Ernest's Site

(CW for gore.)

Lucas peered out through a little window in his ship, the glass scuffed with frost. A grand mass encircled the nearby star. Their light, once blinding, was now drowning in an infinite void. Their grotesque body repeatedly shuddered under the siege of that eldritch darkness. With every attack, they spewed dusty ejecta as an orange sprays its juices.

Lucas watched this desperate scene with morbid awe. He had just jumped to an unfamiliar system; it would be a while until the engine recovered. For now, he simply watched the ravenous End and its meal. The light of the star soon sputtered and faded. The night of space, once encroaching, was now absolute. Only the sickly glow of a vapor lamp remained. He got up.

But he was slow to draw the aperture, and his vision began to wobble. The electronics rattled and the engine, that awful machine, screeched in unfamiliar ways. The End had seen him. It was still hungry. He shouldn’t have tarried. Now he had beheld an End, and the End had stared right back.

Witnesses are the prey and the prophets of the Ends, and soon, Lucas would become one or the other. He staggered to the roaring engine in the rear of the ship. Here, where the light shines bright enough to burn and hot enough to blind, there is the chance of avoiding an End. Yet for every second Lucas stood clutching the maze of pipes and tubes, a horror gained purchase in his mind.

He’d read stories about mariners unfortunate enough to encounter ravenous Ends. Ships half-eaten, floating between stars with surviving crew turned to gluttonous beasts. Tales of men forced into eating whatever they could fit in their mouths until the End became sated and fled. The Ends left nothing as they were, and the people were no exception.

He could barely stand the conditions around the engine; every second was torture. But as he looked out, he saw the lights in the hallway flicker and die, one by one. A shining mass– like infinite black sand– filtered through the cracks in the ship. It whipped up into the air, absorbing the walls into the sparkling void. The ravenous End was here; he hadn’t realized how fast they could travel.

A thin film spread over Lucas’s mind as he began to drool. It took him a second to retake it from the clutches of that terrible power. He was stuck here, with the greasy light and the billowing smoke. The rest of the ship was within the End’s grasp; there was no more escape.

But there was a lamp, hanging precariously on a nail just beyond the engine’s main body. It was placed there for this type of situation, an attack of an End. But the ravenous End had grown wise, for it had stretched itself across the way, blocking access to the lamp. If he wanted it, Lucas would have to brave that lightless depth.

He sidled along the engine, wincing with every burst of steam and sparks. The ravenous End made exploratory stabs into the light, but it could not sustain the pain. Soon, Lucas had made it to the reverse of the engine, where all the tubes came in and out. He could discern the lamp, his salvation, hanging only a few feet away. It would automatically light when it wasn’t on its hook; all he had to do was knock it down.

Lucas pressed himself against a copper pipe so hot it turned his hands red, staring through the End. But as he searched the darkness, the End began to pulse, waving in a hypnotic manner. A low, droning sound filled the air and he found it harder and harder to move his eyes about. He became hungry.

This was going to be the end of him, he realized. The hunger is the End’s test: are you prophet or prey? The lights flickered and the engine’s roar dipped and regained. It couldn’t take much more of this. He couldn’t take much more of this. After a second to steel himself, Lucas dashed into the abyss.

But he slipped on something– something wet and slick. He fell onto the rusted metal floor, his hand scraping the lamp. He rolled himself into a sitting position, his back pressed against the cool wall. The lamp hung only a meter above his head. The light of the engine seemed miles away, a solitary star twinkling in the night.

A gnawing, scratching hunger filled his stomach, so large it almost came out of his mouth. He clutched his gut with one hand, trying to beat the pain into submission. It scraped the sides of his hollow body until they were raw, until he hadn’t the strength to live. Death stood only inches away.

Little shines circled around his head, dancing as if laughing. Right when he was about to let go, he felt something right next to where he was sitting. Something digestible, something to eat. If he could sate his hunger for only a moment, he could reach up and bat the lamp down, save himself and his ship.

Lucas swiped the food up with his right hand and shoved it in his gaping mouth, directly between his teeth. He chewed, quickly and harshly, choking down whatever pieces fell off. The food was bony and meaty, very fresh. It was very bony- too bony. Something wasn’t right. He had to know what it was. With great effort, he commanded his right hand to pull his meal out. Once in view, he peered through the sparkling darkness to discern what it was.

He was cradling his left hand, still attached to his arm.

He couldn’t continue, despite the intensity with which the ravenous End stared at him, despite that awful hunger. The shell of his hollow body became thinner and thinner as the hunger chipped away at his insides. A new pain shocked through him, the desperate pleas of a mangled hand. He let go, let his arms fall to his sides as he laid against the metal and wires. He looked up at the bottom of the lamp, still hanging but a meter above his head. The End stared at this pitiful display, a man so close to success. It became angry. The engine squealed, great bursts of smoke and fire spraying from it as the End shook the ship. It was being torn, bolt from bolt.

The lights began to dim and the engine began to starve. The vessel screeched in pain as the metal ripped apart, eaten by the ravenous End. As his dim lifeline flickered and died, Lucas knew that this was his end. He had become prey.

When the ravenous End was finished, it ran to another system, no less hungry than it was before.