Dark Aeons, Page 2

  Dark Prophecy

  I

  A POLICE INTERVIEW

  They come to me when I dream. Not always when I sleep; one does not have to be asleep to dream. Indeed, more often than not, I believe that I actually, in fact, dream more often when I am awake than when I am asleep. What? No, I’m not a narcoleptic. Yes, I know what that means. I’m not stupid. I don’t fall asleep at random intervals and have dreams. I go into a trance when the dreams come to me.

  Yes, they are visions, not true dreams, like ordinary people have. I am not ordinary. I have been marked. I have been chosen. I am different. They have deemed me worthy of their gifts.

  Who are they? Them, of course! Who else could they be? The ones who have granted me the power of visions, and have allowed me to see what will be in the dark aeons that shall come to pass.

  I just answered your question! Don’t you police types ever pay attention to what people say to you? How slowly do I have to talk for you to understand me?

  So you want me to tell you what I have seen? I warn you, the revelations will drive lesser beings such as yourself mad. It is only my own mental fortitude that has spared me.

  You want me to continue? If you wish, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  II

  THE FALL OF MAN

  I have seen how the civilization of man will fall, and that future is not far off. They have hastened the process of man’s destruction by supplying him with the knowledge of lost civilizations: the nuclear power of the Q’Shan, the forgotten physics of the Vizelkli, the terrible industry of the R’ylekk… all will contribute to the downfall of man as They stir anger in the hearts of your people with the subtle prods of sharp sticks, goading them to perform the most abhorrent of acts: the destruction of brother by brother, sister by sister, mother by daughter, niece by uncle, and grandchild by grandfather.

  The terrible warheads will darken the sky as the flock of sparrows even now casts shadows upon the streets outside. They shall fill the Earth with their whistling laments, and their bellows of anger will shake this world as they strike true, leaving only destruction and death in their wake. Thus the civilizations of man will fall, brought down both by their own selves and by They who grant me my glimpses of power.

  And then the Earth shall too die, as the flora and fauna wither at the advent of a nuclear age, where the mutagenic waves wash over the land, changing those that they do not kill into hideous, unrecog-nizable horrors.

  Even in the sea none can escape man’s misguided wrath, for the fouled water of the rivers shall flow into the oceans and seep into the deepest craters of the Earth. All life will then begin to die as even the Earth itself succumbs to the poison that mankind has injected into her very lifeblood, and all will grow still.

  Those few of you that survive the deadly holocaust will not last long, fleeing into your abodes deep beneath the earth, praying to your lying gods that the corruption will not reach you where you lie. But all will be in vain, for reach you it shall, and you will be forever changed.

  III

  THE INSECTS OF THE NEW WORLD

  As the planet becomes still and the cold frost approaches, then the insect shall come to dominance. The hardy cockroach, the communal ant, the terrible wasp, all will band together, accepting the gifts of corruption with open wings and great rejoicing, for finally the world shall be theirs.

  Within your toppled cities they shall now reign, their minds growing to hideous intelligence, and with their gained sentience shall construct their hives across all the lands of the Earth. Their unholy rites will be performed at the sites of the greatest corruption, where your harbringers of death hit the hardest.

  They shall see these sites, and rightfully so, as the source of their power, and great pains will be taken to keep them safe. Their foul religions shall develop in accordance to the placement of these fountains of corruption and decay, but they shall be so alien that no human mind could ever comprehend them.

  But even yet, not all of the race of man has been defeated. Some live still, enslaved by their terrible new overlords. Entombed and entrapped by the honeycombs of their lairs, men shall toil under the harsh eye of their masters, doing those tasks which the insects themselves find unpleasant. The working men become fodder as they fall old and die, or else fail in their duties, brought before the rulers of the new world on a glowing platter, chained down, and forced to watch their body and soul devoured by the hideous beasts that he once crushed without a thought.

  But no empire can last forever, and so too shall the great nations of the insects fall, but to an outside force, and not to themselves as man had, for they have learned from your folly.

  IV

  THE DREAM EMPIRE OF K’LAK SUL

  It is then that the dreamers shall again rule the world, as they had in aeons past. The sleeping ones, who slumber eternally on the world of Kaddall Shar, will come in their dread ships and take the insects as they enter their final dream-sleeps, gently putting them finally to rest. They shall come and settle upon the poisoned world, their dream-selves able to ignore the corruption that has so thoroughly taken hold of the once-green planet. Their black cities of sleeping stones will rise, and massive halls shall be built so that they may spend their final days in comfort, upon a distant and insignificant world.

  It is the Dream Empire of K’Lak Sul, the sleepers, that shall rule the earth the longest, for only they, of all who are to come, can live now upon its wretched surface. They do not need nourishment, for it is only their dream-selves that dwell here, as their physical selves are vast distances away.

  But it shall all come to an end, and their homeworld of Kaddall Shar will fall to the hideous V’Lak’Ytar, the Stardusters. Their dream cities shall vanish, and nothing shall ever again walk the Earth. The last traces of anything that mankind had ever accomplished will die on that day, for that is too the day when Sol shall implode upon itself, a result of the actions of my dread masters, and all earthly remnants shall be obliterated in a torrent of starfire.

  V

  THE STAR SONGS

  Let it not be said that the sun shall die without a memory, no – for the stars themselves vibrate and thrum with hidden life, and deep within themselves contain purposes that no mere mortal could ever comprehend. Sol will not be pleased with the actions of my masters, and will fight terribly against their mighty will, but shall eventually fail and succumb to the death that comes to all stars. This death shall come to Sol far ahead of its time, and Sol shall lament his untimely demise in a sorrowful song, the like of which never has been heard or ever will be heard again, echoing across the universe, filling all who hear it with a despair and longing for life that shall linger forever.

  Not one soul shall remain untouched by the loneliness and anguish of the star’s black song, and the brilliant companions of Sol shall take up the cry, sending his lament across the bridges between the universes, filling all of existence and beyond with a terrible grief that will never fade away.

  The singing shall continue long after Sol’s flame has gutted out, and a terrible anger will then take hold of the blazing music. A clamor shall ring out among the denizens of all universes and all times, a dreadful sound that departs then from the realm of music into that of charged noise. The rage of the stars will take hold of all that is, and terrible violence will spread across all of existence, extinguishing the tiny sparks of life that fight for their own survival.

  The stars themselves will take the war to my masters, who will drive them back and back again with their untold power of unknown aeons, and the supernovae and noble sacrifices of Sol’s kin shall all be in vain.

  But war cannot last forever, and soon the stars shall tire of their bloodshed, their anger and aggression faded away. The song of the stars will again take on its soothing, lulling tone, sending the races of the worlds to a peaceful state, where harmony and accord abound, all according to the vibrant chords and glorious hymns of the star songs.

  VI

  THE COMING O
F ESHAN A’BOL

  But the millennia of peace and prosperity cannot last, either. Out of the darkness at the end of time, from the great place at the end of all space and existence, comes into being the visage of the terrible Eshan A’Bol. His body writhes sinuously to a forgotten tune, and his countless maws open and close endlessly as his distended eyes stare out into the past, the present, and the future. He had been hurled backwards through the river of time, and then forced his way into this universe to interrupt the songs of the stars. His roars of ungodly rage shall fill the auditory receptors of beings on countless worlds, and they shall tremble and quake with terror, for they have known only the loving care of the stars, and their new god shall be a blight upon their very existence.

  He shall muzzle the stars and silence their voices, taking all their power for his own, and with it he shall forge a great empire for himself, sating his every desire, never allowing for any to refuse him. And so in this manner shall history proceed for an eternity, all races condemned to this slavery of the body, mind, and spirit, knowing that no hero shall ever rescue them from their hopeless plight.

  And so then the end of time will approach, and the blackness that dwells there will reach forth its ungainly arm, beckoning for all to come closer, into its toothy maw…