Our Last Dance [ONC 2021]

Chapter VII ~ Icarus' Story

Icarus looked at me.

I looked right back at him.

Why was it that the person standing in front of me looked so much like the boy form Venice, but was nothing like him at the same time? Where was my Icarus? This was not the person whose wallet I'd stolen. This was not the person who danced with me at the carnival. This was not the person who gave me a name. This was not the person who I had given a name in return. My Icarus would never do this. This impostor didn't deserve the name. That name had been for the boy from Venice and for him alone.

Still I wanted to believe that he was there in front of me.

He looked at the papers, scattered on the floor around him. One by one he picked them up. I was scared, scared that he would choose to walk away.

He didn't.

'Well, this is going to take a while, so we might as well take a stroll through the garden.'

He didn't wait for me as he vanished between the roses.

~ ~ ~

'You have to understand,' he began, 'that this all happened a long time ago. We're talking hundreds of years. I remember what happened, but I'm not sure what's true and what my mind made up over time. So please, don't go bugging me over some details that have no influence on the story whatsoever.

'It was shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire when I was born. I was a normal kid, normal childhood, all that basic stuff. The only difference between me and any other child may be that I lived in a community that worshiped gods. And with gods, I mean ancient ones, like Apollo and Jupiter and all those supernatural beings who supposedly lived somewhere on top of a mountain.

'So, I lived there until I was like seven years old and that was when everything turned bad. Our harvest failed, there were a lot of plagues, half the community was dying, so our priestess, who was just some old lady with a stick, said, or preached rather, that we should bring an offer to the gods. All the gods because we apparently had angered a lot of them.

'But we didn't have any food, because of the failed harvest, and we didn't have any wine either and all our livestock had dropped dead months ago. So that old lady said: "There is only one thing we can offer to save us from our doom!" or something like that, I don't know, something dramatic. And because that witch hated me, she turned to me and said: "We have to offer the child."

'The worst part was that my dad was okay with it, and my mother too. Of course they didn't want me dead, but if it would help them, they would accept it. Horrible people, my parents.'

After he said this, he paused. For a moment I thought he might cry, thinking about his parents, but he didn't. He never cried. He continued.

'I didn't want to die, which to me, seemed very obvious. So on the night of the ritual I was granted five minutes alone and I ran for it.'

'That still doesn't explain why you're here, because as far as I know, the fall of the Roman Empire was over 1200 years ago. And as far as I know, people don't live that long.'

'And as far as I know, I was still talking.'

He shot me an irritated look. I simply returned the favour.

'Well, then get on with it. You might think we have all night, but I believe the sun is already rising.'

And I was right. In the East, the sky was turning orange again and slowly the world began to wake.

'Fine, but then don't complain if I leave out some information. Now where was I?'

'You ran for it.'

'Right. So I ran away. I knew my way around the area pretty well, so I wasn't afraid of getting lost. At one point I had to rest, because I had been running for ages. So I fell asleep and of course I'm tormented by the consequences of my actions. My dream turns into a nightmare and then suddenly, there is this shadow. I'm not sure if I dreamt this or if it was real though.

'Anyway, now I'm panicking. I'd heard enough stories about the gods appearing in your dreams to warn you and I thought that this was one of those moments. Turns out that it was.

'However, they didn't warn me, instead they just straight up cursed me. "You refuse to die, so you shall never die." That's what they said. And me, being a cocky nine-year-old, told him that I would be okay with that.'

He looked at me expectantly, waiting for my response.

'So, let me get this straight. You were part of a cult a couple of centuries ago. Then you angered someone, who then went and cursed you while you were sleeping, which caused you to be immortal. And this all happened when you were nine years old?'

He nodded.

'Aha.'

'Aha, indeed.'

Then I just couldn't hold it anymore and I burst out laughing. Just like old times, he couldn't resist to join me and soon we were both standing there, clutching our sides. The sun was now really rising.

What a sight it must have been. Two people, one of them still in her nightgown, laughing at seemingly nothing.

'We will both be put in an asylum if anyone spots us here,' he managed to bring out.

'What are they going to do with us? I'll be dead within the year and you will be stuck there forever. I will come visit you in my next life, my love.'

'Till then, my dear.'

The sky turned pink. By the time we left the garden, the papers with his apologies were long forgotten.