The Red Man

by Alex Meleg

seizures.

  The Blue Man walked to the center of the room and waved me over to his side.

  "Flesh mothers, who provide home and safety to those who survive the eating wastes, I bring a citizen for your approval," he bellowed.

  The massive flesh mothers sauntered slowly out from the shadows. They formed a circle around us. Their flesh was twisted weirdly on frames that barely hinted at a previous existence as women. Their voices hummed and vibrated in unison in my head.

  "Welcome, you bring one for us—"

  "A statue perhaps? He still wears—"

  "The clothes of a dead one—"

  "Flesh of his old self—"

  "Cleanse him and we will regard him."

  The Blue Man let out a cry of joy, grabbed me by the hair and yanked. My scalp ripped off like paper. I stumbled backwards towards the entrance but he kept coming. He tore off the sleeve of my right arm and all the flesh with it. I tripped and fell backwards. He sat on top of me. Ripped with a smile on his face.

  It was over quickly. He calmly walked back to the center of the room and left me sitting on the floor in a nest of papery flesh and clothes.

  Abject terror overcame reason. The room blurred. I rubbed my eyes but jerked my hands back in shock. My eyes were gone, in their place was smooth obsidian. I touched my skin, Only hard red obsidian from head to toe. I was naked again, a freak alone on the shore of a world that wanted to eat me alive. My knees curled into my chest.

  Little cries and moans erupted from my lips for some time, I was too far gone to control it. The flesh mothers and the Blue Man let me wallow in their silence.

  I propped myself unsteadily on my left arm and watched a few pebbles crumble off and fall to the ground. I limped over to where the Blue Man stood. My old skin and clothes laid there like the left over effluence from a caterpillar's cocoon.

  I stood straight. I would not end up like Veech or the child in the forest. I would remain free.

  "It is burnt rock and hewn bone now—"

  "Much better—"

  "Cleaner—"

  "What does our new citizen wish?"

  I opened and closed my mouth a few times and swallowed. My voice sounded like the innards of a smelter.

  "To leave this place, to go home, to wake up, to end this nightmare."

  A resonating laugh penetrated me to the core.

  "We judge you unworthy—"

  "Of our mercy—"

  "One so weak as you—"

  "Deserves only to languish for all time in despair."

  I slumped, my joints cracked and groaned. The Blue Man grinned.

  "You have claimed this creature's flesh—"

  "Rightfully—"

  "We give you its existence—"

  "You may do with it whatever you want—"

  "Its weakness disgusts us."

  I fell to my knees, covered my face and moaned. He bowed to the flesh mothers who retreated into the gloom.

  He firmly wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and headed for the entrance with me in his grasp, a dead and broken thing. It was no use fighting anymore. The flesh mother's condemnation echoed in my head, absolute and final.

  "I always keep what I collect." the Blue Man dragged me to the edge of the platform that formed the border around the flesh mother's temple.

  He tightened his grip and threw me against the ground, hard. I groaned as a new line of cracks formed across my face. the Blue Man kicked me, left a crater in my gut.

  His boot pressed against my neck. Salty breath licked my cheek.

  "You're mine now, forever. I'll let the walls of my home eat you until there's nothing left. I'll chisel out what's left and cast it into the wind."

  Something in my neck snapped.

  "I always keep what I collect. You won't escape me again Red Man. No one ever escapes."

  He turned his back to me and walked over to the edge to look out into the wastes.

  My head throbbed. I didn't want to stand again. I was a bag of bones, a forgotten pile of stone. I gritted my teeth at his smugness, his simple morality on collecting. I wanted to be like that, to have that inner strength to do anything necessary. What did I have to lose? Nothing could be worse than what he planned for me.

  Desperation drove me. A desperation to survive. I wasn't afraid of him anymore. I was afraid of the dangerous creature I would become to survive. I braced myself on my cracked arm and grinned at him.

  He turned around and pursed his lips. He walked over and knelt in front of me. That's right you fucker, you have no idea what I am anymore, just a little bit closer. I tried to stand, small bits of rock crumbled off my cracked frame.

  He pushed me back to the ground. I laughed. I planted a knee on on the ground and he kicked my shoulder causing me to tumble onto my back. I stood and grinned at him.

  "You almost had me there, you were so close. You offered me an easy out to this world and I almost took it, it would be so easy to fall asleep, slowly let the land eat me" I said.

  "You think because you had a stupid little epiphany you'll just be able to walk away from me now?" he licked his lips.

  I took a step forward, the Blue Man stepped back. "I'm free. You sought to cow me before the flesh mothers. You failed," I inched closer to the Blue Man. This power within me was so natural, all I had to do was point and shoot and it would fix everything.

  "Veech failed to guide me because I wanted an easy way out of this hell. But you've let me become something stronger than what you intended, something more dangerous than you," I said.

  The Blue Man's lips curled into a snarl. He didn't see how close to the ledge he was. I did. I embraced him and whispered in his ear, inhaled the salty fragrance of his hair.

  "The wastes below sing to me, I can hear it now, can you?" I released him and gently pushed. He hovered in the air for a second, shock marring his features. He hit many platforms on his way down to the twisted hungry sands below. His screams of agony brought joy to my ears.

  I descended the platforms. On one lay his tattered woven cloak. I ran the rough fabric between my fingers and draped it over my shoulders like a perverted war trophy.

  Hanging over the edge of the platform was his sheathed knife. The blade reflected the light at odd angles like a broken prism. I strapped it around my thigh.

  The howling of living statues followed me down the twisted spiral of the city. I roared at them and they lapsed into quiet twitching.

  Long broken cobbles and old stone littered the base of the city. In the center of the mess sat a throbbing fleshy root on the same order of magnitude as a sequoia. I remembered visiting those forests as a child with my parents. Was that a memory or a fabrication, an errant thought perhaps?

  My head throbbed, the memories became more painful each time.

  The wall that blocked my escape was taller than it looked from the balloon. I ran my hand along it and took in the grainy texture. At least a four day journey from bottom to top. Going around it wasn't an option, swirling mud sands surrounded the city, which explained why the balloon was the only way to get here.

  One of the city's tendrils had made its way up the wall and acted as a brace. Thousands of capillaries branched out of it and spread across the wall like the skeleton of a leaf.

  I hooked my foot into a crack, clasped a thick vein, and started my accent to the top.

  Two days into the accent and the climb had become routine. Foot in, hand up, lock my fingers. Rocky fingers couldn't bend readily so I dug them into the wall like hooks, leaving small holes behind. The tips of my fingers were being filed into points.

  I locked my fingers in tight as something yelled at me from below. I found a foothold and swung there looking down. Something was climbing after me, it moved quickly and was at most a day behind me.

  It stopped. It yelled again, its voice unnaturally loud.

  "The longer you run the worse it'll be for you!" it said.

  It was the Blue Man. How strong he must be to fight hi
s way out of the sand and catch up with me. I climbed faster.

  I pulled myself onto the flattened top of the wall and looked out. In the distance, the dingy red clouds transformed into wild threats. Lightning arced in all directions, illuminating the gateways on the horizon. They formed a loose girdle along what Veech called the outer rim. They were massive, many orders of magnitude larger than the one Veech had shown me and hundreds of miles away. Black waters stretched out beyond the gateways.

  Below stretched a deep chasm that ran parallel to the wall, separating the city from the region beyond. Over the other side the distant figure of the Blue Man grew closer every passing moment. He wouldn't leave me alone, would never stop, until he owned me completely. I sat cross legged.

  I'd wait for him and finish this.

  A silent day passed and then a dirty blue hand appeared followed by another. A naked body save torn pants and boots. A terrible grin, a hungry grin.

  I stood and drew my knife. I hoped it wouldn't come to that but he was an irrational angry creature with simple goals.

  "We can part ways here! Forget each other exist, there is more than enough land to lose ourselves in," I said.

  He smiled, his mouth unnaturally large. "Was it not you boy who pushed me over the ledge, and stole my cloak and dagger? And now you speak of mercy?"

  "Mercy for you, we can settle this peacefully."

  "There is no peace for anyone in these lands, no rest, no food, no sleep. I always keep what I collect, that is my one law."

  "Still on that eh? Look where that led you," I lowered my knife to my side. The Blue Man moved quickly.

  I feinted right, slashed at his greedy hands. He grabbed the knife by the blade, pulled me into him and struck my left arm