I can’t find the twin Void monsters anywhere.

And before seeing the original destroy that poor woman, I would have assumed that meant they went elsewhere. But Cellophane proved to me that he could disappear from my sight at will, and now I don’t know what to do.

Nothing at Node prepared me for this. At Node, we Radiants learn how to deal with everything from a sad dog to a full blown serial killer. I have dealt with people so mentally deranged they experience people as geometry and odors as people, killers who live for the moment blade punctures flesh, rich people so consumed by their money hoarding that there is no deed too black if it results in profit, and people whose mating proclivities include everything that isn’t a consenting adult, and yet this new evil frightens me in the way no human monster could ever match.

I have requested a transfer back to Node so I can be realigned by expose to the Within, and interface with Information to see if these monsters are known to my people at all, but my request was flatly denied. No doubt this is payback for my brash insistence on taking no other assignment but the humans of Earth, the infamous “troubled” planet that ate Radiants for supper and excreted darkness for dessert.

No doubt Authority thinks that after I made such a fuss about being assigned to Earth, I should be left to deal with it on my own instead of running back to them when things get tough.

The sad truth is that even angels can be petty.

They didn’t even accept my Extraterrestrial Threat report, because if they did, they would have had no choice but to accept my transfer request, and possibly even sent extra help back with me when I returns to my duties on Earth.

They said there was no “substantial” proof that the threat was extraterrestrial in nature and that for all they knew, this was a perfectly natural Earth event and interfering would unbalance the ecosystem.

As if anything could be more absurd.

Speaking of my duties here on Earth, I have not been executing them as well lately. This Void matter has me too rattled. The simple joy of helping these simple creatures has vanished and for the first time, my job seems like work.

So far, I have carried out my duties efficiently enough, but with none of the brilliance I showed at Node. This makes me feel like a fraud. I help people, but it doesn’t feel like helping.

It feels like an unwelcome chore. Only my sense of duty keeps me going.

And I have never been one who could live on duty alone.

Frankie feels it too. He hasn’t been his usual happily passive self since the Void incident. He flits about in the mind we share, asking inane questions, making ludicrous suggestions, and acting for all the world like a child who desperately needs to pee but can’t remember how.

I’m sorry. That was both cruel and unfair. Frankie’s ghost just wants to help. The horror we both witnessed rattled him out of his complacency as well, and he doesn’t know how to handle it.

And frankly, neither do I.

I have never felt this kind of hate and fear before. Node teaches us to embrace but not act upon our more destructive impulses and to view each living, conscious being as equal before the pure and infinite light of the Radiance Within All. There are no sinners or saints before our compassionate eyes, only fellow sentiences trying to cope with a universe that often seems cold, hostile, and malign.

And I thought I understood this. I have not stood in judgment of any human I have encountered. I remained compassionately detached, determined to get the best outcome for everyone, even those another might find undeserving. All beings deserve all the love, compassion, and caring we can give them. That is the very soul of what Node teaches.

But I cannot forgive these Voids, let alone care for their wellbeing. They are pure evil and must be destroyed before they spread their foul emptiness any further. They are a disease for which the only cure is their destruction. I will wipe them out whatever it takes. I will hunt them down.

And yes, I know this is heresy. Everything I have just said flies in the face of all we active Radiants are supposed to believe. We are people of the universal love and compassion, not single-minded dedication to genocide.

And I do not care. Perhaps if I had been allowed to realign, I would be able to regain my balance and thus be able to deal with this situation in ways that even Authority would have to approve of.

But Authority decided to leave it all up to me, and so I will act as I see fit. I will find and destroy these entities even if it means leaving my post in this neighborhood and chasing them around the globe, an act unheard of for a young Radiant like myself.

it’s not that I want to leave. My love for the people of this area is undimmed. Indeed, the thought of a creature like the Void preying on people like them is what drives my desperate rage. The very notion of those creatures turning my beloved humans into disgusting abominations like themselves makes my entire being quiver up and down the electromagnetic spectrum with rage. I absolutely must put an end to this.

I, myself, am immortal. Nothing on Earth could produce the kind of ultra-dense magnetic fields that can harm a Radiant. We have no need for any form of nourishment or relief. We are powered by the fabric of the Universe itself. We need nothing else.

But this human beings are so fragile, so vulnerable, so delicate. They require so much to survive. They can only live in a narrow band of temperatures, they require an astonishingly variety of substances to survive, and their minds are but infants crawling toward understanding of what it means to be the part of the universe that looks back upon itself.

I cannot allow them to be harmed by these Voids. Regardless of the consequences, until Authority sends a brace of other Radiants down the alleyways of the Spectrum to lock me in a cage and take me away, I will hunt and destroy as many of the Voids as I can.

Of this I swear.