The Eve of the Fall

PlanetOrPlastic

The sky was crying, droplets of translucent orbs trickling from hazy white eyes. The liquid smothered the ground under a blanket of tears, leaving me awash in a sea of melancholy. It buried the foliage under its weight, poignancy seeping out of its luminous shell and filling the air with its desolate scent.

My heart struggled to breathe as a wave of guilt swept it away. Down, down, down it dropped. I watched it go, plummeting at a 100 miles an hour, the tender caress of relief calming my tormented soul. Claws of sorrow closed around my heart, clutching it so hard I was sure it would burst apart in a fountain of blood, bereavement, and gloom that would refill the empty oceans and give life to rivers and streams.

I would die soon. The humans had been polluting me for so long that my tongue held the metallic taste of garbage and my blood was poisoned with foul oils. They never learned, those humans. They drilled holes into my skin and deformed me past recognition. I fell asleep every night screaming in pain, my body on fire, waiting for Death to take what was left of my barren soul.

Those humans once respected God, I know. They respected me, as well. They recognized that I also had a spirit, a soul. But then they made themselves into God, and they thought it their right to decide who lived and who died. They wiped out 'pests' and made themselves the rulers of their inconsequential, futile world.

They disregarded me. I once blazed with glory, pampered at every turn. People told tales of me, the Ocean, and I watched over them with approval. Now I was a mere wisp of a shadow to them, a child's fairytale, scoffed at and looked over.

Every year it got worse. More people rested all their hopes, their time, their energy onto science. They believed that science would carry them high upon its shoulders, leading them to victory. What could I do? Nothing, they must have thought. For what use could I have been to them? But they were wrong. I lapped gently at their feet, my waves crashing against their shores. I was the water they drank, the one who nurtured the food that they consumed. They relied on me for everything, and yet they disregarded me. They threw me aside like an abandoned toy.

I closed my eyes. They didn't appreciate me, but soon they would see all they had lost. I reached my hand out to Death; pleading, begging. I felt my soul leaving my body, pulling away harshly like a criminal who had just been released from his chains. A heavy burden had been thrown off me, the burden of life. My heart broke free of its bonds, gasping as fresh air inflated it like a helium balloon.

Poor, poor humans. They had made their mistakes, and now they were all doomed.