Evelyn Earth Part 15

It was unlike anything I have ever felt before. Considering my current circumstances though, it wasn’t as unique an observation as it would have been say, 6 months ago.

I was dreaming at first. The coldness of the concrete was filtering into my body through my pores, my muscles and my blood. Within me though there was nothing but fire. Hot and smouldering, close, so close.

We were standing on the street. I recognised the pattern of fallen rubble, the way the sun set in the background—its rays spilling out over the water. I shielded my eyes and tried to make out the other person. They were just out of reach, just out of sight. I took a step forward, but in dream time I walked hundreds of metres. Each step brought me closer to them, but they stayed stubbornly out of my range.

My eyes are open. I know this because the sun is rising behind me, over the city. I sit up and my back aches from the constant pressure of the concrete. How did I even fall asleep like this? The remnants of my dream linger within me and I try and pinpoint the exact feeling of it. The closest I can come to making sense of it is that it’s a mixture of anticipation and fear. As if I’m a little girl waking up on Christmas morning, unsure about whether or not there would be any presents because I’ve been bad, very bad.

Evelyn Earth Part 14

Getting time away from Owen was easier said than done. I could tell just by looking at him that he was earning for affection. It rolled off him in waves, break after break of need that was slowly but surely pulling me under.

                We spent the following week by each other’s sides. In that short time we had effectively moved in together. My mattress and other various belongings were transported to his shipyard bunker after many protestations from me. The docks were not meant for continuous habitation. Now in the heat of summer they seemed like the ideal place to hole up, but three months had already passed since the first phase of the war or the destruction of the ‘black holes’ as Owen liked to call it. Holing up wasn’t going to be an option for much longer. We needed a stable living situation, one with fresh water surrounding us, rather than poisonous salt water. I personally needed to break free of the ties that were linking me to this place.

                Everything around me was concrete and metal and hard. I could feel the coldness of these things surrounding me, sapping my energy and draining me of any happiness that Owen could muster. Not even Fins could get a laugh out of me anymore and I think Owen was beginning to catch on. After a few more days of monotonous living I told him that I needed some time alone in my apartment. He nodded at me, not saying a word. I knew that I was somehow hurting his feelings, but the initial connection that I had felt with him was gradually fading, I just didn’t care anymore.

Evelyn Earth Part 13

A pang of pain flashed through my head. Grimacing I massaged my temples. It felt like I was an overstuffed hard-drive about to crash. Slowly I began the trek back to my building, to my concrete cell. With every step more information flowed into me. The first days of the beginning of the war—the fact that we were in the middle of a war, Maya and the little boy…crashing structures, life energy.

The pain in my head worsened. I tried to calm myself down, I had almost reached the front entrance, there were only a few more steps left and I would be inside. Somehow I knew that being in an enclosed space wouldn’t make me feel any better, but I pushed on.

I knew that Owen would be back from his raid soon and I needed him. A strong flash of realisation washed over me. Owen was like my cosmic buffer. He lessened the intensity of the Earth’s power allowing for a sense of normality. Being around him would be disastrous during a…a something? The thought trailed off. Everything was so confusing. Moments of clarity just led to fogginess.              

Evelyn Earth Part 12

It wasn’t a head first dive, but a rather graceful twist. My body turned mid-air until my back was facing the ground and my eyes were grazing the clouds. I spread my arms out and savoured the sensation of moving air currents slipping in between my fingers. My mind was a pure blank slate, suspended in a state of default just waiting to be filled with new impulses.

The first of these impulses came in the form of realisation, the realisation that I wasn’t falling. The second impulse was that the darkness wasn’t closing in on me. The third was a pleasant sensation. This sensation began deep in the back of my mind, quickly it picked up speed moving from one neuron to another, one atom to the next until my whole body vibrated with an acute pleasantness.

                I stayed suspended like that for what seemed like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. Every tiny shift in the wind, every ray of sunlight was absorbed into my humming body. I felt an absolute connection with the world. The confusion that had gripped me for the past few days cleared like a bad storm.