The Moon’s Gaze

The Moon’s Gaze

Preface

Playlist Possiblities- My Life by The Game feat. Lil Wayne, Hate Me Now by Nas ft. Diddy, Crawling in the Dark by Hoobastank

The snow gently fell, like tissue gliding from heaven. The sight of it could only be described as pure beauty. The white flakes rested on my nose as I sat on the hill top, gazing at the vast amount of snow covered trees that stood ahead of me. Some were withering, reaching the end of their lifespan, while others were only beginning to grow, ready to take on new challenges for the rest of their lives. It was the first time snow had met these ancient giants in many, many years.

It looked as if the trees were thanking the heavens for it, for the branches were raised up high, while fewer drooped wearily, awaiting there peaceful, cold death. The trees were drenched in snow as if they were coffins, which gave me a feeling of bliss.

It was a serene way to die: seeing something as gorgeous as the snow falling. It was too bad I might not be able to experience such a calm death as the spruces and ferns that populated the forest. It all came with my territory.

I rose to my feet as the soft, numbing, pure snow fell off the rear of my jeans. I looked towards the east and saw in the crimson lit sky that the sun was rising. I crouched down and leaped into the white abyss of snow that rested peacefully beneath my feet, waiting for me to join it, wanting me to finally lay at rest as it had, but I knew that rest was for the weak, and if you join the weak, then you would become weak, it was one of the basic principles of life. And being weak was the absolute last thing I needed during an eerily harsh winter such as this.

--

As I trudged through the heartless icy desert that relentlessly shoved me on my back numerous times, I knew that I could not lower my pace, for time would not let me. The only thing that my moonlit eyes gazed at was the infinite shroud of snow that obstructed my path to my destination. The numbing cold bit at my body every second. It started at my toes, feeling like a lick from an animal primarily, but grew to the arms, feeling more like chomps than licks, until finally, it got to my head, literally slowing my thoughts by the minute.

Trees were becoming less and less prominent every couple of miles, so I knew I was getting close, but every single step I took felt like an eternity. As the cold gradually ate away at my consciousness, my vision became decreasingly accurate. I now faced the obvious fact that I was dying. Maybe I could die peacefully, I thought, like the trees. Deep down though, I knew that a calm death for me couldn’t be. This death in the heartless clutches of the freezing winter blizzard would be agonizingly long. At times it felt like God did not want peace was not meant to be in my life, while I would give my life to bring peace ironically. I silently said goodbye to my life, my love, and my mission. My vision faded to black as my thoughts danced away in the wind with my last words, “My redemption has been… broken.”

--

I fluttered my eyes open, my vision slowly returning to my retinas with silhouettes coming back first, being followed my colors. I sat straight up, leaning against a tree, still numb from the bitter cold. My whole body was covered in tiny shards of ice, which decorated my clothing like a pharaoh’s jewels glinting in the sunlight.

A red liquid steadily raced down my upper lip, starting at my nostrils, resting near my facial hair. The warm feeling of the liquid was ironically comforting, and let me know that I was still alive. With the little strength had left, I rose my arm, wiping the blood off of my lightly trimmed moustache, my arm weighing a ton. I attempted to make my legs move, but it was, unfortunately, to no avail. The body that I was trapped in still had a ways to go before it got back into tip top shape. Surely I should have died by now, I thought. My heart was pounding, so I damn sure was alive. When I blacked out I could feel my heart stopping, my thoughts slowing, hell, I could even feel my blood freezing over from the extremely low temperature in this hell-hole. I didn’t understand how I was still here, but it didn’t matter.

Snow still surrounded me like darkness during the night, but patches of grass melted in the shroud, like stars in the midnight sky as I observed the ice encompassing me. I banged my head against the tree, in frustration, as I sat there trying to reminisce on my journey as a once distant question came to mind: How did I get here? My memories were a little fuzzy due to the cold but I still could remember the fact that I wasn’t sitting under a tree when I blacked out. I could practically feel myself gripping the sloshed snow, my head feeling like it was just hit with an axe and then… nothing.

The sun glimmered brilliantly, giving light to all that was in this lifeless metropolis of snow. I coughed up a teaspoons fill of blood and stood feebly on my two feet, as they shook like toothpicks supporting books. I inhaled deeply and walked towards the sun, knowing that I was not too far away from the gate. This gate would not only decide the future of my life, but the rest of the world, Midas and Earth included. Who knew that even after death, Satan would have control over me as his infinite leash stretched on and on until my mission was complete. I turned towards the sun, leaving my regrets behind me, while putting a foot in front of me one at a time.

I had finally made it. The swirling vortex that held discoveries of the past and the mysteries of the future lay suspended in mid air directly in front of me. Lightning cackled as the sphere spun in front of me at a vicious rate, mesmerizing me. Various colors turned rapidly. The sight of the gate to my destiny comforted me and gave me a feeling of success. I laughed, I cried, I bled, and I lived through it all. The prequel of my mission ended indefinitely.

I took a step not more than half a foot towards the gate. But as I stepped closer, I felt my back tense up, feeling the closeness of regaining one of the many things that I had lost due to my treachery. In my mind I could still feel the flames warming my backside as I trudged through the literally hellish atmosphere seeing the faces of the tortured. My dreams felt like reality at this point but it sadly wasn’t. It soon would be though after I completed my mission on the world that lay beyond this gate. All I had to do was take another step or two and Earth would be my new domain. Finally, I took those agonizingly long two steps, waiting to be engulfed by the collage of colors when the worst had happened. A shadowy aura stood not but two feet behind me. It was instantly recognizable. As I turned, I gazed at the crimson wings with white on the tips of each individual feather; I saw the ivory body and endless eyes full of malice. I smelled the hellfire and smoke stemming from his bones. I heard the screams of the thousands he and I killed. I felt the sting of his fist impale my hand as I tried to parry his attack. And as my body leaned into the loud portal I tasted bitter blood in my mouth, but mostly the taste of sorrow .