The Moon Sisters

          Where are you when the first drop hits your doorstep? When the first floods that tell of the deluge to come. The apocalyptic faiths say the earth will be destroyed by fire. Wrong. It will be destroyed by water. But you know that already, for it's displaced you and your family, and your community, and you're searching now, searching for a dry place. A place where you're sure the water level won't rise enough in your sleep to drown you. The melting snow means mountains are death traps. Going underground is out of the question. All you can do is try to outpace the rising tide. 

          The moon tilts, leaning its waxen face into yours. The melting polar ice caps are just a catalyst for the disturbance brought on by Luna, the divine feminine. Sure, you see it as a sign. Perhaps we all better be wiped out, make a fresh start. 

          If you can fix the moon, you can fix the earth, and since you and your sister have been taking routine trips to its surface since you were young, you simply dream yourself back up there, of course while all the others are sleeping. Without your older sister's guiding hand, you go to the crater-ridden surface of Luna and beseech her. 

          "Goddess of the moon, I implore you. Turn your gaze away from my ailing planet. We suffer much, and we cannot keep outrunning the water that nips at our heels."

          "My child, I thank thee for coming unto me, but I will not turn my eyes away, for long have I watched your arrogant humankind, and long have I waited for their downfall. Not since the times of old have I seen your race punished so absolutely, and I would dare not miss the show for the world." 

          And so, with a heavy heart, you make your way back down to earth. You see that the water is licking ever further toward your mother and father, how they would surely be swallowed up in their sleep. Your sister is nowhere to be found. You wake your parents from their doomed sleep and tell them she is missing. They tell you it's not to worry, as she is prone to night walks. She comes back some hours later, panting, a layer of sweat gleaming on her skin. 

          "I made a deal with Luna," she says through labored breaths. "She will turn her gaze from us." 

          "But sister, what did you offer her that would sway her? For I too went to her this very night and was unsuccessful," you say. 

          All this talk of visiting the moon comes as no small surprise to our parents, who are unaware of our nighttime sojourns until that very moment. They look at you and your sister in disbelief. 

          "I gave her you. She said she envies the two of us, and our ability to go between her world and ours, as she is trapped within her heavenly body." 

          "You gave her me?" you ask her, but you already know the answer. 

          "You and the moon will become one. You will fall to earth and cleanse the surface. It has always been this way."

          The next night, you're dreamed up to the moon, instead of doing it yourself as you always had before. You grow closer, and the glyphs within your body resonate with Luna. Your cells separate, spreading your consciousness out as you merge with her. Your mind feels wide. Then, as soon as you begin to grow accustomed to this new state of being, you feel yourself ripped apart as the moon crumbles and falls to earth. 

          Ashen, radiated pieces of the fallout collide with the soil, spreading your consciousness even further. A mass extinction event, the likes of which have never been seen, sweeps the planet. The last of humankind is pushed to the few islands that remain along the equator. You and Luna leave the last humans horribly disfigured, some barely able to walk, poisoned as they are by the glowing shrapnel. 

          You feel a presence just beyond the atmosphere, many silent minds watching. You wonder if Luna is somehow involved, but she is too spread out to reach. You wonder if the beings hovering at the threshold of your planet will save the human race or watch it be destroyed, but you're so spread out now that your vision grows milky, cloudy. You hear a distant lullaby, then you sleep.

Meet the Author:

G. W. McClary is a native of Ohio with a B.A. in literature and founder of The Storycraft Co-op. His stories have appeared in Nova Literary-Arts Magazine, The Haunted Portal, Altered Reality, and elsewhere.