Ascension

Chapter One

5,034,011,001 BC

JANUARY 19TH

01:34 AM

EROS HOUSEHOLD

OLYMPIA

There was a cold subtle wind blowing that night... Walking across the ceramic white tiling of the kitchen floor was like stepping on ice cubes and I quickly scurried on the carpeting of the hallway like a frightened animal looking for shelter. I was well aware that the hour was late, however, I had forgotten to remove the waste from the kitchen's rubbish compartment and was not willing to take the risk of disappointing my parents by disregarding a task that they had assigned me for the day. I walked through the hallway glancing at hung pictures of my parents that were placed to give the house a sense of family, I was aware that I needed to be quiet as I was not willing to take the risk of waking my father... He worked ridiculous hours and often pushed himself to his limits. I did not want to be the reason my father had to wake up, but what I was not aware of is that wouldn't have mattered as he was already awake... Pacing in his office trying to come up with an irrefutable solution to the latest problem that arose at work.

When I was a boy I admired my father so much, I dreamed to see myself gaining the same measure of success as he had and find a position that possessed power and respect. I saw him as a hero, as the great ruler in a grand fairy tale leading his kingdom with honour, compassion, and most importantly candour. At that age, my perception was that everyone who had the pleasure of collaborating with him, I had great respect for him and spoke about how over time he had shown that he deserved his position... He was my champion, the person I dreamed of becoming... Some used to say that I cared more about my father than my mother did and as I grew, I learned that wasn't very hard to do. This is what I thought about as I approached my father's office door...

I kept walking through the hallway barefoot until I was able to see a small slither of light peeking out from under the door, I paused and for a moment I thought about the many reasons of why my father was still awake. He used to be the kind of person that would have everything scheduled, including his family time which I assumed was one of the reasons that my mother decided to separate from my father and never kept in close contact. But he was always on top of things, making sure that he was getting enough sleep and had enough to eat in order to have the energy to get all the things he had planned for the day. He was commended for his impeccable work ethic, something that he tried to instil in me growing up, even though I possessed something he called a wandering mind... My mother excused it, of course, she just said it was my creative side wanting to explore and my father would say that she had the same unruly curiosity. Nothing more than an unfortunate trait he would say, something that I would grow out of as I mature, and I would stop questioning things and simply come to terms with them. But curiosity was the thing that placed me at the door of my father's office, wondering why he was still awake...

"Father?" I said softly as I placed my hand on the office door and pushed it open slowly, the soft creak as it opened... I found him pacing his office with one hand holding a glass of brown liquid and the other on the side of his head as he rubbed his temples, he was wearing a black pair of loose fabric pants and an untucked white blouse. I could easily make the assumption that my father was not planning to stay up late as he was dressed so comfortably, brushing his fingers through his short brown strands of hair and then placing it back on the side of his face. He placed the glass down picking up a golden, metal writing apparatus and his leather-bound notebook, it was the place where he stored all of the written notes from the events of the day. You see, my father had a very polite personal assistant referred to as Iago, who would sit in on his meetings and would record anything said that would be deemed as important. He, being sound in his judgement and a trusted ally to my father.