Vistilia welcomed him back with a kiss and allowed him to stand. “How do you feel?”
“Perfect,” he answered humbly. Looking around, “Where’s Ambros?”
Teleporting into the room, a young Dark Elf announced, “I’m back!” He wore white clothing, accented with red and gold.
“And Sylvia?” Manius finished his question, looking at the boy. A big smile spread across his face, and he hugged the elf. “Look at you! You’re young again.”
“I prefer being a kid. And Sylvia, well, she’s tending to the garden,” the boy answered with a suspicious grin.
“What garden? Where have you been?” Manius questioned.
“How ‘bout we escape this icy dungeon and go somewhere nicer?” he asked before surrounding us all in a bright light.
Even though I could not yet see where we were whisked off to, I knew we were no longer in the arctic facility; I could hear birds singing, and a warm breeze brought the sweet smell of honeysuckle. The light faded, and my eyes adjusted to see a stunning landscape of fruit trees, fresh flowers, and large mushrooms.
I then realized I was standing in the sunshine, unharmed by its light, and I remembered that Dirk had siphoned away my power. I had only been a vampire for a few short years, but that was still enough time to forget how wonderful the sun felt on my skin. I breathed in the sweet air and exhaled my stress away.
“Wow! It’s beautiful,” Seraphine whispered.
We all realized how overdressed we were for this warm climate, so we began removing layers of clothing and leaving them on the grass.
Looking around, Manius asked, “Where is this place?”
“The colors seem too vibrant to be real,” I stated, touching the soft petals of a daisy before picking it for Seraphine.
She smiled and put the flower in her hair.
Vistilia put a hand on Ambros’ shoulder. “You’ve created quite a paradise. I’m proud of you.”
“Created? What do you mean, created? Where are we?” Manius asked her.
“Oh, this is my own planet, an alternate version of Earth,” the young Ambros answered.
“Wait,” Manius stopped him. “You created your own planet?”
“Well, I had to for the other inhabitants,” he answered. “I retrieved the souls of my kin from the oceans of time, giving them life again, and used my knowledge of death to eradicate it.”
As if on cue, we heard laughter and turned to see elves playfully chasing one another among a nearby crop of fruit trees. Like Ambros, they were barely teenagers. A boy and girl in particular caught my attention. They were twins with strawberry blond hair.
“Kieran,” I called. “Kelena.”
They stopped, curious who called them and ran over. They looked at me as though they had difficulty remembering.
“Kevin?” Kieran finally asked in disbelief.
“It is Kevin!” his sister cried, and they both hugged me.
“You’ve only been gone a few hours, and you’ve already forgotten me,” I joked.
“Hours? No, we awoke here with the others nearly two centuries ago,” Kieran recalled.
“Funny thing about time,” Ambros spoke up with a joyful tear in his eye. “Not only does it flow differently depending on where you are, but everything is recorded within it. The trick is locating the exact moment in time where each and every elf died, and then plucking their consciousness from their mind.”
“Why did Ambrosius transfer his consciousness to me, leaving you to wander the earth alone?” Manius asked him.
“We’re actually the same person, he and I,” the boy sounded strangely adult, “but if you think of us as separate entities, the son’s purpose was to learn to reach beyond the physical to manipulate the unseen with power acquired from the phoenix Arethil. The father, on the other hand, needed time unburdened by life’s everyday struggles to study and understand time itself. He needed to understand not just why he existed but why everything exists.”
“And why does all this exist?” Vistilia asked with a big smile on her face, clearly already knowing the answer.
“What’s a house without inhabitants?” I answered the question with a question. “You said it yourself, Vistilia, our universe is a simulation running on a computer in your universe.” Remembering Ambros’ story, I added, “And like the elves of Lylandria were discussing: We are part of the universe. While we study it, the universe is studying itself.”
“We are what make the universe alive,” Seraphine said enthusiastically.
“Now life from Earth has spread to a parallel universe,” Ambros explained. “And once more, the elves can live peacefully in paradise.”
Vistilia plucked a flower to smell. “But, eventually, your people will become bored with paradise,” she remarked before crushing the flower in her hand and wiping it away. “They will want more from life. They will crave knowledge, seek adventure, and test the very fabric of this universe you’ve created for them until they push through it just as you did mine.” A smile broke across her face. “One day, you’ll understand what I mean, and you will give them what they long for. You’ll release destruction and despair upon your world.”
“Dirk,” I heard Kieran voice fearfully under his breath.
Grief struck Ambros as he looked over the beautiful world he had created.
“Dirkonus is but a shadow of a man,” Manius stated, “eroded by time itself. If he should ever escape his dark prison, he would surely unleash his wrath upon you and your world.”
“And your people will lose their paradise,” Vistilia added grimly. “They will feel pain; they will lose hope; they will know death; and they will ascend,” she proclaimed.
“The cycle starts anew,” Ambros whispered, imagining the journey ahead.
Seraphine suggested, “Then you should enjoy it while it lasts.”
Ambros smiled and took a deep breath. “You’re right. I shouldn’t let an uncertain future dishearten me.”
“Where is Sylvia?” I asked. “Can’t she help?”
Ambros pointed up to the cerulean sky. “She left to create her own world. I couldn’t leave; this is the home I’ve wanted my entire life.”
Looking at Kieran and Kelena, I couldn’t help but smile. Although they had been there for centuries, they appeared wide-eyed and youthful. Their sun kissed skin and strawberry blond hair was radiant.
“What is it?” Kelena asked.
“Why are you staring at us?” Kieran chuckled.
“Nothing,” I answered quickly before adding, “You’re younger now than you were when I knew you.”
With a quizzical look, Kieran questioned, “When you knew us?”
“You still know us,” his sister corrected me, laughing.
A third elf came to stand with us. She had long, dark hair tied up in pigtails and wore a black dress.
“And what’s your name?” I asked the girl.
Slipping her hand in Kieran’s, she answered sweetly, “Tess.”
A big smile lit my face. I was so happy for Kieran; he had his childhood sweetheart back, and she was no longer the 8” tall fairy she was in her previous life. She was now a Woodland Elf, the same as Kieran.
Elves of all types came running to see who had visited their splendid world. Their soft steps were as quiet as the wind. They, too, appeared young, but I knew otherwise. I knew they retained memories of their life on Earth. Dozens encircled us and sat in the grass. Countless others stood back and observed from afar.
“Besides Stenwick, we’re all here,” Ambros announced while we looked over everyone.
Seraphine met the eyes of a young Light Elf girl sitting among the crowd with rose-colored hair.
“Including your parents,” Ambros said to her.
Seraphine and the girl covered their mouth in unison. The girl took hold of a blond-haired boy next to her. They stood and made their way through the multitude of elves to reach us. Seraphine left my side to meet them with tears and open arms. She had told me that she ha
d no memory of her parents, but she must have seen something in the girl that triggered a feeling. Perhaps she saw herself.
I could see they were talking, but without the supernatural hearing that I lost when Dirk took my power, I could not hear what was being said between them. Seraphine looked back at me, briefly, and wiped tears from her eyes.
“What do you think she will do?” Vistilia whispered.
The question worried me. What was she going to do?
“Her parents are here. Her people are here,” Vistilia reminded me. Pointing at the picturesque vista around us, she asked, “Would you leave paradise? Could you?”
I shook my head but wondered what Seraphine would choose. How would my life change without her? Seraphine’s interest in the future of technology and love for jogs at the park has rubbed off on me. I have even adopted her morning and evening yoga routine. I like the person I’ve become since she’s been in my life. And I know her life has changed since we’ve been together. She has become quite a gamer geek. She’s played everything from Zelda and Castlevania to Halo and The Elder Scrolls. I’ve also broadened her taste in music, introducing her to hard rock and heavy metal. She has also grown fond of video game and movie soundtracks.
Behind me, elves were speaking with Manius. With fiery tears streaming down his face, he was on his knees apologizing for destroying the elves’ last great city, Magestice. Accepting his heartfelt apology, they each hugged him.
I covered my mouth and yawned. Checking my watch to see what time it was, I shook my head at my foolishness. My watch displayed the time for where I lived, not where I was. I then looked up to try determining the time from the position of the sun. It appeared to be midday.
Seeing what I had done, Ambros stepped over to speak to me. “It’s always midday here.”
“What about the other side of this planet?” I asked curiously.
“You may want to sit in the shade, so your head doesn’t get burned,” he suggested, pointing to my shaved head. He then motioned for me to follow him.
The surrounding elves divided to allow us passage. We walked to an apple tree where he reached up and picked two. Holding one of the apples still, he moved the other slowly around it. “The planet isn’t perfectly round. There’s a bulge that is held by the sun’s gravitational pull. As we orbit the sun, we are kept in direct alignment with it, and the other side remains in darkness.”
He bit one of the apples and tossed me the other. I followed him to a group of large, purple and white mushrooms that grew just over head high in the perpetual shade of the forest. We sat beneath them and ate our apples while watching the others.
Between bites, I asked, “So now that you’ve created this perfect world, what will you do?”
“I think I may remove my power to live as a normal elf.”
His answer surprised me. “What? How will you do that?”
“The power I was given by Arethil resides in my blood. To expel it, I must bleed it out. I know it sounds dangerous, but I know I will survive.”
“But why would you give up all that power?” I asked him. “There’s so much more you can do.”
Taking the last bite of apple, he extended his hand holding the core. It left his grasp, flying away from us to rest on a patch of mossy earth. The apple core shriveled and rotted away within seconds. A tiny sprout protruded from the decayed matter, reaching to the sun. The sprout grew leaves and limbs. It grew taller and stronger until it bore fruit. All this happened within mere moments of the apple core hitting the ground. A freshly ripened apple pulled free of the tree and flew to Ambros’ waiting hand. Taking a bite, he seemed bored at how easy it was.
“I no longer need all this power,” he answered. “I accomplished all that I set out to do.”
“So you were able to bring Jinxie back from the ashes?”
Smiling, he pointed to an elf girl standing beneath a tree with other elves. Her hair was the color of dreamsicle cheesecake. As if sensing his gaze, she kissed her fingers and waved at him.
“I want to live a simple life,” he professed, still looking at her. “I wouldn’t feel the need to change things if they were outside my power. I could just live.”
I finished my apple and tossed the core, but it didn’t rot away like the other.
“Would you like another?” Ambros asked.
“No, thank you,” I answered softly, leaning back against the trunk of the mushroom. I breathed in deeply the warm breeze and closed my eyes. “This place is wonderful,” I whispered before drifting off to sleep.
EPILOGUE
My eyes opened to see my bedroom ceiling. I slowly pulled my left arm free from the covers to check my watch. It was 8:06, Sunday morning.
“Ugh, it’s morning,” I grumbled. I closed my eyes for a moment and caught flickering visions of another world. I saw a picturesque landscape inhabited by elves. Large, puffy clouds drifted across a bright, midday sky. I breathed in deeply the sweet fragrance of flowers carried on a summer breeze. Exhaling, I opened my eyes again to find myself in my room.
“It couldn’t have been a dream, could it?” I asked myself.
I pulled back the covers to get out of bed and opened the blinds to let the morning sun brighten my room. I stood next to the bed and began my yoga routine. Clearing my mind, I focused on breathing while I stretched my muscles. I felt constricted by my own skin. The strength I once felt was gone. I got down on the floor and began doing pushups. As a vampire, I could do countless pushups, but now, I could feel myself getting tired with each push. My arms shook. My eyes watered. I cursed myself for being weak. I pushed until I could push no more, collapsing to the floor. I was exhausted. It took a moment to control my breathing before rolling over on my back and wiping the tears from my face.
Dirk stood over me, shaking a glowing fist in my face. “You’ll never be good enough!”
“NO!” I screamed and scrambled to get up, finding no one there. I rushed to the nightstand where I grabbed my knife. I took a quick glance under the bed, the closet, and down the hall. I searched over the entire house, knife at the ready, wearing nothing but underwear, finding no one.
“What am I doing?” I laughed at myself, sheathing the foot long tanto. “This wouldn’t have hurt him.”
Convinced that my imagination conjured the vision of Dirk, I went back to my bedroom. I slipped on a pair of shorts and a white tee shirt before going to the kitchen.
“I don’t need blood anymore, so what do I want to drink, now?”
I looked outside to see the sun shining brightly. I opened the door and walked out onto the carport. I stepped to the edge, where the shade met the light. I took a breath and another step forward to stand in the morning sun. Like on Ambros’ beautiful world, the sun didn’t harm me. I looked up at the clear sky and closed my eyes to allow the warm sun to penetrate my eyelids.
“Tea,” I whispered to myself. “I haven’t had tea in a long time.”
After another moment in the sun, I went back indoors and searched the kitchen cabinets for Seraphine’s spiced tea that she called Aralas. After finding it sealed in a small tin, I began heating water in her electric kettle. I measured out a tablespoon of the loose leaf tea into an infuser before placing it into a big, glass mug. While waiting by the kettle, listening to the steaming water, I thought about my life.
I was 34 years old and no longer immortal. If I live to be as old as my grandpa, then I had already reached midlife. And what had I accomplished? I had never married. I had no kids. My books rarely sell among the ever-deepening sea of literary works being published each year. I suffer from avoidant personality disorder, so it’s astounding I even released my fantastic tales for the whole world to read and criticize.
My water had begun to boil, so I poured it over the tea leaves and placed the lid on the infuser to hold the heat in while it steeped. After starting the timer on my watch, I stood at the window and looked out.
“What do I want to do today? Perhaps I’ll go for a run at the park
,” I answered myself.
When the tea had steeped long enough, I removed the infuser from the mug and added a splash of almond milk. I raised the mug to my nose and breathed deeply the aromatic steam before taking a sip. The black tea’s complexity of hazelnut and cinnamon with almond milk was delightful.
Just as I was about to take another sip, I heard a car pull into the driveway. I listened for who it may be, but I no longer had supernatural hearing. I no longer had enhanced senses. I was a normal person in a normal world.
I carefully sat the full mug on the counter and walked to the door. I opened it just as she started to insert a key to unlock it.
“Kevin,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “Good morning, sweetie.”
I hugged her tightly. “Seraphine, you’re here,” I said, surprised.
“Aww, Kevin. Of course, I’m here. Where else would I be?”
“I thought you would have stayed in Ambros’ paradise.”
She smiled. “I belong here with you,” she professed sweetly, taking my hand in hers. “And besides, they don’t have internet,” she added, and we both laughed.
She picked up two bags of groceries that she had sat on a little outside table and came inside.
She breathed in the smell of my freshly brewed tea. “What do you think?” she asked while putting the groceries away.
“It’s great! Would you like a cup?”
“Please.”
“You go ahead and take this one. I’ll brew another cup for me.”
Just as she raised the mug to her lips, I added, “I only took a sip, so I didn’t infect it with too many of my cooties.”
She began giggling and had to sit the mug down so she wouldn’t spill it.
I refilled the water kettle and added a bit more tea leaves to the infuser.
She walked over to me and said, “Circle,” and kissed me on the nose. She said, “Circle,” again and kissed me on the lips. Wrapping her arms around me, she squeezed me twice, saying “Square. Square. Now, you have it everywhere.”
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