Genesis [malexmale]

Part One -- Chapter One

Part One: The Beginning

Chapter One

There was evil in the air.

It was a rancid smell, a suffocating invisible force around my throat, a cold chill down my spine, a dark presence in the shadows of the room. A malevolent force that was completely at odds with the beauty that was the universe in its rawest state.

The universe itself was precious and beautiful, infantile and innocent. The realm in which my siblings and I resided in, in the beginning, was called Genesis. The first realm to burst free of the Source's great lungs, the purest gem in a diamond mine. The realm held no end, a round sphere in the cosmos, continuing on for eternity, a rolling cycle of infinity. From where I stood, I could see the meadow that stretched to the forest, tall brilliant green grass only interrupted with occasional splits of color from wildflowers that swayed in the cool breeze. The temperature was neither too cold, nor too hot. The sky was clear, a crystal blue with the faintest of glimmers from the stars beyond, the sun a flaming hot citrine in the sky. The air was crisp and fresh, brand new to the realm, filling my lungs.

The natural scent of the soil wafted up through the meadow's grass, from the garden my sister called home, from the shoreline of the lake to the east of the meadow. The crisp damp smell of the lake, the sweet floral scent of the garden, the smell of hot water in the kettle behind me, steaming the tea petals of jasmine and chamomile.

It was beautiful and pure. A sight for sore eyes, eyes plagued with images of a nightmare unexplained, a nightmare induced by the underlying stench of evil. In my darkest dreams, I felt the evil creeping across my skin, like the ivy in the woods, twisting and turning around the great oaks, swallowing them, suffocating them, ultimately strangling the life out of them. As the last of the ivy covered my vision, its thorned vine would pierce my eyes and I awoke in my bed, bathed in cold sweat, wrapped in the blankets, choking for air.

I wasn't sure why the Source was doing this to me. I wasn't sure what the Source was trying to tell me. Certainly I would recognize there was something menacing hiding among the beautiful blooming life, but what was I to do? Where was it? In what form did it arrive here? When did it even arrive? Was I to stop it, and if so, how?

My shoulders felt heavy from the burden of the nightmare, and an impulse in my gut encouraged me to see Geara and discuss it with her, but she was far too occupied with creating the new life beneath her feet for each of the realms. Lands of variety, from hot silky sand to fluffy piles of white ice crystals, to large sprouting cones home to sharp barbs to thick clustered trees that nearly touched the cosmos. Her imagination knew no bounds and with each morning she woke, and with each night she lay to rest, the universe expanded until I knew not where it continued nor began.

It was best not to bother Geara with things I was unsure of. Until I saw the evil, I would not act. But how hard it was to go through the day without sleep. A strange ache began in my temples, spread to the back of my head. My eyes felt as if they had sunken into the back of my skull, pulling at my lids in an attempt to close them for sleep, but sleep never came. Not restful sleep anyway. Nightmares rich with warnings I couldn't even begin to understand.

I sighed, reaching up to sweep a hand through my long white hair, letting it settle about my shoulders before I turned to the kettle that sat on a flat black tinted surface where a fire lay to boil the water in the device.

We'd been born with knowledge; my siblings and I. So too had the other creatures in our creation, from the Source's creation. Knowledge would keep us in peace. Knowledge would keep us at rest. The Source willed it so.

I poured the boiling tea water into a glass tea cup, bringing it to my lips to blow across it. I held my finger above the water, pointed down, turned it around in a gentle, slow circle, willing the tea to cool to a temperature that wouldn't scald my mouth. I cupped the glass in my palms, took a sip, grimaced.