"I have to do something about this," Ellie said.
"Do something?" Benny asked. His eyebrows arched questioningly. "What do you mean, “do something”? About what?"
It was the third morning. The Reckoning was over. Benny was preparing to go to work at the Institute, but first he stopped to see how Ellie was doing. She had spent the entire previous day in her room, brooding, refusing to see him. He had hoped in vain that the time alone would heal her wounds.
Ellie looked at him squarely. "The Nazgul. I have to do something about them. Eliminate them."
"Eliminate," Benny repeated. The word rolled off his tongue as if it contained poison.
"Kill them, Benny. Kill them like they killed my baby."
"The Nazgul cannot be killed," Benny said flatly.
"Has anyone ever tried?"
The very idea was foreign to Benny Knuckles. The Nazgul just--were, that's all. They were as much part of New Colony life as the double moons and the sun. Killing them was something he had never even considered, and from his experience, he doubted if anyone else had ever considered it, either.
"The Nazgul cannot be killed," he said flatly. "They are immortal."
"How do you know?"
"I know."
"How?"
Benny was silent. These questions were stupid, idiotic! Bullshit! Frustration showed clearly on his face. Yet, there was something in Ellie's voice, a glint of determination that made him reconsider. "How could you kill them?" he challenged.
"I'm, I'm not sure," Ellie admitted.
"More than a hundred generations have lived and died since the Nazgul came. The New Colony has lived under the cloak of The Reckoning all that time. What makes you think it can be changed now?"
Ellie bowed her head in thought. An image had been forming in her mind; growing even as the memory of her life here returned to her.
"When I awoke in that room that first day, I had the clear impression I didn't belong there. Not just there, in that place, but here, in the New Colony itself. I felt as if I was from somewhere else, sent here for some reason. And in that other place I was once a man, an older man who writes stories, who has always wondered about the meaning of his life."
"Humph," Benny said.
Ellie ignored him and continued. "In that other world, he wrote something to do with creatures like the Nazgul. Creatures that come in the night and never die. Creatures that live on human blood and human suffering. He wrote of an organization that did something about creatures like the Nazgul. Eliminated them."
"And because of this man’s fantasies, you propose to try and kill the mighty Nazgul?" Benny asked.
"It is not just fantasies, Benny. I can assure you of that. The story came from is soul. Maybe in its own way it is real in another time and place, like this time and place. And I truly think that if I can tap into the memory of that story, it will tell me how it can be done."
Benny blinked. Kill the Nazgul? Free the New Colony from The Reckoning? The implications made his mind reel. The colony, in its own perverse way, was The Reckoning. Life here revolved around it in much the same way a woman's life revolved around her menstrual cycle. It was, Godspeed, he hated to use this word, normal. It kept the population of the colony pure and clean. It filled the people with a sense of terror that kept them in line. The very power of the Mission Controller stemmed from it! What would happen if it were gone?
"Such a thing could be done?" he asked with wonder in his voice.
Ellie frowned. "It's hard to say, for sure. The picture is not fully formed in my mind. We will need weapons. Special weapons."
"Weapons? You mean like projectile weapons? The people of the New Colony aren't allowed weapons except for our fists. Only the police and the Mission Controller's inner guard are armed."
Ellie shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Guns wouldn't work anyway. You're partially right. The Nazgul are all but immortal. Bullets cannot harm them. Only faith and magic can kill them."
Benny looked startled. "Magic? Faith? What bullshit is this?"
"Maybe it is bullshit, Benny," Ellie replied thoughtfully. "But I am certain it's true. I can feel it, almost taste it. It has something to do with wood, water, and something from the soil and the most important thing of all, an inner fire."
Benny stood to leave. "As for fire, you already have that, Ellie," Benny said. "It burns in you like the sun itself."
****
In the course of that day, Ellie began to remember more about her life in the New Colony, and the knowledge left her stunned. The story was a sick, tragic tale. But there was one aspect that convinced her she had been sent here for a reason: she could not remember past that first day working in the Great House, the day she met her future lover, Virgil Schirra.
Why? The question puzzled her. Was it just more amnesia, or was it something else? Ellie suspected that she had no memories of a childhood with a simple Outer Territories farm family because there were none. Ellie believed, in spite of the evidence and any form of reasonable logic, she was not from the New Colony at all. She was from somewhere else, somewhere far away, maybe just from the imagination of the writer who haunted the edge of her memories. The more the thought about it the more she felt certain that she came from a place where the limitations of time and space meant nothing...
Real or not real what was she to make of the New Colony? It amazed her how its harsh laws worked in sickening tandem with The Reckoning to create a world governed by fear and superstition. And as Ellie plotted her revenge, she was thankful that these very laws could be used to help her carry out her scheme.
It came down to this: All the women of the New Colony began their menstrual cycles at the same time: the first day of The Reckoning. These cycles lasted seven days. Not ever six or sometimes eight. Seven. Of course. She also knew that at the end of those seven days, she, as a condemned woman, was expected to return to that dirty room to service the men sent there as her punishment until the time of the next Reckoning. If she didn't go, she would simply die sooner.
Ellie sat deep in thought at the narrow table in her berth at 28 Mercury. Worry lines etched her brow. It was now the afternoon of the third day. She had four left to redeem herself, and redeem herself she would, even if it meant her death.
"But what of Benny?" a voice within her asked guiltily. "He is nothing but an innocent boy. How can you drag him into this? Will he die helping you? Will he die for your pain?"
Ellie didn't want to answer those questions, for each answer would deny her destiny. She had to do what she had to do. Benny, alive or dead, was part of it. That was the brutal truth. And what if this truth meant their damnation?
So be it.
She guided herself back to her thoughts. She had used her transient memories to describe to Benny what she would need to defeat the Nazgul. He looked at her puzzled but said he would try. Ellie suspected that the things she requested either didn't exist on this planet or were precious to come by, but she trusted Benny. She trusted him more than he trusted himself. He would find a way.
Later that evening Benny Knuckles came to her door. He wore a look of concern on his face, but the expression did not faze Ellie.
"Tell me what you've found," she said confidently.
Benny dug into his pocket and brought out his precious cargo wrapped in a handkerchief.
"There is no wood as you described on the New Colony, Ellie," he explained. "The trees on this planet are little more than large bushes. They are used mainly as wind breaks on the Outer Territories farms. But Benny found this." He unwrapped the handkerchief and produced a small piece of wood.
Ellie picked it up. It wasn't much more than a large sliver, painted a shade of green on one side, splintered, natural beige on the other. She felt its weight in her hand and her heart began to race. She put it to her lips and tasted it; not because it would help her identify it, but more to prove to herself that it was real. She rubbed her thumb across its grain and knew. It was oak. Earth oak.
"Where did you get this?" she asked.
"Don't ask," he replied. "Let's just say that if he is discovered, Benny Knuckles will soon be nothing more than food for the Nazgul."
"That might happen anyway, Benny," Ellie replied, her eyes dancing wickedly. "Can you get enough for our needs?"
Benny Knuckles nodded.
"And the other thing? The garlic?"
"Sorry, Ellie, but it does not exist on the New Colony," Benny replied.
"But we need it!" she spat.
"Benny has tried," he replied, his hands held wide in supplication.
Ellie lowered her head, feeling bad for speaking to him that way. Benny so much wanted to help, to believe.
"I'm sorry, Benny," she said. "I know you're trying. It's just that we need everything we can if we expect to have a chance."
"Benny knows, Ellie," he replied. "Benny sees."
They made their plans. They spoke of supplies, distance, terrain, and any possible means of transportation other than their own two feet. Benny told her a remarkable story about the Nazgul's home in the Celestial Mountains.
"There is a road that travels from the New Colony to the mountains. It was cut long ago before the first Reckoning. It was prepared for farm land, but it is now thought to be an evil place and no one ventures there. At the end of the road is a path that leads into the mountains. It is there that the Nazgul live, sleeping in caves in the side of the mountain."
"How do you know these things?" Ellie asked
"Some from things Benny's father learned by keeping his eyes and ears open at the Institute. These things he passed on to Benny. Also, Benny has learned much on his own. You would be surprised what he knows."
Ellie wouldn't have been surprised at all. She had grown to realize that meeting Benny had been nothing less than divine intervention. Benny would be her guide and confidant. In his own way, he would be her protector. He would help her faithfully in her quest.
In the end Benny told her not to worry about the details, he had plans, but she wasn't so sure. A fine crack had appeared in her resolve and doubt had crept in.
"We have to leave as soon as we can, Benny. We have to do it while I still have nerve."
"We can't leave until the last possible moment, Ellie."
"But why?" Ellie cried.
"Two reasons. It will take a while for Benny to prepare what we need. If I am caught, we accomplish nothing."
"And what's the other thing."
"Your menstrual flow. It is said that the Nazgul can smell a drop of blood from many kilometers away. We cannot go near them while you still bleed."
"Shit!" Ellie swore.
"We will go late in the evening on the seventh day, no later than the third unit. Your bleeding will be over by then. With luck, they will not discover we are missing until the next day."
"Will they come after us?"
Benny shrugged. "They might. The colony at night is not an easy place to leave unnoticed, but there is no other choice."
"But to wait four more days!" Ellie said with resignation. "God, that's an eternity!"
Benny watched her silently. She was searching for alternatives, but there were none.
"Okay," she said at last. "But Benny, let's leave during the second unit. I'm beginning to like the number two. Perhaps for once it will bring someone luck."
"So, the taunts in the dining room were correct," Benny grunted approvingly. "We are twofers," he said.
"Twofers we are, Benny," Ellie said with an unexpected smile. "Twofers we are."
-------------------------
Note: The story Ellie refers to is a tale I wrote called “The Hunters.” It’s about retired vampire hunters. As I write this, I was drawn to the memory of how that story evolved more than ten years ago.
Writing is weird. Sometimes stories have to be pulled out of your imagination like teeth, resisting all the way. Sometimes stories are downloaded into your subconscious all at once. You get an ideal and wham! a beginning, middle, and end, appear. All you have to do is write it down. It is an odd experience that has always left me feeling a little ill.
“The Hunters” was such a story, and I found it amazing that Ellie picked it out of my memories. I don’t think you have to read it to continue this tale, but if you would like to read it, it’s in my short story collection, “Unexpected Pleasures.” The easiest way to find it is to go to my fiction blog, www.davidtevesstories.blogspot.com. It may take a little digging to find it, but it was posted in October 2009.
David
"Do something?" Benny asked. His eyebrows arched questioningly. "What do you mean, “do something”? About what?"
It was the third morning. The Reckoning was over. Benny was preparing to go to work at the Institute, but first he stopped to see how Ellie was doing. She had spent the entire previous day in her room, brooding, refusing to see him. He had hoped in vain that the time alone would heal her wounds.
Ellie looked at him squarely. "The Nazgul. I have to do something about them. Eliminate them."
"Eliminate," Benny repeated. The word rolled off his tongue as if it contained poison.
"Kill them, Benny. Kill them like they killed my baby."
"The Nazgul cannot be killed," Benny said flatly.
"Has anyone ever tried?"
The very idea was foreign to Benny Knuckles. The Nazgul just--were, that's all. They were as much part of New Colony life as the double moons and the sun. Killing them was something he had never even considered, and from his experience, he doubted if anyone else had ever considered it, either.
"The Nazgul cannot be killed," he said flatly. "They are immortal."
"How do you know?"
"I know."
"How?"
Benny was silent. These questions were stupid, idiotic! Bullshit! Frustration showed clearly on his face. Yet, there was something in Ellie's voice, a glint of determination that made him reconsider. "How could you kill them?" he challenged.
"I'm, I'm not sure," Ellie admitted.
"More than a hundred generations have lived and died since the Nazgul came. The New Colony has lived under the cloak of The Reckoning all that time. What makes you think it can be changed now?"
Ellie bowed her head in thought. An image had been forming in her mind; growing even as the memory of her life here returned to her.
"When I awoke in that room that first day, I had the clear impression I didn't belong there. Not just there, in that place, but here, in the New Colony itself. I felt as if I was from somewhere else, sent here for some reason. And in that other place I was once a man, an older man who writes stories, who has always wondered about the meaning of his life."
"Humph," Benny said.
Ellie ignored him and continued. "In that other world, he wrote something to do with creatures like the Nazgul. Creatures that come in the night and never die. Creatures that live on human blood and human suffering. He wrote of an organization that did something about creatures like the Nazgul. Eliminated them."
"And because of this man’s fantasies, you propose to try and kill the mighty Nazgul?" Benny asked.
"It is not just fantasies, Benny. I can assure you of that. The story came from is soul. Maybe in its own way it is real in another time and place, like this time and place. And I truly think that if I can tap into the memory of that story, it will tell me how it can be done."
Benny blinked. Kill the Nazgul? Free the New Colony from The Reckoning? The implications made his mind reel. The colony, in its own perverse way, was The Reckoning. Life here revolved around it in much the same way a woman's life revolved around her menstrual cycle. It was, Godspeed, he hated to use this word, normal. It kept the population of the colony pure and clean. It filled the people with a sense of terror that kept them in line. The very power of the Mission Controller stemmed from it! What would happen if it were gone?
"Such a thing could be done?" he asked with wonder in his voice.
Ellie frowned. "It's hard to say, for sure. The picture is not fully formed in my mind. We will need weapons. Special weapons."
"Weapons? You mean like projectile weapons? The people of the New Colony aren't allowed weapons except for our fists. Only the police and the Mission Controller's inner guard are armed."
Ellie shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Guns wouldn't work anyway. You're partially right. The Nazgul are all but immortal. Bullets cannot harm them. Only faith and magic can kill them."
Benny looked startled. "Magic? Faith? What bullshit is this?"
"Maybe it is bullshit, Benny," Ellie replied thoughtfully. "But I am certain it's true. I can feel it, almost taste it. It has something to do with wood, water, and something from the soil and the most important thing of all, an inner fire."
Benny stood to leave. "As for fire, you already have that, Ellie," Benny said. "It burns in you like the sun itself."
****
In the course of that day, Ellie began to remember more about her life in the New Colony, and the knowledge left her stunned. The story was a sick, tragic tale. But there was one aspect that convinced her she had been sent here for a reason: she could not remember past that first day working in the Great House, the day she met her future lover, Virgil Schirra.
Why? The question puzzled her. Was it just more amnesia, or was it something else? Ellie suspected that she had no memories of a childhood with a simple Outer Territories farm family because there were none. Ellie believed, in spite of the evidence and any form of reasonable logic, she was not from the New Colony at all. She was from somewhere else, somewhere far away, maybe just from the imagination of the writer who haunted the edge of her memories. The more the thought about it the more she felt certain that she came from a place where the limitations of time and space meant nothing...
Real or not real what was she to make of the New Colony? It amazed her how its harsh laws worked in sickening tandem with The Reckoning to create a world governed by fear and superstition. And as Ellie plotted her revenge, she was thankful that these very laws could be used to help her carry out her scheme.
It came down to this: All the women of the New Colony began their menstrual cycles at the same time: the first day of The Reckoning. These cycles lasted seven days. Not ever six or sometimes eight. Seven. Of course. She also knew that at the end of those seven days, she, as a condemned woman, was expected to return to that dirty room to service the men sent there as her punishment until the time of the next Reckoning. If she didn't go, she would simply die sooner.
Ellie sat deep in thought at the narrow table in her berth at 28 Mercury. Worry lines etched her brow. It was now the afternoon of the third day. She had four left to redeem herself, and redeem herself she would, even if it meant her death.
"But what of Benny?" a voice within her asked guiltily. "He is nothing but an innocent boy. How can you drag him into this? Will he die helping you? Will he die for your pain?"
Ellie didn't want to answer those questions, for each answer would deny her destiny. She had to do what she had to do. Benny, alive or dead, was part of it. That was the brutal truth. And what if this truth meant their damnation?
So be it.
She guided herself back to her thoughts. She had used her transient memories to describe to Benny what she would need to defeat the Nazgul. He looked at her puzzled but said he would try. Ellie suspected that the things she requested either didn't exist on this planet or were precious to come by, but she trusted Benny. She trusted him more than he trusted himself. He would find a way.
Later that evening Benny Knuckles came to her door. He wore a look of concern on his face, but the expression did not faze Ellie.
"Tell me what you've found," she said confidently.
Benny dug into his pocket and brought out his precious cargo wrapped in a handkerchief.
"There is no wood as you described on the New Colony, Ellie," he explained. "The trees on this planet are little more than large bushes. They are used mainly as wind breaks on the Outer Territories farms. But Benny found this." He unwrapped the handkerchief and produced a small piece of wood.
Ellie picked it up. It wasn't much more than a large sliver, painted a shade of green on one side, splintered, natural beige on the other. She felt its weight in her hand and her heart began to race. She put it to her lips and tasted it; not because it would help her identify it, but more to prove to herself that it was real. She rubbed her thumb across its grain and knew. It was oak. Earth oak.
"Where did you get this?" she asked.
"Don't ask," he replied. "Let's just say that if he is discovered, Benny Knuckles will soon be nothing more than food for the Nazgul."
"That might happen anyway, Benny," Ellie replied, her eyes dancing wickedly. "Can you get enough for our needs?"
Benny Knuckles nodded.
"And the other thing? The garlic?"
"Sorry, Ellie, but it does not exist on the New Colony," Benny replied.
"But we need it!" she spat.
"Benny has tried," he replied, his hands held wide in supplication.
Ellie lowered her head, feeling bad for speaking to him that way. Benny so much wanted to help, to believe.
"I'm sorry, Benny," she said. "I know you're trying. It's just that we need everything we can if we expect to have a chance."
"Benny knows, Ellie," he replied. "Benny sees."
They made their plans. They spoke of supplies, distance, terrain, and any possible means of transportation other than their own two feet. Benny told her a remarkable story about the Nazgul's home in the Celestial Mountains.
"There is a road that travels from the New Colony to the mountains. It was cut long ago before the first Reckoning. It was prepared for farm land, but it is now thought to be an evil place and no one ventures there. At the end of the road is a path that leads into the mountains. It is there that the Nazgul live, sleeping in caves in the side of the mountain."
"How do you know these things?" Ellie asked
"Some from things Benny's father learned by keeping his eyes and ears open at the Institute. These things he passed on to Benny. Also, Benny has learned much on his own. You would be surprised what he knows."
Ellie wouldn't have been surprised at all. She had grown to realize that meeting Benny had been nothing less than divine intervention. Benny would be her guide and confidant. In his own way, he would be her protector. He would help her faithfully in her quest.
In the end Benny told her not to worry about the details, he had plans, but she wasn't so sure. A fine crack had appeared in her resolve and doubt had crept in.
"We have to leave as soon as we can, Benny. We have to do it while I still have nerve."
"We can't leave until the last possible moment, Ellie."
"But why?" Ellie cried.
"Two reasons. It will take a while for Benny to prepare what we need. If I am caught, we accomplish nothing."
"And what's the other thing."
"Your menstrual flow. It is said that the Nazgul can smell a drop of blood from many kilometers away. We cannot go near them while you still bleed."
"Shit!" Ellie swore.
"We will go late in the evening on the seventh day, no later than the third unit. Your bleeding will be over by then. With luck, they will not discover we are missing until the next day."
"Will they come after us?"
Benny shrugged. "They might. The colony at night is not an easy place to leave unnoticed, but there is no other choice."
"But to wait four more days!" Ellie said with resignation. "God, that's an eternity!"
Benny watched her silently. She was searching for alternatives, but there were none.
"Okay," she said at last. "But Benny, let's leave during the second unit. I'm beginning to like the number two. Perhaps for once it will bring someone luck."
"So, the taunts in the dining room were correct," Benny grunted approvingly. "We are twofers," he said.
"Twofers we are, Benny," Ellie said with an unexpected smile. "Twofers we are."
-------------------------
Note: The story Ellie refers to is a tale I wrote called “The Hunters.” It’s about retired vampire hunters. As I write this, I was drawn to the memory of how that story evolved more than ten years ago.
Writing is weird. Sometimes stories have to be pulled out of your imagination like teeth, resisting all the way. Sometimes stories are downloaded into your subconscious all at once. You get an ideal and wham! a beginning, middle, and end, appear. All you have to do is write it down. It is an odd experience that has always left me feeling a little ill.
“The Hunters” was such a story, and I found it amazing that Ellie picked it out of my memories. I don’t think you have to read it to continue this tale, but if you would like to read it, it’s in my short story collection, “Unexpected Pleasures.” The easiest way to find it is to go to my fiction blog, www.davidtevesstories.blogspot.com. It may take a little digging to find it, but it was posted in October 2009.
David
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