by Davi Cao
“Huh, did you see it? Tell me!” OOOO insisted.
He remained quiet. Noticing that the biggest building on the beach had the appearance of a huge chocolate bar on a hot summer’s day, he turned around and walked the opposite way. Behind it, growing upwards to the sky, the great pillar of light illuminated the horizon in a thin line, wandering the planet far away from shore.
“You really are sad about things melting, aren’t you? They are just creations! We weep when Creators die, not creations, because you can always have them better than before. These people were not important, were they? No, they were just things that I made. Their death was part of their creation, and it was interesting to watch them melt, wasn’t it?” OOOO said.
It hopped by the side of Colin, searching his eyes that faced only the ground ahead of him. Seeing that his new company walked devoid of any fascination for the powers that he had, it invited him to play a game:
“Let’s do this, let’s play ‘Resistance’! You create anything, anything at all, any idea that comes to your mind, and we see how much we can make them resist in this world. You like this idea, don’t you?” it said.
As Colin pretended not to listen to the creature, it went ahead and started the game.
“OK, I’ll begin, just to show you how it is done, and then it’s your turn, isn’t it?” OOOO said.
It created a round object that sprouted from the soil in front of Colin, calling his attention. He stopped to watch it roll, surprised to see something moving by itself in that desolate world. The thing emerged from liquid wood and opened up in the fashion of a flower, beautiful like the rarest of Earth’s orchids. It claimed Colin’s love at first sight, it took him to a place of imaginary delights. The flower then said something loud, a desperate scream, and he heard it loud and clear, a father losing his child. Its petals stretched up and spun over themselves, tearing its fragile tissues with the violence of their contortions. It then melted down, disappearing at the same speed of its birth.
“Didn’t resist much, did it? Your turn now!” OOOO said.
Colin clenched his teeth, struggling to keep his mouth closed tight. His jaw insisted on trembling, taking his whole body along with it. Sorrow banged at his heart with the strength of a battering ram, forcing his gates down. He cried.
∙ 7 ∙ Facing ghosts
Colin wanted a way to escape the terrible reality in which he found himself. Feeling so powerless, though, death hovered in his head with the buzzing of a fly probing a corpse. He walked on the sand, entering the mirror-like water. Each new step took him deeper, diving his body in the dark sea. When his head submerged, he breathed, and nothing entered his lungs. Intact, he could live underwater if he so desired. But his human senses captured little of the ocean's vast expanse, its slimy floor muddy and dark.
Something touched him down there, something pressed against his body. Out of reflex, his body flinched and he pushed it back. If he were to die, he had to be sure of his attacker, and so he went back to the surface, water running down his body without making him wet. OOOO emerged with him, just a few steps behind.
It pressed its body against Colin again, pushing him to the ground. He resisted the creature’s force, struggling to stand up.
“Get off me! What are you doing?” he said.
“I’m trying to fit in!”
“No, I don’t want it! You only make things worse to me.”
With a hard push, Colin released himself from OOOO’s touch. The creature insisted.
“Like I said, I’m not an expert in human behavior, but you cried, and I wanted to fit in! That’s what you need, isn’t it? We share a world now, so we must fit in!” it said.
“I can only fit in with other people from Terra, not with you.”
He ran faster away from OOOO, who watched their distance increase with perplexity. It hopped closer, and then stopped, because Colin turned around and threw sand at it. It got closer again and a half-melted cell phone hit its head. Colin increased his speed, watching ahead of him, in the horizon, the World Voice's great blue pillar that understood him.
“You shouldn’t go this way, should you? Hey, come back! Let’s go the other way. We must run from the Voice, must we not? It has power over us, Creators, too. I did it to make Mae give up of Terra, and it was surprising even to me. Amazing, isn’t it? Yes, dangerous too!”
Colin's newfound immortality allowed him to run madly, not one bit tired. At his top speed, however, he was no match for OOOO’s hopping, and it kept up with him with ease. It followed him, trying to divert their marathon elsewhere.
“Are you running to see more of my world? Because that is nice, and I want to join in! But, hey, you should wait for the World Voice to go the other way. If we go this way, it will be too strong. I can’t take it for too long, you see? Unless you want to check if you are strong enough. Then it would be interesting, wouldn’t it? Are you strong enough?”
Colin ran with the determination of a blind man, raising his chest high to invoke courage, being brave against OOOO, not the World Voice. The effect of his decisive expression, though, impressed his peer.
“I see, you’re going to face it, aren’t you? It’s going to be incredible! But ... But I can’t go along, I don’t want to melt. Can I watch from a distance? Yes, I’ll watch, and you’ll resist it, won’t you? You won't melt?” it said.
Splotches of melted wood and concrete flew under their feet, debris falling down only to blend again in the world's soup. Leaving the beach area, they entered an avenue that continued towards the great pillar, the World Voice which became wider and wider in front of them, extending its glow to the infinitude of space where stars once sparkled. OOOO lost its constant smile. Colin ran by its side at pace.
“You shouldn’t go there if you’re sad, should you? No, you would resist even less. You would see no reason to live. And Creators only die if they want to, you see? That’s how the Voice melts things. Why don’t you go back, then? Huh? You’ll melt, won’t you?”
As Colin didn’t reply, OOOO stopped. Advancing more would put its fragile mind under too much strain, and the World Voice had as much power over it as it had over any other Creator. It hopped over a tall building and watched Colin run towards the pillar.
The pillar's view struck Colin's heart, like a hammer striking at the earth. It colored the purple sky with an intense mystical blue, an O-type sun, had it existed in the world before. Alone, the only one of its kind in a desolate world, the Voice resembled Colin himself in this aspect. Each blinded by their pain, they paired together in their wish for self-destruction, guiding their paths to the same spot.
The avenue under Colin's feet crumbled in liquid spasms, bleeding asphalt slime, concrete ooze. His running strides dug deep to propel himself without slipping. Square, round, and complex shapes floated in the great universal soup, metal, rock, glass, organics, even people's remains mingled in the mix. If at first the idea of melting disgusted him, now it gave him a promise of communion.
“I need someone ... Please, anybody ... It’s too lonely in here ... No, I can’t live this way ...”
He tripped on a car tire and fell on his knees over the slimy asphalt. The glowing blue pillar took half the sky with its colossal size.
“I hate my life in this hell ... Is anybody there? Answer me ...”
Colin stayed on the ground, prostrate. His brown skin shone with the light coming from the World Voice’s avatar, and his nerves lost control of his body. His failing cerebral activity kept him on his knees, a window opened to the universe's sadness.
“I have nothing ... Nobody wants me because I’m the worst of all ... How could they want me ... I have nothing good to give the world ... That’s why it’s hell in here ... I deserve it ... My life is misery, and they give me more misery ...”
When his parents called him to stay together, he mocked them. When Angeline, whom he loved, invited him to enjoy their last day, he refused her.
“Let me die now, please do ... I don’t w
ant to be in this world ... I have nothing ... What’s the point of living in such a terrible place?”
The ground got closer to him. His shins sank in the melted asphalt, having the surrounding matter share those same miserable thoughts. A button from his gray t-shirt became liquid, flowing across the one beneath it as it dribbled down. The fabric that enveloped his chest stuck on his skin with the weight of its dejection.
An image of Mr. Alden appeared in his mind, regrets and sadness dancing by its side. He said good-bye to Terra by working at the office, and although proud of it at the time, he wanted to be back and do it differently.
“Will someone have mercy on me ... I feel so bad ... There is nothing to do in here ... I can only cry and cry and cry ...”
Colin twitched his head, regaining control of his muscles. He allowed that movement to signal his purpose. The end of everything. He bent his back to lean forwards and let his body fall on the ground. His head met the asphalt soup and drank from it. He breathed, or thought that he did so, and still lived. His thumb nail lost a tiny bit of keratin, which melted and became one with the world's flowing substances.
Over a tall building, OOOO zoomed in with its powerful eyes to the area where Colin fell on his knees. At such a distance, still too far from sight, he saw little, unaware of his friend's whereabouts.
It went to another roof and then climbed an even taller one, having to cross the avenue with a big jump. It stopped when struck by the World Voice's dangerous glow, its power invading its mind with thunder and depression. Compassionate, mimicking Colin's misery, powered by the words emanating from the Voice, OOOO struggled to keep up.
OOOO froze. Far away, Colin sank his head in the floor. Houses and buildings by the avenue's side slid down in muddy ruins, bringing fear to the creature, as the place it stood over would soon collapse too. It turned around itself, shaking its numerous legs under the spell of its indecision. Colin needed help.
“Hey, are you alive? Huh? You are good, aren’t you? You showed your courage, great, now come back! Won’t you get away, please?” it said, yelling and directing its mental messages at Colin.
Colin raised his head from the melted asphalt and then dropped it again, falling with violent splashes in the slime and sludge. His backpack's fabric withdrew from existence, unwilling to keep its bonds, ripping apart at the seams, digesting itself.
“I’m so lonely ... Is anybody there? Don’t let me die alone, please ... Come talk to me ...”
OOOO threatened to jump closer, but receded once the Voice penetrated its mind and incapacitated it. A few steps further and the creature would meet the worst ghosts of its past. It went back, distracting its mind with the sight of Colin’s body fighting to raise from the slime and falling back at every attempt, slowly becoming part of the melted landscape.
“You’re a Creator, aren’t you? Yes, yes you are, you can create things! Nothing is ever bad to you, because you can always create new things, whatever you want, can’t you? Remember this! Come back here and let’s play games! It's not boring, believe me, is it? Let’s meet other Creators! You like friends, don’t you? We can make lots of new ones! The world is filled with different Creators, and they are all interesting! You will think about it, won’t you?” OOOO said with all its might.
Colin turned his head sideways, half immersed in the avenue. He bent his neck front and back, eyes closed. He opened his arms to embrace the melted land. Slow at every move, still far from the agonizing torture that all humans experienced when they had faced the apocalypse, he counted the minutes until his final disappearance.
OOOO danced over the building, spinning on the frail rooftop with piercing limbs, turning its head in full circles counter to its own spin. It threatened to go Colin’s way, jumping to the neighbor’s roof.
“Everybody is gone ... Nobody loves me ... All of them want to stay away from me ... I’m so boring and annoying ...”
The creature gave up, it couldn’t save Colin. Or could it? It left the building's terrace, landing on the avenue. If it followed the path, the way would lead in a straight line to the newest of all Creator's body. He, Colin, sacred like all others. He had to be saved.
With a new smile, came a new idea. OOOO imagined a layer of rock emerging from the ground to create a tunnel reaching out to Colin’s body. It would be a kind of rock that existed in its original world, a semi-sentient being with enough capacity to interact with its surroundings. And it would be headstrong, convinced of its world view's superiority, not one bit opened to the World Voice's ideas. OOOO imagined it, and it wished for it.
The big tunnel materialized on the avenue, locking the creature in a dark passage that isolated it from the outside. Murky, light bouncing in it by the rock's own scant self-luminescence, the shelter's shield reduced by half the power of depression. OOOO hopped through the tunnel at high speed, desperate to rescue its new colleague.
In the middle of the way, though, the rocks gave up on the long argument they had with the World Voice, and considered it better to let it rule over the world with its loneliness. Sad as it was, it needed time to flesh out some thoughts. The tunnel melted down in waves of blobs and gushing matter. The power of the Voice’s sorrow struck OOOO full in its mind, a lightning electrifying every strand of its legs.
“I am misery in the shape of life ... I exist only to suffer ... This is not the place for me ... I want to fit in with somebody ...”
The creature stopped hopping, considering going back to save itself. Advancing against the World Voice's core meant suicide, the Voice being its creation, its child, and therefore it carried with it the truth of OOOO’s pains.
On the other side, Colin's loneliness ate into his existence, ruining his bonds with reality, setting his atoms free to meltdown. Not a Creator's fate, no, losing a fellow Creator marked a destiny worse than OOOO's own death.
It hopped towards Colin, creating propelling rows that gave him a special push and which melted right after use. With this aide, OOOO jumped high and ran half the missing distance towards its target.
“This is terrible ... I’m worthless ... I only think about my loneliness ... There’s nothing else to do ...”
The melted ground sucked one of OOOO’s legs and stopped its advance. As the World Voice’s creator, it had ensured that the Voice exceeded its Creator, for OOOO lusted for extreme excitement, and from the world it came, excitement meant dying. The pillar of light grew upon it, and OOOO pulled its jammed limb out with self-reassurance.
“I am a Creator! I can do new things, can’t I? I’m not worthless, no, not at all! I like interesting things, I want to live to have more of them!” it said.
“It’s a trap ... This is hell ... Darkness deceives me! It must speak and it is quiet ... I can’t do anything right ... Everything I do is boring ...”
OOOO hopped its way over and reached Colin, finding the man half covered in melted asphalt, his backpack gone, his pants torn, his fingernails dripping and blending with the surrounding matter. OOOO took him on three of its bent limbs and ran away as fast as it could with its free legs, speaking with him and with itself to resist the World Voice’s invasion.
“We are sacred, aren’t we? We are the makers of all that is interesting! We can create worlds, we can make living rocks, breathing galaxies, dead parrots! Without us, it makes no sense, does it?”
Colin, laid in its arms, opened his eyes. He offered a lifeless glance to his rescuer, as if nothing could convince him to let go of melting. OOOO hopped and took them both in great strides back from where they came. He had to take Colin to a place where he would find hope again.
∙ 8 ∙ Housewife
From the little that OOOO knew about the human mind, it considered Colin’s old house the best place to take him. There, he would find enough memories to regain hope and get back to life. Going the opposite way from the World Voice, they followed the same avenue from which they came.
The landscape had changed already. Where houses raised above ground with
integrity and populated the view, round gray mounds now swallowed the last walls, windows, and trees. Lampposts and their wires melted in spidery webs, many sinking in the ground slime faster than others. Tires and engine parts floated in the middle of the asphalt, the stronger remains of the once abundant cars.
Colin’s house stood in a decrepit state, worse than OOOO remembered it. The front door swam in the mud that had become the porch, the roof disappeared, the brick edges at the top became big drops flowing down to join in the great mass of undifferentiated matter. As they entered it, they found a part of the second floor had ceded and its floor blended with the living room’s sofa and cupboard. The kitchenware mixed with the adjourning walls and became a room decorated by blocks of gray.
“Life is hell ... The torment is too big and I want to disappear ... Take me out of this, please ...”
But OOOO remembered the house, being a creature of photomenic memory, a kind of memory specific from creatures of its original world. It had in its mind a precise interdimensional picture of the place prior to their new arrival. It wished to have it back, and so it materialized at once in front of them. The roof went back to covering half the house, the walls became firm again, the furniture lacked only what hadn’t existed when they first got there.
Colin guided OOOO with his eyes, riding in the creature’s lap towards his old bedroom. The environment preserved its old-time familiarity, the bed neat, just like he left it before going to work, his papers all organized over his computer table, and his wardrobe still had the crooked door that left a gap between it and the other. OOOO placed him on the floor, as Colin’s eyes roamed everywhere in the room and stopped guiding his driver, but the creature then remembered that humans used beds, so it took him back and gently placed his body on the mattress.
“You can talk now, can’t you?” it said.