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Wander
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2015
“Hate as much as thee like; only thou it shalt spike; Love profound; and only gaiety will abound.”
“Come, Come, Come!”
The sound was almost sharp and longing. It seemed to emanate from every core within him. It called out to him, it beckoned him to come forth and save her. The voice was intoxicating, it was bewitching and the gazed out at its source, searching for the maiden who was the possessor of the ethereal sound. Finally, he saw it. In the distance she stood, right on the other bank of the tumultuous river. She was only a swim away and he knew that it would not be a trying task to swim across and reach her. His most innate form commanded him to go to this spectral woman and claim her, save her. He took a step forward and realized that the task would be much more daunting than he could have imagined.
The steam erupted upon his face and he could to believe the sight before him. The river was flowing, but antonymous to his expectations of the calm blue was a raging hot reddish yellow of liquid fire. It was molten and hot and he knew that even a single touch of this flowing lava would mean turning into ash for eternity. He was now sceptical.
“Come, Come, Come! The sound repeated itself and he felt a visceral need to make his way to her. It was absolutely unbearable and almost unfathomable. ‘I must do it, I must save her!’ He decided and stood up on his feet. Then, without thinking twice, he took the leap of faith and plunged forth into the abyss. He knew that if he waited to think, he would probably convince himself against taking this action.
Pain is indeed an unbearable and profoundly vivid experience of emancipation from all other thought and one wants to just take any action in order to ameliorate themselves from the source of this discomfort. If he had experienced pain in his life, it was merely an infant compared to the full grown giant he was now experiencing. Every inch and pore of his skin burned and he knew he was melting…melting away into liquid.
Opening his yes, he realized that fact was far from the fiction he had formulated in his psyche. He was not melting, he was not even burning. The pain he imagined, he had anticipated it so much that even though he was in no pain, his body experienced the pain his mind was so convinced he was about to undergo. In fact, this stream of fierce fire acted like a river of rejuvenation, a fountain of youth. When he gazed upon his slightly tanned long straw like fingers, he saw the scars upon his palm disappear. The knife wounds upon his hands were no longer there. Neither was the scar upon his face present any longer when h e felt the contortions of his façade His long crooked nose was hooked as always, his skin was no longer saggy from undernourishment, but was hale and hearty. He was no longer the lean, thin stick figure, but muscular, strong, and a completely new man. ‘What is going on?’ He thought with amazement only to finally realize he has been underwater…under fire all this time and still breathing.
The new man emerged out of the water, almost celestial, the grey eyes gazed forward and the sound repeated. Come, Come, Come!” “Hold on!” He shouted on top of his lungs, “I am coming.” Shifting the long wet blonde locks from his vision, he began to swim. The current was strong and it hampered every movement forward. It made him want to lose hope in any possibility of reaching the other bank. But his adamant determination took him forward and onward until he was closer, closer and closer, and finally, his hand felt the cold surface of the other bank.
The grass of the bank felt like ice against his palm, making it numb after his long traverse along this river of fire and his unending swim across it. He was exhausted, his new muscular body was waning in strength and yet, he pushed on with all his physical vigor, giving his all. Then with one strong heave, he was on to the bank and out of the river,. He was glad to escape this tread across the Inferno and wondered if Purgatory waited ahead for him. Was he living Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy? He could not tell. But what was before him did not appear to be purgatory, it appeared as the very embodiment of Paradise, the final step of the Divine Comedy.
There she was before him, in all her divine beauty. His hand trembled with excitement as he raised it and laid it upon her shoulder. “Katherine...” He whispered softly and in a warm tone. She turned around and the sight before him horrified the very soul from his body. There was Katherine, her face burnt, fragments of skull visible in certain parts of the face and many indiscernible from the rest. He could not point where was the eye and where the nose and she screamed, a blood curdling scream of pain.
“JAAAAAAACK!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heavy breathing, suffocation, heart hammering into his chest, Jack woke up with a sudden start. He was perspiring, sweat covered his entire body and he was out of breath. He felt as if e would die any moment and yet, he persisted, he continued to exist as if nothing had ever happened. He was alive and she was…dead.
‘This is the fifth time this month.’ He thought with a groan, grabbing the glass of wa…. His glass of water was not present. He tried to reach for his blanket and he did not find it either. What was going on? The world seemed dark and cold, he could not hear his own words; in fact, and he could not hear anything. His vision was blurry and there was a burning, throbbing sensation within his chest as if his entire being felt ablaze with pain and there was something missing, something he knew that he really needed and was not getting. ‘What is it?’ He asked himself. ’ What is it?
Then, as if like a bolt of lightning, it struck him. “Air!” He gasped and water gushed into his lungs the moment he opened his mouth to say this. Instantly he swam upwards with all the physical strength he could possibly muster. “Huuuuuh!” Was the sound that escaped his lips the moment his head broke the surface of the water and emerged into the fresh breathable air above the ocean.
“There he is!” screamed one of the lifeguards as he swam towards Jack and with all the brute force the sinewy man had in him. He was swift and before long, the young lanky figure was within the one arm embrace of the formidable man as he was lured off like a prized catch on towards the shore where he was coughing vehemently and spluttering out water each time. The sand clung to his wet thin form as he lay upon it, making him a sort of sand figure under the heat of the bright radiance of the illuminating disk of brilliance overhead which warmed his weakening senses.
“Katherine….Katherine…” He mumbled repeatedly and some of the people sighed, their eyes teary from the dilapidated condition of their friend. “Poor soul” One said with a sigh. “It has been two years and still he hasn’t forgotten her.” Said another. The life guard dispersed the crowds around the supine form of the boy whose golden hair shone bright and the scar that ran from his forehead across his eye and down his cheek was now vividly visible. He always made attempts to hide it by wearing hoodies or bandanas across his face,. But he did not assume that he would come across a possible drowning situation and would have to be pulled out of the water. He was the best swimmer in the county and the lifeguard who saved him had in fact learnt several swimming techniques from Jack. Yet, things take turn for the oddities and here he was spitting out more and more water until his eyes shot open and he literally screamed the name loud.
“Katherine!”
The lifeguard shook his head in disbelief at this action and sighed. “It has been two years , Jack.” He advised. “You gotta let go, brother, you gotta let go. It is killing you. You were once even more handsome and muscular than me and now….look at yourself. Please let go.”
The boy shot up, his red swimming trunk were dripping onto the sand. “I do not need your advice, Thank you for saving my life, but that does not make you my master. I will ask for advice when I need it, but for now, leave me alone.” He snarled, his eyes taking a crison hue with fury.
The lifeguard sighed and shook his head. He then rose and shrugged. “Suit yourself, Jack.” He said, “But I am barring you from the sea for a few days until you cool off.”
“Fine!” Replied the boy and sat down on the sand as he gazed up at the ocean, hugging his legs. The water upon his face had aided him. It camouflaged the freely flowing tears from his eyes.
The lifeguard turned around and walked away, returning to his post. He left the boy singular with his melancholic existence to gaze out at the sea hoping for her impossible return.