Planetary Comet

Warning: Vague descriptions of gore/self-harm pertaining to the story.

I could taste the light upon the walls.

I could taste the purples and blues that trickled down from the moist ceilings and flourishing plants. I dragged my hands along the cavern walls and over the flora as I moved, licking up every color I could—every tang that crossed my tongues, every song in the air, every squeeze in my heart.

I remember…

I can remember bits and pieces.

A steady voice…a rhythmic tide…a burning sun.

Absent of time or location, fragments float around my mind. They remind me of a time when I had far less hands and mouths than I do now—of a time when I could see colors beyond the darkness of endless caverns or outer space. They remind me of a time when emptiness was not the only thing I could hear, when solitude was not the only thing I could taste.

And I can remember snippets of how lovely it used to be.

Earth…Oh, how I’ve longed to see you again.

I began to speed up, trampling writhing vines and screeching ferns into the damp cavern floors. There was no point avoiding them when they were bound to die before the next flood and emerge as something entirely new. Ever changing, ever evolving; nothing ever stays the same here.

I suppose that should remind me of home–of Earth–but it doesn’t. Perhaps I’ve been away for far too long that I no longer think of stagnant ferns and vines, but animal-like plants, tirelessly scratching for a chance to become something different. Perhaps I have become too much like the gluttonous plants I live with to remember how peaceful–how slow–life was on Earth. But I also suppose it no longer matters which plant reminds me of which celestial body. Those are merely semantics that have no place in this fleeting moment full of color and familiarity…and distance.

Faster…It’ll only be here for a moment…It’ll be gone if I blink…

I want to see it.

I need to see it.

Earth. Where did you go? Where did you send me? I can’t stand this distance anymore.

Every twist and turn through the jagged tunnels made my heart beat faster…Go faster.

Tendrils snatched my hands as they brushed the walls, refusing to let go even after they had been ripped from their hosts. They settled onto whatever limb they had grabbed and dug their tiny splinters into my flesh. An indiscriminate pestilence with a persistence and savagery to be admired. A pesky fly buzzing in my ear.

Hundreds and hundreds of tendrils and spikes latched onto me with every bound I took. Occasionally, the tendrils had better tensile strength and bore much deeper into my flesh than I could withstand and so they’d take a limb with them back to their host, a light snack to chew on before its neighboring plants caught on. A light snack that would most certainly bite back.

But it didn’t matter.

One. Ten. One hundred limbs ripped off and stolen. It didn’t matter. Nor would it matter how deep those pesky tendrils burrowed into my flesh, the result was always the same. I had limbs to spare.

To every surface of my flesh, there were dozens upon dozens of limbs. To every limb, there were handfuls of hands. And to every hand, there were hungry mouths with plenty of razor sharp teeth. And they found annoying flies to be their favorite meal.

If a limb was severed, a new one would replace it almost instantaneously. Nothing more than an annoyance these flies always were. Nothing more than a distraction slowing me down.

It’s getting brighter…I’m getting closer…I’m almost there.

Through the caves, past the forest, up to the surface, and there it’ll be.

From my guiding hands and mouths, I could tell the forest was near. The tastes were getting stronger, the colors were getting sharper, and the memories were getting clearer.

Memories of Earth…they were distracting me. They were in the way.

They were just as annoying as the flies crawling into my heart and bones. Inconsequential relics, infecting my mind, hoping to revive themselves for a fleeting moment before vanishing back into nothingness.

I could feel it bubbling up. There was a flash fire, a blazing tide drowning my veins.

A smile crashing to shore then receding back into the ocean seconds after.

Stop. I don’t want to remember. These memories…these antiquities…they need to be locked away on Earth where they belong, where they came from.

Ignoring the fizzling puddle at my core, I came upon the edge of the forested cavern. It was as vast and static and Earthen as it always was. I tore off any plants still connected to the cave walls and leapt off the edge.

Earth lies beyond this forest.

As I soared through the stale cavern, my multitude of hands arranged themselves like satellite dishes all around while my teeth chattered and clicked.

The scene came alive before me, idle.

A sloshing basin covering the far left floor and wall, dripping into whatever divots and crevices it could find. Three sets of trees. The first: a maze of twisting timbers searching the stones in every direction, on every available surface. It bridged over the basin, perhaps the only living creature in the entire ecosystem that avoided contact with water. The second: a single organism reaching from floor to ceiling like seaweed. The combination of wooden textures, mossy skeletons, and leafy clumps set it apart from anything that lived on Earth or this celestial body. The third: tall, thin, and flexible logs dropping down from the ceiling, curling around themselves and the seaweed. Its bushy canopy sat just above the forest floor, collecting water from the ceiling and adjacent basin like a spiderweb.

The cavern rarely evolved. Instead, it grew. It filled in the space well, but the carnivorous desire to consume and create found among the cave plants was noticeably absent.

An empty nest somehow content with all that it was lacking in ambition. Fuel for the flame.

Many of my mouths quieted down and left their jaws ajar. No wind ever breached the cavern, but I didn’t need the wind to carry the potent tastes of centuries old life into my mouths; the air carried itself.

I spared a couple of my hands for movement and let the rest drink up all they could.

The location of the first branch came in through the satellites as a rough outline before my mouths tasted the crisp details of size and proximity. The blues and purples I had seen before quickly became an afterthought when vibrant greens rushed in and painted half the cavern. My eyes were still adjusting to the light and even as they screamed at me to close them and see with my hands, I just couldn’t. There was simply too much to see, too many old things that I knew with my hands and mouths, that my eyes have rarely ever seen. Protecting my retinas was not an option when the next time I would pass through the cavern I would be in complete darkness once again.

I can see the sparks. They flicker angrily, longing to be noticed. Green eyes gazing at me through glass, burning my own, forcing me to look away.

Enough. That doesn’t matter anymore. The time is gone; they’re gone

Faster. You can’t afford to miss it. Not again…

I swung with all my might and launched myself through one of the seaweed’s holes to the next branch. Biting down on the quickly heating branch, my hands’ cries were muffled. The air was beginning to shift and move. Evaporated water from the basin dampened the air and slickened the trees. I needed two more hands to grab onto each branch, the number slowly, slowly climbing as I came upon the other end of the cavern.

Nearby trees were starting to sizzle and groan.

Hot. It’s getting hotter. My heart is beating faster. My blood is flowing faster.

I slipped off the last branch and slammed into the stone wall, a chorus of cries rising from my hands. I forced myself to bite into the stone and chip away at it. If one of my mouths got singed, I ripped the hand off and replaced it with a fresh one.

Keep going…Don’t stop…You can’t afford to rest.

A dent after a few hands, then a crater after a few dozen. The beginnings of a tunnel at the cost of hundreds, a scorching ray of light at the cost of thousands until finally…

Sour yellow…or maybe bright white. Is it the taste or the sight? Whatever it is, I don’t care. I just need to get closer. I can’t miss it. Not again.

My hands, they kept chipping away until I got impatient and punched the rock. It crumbled easily, almost like mud…exactly like mud.

I scrambled for a hold on the mud’s surface and frantically climbed out from underground.

Cries became screams. Fire became inferno.

Red.

I can see it…Earth…It’s getting closer.

No. I’m getting closer. Closer to the Earth, closer to the Sun.

Too fast…I’m going too fast. It’s already here.

A giant blue and green ball whizzing past.

No…Wait…Not yet…I don’t want you to go yet…I don’t want to be alone again.

The inferno rages, but the screams start to die.

The ocean’s pulling that smile away again. A smile I only just remembered. The eyes that seared my heart…

Why did you send me away? Far, far away…on a rock speeding through the galaxy…that only comes back around every…every…no…wait…I’m not ready…!

I reach towards Earth, desperately trying to grab it. Already, it’s the size of my outstretched hand.

The heat begins to fade and with it goes the reds, oranges, and yellows. All that’s left is the quickly smearing greens and blues.

…It’s not fair…I don’t wanna go…

Darkness envelopes my mind and vision and I retreat back into the cavern. All that’s left is a memory whispering through the inferno.

It wasn’t fair…I didn’t want to go…But nobody else was ready except me.

…So I chose to go.

But not everything turns out how it should.