Dedication:

This story is dedicated to my one and only heart’s desire. “Now that I have found you, nothing else seems to matter anymore except you. I love you and live for you.”

Inspiration:
***A special thank you to Frank Herbert and Bryan Herbert. “Frank Herbert is and always will be an inspiration to me. I believe that if he were here, he would be proud of his son who is also being an inspiration to people like myself and countless others. Thank you to you both for letting us into the magical worlds of your minds.”

“Fire Of Life”

“You know, when someone told me ignorance is bliss, they weren’t kidding. One day you’re just a plain old guy living life, dodging the punches, competing for the girl next door, and trying to decide whether or not you should have bought those jeans that you could not afford this week or not. The next thing you know, you’re the only thing in existence that has seen the beginning of the universe, pissed off a million and one races over countless ages, and…you are the only one of two of your kind left in existence. Yea…that’s me. Unfortunately. It’s funny you know….I never once thought that I was part of something bigger, something…all encompassing, but here I sit on the edge of the universe taking it all in as if it were a sunset from my home….well the one I had in my last life….before everything went so horribly wrong. Though I tell you something; seeing what I have seen…it’s not all been so bad. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m sitting here with you now, on the precipice of the end of it all. It’s nice though that at least you are here with me to watch one of the greatest spectacles in the universe, it’s own death.”

He looked at the statue as if expecting some sort of kind words of comfort to come from it, but he knew that none would. He was alone. So…alone. She was not coming and probably never would. The gap between them had grown from eon to eon no matter how far he chased her or how many lives he lived. She was gone and he knew it, and he hated her for it. “Why did she have to leave me? Why did she let curiosity get the best of her…why?” He realized what he was feeling and was ashamed of himself for breaking his promise to her. That no matter what, he would never hate her for anything she did. As he wept, he cried out to what was left of existence.

“My flame I am so sorry! I was not strong enough. Please forgive me.” No response came and all he could hear were his shrieks echoing back his pain. He realized that as he was crying, the collapsing border of the universe was ever so precariously closer. “Looks like in another little while, all that will be left is nothing. You know, I always expected that it would all end in the ground spectacle of how it was created. A huge eruption of fire, not a dwindling haze like this.” Still the statue didn’t respond. It just stood there, wings outstretched, crying to the sky. A shadows of the love that had eluded him. He has created it in memory of her, but now as he looked at it and talked to it as if it were listening, he realized that he probably constructed this figment of lost love as more of a desperate attempt to vanquish his loneliness. He realized that his ill-fated attempt had failed. Still he hung onto the illusion that it listened.

“When we were born, her and I, it was so marvelous. There was absolutely nothing and then Boom! Everything teamed with life and was so new. I remember seeing her for the first time, flying there like a figment of a long forgotten dream. So beautiful and full of life. Eyes the color of blue gems and flames as pure white as the heart of a sun. She looked at me and we embraced for the first time. There is no possible way to describe the sensation that we felt. It went beyond that of love.” He looked around him and saw as the mist of nothingness was consuming the landscape. Why did he choose this place to live the last moments of existence? Possibly because it reminded him of the one time that they had come so close to being together again. That one life where they had to just touch but the stupidity of the race that governed that planet had tore them apart once again. “Human kind” he uttered as if the words themselves bore an offensive taste in his mouth. “So close we were to ending this vicious cycle. Then they had to use that stupid bomb.” He recalled it as if it were yesterday. There she was, right there! They knew this is what they were waiting for. Even before he could utter a word to her, the nuclear fires of man’s stupidity tore the both of them to cinders. When he came to, floating in his raven black flames he realized what had happened and shrieked his rage to the universe so loud that nothing in existence was louder. He then just stood there as he watched human kind kill itself in the self-inflicted nuclear apocalypse of stupidity. He only left after the planet was nothing but a black, charred ball of molten rock. As he left, he slowly let the rage tear the planet to dust as a final act of pity towards the now dead race of fools.

So much pain was in his core that he almost welcomed the coming nothingness. “I still remember the moment when she left. We were flying together, enjoying each other’s company and then suddenly she saw something. Life. Physical life. She saw races living and dying, loving, hating. It captivated her so, but I knew it would trap us. She didn’t listen to me and committed herself to physical life. I had no time to catch her before she did, so I followed her in. That is where everything went wrong. We were out of sync with each other. Even when I died and waited for the right moments, it never helped. I had lost her.” He looked up and the haze of nothingness was almost in arms reach. He tossed a stone into it and waited for a sound but nothing but silence followed. He looked behind him and all around him and the statue it was the same. Nothing but the haze. “Well my friend, looks like this is it. Looks like oblivion awaits us.”

He looked at the statue and caressed its cheek and neck and began to cry. “I never gave up on you. I chased you and still would if this was not the end. No matter how I could have ever hated you, I loved you too much to ever really hate you. I’m sorry I failed you my flame. I will always love you.” He let go of the statue of his love and wiped the last crimson red ruby tear from his cheek and placed it on the statue’s chest as a pendant. He turned to the haze and gazed into it as if to see his fate in its blackness. “I am he whose name is an emotion. I died and lived many times….but I only existed for her, for you my flame….” He spread his wings, closed his eyes and waited for the haze to embrace him. Suddenly he felt a different embrace. Something around his chest, a set of hands. He turned around slowly and could not believe his eyes. “It’s not possible….is it?” Tears welled up in him and as she wiped them away he knew it indeed was possible. “You were here the whole time?” She placed a hand on his chest. “I have always been here, with you. My love.” He looked into her blue eyes and everything seemed to disappear. He no longer cared that the end was near. What he had always wanted was right here with him. She looked up at him as they embraced. “I will always be here with you my love.” They held each other close and kissed for the last time. As they embraced they could feel the haze around them pulling on their flames. As their flames were slowly being dwindled they held each other close. Just as their flames disappeared, their cores became exposed to what was left of the universe.

Then a great explosion erupted………

Written By:  Gorath
© 2013 Serenity’s Fire