Here's a short story I wrote recently, for a writing contest. Not even entirely sure why I decided to share it here, but I am, so... hopefully whoever reads it enjoys it. Disclaimer: This is an abstract and experimental short story inspired by a number of true and fictional things. Also, there's some references to STARSET songs.
_-In the Eyes of Glass and Ghosts-_
In the fathoms of the night sky, there where stars and the cosmos watch, memories of the beginning stir.
A bead of porcelain, the moon gazes the world below, an eye for the eyeless above.
Through the open door, light like gold and fire baths the terrace and the verdant grass below. Fir trees stand around us and my house, silent guardians against whatever lurks beyond the wood.
I examine the leaf still in my hand. Veins run through its delicate form, branching and expanding to the toothed edges. I look to the forest ahead. Veins of earth and water run through the land, through the trees, branching like the leaf’s veins, and into rivers expanding across time. Fractals expand through the land and through time, into the stars and into our fates.
A journey to the edge, what secrets lay beyond?
In a blink, in a heartbeat, in the flicker of a fly’s wings, centuries spin through eternity. The birth of stars, the rise of suns, the death of a thousand worlds. In the sky we trust to remain, the stars ignite. The fire of a thousand silent screams blaze across the skies. Celestial bodies revered and worshiped through history die and new entities rise, alight in the galactic seas above.
I close my eyes, the visions fade from my mind.
“There are monsters in the sea,” a voice intangible says. “Demons in the sky.”
I look around in search of the voice.
“I’ve seen what you won’t see,” the voice continues.
“Artemis?” I say.
“We cannot hide in the end,” says the small and shadowed shape, in the golden glow on the terrace. “There are other worlds than these.”
From the strange and starbound person, I look to the sky.
“The truth you hide is the truth you seek,” Artemis says. Below my sky-fixed eyes, I see her step forward, her blue shadow grows.
In the expanse of ink and glass, of stars adrift and centuries lost, a lone figure falls through a dark sunrise. Of endless skies, of finite seas. To their reaches, a figure falls in the wake of impostors and monsters, where eyes stare from dead-still waters. A cold and distant light ripples above the blindness of the abyss, far from these forsaken fathoms.
I see the night sky return and remain in place of visions.
“You look into the future, the past, the silent screams of this day,” Artemis says. “What you see, believe.”
“There is nothing else,” I say. “We are all that is. What I saw is an anti-reality.”
“Reject those lies,” Artemis says. “What lies beyond defies the reason that governs this fallible earth.”
“If the truth we know is false, what else is there?” I ask. “We must hold to whatever semblance of truth we know.”
In Artemis’ eyes, a ripple in time overtakes my sight. In the flow of ages and eons, a cave of stone and shadows take shape.
A handprint forms, stenciled into the new and unbreakable stone. The hands of a thousand lives join the first, one by one, as days and seasons and lifetimes flash by.
A handprint forms, stenciled into the existing and weathered stone. The lives and stories of thousands mark this ancestral cave, where the souls of many wander quietly.
A handprint forms, stenciled into the ancient and brittle stone. Fire falls from above and fire rises from beneath, as stone and earth crash. The earth offers no mourn, no breath, no moment, for this death. The sacred cave, where the voiceless left their stories among those long gone, is now buried beneath the ages and earth.
“The end begins as the beginning ends,” she says. “What are we, specks of dust on this dying haven of blood and rust. The days of the living are frail and numbered. The fates of them the awakened few are sightless against the universe.”
“No,” I say. “Every life is precious, no matter how short.”
“The stars die and the cosmos are ablaze, what will you do?” she asks. “What will anyone do? There is no stopping the demise of this simulation. Death will be the final cure.”
“Who are you, Artemis?” I ask, but I know already I will only be given riddles.
She looks to the blind, porcelain eye set in the night. “I am one of starlight and lost centuries. I am all that you were and never could be. I am Artemis.”
“I don't understand,” I say.
Her moonward gaze returns to me. “Seek the truth and you will find it, my prophet. In the still peace of night, the moonlight caught in fresh dew. In the distant starlight, we glimpse the past. Where also can we foresee the future?
She points starward. “The stars you see are dead. The entities above are visions of the past. There’s no life. Only dark skies above.”
“How can that be true?”
“Some shadows fall before they are cast,” she says. “This planet we cling to is not what it seems. Humanity knew of it on Earth,” she says. “They knew. They knew of the dark beneath. Their flight to the stars was no mistake, but there is no outrunning the ones who wait below.”
“What are you saying?” I step back into the light from the doorway.
Standing on the edge between the light behind me and the shadows ahead, Artemis says, “Farewell, the void calls.”
“Wait,” I step out of the doorway toward her. “Don’t go.”
“In the night, in the dark of the void, galaxies ignite,” she says. “When you face the truth you hide, ascend. Join me in the stars beyond infinity.”
The small and light-bathed shape of Artemis disappears into the blackness of the shadows laying ahead.
I look starward. I have witnessed visions of eras countless and yet to be. I question what of it is real, what has not yet come to pass.
A dream into the ages of dawn and demons. A sight into the vision of stars and specters. A glimpse into the eyes of glass and ghosts.
As I stare into the infinity above, I wonder: does it stare back?
Through the open door, light baths the fading land below. Fir trees stand around us, behind my house and before it, their jagged shadows menacing and uncertain around me.
A bead of porcelain, the moon gazes the world below, an eye for the eyeless beneath.
In the fathoms of the night sky, there where the eyes of glass and ghosts watch, premonitions of the end stir.
This is a fascinating and beautifully-written piece! If I'm understanding it correctly, this is a story of an immortal entity looking upon the entire lifetime of the world and/or humanity and arguing that every small moment, every little life is important? I'll have to come back to it and study it again, there's clearly a lot of layers to this. Really well-done
This is a fascinating and beautifully-written piece! If I'm understanding it correctly, this is a story of an immortal entity looking upon the entire lifetime of the world and/or humanity and arguing that every small moment, every little life is important? I'll have to come back to it and study it again, there's clearly a lot of layers to this. Really well-done
Thank you! So, if you'd like, I can explain the intended narrative, but I had intentionally kept the piece itself vague, to leave it up to individual interpretation.
This is a fascinating and beautifully-written piece! If I'm understanding it correctly, this is a story of an immortal entity looking upon the entire lifetime of the world and/or humanity and arguing that every small moment, every little life is important? I'll have to come back to it and study it again, there's clearly a lot of layers to this. Really well-done
Thank you! So, if you'd like, I can explain the intended narrative, but I had intentionally kept the piece itself vague, to leave it up to individual interpretation.
Thank you! So, if you'd like, I can explain the intended narrative, but I had intentionally kept the piece itself vague, to leave it up to individual interpretation.
I'd like that, yeah!
Okay, so In the Eyes of Glass & Ghosts takes place on another planet, several hundred centuries after humanity left Earth in an attempt to flee the "Dark Beneath" that Artemis refers to. But, there is no escape. Humanity dies out entirely. On the planet Eden, however, a new race of humanlike beings arise and they form civilizations which rise and fall as all others do. They, like humanity, have often looked to the stars, to the night skies for guidance. Little do they know, the stars they see are dying and because the stars are so far away, they still see ancient light of those stars, centuries after those stars have burned and died. On Eden, a girl is born with the Sign of the Stars marked on her forehead. She is the Prophet and as she becomes an adult, she sees visions of the past, of the humans on Earth, of hundreds of other people and civilizations on other planets that have risen and fallen like Earth's humans. But even more clearly, she sees visions of fire and death and rebirth in the void beyond the skies. Stars are birthed and die and are reborn. People don't matter in the cosmic scheme of the universe and all will die in the end; only the void remains. Little does she know, she is one of the fated few who has the potential to flee the destruction and ascend to a new life in the stars. Artemis the Starchild tries to tell her to pay no mind to the visions of people, the past, the future, the present; she need only join Artemis and be reborn as an immortal Starchild and then she will be free of the visions and death awaiting her planet, which will also die by the Dark Beneath and the Ones Who Wait Below, like Earth did. ...and that's about all I've got for it so far. I admit, its not quite as complete a story as I'd like it to be.
Okay, so In the Eyes of Glass & Ghosts takes place on another planet, several hundred centuries after humanity left Earth in an attempt to flee the "Dark Beneath" that Artemis refers to. But, there is no escape. Humanity dies out entirely. On the planet Eden, however, a new race of humanlike beings arise and they form civilizations which rise and fall as all others do. They, like humanity, have often looked to the stars, to the night skies for guidance. Little do they know, the stars they see are dying and because the stars are so far away, they still see ancient light of those stars, centuries after those stars have burned and died. On Eden, a girl is born with the Sign of the Stars marked on her forehead. She is the Prophet and as she becomes an adult, she sees visions of the past, of the humans on Earth, of hundreds of other people and civilizations on other planets that have risen and fallen like Earth's humans. But even more clearly, she sees visions of fire and death and rebirth in the void beyond the skies. Stars are birthed and die and are reborn. People don't matter in the cosmic scheme of the universe and all will die in the end; only the void remains. Little does she know, she is one of the fated few who has the potential to flee the destruction and ascend to a new life in the stars. Artemis the Starchild tries to tell her to pay no mind to the visions of people, the past, the future, the present; she need only join Artemis and be reborn as an immortal Starchild and then she will be free of the visions and death awaiting her planet, which will also die by the Dark Beneath and the Ones Who Wait Below, like Earth did. ...and that's about all I've got for it so far. I admit, its not quite as complete a story as I'd like it to be.
That's a super-rad idea! It's giving extra-high-fantasty vibes, and I feel like you could pull it off really well. What inspired this idea?
Okay, so In the Eyes of Glass & Ghosts takes place on another planet, several hundred centuries after humanity left Earth in an attempt to flee the "Dark Beneath" that Artemis refers to. But, there is no escape. Humanity dies out entirely. On the planet Eden, however, a new race of humanlike beings arise and they form civilizations which rise and fall as all others do. They, like humanity, have often looked to the stars, to the night skies for guidance. Little do they know, the stars they see are dying and because the stars are so far away, they still see ancient light of those stars, centuries after those stars have burned and died. On Eden, a girl is born with the Sign of the Stars marked on her forehead. She is the Prophet and as she becomes an adult, she sees visions of the past, of the humans on Earth, of hundreds of other people and civilizations on other planets that have risen and fallen like Earth's humans. But even more clearly, she sees visions of fire and death and rebirth in the void beyond the skies. Stars are birthed and die and are reborn. People don't matter in the cosmic scheme of the universe and all will die in the end; only the void remains. Little does she know, she is one of the fated few who has the potential to flee the destruction and ascend to a new life in the stars. Artemis the Starchild tries to tell her to pay no mind to the visions of people, the past, the future, the present; she need only join Artemis and be reborn as an immortal Starchild and then she will be free of the visions and death awaiting her planet, which will also die by the Dark Beneath and the Ones Who Wait Below, like Earth did. ...and that's about all I've got for it so far. I admit, its not quite as complete a story as I'd like it to be.
That's a super-rad idea! It's giving extra-high-fantasty vibes, and I feel like you could pull it off really well. What inspired this idea?
Thanks! If I ever get the time, I'd love to turn it into a full story. Kind of a mix of vague ideas that came from STARSET lyrics, a casual interest in space/the universe, and also a TikTok about fractals or patterns or whatever that show up ALL throughout nature. Also, for some reason, the phrase "a sight of stars and spectres," which, like, popped into my head while writing the one day and just stuck.
That's a super-rad idea! It's giving extra-high-fantasty vibes, and I feel like you could pull it off really well. What inspired this idea?
Thanks! If I ever get the time, I'd love to turn it into a full story. Kind of a mix of vague ideas that came from STARSET lyrics, a casual interest in space/the universe, and also a TikTok about fractals or patterns or whatever that show up ALL throughout nature. Also, for some reason, the phrase "a sight of stars and spectres," which, like, popped into my head while writing the one day and just stuck.
Awesome It's cool how a unique idea can come from a collection of little ones.
Good work! 
If I'm understanding it correctly, this is a story of an immortal entity looking upon the entire lifetime of the world and/or humanity and arguing that every small moment, every little life is important? 
I'll have to come back to it and study it again, there's clearly a lot of layers to this. Really well-done ![[heart]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/SynFAxjClulYuSIRbDRN.png)
Good work! 
If I'm understanding it correctly, this is a story of an immortal entity looking upon the entire lifetime of the world and/or humanity and arguing that every small moment, every little life is important? ![[tea]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/NfiRcvAeCCdJSjOEoxJM.gif)
![[tea]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/wQpCrjATUlknAreKknId.gif)
![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/nPCskakrdhDERqIVGKuw.png)
It's cool how a unique idea can come from a collection of little ones.