At the furthest edges of the universe It waited…

The microbes that inhabited Terror Firma had not yet reached this far into the darkness. They existed in the blissful ignorance of their safe little solar system; so secure in their narrow beliefs and limited findings, thinking they knew it all.

Yet there was so much more to be known, so much that was beyond their capacity to know – and probably always would be.

It knew them.

Pompous upstart little species, so self-congratulatory in their supposed evolution.

So very proud of their “inventions” and “innovations”… “achievements.”

Ha.

Little knowing that before Its might they were as experimental bacteria in an inter-galactic petri dish. A thriving infection upon the face of a rock just waiting to be expunged.

It knew them better than all, as It had caused their creation.

They were an accident. It had been passing through that part of space millennia ago, when what is now their solar system was nought but a shambles of drifting particles.

This dusty insignificance had tickled its nose as It passed through.

It had sneezed…

…Little knowing what It had triggered.

The propulsion of the sneeze had thrown collections of particles into clusters, the mucus; a torrent of colossal super-glue holding the jagged rocks together. Until a spherical structure had taken eventual form. It had been ill then, infected. The sneeze loaded with germs, now plastered across the face of the rocky cluster. Taking the name “human” they had learned to walk upright, speak in many varied forms, and, bizarrely, attack each other in mindless examples of barbarity.

They were a sickness.

Eventually, very eventually, they would spread beyond their rock. At first It had thought them a harmless little plague that would burn itself out. Yet already they had ventured across to that other pebble they called a “moon”. They planned to go yet further!

It could not allow that.

And so now It was waiting. Waiting for them to progress to a point at which they would become capable of reaching where It sat, just out of sight. Then when they arrived, It would eat them. Send them back to where they came from, before venturing forth to scatter their world like autumn leaves. It would take only the most gentle puff of air from its mouth.

It waited here as a kindness. Let them know a few thousand years of ignorance before It had to do the inevitable – what harm?

On the planet there where those who talked of a creator; they called it God.

Just as there were those who spoke of a destroyer; calling it Satan. Had it had never entered their minuscule minds that both were the same thing viewed from alternative perspectives?

So too had they named its sneeze all those years ago; calling it the big bang. So dramatic.

But now the Devil-God was awaiting them patiently at the edge of their known universe. Ready to see them again. And once that happened, the big bang was coming home…