In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (3 page)

He
smirks.

…

It
is one week later, Cole sprints down an empty city street. His best friend
Julio shows up running behind him, smooth talking, light skinned, ambiguous,
handsome bachelor. He’s a smart mouth most of the time and no one actually
knows what race he really is, and he won’t tell. Maybe Hispanic.

Cole
huffs and puffs as he picks up speed. The wind and hot sun caresses his face.

He
smiles.

This
is what he’s been missing, this feeling,
this
high.
The feeling of excitement and pushing your body to the limit.

They
run toward the wall of a two-story building. They close in fast and jump up the
wall, scaling it like
parkouring
monkeys and end up
on the roof of the building.

Easy
.

They
continue to run across it, pushing their limits as they jump from rooftop to
rooftop. The gaps get bigger but they’re not at their limit yet. Cole could do
this before he got his powers. They jump over AC units, vents and leap onto the
next unknowing business.

The
street passes below them as they run, nobody notices they’re up there yet, but
the last time someone called the cops.

Assholes.

Cole
eyes the biggest gap, Julio gets there first and clears it just by a hair. He
cheers as he lands and turns to Cole. Cole speeds up and charges for it. He can
do anything now. He nears the gap and jumps when—

His
watch dings, it zaps him, sending a shock-wave down his spine, into his legs,
and turns them into jelly. He slips off the edge. With a slam he lands hard on
the ground on his shoulder and flips on his back.

Back
on the ground, a display pops up on the watch,
Sync 72%,
and
disappears. He gets up and brushes himself off. A pile of old mattresses lie
there waiting on him to his left.

Of
course he missed it. Even with his healing abilities his body is still
fortified, a fall like that didn’t even waver him. But does he have a limit?

“Oh
shit!” Julio peers over the edge. “Are you alright!? Did you fall on the
mattresses?”

Of
course not.

“Yeah…Sure.”

…

Cole
and Julio sit on the edge of a rooftop, eating breakfast from their lunchboxes,
staring out into the smoggy morning sky of LA and the distant skyscrapers and
mountains that litter them.

“Hey,
Cole, quick question… but
uhh
… should you even be
working out yet?” Julio asks.

Cole
likes how he asked him after the fact. “Really? You’re going to ask me now?
After all the stuff we’ve just done?”  

“Whatever
man. I didn’t think about it until now, I mean you’re just oddly spry for
someone who was crushed in a fucking car just three fucking weeks ago with your
legs all bent backwards and shit. But that’s all I’m saying,” Julio says
raising his hands. He is kind of a potty mouth.

“Okay,
man, calm down, it’s just that…” Cole thinks on it, he looks into the sky and
at the clouds. “I feel too good to wait too long. I can’t just stop doing what
I want to do.”

“Anybody
can stop doing anything if they put their mind to it.”

“It’s
easier for you than it is for other people, Julio.”

Cole’s
going to continue on, no matter what anybody says. He needs this. It helps him
forget, and to not remember the things that he wants to forget.

“Just
don’t complain to me if—
when
you get even more fucked up then before,”
Julio says.

Cole
shrugs, nobody will stop him. He looks at his hands, with this power nobody can
anymore.

“Seriously.
Don’t,” Julio continues.

Cole’s
vision blurs out.

There’s
only blackness.

Earth
is gone.

He
blinks, flames and screams enter his world. All he sees is an alien world, a
city. A place of a once majestic civilization in flames. Alien buildings burn
and fall. Inhuman screams ring out in the air, like gales of wind hitting a
leafless tree.

So
much fire and burning, the remains of whatever culture that prospered here has
melted away, indescribable from other burning mounds.

Above
the city, thousands of ships destroy this world. They are just scribbles of
lights in the blood red sky, beams erupting from them. Cole stands in the
middle of this, but not a part of it, just a watcher.

Seven
angelic winged beings fly away from the horror and ascend into the sky, they
shine too brightly to see what they are.

“Cole,”
a voice, Julio’s, but Cole ignores it.

The
clouds part as a giant shining sphere descends from the sky. It burns like a
white star. Cole shields his eyes away as the light from it explodes out.

“Cole!!”

Cole
snaps out of it. He’s back on Earth, on the rooftop. His heart beating at two
hundred beats a minute.

He’s
safe.

His
phone is going off.
What was that?
Maybe it was too early to work out
again. He needs to see…tell somebody about this. His heartbeat finally slows
down. What the hell is going on?

“I
knew it, you have a fucking concussion!” Julio yells.

“What…no…
no I’m fine.” But not now, he can’t tell anyone until he figures out more about
what’s going on.

“Are
you going to pick that up?” Julio asks. Thora is calling. Cole hits ignore and
puts it back in his pocket. Not now.

“No.”

“Problems,”
Julio asks.

“No.”

“Come
on, tell me, man.”

Cole
gives in, he doesn’t want Julio to pester him, plus he is kind of his best
friend.

“She’s
staying with Erin to
help
with their new born, but
it’s
all bullshit.”

“Why?”

“She
said she wanted a divorce before my accident and I told her I didn’t remember
anything immediately before it.”

“And
you’re acting all distant because she hasn’t brought it up right? Well let me
tell you what’s wrong with her,” Julio says. Cole looks at him. “The bitch got
cold feet.”

Cole
glares at him.

“Sorry
man but bro to bro she doesn’t know what she wants. She’s going to stay away
thinking of a way to blame you for everything.”

Cole
doesn’t answer him. Julio relaxes back.

“Well,
is she still coming to your party at least?”

Cole
just shrugs.

…

Thora
sits in a rocking chair in the Bell’s house. She’s in the living room, cradling
baby Neil. Erin Bell walks in, dressed to the nines, nice cocktail dress, nice
black heels, putting in new diamond earrings, nice everything. She walks up to
her sister, Carissa Quoin, who’s on the computer across from Thora.

“Don’t
be too late,” she tells Carissa.

Thora
just watches.

“It’s
my first night as a reporter I can’t make any promises,” Carissa giddily
replies. The excited look on her face disgusts Thora.

Thora’s
in a bad mood; Cole isn’t picking up.

“What’s
the guy’s name again that you
wanna
set me up with?”
Carissa asks.

“Julio.”

“Oh
yeah, Julio, the mysterious traveler. Nobody knows about his past but he’s been
hurt before, keeping him closed off, hiding behind a facade that needs to be
broken open to see the true and sensitive him. That Julio?”

“Julio
is anything but closed off.”

Arnold
Bell walks in, just a typical middle-aged man, with a belly to suit.

“Don’t
you have your own place?” Arnold asks Carissa.

“Just
printing a few things off, Arnold.” She grabs a paper from the printer, giving
Erin a kiss and running out the door.

“Come
on Erin, we’re going to be late,” Arnold says. They head for the door but Thora
grabs Erin’s arm.

“Don’t
talk to him about me, alright? I want to talk to him myself.”

Erin
finishes putting in an earring. “Okay, I won’t. Are you going to your new place
in downtown tonight?”

“It’s
not my place, it’s only a room and it’s temporary.”

“I
told you that you can stay here as long as you need to.”

Thora
nods in disapproval.

“Okay
hun
, don’t keep Neil up too late.” Erin bends down
and kisses Neil and leaves. Thora just sits, rocking Neil back and forth
waiting for the night to end.

Cole
wakes up
.
He clutches his chest wheezing from an immense pressure. He sits up and tries
to calm himself, but a sharp pain stabs him. He rubs his arm to try to relieve
it.

It
works, slowly, he breathes in and out. The pain soothes away. He wipes his brow
of sweat.

His
clock on his night stand says it’s five o’clock in the morning. He’s in his
room in his house in the hills.

It’s
a week before he found his powers and only a day after Thora left.

He’s
alone.

He
gets up and limps to the bathroom, his cast slowing him down.

He
rummages through the medicine cabinet and pulls out his heart pills. He takes
one as he washes his hands and face in warm water. The running water soothes
his mind.

He
remembers back to yesterday. The day he drove Thora away, the day of his check
up with his doctor. He was about to let Thora back into his heart until he got
the news from the doctor. Cole has developed a heart problem, thanks to the
accident and he’ll never workout again.

The
next time he’d seen Thora he exploded at her in anger and she left. She isn’t a
saint but he shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that. Now he’s left with
nothing.

He
takes off his shirt and looks at his body, his skin is dry and tight around his
bony frame. He lost over thirty pounds from his time in a coma.

Thirty
fucking pounds.

All
that he worked for is gone, all those years fucking gone. He punches the
mirror. It doesn’t even crack under his weak blow.

He
doesn’t know what he’s going to do now.

…

It’s
a few days later, the day before he
found his power, his reason to live in this mad world. He lies on his bed, on
the covers. His room is a mess, empty potato chip bags and other junk food lie
on the floor and on his bed. Clothes are flung everywhere and he hasn’t
showered in days.

It
has been like this since Thora left him. He has no reason to do anything. He
has to just wait for his leg to heal so he can go back to work. But why even go
to work? The only reason he got that damned job was to pass time between Thora
and the gym.

The
television is on, it’s a Maury marathon and another man has just found out that
he’s not the father. He dances around on the screen.

This
is what Cole has become.

A
pathetic fool.

It’s
five o’clock in the evening. A suicide letter is on his nightstand; it’s one he’d
written a long time ago. A time that he’d felt had passed but now he feels like
nothing has changed since then, so he might as well use the same damn letter.

He
picks up his phone and calls Julio. But it goes straight to voicemail. Cole
sent five texts to him already, all of them asking for his help and getting no
reply. His phone dies in his hand. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s
charged it, but it’s not like he has a reason.

He
gets up. It’s too early to do anything, he wants to go in his sleep. He needs
to do something to pass the time, he’s too anxious to stay at home. And he
wants to see the stars for one last time.

…

Cole
sits on a bench at a beach in Malibu, a nice secluded area. The sun’s just set,
the orange fringes simmering just slightly off the dark blue coast. The stars
start to peek on the dark blue that blankets the sky.

Cole
envies the stars, up in space, free to sparkle without troubles or fears and to
give heat to the planets that surround them, yet far enough away to not heed
the problems of the people who worship them.
Stars are free.
Maybe when
he dies he can join them. But even then that would be too much, he just wants
it to end, to be done with all his problems and his failure of a life.

He
thinks of everybody who’s died because of him, because of his failure to become
a man and save them and how he has nothing left anymore. He has no more wife to
provide him love, no hobby to keep him from his dark prickling thoughts,
nothing to stop him from killing himself.

Cole
cries, he feels the deep emptiness inside him, the hopelessness,
the
darkness he tries to run away from, the darkness he’s
tried to push away from, the darkness he’s tried to work out of himself.

The
darkness he lied to himself about. He needs to escape it, even if it means
death.

“Cole?”
A woman walks up and sits next to him.

“Erin?”
Cole says.

It’s
Erin, how did she find him here?

 “What
are you doing here?” Cole asks.

“Julio
called me. He said he missed your calls, he’s out of town and told me to come
find you here.”

“I’m
that predictable.” He tries to wipe away the tears, he doesn’t want her to see
him this way.

“If
you have a problem why didn’t you come to me?”

“I
don’t have a problem.”

“Cole,
you’re a grown man sitting on a bench crying in the middle of nowhere. You have
a problem and you need to tell people about things. Just because I’m a friend
of Thora does not mean I’m not a friend to you.”

She
puts her hand on his and looks into his eyes. Hers show worry, she’s afraid for
him.

The
darkness suddenly creeps back, it went away when Erin showed up. But
socializing only pushes it so far away. He exhales and cries again. Why can’t
he escape it, why does everybody he loves leave him?

“I’m
scared,” he mutters in tears. “I’m scared everyone will leave me. I’m scared
that everything I do is for nothing. I’m scared that all of my fears are coming
true. I couldn’t save them. Not a single one. I’m so alone. I’m so fucking
scared.”

Erin
grabs hold of him and he cries in her arms.

“I’m
alone…” he cries. “I’m so alone.”

“It’s
going to be okay, you’re not alone,
you
have me and
Julio. It’s going to be okay.”

She
repeats those words in his ears as he continues to cry.
It’s going to be
okay.

Thanks
Erin, for everything, no matter how pointless this is.
But he knows nothing
inside him. No matter what he attempts to place there, whether it’s the gym or
a love, it’s all a lie, it’s all useless. He is tired of trying to find a
meaning. There is no god. There is only darkness.

No
matter how many friends he gets, no matter how many people love him, it’s still
not enough to pierce the loneliness in his heart, the emptiness. The universe
worth of darkness and the loneliness of the stars.

It
is hours later at eleven. An hour before the day he discovers his powers. Cole
cleans up his room. He folds up his clean clothes and throws away the dirty
ones. There is no need for them anymore, nobody is going to want to go through
them.

Even
though Erin calmed him, it just soothed his thoughts and cleared his mind. Cole
knows now that he wants to do this. He has no regrets or self-doubts about it,
he just hopes that whoever finds his body won’t go through that much trouble.

His
bed is made and his suicide note is on the nightstand, divorce papers are in
the drawer. He left Thora with everything and gave Julio and Erin something’s
they mentioned they liked.

He
pulls a full pill bottle out of his pocket and reads the back.
Taking more
than recommended dose will result in serious illness or death
. He places it
on his nightstand next to some sleeping pills and dresses in his pajamas. He
still wants to feel comfortable when he goes.

Cole
gets into his bed and under his covers. He takes a sip of water and swallows
three pills and keeps doing this until all the pills are gone.

He
turns off his lights, closes his eyes and empties his mind. The darkness starts
to go away, fading into loneliness which fades into emptiness. This is how he
wants to go, peaceful, painless. There is glowing star in the distance of the
emptiness, he tries to push it away but it continues to approach him. He lets
the emptiness surround it, just cloaking it but he can feel it’s there, but
this is good enough. He doesn’t fear death anymore, he welcomes it.

He
lets all his problems fade away.

He
just wants to sleep forever.