Abattoir

Euri Glenn

Suddenly I could see it all. How the sea described me to the breeze, and how she decreed that the sky—oh so divine—would split and seethe like molten lava, and how the light would cover the world.

A sheen of red would cover all our visions, hiding the colours of the rainbow, and creating divisions. What happened to the gold we’d find? It was a snowy mountain belt, high in the Himalayas, or perhaps it was a rainforest canopy, resting peacefully atop Jambreen.

We traversed that tumultuous soil, stained red on the soles of our bare feet, souls bared to the sun as it shone down in streams of blood. What had we done? The world was becoming a wasteland of dried eyes and siren cries, their tears spilled into the ocean and drowned the coasts.

Islands were disappearing to become Atlantis for the future generations, fires were swarming to become the ashen no man’s land, and desires were being squashed by expectations—we sunk into the sand, pride was our divide, and we drowned in the monsoon. The moon was coming closer, opening her crystalline eye to observe our deserved end; it was too bright for my eyes. I couldn’t see their lies. All I could see was red. Perhaps, I was dead.

Author: Euri Glenn is a Jambreen/Tamborine Mountain based writer, and a second-year Creative Writing student at QUT who is currently working on a novel based in a post-apocalyptic Gold Coast Hinterland. You can find more of her work in ScratchThat’s 9th and 10th Issues and QUT Glass’ 14th Issue. In every story, she seeks to inspire change for the better of the world and the creatures who dwell within in.

Artist: Sarah McLachlan is a third year Bachelor of Creative Writing student who likes to draw in her spare time. She wishes to combine both her art and writing skills to create a webcomic of her own one day, but she’s also open to illustrating for books and book covers. Sarah is also a major The Legend of Zelda fan and can be found drawing a lot of elves. You can find her at @hideriame02 on Instagram.

Editors: David Farr and Sara Reeves