Aelius had come to see him, wearing a hood, a long robe in all black, despairing , beside himself because he wasn’t dressed up.
It was bad manners after all.
Hayri met Aelius in his courtyard garden that he was so envious of. He was standing next to an overgrown bush, and Hayri came downstairs, exasperated, because his servant had told him someone in all black, claiming they had lost someone close to them , refusing to leave his home.
“Why are you here,” Hayri asked.
“I need you to keep my secret,” Aelius said in a hushed tone.
“ Your...deficient ears?”
“No...that I’m not very smart...that I just have extra time to practice...”
“That’s not a secret, Aelius.”
“ I’m serious. No one can know.”
“Who would believe me,” Hayri shouted. He pointed his finger at him, digging into his chest, hurt in his eyes.
“I don’t care about your witchcraft—”
Aelius tried quieting him, but the more he attempted, the louder Hayri shouted, his face now sweaty and red.
“You didn’t even come to apologize,” Hayri said.
“Sorry….?”
“Get out!”
Hayri left, walking away, but not too fast, because he wanted to be chased after. Aelius took the bait, following him up the grand painted red and blue stairs, arguing and pleading. Hayri enjoyed too much of it, wanting him to feel a bit of pain, and knew that he had to relent eventually .
For now, it was too good to see him so remorseful.
Upstairs, inside of Hayri’s grand chambers, Aelius took it all in. The books, adorned walls and numerous pillows decorating the bed. His favorite part was the drapes, but today there was a visitor, standing in front of the red and gold drapes near the window.
A special visitor.
It had the stature of a man, but it was no man.
A slight buzzing, a vibration, the hum of loud electric sockets could be heard, a sound unknown to both of them, foreign and disorienting to anyone. Hayri and Aelius stood still, like rabbits, realizing that the sound was coming from the creature, his skin moving in waves, smooth and pure.
It turned bright yellow onces its six eyes laid upon Aelius.
“Don’t...go...back…”
Aelius looked away as it slowly moved towards him, growing taller, its clothes tearing off its body, black hat flopping to the floor. The creature, its thin visage of a man already disappearing, was fighting against itself as it seemed to drag its own feet across the stone floors.
It’s long brown locks fell out in large chunks when its gaping maw opened up, it craned its neck towards Hayri and from it burst out two more sets of arms.
“Don’t come back!”
Infiniti had returned, just as promised to torment Aelius.
Hayri was the first victim, his face shredded like string cheese from the long nails of the vengeful god. While he screamed in agony, Aelius had never been so confused in his life as he too, became hungry.
So , so, very hungry.
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He didn’t want Hayri.
He didn’t have what he wanted.
He wanted the monster.
Something about it seemed just right. He could smell its blood, from a small scratch, the only attack Hayri made before his last breath. From it came a sparkling dot, and it spread, a short streak of its own blood, the most wonderful thing he’d ever smelled in his life.
Infiniti tore off the face of Hayri, shredded his mouth so he could not speak, carved out his innards, but did not bother to eat him, for that wasn’t the point for him. The pain was the point, and it didn’t take him long.
Aelius stood in place, not uttering a sound as the monster turned red and began to taunt him. Overlapping voices shouted inside his head as his eyes turned a ghostly white.
“You can’t come back. Never meet him! Never—”
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The sun was setting over the city skyline of wooden homes cluttered together, a stark contrast from the grand palaces within arm’s reach of them when Hayri was greeted by a guest.
Aelius had come to see him, wearing a hood, a long robe in all black, despairing , beside himself because he wasn’t dressed up.
It was bad manners after all.
Hayri met Aelius in his courtyard garden that he was so envious of. He was standing next to an overgrown bush, and Hayri came downstairs, exasperated, because his servant had told him someone in all black, claiming they had lost someone close to them , refusing to leave his home.
“Why are you here,” Hayri asked.
“I don’t know anymore. We’ve been through this so many times,” Aelius replied.
He cried, his tears hot and desperate, because he had gone back so many times, so many, many times, it was so hard to keep track. Aelius admonished himself for being unable to save him, but he didn’t care anymore.
He wanted to see his best friend again.
Hayri was sure Aelius was being emotionally manipulative with his sudden outburst, but after it continued, he started to regret shouting at him, cutting his hair, the entire fiasco. Sheepishly, Hayri came close, and he asked, “Is this about the ears? I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
“No, it's not,” Aelius chuckled.
“Let’s go inside, upstairs. We can go back to how it was before.”
They did.
They went back to how it was, before, and Aelius lost Hayri for the last time.
He lost his grandfather, Menes, for the last time.
Aelius came home, or to what was left of their home on fire, and knew it was no accident.
The horrid monster, hell-bent on revenge followed him wherever he went. It didn’t matter how many times Aelius went back, he was always there to follow him. To all corners of the globe Aelius travelled, searching for an answer.
A demon plagued every corner of his life, killing whomever he was close to, and after many years of travel, Aelius resigned himself to a life of loneliness. He was a hermit, not out of choice but of necessity.
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Four years went by, and he lived in some place he didn’t know the name of smack-dab in the mountainside. The people were short and pale, their food was tasteless, and they had no idea what he was saying, and left him to his own devices.
He was the weird farmer that came up every now and then to make strange hand signals, a horrible attempt at communication, sell his wares, and return to the unclaimed patch of land he had acquired far from the village.
While riding the steep slopes of the mountainside on his trusty yet sturdy donkey, Aelius spoke to it softly, asking it for ideas of his next hair brained scheme.
“Well, I was thinking to myself the other day, Manti, why can’t I go to a place where he isn’t? He’s everywhere!”
Manti the donkey said nothing, yet Aelius continued, his only companion left.
“ What if there was a nowhere? I’ve been everywhere! Well? Well!”
Manti said nothing as she trudged on and Aelius groaned, tsk-tsked , as if Manti was not responding out of belligerence instead of a lack of higher thought. Aelius sighed, and wondered what else he had to lose.
He also started to worry that if he liked Manti too much the monster would come for her next.
That afternoon, Manti made a U-turn, right back to the village, because it’s owner seemed to have just disappeared. No trace left. He evaporated, a part of the clouds, the seas and sky.
No one wondered what had happened to Aelius. They assumed that he, like many others, had fallen off the mountainside, and their horse or cow had found its way back to safety, a common occurrence.