Eclipse

Chapter 22

Place: The Tower

Time: Well into the evening hours. 

Our eyes had adjusted to the darkness that engulfed us, any chance of light extinguished when the Speechless One destroyed the electrical box. Tamara and I found each other shortly after the battle and embraced each other again, exchanging little to no words.

Giving us barely any time to breathe, a red light popped into existence off in a distant corner. An exit lamp had turned on, shining brightly against the dark. A dejected sigh was all we could muster, tired and worn out from the constant battles, both physical and mental.

We held onto each other, supporting ourselves as we dragged ourselves forward to our next destination.

Who was plotting our course? Was it this "helping hand" that Sasha mentioned to us, or was it our enemy, the "puppet master"? Did we even know if Sasha was telling us the truth, or was this all an elaborate play designed by the playwright? I want to be hopeful, but I'm not sure this would even end.

At the very least, we were on the last beacon, meaning this was almost over, one way or another.

The door opened to the slightest touch, and we were greeted with a steep stairwell. Nothing like you would find in a building of any design. It was made of steel, the steps almost a foot high each, ascending high into the void.

Upon putting our first feet on the steps, the door closed behind us with a definitive locking sound. It was at that moment I realized I had forgotten something. My backpack.

"Shit," I cried aloud. "I left my backpack in that room, along with all three of the books."

"Three?" she inquired.

"Somehow, when we were separated, the third book had come to me in a dream, and when I awoke, it was in my backpack." I tried the door, pushing hard, kicking in frustration.

"Did you get a chance to look at it?" Tamara asked.

"No," I said, resigning myself to the fact that they were gone.

"Hold on, stand back, let me see if a bullet or two would work." She slightly hesitated, more than likely thinking the same thing I was.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Don't, it might ricochet and hit us, or if anything, the sound would damage our ears in this cramped space."

"Maybe once we light the beacon here, we can come back down and get it. Historically, we've been put back in the real world afterward."

I smiled at her, hopeful and now eager to continue up.

Using our hands in addition to our legs, we began our ascent. Higher and higher we went, a stairway to Heaven I thought. Could we ever reach it without dying, if it did exist?

"What's really in Heaven and Hell?" I asked aloud.

"That's a random question?" she smirked.

"A place of Nirvana, complete peace and happiness?" I mulled over the idea for a second and continued. "Peace and happiness are different and are in the eye of the beholder."

It seemed that Tamara had the same idea. "Meditation and self-fulfillment could be one idea of that. But again, these are states of being and different for every person."

The realization hit me that she was right. I saw the positives, but there are other forms. These were all states of being. A person who is working out daily to better their body is in fact also bettering their mind. They derive their meditation and fulfillment through exercise. They could be no different than a person meditating in the literal sense of the word.