“My faithful servants!” the youthful god called to his adoring disciples. “The Great Father has been driven off the Earth and banished to the sky by two evil giants!” The Monads gasped. “He has sent me, his son, to give you an important task in his battle against these abominations.” The Monads nodded their eagerness to help.
“It is crucial to the Father that the stones before you be moved to the other end of the clearing before his death. Thus will the Giants’ evil plans be foiled. In gratitude for your service, the Great Father in the Sky will reward you with everlasting life in the wondrous realm beyond this one. There, you will find eternal light, rest, and water as cool and delicious as any you will ever dip your hands in.”
“We will Father help!” a Monad shouted.
Kayla gazed at the rapt Monad faces, their trusting eyes locked on the boy. Her face hardened into a scowl. What sick pleasure did this boy get from having them toil all day long to move a pile of stones back to where they’d moved them from the previous day?
“There is no time to lose, noble Monads—the all-seeing eye of God is upon you! Do your work well, and, by nightfall, you will be in paradise with me and my Father!”
The tiny green creatures cheered and grabbed stones from the hill.
“How dare you!” Kayla shouted at the false god, and all eyes turned toward her. Ohg appeared most startled of all and looked around with quick jerks of his neck, as if expecting an ambush. Seeing no one else, his eyes narrowed and locked onto her. The anger in her face faltered beneath his startling eyes, and she took a step backward. But the trusting faces of the Monads stopped her, and she straightened. Who would defend these helpless, trusting souls if not her?
“How dare you take advantage of these poor—”
“She is a minion of the Giants!” the boy shouted to the Monads, who cringed back from her.
“No, I’m your friend—” she shouted, but they shook their heads and shouted to keep her evil words from penetrating their minds.
“Your God will protect you,” Ohg said. “Continue your divine work, or the Giants will have won!” With that, he bounded up the rock pile, while the Monads scrambled to their task with redoubled determination.
The blond god looked only a few years older than her. More boy than man. When he reached the top of the mound, he gazed at her with curiosity and a hint of amusement. Kayla’s eyes glared into his. Not only was he exploiting the Monads, but he’d convinced them she worked on the side of the Devil. He swept his gaze over her form-fitting outfit with deliberate pauses and nods. Heat suffused her cheeks.
“I don’t think I’ve seen that model before,” he said with approval. “A custom job? You do know its illegal to operate unregistered bodies?” One of his eyebrows raised, but she remained silent. “A bit of advice, though, since the ozone layer is gone, the skin will burn after fifteen minutes of solar exposure.”
Still, she said nothing, her face a battleground between anger and confusion.
He laughed. “I didn’t think anyone but me bothered with atomic-based bodies anymore. So retro. I guess you just had the urge to go Earth-slumming?”
What in God’s name is he talking about?
Kayla glared at him. “I won’t let you distract me from the sick lies you’re telling these poor creatures.”
“I’ll understand if you want to hit me,” Ohg said in the face of her outrage, “but would you mind giving me a chance to explain, first?”
“I don’t see what you could possibly … Okay, fine, I’m listening.” She crossed her arms and stared with such rage that he burst into laughter. He took a few steps beneath the ridge and sat in the shade, out of sight of the Monads, and protected from the sun. She hesitated, then walked over and sat across from him.
“My name is Ohg,” he said.
“So I’ve heard.” Her lip twisted into a sneer. “Ohg, the great god, son of the Father in the Sky, come to offer everlasting life.”
“You don’t approve of my story?”
“It’s a lie!”
“How do you know it’s a lie?”
She spluttered for a moment, then straightened. “It’s obvious.”
“The Monads believe it. Don’t you have respect for other people’s religious beliefs?”
“You’re exploiting their simplicity and preying on their trusting nature to trick them into doing … What is the point of moving those stones in the first place?”
“The stones are meaningless to me.”
“Then you admit there exists no great purpose—nothing to do with Giants, or the Sun, or … or anything!”
Ohg laughed at her expression. “Trapped by my own words! I suppose it is a lie, after all.”
“Then why put them through all that work if it has no purpose?”
“It has purpose for the Monads.” His smirk vanished, and his blue eyes took on an intensity that once again turned her insides weak despite her anger. “The Egyptian pyramids, cathedrals, mosques, and temples are nothing more than elaborate piles of rocks constructed to win the favor of nonexistent gods. Every life needs purpose and hope, so I give them both.”
“Even though it’s a lie?”
“Would it be better if I told them the truth?” he asked. “Should I describe their creation in a laboratory a few hundred years ago? Born with their brains preprogrammed with language and rudimentary skills, and the knowledge that their fate is to die after a single day for no purpose whatsoever?”
Kayla’s eyes widened, but she remained silent.
“When I found the Monads, they lived their short lives in a waking Hell—tormented from birth by fear of the death awaiting them with the setting sun. Scientists had programmed this knowledge into their genes to study instinctual behaviors in the natural world.” Ohg’s tone conveyed his disgust.
“Once abandoned, the Monads wandered without purpose or hope. Truth is an affliction in search of a comforting lie—for Monads and humans alike. For a century, these gentle creatures have moved these stones back and forth, ending each day with pride at their participation in something greater than themselves.”
“It is still a lie,” Kayla said.
“To argue the truth of any religion is to miss the point,” Ohg said. “Animals are unaware that death is inevitable. Fear is reserved for moments of imminent danger. Once the human brain evolved enough to realize the inevitability of death, fear and despair must have become a constant torment. Thus we grasp at any story that will alter this reality and grant us temporary solace, even if it is an illusion.”
“Fear was the first mother of the gods,” Kayla quoted. “Fear, above all, of Death.”
“You’ve read Lucretius?” Ohg raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think anyone read books anymore. Lucretius nailed it, but even though humanity has now conquered death, this victory has created a deeper hopelessness, since mankind no longer has its own mountain of rocks to give life purpose, as I’m sure you’d agree.”
“There are more people like you? Why is everything in ruins, then?”
“But I thought you … your clothes …” His face bunched and he jerked to his feet. “Are you telling me … are you … could you possibly be … from Potemia?”
Kayla nodded.
His eyes widened. “That’s amazing. I have to—” Ohg turned and came face-to-face with a Monad. Its entire body trembled with horror and anger.
“God lie! Monad purpose no! Forever Monad die!” it shouted at Ohg with tears smearing its green face. Then it dashed down the slope.
Ohg leapt after it. “No, I didn’t mean it! It was a trick to fool the Demon!” But the Monad wouldn’t listen and shouted to its brothers that the god was no god, that it had “Lied, Lied, Lied!” The knowledge that moving the mountain served no divine purpose, that there existed no hope of life in Paradise after sunset, swept through the Monads like a convulsion.
The boy ran into their midst, desperately trying to reason with them. One Monad threw a rock at the back of his head. Ohg placed his h
and against the wound, and the Monads grew silent as they surrounded him. Kayla stood frozen in place. What could she do to help soothe them?
Ohg brought his hand before his eyes and gazed at the blood. He appealed to the tortured faces surrounding him. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I wanted to help—” With a roar, they attacked their false god. He tried running, but they fastened their strong hands on him from all sides. He cried out as they dislocated and broke his limbs.
“No!” Kayla screamed and ran down the slope.
The Monads bit, pounded, and clawed at their fallen deity. The blood of their false god showered them like a sacrificial offering. Ohg’s cries of agony fueled them to an ever-greater frenzy.
“Stay back!” Ohg shouted to her.
Ignoring his warning, she rushed into the melee, kicking and swatting the creatures away with powerful blows. Bones crunched, and the Monads yelped, but still they persisted in their vengeance. She slung Ohg over her shoulder and bolted toward the buildings beyond the clearing, but still they clung to him.
Kayla tore the last Monad from Ohg’s leg and headed into an open doorway. She set the unconscious youth onto the floor before facing the approaching mob. She could easily kill them one at a time, but how could she do such a thing to these simple creatures?
The Monads swarmed toward her, faces twisted in rage, wide mouths baring sharp rows of teeth—odd for creatures who didn’t eat. Kayla upended a huge slab of concrete, and it boomed into place to block the doorway. The Monads shrieked.
She knelt beside Ohg, and his eyes half opened. “Potemia …” he said, then bloody foam gurgled into his mouth. Kayla gazed at his mutilated body with despairing eyes. There was too much damage to repair.
“It’s my fault,” she said with a trembling voice. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry …”
Ohg’s head lolled to the side—his life ended. Kayla’s hands went to her face and she cried. The Monads scratched, pushed, and pounded at the concrete slab, until they drifted away, terrified by the inevitability of their approaching fate. Their fearful cries and moans drifted through the gaps of the doorway as the sun made its unstoppable circuit across the sky, marking the countdown to the end of their now-meaningless lives.
Kayla smoothed the boy’s golden hair from his face, wiped the blood and grime from his perfect lips, and closed his eyes. Then she kissed his forehead.
“I’m sorry.” Her tears anointed his lifeless cheeks.
Even here, in the long-dreaded Outside, she’d brought misfortune and death. “I will not kill anyone else,” she whispered. The room stood bare, nothing more than a windowless box, a fitting tomb to hide in for eternity—the Monads’ faint cries serving as a reminder of the poison she’d become.
Eventually, darkness conquered the day, and silence returned to the abandoned city. Kayla spent the night beside Ohg, her hand entwined in his stiffening fingers. Puck entered through a crack in the doorway and curled up near her and fell asleep. At least the little mouse was safe.
The mountain of rock would move no more. The Monads would wander through the dead city, alone and terrified without their god to offer hope.
She dozed dreamlessly throughout the night—but one mystery remained.
With the first suggestion of light, she peered through a crack in the side of the doorway. The sky brightened, and the chest of a desiccated Monad bulged, then split down the center, revealing a green pod inside. One by one, the rest followed, until fifty pods lay strewn across the clearing.
When the sun topped the distant buildings and bathed the artificial valley in light, the pods opened, and out crawled a fresh generation of Monads. Each gazed at the newly born sun, and a shadow of dread darkened their faces.
Ohg’s ashen features bulged, and the unmistakable smell of death spiraled through the chamber like a noxious curse.
I know what he’d want me to do.
She stood and slid the concrete aside. The Monads watched her stride across the sunlit clearing and followed without prompting, transfixed.
She sat at the edge of the hill of stones, and they gathered around her. “My name is Kayla,” she said. “I want to tell you the story of a man named Jesus.”
For the next half hour, she related the story of the man from Galilee, who had died for their sins. She told them how they also would rise from the dead in Heaven if they believed in Him. When she finished, the Monads’ faces glowed with the vision of the promised life after this one. But here and there, a mouth bent into a frown, and a brow creased with a shadow of anxiety.
“Monad, Jesus believe,” one said, its wide face imploring. “But what Jesus want Monad do?”
Suzy had asked her a similar question once in her Bible study sessions. Kayla had spoken of the subtle distinctions of right and wrong, helping the less fortunate, the Ten Commandments, and the Golden Rule. But such concepts would baffle creatures like this. Just like Ohg had predicted, hope had proved insufficient on its own—they needed a purpose as well.
Maybe they could repair the buildings? But this seemed an impossibly complex task for such simple-minded creatures. Maybe a garden? But where would she find seeds, let alone soil capable of supporting life?
Their faces twisted with worry. “Monad want help Jesus,” one of them said, and the rest nodded in an urgent plea for some task to give their lives purpose.
Kayla sighed and spread her arms wide. “The one Great Task that God and his Son want you to accomplish as a sign of your devotion,” she said to their trusting, upturned faces, “is to move this pile of stones from here, to there.”
As one, they set to work. None questioned why Jesus wanted the stones moved; all that mattered was their Savior’s command. Never was there a more dutiful congregation. It didn’t matter that she judged the task pointless. Its purpose lay in the doing itself.
The clapping of a pair of hands startled her, and she turned. A figure stood atop the rubble where she’d spoken with Ohg the day before. He moved his hands back and forth slowly, applauding her. Her eyes zoomed in on the face of—
“It can’t be …” she said, backing away from the apparition. Her heart pounded, and she dashed toward the tomb where she’d left Ohg. Would it be empty? The Monads hardly noticed her, consumed by their holy labors. Kayla stopped at the entrance and gazed at Ohg’s bloated and mutilated corpse. It lay undisturbed where she’d left it.
A hand settled on her shoulder, and she spun around to face … Ohg.
Chapter 9
“Sorry I startled you,” Ohg said. “I forgot you’re from—”
Kayla retreated. Her eyes flashed from the dead body on the floor to the living one in the doorway. Was this a ghost?
“Please,” she begged. “Haven’t I been punished enough? I’m sorry for getting you killed. I’m sorry—”
“Listen, I didn’t actually die yesterday.”
She covered her ears to protect her mind from his lies. Minister Coglin claimed the Devil sometimes impersonated the dead to torture their kin.
Maybe I did die after all. Maybe this is Hell.
The ghost grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands aside. She screamed, the terror in her chest demanding release.
“I’m alive, do you understand?” Ohg shouted. He let go of her hands and she stopped screaming. Her entire body trembled.
He patted his chest. “It’s taken me time to get this spare body prepped and transported out here.”
He doesn’t sound like a ghost.
“A spare—body?”
“Think of bodies as vehicles, like a boat or a cart.” He took a half-step forward and she retreated, eyes dilated. “When my vehicle breaks down, I simply get into another.”
“I watched you die,” she said.
Ohg sighed, as if struggling to explain something to a small child. “Your body and consciousness are one and the same. If your vehicle is destroyed, you die. But this body,” Ohg pointed to his chest, “is not my true body. I’ve projected my consciousness to inhabit it only tem
porarily. If it is destroyed, my consciousness is not harmed. Do you understand?”
“You changed into a new … body?” she asked, and he nodded.
Could this be some trick of a demon?
Kayla stepped forward, her palm settling against his cheek. “I thought I’d gotten you killed.”
Ohg smiled. “Good try, though.”
Guilt and sorrow flowed out of her as she flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. “Thank God you’re alive, Ohg!”
“I … I’m fine,” he said. He patted her back awkwardly, as if unsure how to respond.
“I’m sorry I misjudged you. You’re one of the kindest people I’ve ever known—to dedicate your life to helping these poor creatures!”
He blushed. “It’s only a few minutes each morning. I wouldn’t exactly call it dedicating—”
She kissed him. What am I doing? Guilt at betraying Ishan flooded her mind.
Ohg laughed.
She jerked away from him. “Is it funny that I would kiss you?”
“Yes, it is, but explaining why is too complex for the present.” He gazed out the doorway. “My compliments on the ancient fairy tale you told the Monads. Quite effective.”
She stiffened. “How do you know it’s a fairy tale?”
He glanced sidelong at her. “So you believe Jesus desires the Monads to move rocks all day?”
Kayla walked past him and stood watching the Monads carry their loads from one pile to the other. Ohg followed but remained silent.
“I lied about that for their own good. But I believe everything else I told them.”
Ohg studied her. “Are you really from Potemia?”
“I’m not a liar,” she said, then hesitated. “Except …”
“Except to the Monads,” he said with a penetrating gaze.
She averted her eyes. I also lied to Ishan.
“I never got your name yesterday.”
“My name is Kayla Nighthawk.”
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