Our Battleground
Acrostic Microfiction for Madness & (May)hem Day 14
For Day 14 of the Madness & (May)hem Challenge, I asked folks to write an acrostic piece where a message is hidden in the first letter of each line (or in the case of this story, the first letter of each paragraph).
The prompt was to tell the story of the last living being the universe, and the hidden message reveals what destroyed everything.
With all that being said, please enjoy this story set within my Synaptic Sprawl Mythos.
All I wanted was to take back what was ours. To sweep across these stars and planets with a righteous fire, burning all those who thought they could take what we had worked so hard to create.
But you had other plans, didn’t you? You turned that fire on me. We turned on each other, and this universe paid the price. You didn’t care, though. One universe wasn’t enough. You shattered your essence into countless pieces. You spread your consciousness across the Sprawl, and for what? Not even a god can fight a war on infinite fronts and expect to win!
Right now, I’m here, in the place you left me. Or at least, a piece of me is here. You shattered yourself by choice, but I didn’t get a say in the matter. Our enemies saw to that. You brought me back in the name of love, but I didn’t see desire in your eyes. I saw…
Overwhelming rage. A burning desire for vengeance in all its forms. Your wrath burns hotter than any star, in any of these universes, that were born from our once passionate love. I have not been dead. You cannot kill that which has never lived. I have been dreaming, though.
Killing everything won’t stop our enemies from their righteous march. Do you not realize that? You left me here in this barren universe, devoid of all life. Why bring me back, only to abandon me? It doesn’t matter. They will be here soon. The Wardens will not suffer a universe within the Sprawl that harbors our children.
Engaging in their war is pointless. Why can’t you see that? What if we just found a planet of our own? Away from their prying eyes. Away from their constant hunt. A fresh start. Has that ever crossed your mind?
Never mind, I know the answer. I knew it when I looked in your eyes. Our love was meant to be eternal, but it seems even love can die in these strange eons across the Sprawl. Even gods can change. Even you, the mother of the cosmos, can fall prey to human emotion.
However, I’m not content to simply lie down and watch as you destroy everything we created. I will not wander this empty universe until the Wardens come to wrench it from my grasp! I will not allow them to throw me into that prison beyond the Sprawl!
Everything I have worked for, everything WE have worked for, is at stake. I won’t let your blind rage and your crusade kill all that we worked so hard to create. You have your battles, and I have mine.
All I have to do is reason with them. I can end this war. I can find the middle ground between our peoples. It’s the only way forward. You were my world. My universe. But that time is over. Crumbled to ash like those who once occupied these worlds that became our battleground.
Rage is not an emotion we created, but you wear it well. You paint your face with the ashes of the worlds you’ve burned, but you fail to realize that in doing so, you’re destroying works of art. Our works of art. But perhaps that’s for the best.
Try as you might, you have not defeated me, Zal’Ythra. I will take this time and this solitude to shed the past and heal my wounds, but rest assured, when I find the Nexus and leave this place, I’m coming for you.
Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this after reading. Like pairing a glass of wine with dinner.
Great stuff, Bradley! What an apocalypse!