A goofy smile played across William’s face as he looked into her hooded eyes. His throat constricted a moment but released when she looked into his eyes. “Oh, Madeleine, I love you so much.”
Madeleine looked down at the scars on William’s chest, tracing her fingers across them, tracing her other hand down to his waist. He wrapped her in an embrace, pulling her closer as their lips locked together. His pulse pounded on his eardrums, and she pulsed with him. She put her hands on his cheeks as their kisses grew more adventurous, their tongues testing each other’s; he felt like he was drinking from a boundless cup, brimming over with Source energy, utterly intoxicating.
Madeleine grabbed William’s shoulders and lifted herself up, gasping as her legs twined around his and his eyes opened wide on the world as it would become. The water that held them bubbled into clouds of steam as he thrust and she parried, their skin pulsating with energy, their bodies and spirits uniting into a hermaphroditic Oversoul. Their Light filled the cave, overflowing into the world outside, beaming out across the land.
EPILOGUE
Clouds scattered away from the mountain as the Light bloomed from its peak, beaming out across the sky. Photons of Love collided with the sunlight and sparks shimmered down through the air, sowing Light into the earth. The mountainous lighthouse beckoned all the creatures of Light to emerge and reclaim their paradise.
Inside his shack, Tim was seated at his oaken table with a notebook open to a blank page, taking a swig of rum from the bottle. His ears popped and the air grew thick around him, like he was enveloped in molecular soup. The bottle dropped from his hand—clanging to the floor, rum spilling from its mouth—and he rushed out to his porch, lifting his gaze to the heavens. Inspiration flowed through his soul from a well that had been dry for two thousand years.
“Way to go, Willie!” Tim hooted and hollered at the sky, jumping around on his creaking porch. “Holy fucking shit, man, we’re back in business!”
As Tim reveled in the rays of Love, the Light flowed out over the ruins below, revealing all that had been lost. The stones themselves started glowing, defining all the streets and alleys through the rubble. A lion lay down, resting its maned head on its paws, and took a nap. The stones glowed brighter and brighter until their brilliance washed through the whole city.
The ground rumbled as the ruins transcended Time and returned to the realm that had constructed the city. The erosion rewound until the building blocks assumed their original, perfect, forms. All the useless debris dissolved in the Light, exposing the original plan. Like the fingers of a fallen god reaching for the heavens, stones spun up into the sky, forming pillars, columns, walls, buildings, striving to touch the guiding Light. As the rumble of the earth subsided, dust drifted down upon the streets of the reformed city.
The Light beamed past the city limits and shone over the endless grasslands, infusing the vegetation with boundless vitality. A clump of saplings huddled within the confines of the circular monument and when the Light spilled over them, they sprouted leaves to catch the sparkling energy. The saplings twisted about then froze and rushed up into the air, growing into trees and spreading their branches over the monument.
As the Light passed beyond the new grove, dormant animals felt the call of Love and awoke from their stasis. Squirrels poked their heads out of burrows they shared with badgers and groundhogs, leading the critters forward; deer stepped to the mouth of their cavern, their nostrils flaring to capture the new, fresh scent. A chipmunk skittered out into the air and lifted its head to the sky as a dove took flight, circling higher and higher. All the gentle creatures chased each other across the ground, chittering and chirping their joy.
As the Light passed over the land, its vibration drew the flies out from their warrens all across the plain. They started swarming into the air but as the sparks of Love touched them, they fizzled down to nothingness and disappeared with a pop. The process of absolution sounded like a million microscopic cannons firing in harmonic sequence; silence returned when the last fly had been vaporized.
The Light beamed to the end of the plain where the land fell away into a foaming sea, waves crashing upon the rocks, where a robed figure stood at the edge of a cliff. “Looks like I’m no longer needed ’round these parts,” Death muttered. “Good for you, William.”
The figure turned to look out over the dark waters swirling beyond the Light. “Would you look at that… Maybe they could use my services elsewhere.” Death threw its head back, the hood slipping off of its starched skull, and cackled gleefully.
END
Fate’s Peak Page 16
