{"sf1_id":213151,"sf2_id":"Zeq0bG91","title":"DE: A Tale of Dark Eden","author":"El-Hereje","words":1108,"posted_at":"2011-01-15T00:11:00.000Z","tags":["No-Yiff","dark eden","poetic","surreal"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/213151-de-a-tale-of-dark-eden","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Zeq0bG91","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/7a/e1/7ae1579f-3673-4beb-b909-e1f8dffbc36a","description":"","content":" **_D_**** _EMENTIU_ ****_M_** _~ __est__ ~_ **_E_**** _TERNITA_ ****_E_**\n\n_Dark Eden_\n\n_Why... why... why..._\n\n_Why?!\u0026nbsp; Why... why..._\n\n_WHY?!\u0026nbsp; Why... why..._\n\n_Where am I?\u0026nbsp;_ I woke up in this place, separated from the rest of the race.\u0026nbsp; My memory is foggy, I feel groggy and heavy.\n\n_What is this?\u0026nbsp;_ To the world it bore no resemblance, I didn't even know whether I was alive.\u0026nbsp; I tried to stand and found I can't.\u0026nbsp; There's no air, but how am I breathing?\u0026nbsp; Did this have some hidden meaning?\n\nThere's ash everywhere, wherever I look dunes of gray.\u0026nbsp; What it meant I could never begin to say.\u0026nbsp; All I know is I don't intend to stay.\u0026nbsp; Flashing images haunt me and I don't understand - what I want to know is how I got to this surreal land.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming.\u0026nbsp; I must be dreaming?\u0026nbsp; Something's consuming them before my eyes.\u0026nbsp; _Here, everybody dies._\n\nI found the energy to stand; started to wander and all the while I'd wonder.\u0026nbsp; _Where is this?\u0026nbsp;_ No other trace of life, everything seemed like the charred phantom of some ancient strife.\u0026nbsp; The sky was crimson, the clouds were obsidian, and when I saw the sun I confess I wanted to scream - _no sound came out._\n\nThe sun was a spiral of dark fire; something hell might inspire.\u0026nbsp; It pulled everything from the ground and threw it around in an endless cyclone.\u0026nbsp; I felt no pull; in fact I fear I felt nothing at all.\n\nI heard a voice, it told me: _you made this choice._\n\n_\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; WHY?!_\n\nMy eyes shot wide, something stirring inside.\u0026nbsp; The memories were coming back and could've given me a heart attack - _if I had a heartbeat; now I'm just a walking piece of meat.\u0026nbsp;_ I could see a woman's face, she was crying and screaming something I couldn't hear - between us a wall of glass - and then there was a great blast!\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming.\u0026nbsp; I must be dreaming?\u0026nbsp; The blast is burning through them - a hundred thousand consumed.\u0026nbsp; _Here, everybody dies._\n\nI see a forest of trees, blackened trunks and branches reaching for the sky - it looked like they didn't want to die, offering an unspoken prayer for somebody to care; for some sunlight to cure them of their carbonized blight.\u0026nbsp; There's nobody around and the wildlife is missing, the world is so empty and quiet.\u0026nbsp; I'm alone, I want to moan and I wish I could cry - but every time I try I only end up dry.\u0026nbsp; There's no noise in this place, and of life there isn't even the slightest trace.\n\nThe memories are still foggy, I'm trying to find why they involve me.\u0026nbsp; I came to find a highway, half buried in the dunes of gray.\u0026nbsp; It's beginning to snow, but it's not ice though.\u0026nbsp; My eyes are burning, but for some reason I can't feel anything else.\u0026nbsp; The voice has come back to my mind - this time it sounds like it's coming from behind: _you made this choice._\n\nTurning around, I see there's nobody abound.\u0026nbsp; If I could, I'd frown.\u0026nbsp; Here it seems I'm king, because I'm all who's left to wear a crown.\n\nAnother image flashes before my eyes - I can't believe it, they have to be lies!\u0026nbsp; In the streets there are hundreds, rioting - I tried pounding on the glass wall but it refuses to fall.\u0026nbsp; The voiceless girl is sobbing, I feel a yearning to hear and hold her.\u0026nbsp; Words leave my mouth, rolling from my tongue but this loud ringing messed up my hearing.\u0026nbsp; There's a box, I think I left it somewhere.\u0026nbsp; The blast again - its flames found me and swallowed everything in sight.\n\nThat's me... right?\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming.\u0026nbsp; I must be dreaming?\u0026nbsp; What words did I leave - what was she screaming; when fire consumed us and all those in the streets?\u0026nbsp; _Here, everybody dies._\n\nThat voice keeps beckoning me, it's calling me toward it.\u0026nbsp; I feel rage boiling inside me - _why am I here?\u0026nbsp; I want to be free!\u0026nbsp;_ It urges me to break into a run and finds me bolting through the snowing ashes.\u0026nbsp; Breathless and with a chest that was burning, I found the voice's owner.\u0026nbsp; Something horrific, a fox made of silver fire and three darkest abyssal eyes.\n\nI tried to scream at it, \"_Who are you?!\"\u0026nbsp;_ Somehow I think it knew what I wanted to say, even though my voice was gone.\u0026nbsp; _What did I do wrong?_\n\nIt just grins and flicks its head at me.\u0026nbsp; Confused, I turn to see and end up dropping to my knees.\u0026nbsp; Thousands of people - or maybe they once were; their bodies charred and boney as if burnt.\u0026nbsp; Their faces are hidden, behind masks of reflective silver - leaving them featureless.\u0026nbsp; _What's the meaning of this?_\n\nThey're pointing at me, and now I finally see as the last memory comes to me.\n\n_I'm bringing down this wall, even if the world has to fall,_ I found myself saying to the girl beyond the glass.\u0026nbsp; I understand now - she's begging; beseeching me not to.\u0026nbsp; What else am I going to do?\u0026nbsp; There's a bomb that I built, one to challenge God and unite us - _I must!\u0026nbsp;_ As the blast grows and clouds my sight, I can see my reflection on the glass and I see...\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; ...I'm smiling.\n\nThis revelation leaves me shrieking, in shock I grab my head - but I'm watching my accusers instead.\u0026nbsp; They've pulled off their masks, but rather than faces beneath their bodies crumble to ashes; pulled into the whirlwind above me.\u0026nbsp; I've tried to raise my head and keep screaming, but now the fox is restraining me and whispering: _you made this choice._\n\nThere's broken glass on the ground before me, it's absolutely eye-widening.\u0026nbsp; A reflection again, but this time I can see.\u0026nbsp; Shuddering, I've shifted my hands from the sides of my skull and reached for my face.\n\nTo remove the mask that I placed...\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; ...but it's too late, I've burned it into my flesh with a wish so selfish.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Faces, I see thousands of faces.\u0026nbsp; They're weeping and begging, screaming at me not to push the button.\u0026nbsp; Here I am again, in the world I burned.\u0026nbsp; The fox is showing me how I could've been free; a ghost of me putting my hand flat against the glass to match the girl's.\u0026nbsp; With horror I watch how we kissed through the glass - causing it to shatter.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}