What We Worship

Bzzzz, click, crunch-

Content notes: Flash fiction ~800 words, graphic violence, alien world horror.

Bzzzz….

Something was changing in the colony. A new clutch was due, which was supposed to be a time of hope, but something felt off. Our Matriarchs– the Mothers, brown-robes– had been having unusual private meetings as of late, which was normally a sign that one of our Nymphs was failing to develop. But this… there were too many meetings and not enough culling.

Click-click… bzzzzz….

The Keepers hummed from their nests in the earth, always watching, always listening. The earth itself constantly shivered beneath the skittering of giant limbs as they traversed the Abyss below. No one had ever seen the tunnels, and only Mothers were permitted to look within the Pits. But we all felt the song of their raw power, it was the sound that gave us our own existence. Our people were simply a side effect of the overflowing whir of life that poured from higher beings, perhaps one day we’d be worthy enough to be born from eggs like normal creatures.

Bzzzzzzz…. Click-click…. Zzzzzzzm… Click-click… CRUNCHshlopCRACK–

The ever-present hum and chitter was momentarily interrupted by the sound of bodyfall. The wet thud of flesh meeting reinforced chitin. Oh– they wouldn’t like that. I let my hood fall forward to hide my face from the crowd as I stared at the rocky ground around my bare feet. I felt as the skittering sounds resumed, soft vibrations against my soles. They were louder now. Someone made a mistake– the Pit should have been empty when the offering was given.

BZZZZZZT–CLICKCLICKCLICK–

“Oh Keepers…”

I raised my head to find the source of the curse: another pale-robe nearby clutched her hands against her breast as though her ribcage was insufficient to keep her heart from leaping forward. If only we had exoskeletons, they would be strong enough. Mothers quickly surrounded the rogue Nymph and halted the display– we weren’t meant to move or speak during ceremonies. I looked toward the Pit as the droning noise rose to a painful screech.

ZZZZZZZZZZT—CLICKCLICK–BZZZZZ—

I felt hands on my shoulders as the Mothers guided us into submission. A wave across the stones, pale-robed masses on our knees. Larvae. Nymphs. Soft. Weak. Quivering as the earth began to shake. Our saviors were coming.

There was a scrabbling of long limbs against a rocky surface, the unintelligible chittering as the Keepers spoke amongst themselves, and a chink-clack-click… What was that sound?

Oh Keepers– Oh Gods– No, no, no. This wasn’t right– none of this was right. We never cull Nymphs at night. The Keepers never leave the Abyss. Only a few of our Matriarchs have ever had the blessing of gazing directly upon our beautiful creators, and even fewer of them survived the experience.

The earth trembled. The sound of hardened shell grinding against the jagged stone ledge sent a wave of nausea through me. The first Keeper dragged itself over the edge of the Pit.

I knew it then, I knew I’d been a fool. We were well and truly fucked.

CLICKCLICK–CRUNCH–

They weren’t beautiful.

Something hard smacked into the back of my head and tore my eyes away from the Pit. My eyes watered as I searched around me. Reed-like limbs stalked through the crowd, some soaked in blood as they indiscriminately impaled those who knelt before them.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT

A Mother approached one of the horrific Keepers, dragging a supplicant by the hair to kneel directly before it. The creature leaned in very slowly, meeting the eyes of the Nymph with a dozen of its own. I wondered if it was speaking into her mind. That’s how the Mothers described their communication, but they hadn’t spoken to a human in decades. We were failing them.

CRUNCH–THUD– wheeze… gurgle…

The Mother lay on the ground with a crater where her chest used to be. Her gasping became thick and wet as she tried to inhale through half-lungs. The Nymph tried to scramble away, but she was too small, too slow. I could no longer hear the soft vibration of wondrous creation, only the piercing shrieks of violent ends.

CRUNCH–

I turned from the carnage before me and caught the arm of a fleeing Mother. Others ran past, the air was thick with their terror.

“Wait– Why is this happening?!”

The Mother’s eyes were wide with panic, full of tears. She must have known it was all over now.

“It was all lies. We don’t belong here. We are invasive– pests. Or…” She shuddered and lowered her voice. “...prey.”

I let her go then, and a sort of numbness washed over me as she shuffled into the wave of panicked devotees. The stone surrounding the Pit had become a frenzy, towering creatures tearing through the sea of robes. The ones who ran drew their attention first. There would be no escape.

I stood and watched as the end came down upon us, and my world fragmented.

Not offerings, but bribes. Not created, but colonizers. Not worship, but fear.

We weren’t devoted to our creators. We were feeding monsters.

CLICKCLICKCLICK—BZZZZZZ—

This story was written based on a prompt from

Bradley Ramsey

‘s “Power Up Prompt” series.