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Current

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Origin

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To be rewritten

The sensation of warmth washed over her slowly and periodically. Some pulses heavier than others, some more tingly than others. From time to time, violent bursts of searing heat and muffled screams would come but would eventually fade, the heat dissipating until she could no longer feel warmth.

Once all she felt was cold, she would feel vibrations that softly encouraged her limbs to move, and at some point, they did. It began with a small twitch and eventually a sluggish slow lift of her body until she rested on her elbows and knees. Ash and pebbles clung to her naked skin, clunks of mafic crust falling off her body. Her limbs shined faintly with the moonlight, a reflective shift of colors she’s never seen before. Standing, she looked around her to see nothing but desolate ground with dark objects looming on the horizon. She lifted her head to the sky; it was speckled with small flickers of light that resembled her skin.

It felt like she had been asleep for eons. The notion of thought and speech slowly came back to her and with-it painful memories of heat and blinding pain. She fell to the ground, digging into her familiar grave and quietly gasped through the trauma of an events she didn’t remember. Once again, she felt an urgency to move, and hesitantly headed towards the horizon dotted with dark shapes.

Everything felt so familiar as she passed flowers and trees, getting closer to little houses she felt were home. She crept close to a house, peering through the window to see a family asleep around a hearth. Sadness slammed against her ribs, welding up in her throat, pressure building up at her eyes, but nothing came out.

“What’s happening to me” She cried, running away from the house but the village only got denser. Houses becoming larger, soft dirt replaced with rough tiles. The sky started to brighten, orange and pink hues stretching from the horizon. She was in the middle of a street and started to panic as the inhabitants awoke to dawn. Endlessly running, the ground’s tiles became sand, the sound of tides growing louder as she got closer to sea water and yet she couldn’t get away from the people. Her skin got brighter as the sun’s rays got stronger.

There were houses on the beach, small boats in the pier, fishermen were beginning to arrive for dawn’s catch. “It used to be empty!” She didn’t question how she knew this, but she chose a new direction to escape the people. Panting and hiding in grass and trees, she heard him when it was too late. A fisherman was investigating a weird light he saw in the bushes, thinking it may be something valuable. From the side, the man moved the banana leaves that concealed her, and he yelped in pain. Crawling at his eyes because of the sudden sunlight refracting off her skin had burned his retinas. He doubled over, his fishnet entangling in between his legs as he writhed in pain, screaming for help. Near by she heard more people calling for the man, heading towards her. She fled.

For most of the day she crawled along the pier until she found a boat that was much larger and a different style than the previous boats. This one was made of metal, white and red that scaled a dozen meters high. People were off loading resources, carrying bags towards the village. She waited patiently for night fall to sneak onto the vessel.

The front of the boat wasn’t guarded, nor the deck. It was a maze of shipment containers. Some holding live animals, others grain and water. Eventually she found a staircase that lead into the metal bowls of the ship. She wandered until the engine room and sat in a corner. It felt different, but the metal, steam and heat around her was still familiar, like her shallow grave. It donned on her that she was leaving home, never to return but she herself was no longer the same person that could call it home. She no longer felt the need to eat but did doze off to empty dreams. Hours, maybe days went by and her sole comfort was the creaking of pipes from pressure and temperature change until the hull titled against something. The boat had docked.

Carefully she made her way up to the deck, peering out to see the time of day. It was nearly dusk, cranes on the ship were warming up to transfer the ship containers. Beyond the ship, she gasped at the sight of buildings that reached the sky. Heading back below deck to wait for nightfall, she felt nervous but excited to what waited for her beyond the boat. On the deck, shipment containers were still being moved onto the dock, she used their movement as cover and scampered from the deck to the side of the boat that was docked, climbed down an emergency ladder welded to the side and dropped to the dock. With no hesitation she ran into a near by alleyway.

With no plan in mind she roamed the streets in awe of the sounds, the filth and the smells. She continued to wander until she heard faint whimpering. Following it, around a corner was a man hunched over a woman. His hands around her throat while abusing her sexually. A puddle of blood under the woman grew, pouring from a shallow knife, the hilt protruding from the woman’s stomach. Her heart had fallen into her stomach. She crept towards the man, having no clue what to do but felt the need to act. The man heard the scuffle and removed the knife from the whimpering woman to face her. He was exposed from the waist down, covered in black ooze. He looked deranged and scraggly. His clothing tattered, facial hair and hair unkept and matted.

“I don’t know what the fuck you are, but you look like a lady to me. and already naked? Makes my job easier” He rasped and lunged at her. She froze, staring at the bloody blade making contact with her abdomen but shattering in the process.

“What” he yelled as she grabbed his face, one hand in his mouth braced against his jaw the other on cheek, she ripped his jaw off. The man fell, making gargling noises from his blood spilling out. She hurried to the woman and cupped her face.

“You’re so sparkly... am I dying? Is this my white tunnel” the woman whispered. She didn’t reply as the woman went limp in her hands. Once again, sorrow built up in her, but she couldn’t emote it. Preoccupied with the woman, she didn’t notice the rapist getting back up, his body contorting into a new form. Suddenly her ears were ringing as another figure from the entrance of the alleyway shot the rapist.

“Shit” the gunman muttered while approaching her. “Why did you stop it. Stupid bitch, his corpse is worthless as a half converted… tsk” The gunman forcibly lifted her from the woman and looked at her front to back”

“I haven’t seen a gem demon in a while, you’re probably too old to remember your impulses… Come, we’ll talk else where. These streets are full of fledgling filth”

Silent and naked, she followed him. He seemed to know something about her and the fact that he hadn’t shot her made following him a better option than wandering aimlessly. A smell grew stronger as they navigated the back alley. Whimpering, moaning and groaning could be heard from various directions and she slowed down behind him wanting to listen to the sounds.

“Hey, you’ve done enough tonight. I am already rethinking this decision” snapping at her.

They got to a small metal door at the bottom of some stairs in an alleyway lit up by a small red wall lamp. The door unlocked at the touch of his palm and she followed inside quietly. The home was cramped and smelled strongly of ginseng. Mountains of books were scattered here and there in the entrance, they all had illegible, even demonic writing. The long foyer lead to a small dinning room with a fresh sunflower in an elegant vase, a blue and white kitchen with mountains of dishes, colorful vials and empty, half rotten takeout boxes. She continued to the living room and bedroom. In the living room were two lumpy couches, of which one was clearly used as a bed, up against the left most wall was a normal, properly made bed that was collecting dust. Beside the bed was a collection of guns hanging from the wall and a table workstation covered in gun powder and bullet shells. A glass stained floor lamp softly illuminated the workstation in soft hues of blues, oranges and greens. The man threw a shirt at her face, it smelled of lavender as she put it on.

“Here, you shouldn’t be walking around naked. Ever. I don’t know where you came from, I don’t care. I was stalking that kill and you ruined it. For that, you’ll have to pay miss.” He said casually as he took off a long over coat and a stockman hat.

“No words? Alright then,” He stood in front of her, glaring. He was an older man with a fit muscular build. His skin was speckled with sunspots, his hair a light blond with grey hairs popping out the sides and brown eyes. He was charming but a little grumpy.

“You’re in luck, see. Gem demons such as yourself are hard to come by. You were probably made from volcano victims a long time ago. Too long ago to remember what would be your vice. Fear of death, rage, anger and what not. Not so many people die from volcanos anymore. Not as many as would be needed to spawn a demon such as yourself.” He paused; his expression softened as he smiled deviously.

“it takes a long time to form an opalite vessel. So basically, what we have here, is a trihorn demon with all the benefits and no vices, essentially. You can help me as my clean up assistant, like how you did tonight.”

“This is a lot of info to handle” She said quietly.

He laughed and smacked her shoulder. “Truer words have never been spoken, lass. So, what’s your name”

“I don’t have one”

“Anything you’d want to be named? I had a daughter once; her name was Carmen. Heck of a lass but she kicked the bucket early so maybe not that name...”

“I like the night sky,”

“Say no more, how about Selena?”

“Id like that”