The Sun Hates All

I remember the day that the red angels came. It was a hot, scorching day. So hot that the roads began to melt. So hot that it was dangerous to go outside, lest you pass out from the heat and die of a heatstroke.

I was at work when it happened; when the sky split and rifts appeared all along the vast expanse above the Earth. These rifts were bright, bright as the sun, and were thus blinding to behold.

Out of those tears in reality appeared terrifying men, with their skin flayed from their bodies, and each with 12 rings of flesh and eyes orbiting around their nightmarish forms. Wearing robes formed by bending the reality from the bleeding sky and crowns of twisting thorns, they proceeded to purge the world of humanity. Cities burned and melted. I was lucky to escape from my building before it was shortly destroyed. Smoke, dust, and fire surrounded me. Blood and acid rained from the shattered heavens. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air along with the screams of thousands of unfortunate souls. Cars filled with gasoline exploded all around the city.

I managed to somehow avoid the gaze of the angels and found solace in the subway near my workplace. Not many other people reached the safety of the industrial depths, only a handful other than those already there when this apocalypse began. It was there, specifically on the train, that I dwelled for the next several weeks. As I lived there I would occasionally hear ungodly shrieks of horror from an inhuman source.

After living off of vending machines for a few days, the sounds of destruction suddenly ceased, at which point I made my ascent to the surface once more. However, I discovered that the entrance to the subway in which I lived in was sealed off by a structure made of a melting, sticky, fleshy substance. After a closer look at the macabre barricade I noticed that it has small eyes, no larger than a shirt button. They had white irises but pupils of varying color, all of which were distorted and bleeding into the white irises surrounding them. I couldn’t tell if they were looking at me, but I made sure to leave them alone and I attempted to stay out of their line of sight as I made my way back down.

I returned to the area in the subway in which I normally inhabited these past few days, in the train, noticing that the other survivors had all disappeared. I heard strange noises coming from further down the train tunnel. Screams. At least they were human screams. I grabbed a nearby flashlight and made my way towards the noises to investigate when I heard something running in my direction. Illuminating the area in front of me with my flashlight, I saw a woman running towards me.

“Don’t go into the sun!” she screamed at me.

“What?”

She closed the distance between us, “The-the sun… It took them away…. It peeled the flesh from their bones and stole…stole…”

She fell into a heap on the floor before I could inquire further. How could the sun possibly kill someone in that way? What did the sun steal from them? There were so many questions that I wouldn’t be able to answer now. I took her unconscious body back towards the subway train.

When she awoke, I began my interrogation:

“What’s your name”

“Violet.”

“I’m Wyatt. Please, tell me. What happened to those people you were talking about?”

“Well, a group of people decided to go back to the surface to see if it was safe, so I went with them. I’m not sure what happened to the others. Anyways, someone leading my group said that the closest entrance was blocked somehow, so we had to go down the tunnel to the next station to see if we could exit from there.“

When we reached the next subway station, we found that the exit was uncovered, so we went up to the surface from there. However, when the people in the front of the line reached the top of the ascending staircase, their skin and flesh just… floated off them. Their flesh simply… detached from their bodies and flew into the sky. Into the sun. What little was left of them just… walked away… towards the sun. I ran back towards this place in panic. I’m not sure if I’m the only survivor, or if there were others who were lucky enough not to be exposed to sunlight.”

I wasn’t sure of what I had to say to comfort her. These past few days have been strange and hellish. I told her that I tried the same thing, only I went towards the nearest exit to find it blocked off by a wall of pulsating meat; and that when I returned to the train in the subway, there was no one else there.

“Are you sure your group didn’t include everyone trapped down here?” I asked her.

“Yes, there were some who stayed behind. I was the last person to leave, and there were definitely some people who stayed behind.”

I didn’t know what to make of this mystery, so I ended the conversation there and offered Violet some semi-stale vending machine snacks. That night, I awoke to noises coming from outside the train. Weird, gasping noises; and they were coming from the direction of that disgusting flesh wall blocking off the nearest subway exit. Something burst into the back of the train, tearing through the rearmost door. Grabbing my flashlight, I shined it towards the back of the train to reveal a tall, thin, fleshless man. His eyes were of that same exploding-pupil-look that the eyes on the wall had. Thin slivers and chunks of meat dangled from various parts of his body, and a thin film covered his abdomen to keep his internal organs from spilling out.

He began gasping breathlessly, and limping towards me slowly. Violet had woken up at this point and had already gotten up and left. I followed closely after. Once we exited the train I saw that there were dozens of the things on the sides of the train slowly moving towards us, croaking and roaring hoarsely. We ran down the tunnel, with my flashlight illuminating the way, not daring to look back.

As we kept running the bizarre noises grew distant and quiet, so we slowed to a walking pace. After some time, we reached the next subway station and looked towards the stairs ascending to the surface. It was currently night.

“Do you think it’s safe up there? While it’s still night?” I asked Violet.

She looked at me unsurely, “I don’t know, but those terrible things that happened to the people I was with only happened once they became exposed to sunlight.”

Well, we couldn’t survive down here for much longer. I volunteered to go up and see if it was safe to be outside. I made my way up the stairs leading to the surface, listening to the sounds of the wind whistling above. Once I left the subway I was greeted by a gruesome sight.

The entire city in which I had lived in was burnt down and reconstructed. Towers and spires populated the desolate land, built out of an alien substance that I can only describe as a metallic beeswax of some sort. Each tower was peppered with holes of varying sizes, again reminding me somewhat of a beehive.

Upon beholding this Arcadian sight, I realized that the moonlight hadn’t affected me harmfully, so I called down to Violet telling her that it was safe to come up. She ascended the staircase, and paused for a few moments to behold the extra-dimensional architecture. We heard what sounded like whale-song coming from above; and, looking upward, saw enormous cetacean creatures, constructed of mixture of melted flesh and that strange aqueous metal substance, swimming in the night sky.

“They look…beautiful…in a way.” Violet whispered in subtle amazement.

“Hauntingly so…” I responded.

Remembering that we should find somewhere to hide before morning, I reminded Violet and we continued our pilgrimage for food and a safe haven. The “whales” continued to fly through the air throughout the rest of the night. As we traversed through the dream-like plains, panic slowly built up within me, due to the fact that dawn was approaching. I made the decision to take shelter in one of the cyclopean towers, entering on a ramp leading into a natural gateway.

The substance of which the tower was composed of felt like clay that was half dry: not completely solid, but I could feel myself sinking slightly into the structure. Luckily, the semi-solid metal still supported my weight. Upon reaching the interior of the foreign tower, Violet and I gazed out of the holes littering the construct to see if there were any places from which we could get food.

Then we realized that the myriad holes decorating the spire would expose us to sunlight from any angle, no matter where we attempted to hide. Sadly, it was too late to look for another place to hide, for the sun was already rising. Violet and I were frozen in place, staring at the sun. As the shining rays slowly illuminated the land and reached out to me, I felt total serenity. I could do nothing but behold the spectacle of the morning sun. It was a slightly darker orange color, and had a slow pulsating feel to it, as if it were a giant celestial heart. I saw my skin and clothes melting off of me and evaporating into the air, but felt nothing for I could only focus on the sun.

I know nothing else of what happened to Violet, for at that moment, my only objective was to reach the horizon and worship the holy sun. I began my pilgrimage, losing track of time, continuing despite the day turning to night, and the night turning into day. I was guided by an unseen presence until I reached my destination: The Temple of Wormwood.

Whilst at this temple, I awaited the arrival of the Child of the Sun with my fellow solar converts. We had donated our flesh to the infant developing in that otherworldly womb floating in the heavens. That is the purpose of the sun; a dormant womb desiring a child, finally blessed with the fruit of Our Father Below.

After worshipping, sacrificing, and communing with the sun, it sent a Red Messenger to inform us that that day would be the day that our Savior in Thorns would be born. We waited patiently and excitedly for the Child’s arrival. It seemed an eternity before the swollen sun unraveled itself to reveal The New God, who shortly descended to our temple.

The spectacle was nigh impossible to behold. Several of my brethren perished from the pure radiance. As God descended to our plane, he mercifully shrank himself to a size no larger than a man, so that I and my surviving brothers may behold his majesty.

He was covered in ebony hair, like a beast from ages long forgotten, but his benevolence reveals himself to be anything but. With a crown of 7 gold horns adorning his head, and black eyes with golden hourglass-shaped pupils, and razor-like teeth arranged along his enormous mouth in a crocodilian pattern, his face alone was a terrifying sight to behold. His skin, when visible, was a precious golden color. He wore a magnificent robe that radiated every color imaginable depending on the angle at which you looked upon it.

Absentmindedly, I blurted, “Who are you, that you would descend from True Paradise to be with corrupted men like us?”

To that question, He answered, “I am the harbinger of a new age; and I have come to redeem my Father’s children.”

Ahhh, what a truly generous Father we have, who would send a Redeemer for us. To any who would receive this testament of salvation, please do repent of thy ways of evil, lest you be swallowed up by the awful Behemoth. Recognize that the end is nigh, that the age of man is drawing to a close, and that you can still take part in the next age, due to the ever-aweing grace of Our Father Below.

Praise the Deep One!

Credit: Arnalter