Ekron

Red Cocoon - 1

Gog and Alexandra, which body had been possessed by Anubis, and her own soul had fled from her body; were walking through a frozen landscape at the beginning of the first nuclear winter and therefore, its consequent ice age. Their defeat in the Annihilation War was painful and definitive, so they needed a new place to start over, form new pacts and move on. They had been in the long way from Constantinople to Lidya for some weeks, when forests and rivers froze, and their path became impossible. Alex advanced behind Gog, barefoot, and her right foot got glued to the ice beneath her while she was walking on it. Gog looked back at her and saw that she was stuck, so he sat by her side and motioned for her to sit down too. Her blond hair was long to the ground, she was wearing a long white dress that fitted wide on her and was very dirty. Her right eye was missing, in its place she had a black crystal ball, and her left eye was completely red. She had a black necklace with a black spider on her neck and the spider seemed to be embedded in her chest. She looked between eight and ten years old. Gog was wearing a black hooded cloak long to his feet, so worn out that it looked like just a large rag.

Alex sat and Gog said, "We will have to pass the winter here."

His nails were like metallic needles covered with crystal, but the tips were naked. With them, he cut his right forearm and poured blood on the snow in front of them. Then took Alex right forearm, cut a little wound and poured some of her blood over his own on the snow. He stretched his left palm towards the blood puddle, an obscure fog formed on his hand and a black electric arc passed from that fog to the blood. A thin thread of blood came from the puddle and started to roll around them forming a cocoon. When it got to their feet, ice around Alex right foot melted and both their bodies got completely covered by red fiber, together in that red cocoon.

"When all this is over, I'll make you a weapon, like the one I had. It will have to be something from the seas, or rivers, maybe a shark or a crocodile."

"With horns, it must have horns."

"A crocodile with horns... I can do that."

After a pause, she asked, "Was it my fault?"

"No, it was mine, I thought we had more time and I fooled myself, then we were betrayed by Achish."

She looked down, not sure if she wanted to know the answer to her next question.

"Why do we do all this? Is there a purpose, a meaning at the end of our path?"

"No, there is no meaning, only an insatiable appetite, a vacuum, a pain that drag us along the dark path irrationally and desperately. I chose that path when I was very young, I'm sorry I never gave you the chance to choose for yourself."

Time stopped inside the red cocoon and snow covered it completely, burying their bodies under ten feet of ice.