Amara

[Ben Burnett]

So this is sort of the spiritual sister to Kismet. Anyway, enjoy.

Amara

by ~Dratheus

        Amara

The young woman was the embodiment of beauty: her pale skin complemented her lithe figure, her spine a perfect line of symmetry for her body. Amidst the frozen wasteland she roamed; a transcendence of the brumal conditions around her suggested by her lack of clothing. An eternity ago, she would have been rebuked for being nude in public. A shortage of people to chastise her, along with no clothes to be found, left her bare as a newborn; the lack of hair anywhere on her pale body only added to her nakedness. Her stare never wandered, for sight was something lost to her long ago. The woman grinned as she thought about her eyes: they used to be a deep shade of forest green. In their place were two black holes; she couldn't see them, but when she touched them she could feel the ugly, scarred gaps.

Yet with no sight, she walked tall with a certain aplomb about her. Her arms swung a bit at her sides and, though she had no one to impress, she couldn't help but sway her hips ever so slightly. Frequently on her face was the same smile; a wide grin, full of teeth. When this wasn't present it was often replaced with a haunting tune, whistled over the iced plains, echoing in the frigid winds. In this desolate world she was a queen, a goddess.

No matter where the woman traveled, vast, hyperborean plains of snow and ice stretched out in every direction. Spavined skeletons of ships and buildings formed an eldritch web of rust and steel across the blanketed ground. The wind coursed through the framework of cities and humanity's other scientific marvels long since dead and frozen, creating a symphony of dissonant chords accompanied by the grating of metal and the crash of structures collapsing as a man from thirst. No longer did the birds call out over the skies. No longer did whales sing from the oceanic depths, nor did any other sea creature; like all other life, they had been eradicated from existence in the hecatomb that had plagued the planet.

The woman often thought back to when she received the letter. It seemed like an eternity ago, though it had only been a few years. The aliens had given her a small device much like a two way radio. Through it they instructed the woman to deliver the letter to the president, and for her to bring it to other world leaders. It was mentioned that within the letter were pledges of peace and forgiveness. She had easily seen through this forgiveness to the revenge the aliens wanted to get for humanity destroying two teams of their scouting ships. Yet she agreed to help them anyway; as long as she received a reward for doing so. The aliens promised her life eternal, and the world for her taking. And so in this manner the end had begun.

***

The woman didn't know whether smoking was permitted in the room, but she didn't really care; she was going to have a cigarette. She slid one into her mouth, and flicked a flame from her lighter. As she examined her surroundings, she took a draw from the cigarette.

No single source of light which lit the room: instead, an ever present glow manifested from nowhere. While most rooms the woman had been in had a rather square appearance about them, this room was spherical. The seamless walls were the brightest of whites, yet weren't annoying in the least; they seemed to be almost glowing, perhaps the source of the room's light, and more than once the woman swore she saw off-white swirls sweep across them. She sat at a glass table in the most comfortable chair she had ever sat on. It looked as though it was a plant growing from the floor; in place of legs were root-like tendrils that climbed up the back of it. With every breath or movement, the nigrescent seat seemed to actively form itself to match the woman. 

There was a low click, and the white walls began to darken. She began to see the swirls more clearly as the room turned to shadow; eventually the only visible light was the glowing tip of the woman's cigarette against the helical swirling walls. Within moments, points of light began irrupting into the blackness, forming stars and galaxies. The woman soon became encased in a display of sidereal beauty. She took a puff on her cigarette and smiled. It was a pleasant show of technology, but she wasn't impressed.

Suddenly a voice spoke from the spatial demonstration: 

"We have deemed your actions too…reptilian for death. Instead, we have chosen a far more fitting punishment for you," said the voice, presumably an alien. If the woman had to, she'd wager that the aliens were of saurian origins based on the serpentine tone to the being's voice. "For the cannibalistic actions you have perpetrated, we find it just to have you wade through the devastation you brought forth until you expire."

"Why punish me? I did as you asked, and now you have your justice," the woman said, grinning as she drummed her fingers on the glass table. There was no anger in her voice, only curiosity. The cigarette smoked between her fingers as she talked, "Furthermore, you just destroyed an entire race for 'justice's' sake; if I am to be punished for helping you, should not you be punished as well?"

"Our actions are only for justice's sake. As you put it last time we talked, it is an eye for an eye. Your actions were a disgusting example of greed and treachery."

"If you say so. Though, if you're going to 'discipline' me, why not do something actually worth of the title punishment?" 

"You wish for a worse fate?" the voice sounded puzzled. "Well then, you shall have it. Along with your previous punishment, we shall give you the gifts you were promised; after all, you were so excited for them before. You shall be granted immortality. Your body will not find want of food or drink, and you shall never again know the pains of sickness or disease. Bitter cold and scorching heat will mean nothing to you. No blade or bullet will find its way to your mortality. You will not die."

Another draw of the cigarette; another cloud of smoke, "Still doesn't sound like much of a punishment. Got anything better?"

"You ask for yet more?" the voice said. The hiss of outright disbelief amused the woman. She smiled more as it continued. "As you wish." The voice stopped and the room became silent once more. The woman relaxed and took the time to enjoy the amusing display revolving around her. She took a special enjoyment from the sudden creation of supernovae. The abrupt flares from the celestial explosion engulfed stars and systems in its blast, both ending any potential sapience before it began and paving the way for its fruition. It was entrancing, watching the life cycle of the universe. Soon the voice spoke again, "In light of your…eagerness, we have decided that along with the former punishments we administered, you will also have your eyes taken from you. They shall be, to put it quite blatantly, torn from your head."

Silence filled the room. The woman continued drawing from the shrinking cigarette as she stared straight ahead. A shooting star arced along the ethereal wall, consuming all bodies in its path, leaving behind it a lambent trail of debris stretching for light-years. Two galaxies gave birth to a luminous ring of black holes, shining blue-green as surrounding light and matter disappeared. A nebula pulled itself into a new star and began pulsing with life and energy. Still the woman sat silent, her thoughts a chaotic cloud of fleeting memories and images; all ignored. The corners of her mouth twitched between a frown and a smile. The annoyance of the alien felt like a thick fog, dampening the room and weighing down the air.

She flicked the charred cigarette butt away; it fell to the floor with a spurt of small ashes and a final wisp of smoke. Its glow faded in and out, as if gasping for breath, before dying out. The woman leaned back in the chair and gave a relaxed sigh. "Now that's more like it."

***

Those first few days the woman drifted aimless amongst the smoldering carnage. Smoke filled her lungs while bloody tears streamed down her ashen, eyeless face and painted streaks of warm gore down her white body. The odor of burned flesh filled her nose, while the tormented screams of her race echoed around her head. As she wandered, she began to smell smoke and hear the cackle of a fire. Though she couldn't feel the heat of the flames, she could still sense the thermal pushing at her body. At random, she chose a place to stop and lie down. It was quite enjoyable, lying there in the apocalyptic snow while the sounds of devastation and death echoed around her. She smiled as she realized that she must look fairly haunting, what with her gory eye-holes and her bloodied, naked body. She loved it.

As she lay there listening to the orchestra of pain and death, she swayed her arms and legs back and forth through the snow around her. She twisted her appendages through the mounds of ice crystals and stretched out as far as she could. The tips of her fingers brushed against something poking out of the drifts, and she ceased her movement to examine it. She twined her digits around the object; it was a plant of sorts, probably a small sapling. She could imagine it quite vividly: sprouting up from the ashen landscape; a small, green beacon of hope in an otherwise despairing world. Someday, it might be a tall, sturdy tree within the forest of a new world, fresh and clean. Amara smiled and tore it from the ground.