Maybella walked down the narrow, cracked streets of Hornvutz’s slums. The tall brick apartments were in various states of disrepair, most so run down that they were quite uninhabitable. Here and there thick tendrils of vines crept up from the ground and entwined itself in the cracks of the buildings. As Maybella passed a particularly rundown, half demolished home, the door squeaked open and an old man stepped out.

“E’lo, you there!” The man croaked.

Maybella hurried along, hoping to get past the man. God knows what lies here, she thought. Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain. The man moved surprisingly fast, grabbing her by the arm. She struggled to free herself, but the man held on fast.

“No, no, E’m not gona ert you! Wait, jest list’n to me!” The man was obviously excited, spit flying out of his horrid mouth. Maybella stopped struggling, seeing that it was useless. Tense, she stood still, glancing around to make sure that they hadn’t attracted any more attention. The streets were empty.

The man let go of her arm. He was smiling, as if living in this dump didn’t matter, as if the world had somehow shifted into lala land. “Jest list’n to me! There are mwetter uses to umens! Free! Free! Not dead in de ally, not wasted, murned to ashes bwy the damned Pawnies! Free! Unfortunate slum girl, we can be FREE!”

At this, the man threw back his head and laughed, a laugh that rang with sunshine in the dark, broken street. Despite everything her mother had told her, Maybella stood there, transfixed by that laugh. It seemed so strange, so out of place, like something from the fairytales her brother used to tell her, before everything changed.

The window of the apartment across from there’s opened, and a woman’s face came out. “Shut ur trap, crazed freak!” she screamed, and the window banged shut again.

The man only shook his head, still smiling that strange smile. Then he walked away, humming. Humming!

Maybella walked the rest of the way home, her head spinning form the strange encounter. She walked to the small house at the end of the street, self built by her great grandfather. As she neared the small, faded structure, she could here voice, loud voices. Standing outside the only window, she could see her mother and father in the living room, yelling at each other. The words stabbed at her, and after a while she turned and continued walking until she came to her place.

It was really only the remains of a once modest shack. Now, it looked like nothing but a tumble of wood from the outside. Inside, however, she’d furnished it with the things she’d scavenged from the DUMP. There was a small chair, a rug, half a table, and what passed for a desk. She walked over to the chair, sitting down and taking out the picture hidden in her dress. A small boy, his golden hair falling down in curls to his ears, smiled at her. She stroked his head, the way he used to like it, when he was alive.

“Luka,” she whispered. “Do sad men suddenly turn happy? Is there some spell to drive away pain and sin?”

Luka only smiled, the same smile. Maybella stared at his blue blue eyes for a moment more, then shook her head. “I wish you were still alive. You always knew what to do, you always knew everything. Why? Why did things turn out this way? Luka…” Her voice shook. Slipping the picture back into the hidden pocket, she wiped her eyes and whispered “I miss you”.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Startled, Maybella started and fell off her chair. The knock came again, and for a moment she panicked. What should she do? After another moment, she got up and cautiously moved to the door.

“Wh-who’s there?” She asked.

A pause. “A stranger.” Someone answered.

She opened the door. Saying you was a stranger was saying you were a friend. The swear went back many thousands of years.

Standing there was a tall boy, perhaps eighteen or nineteen. He had dark brown hair, like dirt. He wore a light green jacket, a bright contrast to the faded reds and grays around him. He smiled at her, then turned and walked away.

For a moment, she just stared as he walked. At the corner, before going off to the next street, he stopped and looked at her again. Then he turned the corner. Maybella hurried over, not wanting to lose sight of him. But when she got to the corner, the boy was nowhere in sight. Disappointment flooded her.

She turned to go back when she noticed a rather large crack in the wall of the building next to her. The wall was painted and cracked, but this crack didn’t look natural. It curled into a spiral, before slashing three marks that resembled a hoof. The mark was strangely familiar, but she could not remember where she had seen it.

Frowning, she put her hand on the mark, only to pull it back. The mark had started to glow a faint silver, then faded the second her hand lost contact. Maybella put her hand on the mark again, and this time, the entire mark glowed a bright silver. Slowly, an opening appeared on the wall, just large enough for her to slip in. Glancing around to see if she was alone, she slipped through the opening.

“Glad you made it.” A voice said.

Startled, she jumped back against the wall. The boy was waiting for her, an almost relieved expression on his face. They were in a gigantic room, the ceiling seeming to stretch as high as the sky. On the ground, healthy green grass grew alongside bright flowers. Maybella gaped at the natural beauty around her.

“Is it amazing?” The boy asked. She only stared at him, unsure why he didn’t find this rare beauty fascinating. She was about to say something when a strange music filled the entire space. It was a song that expressed beauty in all its forms, a wonderful melody that spoke words the mind could never understand. Yet underneath it all, there was a dark whisper, a strange keening sadness that made her shiver.

Then, from the shadows, the most amazing creature she had ever laid eyes on stepped out. It was at least 20 feet tall, and resembled a deer. Its coat was a glittering silver, like moonlight beams. Its antlers were more like an ivory horn, from which the music floated out. It had a monstrous head, its eyes glowed a dark green. When it opened its muzzle, sharp teeth were visible.

The boy stepped out to face the creature. “Eva, mother of all, let the sacrifice be to your pleasure, so you may govern the world through in eternity, so that all things in beauty may forever live and be reborn to shine another day.”

Sacrifice? Maybella wondered.

“Amen!” Croaked another voice. Maybella turned around to see the old man from earlier walking through the entrance she’d walked through only moments before. He stepped right up to Eva, spreading his hands wide, a wonderful smile on his face.

What happened next, Maybella would never be able to describe again, yet it would soon be a part of her life forever.

Eva lowered her huge head down to stare at the man. She sniffed once, twice, then opened her large muzzle. Her teeth glistened with saliva. She engulfed the man in her mouth, then lifted her head slightly to eat the man whole. Red blood and clear saliva dripped down from her mouth, falling to the grass below. Where the blood fell, crinkly flowers grew. Eva gave a slight shake, then walked away.

Maybella realized that she was standing still, horror spreading across her face. The boy came over, touched her arm, and let her out. She didn’t object, just followed him out into the gray slums. They walked in silence to her shack, where he led her inside. They sat on the rug.

“What, why…” Maybella could not finish.

“Eva is what humans used to refer to as Mother Nature. She governs all the plants and living creatures of this world, making sure that every soul that passes is reborn into something more beautiful. But every month, she requires human souls to keep her power.”

“Not everything is beautiful” Maybella whispered.

The boy looked at her sympathetically, but Maybella just shook her head. “Not what I just saw. I mean living creatures. Humans can be cruel. My father…he killed my brother. He was drunk, my brother was only nine. Then to escape the Pawnies, he fled to the slums, where no one would ever find us. I was only five at the time, too little to understand. I only knew that the one person who knew me was gone forever.”

“But you still managed to rise up and continue finding light in the world.” He said.

A pause, in which no one said a word. Then the boy shifted, and he leaned towards her, and whispered, “I am old, very old. I’ve seen civilizations crumble, I’ve witnessed many more worse things than that. My job is hard one, enough to drive anyone crazy and wrong.”

She looked into his eyes, and she saw in them a deep sadness, a longing that stretched thousands of years. “Are you ready?” He asked, his voice low, a hint of hope in them.

“Yes,” She answered.

A month later, they once again stood in the room, the room of a god. They held hands as Eva came out slowly, just as before. As they stood there and waited, all the words, the emotions, the memories they had shared with each other was relived.
Eva came over, her eyes glowing. She watched them. The boy, Markus, turned to her. She looked into those eyes, the liquid eyes that had seen so much in so many years. He squeezed her hand, then they parted. She watched as Eva lowered her head, her mouth opening, then he was gone. She stepped up, just as he had instructed, and caught a drop of blood. Maybella licked it, and her life as gatekeeper began.