Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
EDDIE
The Song picked up tempo. Stars died by the hundreds and then thousands, sometimes deafening Eddie, sometimes so quiet they reminded him of the pop of carbonation.
Eddie listened to the Song as he followed Cosma down the streets.
Listened to the change in the hum, the deep tones of the heartbeat, the soft, sweet melody that rose above it all, the shattering that made his chest quake.
He listened to the Song as they crossed streets and avoided Affected. It wound its way through Eddie, through his body and mind, coaxing him forward, begging him to stray from his chosen path, to approach that something that lurked in the distance. But he resisted the call.
The entrance to Club Fanatica was tucked away in an alley off a main street in the entertainment section of District 3.
Usually bathed in the neon pink and blue that were its signature colors, the streets were dark and foreboding.
The lights from Cosma and Ollie’s gear flashed over Affected while they waded through the crowd, pushing Affected over, creating a domino effect around them.
They fell, the quiet slump and slap of flesh on flesh and concrete filling the night.
They’d been lucky on their trip through the City. Only one small group of active Affected had pursued them. But Ollie had taken them out with three quick blasts from his shotgun and a smirk on his face.
The alley around the entrance to the club was empty, the doors open wide, welcoming them into the deeper darkness within.
Eddie felt a presence lurking within, small and pathetic compared to the malevolence that lay between the bases of empty star-scrapers not far away.
It smelled like the Affected, copper and rot.
The other reeked of ozone, the vacuum, the indescribable sparkle of stars.
The Song screamed in his ears, thrummed in his blood. It soared through the air on fluttering wings, triumphant, then plunged into silence as Eddie entered the club. It was subdued, in awe, a whisper, a lullaby. Not for the presence ahead, but that dark one outside.
The inside was exactly as Eddie remembered it: the bar, the dance floor, the three levels rising above.
Affected stood against the walls, draped themselves across the bar.
Ambient light filtered down from the glass ceiling, highlighting the dance floor with an unnatural glow.
The air was cold, frigid, the stench of death and rot less than outside.
Eddie closed his eyes and felt for the presence, the human thing that he’d sensed earlier. It skulked in the shadows, sidled along the walls of one of the upper floors. Eddie’s shoes clacked on the dance floor, when a voice whispered out of the darkness.
“I felt you.” It was low, hoarse, like it hadn’t spoken aloud in months. “I felt the Song strengthen as soon as I was brought aboard.”
Eddie stopped and looked up, searching for the voice. It lurked one floor up, directly ahead of him. “Who are you?” he asked. Static filled his ears, low and persistent.
“It was you.” the voice said as a dark silhouette peered over the railing. It disappeared and Eddie felt the presence lumber through the darkness, heard it clank and crash down the stairs. Heard it mumble and whisper and croak out a chant, a gruesome prayer to the unknown.
The Song was low still, but it felt wary now. It danced around Eddie, twisted through the Affected, but avoided the creature that shambled into the weak light.
They had once been Terran.
What they were now, Eddie didn’t know. They had long, greasy hair matted against their skull, dark eyes sunken too far into blackened sockets emphasizing large, pupil-less, bloodshot eyes.
The remnants of a suit of dove grey clung to their emaciated form, patches of skin stitched across rips in the knees and elbows.
Open sores oozed on the exposed skin between swathes of grime and gore and blood.
Worst of all was the sheen of sparkling black that surrounded them, almost too translucent to perceive.
It clung to their hands, their eyes, stuck to the rags over their chest. They stopped and heaved, the only sounds other than the sparkling of stars and the thump of the background radiation.
“I am a Servant of the Larval God, the Hands of the Caretaker.” They held up their arms, shrouded in that sparkling black mist. The skin was cracked and bleeding, torn from fingertips to expose muscle and tendon and burnt bone.
The pinkies were missing from both, removed at the palm.
Everything covered in a layer of filth that would probably never wash off.
“Let me show you, Void-Touched,” they croaked. “Let me show you the future and share with you my triumph.”
The Song swelled and the mist around the creature darkened. The sparkling lit up the room.
Hands dug into flesh, ripped bone and muscle, blinded eyes. They peeled skin off in layers, careful not to tear the blessed offering, the sacrament. Sometimes the Larval God wanted the layers thick, meaty, other times it wanted them thin, translucent, a fluttering veil.
Precision was the key to the invocation. The parts had to be placed just right, so the power of their sacrifice would swell with the incantations whispered in the dark of night. The invocations to the dark of the eternal Void and its Gods.
They were Unseen.
Unknown.
Hidden from life and death and decay.
Only though time and patience and precision could the veil be torn asunder. Only through the gathering of the obelisks and the recitation of ancient curses and gathering at the Hallowed Worlds could they enter and rule.
Only then could the Gods enter and reap despair.
Eddie returned to himself, kneeling on the dance floor, empty hands pressed to the ground. He looked up at the creature and met the cloudy, sparkling eyes that watched him.
Flashes of other visions slipped through Eddie’s mind; he saw the Atrium on the Golden Lion, light sparkling off the crystal chandeliers, people laughing; he saw darkness in the corner, creeping in, he saw mangled flesh, blood draining into churning water; a shuttle, the sparkling lights of Neo-Tokyo; chants, a sacrifice, hands carving a sigil into soft flesh; the birth of something dark, something Void.
Then the visions fled, leaving triumph and a glow behind.
“You are the cause of all this,” Eddie whispered, disgusted by what he’d seen. He wanted to throttle the person—the creature—before him for what had been done to the Golden Lion, the Neo-Tokyo. To Augustus and Jack. To Jett and Eddie.
They stumbled forward, closer than Eddie wanted them to be, and doubled over.
Some dark, thick liquid burst out of their mouth as a coughing fit overcame them.
It splattered the floor, black and red. It dripped down their face, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be blood.
The creature was full of something, yet devoid of life.
“I,” they croaked between coughs, between regurgitating ichor onto themself. “I am Jones.”
Eddie found his feet and looked over his shoulder for Cosma and Ollie, but they were surrounded by Affected. Held with their arms behind their backs, their weapons gone. They both focused on him, frustration on their faces. Cosma shook herself, but the Affected held her tight.
“These two will make a fine sacrifice to the Larval God. It must be fed so that it can grow. We must worship it so that it can reach it’s true power.”
They stumbled toward Eddie, who stepped backwards, unwilling to be touched by the creature that actively decayed before his eyes. Whatever the power was that surrounded it, it also was destroying them.
“You are like me, Void-Touched. You have heard the Song, you know of the power of the Void. But you have yet to witness the true joy of our existence. You will see the beauty and grace of the Void.” They crept closer, but did not reach out toward Eddie.
“You will worship them alongside me, until the Larva molts and the God within is born.”
Crack.
Neo-Tokyo lay in ruins.
Star-scrapers cracked and broken, their spires littering the streets. They crawled with Affected.
Stars sparkled above and between the ruins, shining out of masses of black clouds that roiled through the belly of the ship.
Tendrils stretched out to the hull, reached through it into the Void outside. They wrapped the remaining buildings, shrouding them. They snaked into the ground, sucking the life from the gardens, from the forests.
They consumed everything alive within its grasp, feeding it to the mass at its center.
Eddie gasped as he was pulled out of the vision.
“You have seen a glimpse of our Lord. It is but a shadow of itself now, but soon they will reign supreme.”
Jones nodded to the Affected in the room. They started moving, twisting limbs, crawling from the shadows to surround Eddie, Cosma, Ollie, and Jones. Their faces turned toward Eddie, their gazes empty, their bodies oozing ichor.
“They are your honor guard, so that you may meet your Lord with dignity.”
Jones waved their hand at the crowd. The Affected parted, leaving a wide-open path toward the door.
“Come, Oracle of the Void,” Jones whispered, the words slick in their mouth. “Come and meet Sol’s doom.”