NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This was written as an entry to the November SciFi Challenge to write a short story about coping with the effects of being alone (in less than 1000 words). Of course, like all things SciFi, one must stretch the idea, prodding and pulling it in various directions until it resonates just so. What follows is my take on the topic, with its own unique spin. The final word count is 978. I hope you enjoy.

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I'm so hungry.

There's nothing left to eat.

Nothing.

The sky is as empty as I am. All I can do is float here, adrift on the currents, caught between the trees and the filaments of moisture that are the clouds. The sun is bright, but I am cold and hollow. I cannot propel myself as I once did. I can only drift where the currents take me, no longer able to control my own form. I've tried, but I am as trapped as prey in the jaws of a predator. My hunger has teeth. They are closing on me.

It hurts.

It pierces me, cutting me open, leaving torn and broken parts where once I was whole. I am not whole now. I am fading. I am withering into nothing. The air is sucking at me like a beast, draining all that is left until there is nothing but dust.

I would rather just blow away, but fate will not allow it. It forces me to endure, feeling every moment, every throbbing inch of my demise. Feeling the probing entrance of chaos. There's an ache inside that will not go away. It's gotten so much worse. At first, I thought the fluid that I found would sustain me, but now I know the truth. It's not enough. I need more.

I need to regain what I once was!

Once the whole universe was mine.

Mine!

Every planet was my domain. Every atmosphere was my playground. So many lush, wondrous places.

Venkor, with its sulfurous explosions that colored the heavens; Paladium Four, whose rivers plunged from the floating mountain ring; even Orys with its incredible crystalline fields in so many colors even I could not comprehend them all. Of course the creatures there were particularly horrible. Slakes and Skrivnigs, Kords and Wikkers, some of them with skin so thick nothing could penetrate them. And the stings...

Each place so different, yet none of them that I could not integrate with easily. None that I could not overcome.

I could adapt to anything.

Until now.

The currents I float in turn me downward. Instead of the sky, I see the trees. The rolling ground. The waving stalks and bobbing heads of endless flowers.

This planet, more than any other I have seen, is so plain and yet so beautiful. In its simplicity, it holds a taste of something more than any burning star, sparkling gem or raging cosmic storm. It was good when I arrived, but it is better now.

It is unspoiled.

The many inhabitants were interesting, but they were a pox on the natural face of this sphere. I like to think that I helped cleanse this place. That I purified it by removing the cancer that grew atop the freshness, squashing it down, grinding it beneath pounding legs with no true purpose.

My purpose was pure.

It was transcendent.

Now I am nothing.

Where is my transcendence? Where has it gotten me?

Once I was so powerful! I could topple civilizations. I could change the face of planets. I could alter the paths they took across the vastness of space. I could ride the stars! Surf the waves of dark matter! There was no species that could best me. Nothing that could deny me what was mine. Mine! The universe belonged to me! They thought that they could kill me? Destroy me? No. They could not. I was beyond anything their puny intellect could conceive of.

I was their destiny!

What I wouldn't give for one more chance to conquer. To find the hidden gem amidst the cosmos and descend like a dark vortex, a void into which they would come, spiraling out of the corners of their lives so that I could consume them!

But my greatest victory is also my crowning failure.

My strength is what defeated me.

There's nothing left.

I'm afraid.

It can't end like this.

Please...

There! Something is moving in the grass!

It may not be anything appealing, but I will take it, even if it is a rodent. Or a reptile. Once I would have never thought such things, but I'm beyond that now. Far beyond. Just seeing the blades of grass moving makes me shiver with desire. The hunger shakes me. It is bigger than I am. It is all of me, moving beyond, as if it exudes from me and drips down like venom.

As if destiny finally agrees with me the current draws me down, and I pounce. I am ready. More than ready.

I need!

The grasses part.

The stench greets me first. The smell of deceit. Of failure. When the bubbling water crests, I find my hunger turned against me. With nothing to consume, it turns its angry teeth inward. I am driven down to the ground as the last of my delicate perfection is torn apart.

So unfair.

I had it all.

I was in my prime. My form was exquisite. There was awe in their voice when they talked about me.

"Look at this, Jones!"

"Have you ever seen anything like it?"

"My God, look at the structure."

I was unstoppable.

I never thought about what would come after. I never wondered what would happen in the wake of my sublime attainment. Why would I?

I was everything!

I was everything...

If I had left just one, I would continue. But I was too perfect. My ideal nature could bring only complete and utter destruction. There is no life left to feed from. Nothing left to fuel my flight. My utter success is my downfall.

These blades of grass will be my resting place. This sky the last I see.

There are none left to infect.

None could withstand me.

I have no host.

My destruction was too complete.

My perfectness too great.

I burn in the fire of my own majesty.