by Lillian Grey
“Lucifer, what are you doing?” shouted Eden.
“He’s being the coward he is.”
“She doesn’t love you; she has never loved anyone!”
“Lies!” hissed Aaliyah. “You should know, but betrayal as we all know can sever any bond. Isn’t that right, Nessa?” Aaliyah sneered.
A shadow of an emotion flashed through both Eden and Lucifer’s faces for the briefest of moments. “I will admit that, Lucifer, I don’t love you anymore. There was, however, a time when I did with every fiber of my being, but I was a fool for ever loving you. You ruined my life and then prolonged that miserable life in that horrible box. I would have rather you killed me!” Hate flashed in Aaliyah’s eyes.
“Fine,” said Lucifer through clenched teeth, his fist balling.
I hadn’t seen Eden move, but he was at my side and time stopped, my existence grew bright and then deepest black again as I was thrown. When I was able to see again, Aaliyah was tumbling in the sand at an unbelievable speed for an instant until she recovered.
“I will kill you this time; you stopped being the woman I loved a long time ago.”
“Liar,” she hissed, the smile disappeared from Aaliyah’s face and she moved, kicking up a large cloud of sand. Lucifer dodged where Eden attacked and vice versa. They had been fighting for so long that they could read each other’s movements perfectly. There was no waste in their movements and the same went for Aaliyah. This time, the fight was much closer to even, I thought. Aaliyah attacked and it sent a wave of sand that missed Eden and headed straight for me; it barely missed me as June got me out of the way.
“Thank you,” I sighed in relief.
“No problem,” she said, her attention still on their battle.
“Can you follow them?”
“Not completely, but it’s not their speed. Somehow it feels like they are fighting with their emotions. I don't know any of them well enough to read those.”
For a moment, I thought Lucifer and Eden had gotten her. Lucifer landed another kick and Eden got behind her, pinning her arms to her sides.
“Now, I will do what I should have done in the beginning,” Lucifer said, holding what looked like a black sphere that hissed angrily. He positioned himself in front of her and like lightning, forced the ball toward her. There was a massive explosion and a cloud of sand and dust rose into the air. June pulled me back and we stood there not knowing what had happened. The next moment, two figures flew from the dust cloud in opposite directions; they struggled to get back up. The cloud suddenly seemed to be forced to the ground and there was Aaliyah with Alik, at the center of a jagged glass circle. Aaliyah’s arms were wrapped around his waist and she kissed his cheek.
“Did you two seriously think it would be that easy?” she laughed.
“We shouldn’t be here, Aaliyah,” Alik said coldly.
“Yes I know, but I couldn’t resist greeting our guest.”
“Let’s go.”
“Alik!” yelled June and I heard a whistle and saw white fly through the air, Alik caught it. “That is yours!” He looked at June and turned to leave, never giving me a glance. Then, he was gone, taking Aaliyah with him.
“Why don’t you follow them?” I yelled to Lucifer and Eden.
“We do not know where to go, Vanessa,” Eden explained, popping his arm back into place next to me and dusting a strange black dust off of himself. As it hit the sand, it shimmered and vanished.
“Even if we did, we are no match for them together,” Lucifer pointed out, setting his nose that was broken back and shaking the same dust out his hair. “We have to get into the garden.”
“What is that on you?”
“Alik nearly killed me a moment ago; that’s the traces that his attack left. It’s sort of death in a physical sense. However, that’s not the point. We need to get into the garden,” Lucifer repeated.
“Why can’t you do that teleporting thing and take us there?”
“There are rules within the garden,” Eden stated.
“What rules?”
“I will explain once we are there.”
“How do we get in?”
“The garden is lost, do you know where you are?”
“No,” I said as if he should have known that.
“Well then, close your eyes and find it.”
I simply blinked and because I was angry that I received such an incomplete answer, I cursed in my mind ‘The Garden of Eden’. The red glow from the sun softened and the air felt moist against my skin. Birds and other wildlife replaced the soundtrack of wind. Was that the roar of a tiger? I opened my eyes and the sand was gone; a thin layer of moss covered the ground in patches and scattered trees blocked my vision. I heard paws, very large paws, timidly approaching from a dark spot in the trees. A pair of yellow eyes appeared. I took a single step back and looked around, no one else was here. A low rumble came from its direction and then it jumped; a streak of orange flew at me, knocking me to the ground and pinning me there. The tiger’s bared teeth were inches from my face. Three sets of footsteps sounded around me, and then there was a deep laugh
“A little help, please!” I yelled.
“What for?” asked Lucifer.
“There’s a giant tiger that wants to eat me? Do you not see this as a problem?”
“If she wanted to kill you, you would not be yelling. She will not harm you,” Eden said.
When they spoke, the tiger’s attention moved for a moment and I slipped out from under her, but she jumped again, this time stopping me from moving. She leaned in, teeth still bared, and then proceeded to lick me. A purr came from her throat. She took a step back and then sat down, her head tilted and looking at me.
“Okay, what was that?” I asked, lost and wiping my face. “That is a massive tiger, not a house cat; why was I not eaten?”
“I told you, there are rules within the garden, rules to maintain order. The tiger is one of few animals that survived our battles; they carry a great power that we harnessed for protection. In our time, animals weren’t what you would call savage. Savagery is a human creation that spread over the entire planet, even to the animals after they left the garden. Here the deadliest of beast pose no threat to any form of life here.”
“I’m guessing an enemy popping into your house at night would be bad so we will be walking to wherever we are going?” I asked as I stood up.
“Yes, any, for a lack of better terms, magical movement is nullified within the garden as well.”
“Then how did we get in here?” I asked.
“Why not just let some things stay a mystery?” he said.
The tiger sat there with what looked like a smile with her tail swaying left and right. Cautiously, I reached out to scratch her ears and she purred again
“We need to get going. They will be here since we are,” Lucifer stated matter of factly.
“How far is it?” asked June.
“A few miles; there is no hurry,” said Eden, starting to walk. I started to follow and the tiger followed.
“You can’t come with me,” I said and she just stared. I continued to follow Eden and again, the tiger followed. “You have to stay, now stay.”
“She obviously likes you; she can come,” said Eden. “She’s offering you powerful protection.”
“Okay.” She trotted alongside me and I fell slightly back to talk to June. “Why did you give Alik that sword?”
“Lilith told me that Alik should be given that if Aaliyah came for her or him.”
“When?”
“The day before she died… Lilith just said Aaliyah would come for him. I don’t know why she wanted him to have that sword.”
“Well, what are you going to do now that you don’t have a weapon?”
“I don’t need a sword to fight.”
“But you seem better with one,” Lucifer chimed in; he held out his hand and a line of black smoke issued from his palm. It began to wrap around itself and squeezed into a sword sheath. It was ne
arly identical to the one she gave Alik; this one was a textured black and around it, like the blade of Alik’s, light seemed to fade, making it appear dim, blurring my vision.
“So you can create stuff out of thin air now, too?” I asked
“I am the Devil, remember?” He handed her the blade. “This should meet your approval.”
“Thank you,” she said, examining the black blade. In a flourish, she drew it and sliced through a tree. However, the tree didn’t fall. “Impressive,” June whispered, looking closer at the blade, then placing it back in the sheath. “However, could you?” she asked, not finishing the question.
“Oh right, I missed that.” He pressed his thumb to the point where the blade handle met the sheath; steam issued from beneath his finger and there a rose was embossed. It was a glossy black that shone in the light; the blade’s dimming effect had no effect on that single spot.
“Thank you,” said June.
We had been walking for about an hour with Eden explaining a few of the other rules of the garden. This would have been a great place to live if Lucifer and Aaliyah hadn’t interfered. When Eden forced Aaliyah out, the stability of the garden was broken. It was no longer able to exist independently from its tether to the earth. The garden and the planet began to mix, but the garden, not being an earthly thing, would jump around from location to location. The Bermuda triangle, El Dorado, and Shangri-La were all apparently the garden spotted by humans when it would come into contact with the earth.
Not long after Eden finished his story did the trees start to thin and the light start to increase. We slowly came out of what was a dense forest onto a circular clearing with a single tree in the center. The tree had beautiful silver and gold flowers and a deep ebony trunk that looked like it had been knocked down at some time in its past and twisted out of shape. Further off in the distance, you could see what looked like a glass city that glinted in the sun that the garden had long since reclaimed. Sitting under the tree was Ceil, who seemed to be asleep.
“Who is the girl?” asked Eden.
“Her name is Ceil; the last I knew, she was Aaliyah’s guard." I said.
“She was actually Aaliyah’s shadow. A shadow is more than a guard, but not a servant. The shadow lives in their masters shadow treating their life as second to their masters. The shadow learns and is groomed to take over if their master is ever destroyed. However if you are a good shadow you will die before your master."
“Alik said you were his shadow once.” I remembered.
“That was a joke he liked. Most thought I was Araya’s shadow, but I was my mothers. I watched Araya and Ario for my mother. It was hard to have that relationship with her and spend so little time with her. I will avenge my mother today.” June declared.
“But Aaliyah tried to get Alik to kill Ceil.”
“Aaliyah probably wanted a new shadow, they only way to break that bond is the destruction of one or the other. If not it can cause mental damage to both depending on the length of the bond.”
“Lets go find out,” said Lucifer.
“Isn’t it dangerous to be out in the open like this?” I asked.
“No,” said Lucifer.
“No?”
“Aaliyah is not one for sneak attacks or an ambush. She wants you to know that she killed you.”
“Why?”
“She likes it.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, I do,” he said, looking at me. “I am still what you would call evil, Vanessa. The hood, the scythe, the skeleton with snakes in the eyes: where did you think that came from? It’s fun to scare people to death and drag their soul back to hell, even if I can not stay.”
“The only thing keeping me from fighting Lucifer right now is Aaliyah and,” said Eden.
“Also I’d whoop your ass,” Lucifer interrupted.
“Also,” Eden said louder, “the fighting has gotten weary; there is no point to it after a millennia or two.”
“Everything is in the terms of millennia with you two. Does life ever get boring?” I asked.
“Of course. Why do you think I spent almost a hundred years as a Rastafarian?”
“I don’t know.”
We reached the tree and Ceil opened her eyes; she looked at us as if we were the most interesting things she had ever seen.
“Aaliyah told me you would be here sooner or later; she and Alik are in the main temple if you are looking for them,” she said and closed her eyes again.
“Why are you here?” asked June.
“I’m just here cause Aaliyah is, but if any of you are looking for a fight, I could be up for that.”
“Aaliyah tried to have you killed; why are you still loyal to her?” I questioned.
“Aaliyah didn’t try and have me killed, that decision was Alik’s. Aaliyah just suggested a method and he didn’t do it.”
“But…”
“I lost the fight against Alik anyway; I don’t hold it against him or Aaliyah. Don’t bother to try and tell me otherwise.”
“But…”
“She has a point, Vanessa. Just leave it. We should head to the temple,” said June.
“So no one is up for a fight? Ah well, suit yourself,” she said, closing her eyes again.
“Come on, it’s this way,” said Eden.
We left Ceil under the tree and headed back into the trees and by this time, we had been walking for hours and I had begun to grow tired. My feet became really sore and I tripped.
“Are you okay?” asked June as she helped me up.
“Yes, just a bit tired,” I said and the tiger, Nela as I had come to call her, came over and nudged me and leaned slightly, as if telling me to sit down on her back. I did and she continued on following the others with me riding on top of her. “Thank you, Nela.” I scratched her ears as we walked along.
We came to another clearing and what I assumed was the temple. There were five massive glass domes with the center dome rising at least a hundred feet into the air; I could see the inside all five and beneath the glass, a black mist that glimmered with clouds of red and gold, blue and yellow, and tiny dots of light that twinkled brightly slowly swirled. I was stunned at the beauty of it. Until I took a look at the pyramid behind these domes that it made them seem like marbles. Its exterior rose no less than twenty stories with the cap stone of onyx casting a shadow of a deeper black that seemed to be following us as we made it to the base of the pyramid.
“What did you expect? Ancient stone and crumbling rock?” Asked Eden when he noticed my awe.
“What is all of this?”
“A reflection of what you call Heaven; if you could see the bottom of the sphere, you would see a reflection of what’s considered hell. It stands for all I created; I guess you could say it’s a temple of creation. The pyramid when I was last here stood about twenty feet tall and had a single room in it, it grows with man and records their history, as the domes with the Lunarians and the Solarians in Heaven and Hell. Man seems to have been very busy.”
We continued to walk forward up to a set of stairs that climbed halfway up the exterior of the pyramid to an opening I couldn’t see from the ground. Once inside, stars lit our path and we headed for what I guessed was the center. The hall we walked down was made of a black marble; small stars floated along, lighting our path and making pictograms on the walls twinkle. Animals that I knew and some I had only heard about in myths glowed from the starlight, but as I looked around, I couldn’t help but think that something was missing.
“What are looking for?” asked Eden, noticing that I was looking for something.
“There is no central pictogram or hieroglyph; I was expecting to see you around here to be honest.”
“You won’t find any.”
“Why is that?”
“Why should there be? When rulers mistake themselves for Gods and see themselves above those they rule over, that’s when greed and corruption take over.”
