The Celestial Rose BoxSet

by Annalee Adams

  CHAPTER 59: Taylor

  Am I dead?

  Falling to my abysmal devastation was the last memory I’d lived through. The split-second loss of hope as I stepped over the ledge, plunging into the fiery pit of lava below. Was my corpse mollified through the inferno that consumed it? Would I spend my immortality in a molten Hell-pit, just as Lucian was a microbe of immortality in a pot of acidic torment? My Lucian, how could it be? What was the point of living one more day without him, without any of them? Who was I without my loved ones? My mournful existence strived to understand the shattered hole where my heart had once lay.

  When had anything ever made sense? I am meant to be the almighty Eve, the mother of all humanity, yet I couldn't even save my one true love, let alone my family and friends. I could only dare to imagine what Lilith was doing on Earth. The screams of humanity's extinction would rattle through the frames of time forever more. I had to get back there. I had to save at least one person. If I could save just one, then surely all of this wasn't for nothing. But then how could it be? How did I survive the pits of volcanic hell? I couldn’t have, could I? Dare I open my eyes and see death before me? Would I be sat in a celestial ticket booth, having failed in everything I am? I couldn't I had to keep them sealed, squeezed tightly, closed, sewn shut. What happened? Think, Taylor. Remember back to the day your lover died.

  Shit. That’s all I could say. It couldn't be true. Was it possible for an immortal to survive a cauldron of acid? He wouldn’t be able to climb out, he’d disintegrate, dismantling his fractured existence one cell at a time. Then it had to be true, it must be. He was gone. My closed eyes wept from the corners as my bottom lip quivered and the pain of reality rushed through me. He was really gone. It couldn’t be, but it was. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. My sister had brutally murdered him, her own creation, her pride and joy, and she didn’t care less. She enjoyed the games, the anguish she caused and the destruction she inflicted. The darkness had welled up and taken every microbe of light within her. I didn’t think it possible, but it was. She was the epiphany of evil, and there was no way of stopping her. There was no hope in the history of humanity and no fruitful ending to the doomed misery of a future that she would leave in her wake. I knew she would blame me for Lucian. Even though she had killed him, it was I who let go.

  How could I, though? Why wasn’t I strong enough? But then, my light was a tiny morsel compared to the colossal depth of darkness she’d endured. It wasn’t as though it pained her to do what she did. She had licked her lips when she killed, tasted the blood of the innocent with a smile on her face. She was psychotic, to say the least, my evil big sister with a natural ability to destroy everything she touched.

  I could still hear him, could still see his face as she pushed me into the mirror. I had read the knowing expression he gave as he said those three little words before he died. Then, as I fell through the realms of actuality, I heard a splash as his screams pierced my skin and every pore wept with heartbreak. I had felt his pain, felt the loss of my perfect person, as his body blended with the acid and his sloshy tissues screeched through the burns with the sorrow of living one more second.

  I must have hope, believe there is some chance of his saviour. Life could be bloody cruel, especially to me. If I kept trusting in myself, though, then perhaps one day I would prove right. One day I would get my happy ending... Jeez, who was I kidding? I invented the concept of mortal life; the only happy ending humans could hope for came after they died. Perhaps, one day, when they had learned all the lessons they needed to, through the countless lives they endured, they could live an eternity in the beauty that held Elysium, bathed within the light of the celestial rose. But until that day, I feared they were totally and utterly screwed, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. Well, not from here, anyway. Wherever here was.

  Dare I look? I should have felt the almighty shrieks of a blazing inferno around me as it teased my mortal body and swallowed me whole. Instead, all I felt was cold. How could that be? Perhaps my body had succumbed to the flames and withered and died, raising my soul up to Elysium as I sat frozen in the tunnel of celestial darkness. That passage wasn’t exactly pleasant, and certainly something I needed to work on, should I ever get out of here. I wouldn’t have been surprised if even the grim reaper turned away at the thought of trudging through it. Jeez, you’d think you were trekking down to Hell as you wandered through the tunnel of nightmares and landscapes.

  I couldn't get warm. I knew I was lying down, I could feel the cushioning softness of something delicate floating over my skin. It caressed me as it wrapped its warmth around my body. Feeling started coming back to my toes, my mind cleared as my body faltered. Slipping into conscious thought, I dared to open my eyes. Squinting at the light, I could see that I lay in a make shift home; a fabric tent made from the grains of mother nature, woven together and stitched by the hand of another as it encapsulated my body and protected it from the ferocious storms outside. The wind howled, and the thunder clapped. Wherever I was, it was a chaotic portrayal of natural life. Whoever had saved me, had brought me here, wrapped me up and protected me...

  Sunlight filtered through the pores of fabric as it weaved a tapestry of magical notes within the room. Dust particles shimmered in the light as they fell to the ground. Where was I? I pondered as I sat up, placing my feet on the ground, a ground that was made from dusty, greying clay as it wrapped its fractured channels around my feet, drying a well of rainwater that threatened to dance around me.

  Looking down, my body sat comforted by a handmade blanket. Veined leaves had entwined to bring warmth to my frozen body. Why had I been so cold when I was sure it was a lava pit I had stepped into? Nothing made sense. The world was topsy turvy and there was no way out. Checking under the blanket, my body dirty and disgraced, but still intact. Beside me, on a what appeared as a wooden stool, a coconut shell held water with a cloth of woven threads glimmering alongside it. Next to that sat a long dress. It reminded me of Earth’s history, of what the Greeks wore; a feminine, Grecian dress with a plaited vine to hold the outfit together. Was that meant for me? It must be, as my own clothes were burned and battered, no longer resembling anything a natural born female would wear.

  Shifting my body across the makeshift bed, I continued to dangle my legs over the side. A mouse scurried past, tickling my toes as it ran across them. I yelped. It wasn’t something I’d expected to see.

  “Sorry,” the little mouse squeaked as it stopped and turned to face me. I could barely see it due to the light flooding in behind. “I’ll go and get her.” It said before it scuttled off.

  “Get who?” I asked with an air of curiosity. But then curiosity killed the cat and wasn’t a mouse a cat’s supper? The foreboding tale didn’t appeal for much longer. Had Lilith teased me this whole time? Was I still trapped in my own mind, captured in an ongoing battle to save myself repeatedly? The fruitless journey tired me. Her trials and tribulations wore me down. I couldn’t keep playing with her diminishing personality any longer. It had to end, one way or another, and I’d be damned sure after what she did to Lucian, it’d be her that I took down first.

  The intensity of an ever-growing sun bled through the fabric before me. It appeared to get brighter, stronger, and more versatile. Squinting through my hands, I saw the silhouette of a female walk towards the tent. She was coming, Lilith was here.

  Bracing myself, I stood up, wobbled a little but poised and ready to fight. I was all geared up to draw a swipe across her devilish grin and end her miserable life. But then the curtain pulled back and the sun leapt up, striking my retina, bleaching the colour from my eyes as it scorched through me, and igniting the iris as it shut in protest. It hurt. The flaming magnitude of pain navigated through my body as it threatened to burn me to a crisp if I didn’t protect myself once more. But how? How did I turn off the anguish and embrace the light? Screaming out in agony, I fell backwards, tripping over the stool as I tumbled. Water sploshed into the
air, soaking my steaming skin as I cradled the makeshift bed and hid beneath the fabric to protect myself.

  “Eve,” a voice spoke.

  The bed sank as she sat beside me, trying to pull the cover away from my melting face. “Eve,” she said again as I tugged the cover over me, protecting my body from the flames of torment. “Eve,” she whispered as she bent down and lay beside me, sharing the cover as she lay, stroking my hair and breathing aside my face. “Remember.” She placed a cool hand on my forehead, kissed my cheek, and my body cooled at a rapid pace.

  Eyelids closed, hands clammy, back tense, I breathed. A jagged, painstaking breath, but I breathed, and as I did, I woke up. Not in the sense of opening your eyes and awaking, but in the sense of closing your eyes and remembering. I took that trip down memory lane as I entered my mind's library and tip-toed over to a bookshelf. the shelf with the old, red leather book from before. It housed the book that gave me back the memories of Adam, of father, mother, and Lilith. It was the bookshelf of Eve, part of who I am, who I was, and who I could be. Did I want to? Did I dare?

  I had no choice. The woman who lay beside me in reality stood as a silhouette beside me in the library, a dark shadow, a missing memory. “Remember.” Her words were soft, loving... “Remember,” she urged, gently pushing me forward. “Remember,” she whispered as she vanished and left me alone. And remember I did as I reached out and touched the bookshelf and each and every book jumped out at me. They fluttered in the air, the pages flapping freely, swarming their delicate journey around me as they held me amid a typhoon of knowledge. And one by one they swept into my soul, knocking me down. Flying unconscious, floating through a journey of memories, I succumbed to who I was, who I am, and who I would be.

  CHAPTER 60: Eve

  Breathing through the mouth of a baby girl is unique in itself. It’s not really an experience one would usually remember. But when your own birth is written down for the world to see, it’s a memory that begets your very consciousness; your arrival into this reality.

  Blinding light flashed before my eyes as my father’s face brightened into a loveable smile. He picked me up and held me high. I wanted to tell him how happy I was, how this euphoric feeling had blessed my soul, but all I could do was cry, scream, and use those newly formed lungs to an advantage. One day I’d tell him as he cradled me to his chest, brushing my matted hair with his thick, stumpy fingertips. Then he turned me to face her. I saw the bloody mess I’d left behind and wept. The cocoon that protected me was a silent, mesmerizingly beautiful, and most radiant being I’d ever laid eyes on. I knew her voice when she spoke with a whispering tone, her smile when her striking white teeth shone at me, and I knew those tears when she wept in happiness as she held me. She squashed me in tightly, my little hands grasping at her skin as my mouth urged in hunger, taking in my first feed as she fed me from her breast. This was my mother, my father, and my life. I was born that day in Eden, a plateau in Elysium and a place I had always called home. Closing my tiny eyes, I slept soundly, safe in the arms of my mother, my protector. How could I ever forget such a person?

  When I awoke I filled the frame of a six-month old baby, sitting up in the garden with her, giggling as she blew flower petals across the blanket we sat on. This was our time together. I watched in awe as she kindled the light around us and wrapped the petals, allowing them to dance and stream in a shower of love over me. She was magnificent. Grabbing at my wriggling toes, I pulled one up to taste, falling backwards to lay on the blanket as she lay beside me dancing the petals above, creating a symphony of colour entwined with the love of a mother to a daughter.

  Flickering through my past, I found another memory. I stepped in as a one year old, sat on my father’s knee. I was wielding the light around me to shape a small delicate rose, a rose filled with the petals of love and light; just like those my mother had danced with that day. I could recall my father being tremendously proud and manipulating the light we shared into that of a true celestial rose, the rose that now centred in the temple we called home. That was the last memory I had of my father, the last time his godly power became of use for the light. After which he fell to the flame of darkness and destroyed rather than designed.

  My mother was heartbroken when she found the serpent had crept amongst us for so long. She feared for my life, and that of Adam and Lilith’s. She had no choice but to run that day. But to run was the mistake she ultimately made when father found her and beat her to a bloody pulp. He banished her through the obsidian mirror to a realm of non-existence, a realm that no child of hers had ever found, a realm so far from the freedom of life itself that it remained on the edge of reality. A realm that I just so happened to step into the day I lost my life to the fiery infernal lava pit that scorched my eyes to oblivion.

  “My daughter.” That’s what she’d said. That’s who she was. That’s who had saved me.

  I opened my eyes, filtering out the light as my scorched retina’s healed through her powers. Laying my eyes on my mother was a wondrous delight. I recognised her. I knew her. I was her. My mother, Gaia, she looked just like each mother I’d had in every single mortal life I’d led. Adam must have made sure I had kept her with me. But today she was really beside me, really stroking my hair and kissing my cheek. We sat up and embraced. It was an embrace that lasted a long time, but a tearful, weeping embrace that cradled the emotional turmoil of living my life as a motherless child. I had her back. My mother was alive, and no matter how horrible I felt inside, the warmth that came from that statement helped to heal every woeful worry within, no matter how hard I cried.

  “Mother,” I said as I pulled back and smiled. She matched my smile and brought me closer for a miraculous, motherly hug once again.

  CHAPTER 61: Adam

  Sitting there watching the beauty of transformation was a wondrous sight. It was a true place where all light's creations could work together in harmony. We had created such a magnificent home. Eve would be overjoyed to see all the work we’d completed. If only she were here. I know she existed in there somewhere, I just wished she would open her eyes and remember it all. The triumph of building a civilisation, a universe, a home, and from what? Nothing, he’d left us nothing. Granted, father had built the base for it all. He had started the ball rolling on the other planets, but Earth, well, that was something special. That was the planet Eve populated and look how well she’d done; it truly thrived. Her mortals were a force to be reckoned with. If only it were true of the angels, our protectors. When father had created them, he'd forgotten to add a few magical ingredients and now they acted like they ruled the world. Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I meant them no ill will. But their arrogance was far from enjoyable. I had hoped that when Eve sat back on her throne, the angels would bow once again. Gabriel had always enjoyed her company; the pair made a good team. He must have known I knew of their love that grew through the years. I feel for him now, though. To share a life with someone and then to have to see them grow without you. Or to feel that love and not step past the line, never delve into the desire of one’s heart. That, too, could be hard. I should tell her, one day I should say that my soul brightened when she entered my world. But I couldn't, not today, not for a long while. I had to keep my wits about me, I had to protect my little sister, and keep the rose alive. The light and all of civilisation depended on me. It was a thankless job, but without me, where would any of them be?

  Before my eyes a mesmerising angel bowed. Her athletic figure and crooked smile warmed my soul as she took my hand and kissed it, keeping hold as she said “Adam, I have searched but she cannot be found.”

  My eyes drooped. “It cannot be, Charmeine. She simply can’t disappear.”

  “I am sorry, Adam,” she said, “I know this is a special day for you both.” She pulled me up to stand beside her.

  “It is to her It’s the day she was reborn into her human form. Her mortal skin would have reached nineteen today.”

  She sighed. Embracing me, her cushioned br
easts kissed my chest as we held one another for a moment. “I’m afraid to ask.”

  “What is it, Charmeine?”

  “Do you think the almighty has taken her?”

  “No. He couldn’t have. The last we knew, he still resided in Hell.” Could he have left? Returned to dissolve the bloodline once and for all? “Michael,” I beckoned. “Will you go and find out if our father is still in Hell?”

  “Yes, of course, Adam.”

  “Where’s Gabriel?” I asked Charmeine.

  “He’s gearing up to go back down and search for Eve.”

  “Good. We need all the help we can get if my father is down their searching for her.”

  CHAPTER 62: Taylor

  I must have fallen asleep in the arms of my mother, the one true celestial being that accepted me for who I was. I remembered her fondly. There was no saddened past when she walked the earth, only joy and fulfilled happiness. Then she was banished and now she bore the frame of a fractured being, lost in disillusionment through an eternity of suffering. How many years had it been? How many lifetimes had I lived without her by my side? Granted, Adam had kindly ensured each mortal mother reflected our own. But still, no matter the pain, the love, the loss, they weren’t her. Each and every one of them was still transcribed across my heart, though, blessing my soul with their loving ways as I grew and developed through each generation.

  But now as I awoke alone, laid on a bed in a make shift tent, I wondered. Where was she? Wrapped in the misery of my own company I sat up silently. Where was I now? What hellish planet had Lilith sent me to? I looked around, both my mother and her pet mouse had vanished. It was only me in the sunlight and the wrapped tent of mother nature as I sat waiting. It didn’t seem right. Why was I alone? Did I dream my mother’s touch as she caressed my hair, with my eyes drooping, shallow breaths, drifting off to sleep? Where had she gone? Had she left me? My mother, my connection to life, had disappeared into the vacant universe before me. I couldn't do this alone, could I? I wasn't able to make it out alive. There had to be a way, some way, anyway out of there. There had to be a yellow brick road that lead away from misery and onwards to the triumphant discovery of nature's own breath, the breath of life itself, flourishing past the existence of light. Evolution at its greatest as it powered forward into a scientific advancement that no mortal could ever foresee. But like my past mother’s lifespans, would the discoveries be what killed us in the end? Were we too clever for our own good?