Before we get started I wanted to give you a bit of back ground. Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on my finals and finalized this piece of work for the project I am working on for my creative writing class. I really hope you enjoy this short story.
In the beginning, there was nothingness, a void where darkness and lightness didn’t even exist. Until one day, there was a woman born from the seeds of the ether. Time whispered that she was older than even He. Existing beyond the parallels of the universe.
Some call her Mother Nature, others call her God, for she created all that exists. The cosmic heavens poured from her womb in a fury of combustive fire. Explosions of magenta formed the essences of the stars that cried out to her in adoration. Their firelight singing in unison, enticing the life of the universe to stretch and fold to the rhythm of her divine power.
Galaxies far beyond our grasp formed in the magnetic sound of her laughter as she skipped around the universe. What a beautiful cosmic display she was.
As the universe began to settle and the days began to form, she blessed the stars, and the planets began to shape themselves to the rhythm of the universe. Forever dancing to its ancient sound.
Creation was the passion of her soul, the only thing she knew how to do, but a millennium of cosmic birth can tire even the strongest of gods. So, she hopped amongst the planets until one embraced her. She melted into the tendrils of the lush emerald grass. The painted ruby red flowers kissed her cheeks just as the sun and the moon married in the sky. Her eyes fluttered closed until she drifted into the soundness of sleep.
While she slept, her magic consumed as if it were a hungry beast, feeding for the first time. Mountains exploded in fiery chaos. Stars vanished into blackness, absorbing everything in their path.
When she woke, she was met with what she had unknowingly done. The universe she built was being consumed by the very fire she used to birth life. Afraid of her abilities, she ran deep into the forest of the dying planet, crying out to the universe. Steam rose from her skin, causing her to sink into the marsh.
The sorrow let out a tired groan from something beyond, causing the earth to crack in half. Her cries echoed in the depths. Like everything in nature, it requires a balance. She was a chaotic creator, and the universe demanded a tame protector. From the ruin slithered a snake, its tongue flicking out as if to say something. Slithering its scaled, skinny body across the land in a frenzy. Then, as if summoned by the will of the universe and the sheer will of the woman’s power, rose a man from the trench. His body is made from the finest metals of the earth core.
He grabbed the head of the creature and cracked it beneath his meaty hands. Crimson soaked into the earth, revealing a dagger made of midnight. Although his presence was grand, it forced the air around him to halt, suffocating anyone in his presence.
His eyes glared at the anger of the sun. With one finger to his lips, he let out a forceful “Shhhhh,” and the earth grew silent once more. All except for the sobbing of the woman. He knelt beside her, holding out a deep red apple. She bit into the flesh, slowly pulling it apart with her teeth, savoring the sweetness. When she finished, he plucked the seeds from the core and pushed them into the damp soil. As quickly as life rooted itself into the ground, so did it in her womb.
The man spent his days following the woman across the land and sea, watching her as she grew life. Within her, he could feel the pull of her magic. Wild and free, but magnetic like the moon’s pull on the ocean. Yet, not yearning to be with her but to consume her. Every life that was born was a reminder of what he could never do. It stirred a feeling inside him that he did not recognize, stirring the desire for bloodshed and rage. Generations of people were born from her womb. Creatures of all kinds sprouted from her fingertips, kissing her gently as they sauntered off into the endless valleys and deep oceans. The gentle flutters of butterfly wings and bumblebee feet flew amongst her flowers, spreading her pollen in abundance. The land was painted with the finest colors. She harbored all the beauty, and he was left with destruction. While she created, he killed, brutally. The monsters that arose from her powers devoured in devastation, and he was left with bloodshed. He yearned for something more than the sacrament of killing. He wanted to walk the worlds that bowed to her presence.
Envy began to grow in his soul. Every galaxy she touched reminded him of the power he could never claim. He watched as life rose and died just to create more. Her voice that once was like the finest chocolate now tasted like bitterness on his tongue. He no longer wanted to protect her. He wanted to consume her. To take the essence of her being and possess it. If he could not create; he would consume.
One night, as he lay beside her, she slept peacefully. The candlelight clung to her naked body as if to protect her, but no one was able to protect her, for the one person who was about to commit the ultimate sin of betrayal. The stars began to shutter as the fire inside his chest grew. A part of him mourned what he was on the cusp of doing, but the hatred consumed any self-control that remained. He craved the freedom she moved through, the effortless command of worlds she wielded, and it burned in him like a void he could never fill. He longed to dance in the freedom she did, to make planets bend to his will, to feel the universe itself answer to him as it did to her. A flicker of sorrow trembled in him, but it was drowned by the fire of desire that would not be denied.
As if possessed by emotion itself, the man lifted the knife, gifted to him by the universe, and plunged it deep into her heart. The sky roared in anger, as lightning methodically hit the ground over and over in fury. Onyx liquid poured from the wound as she took deep, jagged breaths. Tears rolled from her eyes as a gargle gasp escaped her lips. She wept hot springs from her eyes. Slowly, the life of the universe bubbled up from the wound, consuming the body into a black abyss until there was nothing left but nothingness.
The man grabbed out, shaping it into an orb in his hand and lifting it into his mouth, consuming it whole. Power shook through his body, igniting the deep confines of his soul, but this was not balance, and the universe required balance, and all fell into a vortex of chaos and war, where the oceans flooded and the land was no longer… boiling everything to extinction. The beauty that once existed was only a story told by the universe to the ones who are quiet enough to hear its grief.
By Shannon
Thank you for taking time to read my short story. It has been a couple of weeks cause I am a bit burnt out but rest is good! Follow my socials, I am usually a bit more active on there… depends on the week!
Dishes & Discourse 
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