Between Life
By EE Reagan
An endless black roadway stretched beneath the stars in the perpetually black night. The highway was not of this world but a small connected piece critical to its existence. It flashed into existence only moments before lights began to appear along its length. The first dim lamp stood as a lone ghostly marker of this dark pathway that lay almost invisibly in the night, but began to brighten over time and as it brightened a sense of familiarity and warmth expanded from it. After some time darkness conceded the figure of a man standing on the roadway within the radiance of the light. The man was not from this world but was critical to its existence, for he existed for the warmth and familiarity of the light and stood basking in the knowledge and remembrance it brought to him.
The man stood calm and serene under the light absorbing all that it provided, a lone memory of his past life. A thing so precious to him that he could not leave its grasp. All the time the light shone brighter and brighter eventually revealing a second lamp some distance farther down the road. The newer light soon began to faintly glow and as it brightened, the first light dimmed in unison. The man sensed an urging to move on from one light to the next and so he said his goodbyes to the memory in the first lamp and began walking down the street until finally he stood under the second lamp. Here an intense feeling of love and regret began to well up from deep inside the man as another memory of his past came to bare and he began to weep tears of sorrow while standing within the influence of the remembrance.
Eventually the brightness of the second lamp revealed a third further down the road. The man could not at first leave the glow of this memory and continued to weep for his past, but the feeling eventually began fading as the next lamp called to him and showed him small glimpses of its contents. The call became so loud and bright that it finally compelled the man to move on and experience what forgotten secrets lay in store for him next.
The procession continued in this manner: one light, one memory, one after another until the man had experience every significant emotion and relationship of his former life and was left standing under a single final light.
The man was wracked with emotion from the experiences but a calm began to settle over him. It was a calmness that comes at the end of one thing and before the beginning of something new. As the final light began to dim, he began to feel a freshness expanding within him. An intense feeling of calm and joy were refreshing his spirit and while the sensation grew, the memories and emotions of the past faded as with the dimming of the lights. As the past disappeared so did the years of the man’s life and he experienced the sensation of aging ‘back’, to before the memory and emotion of his past life. The man became a young man, and then a boy and then a child, and back, and back until the life was prepared for its next journey.
The journey having been completed, the street and lamps were now all gone and the place was no longer needed. Having fulfilled its purpose, darkness consumed the life that was and left a new young spirit in its place.
The spirit in the darkness began to faintly glow, growing brighter and brighter until soon all of the place that had once been the roadway was awash in the brilliant radiance of new life. In a moment of ultimate vibrance, the place revealed itself to be a small bright room full of happy faces as a child opened its eyes for the first time.
Aether
By CN Reagan
Danny was nineteen when the first aether collector was introduced to the world. Much like the telephone, automobile, personal computer, and iPod, the aether collector was immediately adopted by the people of the world as something no one could live without. It changed everything. The device was capable of drawing the substance called aether from the universe. In essence, aether was magic. With it you could do anything; you could create money, food, and clothing from thin air. You could power your home, shapeshift into other forms, and have your bedroom clean itself. Danny had been working at a one-hour photo shop at the time, trying to pay his way through art college, but once the aether collectors were given out, money and most things, became completely irrelevant. Aether became the new currency, and getting your hands on as much of it as possible, like money before it, became the singular thing that drove society.
Aether collectors only held so much of the magical substance and every action from snapping your fingers to light a candle, to powering your home, to flying like superman used it up. As the new currency, people still had to work to earn aether and keep their collectors full. Wars had been fought and governments fell and rose, but within just five years the world stabilized and the rich were rich with aether and the poor were poor again. Everybody worked for a paycheck just as before but now the pay off was small amounts of aether passing from aether account to aether account.
Initially, Danny used his aether to create the works of art he had struggled to finish before, now with great ease; any painting or sculpture he could imagine was effortlessly materialised in front of him. Unfortunately, everyone else could also conjure anything they imagined and soon Danny, much like everyone else, realized that it was more important to feed and clothe yourself with the magical energy than compete in ever grand ventures of fame and fortune.
Danny used a little of his meager aether collection to create some chickens and get a small natural garden going in his backyard; these allowed him to retain some of his aether for other things as he fed himself with naturally occurring resources. Each morning he’d gather a few eggs from the chickens and pair it with some mushrooms and spinach. He also hand washed his clothes, made his bed by hand and walked to work. Electricity and fossil fuels had fallen to the wayside and the only way to power your home was through the use of the aether, so Danny had very little for frivolity. Danny painted by candle light and tried to use the skills he had learned from the time before aether to live a life that allowed him to use his aether for things he truly had to. All appliances had converted to aether and just like spending money on electric and water before aether, Danny spent his aether to power his stove, his radio, his lights and everything else. Sure he could have just made music play out of thin air, but it took considerably less aether to power a small speaker to play his old records and cd’s.
Obviously, many jobs went out of existence, one-hour photo clerks being one of them. He had a new job cleaning the conductive contacts of massive aether collectors owned by the Longhurst Corporation. He was amazed at the giant collectors that powered his city. So much magic just beyond his fingertips, but like the bank tellers of old, it was not for him to spend. The Longhurst Corporation was only a few miles down the street and he would sometimes take the city owned buses to work and back, but he hated paying his hard earned aether for the fare. He had experimented with turning himself into a small bird once to fly to work but after a few close calls with larger birds of prey, he quickly decided it was not worth the risk; he considered turning into something larger, like an eagle, but even turning into something small took excessive amounts of aether. So he was resolved most days to walk to work and earn his meager pay of 12 liters of aether per week. His earnings gave him just enough aether to power his home, make some modest improvements to his meager dinners, tweak a few of his paintings, and on special occasions fly around, in human form, above the foothills of the mountains close to his house.
His walk to work passed 6th street where the blackmarket aether dealers spent their time. He always hurried his pace pass the street as there were many desperate people who do desperate things for aether there. There were many people who were stuck between conflicting forms from using illegal aether, half man and half bird, half woman and half flying carpet; it was a street filled with amalgamations of magic gone wrong and people begging for aether to try and solve the insane issues that casting a spell without the right amount or the right quality of aether had caused. He felt bad for the people stuck in forms that couldn't speak. People stuck as birds, cats, dogs, dragons, and fish. Doomed to a new life as an animal with no way to work or beg for the precious aether that could change them back. He often wondered how many of the animals and objects he passed each day were actually humans who ran out of aether mid transformation with no way to return to their human forms. Aether truly was a blessing and a curse for the world.
It was actually only a few blocks down from 6th street, on Harrison Avenue, that Danny always stopped on his way home from work. A slender black cat lived somewhere near there and Danny would stop and conjure a small amount of milk for it each day; it was sort of his way, he thought, of giving a little aether back to the universe and not using it only for himself. Some nights he’d have to call to the cat and tap on the little metal dish he brought along with him to coax it out of the shadows. Some nights the cat didn’t never showed but Danny always stopped nonetheless and conjured some cream for it.
One particularly cold night late in winter, Danny was hurrying home with the collar of his coat pulled high around his face to block the wind. A pouring rain began to fall as he passed the crooked creatures of 6th street and his pace quickened even more. By the time he got home he was drenched and as he stepped into his apartment he cast a little aether from his collector to dry himself out and warm his core. He would have to skip his usual glass of red wine tonight because of that, but he thought it worth it so he didn’t catch a cold; even a small sickness used a ton of aether to cure and he hadn’t been saving much lately. After sparking a small fire by hand to warm the house, Danny went to the window curtains to shut out the cold and as he began pulling them shut he paused; barely visible across the street out in the rain in the pale street light sat a black cat soaking wet and staring intently at his window. It was then he realized in his hurry home he hadn’t stopped to feed the cat on Harrison Ave. It must have followed me home he thought. Feeling pretty guilty, Danny grabbed the little metal bowl from his bag, opened his front door, and conjured a small amount of milk while calling to the cat.
The cat stood, shook it’s soaking wet body, and darted across the street and into his front hall. Danny conjured a bit of aether to dry the creature and after it licked up the last of the cream it fell asleep on the warming tile in front of his small fire. Danny sat by the fire watching the cat purring as it slept, he wondered if the cat was actually a cat or if it had at one time been a human. As he turned off the lights and crawled into bed he decided he would let the cat stay in his home for awhile; it felt good to have company.
For the next week, Danny was always excited to come home to the little cat. He began to spend a little extra aether to ensure the cat had a decent breakfast and dinner each night and it felt good to have someone to talk to in the evenings. Danny would sit and tell the cat about how he had wanted to be an artist, but now that anyone could create amazing works of art, he had no direction, no dreams. The cat always sat watchful and attentive as Danny spoke and Danny began to feel more and more as if the cat was aware; as if it could be more than a normal animal. Something in the yellow green eyes seemed to express empathy and some sort of longing. Danny sat pondering the implications of turning this creature into a human. The first thing of course was the amount of his aether it would consume. To turn something to human would take several month’s savings, he would have to cut back on his meals, and keep the house cooler than usual, among other sacrifices. If the cat was a human he’d obviously be doing something great, but if it the cat was simply a cat, then he would be creating something that had no conception of what it meant to be human and how to live as such a being. He wouldn’t be able to turn it back for several more months and he would ultimately be responsible for the creature in the interim. If only he could ask the creature. That’s it! He would give the cat the ability to speak! It would ultimately take less aether and he could be sure if turning it human was indeed the right thing to do.
It took about a week for Danny to save up enough aether to give the cat the ability to speak with a human voice and as he cast the aether from his collector to make it a reality he grew anxious with anticipation. After casting out the aether he sat impatiently as the black cat shook its head back and forth and made a few unintelligible throaty noises. Danny probed the cat with simple questions, asking if the cat could understand him and what its name was. IT took about ten minutes before the cat uddered the word Hastings, and a minute later it managed to affirm its name was Hastings.
Danny and the cat sat talking well into the early morning. It turned out that Hastings was indeed a man. He had been employed by an elderly wealthy woman who had paid him to perform odd jobs around her estate. She would often transform him into various creatures to more quickly carry out tasks; an ape to fix the roof, a raccoon to clean the chimney, and a cat to rid the estate of mice. Hastings said one day while performing rat removals, he returned to find the old woman dead from a stroke or heart attack, or plain old age. Since no one else was in the estate or knew of his employment, he was stuck as a cat without the aether to transform himself back into a man. He had been a cat for a little over two years at this point and was so relieved to have Danny bring him in and care for him and more so thankful to have the ability to talk again! Danny sat in total shock as Hastings revealed his story. How must it have been to be small house cat for two years with no way to tell anyone! Danny immediately promised Hastings he would save what aether he could until he could return Hastings to his human form.Then the two spent the rest of the night talking about the wild adventures Hastings had encountered on the street living as an alley cat.
It took four months for Danny to save enough aether to turn Hastings back into his human form. The night he got the final much needed paycheck he ran home in excitement. Hastings was sleeping on the couch when Danny arrived home and awoke startled as Danny burst through the door. He nearly tripped into the bedroom and told Hastings that tonight, after almost three years, he would finally be human again. Danny and Hastings had discussed what they would do after. It turns out that Hastings was quite a bit taller than Danny and so he had conjured up a few outfits a few weeks earlier and had told his boss he had a cousin moving to town and secured Hastings an entry level job at the aether factory. The two would move into a bigger apartment and work to save enough aether to begin an agency built around finding and rescuing humans trapped in other forms.
As soon as everything was ready Danny cast his aether and in a swirl of aether smoke and flashing lights that suddenly burst and disappeared, Danny finally stood face to face with his good friend Hastings. Hastings was indeed taller than Danny, and to his surprise, covered almost head to toe in tattoos. He was extremely gaunt and his yellow green eyes were deep set beneath the pale skin of his face. After Hastings was dressed and fed a meal finer than he’d had in years, the two men celebrated with drinks and cigars before falling asleep only shortly before the sunrise.
Hastings awoke first early in the evening just as the sun was drifting below the horizon. He looked over at Danny still asleep and grinned. He moved quietly to the kitchen and went straight to the cupboard. He moved a few jars of mushrooms aside and his eyes narrowed, peering into the back of the dark shelves. His yellow green eyes flicked back and forth between the cupboard and the room where Danny slept and slowly, his grin widening to show his yellow teeth, reached in pulled out Danny’s aether collector. He put on the coat Danny had conjured specially for him. It was warm and soft lined with something akin to cats fur, and yellow green clasps at the collar. His slender fingers fumbled with the buttons and after pulling the collar up high obscuring the lower half of his face, he opened the front door and slid into the night. As he silently shut the door behind him, Hastings cast some aether back into the house and began down the street into the shadows as a soft smoky glow emanated from the window of Danny’s bedroom window.
As Hastings arrived at 6th street the night had grown thick and starless. Hastings strode through the alley of misshapen creatures clawing and pawing at him in guttural and desperate voices begging and offering all types of services for a little aether. He ignored everything around him as he arrived at an unremarkable part of the brick wall beside him. He turned, cast a small amount of aether, and the brick in front of him shifted and changed into a doorway. A troll of a man opened the door and Hastings lowered his coats high collar. The troll like face before him twisted into what looked somewhat like a smile and the hulking man moved to one side. As Hastings entered the room the men sitting at the table looked up from the game they played. There were several impossibly small creatures fighting and brawling on the table before them. Hastings removed his coat and casually tossed it to the man by the door and sat at the table as everyone exclaimed how surprised they were to see him. He placed Danny’s aether collector on the table and smiled. “Can I buy in boys?” he asked, and the motley group of characters around him begin to laugh and clap him on the back as the door to the room was forced shut and the alley wall returned to an unassuming brick facade once more.
Danny awoke suddenly with a pounding headache shortly after the sun had set and stretched out on the bed. He sat up and turned his gaze catching the mirror on his nightstand. He shook his head and blinked his eyes several times. He sat puzzled staring; the reflection before him was that of a small black cat sitting on the edge of his bed. He began to panic and move about. He clumsily fell off the edge of the bed and landed gently on all fours. Everything in the room seemed to tower over him. He scurried about looking everywhere for Hastings. He tried to go outside but couldn’t manage any of the doors or windows with his small paws. He leapt onto the counter and into the cupboard, to his horror his aether collector was missing! He jumped from the counter and over to the window in his room and peered into the darkness. With his increased low light vision he thought he was just able to make out a tall man in large dark coat walking swiftly into the darkness. Danny cried out over and over to the man but the only noise to be heard were the soft meows of a small cat.