What the Heart Desires

by Jaime Derelle

  Just as he had lost all hope, something began to rumble besides him. A beam of light struck out from a tear within space and Vanda had to shield his face from its blinding glory. It was here. Vanda immediately pushed the orb towards it.

  When he reached it, he held O out to it; presenting it to the light. The light began to flash and change color. Vanda moved into it, the light burning his eyes as he did so, until he was within the very structure of the light, consumed by its pure incandescence.

  The light began to expand around him, and O’s body started to float out of his arms, breaking through the orb. Everything went completely white forVanda then, but as he reached out into the white, but couldn’t find O. He screamed out in the wilderness, but heard nothing back. The light intensified to such a pitch that Vanda lost consciousness.

  ******

  Vanda awoke on a bed. Lying next to him with her emerald eyes open and staring straight into his face was O. Vanda instantly took hold of her firmly in his arms, hoping that she wasn’t a mirage, and began to weep tears of the purest joy.

  “I thought I’d lost you forever,” he wept.

  “I didn’t know where I was,” she said timidly. “Everywhere was white and I was floating; lost. But a voice kept telling me in a strange, but somehow familiar language that I was okay and that I would soon be back with you. I think it was God.”

  “Where are we now?” Vanda asked.

  “I’m not sure; I only just awoke, at the very second that you did.”

  They both got up. They were in a strange room decorated like the old European palaces of the Baroque period; large windows, repetitions of simple patterns carved into the plaster work, Louise XV furniture, chairs with spindly little legs like those of a terrier dog. Outside was a sprawling meadow of the most beautiful green, rolling hills bordered by forests of massively tall trees that seemed to be as big as skyscrapers. From outside, they heard the chatter of birds and the giggles of children come echoing into the room.

  Suddenly, the young boy of Zilo appeared at the open doorway.

  “You’re back!” he said, his words tinted with the utmost joy.

  He ran towards them and jumped onto the bed, embracing the pair as he landed.

  “Where are we?” O asked the boy.

  “I’m not sure,” Zilo said. “But where ever it is, it’s heavenly. We haven’t got any technological equipment yet, so we’re a little lost as far as finding out our position. I certainly don’t recognise the place from anything I’ve ever seen before. But it scattered with theses beautiful little houses everywhere.”

  “Who is ‘we’?” Vanda mused.

  “Yes— we,” Zilo inferred. “After you had disappeared, a great beam of light struck Earth and removed everyone from the lower levels of Earth’s cities— we at first thought that the government had initiated the purge. But soon we realised that it was something more than that; something had brought us to here. It’s the most beautiful place, and it’s huge too. You should check out the architecture, and it’s already full of farming equipment and anything that we could ever need. It’s perfect for us.”

  The three then left the house and walked outside amongst the beautiful new world that they had been cast into. Everywhere, people joyously walked with their children, huge smiles on their faces. All of a sudden, two children came bounding up to them and took ahold of O around her waist. It was the children from the family. O lifted the small boy up into her arms, the little girl holding onto the hand of Vanda, and they all walked through the picturesque beauty of their new world.

  They looked towards the horizon and noticed the dual suns that burned in the sky. Something— God or otherwise— had saved them all. It had heard their cries in the darkness and removed them all from their inevitable nightmare. When Vanda and O had entered it, their love had merged with it, and it had taken on their struggles. Their love so impressed itself upon the light that it felt compelled to grant them and their kind salvation from the tyranny of evil men.

  Call it what you want, but many came to call it the Rapture. Those that had spent their lives struggling under the despotism of the oppressive and vindictive government were removed, as well as those that suffered amongst the colonies. Everyone else was left behind to reap what they had sowed.

  As time went on, Vanda and O started a family of their own and lived out a humble existence in the new colony. They had much to do, though, as the land needed leadership. They taught the new generations of the perils of the world that they had left behind, Earth, and of how its immorality had mutated it into something horrific. They taught them a set of morals that spoke of complete equality. No man would ever be allowed to be superior to another. Even though Vanda and O worked in the new government, they were treated just as all would if they toiled in the field or collected the refuse and in this spirit, they created a utopia built and made for all.

  Sometimes at night, they would tell their children of the stories of their past. The children would look at them with disbelief at their tales of photon canons and sentry droids. Of course, they kept the worst of the details away from them; there was no point filling their heads with the evils of this other time. In fact, as time went on, neither Vanda nor O could scarcely believe the world that they had once lived in, especially when they looked upon the joyful faces of their brood.

  They would grow old together in this kingdom; their souls were inseparably fused together for all eternity; traveling through each new dimension as one symbiotic being; living the glory of this life over and over again, throughout all time, their love never waning; the light of their combined soul never going out.

  Vanda didn’t need his visions any longer; he was living in one.

  *****

  THE END

  Bonus Book - All I want for Christmas

  All I want for Christmas

  A Christmas Romance Story

  Daphne Rebecca

  Chapter 1

  Melanie hated Christmas.

  This time, of the year, evoked so many painful memories for her. It was the time of year when she felt the loneliest like she had no one in the world to turn to. During those cold December weeks in the Midwest, she barely had the energy or the drive to get out of bed.

  Unfortunately, staying in bed during the Christmas season is a luxury the owner of a cupcake business does not have.

  She’d started the business after graduating from CIA, New York’s premier culinary school. So many people had expected her to stay in New York City after she finished her degree. But she had always known, since she was a little girl dreaming about being a pastry chef, that she would return home to the small town of Carlsberg, Minnesota, population, established.

  This place had so much history, and so much of it was romantic. It was said to be founded in 1698 by a husband and wife in desperate search of refuge from Native American fur trappers. They were forced to flee their home in the dead of the Minnesota winter. The wife was pregnant, and the couple had very little resources. There was little chance for their survival in the dark, dense and freezing cold forests.

  But they did in fact survive. The wife suffered through a painful pregnancy, but she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. This birth was considered to be miraculous.

  The boy was named Carl. Shortly after his birth, more people wandered through the area that the couple now called home. The travelers were invited to stay and soon began building permanent living quarters. Eventually, a town was formed, the town of Carlsberg.

  Every Christmas, tourists from in and out of state would flock to the small town.

  There had always been whispers around town that the story of the couple was a myth. There may have been some truth to those assertions, but almost 300 years later, whether or not it was fact or fiction hardly mattered. The myth had created a magical aura around the town. During the tourist season lovers, young and old, walked the snow-covered streets arm in arm, radiating love and contentment.

  Seeing all those happy couples only increase
d Melanie’s sense of loneliness and isolation. But, ironically, it was the best time of year for her business.

  It was exactly one week before Christmas, and the bells on the front door seemed to jingle every few minutes as townsfolk came in and out of the store all day. And the ones that didn’t come in would make their orders by phone. This time of year, there was never a moment when the phone wasn’t ringing.

  A couple of years ago, Melanie had attempted to bring the shop into the digital age by creating an online ordering system. But the townsfolk had reacted angrily to the idea. Some people even accused her of thinking that she was better than they were because she had been to some fancy New York culinary school and had been featured on national news shows a couple of times.

  When news of the rumors got around to Melanie, she didn’t react angrily. She understood exactly why they had responded like that.

  In Carlsberg, people put a very high value on community. They didn’t mind having to wait in line in the store. It was a time to socialize and to participate in a little local gossip, sometimes harmless, sometimes not. People wanted to have actual interaction with another human being, not a computer.

  That desire for real human contact was part of the reason that the town had kept its quaint charm for all these many years.

  “Melanie, there’s a phone call for you,” said Stephanie, one of the local college students who worked in the bakery. She had orange hair and a couple of tattoos on her forearms that Melanie required her to cover up in the bakery. Despite her suspect appearance, over the last two years, Stephanie had been her most reliable employee, never missing a day of work or arriving late.

  Melanie answered the phone. It was an executive from ABC television. She had no idea why someone like that would be contacting her, and she nearly hung the phone up, assuming that it was some sort of prank.

  But thank God she didn’t hang up! She was about to receive one of the biggest orders in the five-year history of the cupcake shop.

  The ABC executive told her that they would be shooting a short documentary on one of the town’s most well-known people.

  When Melanie heard who it was, she almost fainted. For a moment, she put the phone down and leaned against the wall. She feared that she might have been having a panic attack. That had happened before on more than one occasion.

  “Hello, hello, are you still there?” She heard coming from the phone. She took a couple more deep breaths and picked up the phone.

  When the phone call ended, Melanie stood in her back office trembling. “This can’t be happening,” she said to herself. “ It can’t be.”

  Chapter 2

  Wade sat on the couch in his bachelor pad, flipping through the channels. He was barely paying attention to the images that passed before him on the screen. His mind seemed to be a million miles away.

  But when he landed on a hockey game, he immediately snapped back to the present. He put the remote down and leaned forward on the couch. Within moments he was jumping up in the middle of his luxury apartment, celebrating wildly as the Rangers, the team that he used to play for, scored a game-winning goal in overtime.

  Since he was forced onto the long-term injury list, after suffering yet another serious concussion, he had mostly avoided watching hockey games. It was too painful for him. Hockey had been his life for so long. It was such a big part of his identity. Actually, it was his identity. He felt completely lost now that he could no longer call himself a hockey player.

  Growing up in the fabled town of Carlsberg, he had quickly gained the reputation as the best player in the entire state of Minnesota. After a while, all of the attention began to get to his head. He began carrying himself with confidence and a swagger that some of the local people didn’t like. But there were many more who were proud of the local boy who was making such a name for himself.

  He hadn’t been back to Carlsberg in almost seven years. That’s when his father died, and his mother decided to move out west to be with the rest of her family.

  But he wasn’t just going back home to visit old friends and catch up. He wished that was all that he had to do. No, it definitely wouldn’t be that simple and straightforward.

  He was heading back to his hometown for the shooting of a documentary of his life. When his agent had first pitched him the project, he’d been ecstatic about it. He knew that there were people in town who would be more than happy to be featured in a primetime documentary. But that was before he suffered his latest concussion, the result of a dirty hit delivered by one of his hated opponents.

  He felt like a shell of himself. He had wanted to go home as the triumphant hero who had returned to share his story of success with the entire world while at the same time celebrating the culture and people who had made him what he was.

  None of that seemed real now.

  Wade’s agent leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. Every time he did that, Wade secretly wished that he would fall back and land hard on the floor. But in the three years that he had been Steven Bernstein’s client, that had yet to happen.

  “This is going to be huge for you,” Steven said. “ABC is owned by Disney, which owns ESPN. You’ve got to start thinking about post-playing career opportunities. And this is perfect.”

  Wade knew that Steven was making a good point. He wouldn’t be returning to the ice anytime soon, maybe never if he actually followed the doctor’s advice. But he still felt very uneasy about heading home to shoot the documentary.

  “Isn’t there some way that I could get out of the contract?”

  Steven shook his head slowly from side to side. “I don’t know why you’re giving up on yourself. You’ve got so much to give to other people.”

  “I just feel like the people back home are probably sick of me. I’ve been replaced.”

  “No one will ever replace you!” Steven said slamming his hands down on his desk and standing up.

  Wade was snapped out of his misery by his agent’s passion.

  “That’s not true,” Wade protested. “They already have.”

  “You were the first to make it out of Carlsberg. You put that damn place on the map. If it weren't for Wade Milner, nobody would’ve ever heard of that place.”

  “I know you’re trying to lift my spirits but—”

  “I’m not trying to lift anything. I’m telling you how it is.”

  “Like I was saying, thank you. I mean it. But on a serious note, please don’t go around saying that I put Carlsberg on the map. It was well known before I came around. Long, long before.”

  Steven had a quizzical look on his face. “What are you talking about?”

  Wade stared at him and smiled. “It’s a long story, but I’ll try to give you the short version.”

  For the next twenty minutes, Wade told his high-flying New York agent about the founding of Carlsberg and the romantic lore that surrounded the town and helped attract tens of thousands of tourists during the Christmas season

  At the end of the story, the jaded agent stared at his brawny client with tears in his eyes.

  Wade had no idea what to say or do. He’d certainly never seen this brash talking New Yorker so vulnerable before. Was the story that powerful?

  “I was always jealous of the kids who got to celebrate Christmas,” he said.” It seemed so much more fun than Hanukah, and there were only a few Jewish families in our town. I always felt left out.”

  “Well, then you should definitely come with me, too.”

  “No, no. I won’t be able to relate to anyone, and I probably won’t enjoy myself.”

  “Nonsense!” Wade said standing up and putting his hands on his hips. “If I can overcome my fears and go back, then I’m taking you with me. Or else.”

  Steven’s eyes opened wide. “Or else what?”

  “I’m finding a new agent. That’s what else.”

  “What?”

  The two men stared at each other in silence for a moment. The tension was broken when Wade leaned his
head back and began laughing.

  Chapter 3

  Melanie sat at her kitchen table sipping coffee and chatting with her best friend, Jessica.

  “Did you hear that you-know-who is coming home?” Jessica asked.

  Melanie was incredibly busy and she didn’t feel like talking about the arrival of Wade Milner, her first love and high school sweetheart, the only man she had ever truly loved and the only man that had every truly hurt her. Two years later, she still had not recovered from the wounds he had caused her.

  “I’m really just trying to focus on my work,” Melanie replied. “You know how hectic this time of year is for me.”

  “Of course, I do. But you’re going to have to see him eventually. You know that, right?”

  Melanie wanted to believe that Wade still had feelings for her; she really did. But she was afraid of making herself vulnerable.

  “Are you planning on remaining single forever?” Jessica asked.

  Melanie sighed and looked away. It had been so long since she had actually gone on a date. Burying herself in her work was how she distracted herself from how lonely she was.

  “It’s just that things are really crazy right now, and I would rather worry about business then some ex-boyfriend who’s back in town to remind everyone of how big a star he is.”

  “He’s not much of a star anymore,” Melanie said. “Not since his injuries.”

  “Yeah, but I bet he still has that same star ego.”

  “Maybe. But I know that you’re more than a little bit curious to find out.”

  Melanie knew that her friend was right. Yet, she didn’t want to admit it.