Arsenic

Parent

Parent holds the grub, which has just awakened a few cycles prior. “Oh, little maggot! Do you see this room, this cathedral, this world we are in?” asks Parent. They gesture to the spires of petrified wood and bone, dry and antiseptic. Peering over the balcony to metal-like, breathing towns forming pustules and lesions on the landscape. “This is how we live. How they live. We. We are different. You and I.” Parent says. A temperature-less wind howls through the skeleton of the building, carrying the distant sound of industry and metabolism. The grub has no eyes.

Laying beside the grub in an acidic room, Parent inscribes commands for swarm 542. The grub crawls towards a corner of the room. Parent turns their head towards the grub, then turns back to their work. “Did you know, that a child leaves some of their essence behind with their parent, after they are born?” their four hands split open the mosquitoes to implant the messages in them. “It’s true! You have made me better. You are so smart, and talented, and that is in me now.” Parent points towards the hollow pool of pus on their back, where the maggot emerged. “You have left me a mark that cannot be erased.” The maggot continues to crawl towards the corner, outer membrane gradually being burned by the floor’s secretions.

“I hereby retract my grub from this institution.” Parent pulls their hand away from the pimple interface, hand covered in the jelly-like substance. Parent carries the maggot, wheelbeetles carrying passengers scurrying past them. “What did they do to you? Left you outside for six hours?” the grub wriggles in Parent’s pocket. “This place is wretched, but it has many exciting things. Still, we cannot trust any of these people. They will never understand us.” Parent enters a factory, with drones flying past them. “I’ve found a new place for you. They will treat you better.” The maggot wriggles again. “Oh, don’t be that way. Things were much worse in my time. You should consider yourself lucky.” Parent drops the maggot into an intestinal chute.

Parent looks out an opening. “Do you not love me anymore? Why have you been acting this way?” the maggot crawls along the wall, managing to stick to it. “I have done so much for you. I have sacrificed so much and lost so much! Do you not love me anymore?” The grub stops halfway between the wall and the ceiling, and starts to crawl downwards. Parent looks at the opening, and cleans their gills.

The maggot is on a raised platform. There are six needles beside it. “You’re old enough for this procedure. We all have to go through this, and it makes us all stronger in character.” Parent says. They take a needle and coat it in a yellow green slime. A spark jumps the gap between neurons. Parent connects the needle to a wire, and plunges it into the back of the maggot. The maggot writhes. Electricity bolts from the neurons to the wire, and into the grub. “Very, very good.” Parent opens a box, containing mechanical fish, which swarm the grub and bite it repeatedly. Chemical burns appear on its skin. “Five more…”

Parent leaves a tangle of flesh and chitin on the ribs of the floor. “Maggot! Come here!” Parent grabs the maggot and places it on top of the mass. “This is to celebrate that you’ve lived this long. Not many beings live this long! Especially beings like us. I’m so happy that you’re here. Now, enjoy!” Parent turns away, soldering rocks with beating hearts. Implanted in them are proprietary wetware. Nowadays, the work of the hive takes all of Parent’s time.

The grub moves across the opening of the room. “Maggot.” It is a quiet atmosphere that has befallen the city. Everything is closed. “I sometimes feel like I do not understand you at all. I don’t want to say it, but that’s how I feel. I want to understand.” Parent says. The maggot starts to climb up along the frame of the opening. “What is it?! What is wrong with you?! Tell me!!” Parent says. “How can I help you!” Parent watches the grub chew on the frame. “I don’t know what I can do for you. I don’t. I’m sorry.”

The grub crawls along Parent’s arm. “Child. It’s time. It’s the time we’ve been waiting for.” Parent looks out across the pustule cities. “We have reached the right age for this.” Parent lifts the maggot to their hundred eyes. “Let me have a good, good, close look at you! Oh! Maggot, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I never thought of myself as Parent, and you have changed me. I am Parent. We have worked so hard all this time. I will miss you, but this step is necessary for us to topple the regime that has excluded us.” Parent slowly moves the maggot towards the gaping cavity in its body where it emerged. “I am ready, now.” says Parent. “Consume me.”