The Last Chapter

-Now tell me your story, she said.

My story...my story...There is a blanketing emptiness squeezing my mind, closing in all around me.

The dream. That same dream I’ve seen over and over.

She is seated at the end of the empty ancient hall.

Powerful.

Deadly.

Eternal.

Beautiful.

Silent.

Watching me. Her gaze irresistible, mesmerizing, captivating.

And now her voice.

Soothing.

Gentle.

Capturing my senses with its calling melody from somewhere so far away, but also so close.

My eyelids heavy like iron. Trying to stay awake while throbbing pain threatens to throw me back into the pitch black again. I remember the instant of the fall. The spiral of the old tower staircase giving way. Crumbling. Crushing. Taking me down into the guards keep far below, abandoned and broken, and always dark.

Quiet.

-Now tell me your story.

Her voice again. Getting hold of my consciousness, keeping me balancing on the edge of reality and nightmare. I give in finally, unable to resist, plunging even deeper into my aching mind, spinning, spiraling. Until it all stops. Until my time stops.

Quiet.

Cold.

I am in her hall now. Or, was I already there even before my eyes opened again? Standing in the dark by the open window. Flickering candle lights throwing long shadows along the stone walls painted with frost.

- Now tell me your story, she said.

- I have no story.

Or do I? It all comes back in a blinding flash.

All that was.

All that will be. Or, all that could have been before she rose above it all.

The queen.

Of course there were rumors. There were talks. Even before the Age of Darkness befallen on our kind. The Queen from my dreams. And me, the Keeper. The only Keeper of the Fates left standing. Standing in front of her now. One instant and I feel her blinding presence right next to me. Her eyes burning with desire. My desire. My Queen and her Keeper.

- Tell me your story, and I will share the world with you. Our world. You are the Fates Keeper. Only you can set the final seal on the book again. Our Book of Fates. The book I have written for you. For us. Seal it! Use your key!

...the key. The golden key... The key of the Keeper. All fates of the world written and sealed from the time of the First Guards. All connected into one volume of life. The life I am bound to protect, to seal, to keep intact. Each human soul, each thought, each hope, each war cry, each moment of glory, or pain, or happiness, written, carved into the never ending chronicles of our race. And then Queen discovering the power of a change, while Keepers holding the power to seal any changes.

I am flipping through that volume. Touching its bound pages with the tips of my fingers. Feelings, senses, thoughts flowing into my mind like a mountain stream, slow and lazy at first before gaining their strength, turning into an unstoppable rapid, threatening to throw you down, to carry away with all its power and force.

All was there. But still, something important was not. Something was missing. Something, that could have made all this so wrong if present. I can't pinpoint it. I can only sense it, even though just for an instant, before her presence takes away that troubling feeling too. She envelops my very soul with her fiery warmth, still - her touch running through me like icy needles. But I want it now! At least I think I do, and I always did... Have been dreaming of this moment, haven't I? Guessing. Longing. Sensing. Her breath, her lips, her electrifying embrace, each touch, each whisper burning through, opening new passages into my heart, passages filled with desire. Our minds touch. Our senses entwined now, forming new threads, new connections, new fates, the fates of our own world - deadly, but magnificent. I look into her eyes. Those very eyes from my dream, waiting for me, patiently, quietly, inescapably.

- Tell me your story, she whispers, fill in your pages. Seal the new fate!

Our lips touched. Those eyes like endless crystal pools. Lifeless, bottomless, but so sensual, so brilliantly beautiful. Something stirred within my heart, barely recognizable, something true, deep, untouched by her embrace. I probed it with mind, untwisting, letting it spread, grasping what's left of my long forgotten self, something that used to hold me together, ages ago, before our whole world fell apart. It stricken me. Images of that elusive past flashing before my eyes. Blinding. Hitting my mind with excruciating clarity.

All that was.

All that will be, had she not risen above it all!

- You erased Her! You erased Her fate! The love of my life, my soul mate, threads broken, traces removed from the book! Hell gates unleashed, our world burned, destroyed, spikes of fear and despair seeded deep within those remained!

I remembered it all now. Her eyes, Her warmth, the sky, so endless and alive, full of hope, full of life. Her own life reflecting in those eyes, poisoned with fear, shadowed by the spreading doubts. Ages ago. Or, just moments ago?..

- You torn Her from my life. Replaced with your sickening dream, luring me in, capturing my mind, my soul, keeping me close, the last Keeper standing, just to destroy me too eventually, once the fate of your dream is sealed...

- I have no story, not in this world, not for you!

I felt her icy embrace sharpen, tighten, her mind locking me into the deadly hold.

- So be it, the calmness of her voice lethal and deafening, if I can't have you - nobody will! If you don't want to be a part of my world - no other world will be part you!

But I knew that already.

All that was.

All that will be without her ceasing the world into her eternal embrace.

The sparks from my heart exploded unable to contain the pressure, just a fraction of an instant before losing myself entirely into that flaming abyss, framed by the frosty stone walls of Queen's mind. The key turned effortlessly. The book opened. Pages and pages of life's chronicles flew off into the silent darkness, picked up by the icy wind, carried away, disappearing into the void of the starless skies.

My inner world crumbled. Sudden jolt tearing me away from her suffocating grip, the world around me wavering, loosening.

The spirals of the staircase giving way taking me down into the abandoned guards keep, deep in the belly of the old Tower.

She was standing alone. Flickering candle lights throwing long shadows along the stone walls painted with frost. A single icy tear stopped half way down her cheek, a glitter of one frozen feeling. There was something on the floor. A single page. Four words. She picked it up.

I open my eyes. The pain subsided finally. I climb out of the rubble. A streak of burning red threw its way over the horizon. My new day.

I do not know what there was.

I do not know what will be.

But I do know that hope has returned.

I can sense the new threads forming. The new pages being written. The new fates being sealed.

I am the last Keeper standing. I look up into the endless arch of blue of the early morning sky. And I say what sounds like something I have said before, in some other time, in some other world, ages ago, or maybe just an instant ago...

-My story begins now.