he’s gotten used
to it, he might even come to enjoy it.

He’s
got a pocket knife in his front right pocket if he ever needs to cut his way
out though. Not that he would ever do that.
Morally.
Serena wraps her arms
around Lance. Everybody lurches forward as the train comes in to the station.

It
comes to a halt and the doors open. Nobody moves. There’s shouting, people
yelling to move, a low rumble of voices as the crowd start to get agitated.
Lances stands on his toes and looks out the door. This is their stop.

The
station is packed with people.
What the hell?
People start to push to
get off. The doors ding, it closes and opens,
trying
to close on people but the sensors stops it.

“Hey!
We need to get off!” Lance yells. He grabs Serena and shoves his way through
the crowd.

They
force their way through the doors as it closes behind them. The train steams
away.

”What
the hell?” Serena asks. There’s a crowd of people all the way up the stairs.
Lance sighs, he know
it’s
New Year’s Eve but man,
maybe it wasn’t a good night to go out after all.

“Come
on,” he says, grabbing Serena. He pushes and shoves his way through the crowd
and towards the stairs.

They
make it to the stairs, there’s still a crowd leading up. A reddish orange light
shines down the stairs, out from the city. They force their way up.

They
walk out into the sidewalk. The sky is lit up as if the sun was setting but
never went down. The dark orange haze of the sky above is unsettling. There is
no sun. Lance and Serena gaze up into the sky. “Why is it so bright out? It’s
the middle of the freaking night!” Lance says.

What
the hell?
It was dark when they entered the subway. He glances
down at his watch again,
it’s
11:58 PM. Serena tugs on
his arm.

“Lance,”
she says with an oddly worried tone. He looks back down. He was in so much awe
of the night sky that he didn’t notice the streets are filled with people.

Something
must have happened. Serena grabs him. “Let’s go.” She pulls him through the
mass. She doesn’t notice she’s going the same way that the flock of people is
going. She stops suddenly.

“What…”
She pauses. “…is that?”

A
two story stone angel stands in the middle of the street. Its back is against a
giant silver metal cross. Stony eyes stare at them. The entirety of it is
wrapped in metal chains. Police barricade it off.

Lance
and Serena push their way to the barricade. The police block off the entire
street. It’s next to where they need to go. Lance wants to try again another
day, but by the way Serena pulls on him, she’s pretty insistent to get him to
the bar, club, restaurant or whatever the hell they’re going to. She won’t tell
him.

They
make it to the barricade. Lance walks up to one of the officers, by the look on
his face, he doesn’t know what this thing is either. Maybe it’s some kind of
viral marketing or something. “Hey comrade! What the hell is going on?” Lance
asks.

“I
don’t know, we are bringing in some trucks to move them, but there are multiple
ones blocking our way. I don’t have an estimate on how long it will take,” The
officer says.

“What
the hell is that thing?” Serena says as she tries to go past the barricade.

“Ma’am!
You need to step back!” The officer yells. Serena causes a scene.

“It’s
just a stupid statue! Let us through!” The officer grabs her and guides her
back. Lance stares into the statues eyes.

It
looks surreal, almost as if it has real eyes. The whites looks real and not
like stone. They look at him.

“
Bozhe
moi
!” Lance yells. His
watch beeps. It’s midnight. The eyes blink.

“Oh
my god…” someone mutters. Serena leans on the barricade, looking up at it.
“What it that?” she murmurs.

Lance
grabs her arm and pulls her back. He doesn’t know if it’s an angel from heaven
or hell but if it’s the start of the apocalypse he’s going to get the hell out
of there.

There’s
movement, the sides of its mouth crack as it opens. It lets out a horrifying
screech, it sounds like nails rasping on a chalk board.

Everybody
clasps their ears. There’s a slight pulsing sound. It cries out again, like a
newborn crow. Serena stops following Lance and drifts toward the stone angel.
Lance grabs her arm again and pulls her away.

“We
have to go now!” He runs through the crowd. Only a few follow him.

The
angel levitates into the sky. First only an inch and then it’s a foot and then
two as if it was floating with the wind. And then it slowly picks up speed and
keeps going.

Most
of the crowd is too captivated to move, in awe with what they’re seeing. Maybe
God has finally come down from the heavens to save them after all. Its wings
stretch out from around it, it unravels its arms and legs in a grotesque way,
snapping into place as if it was made out of wood, chains still attached to
them. It lights up,
it’s
clay-like skin becomes
radiant.

The
more
religious of the crowd get on their hands and
knees and start to pray to their various gods. But at this moment it’s all
useless. A large yellow energy crown appears and hovers over
it’s
head as it ascends.

They
all stare at this spectacle, common sense leaves them, for they have never seen
anything like this before and they never will again. Serena and Lance are
halfway to the subway station. The angel gets brighter until—

There’s
a boom as it screech pierces the sky, it’s heard all over New York City.
Statues all over come to life. On the rooftops, gargoyles, baby angels, demons.
They all morph and shape into the angel like the one from the streets, attached
to a metal cross by thick iron-like chains. They all scream and light up as
they rise into the orange sky.

The
angel in front of the crowd gets bright and brighter to a point where some
shield their eyes away from it. It opens its mouth, for what looks like a
scream but instead we see flames. It spits out a beam of light. Everywhere the
light touches explodes.

It
sweeps the ground, people running down the street explode in a burst of blood
and guts, intestines and insides
splatter
on the poor
people next to them. They don’t have time to reel back as the beam hits them
next. Lance and Serena make it to the subway station as people explode behind
them. Guts hit their backs as they run in.

People
stare out of the windows in horror in the buildings that surround the beings,
too perplexed by the awe of the beast to notice what’s happening below and that
it slowly rises toward them.

The
floor explodes out, the light annihilates everything it touches. It continues to
rise, people run away from their windows as the lights hit them, but flames
still engulf them all.

The
angel pulsates. Everything in a two mile radius is destroyed by a shock wave,
the pulse sends buildings crashing down. The shock wave knocks out every window
in a ten-mile radius.

In
the subway station, Lance and Serena run down the stairs into the lowest
platform. Nobody follows after them, the platform is only half filled with
people. The rest didn’t make it. Lance is glad he thought on his feet. Now to
find a way out of here. Lance runs toward the track but Serena stops.

She
lifts her arms and looks at her clothes, they’re covered in blood, not her own.
She runs her hands through her hair, but she stops as she looks at her hands,
even more blood.

“What...”
She staggers and falls to her knees, she starts to asphyxiate, tears fall from
her eyes.

Lances
stops in his tracks.

“Oh
no,” he says. He runs to her. “It’s going to be okay.”

She
tries to speak but nothing comes out. Lance wraps his arms around her and
starts to hum. Drowning out the sound of the screams above.

He
notices she’s covered in blood, he is too, but not to the extent she is.
He
needs to do something
. He takes off her bloodied shirt, her naked skin
touching the air and wraps his jacket around her. She never did any good with
blood.

Lance
hugs her and continues to hum. “It’s okay, it’s going to be alright.”
Sometimes, that phrase is all that’s needed to get through the day. He can feel
her calming down. His locket feels oddly warm to the touch.

He
hears a beep but he ignores it, Serena is all that matters right now.

“What’s
happening?” she asks with her head on his chest.

“I
don’t know, but we got to keep going, no matter what happens or what we see.
I’m with you.” Lance notices he still holds her bloody shirt. He throws it to a
trash can.

“Okay…But
where are we going to go?” She lifts her head. He wipes the tears from her face
with his dirtied hand, it leaves a bloody mark. Mostly everyone is gone in the
station except for a few people jumping down on the track.

“Hey
buddy! Where are you going?” Lance yells at the last man jumping down. The guy
doesn’t answer as he runs off.
What an asshole
. Lance and Serena run to
the tracks and jump down simultaneously. They land on their feet.

“Which
way!?” Lance asks himself. Serena looks to the left, she sees people running.

“This
way!” She grabs Lances hand and drags him with her. When she’s not drenched in
blood she’s actually a very capable person.

They
run down the tunnel catching up to the people in front of them.

“Where
are we going?” Lance asks.

“I
don’t know. But anywhere is better than where we were,” Serena replies.

A
hole explodes open over the people in front of them. Huge concrete blocks crash
down on half of them. An angel falls through and lands down with a smack. Its
golden crown illuminates the tunnel.

“NO
SURVIVORS.” It lights up. People stop, not knowing whether they should run or
drop to their knees and pray for mercy.

Lance
throws Serena behind him, his locket beeps again. The angel shoots out beams of
light, burning though concrete like hell fire and exploding flesh like
firecrackers in a skillet.

Screams
are gruesomely cut short as it hits. The angel swings the beam at Lance. He
throws up his arms to brace, what else can he do, he thinks he lived a somewhat
good life.

A
force field shoots up as it hits, sparks
fling
off it
as the angel lays into the shield. The angel stops and stares at them.
What
did he just do?
There’s an odd sense of comprehension on the angels face.

Lance
and Serena glance as each other.

“
Wha
-“

“
Problemproblemproblemproblem
!”

Two
extensions shoot out from the crown like octopus tentacles and wrap around both
of them. Serena screams as it rockets out of the hole it came from. It goes up incredibly
fast, Lance braces himself trying not to black out.

The
ever so faint sounds of battle from the tunnel explodes into their eardrums.
The gun shots, the explosions, the screams, the horrible screams. The perceived
sunlight paints a gruesome picture.