The Fall of Zephyr

by Angelina Singer

  “Hey! Hey you, I need to speak with you. Now!” Officer Jones starts jogging toward Seth, but one glance at the officer is all it takes for him to sprint down the street away from him. Within seconds, the two enter into a mad chase, and Seth’s heart nearly beats out of his chest as the adrenaline rushes through his veins. As the officer begins to gain on him, Seth takes a rapid turn down a side street and continues forcing his body to move faster than it really can comfortably.

  Right, left, right, left…. breathe….

  He brushes some loose strands of his jet-black dark hair out of his face as sweat drips down his hairline. The sun is already beating down significantly in the mid-morning hours, and he can feel his body becoming fatigued, from both the rising environmental temperatures and the intense pressure on his bones as he pounds his feet into the concrete. After a few agonizing moments of pure desperation, Seth’s gaze lands on a nearby shed where he can hide from the police officer.

  Great, I can hide there!

  He enters the space and immediately shuts the door, hoping that the policeman didn’t see where he went past the sharp corner he took. As Seth catches his breath, he allows himself to slump down next to a nearby wall, where he counts the blissful moments away from the eyes of the world. It has been so long since he has been freed from the prying eyes of curious humans who keep threatening him, or making him feel the need to threaten them back.

  Once he finally regulates his breathing and pulse, Seth regroups and tries to think about where Luna might be. He absentmindedly glances around the shed he took refuge in, and all he sees are various gardening tools, bare wood slats, and the shards of light breaking through them from the mid-morning sun.

  Nothing catches his eye until something does - on the very wall he is leaning against is a bit of long, dark hair caught on a nail. Someone else had been sitting here too. He gently pulls a piece of hair from the nail it was tangled against and holds it to his face, sniffing it vigorously to detect a possible scent. To his utter delight, he recognizes it as Luna’s hair. As animalistic qualities go, Seth has a very keen sense of smell, not unlike a wolf or some other powerful, wild animal. And at this moment, it has served him very well.

  Luna… Luna was here… He breathes a sigh of relief and begins to grin and laugh uncontrollably. Then his eyes shift to a small piece of card stock paper on the floor - he wastes no time in examining that as well.

  Aquatic Springs Condominiums? I’m thinking that might be the next best place to check for Luna.

  CHAPTER 3

  Zephyr is incredibly weak now, that his entire body limp on his throne, and his face motionless. The life-force current is still flowing through him, but only at the rate of a trickle. The end is soon, and he knows it. But he also knows that there is an uprising occurring, and that something must be done about it before time runs out and he is overthrown. That is why he set a counter-plan in motion to try to keep the ruffians at bay.

  “Jewel… did you… did you handle it?”

  One of the many orderlies approaches his throne in the Grand Hall, and meekly curtsies.

  “Yes, Most High Being. I have set the plan in motion. It is only a matter of time now before the revolutionists realize that they are being watched, realize their efforts are futile, and then cease plotting against you.”

  Zephyr is hardly able to move, but a slow, slight nod from his chin tells Jewel that he understands and approves.

  “That is… good to hear.”

  She nods respectfully.

  “Is there anything I can do for you, Zephyr? Anything at all, perhaps some more ambrosia to dull the pain?”

  Zephyr groans in protest.

  “I know you don’t like it, but you’re very weak now and it might strengthen you.”

  Again, another slow nod from Zephyr tells her to proceed.

  “Okay, I will be right back with it.”

  The atmosphere of the Upperworld has adapted to the change in Zephyr’s energy, and all processes are beginning to feel the pinch. As the life-force energy begins to slowly seep out of his limp body, with some even hitting the floor, and promptly evaporating, the defects will begin to manifest themselves.

  Any moment, any time now, human history will begin to collapse, and all the Upperworld beings will be dragged down into the depths of the Underworld. Their nearly perpetual bond to Zephyr is undeniable, and in the grand scheme of things, it will be fatal for all beings, both mortal and yes - even the immortal, as immortality is not immune to the wiles of a depreciating leader.

  Only time will tell how much time is left - and once it is revealed, it will be too late.

  ✷✷✷

  After what feels like a small eternity of collecting the ballots, Evander begins to have the digital counting system tally up the ballots in plain sight of everyone in accordance, so that no one can question the accuracy of the results once they are revealed. He is about to press the button to finalize the process when a bit of unrest echoes through the crowd.

  “What? What’s going on?” Evander pauses mid-process and crosses his arms, clearly irritated.

  “There’s a… camera in here.” Griffin shrugs his shoulders and looks at Evander to get his attention.

  “Oh, absolutely not. I’ve de-bugged and silenced everything in this room, there is no possible way -”

  “Just look!”

  Evander makes his way over to where Griffin and some others are standing and point up at the ceiling. And low and behold, there indeed is a small, round, black sensor with just one, solitary red light blinking rhythmically about every three seconds, as measured on Earth.

  “That… that cannot be here. Everyone, quiet! This has to be attended to before we can continue.”

  “But the voting!”

  “Yeah! Who won?”

  “We need to know!”

  “This cannot wait!”

  “Silence!” Evander’s interjection reverberates through the large discussion room which is currently housing all the Disturbers in one of their usual strategy meetings. “We have to be careful, they may know things now.” With a finger to his lips, Evander pulls a step ladder and a small hammer out of a nearby closet, and the crowd watches as he quickly scales the structure and reaches up to the incriminating sensor. With three quick, forceful hits, Evander tries to simultaneously dislodge and destroy the sensor, which could be picking up their dialogue, and therefore, their plans.

  “It’s not… it’s not breaking.” Evander scratches his head as the small hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end in a panic.

  “What do you mean it’s not? Let me at it.”

  Evander climbs down from the ladder and hands Jade the hammer, hoping that maybe she would be able to break it. When she reaches the top of the ladder, the hammer makes contact with the sensor, sending sparks everywhere, and the beings in the crowd move as far away from the area as possible, squishing uncomfortably to the sides of the room. Jade hits it again, and again, and again, but to no avail - the sensor is left without even so much as a scratch.

  “It’s not, it can’t be…” Jade’s eyes widen as Evander nods at her from his vantage point at the base of the ladder.

  “Oh but it is… that sensor is indestructible, and there could be countless other ones. They’ve been installed because… they’re on to us.”

  “What? Who is on to us?” One of the sorters raises a hand, and the record keeper standing next to her nods his head, clearly thinking the same thing.

  “Well, very possibly, Zephyr has gotten wind of our… plans.”

  “Shhhh! Isn’t that still transmitting?” Jade interrupts Evander to remind him of their newly-discovered security breach.

  “Very likely, yes. But honestly, since there isn’t anything we can do about it, we need to just continue on, now more importantly than ever. Now that it may be implicitly clear what we are planning to do, we may need to put our plan into action even sooner than we had originally thought.”

  Discomfort and fea
r spreads through the crowd like wildfire as everyone begins to panic.

  “Yes, I understand that this is all very scary, but it is of utmost importance that we stay strong. Fear is our biggest weakness, and to win this, to really, really win this, I am going to need your continued support.”

  Many heads nod as Evander continues to process the ballots through the digitized machine.

  “Okay, ready for your results?”

  After a few moments of sheer and utterly desperate anticipation, Evander takes a deep breath.

  “After putting your ballots through this secure, digitized counter, the new leader of the Upperworld, in charge of generating new beings and placing existing ones into their appropriate lives is…”

  As everyone gasps, the screen shows a name that some had grown to dislike:

  Onyx.

  CHAPTER 4

  The mid-morning sun reaches through the window of Luna and Onyx’s bedroom and gently wakes them from a long night of blissful love and a deep, well-deserved sleep. Her long, dark hair is draped over Onyx’s shoulder, while he holds her close in his muscular arm. Tangled in the bed sheets, sleep slowly melts away as the light in the room becomes steadily brighter and more pronounced. Onyx groans quietly as the sun hits his still-tired eyelids, but he quickly comes to and remembers that they are safe and happy - at least for now. And after all that they’ve been through, that is quite worth celebrating. He presses his lips to Luna’s forehead.

  “Good morning, Luna…” The whispered words tickle her ear, and she wakes up to find herself in Onyx’s passionate embrace. Her eyelids flutter open, and she meets his loving gaze.

  He kisses her again, passionately, and wraps his arm around her, making the tiny hairs on her neck and bare back stand up from the electricity he sends through her.

  “You’re so… beautiful, Luna…”

  She inhales softly, breathing in his natural scent and reveling the feel of his embrace. “Onyx, what is ‘beautiful’?” He pauses for a moment, realizing for the first time in a while that Luna hasn’t had all the extensive culture and assimilation training that he has had, and therefore will not necessarily grasp every colloquial term that she comes across.

  “Well, it’s… you! You are… aesthetically pleasing, to me. So you’re beautiful. It’s a good thing - you are perfect.” He places a quick, chaste kiss on her lips once more before hastily getting up to get dressed and begin the day.

  “There is much to do today, you’d better get up and prepare.”

  Luna sits up in bed, the sheets pulled up around her shoulders. “Prepare for what?”

  “More assimilation, and some more logistical needs must be met.” Onyx struggles to pull a pair of jeans over his feet. “My pod, what in the world do they make these things out of? I can barely fit them over my feet!”

  Luna giggles at his battle with the denim pants, and just sits in bed watching him for a few more minutes.

  “What?”

  “You’re beautiful too.”

  Onyx opens his mouth to explain the gender-related connotations surrounding certain words and phrases on Earth, but he stops himself, realizing that it just isn’t important enough to ruin the moment with that kind of arbitrary nit picking.

  “Well, thank you!” He smiles back at her, and then grabs some of his new clothes from the dresser.

  “But you’ve really got to get dressed. There is much to do before the light is gone for the day!”

  Luna sighs. “I just… don’t want this to end.”

  “What exactly don’t you want to end?”

  She pauses for a moment, trying to fit her complex thoughts and emotions into more concise sentences. “Well, this - everything… here. You, me, together… this home, this comfy bed. And we’re safe - for the first time in what feels like forever, we’re not running away or living in fear.”

  Onyx pauses while running a comb through his short, icy blonde hair. “Well, we cannot stay here forever…”

  Luna shrugs her shoulders, letting one side of the bed sheet sag slightly lower than the other. “And why not?”

  Onyx smiles at her, considering her to be joking, but when she does not return an equally-amused grin, he realizes a potential discrepancy in her mindset.

  “Well, we have been given a chance at a wonderful life on Earth - we cannot afford to waste that.”

  “But, but… Seth…” Luna’s eyes begin to tear up, and she burrows down back under the covers. The fear of the unknown, outside of those doors, is enough to keep her inside potentially forever.

  “Seth cannot hurt you because I won’t allow him to.” Onyx walks over to the nervous mound of blankets and pillows that have consumed Luna’s frail, petite frame.

  “But what are you going to do?”

  “Do when?”

  “When we see him? He is going to find us eventually - what are you going to do when he does?”

  Onyx runs a hand through his freshly combed hair. “I’ll protect you, that’s what. At any cost, I will ensure that you, Luna, are utterly and completely safe.”

  A sigh is audible from underneath the blanket. “But what are you going to do? You can’t just run away every time… what if, what if you have to fight him?”

  Onyx freezes mid-thought, as he realizes the depth of her logic, and how uncomfortably right she is.

  “I… I wasn’t trained for hand-to-hand combat. But I will do my best.” He awkwardly pats her back through the blanket and makes his way to the bathroom across the hall. A few sharp inhales move down his throat, and a feeling of light-headedness descends upon him like a heavy fog after the rain.

  I’d like to think I’d be able to take him in a fight… but I really doubt that I can. He’s not… as weak as he looks. Seth is smart, quick on his feet, and has a powerful intellect. There’s no guarantee that I’ll come out of this alive… and if I don’t, neither will Luna.

  CHAPTER 5

  Peeking through the small gap in the door of the shed to make sure that the police officer that was chasing him gave up, Seth opens the door quietly and walks toward the main street. After being spotted before, he is extra vigilant this time to ensure that he is not being watched or followed. As he walks in a general direction down the main street, he comes to the harsh realization that he has no idea where to find Aquatic Springs Condominiums.

  It must be nearby, but I’m not totally sure how nearby. Or exactly where.

  He shifts his gaze to a young couple sitting nearby on a park bench, enjoying some late-morning coffee.

  Maybe I can ask them. They are probably local dwellers and will know the area.

  He wastes no time strategizing any further than that, and walks straight toward them. The girl meets his eyes from yards away, and understandably begins to tense up, clutching the arm of the boy she is with. Her long, dark, curly brown hair blows in the slight breeze, and the boy next to her runs his hand through his own curly dirty-blonde hair. She whispers something in his ear, and he makes eye contact with Seth as he approaches them. As soon as his eyes meet Seth’s, he stiffens as if an electric current shot through him - and recognition floods his face.

  When Seth reaches them, he stops only a few feet in front of them, clearly not familiar with instinctual notions of personal space.

  “Uh, can I help you?” The nappy-headed boy asks his question with much concern in his voice as the girl next to him stares off into the distance, likely to avoid eye contact with the mysterious figure.

  “Do you know where Aquatic Springs Condominiums is located?”

  The boy shifts his weight uncomfortably. “That depends - who’s asking?”

  “My name is Seth.”

  Recognition flashes across his face momentarily, and then dissipates, as his muscles flinch, readying for defense if the need arises.

  “Seth? Uh, I don’t know anyone by that name, I’m not sure if I should tell you anything.”

  “It is okay, I do not know you either.” Seth gingerly grips the hilt of the dagger
in his pocket, readying it to be used at any moment.

  “So why are you asking me then?”

  “It was my assumption that you live around this local area, and would therefore know if it was nearby.” He grips the dagger a bit tighter, waiting for just the precise moment.

  The girl next to him squirms uncomfortably on the bench. “Just tell him, Anthony.”

  He turns to her in disbelief as Seth anxiously waits. “But I think that’s…”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just go ahead. He creeps me out.” She gives his hand a quick squeeze and looks up at Seth.

  “Well, okay. Yeah that’s… near here. It’s, um, down the street that way, a bit. You can’t miss it, just look for the fountain with the large fish statue in it.”

  The grip on the dagger releases.

  Seth nods. “Your assistance is much appreciated.” A sneer spreads across his face as he abruptly turns on his heel and begins to move in the other direction. Anthony and his girlfriend watch as his bony, articulated frame marches back the way it came. His deliberate footsteps crush every blade of grass they come into contact with, leaving a trail of flattened greenery in their wake.

  “So you said you… know that guy?”

  Anthony turns to face his girlfriend.

  “He just… his eyes… reminded me of someone.”

  “Oh my gosh, don’t tell me you’re still hung up on that girl Luna again, are you?” She crosses her arms in protest and deliberately looks off into the distance now, not as a distraction, but as a defense.

  “No, look, Miranda, I already told you, it’s not… like that. She was someone I was caring for until her… guardian came for her, that’s all. Just being a good samaritan, I promise that really was it. I didn’t mean to upset you, but I think that guy… had her eyes.”

  She reluctantly meets his gaze. “What do you mean he ‘had her eyes’? Did he pluck them out of her head?”

  Anthony gulps. “It’s uh, a really long story. And I don’t even fully understand all of it.”