Purpose
Time. So close and yet so far. It is everywhere, affecting us in every moment of our waking lives. It is the creator and it is the destroyer. It is the past, present and future. What is the past? It is what was. It is our mistakes. It is our achievements. It was then. What is the future? It is what will come to be. It is the results of our choices. It is our path. It will come. What is the present? It is the result of the past. It is the road to the future. It is now. Why then, do people wish to look into the future, or to change the past if the present is all that makes a difference?
The reason is fear.
Fear of death. Fear of life. Fear of simply being. That is why I was made. To show people the meaning of the present. To show them what it is to live and what it is to die.
I do not live. I do not die. I am the past and the future, but most of all I am the present. I am the purpose. In an age long gone, I was made. Forged like steel, yet birthed like men, I came to be by the wish of one child. So it is that I am now. So it is that I shall always be.
Alex. One word, one name, seemingly insignificant, yet it still brought back a flood of memories. Distracted by the flash of images that raced through my mind, I missed a block. A dagger came flying at me, cutting through the air before burying itself in my right shoulder. I switched my blade to my left hand as another dagger shot at me. I fell to my knee and rolled to the right as the blade flew past and embedded itself in the wall, cracking the concrete. To my right, a short sword lashed out. The vampire wielding it smiled, exposing its fangs. The sword glanced off mine, but still had enough force to send a jolt up my arms. I stood up and jammed my elbow into its stomach. The vampire hesitated for a moment and I took that instant to shove my knife into it, through the heart. As the vampire turned to ash, I knelt panting.
"Alright, move on," a voice called.
I frowned and turned in the direction of the voice, dragging the dagger out of my flesh. It fell and melted into the ground as the scene began to fade into the normal gray cast of the walls. In the top left corner of the room a man sat behind a multitude of wires and controls. He waved, signaling me to go through the doors. I waved back to show that I understood and walked through the door. The next person entered as I walked out. She looked nervous. Shaking my head, I moved on.
I trudged on to the next and last course, following the small white lights that led the way in a myriad of coordinated flashes. I concentrated on the light, trying not to fall. Two flashes followed by one. Then four more. I was close. I lost track of the turns. It was so empty. No one was within sight. Blood was now flowing freely from my shoulder. It was dripping onto the floor creating a trail of crimson behind me. Grimacing, I tore off a part of my shirt and wrapped it around the wound. Soon the blood stopped streaming down my arm and began to clot.
The lights stopped flashing. They flared and then died out. I had arrived, though I had no idea where I was.
"Lost?" a voice called out from all around me. I cringed. I knew that voice. I heard laughter and a bell rung from deep within my memory.
"Alex?"
The laughing died away. "So you remember me."
"How…? I thought you were dead. They said that you failed."
"I did, but I didn't die." He chuckled then. "That's what they tell you, huh? That whoever fails is dead." He paused. "Well, they lied. I escaped, but the military was after me. I went away and a family took me in, but the government killed them too." His voice became more fierce. I winced. His emotion was almost tangible. "They even killed a three year old girl, but I talked to her before she died. That is how I am alive. There was a someone in a dark robe who appeared then." Alex's voice grew far away, as if he was lost in a memory. "He said that he would grant us each one wish, but we could not tell each other what it was. I wished for death, and she wished for life. Not her own, but mine…to avenge her parents. So here I am. Never dying, yet never living. I exist off the very blood of others and my only purpose of living is to get revenge for her."
I gasped. "You're a vampire…"
"The very first," he said.
That is how it began, but the pain was far from over. I too was afflicted by the curse of the wish, doomed to live forever unless killed by the hand of another. For centuries we who you named the undead endured the burden of the curse. Never aging, never feeling the pass of time. You envied us because of our immortality. And soon, that envy turned to anger, then hatred. Yet though it all, you humans, who are constantly within the flow of time, yearned to escape its grasp. You who feel the comforting touch of mortality turned from it. You who know the touch of age tried to change it as you have changed everything. You still do. Again, the question is why.
The truth is that you do not know. Your ancestors, too, tried to disrupt time's path, and so you follow in their footsteps. Without thought, without reason. You continue as everyone has and will go on doing so until you are successful. But there is no success in living a lie.
Time cannot be changed and will not be changed if you do not know why or how. That is why I have come. I have come to lead you to what you seek. Your deepest desire. Your greatest wish. It will be yours, but there is a price. There is always a price. The only question now is, are you willing to pay the price? The choice is yours. Sacrifices will have to be made. Oaths broken. So choose wisely. It may just cost that which you treasure above all else. Your very existence is at stake. There are no second chances.
A figure knelt panting in the rain, the droplets falling from the sky in a fierce flurry as if trying to purge the world of any life. The figure shook, shoulders heaving as he struggled to hold onto life. I gathered him into my arms and looked at his face. He looked to be around my age, barely past his late teens. I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment before opening them again. As my eyes reopened, his gaze locked onto mine and I gasped. "Alex?"
He smiled. "So we meet again, though in person this time."
I blinked, not believing it. "You're dying. How? I thought you were immortal."
"I'm not immortal. I just can't die unless someone kills me, as someone has taken the liberty to do." He shuddered as his life continued to rush away. I looked down at his torso and my stomach heaved. There was a long, jagged gash across his stomach and he was covered in blood. His blood mingled with the rain, creating a pool of crimson.
"Who?" I demanded of him, determined to get the name of his killer before he died. "Who did this to you?" I whispered in a fierce voice as my control slipped.
He winced and looked at me, forcing a smile onto his face. "So you do care after all."
I scowled at him. "I don't have time for this. Who did it?"
"Do you really want to know?"
I just stared back at him.
Alex shook his head, a look of pain on his face. "There's nothing you can do, you know. It's over. You'll just end up like me. Is that what you want? To live forever without a care for death or sickness? To have no worries about your life?" He glared at me with a look of pure disgust so strong that I flinched, despite my resolve. "It's not like that. That's all you humans see. You look at vampires and you see never-ending life. You look at us and see an escape from death, a way to flaunt time, but you don't understand. You want to know who killed me? You did. You all did. That's who. Humanity killed me."
I felt tears begin to well in my eyes at the conviction in his voice. I could no longer keep it in. I screamed at him. "Is that what you think?" I shouted, "That no matter what people do, because they're humans, they're worthless and care only for themselves? If that's what you think, maybe you should die." I took a deep breath and continued with the same venom as before. "Three years. I spent three years looking for you and all you can tell me is that I killed you?" I drew in ragged breaths as I tried to calm myself.
"You think you know all about humans? Think again. Don't forget, I was human once. I know that one person is all it takes to change the rest. Even if most of you know how it really feels to be immortal, one person can change everything. It's happened before. It can happen again. I know how it feels to be mortal, but you— You have never been immortal. You don't know what it's like," Alex raged at me, ignoring the pain in his fury.
"Then show me!" I shrieked back at him, unaware of what I was asking.
"Fine."
My one wish. My deepest desire. My greatest fear. They were one in the same, but how was I to know? Even now, I would regret it. But I can't. I know the truth now. I cannot regret that. But this is your choice, not mine. What will you choose?
Will it be the past or the future? Or will you choose the present? It is not merely a matter of life or death. It is a matter of living the truth or a lie. Choose carefully. This is your choice. Yours alone. No one can stop you now, but remember. There will be a price to pay. What are you willing to give for your wish? It may cost more than you have. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
So then, what do you choose?
A/N: sorry about all the lines, but the document manager doesn't have little stars (i don't know how to spell asterick :P - is that even right? ha ha)