She struggled as she made her way to the shore. The sand was rough to walk through this night. She felt the sand in between her toes and took in a deep breath. She felt salt hit against her bare legs. She bundled into her jacket a bit more as she got closer to the shore line. When her feet meet the wet sand, she froze and looked up ahead at the gulf that was in front of her. The moon hit every detail of her as she stood there. She let it sink into her skin. Raising her head up to feel more of its energy sweep through her. She smiles so as she opened her eyes. The night was clear, clearer than normal. A midnight black it was. There is a blanket of stars so clearly that she could see every one of them.
"Even now, this site still gets to me" She breathed out ever so slightly as she spoke to herself. She turned to face the moon. "Oh mother moon, I ask for this once, even though I doubt you will allow it, but just let me see once. Just once more before the end." She asked as she lowered her head. She had a feeling that she wouldn't see the person she needed most but it didn't make her leave. For this was her favorite place. For she had died there. Loved. Calmed her down. And meet someone important to her. She started to draw in the sand with her foot when she heard music in the distance. She knew she was the only one on the beach that night. But she knew the music. For a Violin played off in the distance. She hadn't heard it in some time. She turned half of her body to see behind her in a low whisper she said "Love?" The women didn't want to give her hopes up. But as she turned she looked in awe when she realized that her wish was granted. The figure stood in front of her in a simple white dress and her hair was loose and floating with the sea breeze. She wore a simple smile on her face with large green eyes that you couldn't miss. Playing a Violin. "I can't believe it. It's really you! It is right?" The figure's eyes glowed greener when her smile appeared bigger. "Yes my love, it is me. They have granted this one wish for you since it is the end." The figure said in the softest voice ever.
"Eplis, I can't really believe it's you. I can't believe they have granted me this. It has been far too long since I have seen you. Why? Why is that?" The women asked. She was rather curious on why they were kept apart from each other. They have been together since the beginning of time.
Eplis spoke softly in return "My love, I can't stay here long. I've only come to give a message. For this is the end, don't call me again for I will not be returning back. For I hate to say this to you, but I have never loved you. I toyed with you."Eplis was there to cause the power that lay inside the other women to awaken. She needed her awake or the end would be a horrible end. Eplis saw the women turn her full body to face her now. Her eyes were of questions and hurt. Eplis never forgot the first time she was the luminous purple eyes shine. They were young and on the beach late one night when they first meet. She never forgot that memory. Now, she watched as they were changing to the purple/red they could be. She knew her words were working. She faced the other women that stood in front of her. They were the same height. For the women's hair was long and black and her stance was a defensive one now.
"Why? Why would you say something like that to me? When I need you the most. Why would you joke with me? I don't get it love."
"I am not joking. For I am telling you the truth. For you don't need me either. I have been watching you for above. "
The tension was getting bad between them. Eplis was trying to destroy the women while the women's blood boiled within her. They stood in silence for a while just staring at each other.
"If you watch me from above then you know how badly I needed you. I always have"
"No you don't. You never have. You have had more loves within your life that have been just as good as I was. For you had Atrum."
"Don't ever mention him. He meant nothing to me! NOTHING!"
"He broke you. For he cheated on half of the town. You wouldn't be so defensive if you did not care. Remember love, for I know you."
"If you knew me so well then you know that I have never loved him. I had feelings, but no love was in it."
"Sita"
"Sita reminded me of you. That's it. And I lost her to Redwolf."
"What about the witch, the werewolf, the priest and the alchemist."
"Nothing. They meant nothing. And the witch ended up being my best friend at the end of his life."
"Then lay with them if they meant nothing."
"Why do you ask such things for you have done the same? For you have lain with Nyx and Artemis and Apollo and Zeus himself. Athena. Valicici. What about all of them. Why lay with them? Did you feel something for them? And if you watched me from above, then you should know that every time I had cried myself to sleep cause of it! For I never actually loved anyone but you! YOU EPLIS! "
Eplis thought of her answer. She knew that she would be asked that but she never actually knew that the other women had known of these affairs she had over the years.
"Yeah, your stories travel nice and far. And it killed me every time." The other women spat before Eplis had a chance to even respond.
"No. They meant nothing to me. They were just there. And I stopped watching. I couldn't handle your sorrow. For it burned me to watch you cry."
The other women didn't know how to respond back to Eplis. They both just stared at each other for a while during the night as the wind played with their hair.
The women finally broke the silence with a whisper "Please don't leave me. I need you. I want you. I need your touch. Once more. I need you to say those words to me. Just like you did the night we died. "
Eplis breathed in "Love, you know I can't. For I am your Maya. You know this."
"Why are you doing this to me? Why are you trying to destroy me?"
"I am doing nothing. You are doing this yourself."
"No, you're lying. There is no way that you can show up here without a tear in your eye and tell me that these years have meant nothing to you. That you never loved me. You and I have been together since the beginning of time. We even died together. My father shamed me cause of what I would do for you. So NO! You're lying!"
The women sobbed out. The woman was getting furious with Elpis. She couldn't understand why she would do this to her. Her blood boiled and she felt the demon that lived inside stirring around.
"Akeldama, did you ever learn the real meaning behind your name. Why it was given to you?"
The women knew that Eplis was being serious with her when she heard her true name. She hadn't heard it since before she died.
"Because my father was Hades, and he was an ass. For you and I both knew that." Akeldama let out a sigh and crossed her arms across her chest, "I know it had something to do with blood. For Hades and Pluto gave me my name. They saw of what the future was to hold. They wanted the town to fear me and it worked. They trained me every day. I never understood why though. And I don't get why I still train with their methods." Akeldama looked to Elpis with swollen eyes.
Eplis laughed at Akeldama's joke. "You have some of it right. The blood part. You mean field of blood. They saw that you would be created into this." "Yeah, they also saw me killing the boy but I didn't just like I am not a creature!" Dama snapped at Eplis. "I am not that thing! I never have been!"
"But you where once and that is exactly what you need to become again! You can't always claim being the daughter of Hades will help you. You are no longer that grim reaper. For you don't go and cut the strings and steal souls. Instead you take! Remember exactly how you where when you woke up! The thirst. Your drive. "
"NO! NEVER AGAIN!""You need to let the monster in you come alive or we are doomed for sure."
"Why does it matter? I rather be dead anyways!"
"You don't mean that!"
"What's the point of living on when I have lost everything that I have ever held dear to my heart? What's the point Eplis? When we died, you became a God so you will live forever. I became a demon that was meant to die. So why are trying so hard to make something happen?"
"Because I need to you to wake up and fight. You were once a powerful warrior. As this creature and as Hade's daughter. That's why you were feared. Not cause of your father. But of the warrior you are. You were indestructible and you won every fight."
"Yeah, almost every fight. Then I noticed a pair of large green eyes in the crowd that gave me a disapproval look."
"I regret for showing my face that day. I should have stayed hidden."
"Why would you do that? So I could have the title that I am a murder. That I murder Hercules in front of everyone. That I killed Zeus's son! Yeah, I'm glad you showed up. Like I need that title over my head."
"Maybe if you did kill him, we wouldn't be here right now talking about this."
"Yeah, maybe we wouldn't be. Instead, I would be with you."
"Dama, I need you to become what.."
"No"
"Dama.."
"Stop it! You know I can't! I was a murder!"
"I know this. I watched you as you created your army to destroy with your Creator."
"Then don't make that monster come alive again. I have learned to be human. Please Eplis. I beg you"
"Do you remember when we first meet?" Eplis said as she took a seat in the side and gestured for Akeldama to join her. Akeldama did as showed and wondered why the subject was being changed. Especially to this memory.
"Of course I do E, that's the night I can never forget. For we meet. Not like how normal people meet either. I say we were about 5. Why do you ask?" Dama said as she looked Eplis in the face. Eplis saw how her eyes where brightly purple and full of questions and her face showed no emotion to the human eye. But to her, she saw the hurt.
Eplis gave her a small smile and allowed her small instrument appear in front of her. She started to play. "I want you to tell me about it while I play. Is that okay? Good. Now start telling"
"I don't get where you're getting at but okay then. It was a night like this. We lived in Greece at the time. I don't know why but I couldn't sleep that night. I was only 5. I made my way out to the beach because my father wasn't much help. He was too busy cutting strings and killing innocent people. So as I'm walking the beach, my only light is the moon. Thank god I have great night vision for being 5. And hearing. Cause some where off in the distance, I heard something going on. But I wasn't sure on what was going on. I don't know what made go towards it but I did. I saw a girl sitting on the ground, about my age crying. It killed me to see her cry. I wasn't sure why either since most of the other kids just aggravated me and made me mad. But that girl meant something. I just didn't know it at the time. I went to her and sat down next to her and just held her. Held her while she cried. I wasn't gonna ask if she was okay or what was wrong. It wasn't my place to. I just knew that she somehow needed to know it was okay." Dama paused for a moment to breathe in the salty air and smiled. She listened as the music was being played and she stared forward at the ocean. "The girl looked up eventually. Her eyes large and brilliantly green that you could get lost in them. All she could do was ask why. I didn't know how to respond back to that. All I could say was that I felt like I needed to do it. I had a strong feeling in me to go over and make sure that she was okay. After I explained myself, the girl just smiled at me. It was breath taking. She got up off the sand. She was a little girl with long blonde locks that flowed freely in the wind. Her hands where soft when she grabbed mine and pulled me up to see her face to face. We were the same height. She told me thank you and told me her name was Eplis. I didn't want to tell her mine. I thought I had finally made a friend. And I didn't want to lose her cause of how who I was related too. So I told her my name is Dama since that's what mother had called me. Before she died. That night, we stared out at the ocean all night and just talked. She and I had been with each other ever since. I feel in love with her. I guess I actually been in love with that girl since we were 5.
I'll never forget while growing up, she was the only person I was nice to. I guess you could say that we were the Ying-yang. She was my good half and I was the bad. I was horrible to all the children in the area but her. And I never understood why til I had gotten older." Akeldama let out a sigh. She looked down and started to play in the sand. "Eplis, what was the point of telling that story? Huh?"
Eplis was quiet for some time before she responded back to the other women. She knew she needed to pick her words carefully or they were gonna argue again. She wanted to tell her that she never stopped loving but that also would start another fight for Akeldama would have been right the whole time.
"I wanted you…to remember that night. To remember me. I wanted you to remember the feeling of a miracle. I'm going to tell you a story and I want you to listen to me and listen to the violin. Okay?" Eplis asked without taking her eyes off the Akeldama could do was shake her head yes. She was completely confused about what was going on. But she listened as Eplis spoke softly to her.
" 'Once upon a time a traveler arrived in a land quite like our own, full of modern technology like cars and computers and whistling teapots, but with these two differences: there were no television sets and no airplanes. In fact, nothing at all had ever been seen in the sky, not even a bird, and the only movies the people ever saw were in the theaters.
The traveler stayed for about a month on the eastern shore where he had arrived, and then decided to visit the western cities. He mentioned his decision one evening at a meeting of the principal scientists and educators of the region, who had gathered to hear of his travels. Someone mentioned that the west had much to offer, but that the journey between the two areas was unpleasant, consisting of crossing a hot, empty desert. "In that case," said the traveler, "I'll just fly."
"Is that like sleep?" one of the scientists asked.
"No, no," the traveler replied. "You know, fly through the air, like a bird."
"And what is a bird?" someone asked. And so the traveler began to explain about flight and what an airplane was and how it flew from one place to another. The room became very quiet, and the expressions on the faces of everyone present darkened.
"Does he expect us to believe this?" one man whispered to another.
"Well, you know what liars travelers are," someone else added. Finally the host spoke up, slightly embarrassed and slightly indignant.
"If this is your idea of a joke," he began, but was interrupted by the surprised traveler.
"Why, it's no joke at all. People fly all the time."
"I am sorry that you so much underestimate the intelligence and learning of your audience," said a professor across the table. "That a person could enter some metal device—like a car with fins—and rise into the air, and be sustained there, and move forward, why that clearly violates everything we know about the law of gravity and the laws of physics. If we have learned anything from a thousand years of study of the natural world, it is that an object heavier than air must return immediately to earth when it is tossed into the sky."
"Hear, hear," two or three people muttered.
"Now, if you perhaps mean that these 'airplanes,' as you call them, are somehow flung into the air for a short distance and then fall to the ground, well, then perhaps that would be possible." The professor looked expectantly and a bit condescendingly at the traveler, hoping that the man would take this face-saving opportunity.
"No, no. You don't understand," said the traveler. "The airplanes have powerful motors and the craft rise into the air, and they stay up as long as they want, as long as the fuel holds out." There were several audible "hmmphs" around the room.
"Tell us then," said another scholar, in a saccharine voice, "how this device works. What makes it fly?"
"Well, I don't know exactly how it works. It has something to do with air flowing over the wings."
"You don't know—you cannot explain—how it works, this device that runs counter to everything we know about the natural world, yet you believe in it anyway."
"Believe in it?" asked the traveler, a bit confused by this turn of phrase. "Of course I 'believe in it.' I fly on one all the time at home."
"And how do you control its motions?" a man asked, without removing his pipe. The audience was clearly beginning to patronize the traveler, and he was growing a little irritated.
"Oh, I don't control it. There's a pilot for that."
"I see," the pipe smoker said. "So this airplane contains both you and the pilot. You're telling us that perhaps four or five hundred pounds of dead weight can travel through the air as long as it wants."
"As long as the fuel holds out," added one of the hmmphers, with amusement.
"And all the time sneering at the law of gravity and laughing science in the face," someone else noted.
"Well, actually, the planes are much larger than that," said the traveler. "Many of them hold two or three hundred people and weigh, my, I don't know—many thousands of pounds."
"I think we have heard enough," the now-fully-embarrassed and half-angered host said. "It was amusing for awhile, but it's time to put an end to this nonsense."
"It is not nonsense," the traveler protested. "It is the truth."
"Then you really believe this madman's drivel you've been feeding us?" the host asked, rather hotly.
"Of course. How can I not believe it? I see it and live it every day. And here," he added, remembering something, "I even have a photograph."
"Obviously faked," said the host, dismissing it after a glance.
"Who invited this charlatan?" someone asked of no one in particular.
"I thought science had put an end to all this miraculous event stuff long ago," said another man, rising from his chair and preparing to leave.
"Well, let's not pursue this pointless discussion," the host said. "Our guest apparently knows nothing of science, and is impervious to logic and to the considered opinion of the best minds of our nation. There's nothing left to do but adjourn." The meeting began to break up, and the traveler was putting on his coat when the man with the pipe made one last attempt to reason with him.
"We are all scientists here, all educated men. All of us agree that it is impossible for a heavier-than-air device to fly on its own through the air. Don't you see that? This is against the laws of nature—it violates the law of gravity."
"Well," said the traveler, "perhaps there is another law, or perhaps there is a higher law than the law of gravity, which, when it is understood, will explain how planes can fly."
"That's just what I'd expect a religious fanatic to say," said a man who had been listening in. "Science can jump into the trash as far as you religious types are concerned."
"Not at all," said the traveler. "But your science is not perfect. You do not yet know everything about everything, what is possible and what is not possible."
"Go take your religion to a church and keep it away from serious people," the man concluded, stomping out of the room.
In the weeks that followed, the traveler was ridiculed and denounced in the newspapers, being called everything from a con artist to a prospective mental patient. (The scientific journals said nothing about the man because they considered the whole matter as beneath serious thought.) As a result, the traveler was often left to himself, and so he pulled out his tiny portable television set and began to watch it. Just by chance, some visitors happened to come by and see the little box. They were very impressed and urged the traveler to market his invention for putting a movie inside such a small space.
In a few days, word had spread about this mini-movie and several scientists were convinced (after some debate) to come see it, together with some engineers representing the movie projector manufacturers of the nation.
They were sufficiently impressed as they watched a few scenes, but when the traveler changed channels, their enthusiasm turned to gaping astonishment. The traveler switched all around, showing them twenty channels in all. Such was the amazement and even incredulity of the engineers that they already began to suspect some kind of trick. The scientists looked confused.
"You certainly have a lot of films stored in that little box," one of the engineers said. "How do you get them all in there?"
"The pictures are not in the box," said the traveler. "They are all over in the air around us. This antenna brings them in and the set makes them visible." The engineers laughed while the scientists sneered, the latter now sorry they had allowed themselves to be talked into coming to hear this notorious nut.
"Come now," one of the scientists said. "Do you expect us to believe that there are pictures floating around us in the air—pictures we cannot see? And that twenty sets of these pictures are all present at once, scrambled together, just waiting for that little box to take them and sort them out? What do you take us for anyway—a bunch of gullible greenhorn fools?"
"And besides," continued an engineer, "how do these pictures get into the air in the first place? Where do they come from?"
"They're sent from a satellite in the sky," the traveler said, as all heads looked up. "You can't see it, of course. It's too high. But it's there."
"And of course you expect us to believe in something we can't see," said one of the scientists, with a touch of scorn.
"Believe it because of its effects—the results—the evidence of its existence," the traveler said. "If it weren't there, you would see no pictures."
"We know you're lying," another engineer said. "Even if there were a device in the sky, held up by a balloon or whatever, it couldn't send a signal down here without a wire. That would be against everything we know about electricity. And I don't see any wire."
"Well, it doesn't use a wire," said the traveler. "The signals are sent through the air. And the satellite isn't held up by a balloon; it stays up because it's high enough so that gravity doesn't pull it down."
"Now he's denying the law of gravity again," said one of the scientists. "Let's go. I've heard enough. Whatever he does to perform his little trick, he isn't telling us about it, so let's just leave."
"Yeah, let's get out of here," another scientist said. "Every time we catch him in an impossibility, he tells us the explanation is in the sky." Then turning to the traveler to say goodbye, he added, "We cannot believe something when the weight of scientific evidence is against it."
"But when the physical evidence is clearly before you," said the traveler, "how can you not believe, even if your theories cannot explain it?"
"Because such an event would be a miracle and science has nothing to do with miracles."
"Then perhaps science is the poorer for it," said the traveler, sitting down to watch his television, which just then happened to be showing a dove flying silently across the sky.'
Do you understand this story Akeldama?"
Akeldama sat there even more confused. "If you know me, then obviously I don't. What's the point?"
"Miracles."
"Oh."
The girls sat in silence as they listened to owls talk to each other in the back ground. Listened to the whispers in the wind. The minutes where passing by very slowly. They already had been out on the beach for a couple of hours having their debate.
But this time, Eplis broke the silence.
"When a soul is created. Its created into two. And place inside two humans.
For it is the good and bad
When a human is created, its half of another human.
For they cannot live without each other and in time their souls realize this and start to search for its partner. Whether it is a man or women. For the soul does not judge. Just loves.
You need good in order to be bad and bad in order to be good. For it is law. They go hand and hand.
For you can have many lovers through out your life. And say you may love them.
But you will never know the true meaning of love til your soul finds its partner.
You will not know yourself if you have found your one. But your soul will. For you could be the rudest kid to everyone but when you see them, they bring out the other half of you. And visversa. You could be the sweetest but they bring out the other half of only a soul can do that. Not humans.
When you and I were created. We were created for each other. For when we died, I became the God and became the Devil. But neither of us cannot actually exsist without each other. For if that was the case, they world would have half the people in it. For if it was true, you and I would of never meet and created the yingyang. There would not be balance. Or love. Or hate. This is why we exsist. We are the balance. And when you die, I will die." Eplis explained the best to her ability to Akeldama.
"For I am only alive cause of you and you are alive cause of me?"Akeldama asked making sure she understood what was going on.
"Mhm. Thous the thing about miracles too. For you are the only reason why I exist. No one believes in me anymore. Just you. As long as you keep believing. I stay alive with you."
"Then I will never stop believing so you can live forever with me." Akeldama said as she took the other womens hand into hers and held it. She finally was getting all of her answers that she had been asking since the beginning of time. It only sucked that it was the end for her and she now knew what she needed to know.
Eplis tighten her grip on Dama's hand and then released it,"Mmm, as nice as that thought is, you will not do that. Desperate people often forget their religion when they need it the most. Which will happen to you. That's how God's die. Yes, even we die off eventually. Its only when you are completely forgotten about, is when you die.
You are my last piece of life. You are what keeps me going. No one remembers me. You give me my life. But I will die the day you die. For you will forget me as a God. For you will forget your religion. It happens to everyone. Even when we died together, the first time. Yes, as i died i forgot about my god. It happens."
Akeldama stared at Eplis. "No, I will never forget you. You and I will live forever together cause I refuse to fight". Dama dropped Eplis's hand and stood up in a rage. "There is no way in hell I will ever forget about you!"
Eplis sat quietly. She kept her gaze to the ground "I said forget me as a God. You may remember me as being your lover, but you won't remember the God's."
"Even as a God, I will never forget about you. Its part of you. I remember everything about you or I would not remember you at all"
"I know, But I want you to forget me as a God. Only remember as a love"
"What? Why?"
"I wanna live in the next life as a human. Not as this. I am tired of living. Is that too much to ask"
"Tired of living? I don't understand, you can have anything and can do anything and create whatever you want. Why would you wanna die?"
"Its boring. I just stay up there all day and watch over you. I wanna be reborn with you in the next life. I wanna be a human again"
"But I don't wanna become a monster to give you what you want. Its too much to ask for"
"I know this."
"I love you. But being a monster, I can't do it"
"Then don't do it for me. But do it for the becoming of the new world. I am asking you to fight with the God's. Be on our side and fight."
"I still have to be a monster"
Eplis cupped Akeldama's face in her hands and kissed her. She held her close to her body and kissed her head. "I love you, love. Please. When you and I are born, I wanna enter into a new good world. I want to be with you"
Akeldama sighed cause she knew exactly what was happening. Eplis was trying everything in her power, without using powers, to get Dama to become the creature that she is.