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Tesseracts, glomes, and various other polychorons exploded through the viewing apparatus in glorious three-dimensional approximations. Another layer of existence, just beyond human comprehension. Joseph swiveled, dragging the large glass and steel machine around, watching new and wondrous things appear before him as he interacted with a fourth-dimensional plane.

 

“Whoa,” Joseph muttered, failing to describe the sheer elegance of this new world.

 

“Wait, wait, go back,” Marren tugged on Joseph’s jacket. “That looks… alive.”

 

Joseph noticed it: a strange, almost human form. It moved with intention, seeming to hide along the edges of the screen. Joseph’s stomach fell out as he watched the otherworldly being. All of its sides were visible at once, bright yellow light flowing in waves from within.

 

“What are we looking at?” Joseph asked.

 

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

 

“You made this thing, Marren.”

 

“I mean, the math added up. The theorem was sound, at least,” Marren said. “I knew there had to be something. I didn’t know it’d look like this. Like… us.”

 

A flash of fear crossed Joseph’s eyes. He scanned back and forth, looking through the glass window. More shapes emerged as they watched, their minds slowly understanding what a realm in four dimensions looked like. The more they lingered, the more the world that lay overtop their own became clearer. Living, sapient organisms flitted about in front of them.

 

“It’s beautiful,” Joseph whispered, his face getting ever nearer to the apparatus. Marren pushed in over his shoulder. Their souls yearned to be there, an inhabitant rather than an onlooker. They were Adam and Eve and there lay the Garden of Eden.

 

* * *

 

They could not pull themselves from the mysteries unfolding; despite hunger, weakness, and exhaustion, they watched and learned. The ebb and flow of the creatures a mystical river—holy, beautiful, complete.

 

Days passed. Time marched onward as Joseph and Marren stayed there, shed pounds, and sat in their own filth. Transfixed, they paid it no mind. The splendor of the fourth dimension erased their senses and replaced it with something more profound. Death’s icy path crept up on them just as that mysterious being appeared once more.

 

It materialized in front of the viewing glass. The fright shocked the two viewers out of their stupor. Then the being stepped through, floating millimeters above the ground, its body clashing against the three-dimensional world.

 

“You must cease.” The voice was androgynous, odd; and reverberated as if it echoed within a chasm. “Cease, or perish.” The universe stretched out before it, an aura of pure, ecstatic depth. Beyond comprehension, beyond understanding, yet enchanting and seductive. It pulled on Joseph and Marren, inviting them within the dense gravity with the hunger of a black hole.

 

“Take us with you,” pleaded Marren.

 

“Take us,” Joseph agreed.

 

“You cannot. Stop this and never look again. To continue is death. For you and for all who may stumble upon your folly.”

 

The two began sobbing at the creature’s words. Despite their atrophied muscles, they struggled and pawed at the creature before them.

 

“Why?” they cried out. “Why can we not be like you?”

 

“Your kind is incompatible. Too shallow. Too furious and violent. You are a byproduct of our consciousness, the leftover parts, too dangerous to coexist. Your bodies are poison, your minds a virus. Nothing but destruction lay in your wake, a sickness to be exorcized.”

 

The being vibrated with a strange static. Thunderous explosions of color clashed within, blossoming outwards in furious shades of scarlet, indigo, and vermillion.

 

“Make us like you,” Marren said, her voice sharpening at the edge.

 

“We cannot. We will not.”

 

Marren roared out, a sudden flash of hysteric energy rocketing her diminished arms towards the fourth dimension. The being flashed back a step, avoiding the contact.

 

“To touch me would be death,” the voice said.

 

Marren ignored it. On shaky legs, she lurched forward, swatting at the being, but it kept outside of her reach. Joseph, however, stayed motionless until the being came close, then he leaped on it.

 

The creature screamed, its voice shattering everything inside the laboratory. Its body flashed a strobe, ethereal lights blinking in and out of existence. Joseph melted inside of it, and Marren, too, coalesced into the expanding brightness of the fourth dimension. They both clamped their eyes shut, both afraid and excited at what wonders they were about to uncover.

 

After long, agonizing seconds, Joseph and Marren finally unclenched and were surrounded by darkness. Their sight had been stolen away. The beauty of that fourth-dimension they were watching was no more. Instead, there were only vague shadows and variances of light. Their minds had rebelled against their folly, punishing them for their arrogance.

 

“Do you see,” the fourth-dimensional being said, “your bodies cannot exist here.”

 

“We made it, Marren,” Joseph whimpered, ignoring the creature’s words. His hands flailed around trying to find his partner, and when he did, interlocked his fingers in hers, squeezing tight so they would not lose each other. “Marren?”

 

“She is already gone, Joseph. I am sorry.”

 

His eyes watered up, he could feel the pressure of it. His sight only increasingly darkened, his hearing becoming muffled. “What’s happe… in… to m…”

 

“One by one, your body’s functions are shutting down. You shouldn't be here. Even the air is toxic to your chemistry.”

 

Joseph smiled, while his muscles still worked, and then froze that way. Such pure happiness took the fourth-dimensional creature by surprise. Joseph perished, hands entwined in Marren’s, and he did so without regret.

Copyright 2023 - SFS Publishing LLC

A Byproduct of Our Creation

To Continue is Death

J. Charles Ramirez

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