Chapter 1:
Thud.
Everything slowed down. Ash felt his body lift off the ground and into the air. Pain electrified his body as his bones and ribs shattered. He caught sight of the car that hit him while being airborne. The hood was completely dented, wind screen smashed.
Thud.
His body landed hard onto the ground and rolled a couple of times before it stopped at the side of the road. His limbs and torso were twisted like broken straws.
Blood.
Warm blood trickled from his body and pooled and flooded the tarmac.
Screams.
By this time his ears were deafened from any noise apart from one voice.
"I will be waiting for you outside."
The last thing he remembered before being swallowed by darkness was a beautiful face with equally beautiful brown eyes. Eva.
He awakened in the hospital. The consultant and his team of doctors were mumbling in hushed voices in his side room, they all look bewildered. One of the doctor noticed he was awake and nudged the consultant.
"Oh Sir, you are awake," said the consultant, approaching the bed.
"Can I go?" Ash quickly said.
"Excuse
me?" stuttered the consultant. He could not believe his ears. In
fact he was in disbelief that the patient who arrived from a road
traffic accident, who had blood stained clothes, was left unbroken
and unmarked. But that was not the only surprise.
The consultant
quickly gathered himself together. "We would like to keep you in
for observations. Some of our tests showed-"
Ash interrupted him and adamantly said, "No that would be fine. I would like to go thank you."
He pulled himself off the bed, and tugged out tubes stuck into and onto him.
"Sir, that wouldn't be wise. You were just hit by a car. We did some X-rays, and you are very lucky you did not break any bones and you survived unmarked. But –"
"Um... can I keep this hospital gown?" asked Ash. His bloodied clothes were cut apart with scissors. He pulled on his shoes, and tossed his blood soaked socks onto the mess.
"Look sir, can you please sit down and listen?" asked the consultant, he finally caught Ash's eyes. "At least listen for 5 minutes?"
"Okay."
"Before you go there are some things that you need to know. Even though we did not find any injuries or broken bones on the X-Rays and CT scan, we found extensive multiple lumps in your body, involving your lungs, bones, brain, kidneys. We think its cancer, but we can only determine that with biopsies. With the look of things, you may only have 3 weeks left to live."
With that, Ash was gone.
Eva looked up at the clear blue sky. It was wonderfully bright and it was strengthened by the radiating warmth that threatened to penetrate the surface of her skin. She was hot and sweat beaded down her forehead. Nevertheless, she perched motionlessly on the arm of the bench, waiting for her friend.
Eva had dark brown eyes, interlaced with golden hazel speckles, held pensively with wisdom. Her hair was composed of several shades of brown and reached her hips. She looked quite ordinary, but if you watch her closely, you would find that there was something very odd about her. She had an air of grace and antiquity.
It was the middle of the summer, and as expected the air was thick and humid, and the ground baked dry, and the orchestra of crickets and insects sang symphonies within the thick and moist shade offered by the thick brushes and weeds.
She licked her dry lips. Heavy footsteps approached her from behind.
"Why did you sit so far away from the hospital?" asked Ash.
She tilted her head and glanced at the boy, shielding her eyes to avoid the glare of the unrelenting sun behind him. "Well, no matter where I am, I am still here."
The boy did not reply. The muscles of his face did not flinch. He stared deeply at the distance with his clear emerald eyes which resembled flawlessly polished crystals. His hair was the colour of the sand. His body was compact, one got a sense of the tremendous power from within him.
She laughed when she saw his hospital gown, and tossed him a new T-shirt and shorts. "Here, take these. I went shopping while you were in the hospital."
He looked at her sheepishly, and pulled on the shorts before taking the gown off.
"So what did they say? How bad is it?" she asked.
"They say I have 3 weeks with this cancer."
"Oh."
"But they were surprised that I am that sick."
They laughed.
A few hours ago, Ash was run over by a car. The summer heat and the advanced stage of his cancer had fatigued his body and numbed his senses. He was not paying attention as he crossed an apparently empty road. The car came out from nowhere and hurled his body thirty feet from where he had stood.
Bright red blood poured from his wounds, flooding the tarmac, before settling as dark puddles of blood clots. His body was twisted in impossible positions that defied normal human anatomy. He sustained multiple fractures. Rib cage as indented as the hood of the car, skull smashed in like the wind screen. His T-shirt, along with his skin scraped off his body as he skidded along the floor. It was a horrible sight and a metallic scent of fresh blood hung in the humid heat.
Naturally this drew attention, attention that was unwanted by Ash. He felt humiliated, and felt like a freak spectacle. He was taken to the hospital and investigations revealed his cancer. This was not a surprise to him. He knew about his cancer, and had no intention of undertaking any treatment, or attempts to prolong his life. The only feelings he had was frustration with his illness. Ash did not like to show signs of weakness.
Why was he pain-free? Why did he refuse treatment? The answer was very simple, this was normal for him. Was this strange? Yes. Was this normal? No. Ash was not normal, in fact he was very far from normal. And so was Eva.
They were second year university students studying Natural Sciences. Ash and Eva were not related, but their families were very close friends, and being fortunate to have wealthy parents, they were able to purchase a good sized apartment in central London.
They have so far spent practically all their lives together. Since their first meeting in a childcare day centre, they were inseparable. The childminders would recall how the two toddlers were drawn to each other, their eyes transfixed upon each other, as if they recognised a shared understanding of each other's existence. When they grew older and were able to express their wants, it was clear that the two considered each other special. Their parents found their friendship very sweet and rare and decided to keep the two children together as often as possible. They had frequent holiday trips, sleepovers and they attended the same boarding schools, and now the same university.
It was true to say that before they had even met, they knew of each other's existence. They were special by far, and the two were bound by a bond beyond any human comprehension. It was an arcane bond that linked them together no matter how many life cycles they transcend. It was true that they were soul mates, and their souls were perfect with each other, being woven and strengthened by complex layers of wisdom, experience from previous life waves. Their bond was so ancient and deep that no one could ever comprehend it.
They arrived back at their apartment.
"You are almost at your limit, we have to do something about your cancer," said Eva, her voice slightly assertive, but inviting his opinion.
Ash blinked a couple of times before slowly replying. "I can hang on a bit longer. A few more days?"
Eva drew in a deep breath. "The cancer is extending too far. It might be the end of you before you know it. Let's treat it. Ready?" And so that was the conclusion, he was to be treated. Sulkily Ash pulled off his T-shirt and navigated towards his bedroom. Eva followed. He then stretched himself comfortably onto his bed.
Taking a brief look at his torso, Eva extended her hands over his head. "This cancer is squashing your brain into a mashed potato. I don't even know how you managed to do your essay yesterday."
"I am superman," Ash said pulling a face.
Eva could see the intricate anatomy of his body. She could see the longitudinal bands of muscles stretching over the bones from their attachments. She could see the tree like branching of the arterial and venous circulation, the main thick-walled arteries and their small intricate thin capillaries, the dark coloured veins, the pumping heart. She could even see individual cells, and the atoms that make up the cell. This made the cell into a living organism in its own right. She watched the pair of lungs inflate and deflate and spotted cancer obstructing normal airflow into two parts of the lung.
"Ash can you not do this all the time? If you keep pushing yourself, you could end up dead," said Eva, slightly angry. It was selfish what he was doing.
Ash shrugged, he didn't have to look away or avert his gaze. She knew him inside out. And he disliked her disapproval, it gnawed a hole through his heart.
The only reason why he pushed himself this far was for Eva. Every time she treated him, it shortened her life by a few weeks. It was the price to pay, one sacrifice for another. How can he possibly want treatment knowing this? He did all he could in postponing his good friend's death, and his.
To be thorough, Eva began treating him from head to toe, taking care to destroy all the cancerous cells. Any cancerous cell that escaped her would lead to a speedy recurrence. However, even if Ash was fully cured, it would still be inevitable that Ash would develop cancer again. This was the price to pay for his special gift.
She felt her life force seep out of her, and she directed it to searchingly envelop, climb and wrap around Ash's biological components for the cancerous cells. She soothed away the pain, and commanded his healthy cells to destroy and clear away the cancer. She used her energy to repair biological mistakes and abhorrence. Then she seeded new cells to replace dead ones, and sped their growth rate to maturity to restore function. It was an intricate and tiresome work which required tremendous amounts of concentration and energy. Eva was a performer of her own art, each stroke meticulously sewn for optimum function and outcome. Restoration.
