“Dini, nothing to worry about so I don’t want it in the communication to Earth. Or the one to Everly. She would worry. But we’re having a few little problems here. I’m sure you’ve noticed that there is no video. What I said before about the team working on a fix is true, but not the whole truth. One of the technicians seems to have ‘lost it.’ She keeps staring off into space at things that aren’t there. Yesterday she destroyed a chunk of our video equipment before we could stop her. It may be a while until it can be fixed because our focus still has to be on survival. The ‘brains’ are trying to find out what went wrong. They think maybe it’s an allergy to a food … or some poison she ingested. But I thought you should know.”
I hear Everett swallow hard and little puffs of breath follow as if he starts to say something and then stops. After about ten seconds of silence, he speaks. “On a lighter note, it really is gorgeous here, the green is just … its everywhere, Dini. I’m trying to convince some of the astronauts to do a food challenge with me. But they are almost as grumpy about that stuff as you. So … I guess there will be no video of me puking up that weird moss that they’ve decided is edible!”
* * *
Year 15
RECEIVED from Earth: 2045-01-13: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: CICI
My daughter’s brown eyes crinkle at the corners. Wisps of mousy brown hair fall from her ponytail. She’s sitting in the office of my home in Hollywood. Behind her on the wall are a series of pictures of me, her, and Harri. There are no shots of Cici’s deadbeat ex-husband.
“Our last viewing party went well,” Cici says. “Everyone here is super excited about you finding Atropos. I don’t think I’ve seen so much green since … well, since you took me camping as a kid. Heck, maybe not even then! Everyone is talking about what it will be like to live on a new planet … and how old we’ll be when we get there.”
“Probably the only downside to the party was …” Cici’s eyes sparkle and she leans toward the camera, “You guessed it, Everly! She got drunk on the champagne toasts.”
Cici gives a small humorless laugh. “I think you got the easier twin; I really do.”
The monologue is easy to watch. I almost miss the man-shaped shadow hovering behind her. From the angles, whatever cast the shadow should have been on screen, but there was nothing there. Cici seems not even to notice it exists. I wonder if that shadow is a new stain on the wall behind her, or perhaps caused by some damage the video received in transport. Cici talks about Harri and her obsession with magic. Cici thinks that Harri will grow up to be just like me.
The video cuts to a fifteen-year-old Harri demonstrating a magic trick. My granddaughter wears a sparkling gown that I recognize as an old stage costume of mine. She sports star stickers under her brown eyes. One of the stickers has half peeled off and flaps a bit as she moves. A shadowy shape lurks in the back of the room. There is nothing anywhere near it, and no logical explanation for a shadow to be there. Again, Harri, like Cici, seems not to see it.
* * *
SENT from the Moirai: 2045-01-13: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: DINI
With the make-up I use for public broadcasts wiped away, I look old. Still, there is a vestige of a movie star in my face. I first recorded this video directly after watching Harri’s magic show and noticing the shadow man hovering in the background.
“I know Harri’s probably on to bigger and better things, what with the time delay,” I pause but am unable to calculate the current time lapse between videos. It’ll take two years for my message to reach her but calculating in how long her message took to reach me goes beyond my skills. “But regardless of any delay, I wanted to tell you that I loved that bit with Harri performing.”
I force a smile. I usually don’t have to fake joy with Cici, and she can spot my “acting” smiles. She says I never look that happy when I really am. “It’s nice to see her have such an active interest. So many kids don’t.”
I try to go on and say nothing to worry her. However, the odd shadow has me worried for reasons I don’t entirely understand. My face freezes in the video as I wrestle with the information. In the end, the worry and curiosity overcome my desire not to frighten her unnecessarily. “But, Cici, there was an anomaly on the film. It looked like a shadow man in the background, and it was in all of the shots. It’s probably just some damage that the film took in transit or something gone awry with our ship’s receivers. But … it worries me. I guess, just be careful. As much as finding a world to colonize means to me, bringing you two hope means more.”
* * *
RECEIVED from Atropos: 2045-04-05: Author: EVERETT
Everett flops back on his bed with his hands linked behind his head. Without his YouTube persona, he actually seems to fit his thirty-five years.
“Time to record?” he asks someone off-screen. Then he turns his gaze to the camera. Most times since staying on Atropos, he talks directly to me and on occasion to Everly. “Dini! Good news this time. The ground team has found a few new edibles … and they are speculating that the air might have some kind of euphoric effect because some of the team members have been acting oddly.”
He lifts a hand to cover his face and sighs. “God, I’m not in the mood today.”
There is a group of photos on his lap and he sifts through them. Then rather than show them, he stands up and looks outside the window. “Earth has left us behind, Dini. Everly is the only link I have and … she seems distant recently.”
Watching him behave so uncharacteristically melancholy, without any of his usual flamboyance, creates a heavy weight in my gut.
“She got married …,” he sighs. “But that isn’t it. Some of the changes can be chalked up to me being gone so long, like we used to be able to finish each other’s sentences, but now I can’t even figure out what she means half the time.”
He drums his fingers on his legs and looks behind him, swiftly, as if checking if he’s being watched.
“The clips she sends to me from our fans are even different. The videos are all just … odd. I wish I could say that’s what’s got me so down, but the truth is … what they want me to call a ‘euphoric’ effect, isn’t at all. It’s like something foreign is getting inside us, Dini. If Everly is changing, the people here are changing more. People keep saying they see shadows around camp.”
My heart flinches at that word. My mind recalls the shadow in Cici’s video. There’s no reason to think they are related, but my adrenaline rush doesn’t care about reason.
“They start turning to look at things that aren’t there … and after that happens”—he snaps his fingers—“they alter.”
* * *
SECURITY FOOTAGE the Moirai: 2045-04-05
The security cameras don’t record in color, leaving the shot a slightly fuzzy gray. I walk from a distance toward the technical labs. I move like an old lady. Part of that is age, but part of it is how heavily Everett’s video weighs on me, especially where he talks about shadows.
My image is clearer in the camera when I stop and Rhi walks out. The view only shows the back of her head. She’s the only technician still aboard the Moirai. We sit together on two stools just inside the tech lab’s entrance and she waits quietly for me to state why I’m there.
“There was this shadow in my latest few videos,” I say. “Like a man lurking in the background, only there was no man. Have there been any irregularities in our incoming transmissions?”
Rhi grips the arm of her chair and glances around, double checking that no one else is in earshot. “You’ve seen her?” Rhi whispers. “You’ve seen her too?”
Her? If the videos are warping, it should be the same image for everyone and mine was decidedly male. But it could be a camera trick too, like some bit of video magic Harri is trying out on me. Only then it wouldn’t be showing up for anyone else. “Could it be a flaw in our system? You know, like equipment breaking down or something?”
Rhi shakes her head. “I’ve searched and searched for damage or any anomaly in the equ
ipment. And I’ve checked outgoing transmissions—nothing. I asked my son to send me one of my messages back. I want to see if the image was being added in transmission.”
“Was it?” I ask.
“No reply yet.”
“So, what is that shadow on the videos?” I ask. “Do you think it’s related to what’s happening on Atropos? Everett has been saying they see shadows.”
“I really don’t know. There are a lot of explanations for what could be happening on the planet.”
“We have to do something.”
“I will continue to study it. I don’t want to cause a panic, but the others on board will notice something is off in the videos soon. The image is getting clearer every time.”
* * *
Year 16
RECEIVED from Earth: 2046-3-23: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: CICI
The dark, shadow man is there in the background of Cici’s video. He seems closer to her, maybe, or maybe Rhi put that idea in my head. I hardly hear what Cici says—I’m watching him. Very swiftly, Cici transfers over to a video of Harri.
Observing my granddaughter shuffle a deck of cards with an abundance of flair, I’m reminded of why this voyage matters. Now seventeen, Harri is a vision of humanity’s future. Saving her is why I went to Alpha Centauri in the first place.
Harri is performing a card trick for Everly and her husband. It’s a trick I’ve never seen before and I can’t figure out how it works. Normally, that would take all my attention, but the shadow man is standing behind them.
His eyes open. Glowing green stares out at me, a vivid color, a shade I swear I’ve never seen earthbound—but it was all over the vegetation on Atropos.
He is still watching me with those eyes when Harri finishes. Everly and her husband applaud. But Harri stands by the green-eyed thing, smiling at it. As far as I can tell, she is the only one who sees the creature.
And I recall what Everett said about people who look at the shadows.
* * *
SENT from the Moirai: 2046-11-08: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: DINI
Lines crease my face and bags hang under my eyes. When I lift a hand to run through my hair the knuckles are thicker, arthritic.
“It scares me that the delay on these videos is so long. I don’t know how things stand with you as I record this, or what they will be like when you get the message.” I flinch, recalling that it would be more than a year before Cici even sees the video. “Don’t think I’m crazy. Something is happening in our videos, Cici. There is a green-eyed shadow standing behind you. He’s not fully defined yet, but there is a similar creature around Harri. And she has been seeing it in the last few videos.”
* * *
Year 17
RECEIVED from Atropos: 2047-07-05: Author: EVERETT
Everett stares at the camera. His eyes glow green. He smiles. “Things are going great here. We’re just loving our new home.”
* * *
SECURITY FOOTAGE the Moirai: 2047-09-30
“My son’s reply came back,” Rhi says, stalking up to where I sit in front of one of the Moirai’s video recorders.
“Reply?” I ask before I realize what she must mean. He sent her back one of the videos she sent to him to see if the same creature existed on the film.
“He said that he didn’t see any shadow form on the image, but when I looked at the take, it shows a green-eyed woman laughing, a taunting, mocking sound.”
“Can I see it?” I ask.
“No,” Rhi says, her eyes are dark rimmed. “Haven’t you noticed? All the people who watch our videos on their initial screenings are changing. I’m afraid that viewing the movies is somehow tied to those changes. Until I know more, we shouldn’t be watching them.”
“I don’t understand …”
“Somehow that shadow creature, thing, she is riding on the video transmission,” Rhi said.
“It. We cannot assign it a gender,” I say.
“What does it matter?” Rhi snaps. “As best I can calculate, this process must have started with the transmission we sent from Atropos. And the videos from Atropos have shown the same changes. Which means, whatever it is, we sent it to Earth.”
* * *
Year 18
RECEIVED from Earth: 2048-02-07: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: CICI
Cici cries. She is not a pretty crier and her face looks puffy and red. The shadow man still stands behind her, but so close now, his fingers folded over her shoulder. “I don’t understand it, Mom. Harri did this magic trick yesterday. She made Everly disappear … only Everly never came back. Harri just laughs when I ask her about it. And there isn’t anyone to report it to. It feels like half the city has gone crazy. Everyone I know has lost their minds.”
Cici’s arm moves through the shadow’s chest and she doesn’t appear to feel it or note his presence. “Then Everly came back and she laughed too. They say that next time, it’ll be me who disappears.”
Cici rubs at her eyes.
“It’s not just them either, some of the reporters who watch my screenings have been arrested. It’s all over the news, they just laugh as if they know something we don’t. And their eyes …” She pauses, as if unsure. “There’s no biological reason Harri’s eyes would change, right? I tell myself it’s something she is wearing, but this green, it’s like no color I’ve ever seen. The color just burns out from her. And it’s not just Harri, or the reporter, or the news. I swear, Mom, I think I saw Everly’s eyes do the same thing.”
* * *
SECURITY FOOTAGE the Moirai: 2048-02-22
Rhi’s eyes flare green from the otherwise black and white picture. She stares up at the security camera and then walks down the hallway to enter the cafeteria, where she faces the small group gathered there.
Her eyes glow, as green as the trees on Atropos. As green as Everett’s eyes on his last transmission.
“You came to colonize us, but you see, we beat you to it.” She begins to laugh.
* * *
SENT from the Moirai: 2048-02-22: PUBLIC MESSAGE: Author: DINI
“Given what I’ve seen,” I say. I’m not even looking at the camera. I choke on the next words. What is there really to say? “Watch out—we sent something to Earth. It’s some sort of creature and I think … I think it’s using you as hosts. It happened to one person aboard our ship and quarantining her has worked so far, but we don’t really know yet. Maybe you’ve done the same down there. I hope you have, or that there is still time.”
Unlike for the people on Atropos. I don’t say that, though. “You’ve got to stop people from changing. Somehow. They’ll destroy humanity.”
* * *
RECEIVED from Earth: 2048-10-25: PRIVATE MESSAGE: Author: HARRI
Harri looks out at me with a sneer sported by all teens since the start of time. Her bright green eyes twinkle as she leans toward the camera, as if we are face to face instead of being separated by a six-month time delay.
“Old people always say that, Grandma Dini. Just because we’re different than your generation, that doesn’t mean society is going to implode.” Then her sneer melted. “I promise—we’ll be here waiting when your vessel returns home.”
Jesse Sprague has been writing dark speculative fiction as a way of exploring ideas that don’t fit neatly into our world since her college days as an English Literature major. She has published a novel, Spider’s Kiss, and several speculative short stories, including stories in the Once Upon Now anthology from Gallery Books, Seattle Crypticon’s Decompositions and other anthologies. Jessesprague.com.
Last Sunset Home
C.H. Hung
Last Sunset Home
Kids these days don’t understand the value of hard work, of grit and determination and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. They don’t know what it’s like to get kicked in your teeth when you’re down, and still find the gumption to stagger upright and spit in the face of death and say, damn you, you ain’t got the best of me.
Hell, how many young’uns ev
en know what a bootstrap is? The world’s goin’ to hell in a handbasket, and no one even knows it. No one but me.
I should know. I was created there. In hell.
Yeah, I probably should’ve gone back ages ago, but I like it too much up here. This theater don’t look like much from the outside, overrun with the same beige stucco that coats this entire shopping center, but it’s got twelve screens, and that ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at here in Monterey, in a state full of strip malls. There’s not much better ‘n the smell of popcorn poppin’ and the fizz of Coke pouring from the fountain, the softness of velvet cushions under your ass instead of the worn leather of a saddle, and the falling darkness welcoming you into the evening feature. Like the wise ones say, a man with money in his pocket is a man full of peace, and working at that movie theater sure brought me more peace than I deserved.
But you didn’t hear that from me. If word got out what I was doin’—or not doin’—Boss would find me and devour my chi. I ain’t no good to Boss if I ain’t out there causin’ trouble.
I’d been sent to deliver righteous damnation to these poor souls who don’t know better, oh—I dunno, maybe fifty years ago? Sixty now? I’d just graduated with papers, you see. Highest circle and everything. Made Ma proud, even if she was too busy in the European theatre to do much more than send me off with a congratulatory firebombing of Dresden. Yeah, that’s my mama, all right.
I was what you’d call one of those traditional demons. Heard of Dante? The pope? Crosses and such? Yeah, most have. That’s what Ma is. One of those hell-spawned demons. She’d done good on assignment in Europe ’cuz folks there, they’re proper terrified of demons. We get real respect over there.
Monsters, Movies & Mayhem Page 6