by Con Template
Struggling because the main complainer was now the mature one, I tried to maintain my composure. We agonizingly fought past the aches of our bodies and continued to pathetically climb up the mountain. Our breaths steadily became more ragged while our joints started to ache.
It got so bad that I thought I’d fall off the mountain and turn into a puddle of goo.
“How much longer before I voluntarily put myself out of this misery?” Eclipse asked several agonizing moments later. He eyed the cliff beside us. In his eyes, I knew that gravity had never looked more enticing.
My tired eyes mindlessly looked ahead at the rolling green hills surrounding us. I was prepared to tell him that we had a couple more miles to go when my heart stopped.
Wait a second.
I stopped in my tracks when it dawned on me that I actually recognized the scenery ahead of me.
Oh my flying pig.
This was just like the postcard!
“We made it!” I cheered like a maniac when I concluded that it wasn’t a mirage. It was real. We had reached the summit! I showed Eclipse the postcard as evidence of my deduction. I was going crazy with happiness. “We finally made it!”
Eclipse turned to the view ahead of him. The despair that once cloaked his face dispersed like the wind. “About damn time!”
A burst of energy rolled over us. With excitement burning at our heels, the biggest smiles swept across our faces as we ran over the rolling green hills without a care in the world. The fresh air billowed around us, giving us renewed energy as we bounced straight towards the edge of the summit.
We made it!
We finally made it!
I nearly collapsed as I stood at the edge of the mountain with Eclipse. It was the best high I had ever experienced in my life—to stand so high up, to see the entire world in a 360-degree view, and to feel like you were close enough to kiss the sky. My phobia of heights made its appearance for a fleeting heartbeat, but it was overshadowed by the euphoria racing through me. I was too proud of my accomplishment to be afraid.
I turned to Eclipse and judging by the big smile on his face, he was experiencing the same high.
With our arms stretched out in victory poses, we began to cheer like two starving fat kids who had discovered Candyland.
“Yes!”
“Whoooo!”
After high-fiving one another, we simply stood there, admiring the exceptional view until our cheering vocal chords grew hoarse. I had no idea how long we stayed on that peak, reveling in the sensation of reaching the summit.
The fresh air, the cool wind, and the phenomenal view of the landscape . . . it was a million times more breathtaking than any picture I had seen.
The ordinary world I resided in felt a lot more extraordinary.
It was only when our tummies started growling for food that we reluctantly moved away from the mesmeric view and retreated to the green hills behind us. We chucked our backpacks down and sat down on the mountain.
I smiled widely, loving this peaceful feeling.
“Now I know why you humans do this,” Eclipse observed quietly, his thoughts mirroring mine. “All the shit we went through was worth it for a second of this.”
I grinned at him before going forward with the next item on my itinerary. I fished out a red cloth from my backpack and positioned it on the grass before taking two water bottles out. Afterwards, I extracted two packs of dried mango, chips, and something I requested for the owner of the cottage to buy before we arrived at the cottage: steamed rice cakes.
I placed twenty-five steamed rice cakes on a silver platter
“This is one of my favorite desserts,” I gushed, carefully pushing the dessert platter towards Eclipse. He was eyeing the rice cakes in intrigue. I doubted he had ever seen anything quite like it. “Dried mangoes are my favorite snacks, but this is my absolute favorite dessert.” I waved an impatient hand at the rice cake display I set up for him. “Now hurry up and eat the first one so I can have a go too!”
Eclipse laughed, grabbed the white rice cake on top, and took his first bite.
“Damn . . .”
Anxiousness flooded my senses. There was a look of agony on his face that had me worried. Damn it. Did I screw up? Was there something wrong with the rice cake?
“Wh – what?” I asked hesitantly, nervously clutching onto the picnic cloth.
“I should not enjoy anything that tastes like Heaven,” he murmured in appreciation. “If my brothers were here, they’d kill me for such travesty.”
A hitched breath escaped from me. Elated that he was enjoying the food, I selected a green rice cake and handed it to OinkOink. He barked excitedly before joyfully annihilating it. I helped myself to a pink rice cake, and with my first bite, I was a goner. Groaning with orgasmic bliss, I abdicated all control and thrust myself to the ground, resting on my back and allowing my gluttonous sin to overtake me.
“I am in pain,” I muttered while snacking on rice cake after rice cake.
My muscles throbbed from the exertion I placed on it today. Even breathing was a hardship. Every inhalation and exhalation made me feel like the molecules in my body would fall apart at any given moment. The only thing that made this experience endurable was the mountainous landscape surrounding me. The grass danced in harmony with the wind, tickling my legs every time it swayed too close to me.
I briefly closed my eyes, and for a dream-like moment, I pretended I was on top of the world, sleeping on clouds.
Eclipse settled beside me, lying parallel to me with the platter of rice cakes between us. He appraised me with another suspicious glint in his eyes.
“Lying on the rolling green hills and staring down at the world is on your bucket list too, isn’t it, Teacup?” I ignored his question, still childishly pretending that I was napping on clouds, but he spurred on. “Were you supposed to do this with your boyfriend before you died?”
“My husband,” I corrected quietly, bashfully reaching for another rice cake.
Eclipse’s eyes enlarged with supreme interest. “Does that mean I’m your interim husband?”
“You’re a Demon whose birthday I’m celebrating because I’m being a good friend,” I dismissed airily, though deep down, I could feel my insides tingle at the thought of calling him my husband.
“I’ll take what I can get.” He laughed, sitting upright. His knees were bent up while he admired the vista ahead of us. After a weighty pause, he contemplatively asked, “What else is on your bucket list, Gracie?”
“More than I can list,” I confessed, sitting up alongside him. By now OinkOink had fallen asleep behind us, lost in his own world, while Eclipse and I grew lost in ours.
His interest was heightened. “Yeah?”
I nodded slowly, my eyes locked on the flourishing landscape. “I didn’t know that there was so much I wanted to do until I realized I was close to dying. I suddenly had this unbearable urge to make the most of my life, to create unforgettable memories that I could proudly mark as important milestones in my life.”
A ghost of a smile played on his mouth. He moved closer, his lips dangerously close to my ear. “An eternity would mean that you’d have all the time in the world to do them . . .”
I snorted, halfheartedly pushing him away for his salesman tactic. I hugged my knees to my chest and pondered what he suggested. “I’d never do them if I had all the time in the world. I would procrastinate and put them off and never get to them.” I diverted my attention to him. I became curious about the big things he had done in his life. He had seen the ages. He must’ve accomplished so much. “What are the biggest milestones in your life?”
He regarded me, caught off guard with my innocuous question.
I gave him a strange look as a swarm of birds flew over us. “You have none?”
“I was born, I ruled over my Kingdom, I strived to be the sole monarch, and I fell.”
He lackadaisically recounted his “milestones” as though they were something to be proud of. Eclips
e smiled to himself, stopping when he realized how lame it all sounded. He grinned at my blasé face.
“You may have a point,” he voiced at my unspoken comment. Eclipse sighed and surveyed his idyllic surroundings. “The thing with having an eternity to look forward to is that time moves at a rapid pace. As an immortal, months become seconds, years become minutes, and decades become hours. My life feels like a blur. I can only remember fighting for power and the constant struggle for it, not much else.”
“You’re telling me that if your life were to flash before your eyes, then all you’d see is your constant desire to be a sole monarch?”
Amusement poured from him. “You make it sound so unfulfilling.”
I gave a careless shrug. “It’s strange to talk to a creature who has seen forever pass him by and realize that he’s in the same boat as me, if not worse. A lifetime may be long, but I’m positive that I’ll remember all the milestones in my insignificant life.” I swung my gaze to him, catching his attentive eyes. “It is ironic that a being of your”—I paused in the manner he always did whenever he was trying to find the correct term—“significance, who finds human life to be so unimportant, can be at this place in life. Instead of having milestones in your life, you have blurs.” I grinned coyly, now feeling like I was at a better station in life. “Perhaps your existence is not as significant as you thought it was. Perhaps my existence is more significant than yours.”
“You’re bordering on blasphemy, Teacup,” he cautioned lightly, a shred of gentleness threading his stern voice.
“Is it not true?” I needled. I assessed him critically. “Do you have any other goals in life other than trying to be the sole monarch?”
He looked unnerved by my simple question.
For the first time, I observed that Eclipse was uncertain about the magnitude of his own life.
“Not really,” he reluctantly admitted. A short bout of silence cascaded from him. He took the necessary time to mull over it, truly trying to search for a perfect answer to give not only to me, but also to himself. “The biggest milestone in my life was supposed to be getting what I wanted power-wise,” he stated carefully, “and everything else, I’ve put aside.” He angled his head towards me, smirking when he took stock of where I was taking this conversation. “Are we at the ‘who is better, human or immortal’ debate again?”
I shrugged, standing up to enjoy the view. A soft breeze whipped at my hair, bringing with it the scent of fresh air. I folded my arms knowingly.
“You’re always so cocky, but after talking to you, I think I’m the one who should be cocky.”
Eclipse laughed and stood up beside me.
“An eternity is a liberating gift,” he whispered close to my ear. “Just because I’m a workaholic doesn’t mean that you have to take it for granted as well.”
“If you remember blurs,” I went on as my mind started to churn, disregarding his words, “then does that mean you have little emotional ties?”
He appraised me curiously. “What do you mean?”
Oh, he shouldn’t have gotten me started. When I began with my rants about philosophical things, it would take a while for me to stop.
“Memories are attached to our emotions. Whether it be pain, happiness, fear, or triumph, every one of our memories—especially our most important ones—are stained with our emotions. If you remember blurs, then it must be that you have little to no emotional sentiments to any facet in your life. If you have no emotional sentiments towards any facet of your life, then are you truly living?”
I took in the cool air as he tilted his head attentively.
“To live is to experience life in all of its glory and its atrocity,” I continued. “One of the main components of ‘living’ is your ability to feel emotions. If you cannot feel emotions, then you are truly not experiencing life. If you are not experiencing life, then you are truly not living. Ergo, if you’re not living, then you are not better than me.”
I looked at him sideways.
“Perhaps you are no better than the marble statues that have seen the ages. The world may wilt and die around you—and you may feel superior because you are the last one standing—but the truth is that you’re not moving ahead of us. We’re the ones moving ahead of you. While I am living my life, growing, aging, and dying—basically experiencing everything I was meant to experience in life—you are stuck where you are, watching quietly in the background and feeling nothing as the rest of existence passes you by.”
I smiled complacently, surprised myself at the picture I painted of our respective stations in life. It wasn’t the perfect argument, but it was my argument nonetheless, and I was proud of it.
“Perhaps I am not so insignificant after all.”
“Interesting argument from a human who constantly wants to be better than an immortal,” he murmured, staring at me with mounting interest. His eyes raked over me with adoration. “If we’re going with your theory of saying that you’re more important than me, then I’m going to make myself significant through you.”
I arched a curious brow. “What do you mean?”
“If you think my existence is insignificant because all that I will remember are blurs, then I might as well make myself significant to you, right? If I become unforgettable and momentous to you, then I will become a significant creature by default.”
I had to laugh at his silly reasoning. “Well, you’ve pretty much left an impression already.”
A determined smirk contoured his ambitious face. “I don’t want to leave an impression. I want to be your milestone.”
I eyed him keenly, floored by the conviction behind his words. “How are you planning on doing that?”
The smile pasted on his lips grew enigmatic as the rays of the sun lavished their attention onto our skin. It appeared that Eclipse already knew what he could do to make himself an unforgettable milestone in my life.
“I get a special gift when it is my birthday,” he prompted softly, seductively.
The racing of my heart went into overdrive. There was something about how he conveyed those words that sent excitement pulsing through my veins. “What?”
Without saying anything, he simply lifted his hand and touched the side of my temple. A warm, electrical current crept into my mind, and I felt a transparent veil swim over my eyes, like clear contacts.
“Now,” he whispered, pointing in the direction of the sun. “Stare at the sun.”
I did what he said, and I was amazed that I didn’t squint once. I was staring directly at the sun, appreciating all of its glory, but I didn’t feel any of its wrath. I was astounded, but nothing could’ve prepared me for what was to come. I was about to ask Eclipse what he did to my eyes when the most stunning thing occurred: an eclipse started to take place.
Oh my God . . .
I had to hold onto Eclipse to maintain my equilibrium because I was completely mesmerized. With wonder running over my body, I watched, utterly transfixed as the moon began to veil over the disk of the sun. The movements were slow and unhurried. It was as though the moon had all the time in the world to overpower the sun.
Then, in the most stunning astronomical moment I would ever experience in my human life, the sunny world I was in began to darken with every progressing advancement of the moon. The veiling continued with the moon making its mark on the sun before the impossible occurred: the moon engulfed the sun completely. Soon after, all that was left were the edges of thin light shining through—the corona.
My once sunny world was now completely dark.
In that gripping instant, it felt like the hands of time had stopped and all that existed was me, the total eclipse up above me, and the Demon standing beside me, sharing in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Thou shall not provoke the hands of fate?”
27: Broken Eternity
“Is – is this really happening?” I breathed out, absolutely hypnotized.
“Yes,” Eclipse whispered beside my ear.
/> If the rest of the world were to witness this, then I had no doubt they would have also stopped whatever they were doing to gaze at this extravagant event. No human could ignore this. This was the embodiment of astronomical beauty in its rawest and most spellbinding form.
Amazement swamped my senses. “Can the rest of the world see this?”
“No. Just us.”
I reluctantly tore my eyes from the magnificence above me and gazed at Eclipse with bewilderment. “How is it possible that this is happening, but no one else sees it?”
Eclipse smiled gently, stroking my cheek with the back of his hand. “There is a reason why I was named after the eclipse. Whenever it is my birthday, no matter how weakened I am—as long as I’m still breathing—I have my powers over it. If I want to see it on my birthday, then it will present itself to me.” A chuckle slipped free from him. “And since I am looking to make a lasting impact on your life, it makes sense to gift you with my sight so that you can see my eclipse as well.”
He eased his hand from my face and inclined his head back to the dark sky.
“Enjoy the show, Gracie. This event is rare, even for me. It’s the only part of my birthday that I actually celebrate.”
I nodded obediently, returning my attention back to the skies.
It was an incredible high to stand over a cliff and bear witness to one of the most beautiful events in the world. Pictures and videos could never replace the feeling of awe that one would receive with this life changing experience—to be able to see your all-powerful sun, the very sun that you are forbidden to look directly at, being humbled by the moon. The sight was majestic, terrifying, breathtaking, mesmerizing, and biblical in every way imaginable.
As the wind continued to toss my ponytail about, my thoughts migrated back to what Eclipse said about the total eclipse—that a phenomenon like this occurs when the Heavens are blinded from Earth, that it is in this moment where humans are at the mercy of the forces of evil. It was difficult to accept that such an atrocity over the human world could appear so glorious.
“When we were sitting atop the building that one night, you once told me that during those rare instances where an eclipse occurs, time stops . . .” I tilted my head, unable to take my eyes off the spectacular event in front of me. “How can time stop if we’re all still alive when it happens?”