The Laurel

“Who would have thought? One day you’re peacefully playing video games on your computer, and a couple of years later, you’re sitting on a rock, looking at Earth from the moon”. I muttered to myself, while wandering around the place, and I found quite interesting discoveries, like some ruins that baffled me.

Firstly, I found what looked like an enormous shell - not the sea kind, but more like a massive bullet. The craftsmanship was remarkable for its time, with its metallic surface still showing traces of nineteenth-century engineering. Inside, I could make out the remains of a wooden disc and what seemed to be a water-based shock absorption system. Whoever designed this was either brilliant or completely mad - imagine shooting humans to the Moon like human cannonballs!

“Is that... a giant projectile? How on earth..? It looks like something out of a Looney Tunes episode.” I thought when I saw carved on the “bullet” the words “Columbiad”.

And then was this other strange object - a spherical vessel with an unusual metallic sheen. Its surface was covered in what appeared to be movable panels, and the interior was peculiarly lined with green velvet. Glass windows dotted its surface, and despite its age, it still held an otherworldly quality about it. This wasn’t built to be shot from a cannon - this thing was designed to defy gravity itself.

“Ok, this is a plain ball, a sphere, that used something to fly and somehow landed here.” I knew it was human made, due to some papers that referred to names like “Bedford” and “Cavor”, but the tech was for me totally alien. They also spoke about their relationship with the locals here, the so called “Selenites”, which by the way, were cool alien guys once I met them.

“Apparently the flat-earthers were totally wrong,” I joked in my mind, but I knew why I was here, staring back at Earth.

My father had passed away just a few months ago, in a way I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. My mother has fallen ill, and apparently hasn’t improved much, or at least that’s what my grandfather told me before I came here.

And what’s it like being on the moon? Well, quite peculiar. My clothes float, especially my cape, when I summon it. I notice that every time I wish to fly, my cape manifests on its own, as if they were wings. I remembered my mother’s appearance in the Victorian era, when I was on the brink of death due to Carmilla’s blood inside my body. Her cape was a golden hue and fluttered as if they were wings. I really thought she was some kind of angel or valkyrie, well, technically she is, but then something very peculiar came to mind.

“Why was my mother’s cape golden? And Lilith’s black? Why is mine green?” I pondered within myself, while continuing to contemplate the lunar landscape.

My grandfather had told me something about the capes, and they all used to be the same color, but neither mine nor Lilith’s seemed to fit the description or the common rule. I can assume hers was black because, obviously, it’s the best color to describe someone of her ilk. But the green in mine really makes me curious; I couldn’t find any reason for it.

“Are you looking at the moon, Carmilla? It’s only been a couple of months, I think,” I thought, as it’s very difficult to understand days and weeks from here.

My dad always said that losing someone is nothing more than a change, and changes always bring opportunities to grow.

“Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional,” he used to tell me when I was little. Oh, Dad, you don’t know how relevant your words seem to be right now.

“But how to return, after all this? After having seen the horrific and unjust way you died?” I murmured in my head, over and over again.

“I could have brought him to Europe, left him with someone who could take care of him. I could have told my grandparents! Mom!” So many, so many things I did wrong, and by focusing on my personal mission, I couldn’t see those around me, especially someone as important as him.

“I can’t escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it.” It was the last thing I heard from him before he was devoured by the ghouls.

And the ghouls? Well, I initially hated those creatures, but I understood that Dracula had them under mental control when he had brought them with the Necronomicon. I had a desire to hunt them down and extinguish them from the face of the earth after what they did to Dad, but I thought, how can you kill someone who wasn’t acting of their own will? Let alone an entire species for the actions of a few.

Franky had said, though, that the ghouls would hunt the Frankenghouls and the invisible ghouls, as these weren’t a “natural” species, and Griffin didn’t want monsters he himself created roaming around out there.

I endangered everyone, I do things without thinking, and I must start to understand that if I continue ignoring others, I will not only end up alone but will drag those who love me the most down because of my fault.

And while I was deep in my thoughts, my aura perceived something strange, and it was very close to me. The buzzing had begun to manifest, as always.

I turned around to see what it was, and I could see something very, how to say it, disconcerting?

There was a thing that seemed to be observing me attentively. The problem was that I couldn’t even describe what its face looked like, as its head had an intricate ellipsoid shape, covered by what appeared to be antennacles.

The color of this creature was pink, and it didn’t seem to be very tall, but it had large rear fins that looked like membranes. It also had many articulated legs, and this thing seemed to be changing colors.

Suddenly, as if they were flying, many of these creatures began to appear. They started to surround me, these aliens coming and going. It seemed things were about to get ugly, so I stood up and got on guard.

Some of them seemed to be carrying what looked like brains, as if they had just gone shopping, and I could recognize a human brain among them.

One of them approached me, and with a brain in some kind of jar, it stood face to face with me until the brain began to speak in a robotic manner.

“Good day, Miguel. We have been observing you. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Mimir.”

Another one approached me and then passed me some kind of device, pointing at my mouth. I was hesitant, but this bug pointed at me and then at the brain, and I thought I understood, so I tried to speak through the device, which surprisingly worked, or at least seemed to work, in whatever that technology was where the brain was suspended.

“Umm... The one from God of War? Sorry! I mean, the one from Norse mythology?” I asked, as the aliens began to unsettle me more and more.

“Exactly! Or rather... something like that. You see, sometimes myths become distorted from reality, and things get, let’s say, fuzzy...” He seemed to pause, and as the brain bubbled for a moment, which disturbed me quite a bit, he continued:

“We have been observing the latest events of humanity, and there seem to be certain facts that are beginning to worry us. I know this because I was there, I was one of yours, a Nephilim, although my development was aesthetically different from yours. I managed to escape from your species, but I was wounded and, to avoid death, these beings gave me a unique opportunity, not only to escape it but to live and experience things far beyond what I could have done on Earth.”

When he stopped, I thought, “A brain in a jar? Is this a joke? How miserable do you have to be to accept such a deal?” I imagine it must have been someone with a very intense ambition for knowledge, as well as a terrible fear of death.

“Well, well, Mr. Mimir. What do you and your alien friends want from me? Because my brain is not for sale, that I’m sure of,” I said frankly and without beating around the bush.

“I really like your humor; I haven’t spoken with one of my own in millennia. We’re not here for your brain, luckily for you. We’re here because we’re concerned about the noise that supernatural beings on Earth are causing, and as close neighbors, let’s say the consequences could splash onto us. Yuggoth and Earth are very connected to each other, more than you think.”

“Yuggoth?” I asked.

“It’s our brothers’ planet, one of our base operations. We share a unique closeness. Your people know it as Pluto.”

The tone of that phrase gave me chills. “Are these the ones behind those reptilian conspiracies and the like? Are there Men in Black on Earth?” I wondered. They probably didn’t like Dracula and Lilith’s actions at all, and now they intend to negotiate something with me.

One of the aliens made strange sounds, almost as if complaining, and Mimir continued his speech after bubbling again.

“Your presence on Earth has called the attention of many supernatural beings, not only from Earth, but also us, the inhabitants of this satellite, the Martians and others.”

I looked a bit taken aback. I mean, I met aliens here, yes aliens, a long story I will explain later but. Martians too? So I asked him about that.

“Oh..” He paused. “Yes, and your presence was quite a game changer. Approximately, during the Victorian era, the Martians were in preparation for a huge scale invasion on Earth, and this huge operation was interrupted. Our satellites detected their tripods mobilizing toward their cylinders, just to suddenly abort it. Back then, the Martian activities gave us enough reasons to monitor Earth more closely, and we have been doing it since then.”

Shaking my head, I exclaimed, totally shocked: “ Did you just said invasion? Aborted? Why?”

Mimir patiently, takes a minute and explains.

“Firstly, they seemed to have detected you, and realized your heritage. This made them delay their plans, and when they also detected deadly pathogens for their species, they considered staying put, until now.”

There was a very long pause, and the tension was palpable.

“This is when we intercepted an Opharim, an Elysian satellite. We did it before it could send signals to Elysium, but if the trend of increasing use of Eldritch magic here continues like this, they may arrive, and don’t doubt it will be the end of humanity, and probably of any civilization on this solar system. We have colonies in other places in the universe, but it would be a very annoying inconvenience for our plans. Across all the civilizations in the universe there is an unspoken rule that we intuitively understand, not attract unwanted attention. The noisiest ones are usually the first to perish. The angel of death doesn’t usually give second chances.”

I frowned and asked, “The what?”

“Admiral Azrahel, or what you call Azrael. It’s the nickname by which many interstellar civilizations know him, but we prefer not to name him. Just remember this. If you really appreciate your species and the place that saw you born, it’s better that you return and find out what’s happening. We have been very discreet with our activities on Earth, but for now, we will be absent to avoid attracting unpleasant visits. The Martians knew this, the presence of Elysians means always one single thing, danger, and you are one of them.”

I was stunned by his cryptic words. Although I tried to insist on knowing what the hell he was talking about, he refused to speak and limited himself to saying that there are things it’s better not to commit to. The last thing he told me before leaving was:

“In the silence of the dark forest, the wisest hunter is the one who remains invisible.”

The creatures seemed to take flight towards outer space, leaving the moon and taking with them brains, devices, and all kinds of minerals. And with a flash, they disappeared just like that.

I did my best to summarize what I’ve just heard. A Martian invasion canceled by the presence of an Elysian in. “The Victorian era?” I thought.

“Jesus! That was me.. When I traveled to the past!” I realized. And now, my own kind may be already suspecting something.

“I think it’s time to return,” I murmured.