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SUMMARY: Entry in the "mars" flash fiction contest.

I hate Mars—I am afraid of it—for when you become part of the red planet, you see it for what it really is...Evil.

It was in the ethereal winter the two moons; Phobos and Deimos shone down on Valles Marineris, the largest canyon, where I wondered up. The ethereal winter of -14 degrees, the low atmospheric pressure and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. And as I walked by the frozen ice caps I saw unwonted cracks creased with red light. Silent and sparkling, bright and malevolent, those moon-cursed ice caps were. Whilst from the embowered banks the red rock quivered sadistically in the opiate night-wind. There in the shadows staring back with the sinister resignation of calm, dead faces with in the rock. Strange whispers sounded out that night.

And as I ran along the protracted rock up the canyon I was maddened by the fear of unknown things and the lure of the dead faces in the rock. I saw that the vast red rock had no end under the moon's light. The dead faces etched into my garish nightmares that laid in the back of my mind. My steps ceased when I reached the canyon's peak.

Upon the canyon top the hateful moons shone down, and as I peaked over the canyon my blood turned to ice. There was no escaping the inexorable truth. My heart sank uncontrollably. Looking down I saw the whole planet made up of the dead, consumed by rock. I wondered of all those who had visited in the past, none returned.

Over these horrors the evil moons now hung very low, but the dead need no moon to feed by. And as I watched the cold harsh stares beneath, I felt a new chill from far out whither against my skin, it was as if my flesh had caught a horror before my eyes had seen it.

My flesh quivered, and when I raised my eyes I saw the faces that I had seen before. I fell silent, paralysed with fear, unable to move, convey emotion. I felt a strange force taking me over, a surge of coldness pumping through my veins. Entrenched to the spot I felt my heart turn to stone, yet still it trembled. I went numb all over, my body began to crack. A tear fell from my now glazed eyes, which quickly turned to stone. Unable to escape this relentless force I was unhesitantly plunged into the stench infested form of the world that is dead.

I became a part of this sunken place as had every other living entity, I was never to feel again. Yet I could still see far out, see the dust storms approach, the death in the rock, a black condor descending from the sky.

I hate Mars—I am afraid of it—for when you become part of the dead planet, you see it for what it really is...Evil.