She Is The Universe


Suggested Theme:

Main Theme- When Everything Dies by God Is An Astronaut


Kent Shakespeare likes to eat at Bibbo's diner, even though he knows most of the food is about as healthy as a tub of lard. The diner is comforting in the sense that he can divorce himself from the university and from being a paramedic. He can pretend that he is not eighteen-year-old Kent Shakespeare who has spent his entire childhood and adolescence studying to be a doctor. He can also pretend that he didn't become a doctor in the first place to earn his parents' love. Here, while waiting for his name to be called to pick up his order, he can pretend that he's nothing. And in the grand scheme of things, he is nothing.

She walks in the ancient, greasy diner like the queen of all living things. Most men, and some women, turn their heads to look appreciatively at her. Her sun-orange hair is short and feathery like a woman from the 1970s. Her blue eyes are as sparkling as the primordial sea. She dons a royal-blue corset dress over her form-fitting, black jumpsuit. She has on red, evening gloves with matching knee-high boots and breast belt. She looks like a ravishing nymph from beyond the stars.

He has seen her come to the diner at least once a week for the past three months. She always picks the booth from right across his table. Even if the booth was occupied, the people would immediately move and let her take her usual place in this diner. He always has the prefect view of her; on some days, he can watch her sip her Mercury milkshake as she waits for whatever it is she orders for the day. On other days, he can watch as she pops radish after radish through her red lipstick lips like jawbreakers.

He knows nothing about her. Yet, he watches her like some sort of possessive lover. Or, if he truly wants to admit it, he watches her like a pathetic stalker. He longs to speak with her, but he does not expect any good to come from it. She could be one of those women that likes to make verbal mincemeat with guys like him. She could look at him and ask, "What do you want, anorexic Christopher Reeves?" Or she could simply ignore him like she does with the rest of the plebeians here.

He won't ever talk to her. He doesn't want her beauty to be marred by his warranted pessimism. She's not one of his patients, so he can't feign hope for her. For him, it is better to just look at her like a statue of a goddess in her temple. She can't disappoint him if he never knows her, while he can't disappoint her if she never knows him. In other words, he's taking the coward's way out.

"Kent Shakespeare!" He snaps out of his pessimism and goes to get his order. His order for today is just a Veggie burger, since it's one of the few "healthy" options on the menu. The Veggie patty is made of corn, soy, tofu, and lots of mushrooms. There are two huge, purple lettuce slices that act as the bun. Like always, he does not add any condiments to his burger; even in the 31st century, sugar is still one of the main ingredients in condiments. He takes a huge bite out of his burger and hears it crunch like heavy footsteps in snow.

He sees her gets up from her booth and go to the counter to get her order. He could've learned her name if he paid attention to the noise around him, but he doesn't want to know her name. It would just encourage him to get to know her, and she's better off being a far-off dream for him.

She returns to her red and white checkered booth with her tray. He tenses up immediately when he notices that she has ordered a Veggie burger too. Not once in the three months that he has been coming here has she ordered a Veggie burger. Most of the time, she would order Saturn onion rings or spinach salad with lots of radishes.

He watches as she opens her mouth and bites into the burger like a mantis eating her lover's head. Her red lips flash her perfect teeth as she tears into the purple lettuce like labrum into compound eyes. The Veggie patty dissolves into her mouth like stringy flesh. He knows that he should look away, so she doesn't catch him watching her, but he's hypnotizes by her temerity.

She stops chewing, and immediately his gaze leaves her mouth and move upwards. His heart beats faster than it ever has when he looks into her eyes. She's staring directly at him. Her eyes aren't glaze as though she was looking through him or daydreaming. No, her eyes are focused like a mate cannibalistically homing on her mate's head.

His throat dries up quicker than the sense in his thoughts. He shakily lifts up his burger for her to see. He hopes that she will believe that he was only staring because he was delightfully surprised someone had the same order as him. However, he fails to look into her eyes; he did not want to see the evident disbelief or disgust that she must have. He scrambles out of his seat and runs out the backdoor into the alley.

Like the Waynes who left the opera, he is met with quiet, chilling violence.


His ears ring like a thousand timers going off at the same time. His steel-blue eyes couldn't focus worth a damn. And he cannot exactly remember how he sustained his injury at the moment. He, almost sardonically, notes that all of these symptoms are indicators that he sustained a concussion. Somehow.

"Oh, you've regained consciousness. I thought I would have to pull you from the void." The voice, like a laser scalpel, cuts cleanly into his mind. His dull eyes finally focus. He notices that his head is on a lap. He looks up and sees her. The queen of all living things. Her gloved fingers are curled into his clay-brown hair like she is going to mold something from his lifeless hair. She is smiling down on him like a sunbeam. He is not worthy to behold such beauty up close.

"I believe you're on your way in developing a Madonna-whore complex with that kind of thinking. But it's fine. I love being worshipped by you." She does not open her mouth to speak; he realizes that she's a telepath. He deduces that she's from Titan since they are the planet with telepaths and some Titanians are born mute. One of her gloved hands trails down his hair to his cheek; she strokes his cheek like she's brushing off a layer of dust.

"I am from Titan, but I have a voice. But you don't want hear me speak because you don't want to know me. Oh, domesticated porcupine, I shall know you without my voice." There's a belief that Titanians are all good because they lack crime on their world. However, the way she's slicing through his mind like swords through bodies, he reconsiders this belief. He doesn't believe she's evil, but she's different. Isolated. Like him.

"I am not good like most Titanians. Being good didn't give me my parents' validation on Titan; nothing ever will. But coming here, to Earth, gave me a purpose. Like you continuing your path to being a doctor. I am evil. Are you disappointed?" As a lawful citizen of the United Planets, he should be alarmed by her admission. However, with his head being cradled in her warm lap, he dismisses it as self-deprecation. Her smile widens; she gently turns his head to the left.

He sees two, very muscular men standing like dazed statues. Their clothes are a bit torn and dirty like they've been prowling the streets. In one of the men's hands is a brick that looks like it came from one of the old, rundown buildings. He hazily remembers feeling something cold and hard like a rock hit the back of his head.

"Their intention was to rob you while you were unconscious. I heard their thoughts, so loud and coarse, from my booth. They didn't have a chance to steal from you when I showed up. Now, watch what I will make them do." The thug with the brick immediately clocks his partner in the face with the brick. Kent hears the breaking of delicate bones and teeth and sees spurts of red blood dribbling from the thug's nose and mouth. The thug with the brick smashes his partner's face again, and again, and again, and again.

And again.

Kent is reminded of uncooked ground meat from the grocery store. The man's face is bloated, pink, and bruised with bubbles of blood and teeth. Neither the thug with the brick or his partner screamed or even say anything during this ordeal. Both the men are now standing still like living, bleeding statues.

"I ask you once again. Are you disappointed?" He thinks about the kind of treatment that the man with the smashed face needs. He thinks about how he needs to go to the hospital and have his head examined. He ceases to think when he turns his head to look up at her again.

She is looking down at him. Her blue eyes are not dilated or bloodshot like she's on drugs; they twinkle like diamonds on a coronation crown. Her lips are curled into the tenderest smile that he has ever seen. She's an evil Titanian. She's unashamed of her actions. He should be repulsed. He is trained to help people. He should be getting up and calling the Science Police and an ambulance. Yet, he gladly relinquishes his duty as a lawful citizen of the United Planets and as a paramedic. For her. Always for her.

"No. Help me. Please, help me." He cries out like a desperate, needy child to his mother. She eases his head off her lap and then helps him stand up. They walk together out of the alley with half of his body draped over her like a clingy disciple. He does not look back at his attackers; he does not even plan on calling an ambulance for them. He's wrapped up, enraptured by the woman who's leading him to the hospital.

"I am Eve Aries. You are Kent Shakespeare. I will help you, and you can worship me in kind." He isn't certain how long this will last. Because nothing good ever lasts. But she isn't good. She's evil. So maybe, just maybe, she'll last. They can know each other. And perhaps, they won't disappoint each other. She's his universe now.


Author's Comments- I would like to say that this couple is the first of what I would call of the disturbed couples for this universe. Writing this made me feel trippy like I was turning Saturn Queen into an actual universe. She and Kent are strange characters to write for; they just begin and end each other. I wouldn't call their relationship unhealthy, but disturbing would be the best word for them. Hence, why they are one of the disturbed couples of this universe.