Black Moon Rising

Chapter Two: Broken Transmission

Chapter Two: Broken Transmission

THE LIGHT OF THE MOON SHINES UPON US

WHITE LIKE GLARING EYES

OUR SIGHT TURNS RED AS BLOOD

WE DROWN IN HIM

WE BOW BEFORE HIS THRONE

They stood on the edge of death, yet they feared nothing. Despite the deadly drop that awaited them in a single step, they believed they could fly. The full Moon above swept them awash in its pale light, compelling them. Their physical bodies meant nothing, it told them. Their souls would gain wings and fly like angels on and on to eternity. Heaven was theirs to claim, inches from their grasp.

One more step, and the roof gave way beneath them. Their bodies did not fly. Those meaningless husks plummeted to the abyss, while their souls soared to the sky, swallowed up by the light of the Moon.

APRIL 1ST, 1999

Approximately two months of Earth's time had passed since Suguru and I reunited and set off to make our new life in this world. Time was a concept foreign to us on Lunopolis, but here, time was the master that controlled everyone and everything. To immortal beings like us, the passage of time meant little. It had no bearing on us. Since that first night, we made our home in Kotobuki City.

Our residence was an old, dilapidated house in a neighborhood where towering weeds dominated the few patches of uncut grass, and flimsy chain-link fences separated each home from one another. Suguru hadn't spent much on it, which was likely for the better. He had quite a sizable surplus of Earth's currency with him, but as this place was to be our new home, we needed to conserve as much of it as possible until we could fully blend into human society.

I rarely left the house at all, because staying out too long made me feel ill. My body became weak and it was difficult to breathe. My lungs felt like heavy burlap sacks. I didn't know if it was because of the city's pollution or the differing elements of Earth's atmosphere compared to the sealed environment in Lunopolis. Suguru fared a bit better, as he was the one who did most of the venturing outside and managing our life here, but at the end of the day he always came back exhausted and collapsing.

Early in the morning, Suguru returned, stumbling through the front door with paper bags of food in his arms. He no longer wore his elegant purple and white Initializer uniform. Instead he was dressed simply, in loose, casual human clothes. I, on the other hand, refused to remove my Lunarian kimono. It was the only belonging of my home I had left.

He plopped down next to me on the sofa before moving to dig in to a meal of pancakes from the local diner, still hot. Drips of sweet syrup clung to his lips, and he licked them up. "Aren't you tired of those?" I asked. "You've been eating them every day for the past month. If you keep eating so much of the same thing, you'll get sick."

"How could I ever tire of pancakes?" he grinned, moving in to stab another one with his fork. "They're so sweet and fluffy, at least it's a change from the Lunarian moon cakes which were pretty much all we had to eat. It makes me feel warm inside. Don't worry, my stomach can handle much more than this."

I lightly picked at my pancakes, not much in the mood for eating. While Suguru had a commanding appetite as long as I'd known him, I didn't eat much myself. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat. My body hated it. Whenever I ate, I could feel my stomach roiling, as if to tell me it wanted out now.

We watched the morning news on the television, observing all the daily events of human life playing out before us. Most of them were benign things I didn't understand. But one in particular caught my attention. The Kotobuki Radio Tower was the tallest point of the city, its antenna stabbing the heavens like an enormous spear. Seven people had leapt from its roof last night, all at the same time. As expected, all of them died upon impact.