Daniel woke up the next morning facing the worst headache he had ever had. He got up and made his way to the kitchen to make some breakfast for him and Isabel. The smell of eggs made him feel sick, but they both needed to eat. Especially after that whole incident with Gaia.

He’d spent then next half hour cooking and thinking about the situation. ‘Why would people not be able to answer the call? The only possible explanations that I can come up with are either we’re too stupid to figure out what the call is, or we’ve just never bothered to listen.’ In the end he let out a sigh of frustration. “I suppose finding the answer will have to be more than just a ‘sit down and think about it’ kind of thing. Booo~.”

“It is not all bad Daniel. It isn’t as if you’ll never find the answers I seek.” Hearing Gaia was the last thing he had expected. After staying firmly in place and definitely not jumping six feet in the air, Daniel spun around to look for any trees that may have sprouted up.

Gaia laughed “Daniel, I am not sprouting up through the kitchen floor or anywhere else. I’m inside your head this time. Remember, we’re connected now. Always.” Daniel’s face burned in embarrassment. “I keep forgetting that. So do I need to speak out loud for you to hear me or…?”

“In your head is just fine. And to answer your next question, yes I have been here the entire time listening to your thoughts. Bringing you to my plane of consciousness was just for our introduction to one another.” Daniel was silent as he listened to her speak. And sensing that he wanted more from her, Gaia provided.

“I have been thinking on how to best explain our relationship so that you might better understand, but I think showing you might be better. Brace yourself Daniel, this will not be a light journey.” Her voice disappeared and Daniel felt the air leave his lungs.

All around him, colors and lights flashed and danced. Colors that he’d never even seen before and bright flashing lights that out shined even those of the Sun. He felt varying degrees of hot and cold and at one point he could feel his body melting away from him.

His skin peeling off and his muscles losing their grip on him. His blood had already dissipated and soon afterwards his bones began to turn into dust until even that had been blown away by the colors and lights swirling through and around him.

He looked down and saw nothing, yet he still felt ground beneath his feet and his nails digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood. The lights and colors vanished and in their place a nothingness that left him with an empty feeling on the inside.

And suddenly the lights and colors were back with a vengeance. Their movements seemed angry and sharp. Daniel noticed they were becoming faster and faster until they were just barely visible.

In a trance like state he took a step forward with a hand reached out. The voice in the back of his mind telling him to reach out and touch them too great to overcome. And step by step he found the distance between the lights and himself getting smaller and smaller until…contact.

As if someone had turned on the lights, a brighter flash of momentary light blinded Daniel. Followed by a monstrous boom that shook him to his core. Only it was not a noise but a deep, resonating tremor that etched itself into his very being. Opening his eyes he could see countless amounts of tiny objects being thrown in his direction.

For what seemed like eternity, the objects kept being flown into his direction. Eventually they slowed at a larger and larger rate but never stopped moving. And then Daniel watched as these objects began clumping together. Slowly at first, but the larger the clumps became the faster they seemed to grow.

Daniel didn’t know how long he had been watching, but it was long enough to reach a shocking conclusion. What he was watching, was the beginning. The formation of the Universe from the Big Bang to today.

It was…beautiful. The Earth had turned into the lush and thriving place it was, before the development of Humans, after spending so much time as a lifeless wasteland. Something Daniel looked upon with a sense of familiarity. Even so, the beauty had slowly turned into decay as the modern day approached.

The deaths of so many species before their times, the prevention of many more from existing in the first place, and even the degradation of the lands and waters that provided the necessities became ever increasing.

All of this with one factor that never changed and always produced. Humans. People. How they had come to be so selfish, Daniel didn’t understand. ‘They? Since when have I thought of myself as separate from them?’

As he was thinking and watching the various environmental atrocities that had taken place, he heard Gaia speak once more. “Do you understand now, Daniel? Do you understand exactly what the nature of our relationship is? As I am the hand that feeds you, you are the one who protects me. You have seen the effects those things have had on me and my children.” The word escaped her with a disgust he had not expected her to willingly show.

“Oh please Daniel. Of course I speak of them with disgust. And they’re not Humans. You’re what a Human is supposed to be. They’re abominations and they’re just too revolting to even think about any other way. With my lack of understanding and awareness before our encounter I didn’t know why they hadn’t responded. It was only my instincts that kept me from not trying. Thankfully you did answer my call, otherwise I’d have been unable to try and save myself. But now that I’ve fully been through your mind I have a rough idea on what the issue has been.”

This, much to Daniel’s surprise, wasn’t that hard for him to find a stance on. He completely agreed with what Gaia was saying about them no longer being Human. He had seen what they turned into compared to what they once were. Technically, what Daniel is is what a proper Human is supposed to be.

Gaia went on to explain that somewhere along the way the Human body hit a genetic roadblock that couldn’t be overcome with just its own natural capabilities. Instead of becoming what Daniel has become, they’ve stagnated and become sickly. AIDS, and various other diseases that kill off a good portion of ‘Humans’ today wouldn’t be a problem had they evolved like they should have.

“So is the plan to kill off the entire population of these so called ‘abominations’ or are we just going to try and work around them? We need a plan of action, and considering how you’re all gung ho about their abomination-ness I would hope you have somewhere we can start.” Daniel was not interested in Genocide but he understood that this was literally the fate of the world being at risk.

“I know this must be hard on you Daniel. But you must understand that these creatures are killing everything in sight. They must be eliminated, or they will kill us all.” Daniel merely nodded his head. His face and thoughts betraying his reluctance to ending life on a massive scale. Reluctance was ever present, but not without understanding…and acceptance.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“We shall continue our conversation at a later time. It seems you have another pressing matter to deal with.” With that said, Daniel found himself laying on Isabel’s lap in the Singer’s guest house kitchen. A stark contrast to where he just was.

Too tired to move or speak he could only watch on as his sister tried to keep him awake. Isabel was having a melt down over him and he could hear the faint voice of one of the Singers. He could only stay awake long enough to hear Sherry calming his sister down.

-

Isabel was on cloud nine. Daniel was alive and she felt better than she had in long time. These past few months had been like a constant shadow on her life. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and worst of all she couldn’t feel.

For four years she lived in an ever present hell until Daniel finally pulled her out. He was her reason for living, she had decided to dedicate her life entirely to help him achieve whatever he might aim to do.

Now this may seem a tad on the extreme side, but that’s just how some people are. In her eyes, she was bound to die had she kept living the way she was. She was alone, and scared. Hurt that no one came for her.

Her so called family had been so close by but still noticed nothing. Did nothing. But then came Daniel who appeared like an angel sent from Heaven. Her own Godsend who took her into his arms and raised her up from Perdition.

And when she found out he had died, it was as if she had died with him. In this period of reflection and depression, Isabel had come to some conclusions about her life and about herself. And Daniel’s return only solidified them.

Isabel had not only dedicated her life to Daniel, she had also begun to walk the of fanaticism. Whether this would be a good or bad outcome, only time would tell.

She had woken up in her bed that morning eager to see him and validate that he did in fact come back to her. But the smile on her face had slowly worn away. The smell of burning eggs and bacon was permeating the air.

Jumping out of bed and rushing towards the door she noticed the smoke filling up the room on the other side. Opening the door she Isabel received a face full of smoke. Coughing and trying not to bump into any furniture, she made it to the double glass doors and opened them.

The smoke quickly cleared from the kitchen while Isabel ran towards the stove to turn it off. The eggs and bacon were ruined so breakfast wasn’t happening. ‘Where’s…’ She tripped over something.

She hissed in pain as she got up. The snapping sound was probably her arm, which had landed underneath her as she hit the ground. ‘Fuuuck, that hurts! Dammit!’ Getting up angrily, she kicked the object she tripped over.

She kicked it as hard as she could three more times before hearing the moan. Her heart couldn’t drop fast enough. Daniel lay on the ground violently shaking from what looked like a seizure. She wanted to do something, to help him, to do anything but she couldn’t move.

Her body frozen in place, her eyes watching her brother’s trembling form, and her brain trying to get any part of her to do anything. It wasn’t until the blood started gushing from his nose that she broke down and started crying for help.

Isabel grabbed one of the hand towels that hung on the oven’s handle to try and stop the bleeding. By the time she had finally gotten the towel to his face she was a mess. Daniel’s blood covered most of her pajamas and a small pool of red was forming beneath them. Tears and mucus ran down to and off of her chin. The more she tried to clear it away the more blood got on her face. She needed help.

-

Michael Singer was on the balcony outside the master bedroom watering his vegetable garden, he had a distrust in the produce from local supermarkets, thinking of Daniel. The young man had had a rough couple of years.

He remembered Sherry coming home after school one day and telling him and Loraine all about her ‘awesome new friend Daniel’. She had just started middle school that year and found herself under the thumb of several bullies.

Every day she brought home a ‘gifts’ from her ‘friends’. And every night he would have to comfort his wife as they could only do so much as parents. They wanted to just have the little cretins suspended and be done with it, but they couldn’t.

Sherry made it very clear to them that she wanted to handle things her way. But her way was a very naïve attempt at keeping her ‘friends’. And there was nothing they could do if Sherry wouldn’t say anything to the school.

It went on for nearly two heartbreaking years before Daniel finally stepped in. They didn’t know that it was him who had done something, only that something had been done. Those ‘horrid little parasites’ as Loraine would so eloquently call them, just stopped messing with Sherry one day.

And as a result Sherry was happier, she slept better, her grades improved, and everything just seemed so much brighter in the Singer household.

It wasn’t until the summer after Daniel and Sherry’s junior year of high school that they found out exactly what had happened. And it wasn’t long after that that they had found themselves in Daniel’s debt.

****

 A voice called out from a nearby room. “Sherry, sweetheart, could you come help me in the kitchen for a moment?” Sherry groaned at her mother’s total lack of acknowledgement towards her hate of cooking. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

Sherry walked away and left her father and Daniel alone with each other. Summer vacation had just started and Daniel and Sherry were relaxing with Sherry’s family before their annual trip to some country they had chosen the year prior.

They were leaving the next day so Daniel wanted to spend time with them before they left as they would be gone until mid-July. This was his escape. This was where he could feel normal. A family that wasn’t fucked up. A family hat wasn’t his own.

It was silent until Michael saw his daughter leave the room. He turned to Daniel “Daniel. I just wanted to say thank you.” He chuckled as he saw the young man’s questioning expression. “For being a great friend to my daughter. Until you showed up, she wasn’t having an easy time making friends.”

Met with silence he kept going “I’m not sure if you know, but up until she met you she was being picked on mercilessly by other students. I won’t get into it, but I just wanted you to know how grateful we are to you. Thank you.” Michael had expected Daniel to say something, but was met with more silence.

Daniel had leaned back into the sofa he was sitting on, his face somber and considerate. He had stared at the ground the entire time Michael was speaking. He didn’t move as a rather loud silence settled over them.

Sherry’s father had opened his mouth to speak as the silence became too much but was cut off when Daniel spoke. “I owe you an apology, Mr. Singer. Both to you and your wife. I had, up until now, assumed that you were aware of what actually happened that year. In hindsight this makes sense considering your nonchalance towards me when we first met.”

Daniel talked quietly, telling a silent Michael the details of what had gone down between Daniel, the bullies, and Sherry. At the end of his story Daniel got up and made to leave. At the same time Sherry and her mother walked in.

Loraine, who was watching Daniel put his coat on, called out to him “Daniel, where are you going? I was just about to serve din-” Her sentence left unfinished as Michael got up and strode over to Daniel and delivered a strong right hook.

Caught off guard Daniel stumbled backwards into a nearby table and crashed onto the floor, taking down both a chair and centerpiece in the process. “Get out and don’t come back.” Sherry ran to help Daniel up but her father held her back.

Daniel was unable to regain his balance and fell to the ground once more as he tried to stand up. Seeing him about to fall again, Michael’s punch obviously knocking him into next week, Loraine managed to get past her strangely upset husband and help Daniel up.

“What’s going on? I was gone for fifteen minutes!” Sherry was shocked that her father had hit Daniel. He wasn’t normally a violent man. Especially not to Daniel.

“I was just leaving. Sorry Mrs. Singer I won’t be staying for dinner. Thank you for everything.” Daniel turned unsteadily to leave not even sparing Sherry a glance. He stopped at the door without looking back. “Goodbye.”

Sherry was struggling to get out of her father’s arms. After finally managing to get free she ran out the door. Sadly, Daniel was already in his car and speeding down the driveway and into the street. After staring at the empty street for a few seconds she walked back inside.

Her mother and father were arguing, not that she noticed. Their words sounded muffled and far away. She silently went to her room and closed the door. Laying in her bed she curled into a ball and cried.

Daniel’s goodbye was more than just a goodnight to the family. It was a goodbye to her specifically. She knew Daniel well enough to know exactly what he meant.