Eternity

3328 Words

Prompt 2

Eternity

Karen opened her eyes as the day's first rays of sun poured through the windows, filling the room with an ethereal golden haze. She slipped out from between the silk sheets and stretched, unable to suppress a smile as she looked at the familiar, magnificent view from the floor-to-ceiling windows on all sides of the room. For the first time in a long time, she felt a buzz of excitement. Today could be the day she would die. She tied back her long black hair and started to go downstairs, but was stopped short by an invisible force. Realizing David must be up on the rooftop patio, she pulled open one of the sliding glass doors and climbed the stairs to join him. As usual, he sat atop the low wall surrounding the patio, legs dangling out over the sheer cliff below. Karen laid a hand on his shaggy head before sitting next to him and swinging her legs around to face the mountain scenery. She grasped David's hand in her own and rested her head on his shoulder.

         "I was waiting to make breakfast," David said as they watched the sun rise.

         "Why? I would have gone downstairs with you," she replied, surprised. She lifted her head and looked at him.

         "I didn't want to disturb you," he said quietly, lifting a hand to stroke her cheek. "You almost looked like you were asleep." She smiled sadly. Neither of them had slept in thousands of years.

         "Soon," she whispered, squeezing his hand. "We can have breakfast after the sunrise. It might be our last one." This evoked a genuine smile from him, and they sat together in contented silence until the sun was well above the horizon and the brilliant colors had faded, leaving the sky a soft blue.

         Karen and David left the patio, ate breakfast, and locked up their luxurious mountain home for what they hoped was the last time. They drove to the small airport where their private jet awaited them. Their trusted pilot, Brian, looked as cheerful as they felt, if a bit nervous. He would end the day a much richer man, if everything went according to plan. As usual, he rushed forward to take their bags, but stopped awkwardly when he saw that they had none. Smiling nervously and bouncing on the balls of his feet, he ushered them onto the plane.

         "Are you sure about this?" Brian asked the couple, sounding as if he still could not quite believe that this was really happening.

         "Absolutely," Karen replied with a kind smile, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Brian nodded and breathed deeply before rushing into the cockpit.

         As they soared southward, Karen and David watched the landscape pass beneath them, giving way to the ocean before they rose above the clouds.

         "Back to the river," David said wistfully, leaning his head back against the seat and closing his eyes. "Do you remember the first time we were there?"

         Karen laughed softly. "You know I do." They both remembered that day and every moment since. She closed her eyes and she could see it all again. The tropical forest so thick that it was dim even with the sun blazing overhead, and the river, burbling peacefully. They had been so young and desperate, and reaching the river had felt like salvation.

Their village had been attacked and was burning to the ground. The invaders had smoked them out in the early hours of the morning, sending them all scurrying in confusion out into the darkness. The men were struck down immediately, and the women were bound, surely destined to be slaves. Karina and Davi, as they were called then, had been lucky. They were already outside, on the outskirts of the village, having spent the night together under the stars. The previous evening, Davi had presented her with a small golden necklace, and they had agreed to marry. After a night spent walking, talking, and kissing under the trees, they began to hear screaming from the village. At first they ran toward the village, intending to help, but as they approached and saw the villagers cut down one after another, it became clear that their only option was to run. They ran as fast and far as they could, finally collapsing at the riverbank hours later. They drank from the river, soothing their throats and washing out the taste of the smoke that had consumed their home. They cried and held each other, sure that everyone they knew was dead or enslaved.

         "I should have stayed to protect my family," Davi said bitterly.

         Karina tightened her arms around him. "If you had stayed, you would be dead, and I would be dead or a slave, because I would never have left you."

         Davi lifted his head to meet her eyes. "Then I am glad we left, because I can't bear the thought of being apart from you. I want to be with you always. I don't even want to sleep because I don't want to miss a single second of being with you." He pulled Karina to him and closed his eyes. "I wish we could be together for all eternity."

         "Eternity?" said a voice close by, causing the young couple to start and look about in alarm. A shape rose out of the river, made entirely of water, glinting in the dappled light. The moving water that formed its body gave it a fluid, indistinct shape. It floated closer, right up to the edge of the bank, and the couple could see that while it was vaguely human-shaped, its ears seemed pointed and its hands clawed, though it was hard to make out clearly. Where its eyes should have been, there were clear, hard gems. It spoke with a soft, fluid voice like water flowing over rocks. "I could grant you that wish." The couple clung to each other, too stunned to speak. "It wouldn't cost you much," wheedled the spirit, "perhaps...that pretty necklace you are wearing."

         Karen opened her eyes and gazed at the clouds through the plane window once more, sighing as she remembered the greedy gleam in the spirit's diamond eyes. How nae they had been, so foolish and self-absorbed. Of course they had given the spirit the necklace. She had been reluctant to part with it, but what was a necklace compared to eternal life and eternal love? They had been unsure whether their wish would truly be granted, but it had not even occurred to them to clarify the terms or wish for something else. Perhaps they could have saved their village and their families. Instead, they had blindly accepted the bargain. They had watched the spirit dive into the water with the necklace, catching a glimpse of a gleaming pile of treasure before the spirit faded away. Where the cache had been, there was only water rushing over rocks, and they were left alone in the quiet forest.

From that day forward, Karina and Davi could no longer sleep, could not stray more than twenty feet from each other, and they lived. They matured into adults, but then stopped aging. They could not be injured and never fell ill. They could not starve or suffocate. For a very long time, they enjoyed their extended lives. They roamed the wilderness and saw the wonders of nature. They traveled to distant lands and met all kinds of people. Hungry for new experiences, they began to learn every skill they could master. They learned weaving, carpentry, and metalwork. They learned to sing, dance, and play every musical instrument they came across. They learned to draw, paint, and sculpt. They learned mathematics, science, and engineering. They learned martial arts, archery, and fencing. These skills enabled them to get by and to stay out of trouble. They changed their names often and never stayed too long in one place. They enjoyed their lives and continued to love each other so much that their inability to stray far from one another, while inconvenient at times, was no great burden.

Gradually, however, a bone-deep weariness began settled upon the couple. They tried in vain to rest, but their inability to sleep began to take its toll. They started meditating several hours each day in an attempt to fend off the fatigue, but it continued to worsen. There were no physical effects, but in their minds there was a burning need to sleep. It took several more millennia for them to admit to each other that they yearned not only to sleep, but to die. They loved each other as much as ever, but they had lived much longer than anyone was meant to live. Karen remembered feeling that a huge weight had been lifted from her the night they had confessed to each other their desire to die. She would not have imagined it possible after thousands of years together, but she had never felt closer to David than at that moment, when they began the quest to end their lives.

Karen and David tried everything. They tried not eating for a century. They walked into the ocean, and several years later they trudged, hand in hand, out the other side. They flung themselves from the tallest heights they could find. However, they had lived long enough to know that these methods would accomplish nothing. Magic had created their predicament, and magic was the only thing that could resolve it. They began to search out spirits, hoping to find a way to break the enchantment upon them. Again and again they were told that no spirit had the power to undo the magic of another. They searched for the place where they had originally encountered the river spirit, but the landscape was much changed, and they had no way of telling where exactly their village had been, much less one small section of a very large river. Eventually they started at the source of the great river and walked along it and all of its tributaries, carrying a fortune in gems, searching for the spirit that had granted them eternal life, until one day, they finally found it.

The sun beat down relentlessly over the barren landscape. Karen and David had left the shelter of the forest hours ago, and now followed the river through a depressingly bare area that had been cleared of trees. Their voices were hoarse from days of constant use, but they continued to call for the river spirit, fearing that it would not reveal itself if they walked by in silence. Karen had little hope they would find the spirit here. The river had dwindled to little more than a stream, and there were hardly any signs of life to be seen. Once this stream ended, they would turn around and follow it back to the next tributary until they had methodically walked every inch of the river. If they had still failed to find the spirit by that time, they would regroup and try to come up with a better plan to convince the spirit to reveal itself. This was assuming the spirit was still there at all. Karen was so absorbed in these melancholy thoughts that she almost missed the unnatural swirl of the water. She called David and they rushed to the spot just as the spirit rose out of the water. It was smaller than it had been, and when it spoke, its voice was weaker.

"You have been searching for me." It was not a question.

"We have," David answered cautiously. This could be their only chance. "We have walked for miles, calling for you."

"I heard you," the spirit said, and though it was impossible to tell, it sounded as if it was smirking. "But I thought it fitting that we talk in the same place we first met. For old time's sake."

"This is that place?" Karen asked, shocked. It could not have looked more different from the place where they had made their wish. She and David both looked wistfully in the direction their village had been, knowing there would be no trace left.

"Indeed," said the spirit, rather bitterly. "What is it that you want?"

The couple turned back to face the spirit. David started politely, "We were hoping -"

"A wish, once granted, cannot be undone." The spirit said bluntly. David's mouth hung open, the words snatched from his mouth. Karen felt her eyes prick with tears.

"We did not wish to never sleep again!" Karen exclaimed, pressing her hands to her eyes. "We are so tired."

"So ungrateful," the spirit chided. He turned to David. "You said it, don't you remember? 'I don't even want to sleep because I don't want to miss a single second of being with you'" it mimicked. The spirit emitted a splashy laugh. "I gave you exactly what you asked for."

David put his arm around Karen. "Let's go home." He was unable to summon any words of encouragement. This had been their final option. They had no more ideas to try.

As they turned to walk away, the spirit called after them. "However, as you were so quick to point out, you did not wish to never sleep again. For that matter, you did not even wish for eternal life."

The couple turned back to the spirit. "What do you mean?" David demanded, but Karen understood.

"You said, 'I wish we could be together for all eternity,'" she said, speaking to David but keeping her eyes on the river spirit.

"Correct," the spirit said. "The rest was simply my interpretation of the wish. One way to keep you together for all eternity was to keep you alive. If you died and decomposed, you would eventually be apart, once you became part of everything else. But there are other ways the wish could be interpreted."

"You said the wish could not be undone," David said carefully.

"The wish, as spoken, cannot be revoked. You must remain together for all eternity. The interpretation, however, could be changed. If I desired to change it." The spirit paused smugly. "I would consider this a new wish, and would require something in return."

"We have gems," David said quickly, unslinging his bag from his shoulder and revealing the riches inside. "They're all yours, if you will simply allow us to die."

"I don't need more treasure," the spirit said in a rather unconvincing way as it eyed the gems greedily. Its diamond eyes stayed riveted on them until David closed the bag.

"What then?" Karen asked, uneasy about striking another deal with the wily spirit.

"I need my home to be restored," the spirit said, seeming to regret refusing the gems. "It has become a wasteland, and only gets worse," it said, waving its watery arm toward the desolate landscape. My river shrivels under the hot sun. If you wish to die, you must ensure that I live."

To most people this wish might have seemed impossible, but to two people who had lived as long as Karen and David had, it merely seemed like a difficult task, not an insurmountable one. They had thanked the spirit, and even given it the bag of gems along with their promise to restore the land. Then, for the first time, David and Karen turned their considerable skills toward a goal they had never before strived to achieve: wealth. They earned, saved, and invested money. Little by little, they amassed a fortune and purchased land. They bought everything from the source of the river all the way down every tributary, and created a vast wilderness preserve. They gained a reputation for being quite eccentric, refusing even the most generous offers to buy the land. They ensured that the deforested areas had been replanted with the native trees and plants, and allowed the endangered animals to repopulate the area. Now, the better part of two centuries later, they were returning in the hope of claiming their reward.

After several hours, the plane landed in another small airport in a much warmer climate. Brian helped them disembark, and bid them farewell, now sweating profusely with nervousness. Karen gave him a reassuring smile as they left. She did not envy him for his next task, but it had to be done. She watched wistfully as four men entered, carrying two long body bags between them. David spoke with them briefly, then pulled out his phone and made a few sizeable bank transfers. One went to Brian, one to owner of the airport, one to the men who brought the bodies, and one to the official in charge of the morgue from which the bodies had come. In entering the business world, they had had to create identities that were known to the public, and they now had to kill those personas in order to ensure their will was properly carried out. The land and the remainder of their fortune would go to the nonprofit organization they had created, with the stipulation that the land be permanently preserved. Brian would take the plane up again, with the bodies inside, and this time it would crash. Brian would escape with a parachute, and claim that he was sure Karen and David had been right behind him. The other men would ensure that the bodies inside were burned beyond recognition before anyone else reached the crash site, and the couple would be declared dead.

Karen and David set off for the nearby preserve, choosing to walk together one last time. They marveled at the changed landscape. As they walked through the restored tropical forest, Karen was overcome by a comforting feeling of returning home. She smiled at David through teary eyes and could see that he felt the same. Finally, they reached the section of the river where they had twice met the river spirit. This time, it was already on top of the water, waiting for them. It was much more vivacious than it had been the last time, restored at least to the size it had been when they first met.

"We have fulfilled our part of the bargain," David said to the spirit.

"Indeed you have," said the spirit happily. "Speak your wish."

Karen and David exchanged a look. They had spoken at length about this moment, wary that the spirit might again give them something other than that which they wanted.

"We wish to die," said David. "Both of us, instantly and painlessly." In the end, they could not think of anything more that needed to be said.

"In order to ensure you stay together for eternity, I will have to...preserve your bodies," the spirit said. The couple exchanged glances, then nodded. "Come here," said the spirit, "rest your feet in my water."

Karen and David moved forward and did as they were told. They removed their shoes, sat on the river bank, and let the water rush over their tired feet. They kissed and embraced for the last time. As they held each other tightly, as they had so long ago, their eyes grew heavy and they fell into unconsciousness at last. The river spirit approached the lifeless bodies and touched their feet. Starting with their toes, the flesh began to harden. Their entire bodies darkened and became more and more solid until finally turning clear. After the transformation, they were fused together into a large statue, made from the hardest, purest diamond. Eyes gleaming with greedy glee, the spirit pulled them slowly by their feet into his submerged treasure hoard. It pulled a small golden necklace from the pile and fastened it around Karen's slender diamond neck. The statue was visible for a few moments on top of the pile of precious metals and gems, outshining them all. Then the spirit faded once more into the river, and the cache became invisible again. Karina and Davi finally rested, hidden under the water, together in their eternal embrace.