by Davi Cao
Laura recovered from her cry, breathing slowly. She raised her shoulder to get rid of Dalana’s gentle touch, and as the dark woman didn’t budge, Laura punched her in the face.
Dalana rolled to the side with the impact, widening her eyes to show the white around her irises.
“I’m ... sorry ...” Laura said, her lips twitching and about to break. “But ... don’t come close. Anybody ...”
OOOO walked among them, a television camera never leaving the stage, amused at the story unfolding beneath its intent gaze. Laura growled at him, she who used to be so quiet, so calm. OOOO had a malicious idea.
“I am the Creator of this world, am I not? The World Voice is my deed. A great one, isn’t it? Do you like it? I like it! It’s very interesting, isn’t it? I love to see what it does to all of you,” OOOO said.
Oliver jumped over it with fists raised, ready to strike. OOOO moved quicker, however, and teased Laura to reap more of such reactions, so it escaped the punch with a backwards hop. The mortal humans stood up in unison, yelling at him, calling him the devil.
OOOO bounced in place, smiling in the apex of its joy. Oliver attacked, missing it again, but Mat came from behind and nearly caught one spidery leg. They ran after it, as OOOO fled to the corridor, taking with it the whole group of humans. Angeline struggled for the front row, throwing her closed fists against an immortal being.
Dalana and Colin followed them in a hurry.
“Do you want to hit someone too?” Colin said to her, racing towards Mat.
“I’m stressed, but I can resist it. I want to put them in cages too, though, and that’s bad, isn’t it?” she said, holding Charlotte and then losing her.
“I don’t know, that’s what I did. I guess they were ready to face sadness, and not anger.” Colin ran in front of the group to shout at them. “Hey, you guys, think about your goals! You want a good world where you can work, where you can love. Think about positive things, come on, fight the voice in your minds, don’t let it win.”
OOOO hopped inside a room and circled it, getting away from the hands that besieged it with an overhead jump. Charlotte fell down and hurt her chin, cutting skin and bleeding. Dalana held her to make her stop running, and instead of allowing her to help, Charlotte squirmed and fled.
“Let them chase OOOO until they tire. Maybe it’ll be easier to calm them down this way.” Colin suggested while slowing his running pace.
“Unless they get so mad that they go on until they die of exhaustion.” Dalana was at a loss, stopping by Colin's side.
Bang! Colossal bells tolling, shaking all the guts in the universe.
When Colin’s mind got back on track, the humans leaned their foreheads on the wall, looking down. OOOO spun its head with blind pupils and a contracted mouth. Dalana nodded at Colin, conscious at the same time he regained his senses. She waited for the human’s return, stepping in front of OOOO, ready to stop the chase.
“Isn’t it enough? Have mercy on me ... Stop the noise ... Talk to me ... Please, I beg you ... I need you, I want to be with you ... Be my friend, be my enemy, be my anything ... Just be something I can understand ...”
Angeline opened her eyes to find blood dripping on Charlotte’s blouse, running from her chin. Dalana came near her and pressed a hand on the cut, healing it. Charlotte calmed down, accepting her caring gesture.
“Thanks for not giving up on us,” Charlotte said.
Oliver shook his head, looking at Colin, bowing in shame. Dalana herded them back to the room, pulling their hands and pressing their backs to go on the right way.
They sat down again, hearing not threats in the back of their heads, but hope, the need for contact. The world took them on a roller coaster of feelings, making puppets out of each. They resisted depression, and not the rest.
“I am so alone ... Take me out of this dark pit ... Give me the light to make my life meaningful ... I can’t do anything in here ... I’ll chase you, I’ll look for you forever ... for the end of this world ... Where are you?”
The same words came out of Angeline’s mouth, as her vocal cords became another instrument of the Voice. Oliver joined her, Zach came next, and soon they sang in chorus the sentences that ruled over the world.
Colin felt them at the tip of his tongue as well, and thought about joining the flow, participating in the chorus. Then he looked at Dalana, who stared at him, and her quietness held him up.
∙ 15 ∙ Dance hall
Colin missed the bangs. With the humans channeling the World Voice’s words, with OOOO hopping in circles in the room, he rooted for something to break their trance and end their eerie chorus. Dalana caressed everybody, touching their arms and necks, whispering soft words, reminding them of their dreams. She battled against the dominant mood.
“You are here with us, we are your friends, we are all together. A better world will come, it depends only on us, we have to want it and fight for it. You have to be strong, to resist this terrible Voice inside your head and replace it with something better,” she said.
Ai.iA showed up at the entrance, punching the floor. She limped on her way in, failing to punch the floor fast enough with her rod and falling down at every step. Her silhouette cast light into their refuge, scaring Colin, who worried about the humans. He stood up, glad to have her with them, a new presence, a new happening.
“I need help,” Ai.iA said, falling flat.
“Where’s the resistant stuff? You gave up trying?” Colin said.
“It’s on the table. It’s worthless. I hit and I bang them, weaker, stronger, faster, slower, and it changes nothing. The Voice is worse now, it’s destroying me, and us, but not this world.”
“It’s not worse, it’s just different. It was the closest we ever got to affecting it somehow. You have to keep trying.”
“I need help. The mortals can help me.” She dismissed Colin. “Oliver, you, my friend, Amanda, you too, come back to the table. See what you can do. We must discover more. I’m sorry, I’m not good at this. I’m only good at destroying.”
Zach, Mat, and Laura looked at the wall and chanted “Where are you ... Come, don’t disappear ... Wherever you are, give me something to find you ...” Oliver, however, turned to face Ai.iA, who called his name. He took half a minute of silence and anxious eyes to bring his thoughts back to the human dimension.
“What is left to us?” he said, leaning his back to begin standing up.
“You won’t ...” Angeline said by his side, grabbing his shirt to ground him.
“I need to help. If we don’t do anything, we will never get out of this place.” Oliver closed his tough palm on her long fingers.
“It’s worthless. This is all we have, and it will never change. I found you, and you will never leave us.”
“Let him go, please, Angeline.” Colin squatted in front of her. “I’ll stay here with you.”
“So, stay, like him. Not one less,” she said.
Ai.iA pushed Angeline’s arm back with a jump, dropping on her lap with the heavy weight of two heads. Angeline winced in pain, contorting herself against the attacker. Freed, she got to her knees and raised her fists.
“If you won’t help, stay back and be gone!” Ai.iA started her punching on the floor again.
“You can’t do this.” Amanda jumped on Ai.iA to hold her.
“We are not your slaves.” Mat joined his peer, helping her fight Ai.iA.
“Don’t you dare bossing us.” Charlotte added herself up to the group of human chains holding on to Ai.iA.
Tired, Ai.iA allowed the mortals’ boldness, her hopes waning, her believes fading.
“I’ll never get a world of my own ... I’ll never be the dominant one, never, never,” she said.
Oliver and Amanda grabbed her side rods and smoothed her upper head, constraining her, and soothing her dejection. They had met her, they offered her some care, they did what she desired.
“I can help you, can’t I?” OOOO pushed Amanda apart to speak with Ai.iA.
“You can?” she said.
“Of course! I can try, can’t I? I created this world. I may know a thing or two about its workings, you see?”
“Why don’t you just give up, then, if you’re offering help?” Colin said.
“Because it’s more interesting if we try other ways, isn’t it?” OOOO said.
Dalana nodded, contrary to Colin’s expectations. Creators saw reason in complicated matters, they often preferred the long path instead of the easy way out. Ai.iA extended her hidden side rods to pat on the humans’ bodies, ensuring them of her self-control.
“But we must go together to the round table. I don’t want to be alone, do I? No, come with me and watch me work.” OOOO took the lead out of the room.
Colin followed it, looking back to call the others. Dalana stood up and pulled the humans with a help from her hands. She lifted them and lined one behind the other, speaking low, soothing them.
“You people are great, you are the ones who make this world livable, don’t forget this. Everything will be fine if we stick together,” she said.
OOOO teased the bucket, a naughty cat probing a dog’s patience. It handled the resistant objects with its hard legs, dropping them off the table due to its lack of fingers.
OOOO stepped on the stones, kicked them on the wall, created a rock species from its native world and made it swallow one of the objects. It then hit it with the other resisting stone, and got scared when the rock reacted, engulfing OOOO itself because the World Voice wanted to find others and it inflicted its despair on everything. It spread its legs in the rock and ordered its disappearance.
“What do I do with this?” OOOO asked, finding a piece of untested object at the corner. “You haven’t eaten it before, have you? I’ll see what happens.” It lowered its head to the floor to pick it up with its mouth. The piece entered its cavity and had nowhere to go, as OOOO didn’t have a pharynx, and so it fell down without effect.
The humans watched it hop around the lab, doing its best to amuse them, the clown, and its crowd. Its aimless actions enraged Ai.iA and the others, though, who expected real help.
Amanda got up to her feet and mingled her body among OOOO’s legs to pick up the stones and try something else. She got hurt by one of its kicks, and instead of backing away, she lay on the floor with her back down and kicked the creature with furious feet.
“Help me ... Don’t you see I need you? Talk to me ... Why are you so quiet ...? You’ve abandoned me ... I’m so worthless, I can’t please anybody ... If I ever find anybody in here, I’ll never let them go ...”
Colin dashed upon Amanda to protect her fragile body from harm, pushing OOOO aside. Angeline stood up again, taking Oliver, Charlotte, and Mat with her, ready to strike at anyone who dared bruising one of their group.
“What are you going to do to me? You’re going to die, aren’t you?” OOOO said, replying to their provocation.
“Oh yeah? Colin here will put an end to you, won’t he? You’ll see what you get for creating a hell of a world,” Angeline said.
“Wait, wait, calm down, everybody. Let OOOO do its thing. Ai.iA is watching it, and if we have a better idea, then just say it and we can try. Right now, though, I propose we do something else, I—” Colin tried to say, stepping in front of the group.
“You propose nothing, you never contribute to anything!” Oliver said, raising his chest.
“I propose that we dance. We’ll create some music and we will all dance in pairs, ok? Slow, gentle music, to chill us out. We need it, I guess I’m not the only one who agrees with that, right? While OOOO and Ai.iA think about how to hurt the World Voice, we dance together, all of us.”
The music started at the end of his last word, cutting any further complaint. Colin walked across them with a big smile, forming the pairs one by one, joining their hands. No one could identify the singer, and the harmony dripped on their ears, deformed keyboard, drums, and guitar raising doubts about its genre. Colin’s ignorance of romantic songs showed at every beat.
He paired himself with Angeline, who took him willingly.
“I’m proud of you, Colin. Boredom is fuel for bad thoughts, isn’t that what they say? We have to keep busy,” she said to him, her mouth closing in on his ear.
Colin took her left hand on his right hand, he put his left hand on her waist. They moved their hips in a pendulum swing, and when Angeline stepped to the side, advancing their choreography, Colin stood still, with both feet grounded, for he didn’t know how to dance.
“Follow my lead, like this, one step, two, three, then back, one, two, three, back and forwards,” she said, guiding him.
“Oh, sorry, it’s so hard, ok, I’ll try, one, two, three.” He missed the beats, loosening his grip on her hand.
She bit her lips in a lopsided smile, looking around. Oliver, at her side, slid on the floor with Charlotte, in perfect sync with her pair, both laughing at their attempts at new swings. They spun, they opened their arms, they passed under arm arches and turned back to back.
“Now we’re going to try something complicated, like this, I open to the left, and you to the right,” Angeline said, nudging Colin.
Colin remained stiff. Dalana, the only one without a pair, had both arms raised and spun her waist until she touched the ground with her hands and then took them up again, losing balance with one leg and then with the other. She did the clock dance, moving with the graciousness of a sunflower.
“Why don’t you go dance with Dalana for a while? She’s alone, poor woman. Go on, I’ll try a few steps with Oliver, don’t worry about me.” Angeline pushed, forcing Colin’s ribs towards Dalana.
“Hm, but I don’t know what she’s doing ...” He broke inertia with one grounded foot.
“Go find it out, then, and teach her something.” She patted Oliver’s shoulder.
Charlotte, dismissed by Oliver, who promptly accepted Angeline’s coming, walked closer to Zach and Laura, who danced together, and became a trio with them. Dalana made her drunk clock dance without looking at the party, unaware of Colin’s approach.
“Would you like to dance with me?” he said to her in a low voice, shy, scratching his arm.
“Of course I want to.” Dalana gave him a wide smile in the full whiteness of her teeth.
“How do ... How do we do it? I can’t do much, I only know the main pose, I’m sorry.”
“We can find out what works best together. Take my hand,” Dalana said.
But she gave him her hand flipped the opposite way, with her palms turned up, and he tried to fix her. She didn’t yield, though, and went on at a fast pace, too quick to let him correct anything else, waving her entire arm like a big tongue licking the void above their heads.
Colin looked sideways, ashamed of finding others laughing at him, standing still while his partner offered her hands to the sky and stepped between his feet, playing catch with his tiny fingers.
“I don’t know what you’re doing ... Hey, that’s too strange, this is not how we dance,” he said, pleading with her, placing his hands on her shoulders to try to make her stop.
“You can do this too, try it, I’ll help.” She grabbed his hands and took him for a ride on her otherworldly moves.
Colin resisted at first, his stiff limbs blocking her moves, but Dalana’s front pocket and her smooth skin made him tickle. He laughed at her touch, joining the flow. Their performance amused him, a hard dance, composed of intermittent contact and large swoops of all body parts, and yet he matched Dalana’s steps and predicted her next moves. The more he went further from Terra, the better it felt.
“I am alone, can’t you see it? Stop! Come! Stop silence! Noise, I want you!”
Angeline and Oliver knocked their heads and shouted, Colin tripped and fell on Dalana, OOOO fainted on the floor. For the lack of eyelids, its goggled eyes still faced the wall, lifeless despite its shine. The music melted down and then resumed playing, deformed, morphed into the World Voice.
“Tell
me I’m worthless ... Say that I am the worst of all ... I know I am ... If you tell me, it’ll make no difference ... Tell me ...”
Zach and Laura hugged, Mat and Amanda became lost in an embrace, Angeline and Oliver clenched their hands. Colin wished for the music to stop. It didn’t. The World Voice reached their underground shelter with more strength than ever, crossing the protective wall’s barrier to give them the full power of its presence.
Dalana thought about a new layer of resistant walls to save the house, she wished for it and it materialized. The very air vibrated with those words, though, and amplified them, the very air they had to keep in there so that the humans could survive.
For the first time, the mortal humans heard the World Voice in its surface intensity, no longer a mere whisper in their shelter. It spoke loudly, an unseen presence, less pervasive only than the great pillar of light itself.
Colin found the stones near OOOO’s body. The fallen Creator spun its head, giving the first signs of its recovery. Colin grabbed the resistant objects, each in one of his hands, and looked to the humans. Dalana walked among them, caressing their backs, lifting their spirits with soothing words. They hugged themselves in pairs, afraid of facing the world on their own.
He raised his arms wide. His hands had momentum, they could fall with plenty of energy, they could hit the stones with power. He crashed one resistant object on the other. Bang!
Could they have cracked? Could the objects which resisted the world’s sadness be torn apart? Colin feared it first, before he lost his senses and dove into the void.
Silence, darkness, insensitive pores, a parallel universe where only pain reached him, the pain of perforation, of an incision made by noise, splitting his body in two by the power of colossal vibrations. The world trembled.
“I hate that! Oh ... it hurts ... don’t do this again ... leave me alone ... If you’re going to do this, please don’t ... Go away, it hurts ... don’t you have enough of torturing me?”
He awoke with an insight: he had to do it again. The World Voice spoke more than coherent words at last, it moaned and cried, for something finally reached it, something finally made it suffer.