Chapter Six: Bullet with Butterfly Wings
She was nothing compared to his old love. Her hair seemed to fall over her eyes the wrong way, she seemed to slouch a bit more when standing, her attitude was sharp, and she smiled. He could never replace his old love. Never. The day she left was the first time when he took no pleasure in destroying things. His passion was to cause pain but without his lady, for awhile there was no longer any delight when he watched an innocent soul suffer.
The new love was solely there to be there and to satisfy his needs. He had no true feelings for her, and he never would. There was only his first love, in the beginning, that was the first and last time he would ever love someone or something. But she had broken his heart, and he could never forgive her for it.
He stood near the window, staring at the sky with little excitement and sighed. It was the first time in awhile that his mind drifted to his first love. He tried to ignore his thoughts about her, but lately was finding it hard. It was his new loves fault, she reminded him too much of his first, but she was incomplete. He didn't like the way her lips moved, talking with sharp words. His first love rarely spoke at all and when she did he found that her lips moved in just the right ways.
He missed the way his old loves dress was gently pushed by the wind against her hidden legs, only shown when the wind heaved a giant sigh. She stood perfectly, gazed into the horizon perfectly, walked perfectly, spoke perfectly, and kissed him perfectly.
He refused to compare his loves, new and old for his new was simply incomparable. She was more like an accomplice to him, although she claimed to love him. What happens when a person loves another but the other doesn't love back? The one who isn't loved becomes clingy. And he resented ever trying to fall in love again.
Him and his first love were both immortal, would live forever. And he was willing to spend eternity with her, but she wasn't ready to spend eternity with him. He wanted power over the world and power over every living thing on it. He was well on his way to getting what he wanted. Life was good for him. He had his lady, control over the governments and had almost all access to the little powerful objects scattered throughout Djose.
In his attempt to claim the final pieces to complete his supremacy over Djose, his first love began to have a change of heart. She told him that killing innocent people was inhuman, and he simply told her that he wasn't human. Their love fell apart until one day she ended the madness by killing him. And that was something he would never forget.
They stood on the balcony, overlooking the mountains and the slowly setting sun. He had her wrapped in his arms and wished that they could stay like that forever. Now that he had Djose under his command, he had no reason to let her go.
"Once I gather every amulet and stone, I will give you the sky."
"The sky?" she asked calmly, pressing herself into his chest.
"It will be the only free thing anymore and it will be all for you. The stars, the moon, the sun...All yours."
She didn't respond to his offer, she didn't even smile. But she was pleased with what he said.
"I will give you the sky and everything that goes with it. The colors, the clouds, and even the universe, one day. And it will be all yours."
"Even the weather?" she sighed with pleasure.
"You will have control over when it rains, when it shines, whether the sun will even rise and whether the stars will twinkle."
"What about the birds?"
"We can punish the birds and other flying creatures to the land if it suits you, or have only the beautiful ones dot the horizon. The sky will be yours to rule, as mine is now land."
"So you promise me the sky?"
"No. I give you the sky."
He leaned towards her, tenderly placing a kiss upon her forehead. She accepted his offer. Her love had given her the sky...
Her natural stunning eyes were slowly sinking into her olive skin. They looked pained and worn with grief and resentment. She had become distant with her lover, no longer showing him the affection she had in the beginning. He noticed her increasing absence in his presence and was slowly rotting away himself.
He was overly suspicious with her deceitfulness, thinking that she was sneaking off with some other immortal being. He was far from the truth. There was a storm that started just before the sun had set and would carry on for the next few days. It was on one of those blustery nights that he had finally confronted her.
When he did, his hair was a mess and eyes gaunt. He was no longer his normal self. Over the past few weeks he slowly became paranoid with everything around him and more aggressive in his actions. Prior to his confrontation, he had attacked his servant for speaking to him improperly. He was on the edge and had a short fuse that was soon to light the moment she walked into the room.
"Where have you been?" He questioned without hesitating. She frowned.
"I was out."
"Out where?"
"Just out."
"Doing what?" he practically screamed at her.
She ignored his question and stated, "The eclipse is tomorrow."
His face dropped. "So it is."
"What you are doing is wrong and what I have done is even worse."
"And what do you plan on doing then to make up for these sins?" he hissed.
"Ending it. Before it can truly start." she sighed.
"Do you really intend to do that, even after I have given you everything? Have I not shown you love and compassion, have I not been kind to you? I have given you the sky and you plan on executing me?"
"All feelings set aside, what needs to be done will be done in the end. I am sorry."
"Don't apologize to me." he snapped. "Don't you dare make me look like a fool. Who says I am not to stop you before you complete what you intend to do?"
"If your black heart has truly loved me, then you will not have the ability to even place your hands on my neck. If your body truthfully lusted for mine, you will not be able to stop me. If you are able to stop me, then you had never actually given me the sky and your love was impure. If that is true, maybe I should be stopped and killed. If not, then it is you whose life will end."
His glare relaxed on her, and eventually he was confused and annoyed. She was right. He would never have the ability to attempt in hurting her. His heart in all actuality belonged to her, even when death departed them.
The moon was only moments away before it would cover the sun and he would be destroyed. They stood on opposite sides of the balcony, eyes never straying from each others.
"So this is goodbye." she almost whispered. She did not like what he was about to do, but knew it had to be done.
"I will be back. You, I am afraid won't." he solemnly spoke.
"That's where you are wrong."
"How so? To kill me you must kill yourself. Your spirit will help reincarnate mine, so I will always have a piece of you when I come back and you are gone."
"One of us has already died for you..."
He grinned as the moon slowly crept over the sun. "So we will see each other again. I presume that we will not end up together the second time?" As his death approached, his heart yearned to stay alive, or at least have something to come back for.
"I am afraid not." she sighed. She readied the steel against her chest, waiting to take that plunge that would end him. He was strangely proud of her, and even though she was to take his life, he knew she still loved him. And she knew this too, but felt she had to right things in Djose. She had to right all the wrongs in her life, so started with him.
She had always felt the words that were about to pass her lips, but never spoke them aloud, although he had to her many times. And he knew she felt the same way, but she had a different way of showing it. Her eyes subtly flashed as she softly voiced, "I love you."
Before the cold steel was thrust into her chest with her own unsteady hand, he grinned at her and blew her a kiss. "I will see you soon enough...But for the nights that I don't, I wish you goodnight." He slickly removed his fedora from his head and bowed as she drove the steel blade into her heart...
He walked away from the window, replaying the scene constantly in his head. Had he still loved her, even after all these years? He paced the room, his footsteps echoing throughout the vast chamber. It had been at least 60 years later, and through the eyes of eternity that wasn't very long. The spot that once belonged to her in his heart had blackened to the point where it was falling apart. He had never loved before or after her and didn't want to. He still wanted her. He still loved her.
To repress his feelings for her, his motive for power increased to the point where nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted. Not the naive tears of a child, or a frightened woman's cry. Not an ounce of sympathy was left in his sinful body. His old love used to have the ability to persuade him into preserving a human's life for one reason or another, but even she could no longer do that. He was determined to make this his final battle. Even if it meant having to kill the woman he still loved.
Only moments ago it seemed to him that he sent his second love out to do some of his bidding. He liked the time he got alone to himself, also despising it for reminding him of the past. She didn't know about his first love, and it was better that way for her. It kept her own suspicions down, not that he would ever end up back with his first. No matter how much he sometimes wished to go back, he finally lost all hope of ever being happy again.
She came in from the outside and sat herself gracefully in a chair. Sixty years had done nothing to her complexion. Her eyes still held that distant stare, the corners of her lips still pulled into that downward smile and her hair naturally fell over her eyes. She placed her hands in her lap and closed her eyes. She let a soft sigh escape her lungs as she thought about him.
She hadn't for awhile now, it was the strangest thing really. But for some reason the door she tried so hard to lock, was somehow forced open. He was her only love, and unlike him, she would never be able to attempt and replace him for any reason. Not for love, not for lust.
She softly and slowly shook her head, replaying the events that had torn them apart.
"Are you really intending on going through with this?" she asked the woman.
"We must complete the cycle. I am to search for it tomorrow."
"But Luna, I love him."
Luna sighed. "I am sorry my sister."
She shook her head in bitterness. "I won't let you."
"How do you plan to stop me? Surely you won't kill your own sister?"
"I...I will find a way."
"You cannot let her go through with this." he spoke. She knew that he would return within 20 years, but could not pick sides. If she helped her sister she would be deceiving him and she could not hurt the man she loved. If she let her sister do what had to be done, then there would by 20 years without him and perhaps he would not forgive her when he did come back.
"I don't want her to go through with it. Whether or not you are able to return. It would be too long." He embraced her and vilely whispered in her ear, "Then you know what to do."
The moonlight shone through the window, lighting her sister's sleeping face. Her breaths were deep and full and her hair was scattered over her pillow. She gracefully snuck over to Luna's bed, a steel object clutched firmly in her hands.
Hovering above her body, she brought the dagger in mid air. Her palms began to sweat, a sweep of regret came over her. It was her sister's life or her love's. Without another thought she forced the dagger in Luna's chest, driving the metal deep so she was certain that her sister would not live.
Luna's body roused as she did so, but she kept the blade securely in place in her chest. She only twitched a few more times before her body fell lifeless. She removed her hands from the daggers handle, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Her breathing became heavy as the thought lingered in her head, 'What have I done?'
Luna's death haunted her to the point where she could no longer stand it. The things he was doing to the people of Djose she began to find wrong, and she realized he had persuaded her into killing her own blood without even realizing it. Her heart still lusted for him, but her mind refused to. She was caught between two worlds. The world of love and lust, and the world of revenge, regrets, and remorse.
She eventually continued in her sister's footsteps, looking for what would kill him in the end. It took awhile, for every time the object was used, the heavens would reclaim it so its power would not be misused. She eventually discovered its location, and told her love about his fate the night she found it.
After she destroyed him, she began to give back Djose's trinkets to their rightful owners. The powerful stones and amulets went back to the people in the government in each town, held under extreme protection, all knowing that the evil would return in twenty years.
Near the end of the twenty years, she started an army and began plotting how he could be destroyed and forever. She would find the next person that would have the power to destroy him and have them help her. He would only get so far in his plans before she would end him, and every time she watched him diminish with the disappearance of the moon, her heart hardened.
She opened her eyes and stood, stretching her arms at her sides. She intended to make this the final battle, even if it meant killing the man she once loved and still did...