THE ETERNAL FIRE

THE ♾️ 🔥

This is a story about two people. About the victim and the bully. About pain and happiness, joy and sadness. Can all that is forgiven be forgotten? Does age justify the act? If a child murders someone, will he be forgiven because he is a child? If the victim is a child, will he forget when he grows up? Is there an excuse for peer violence? Does a child have the right to hurt another child? Is a bully even a child? Is that soulless human even a person?

Her tears fell like raindrops, endlessly. They fell on the sheet of paper and mixed with the thick ink. Her tears were heavy, and her painful words even heavier. She was writing illegibly, because her palm was trembling. From time to time, she would let out a cry, like begging for help. She wrote verses, and those verses were hurting her soul. That white paper doesn't have a heart, and it's better that it doesn't, because if it had, it would have been broken by now. And wasn't it? In the parts where the dark ink was diluted with tears, there the pen penetrated through the sheet of paper. He also mourned for Alina. And she, like a burned candle, cried for others. And it was more than clear to her that she was neither the first nor the last. She wept for the innocent victims of the eternal fire.

                                                                  CHAPTER 1

Dead darkness in the room and outside it. Not even street cats were found to break the dead silence...
And everything went on like that until 5 o'clock in the morning, when Alina's alarm bells rang out with full force. She probably doesn't even call it an alarm, and she's right about that. She does not use these digital objects, or as she often said:
"I do not feed on the fruits of technology."
Well, like all her other objects, this one also was a classic "old-timer", God knows from when it dates back.

However, Alina opened her eyes at that same moment, as if it were not the middle of the night, and immediately looked at the schedule of the day, which stood on the shelf next to the bed. It is a perfectly planned time, accurate to the minute.

For several years now, she has marked the course of the next day in her planner since the evening before, of course at the same time every night, precisely at 8:00 p.m.
She got up and remained in a sitting position for exactly 5 minutes in bed. Yes, exactly 300 seconds. Don't ask why and how. The schedule dictated and she executed.

She brushed her teeth and splashed water on her face, which, hand on heart, would have been more than enough for the former Alina, but this mature person has much bigger appetites. She slathered her face with white grapes and honey, and put essential oils on her hair.
She looked at the clock on the wall in the hallway. It read 5:15. Great, because the next activity is scheduled for 5:20. She got dressed in those 5 minutes in sports clothes, and under it a swimming suit, she took her backpack, and at 5:20 she left the house. There was also a "reward" for the responsible girl:
Until 7 o'clock she had the right to enjoy the beach.

And so, with an easy run, she reached the shore, and the beautiful sight immediately brought a smile to her beautiful face. Every day the same ritual, and every time she got excited as if it was the first time. As if she couldn't wait for this moment, she stripped down to her swimsuit. She spread her arms towards the sea and ran. Shivers ran through her body. The water was not cold, but her heated body still thought otherwise. She swam a few laps and let herself go to the sea like a dolphin. It was amazing how much this girl just enjoyed the sunrise on the sea. The first song of the birds - "early risers" and the sleepy traffic, acted as a medicine for the introverted brain.When she thinks of  the word "paradise", she envisions such mornings.

After an hour she came out of the water with a heavy heart, like a fish on dry land. Yes, the same girl who has maximum control over absolutely all the moments in her life, it was enough to hear that sound of a wave hitting the land and that's it... In those  moments she was losing control over herself.
"Humans, like all other creatures, are a part of nature."
The first rays of the sun began to appear in the sky and lit it up with a bright blue color, and the first birds began their morning song.

Alina, covered with a large towel, sat on the warm sand on the beach and admired. She admired the rays that fell into the sea and made it sparkle. The same rays played with her chestnut-colored hair, so that her locks of hare looked like they were golden, and her dark blue, large eyes looked as if the deepest ocean depths had been illuminated. To top off this "heaven on Earth", she took out freshly squeezed orange juice from his backpack and took a big sip. Then she took out a piece of bread, not for her, but for her "friends". For a very special person, for someone who meant a lot to her - the swan Phoenix. When she first noticed him, in the same place as now, she was a rather small, unremarkable bird, with an injured leg. She had even taken him to the vet, and since then, for a whole year, every day until he recovered, she came, brought him food and smeared his wound with the special medicine. After only one year, Phoenix is the most beautiful swan in the sea. The "white, furry ball" began to trust her so much that he began to allow her to touch him and eat from her hands. Perhaps the reason for their exceptional connection was that Alina identified with this bird. The same fate seemed to follow them both. The fate that led them "from ugly ducklings to the most beautiful swans."But just as Phoenix remembered who gave him a hand and who threw a stone at him, so Alina remembered that she was alone, completely alone when she needed help the most. No one was found to give her a hand to get her up from the bottom into which her innocent self was pushed. She received only new blows with stones and they opened new and even deeper wounds. It's all over now. She healed those painful wounds and got up. She burned to ashes and from the ashes she was born again. She was born as an even stronger and braver person, but she did not forget. Did not succeed when it comes to forgetting. Almost every day the scars on her heart ached again and brought her bitter tears. That's why she called Phoenix. that beautiful fighter of a swan. And he, like her, died and was born again.

Alina fell for the beauty. She could have stayed like that all day, but she didn't have time for that. The agenda was more than full. Today, Alina was traveling to Germany to visit her family. She has completed all her exams for that year and is now free to go home. Unfortunately, her friends and roommate cannot boast of the same. So, she set aside half an hour for them, and then she should be at the airport at seven o'clock. She gathered her things, made an emotional goodbye with Phoenix and left. She hated saying goodbyes... they aroused "slimy" emotions and tears… She didn't want to show weakness, and maybe she was just tired of it all. And even the pretty is sometimes boring to the person, and what is to say about the not so pretty thing ? Broken glass leaves behind shards of glass, and tears are left  from a broken heart.