Not Yet


Fitz and Eve were meant for each other.

In another time they would have been…

Wait.

There’s no use in dwelling upon the could have beens or the should have beens. They are all gone, burnt up and laid low.

This was not another time. It was this time; the hard present, the cruel reality.

Fitz was bitten and then he rose. Eve ran and then she mourned.

Hush, hush.

Don’t cry yet, not yet, dear children. But for tragedy, you say, this should be enough.

Ah, yes but you forget: we cannot hide behind the should have beens and the could have beens. This is now.

Fate would not be cheated, Fitz and Eve were meant for each other.

After all, “When the gods give evil…”

Fitz and Eve found each other. He held her in his arms again. She sunk her nails in his back like she had so many times before. He bent to kiss her neck and breathed in her perfume. His teeth rested upon her skin.

And he stopped.

The thick glaze across his eyes seemed to brighten slightly, if only slightly.

And he waited. He waited.

Then he caught the scent of flesh beneath the sweet fragrance and bit down.


9 responses to “Not Yet”

  1. I like the narrator’s voice (superomniscient) and how that fictional, hyperbolic, fantasy part where the zombie slows down for a second before biting his love–what great imaginative fiction that is–serves to reinforce the sense of desperate loss.

    I’ve traced the ‘When the gods give evil’ line to Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (also a story about killing a loved one) but not in a direct translation. What is the original that you are working from?

  2. I have the feeling that the quote, whatever it is, pretty much wraps up the philosophy of the entire Zone.

    Would you mind posting the whole thing here if we promise to (re-)read some Aeschylus?

  3. I have no idea where it came from. I was originally going to write it in a more conventional style. The narrator really came out of left field.

    I’m getting to a point where the story takes me where it wants to go and not the other way around.

  4. The background to the quote is necessary. Oedipus’ two sons are fighting over the city of Thebes. They were supposed to share power so that only one would be on the throne every few years. Eteocles breaks the deal and keeps control of the city when it is supposed to be his brother, Polynices’, turn. Polynices then gathers a group of heroes to take back the city.

    In many Greek plays there was a chorus, a group of actors who would convey background info and interact with the characters to move the story along.

    In the scene Polynices’ forces are attacking the city walls and Eteocles is preparing to join the battle at the gates.

    Leader of the Chorus: Go not forth to guard the seventh gate!

    Eteocles: Your words shall not blunt the edge of my resolve.

    Leader of the Chorus: Yet the gods love to let the weak prevail.

    Eteocles: These are no welcomed words.

    Leader of the Chorus: Shall thy own brother’s blood be the cost of victory?

    Eteocles: When the gods give evil, you cannot escape their gift.

    He goes out with his armor and his sword and joins the battle at the seventh gate of Thebes. Both Eteocles and Polynices die at each other’s hands.

  5. I got it. Finally I got it. I’ve heard your narrator before: Chris Goss, lead singer for The Masters of Reality (the last band to get signed out of Syracuse–in 1987, the year I graduated high school for some perspective) and producer for Kyuss and other LA semi-metal bands.

    I knew I liked it for a reason. Knowing that “Doraldina’s Prophecies” is about a fortune teller from the old Suburban Park (an amusement park in Manlius, not the bar)is enough to stir the emotions of any CNYer who grew up in the late 80’s. Wow. Flashback. Good times.

  6. Tried doing an audio of this tonight. I couldn’t get it right, and when I did, I’d screw it up. This one is so short that it has to be perfect. It needs a voice that is seductive, and well, let’s just say that mine isn’t. I’m surrendering. I was really tempted to add the last half of the “When the gods give evil” line, but I didn’t. Would you be willing to add it to the text?

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