An Angel Amongst Devils (An enemies to lovers, slow burn romance)

Chapter 31

We walk up the long tretchououse hill, along our way to the cliff top away from the village lights, so that we can get a closer look at the stars. I have my bonoclears all ready to go, with them wrapped around my neck, ready to pull up, If I get lucky and see a shooting star.

I got the bonoclears from a shop at the markets. A guy had an obvious honey for mechanics and electronics, he had a whole collection of old machinery that he had transformed back into a functional condition. That is what he did with the bonoclears. Apparently - taking his word for it - these were used back in WW1. Whether that statement is true or not, I will never know.

Arlo tugs me along when my legs start to durdle, as a little encouragement to keep going despite my rapid panting.

Eventually we make it up to the top and sit down on a patch of grass that overlooks the water and the light from the village is so distant, it's almost invisible. It is so quiet, no one is here apart from us and it makes this moment so much more intimate. There is the faint rumble of the waves crushing amongst the rocks in the background, but apart from that, it is complete and utter silence.

I never thought I could feel more at peace and more safe than what I do now.

The night air is cool and salty when it kisses my face, but I - myself am not cold. Arlo - of course - is and will always be my source of warmth. He sits beside me and has an arm around me, pulling me close to his side.

I fiddle for a moment with the lenses of the bonoclears, before bringing them up to my eyes and looking at the sky.

Black.

Pitch black.

Huh?

I bring them back down and frown into the lense. Something must be wrong.

"You didn't take the cover off, angel." Arlos - all knowing - voice says.

"Oh." I say stupidly. "Right."

I peel the cover off, that was indeed, covering the whole glass of the top of the lens and try again, bringing the binoculars to my eyes, and...

Much better.

Much, much better.

Not black this time, in fact, the complete opposite. The whole sky is lit up like its very own city. They are so noticeable - every single star - they are so unique, each and every one of them, they are all similar in white colour, but differentiate in shade and brightness and in shape. It's magical the way they all just sit there. Some patches - the more I look - in the sky, the stars are more clumped up and packed together, making parts look almost cloudy with stars.

"Is that the milky way?" I ask, pointing to the milky patch.

"Yeah." Arlo confirms.

I mentally give myself a pat on the back for recalling just the slightest bit of information from year 8 astronomy.

"Wow." I say. I look at the infinite black depth of the sky and all the glow captured in the stars with it.

"You know, there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand."

"Bull shit." I scoff.

"It's true." He gives me a look, making me think about his predicament more. When I give it a thought, I realise that it's true. Unbelievably so, there are so many grains of sand, it feels like there is no count to the endless amount at the beach here, but there are so many more... millions of beaches on this earth, commingled with that, there are trillions upon trillions of grains of sand. But there are only that many. However large that may be, there is only a certain amount. This is the opposite of stars, there is no way to count them, because there is no limit, the universe is infinite, with that, the amount of stars is infinite. I don't like the way my brain clocks up at the thought. The thought that there is no end to this universe and to this life. The universe has not ended, it confusingly just goes on forever... how?