Read In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater Online
Authors: J Alex McCarthy
Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Adventure, #Alien Invasion, #First Contact
In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater
Skyeater
In A
Universe
Without
Stars Book 1
J
Alex McCarthy
Copyright © 2015 by J Alex McCarthy
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
SBN-13:
978-1511594318
ISBN-10:
1511594314
J Alex McCarthy
5232
Corteen
pl
#25
Valley Village, CA 91607
www.jalexmccarthy.com
I’d like to thank everybody who believed in
me and gave me support to make this book happen. There’s too many people to
name so I’ll just say thank you because you know who you are.
Table
of Contents
17
- A crystal sky where the clouds used to be
Deconstruction
– The price to pierce the sky
The
stars have been missing for some time. When I close my eyes at night, there was
only stars. But one by one they disappear and then there was only darkness.
Darkness.
Emptiness.
There
is a darkness that no light can escape.
An
emptiness that nothing can exist in.
But
yet, there is something.
Somebody
that exists in it.
An
impossible entity.
An
impossible existence.
Cole.
He
isn’t aware on how much time has come to pass.
Time
doesn’t exist in this plane.
But it
exist in the parallel allotment of reality.
In
that reality, twenty years has passed. In those twenty years in the darkness,
Cole has existed, not completely whole, and not a complete being. Just one with
creation.
Yet
once those twenty years pass. Cole changes, he becomes aware of the darkness
and what it is. Death.
Aware
of himself.
No,
not death, something...
different
. His thoughts start to meld, start to
become coherent and whole again.
This
isn’t darkness, this isn’t death. This blackness is dark energy, he’s in the
consonance of the universe. He’s in what fabricates the universe, he’s in the
creation itself.
His
thoughts become complete.
This is the universe
. As soon as he composes
that single thought, shimmering lights manifest in the dark. Small dots sparkle
in the black.
Stars.
He
remembers. The stars seem so far away, yet close enough to light the dark. He remembers
himself, but he can’t remember more.
He’s
the universe, he is god.
No.
A
blue light twinkles to life in the middle of the stars.
No,
he is a human.
Cole
looks down at his hand or what it is now. A blue light outlines his humanoid
body, but within those lines are darkness.
What
is he?
He feels something, some existence pulling him in the darkness of space.
A
thought, a memory, a rumination out there in the black. He needs to go to it.
He needs to remember.
He
soars through the cosmos, heading toward the…thing. As he passes, the planets,
stars and gas odysseys, he feels the stars calling for him, pulling on his
small fiber of existence. As they pull, his existence pulls back, taking,
leeching their energy. As he passes star by star, he feels stronger, he feels
more complete. And then he remembers.
I
have seen beyond the bounds of infinity and drawn down Daemons from the stars…I
have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and
madness…
Not
a thought I made.
With
the oncoming energy he finally starts to remember.
It’s
from a book I read once when I was young, I figured it would help me remember
myself
.
He
quickly approaches a small blue orb in the black.
Earth.
His
home.
The
year is 2034 AD.
He
breaches the atmosphere, descending into the sky and into the clouds. He stops.
This is where it all happened, this is where he died.
Then
all his memories, thoughts, and feelings come crashing down on him.
I’m…Cole…Twenty
years have passed since my death. I remember it… like it was yesterday. It felt
so great
.
The
clouds surround him.
Please.
Kindly bend to my will
.
The
clouds swirl around Cole and converge into him. Blue sparks flash as they
stretch and form his human shape.
It’s
just the right amount of energy.
Twenty-three
orbs appear, they spin around him. His own little stars. At first majestically
slow, but then they spin faster and faster as the clouds converge.
The
blue flashes brighten as human cells form. He looks at his hand and sees every
vein, every cell reform his human body.
He
knows how to reform just by looking at it. He remembers what he is, a human,
and a god. And remembers twenty years back.
I
missed the thrill of the wind caressing my body, splitting apart the clouds as I
fly at ten times the speed of sound. I remember the curiosity of being able to
do what no regular man could
.
He’s
finally whole again. His skin is golden and vibrant. His face is smooth and
clear, his brown hair and his hazel eyes flawless. Dark robes cover his body as
he remembers common human modesty.
He
doesn’t look a day over twenty-five. A small scar sits under his left eye. He
could’ve removed it but decided against it.
It
is who he is.
He
clutches his fist and drops, splintering the clouds and toward the ground.
I
can smell the death
.
I
can hear the cries of billions
.
His
stars spin around him.
I
remember the spirits of my friends becoming one with the stars
.
The
memories of his friends twenty years ago are as fresh as if it happened that
very second. A single tear marks his face.
A
cliff-side appears as he breaks past the cloud, littered with giant two-story
tall metal crosses. They’re bloodied, whoever was on them was torn off.
The
ocean crashes against the cliff rocks, its murky, copper colored water stains
the cliff red.
The
ground quickly approaches Cole when-
He
stops only feet from the ground. He spins in the air to upright himself and
lands on the ground with ease. On the edge of the cliff are ten small crosses,
made of a different kind of metal than the ones behind him.
He
approaches and reads the names. They’re all of people he once knew. His gaze
stops when he comes to the one on the far left. A wedding ring is draped on it
with a silver necklace. The ring is brown with rust from wear. He looks at the
name.
Cole.
He
snaps the ring off the cross and looks out at the ocean. The water is only
copper brown on the coast and cliff-side. As it stretches out it turns blue. As
his gaze extends out, only a mile away incredibly large pieces of metal and
ruby colored crystals fleck the ocean in a chaotic order in the horizon, some
piercing thousands of feet into the air and some submerged in the dirty depths
of the ocean.
It’s
as if something astonishingly huge crashed there many years ago.
And
yet, I remember the fear of knowing, that even with my power, it still wasn’t
enough to win
.
He
looks at the ring in his hand and remembers a name.
Thora.
Against
the gods themselves.
- A Separation
Year
2009.
Five
years before the invasion, there is a wedding and a groom and a bride, Cole and
Thora, who
waltz
in a circle. Their family and
friends laugh and clap around them. Even the disapproving father of the bride
cracks a smile. His daughter is happy. A single spotlight is on them as they
spin, the dancefloor is empty except for them.
Cole
stares into the eyes of his wife, she smiles, laughing as they spin. He laughs
too. It’s been a very long time since he’s been this happy, this content. He
hopes it can last forever. In health and in sickness, through thick or thin,
til
’ death do us part. He was never that lucky to be this
happy for more than a short period of time. Because of that he should’ve known
that it would never last, that she would take everything from him.
Year
2014.
It
is dusk, a one-story house stands alone in the middle of the woods. Fog traces
the trees surrounding it, featureless shadows dance in the gray. The house
echoes from shouts that come from the inside.
“I’m
tired of your shit!” Cole yells. A bird in a cage stares out of one of the
windows. The arguing continues in the other room. Thora’s dad yells even
louder, “Get the hell out of my house!” We hear a glass break and then the slam
of a door. “Dammit dad. Wait Cole!” Thora’s footsteps follows after him.
The
bird stares out the window at something. A car engine starts, and then the
tires squeal as it speeds off. Something reflects in the birds eyes. A faint,
oddly-shaped being.
…
An
S-class Audi sedan drives down a dark, curvy forest road.
It’s
pitch black. As the car twists and turns with the road, its headlights are the
only thing that glow in the woods. Cole’s hands clutch the wheel. Thora
trembles beside him on the verge of tears.
Thora
is a beautiful woman, only in her mid-twenties, she doesn’t look a day over
eighteen, but despite her brunette hair and stunning green eyes there is an
unusual dismal attitude.
Cole
looks no different than his twenty year older self. Human. He hasn’t changed
much except for his fashion sense. His athletic body pulses through his tight
stylish clothes.
They
sit in silence, the radio is off,
the
air is so thick
you can almost cut it. Cole wears an expensive PAM watch.
“I-
“ He
stops.
He
can’t come up with anything, not after what she said. Her betrayal. His hand
clutches the wheel. How could she? After all these years. A reflection of light
flashes on his wedding ring. He can wish an end to it all. A shooting star and
maybe a wish can change everything. Anything.
Something.
He
looks into Thora’s eyes. The blue glow from the dashboard lights her face. She
looks at him, distraught, destroyed and with a pang of sudden regret. She opens
her mouth and—
In
a blur, a bipedal creature walks in front of the car. Cole screams and his foot
slam onto the brakes but it’s too late—
A
sickening cracking sound is heard as a purple transparent wall snaps up in
front of them and they crash into it as though it’s a brick wall in a mix of
metal and hell fire.
…
Cole
eyes snap open. He lies in a hospital bed in a blue hospital gown.
What
happened?
A needle from a morphine bag pierces his arm. A bandage is
wrapped around his left leg, it hangs over the bed in wires. His wife lies
asleep in a chair in the corner, under a window that lights the room.
“
Tho
-“, he stops himself before he calls her.
He
looks long and hard at her. The light from the window paints her sleeping body
innocently. He stares at her and then remembers.
He
was in a car accident and crashed into…a…a thing, he can’t remember what it
looked like, it was just a brown blur to him. It was probably just a deer or
something.
But
before that…He was angry at something…with Thora… his wife asked for a divorce.
He
doesn’t know what to do. He unconsciously messes with his wedding ring, pulling
it on and off. How is he going to deal with this?
He
lies in the bed and closes his eyes, he’s tired, the morphine pumps into his
veins. Eventually she’s going to wake up. At times like this, he wishes he
could just ignore his problems, hit the gym and hope it all fixes itself. But
this isn’t one of those times.
To
his left get well cards and presents fill the table beside him. In front of him
lies a tray with his watch and his lunch. Why didn’t he notice that first?
He
grabs his watch and looks at the inscription on the bottom of it.
From a
loving mother to a distant son, I love you and you will always be a perfect son
to me
. There’s not a mark on it. Good. He wouldn’t know what to do if it
got destroyed in the crash. He puts it on.
“Aww!”
It shocks him. “What the hell?” He tries to pull it off but-
“
Oww
!” He yelp
s
again, it’s
stuck on. A display projects up on the glass like a computer monitor. Images
and symbols pop up on the screen. He screams again as it shocks him once more.
Then it stops. He stops trying to get it off. The words and images turn into
English.
Translation Human, United States English
. He can read
it. He follows as the text and images move on their own.
Former Sovereign
Empire, Sect 6
.
He
stares in awe as a timeline shows:
Sync
length 2 ½ Earth Weeks
.
Why
is there a countdown? The final image shows up.
Sync 0%
. He
stares at it to move but—
“Cole!”
Thora yells and is on top of him. Tears spill from her eyes.
“
Th
…Thora,” he mutters.
“You
woke up. I was afraid you wouldn’t,” she cries. She clutches him harder,
weeping into his blue gown.
“You
know me, I wouldn’t leave you...” He mutters.
His
watch is back to normal. His screaming must have wakened her. Did she see it?
She tightens her grip on him. Her sobs drown his thoughts.
No, no she
didn’t.
…
Cole
and Thora lie in bed rolling around under the white covers. She laughs as Cole
chases her. When is the last time he’d felt like this? It’s been awhile. She
pins Cole to the bed. Too long. Light peers through the covers creating a
perfect light to reveal her naked beauty.
Because she left me.
“Do
you love me?” she asks.
I
hate you.
“Of
course.”
Her
pink lips kiss his
.
I
hate you for what you created inside me.
The
world flashes.
…
Cole
wakes, alone, green bile streaked across his face, more with half dissolve
pills in it is crusted on his blue pillow. It was a dream, the worst kind of
dream, the kind that gives him hope. He sits up. He can’t keep dwelling on the
past. It’s been two weeks since he left the hospital. Only one after Thora
finally left.
“Or
at least I shouldn’t have,” he says out loud. It’s his fault that she left.
He
looks at the mess on the pillow with disappointment. He thought it was going to
work this time. He gets tissue from his nightstand and wipes his face. He grabs
his pillow and hurls it at his clothes hamper.
His
room is an expensive one, large but oddly cold and empty, a mix of dark blue
and silver. Everything is picture-perfect, not a single speck of dust on the
metallic dressers, television stand, or dark hardwood floors.
Cole
sits on the edge of the bed. The cast is still on his left leg. Multiple
self-help and men’s meaning of life books sits on the night stand. He glances
at the note on top.
To anyone who finds this
. He tears it in half and
throws it in the trash. A couple of empty pill bottles are scattered across the
floor. He remembers his last visit to the doctor.
The
doctor told him six months, six months of sitting around and doing nothing at
all. Cole stares at his cast. He looks at his watch. It’s covered in his
stomach mess. He needs to remember to take this off at night even if he is
trying to kill himself.
He
wants to be found with it on since it’s his last connection with this stupid
world. He grabs a tissue and cleans it off.
Or is it because of what
happened at the hospital?
He decides it’s just the meds screwing with his
mind.
He
gets up and limps to the bathroom and removes a pull up bar from the door
before going in. He throws it to the floor with a clunk.
There’s not going
to be any of that any more.
He pauses. What is he going to do now?
In
the bathroom mirror, he checks his eyes and face. Nothing. He takes off his
shirt; his muscles look like they’re carved in stone.
“What
the hell?” His hands moves across his abs,
they’re real
, he thought he’d
lost them. After weeks at the hospital, lying around and doing nothing at all,
he looks better; in fact he looks a lot better than he did last night. But he
really doesn’t care anymore. The pills didn’t fucking work.
He
opens a cabinet and pulls out a pill bottle. He looks on the back.
“Don’t
take more than recommended dosage,” Cole mocks. It’s empty. He throws it hard
at the mirror. It bounces off it; his anger has nowhere to go. How many times
is he going to try this? He slumps over the counter.
...
Cole
limps into the kitchen and checks the pantry. It’s empty, too. He never went to
the store, thinking he’d never need food again. He’s getting tired of fast food,
nor is he in the mood to sit alone in a restaurant again.
Just
standing in this kitchen makes him sick. It’s an extremely retro kitchen, shiny
hazel-wood cabinets, a 80s-style fridge, with a large island in the middle; he
hates it. He wanted a more modern kitchen because this one doesn’t match the
rest of the house but Thora begged him for it and he caved. Yet he’s the one
standing here, alone, staring at it every fucking day, like the damn fool he
is.
He
hates it more and more as the days go by, a stern reminder of his wife. He eyes
a box of cookies on top of the fridge.
Better than nothing
.
He
hops and tries to get the cookies. But his cast stops him.
He
tries again.
Nothing
god dammit.
He
gets angry.
This
fucking cast is hindering him. The cookies are too far back. Cole tries again,
harder, using all his strength but it’s too forceful. He just wants some god
damn cookies!
The
fridge falls over! Cole rolls out of the way as it crashes down next to him.
Cole lies on his back.
Just
his luck.
“
Goddammmiitt
!”
He
lifts his fist and swings it toward a cabinet.
A
ding sound is heard, a display pops up on his watch just as his fist goes
through the cabinet, with a crack.
What the hell?
He pulls his arm out,
there’s not a single mark on it.
He
puts his hands on his head, this morning has been hell so far. Nothing has gone
right. But even still he needs to calm down. The only way to do that is to get
out of this godforsaken house. He takes a deep breath, sighs and gets up.
…
Erin Bell sits on her living room couch and reads a magazine. Sunlight pours
through her bay windows overlooking San Fernando Valley. Lines of suburbs and
highways sprawl out into the distant mountains, her living room has a rustic
touch to it with a mix of modern style, like a modern log cabin. She always had
a love for the wilderness.
Erin is a beautiful woman, but she hers is more of a classic beauty rather than
a striking one, just a great face framed by dirty blond curls. Her younger
sister, Carissa Quoin, paces up and down in front of her on the phone. She’s
the stunning one with her perfect hair, perfectly proportioned breasts, thighs,
and waist, and perfect personality. But Erin doesn’t get jealous. Most of the
time.
Carissa
stops and disconnects.
“I
got it!”
Erin
jumps up. “Congrats!!” she says while hugging Carissa. “My own little sister on
Channel 5 News! You’re going to be so famous.”
Carrisa
worked so hard for it, studying in
college, interning for years and now she’s finally a reporter, only a lowly ‘on
the scene’ reporter but a reporter nevertheless.
