I can't even begin to describe how much I've been wanting to write about this. I absolutely love the story. Even if it is different from the original, I like it for what it is. And Klaatu is one the characters that I'm irresistibly drawn too, because there's so much that he doesn't say, and what he does, certainly symbolizes a greater idea. I certainly hope that this is adequate. But, this is just the first chapter of three I think-
A little more time
"There's something inside me,
That pools beneath the surface.
This lack of self-control
I fear is never ending.
I can't seem to…
find myself again."
Crawling: Linkin Park
He was running, because he—no it—was coming. Coming to kill him, take everything away from him, just like they took Helen away. However, the worst part was—his greatest agony— he was the reason why Helen was gone. But he didn't know that would happen. He had been sure that, when the soldiers came, they would kill the monster, not take her.
Now the monster was chasing him, the monster was going to kill him, because he had lost Helen. His mother, the only person he loved—she was the only person that could help the Alien— and Jacob had made sure, that the alien couldn't get home now. He had made sure the alien was going to kill him, because he had betrayed it's trust. No, Helen's trust was what he had broken.
Now it was angry, and Klaatu's anger frightened him. It made Jacob run, so he could escape that frightening face. It's cold blank features made him certain, that Klaatu felt nothing inside. Jacob had seen what had happened when you tried to defy him; you tried to stand up for yourself, and it only killed you, hurt you; stared blankly into your eyes, as you died. Klaatu was the epitome of the end, and Jacob felt he couldn't escape it. Even though, right now, he was running through the woods, desperate to get away.
His fear mounted, as he felt the alien stepping noiselessly behind him. Jacob couldn't breathe as he heard it come closer. The boy dared to look over his shoulder….black eyes were staring back through a stern face. Jacob sped even faster, and he had time to glance back once more. Then, the rushing of water before him, and his feet slipping on rotten, wet wood made him stop.
His race believed in no religion; gods were for the weak and primitive consciousness--creatures basking in the shadow of the light.-- He and his people believed in only what was, and what was not. Soon, the race of man would be gone from this planet, they would be no more, they would be the myth for a millennia. They would be what were not. However, he did not want to make that decision, not anymore. It was for the greater good, but now, he saw the logic of why he should not do this.
He did not believe in a being called a God; he would not make himself one. It was possibly professor Barnhart who had woken this line of thought in his mind, but it had been flying beneath the radar for some time. It was an idea that was hidden, something he ordinarily did not like, something about this planet muddled his mind.
At the beginning it had been easy, but now the more time he spent with them, the worse his thoughts got in each other's way. He didn't want to kill this strange race, it, didn't seem right.
He blinked, there it was again, he couldn't not explain to himself, why. But he felt, that it wasn't right.
No Gods but yet, he and his people believed that, living was for a reason. Maybe it was to starve, or die of cold, sit at a table and choke on something. But he argued that his people believed in something. If you might call it fate, then so be it, but everything had its purpose. This boy, who was running from him, meant something. He was like the masses, running in fear of destruction, but Klatuu did not want to hurt him. For all of his genius, he didn't know what he wanted to do with the boy. The woman Helen was gone now, and he could feel how cold the rain was, as it dripped down the pale and soft flesh of this body.
He saw the boy stop; Klaatu's thought carried him, and his feet closer to Jacob, without his realizing. He was staring at Jacob, wondering. He didn't know what to do. He did not want to end this strange sensation, this strange race of opposites. He didn't want to play god.
However, the decisions are made for you sometimes.
Jacob backed away from him, animalistic fear in his young eyes. Klaatu kept walking, glancing down at the water raging not far from their feet. These frail bodies, they would die in such a torrent.
"Please don't hurt me!" The boy called in an infinitely small voice. Klaatu glanced down at him, and walked on. The boy did not see, the boy did not see, that he wanted to save Helen. He did not want to waste his time on trying to tell him. He needed Helen, the only human who he trusted to help.
The boy didn't see her importance. Jacob took another step back, and rotted wood snapped. There was a blur of colors as he heard the boy's cry of panic. Small arms were thrown into the air as Jacob's balance broke, and he fell.
Klaatu's hand shot out, his hand landed on the boy's shirt collar. He caught Jacob in mid-fall, and it was a second before his thoughts registered his actions. His weight was on one foot, his body thrust out into the open air. He pulled the boy towards him. Back onto solid ground. And Klaatu's breath was coming in and out his body strangely fast. He couldn't take his eyes from Jacob, or even begin to name this terribly strange sensation inside of him.
"thanks." Said Jacob. He didn't, couldn't, look away. However, the boy did. Klaatu's hand fell slowly from his collar as the boy looked around, as if realizing where he was. "I don't know where we are." The boy looked at him hesitantly, searching him for reassurance. "Can you help me get home?" Jacob asked, pleadingly.
After that, all that could be heard was the rain, and the stream beneath their feet.
Klaatu's eyes were glued to the child's, and he was struggling with some silent battle within himself. What forces were at work—what emotions, so raw and so unused that now roused in his mind— remained nameless to him. A light flickered out in the boy's eyes, and Jacob seemed to have lost his nerve. He started to look about himself again, when Klaatu painstakingly, uttered words with intentions, he had never thought he would have.
"This way." He said, and started walking; he stopped when he reached the other side of the bridge, and looked back. The boy turned around and began to follow him. The feeling inside Klaatu was burning; still, he could not name it.
What was Helen? If Jacob was the embodiment of humankind, and Klsatu was its destruction--or maybe its savior.--What was Helen in all of this?
Part one of three, because there was too little time.