Ernest's Site

(CW for gore, body horror.)

My spine splinters. That which should not be lives and grows in the space between my bones and my flesh.

The hallucinations were the first sign that something was wrong. It had been nearly a week since the last one, since we were taken from the Phoenix. I hadn’t missed them.

I was with the crew in the courtyard, leaning under the roof for protection from the sun. The grass was wet with the dew of morning and squished underfoot as Caroline paced back and forth. The guards watched us, their eyes turning in lazy sweeps.

So I was unprepared as the pain emerged. As I shuddered and grabbed my chest, no one noticed and no one cared.

My heart shreds and stops; the blood percolates through my flesh and seeps through my skin. I need it no more.

When I recovered, my gaze was drawn to Miles. He was staring at Sol. Even with his smoked glasses, I knew the glare of a Star would sear his eyes; he was watching something.

I didn’t see Sol die. Only Miles did, for all other eyes were pointed away from the heavens. Like a candle snuffed, night came, and all was quiet. At once, everyone looked to the sky, asking for answers in the void.

“Sol’s dead,” Miles spoke into the silence. He was still watching the sky, head turned to where Sol used to hang. For a while, that was all that happened. We waited, shifted, wondered. The guards spoke quietly into their radios.

Lucas and Caroline had moved to stand next to Miles, keeping their eyes on the horizon. They turned on my approach, looking past and over me. Miles, for his part, looked directly into my eyes.

The skin on my back flays, ripping like snapping cord. Muscles contract, pulse, mulch themselves.

Caroline rhythmically tapped her fingers against her leg, pretending not to notice my pain. “We’ve made some allies, haven’t we?” she mused, looking away. No one replied. There wasn’t much to say.

So we stood, quiet, until the door banged open and Carter stormed in, something vile in his eyes. He brought guards with him, a swarm of masks and cloaks. In no time, they had us surrounded. Carter pointed to me, and soon my arms were handcuffed.

Carter stepped over and put his hand on my shoulder while searching my eyes. “Look, we’ve had our fun, it’s been a laugh, but now I need your cooperation, Mr. Silver.” Something of a frown flickered across his lips, only barely suppressed. “Tell me, who else is part of your crew?”

I simply returned his gaze. “You have everyone here,” I replied as evenly as I could. Carter sighed and let his hand slip from my shoulder, leaving it limp by his side. Looking up, he nodded to a guard, who promptly rammed my gut with the butt of his gun.

Blood and bile flow freely from my mouth as my body drains itself. The pressure only grows.

“I know a lie when I hear one,” Carter said once I fell to my knees. “There are others helping you. Other aligned with you.” He stood above me, waiting in the lingering dark. I had nothing to give except my ragged breathing.

“Mr. Silver, do you know what death is like?” he eventually asked. “I can teach you.” Carter began to pace back and forth. “It can be quick. It can be slow. You can choose the speed.” He stopped. “Who killed Sol?”

I let some time pass. I tried, unsuccessfully, to recover. Eventually, I swallowed and looked up. “I don’t know who killed Sol,” I spoke in wavering voice, “but it might have been Victor Salton.”

Carter grimaced, unable to hold his politeness much longer. “Victor, huh?” he spat. “You could at least pick someone more likely.” He motioned to the guard, who set the muzzle of his gun against the back of my head.

The growths fight their way out of my back. Shaky, viscera-draped wings emerge, rending my skin and snapping my tendons.

I groaned. The pain of the hallucinations was mixing with my physical condition; I feared for my lucidity. I smelled blood and iron, feathers and bone. At any moment, I thought the other might as well.

A smile began to form on Carter’s face. He paused for crouching down, meeting me where I lay.

“Besides,” Carter softly spoke, “I know where Victor is. What I want to know is who’s on your ship.” He grabbed my face. “Who’s piloting your fucking ship, Captain?”

“What- what do you- you mean?” I managed. Carter barked a short laugh and tossed my head aside.

“Your ship blasted into the system just minutes before—” he said, gesturing to the sky, “—before all that. Who’s your secret pilot?”

My legs split and splinter like wood. Beneath my rippling skin, more wings lie, sharp as blades.

I gasped from the pain. I could barely think anymore.

In my desperate struggles, I tear my body to shreds. The red and raw muscle sloughs off in thin and stringy chunks.

Then I realized something.

I am becoming something more. More than Human.

I willed my head to raise and my lips to move.

“A-Angel. Victor—he’s making an Angel,” I struggled out.

“What?” Carter replied. He turned to a guard. “What’s he on about?” Turning back to me, he gave a confused stare. Eventually, he shook his head and back away.

“I think I’m done with you.” Out of his pocket, he produced a knife, flickering in the greasy light. He nodded to a guard, who took the knife and kneeled down in front of me, blade out. I couldn’t see his eyes.

I could hear shuffling behind me, as the others began to misbehave. I braced for impact, squeezing shut my eyes.

The world falls away as I shed my meat and take flight, stretching my crackling wings. I am free.

But we were all interrupted by the crack of a blast drive and the sound of rushing blood.

A huge dark shape loomed in the sky above, blotting out the stars. Its engine drowned out all noise, its presence drowned out all distraction. Tendrils like tentacles flailed from its rear, small and bright jets illuminating the panels. It was a beast of metal and blood, of iron and bone.

The Silver Phoenix had arrived.

And before our ears, it spoke with the voice of a dying star:

GET AWAY FROM MY CREW.

Immediately, Carter scurried back, his eyes locked to the form above him. The guards were more reticent, slowly dispersing under the weight of the presence. I attempted to get to my feet and failed before Lucas grabbed me and pulled me up.

“Who are you? Who is this?” Carter screamed against the wind, cowering under the awnings. The Phoenix angled itself ever so slightly, remaining silent.

Carter mouthed unspoken words, unspoken curses. He frayed and frazzled, taking hurried glances between me and the Phoenix. In jerking movements, he ran to the door and disappeared into the darkness. The guards followed.

With a clack, we were bathed in a pool of startling white. The crew elevator descended upon us, hitting the grass with a thud. We got on as quick as we could. Slowly, shakily, we were brought into the ship. The hallucinations had already begun to fade in the light, disappearing like shadows.

Once onboard, we moved to the bridge, keen to discover what was happening. By the time we got there, the Phoenix had already ascended past the gravity well of Earth; it was putting us in a loose orbit around the void of Sol.

I could tell by the eyes of the crew that they were unsettled by the autonomy of the ship. Lucas spent his time gingerly touching the controls and looking at the readouts. Caroline took her time around Miles, watching him like a hawk.

Miles looked fine. Less than a minute later, the radio crackled to life with a broadcast.

“Local group, this is Victor Salton onboard the Silence,” the radio spoke. My heart skipped a beat, like it wanted to give up.

“Lucas, give us a view of Sol,” I commanded. Silently, he wrenched the controls.

“She’s fighting me, Silver,” he noted.

“As a friend once said: please be advised,” Victor continued. “We will be performing illegal and heretical maneuvers in and around the void of Sol.” Caroline glanced, annoyed, at me.

“Humanity has been under the boot of the Stars since we were born.” He paused. “Not anymore.”

“We are the successors to the Stars. As they try to stamp us out, we will scatter and multiply. We will become greater than they ever were, we will ascend their throne, we will command the heavens.”

With a flash of light, something happened at the void of Sol. It made me sick.

“I present to you: your new dawn. One born of Humanity, a dawn of our own.”

Slowly, bright magenta veins began to crawl across the dark. They pulsed with foreign blood and foreign life. They enshrouded the floating corpse of Sol, digging deep and bleeding light. With a shudder, a wing burst from the mass, dripping with viscera and blood.Beneath the rippling skin, more wings lied, sharp as blades. In its desperate struggles, it tears its body to shreds. The black and raw muscles sloughed off in thin and stringy chunks, dissipating into the night.

One, two, four, many wings emerged. An Angel was born. I could feel the Phoenix flexing beneath me, giddy at the sight.

My head hurt. I cradled it as the magenta etched itself into the back of my eyelids. For one last time, the radio crackled on.

“And, finally, a message for you, Silver.”

“I know what you did.”