At the other end of the universe, there is a twin to this well I fell down so, so many times. It is not a well, though, but rather it is more like a pool, its waters deep, dark, and still. There, another soul has dwelled for an eternity of eternities - just as mine has resided here. This soul has dived down the pool's placid waters just as many times as I fell down the well, and it was always the same for her : she sought a point in the distant past, sought to change it, but ultimately couldn't. Then there would be the violent return to the point of origin, the confusion, then the clarity. There would be an infinite number of hers, there was always a conversation between her and her, but she always went back down the waters. Just as I did, one day she too coalesced.
The universe folds into itself. The two most distant points now meet and become. If I look down the well, I see distant dark waters, unperturbed. If she looks at the water, she will find a long, long well going ever down. I am haunted, though. There is now more nothingness than ever. There is now more and less at the same time. Everything feels empty. A true void. And yet... I hear the sound of a piano in the distance. Who would be playing it, here and now? How would a piano even have survived this long? But there is no piano, not in a physical sense. The music is in the mind. The music is in the soul. The music is in the heart. As I walk towards where I sense the sound is coming, I feel it becoming clearer, louder. I know this song. But what is it?
I see you, away in the distance. You are sitting beside the pool, your feet dipped in the waters. I approach, so close. The sound of the piano is joined by your voice.
(Come on Balthazar, I refuse to let you die)
(Come on fallen star, I refuse to let you die)
You are alone. You should never have been alone. That's wrong.
('Cause that's wrong and...)
I sit down by your side, my feet joining yours in the pool. They lightly touch yours and in the void there is electricity. How long have you been here, I ask.
( I've been waiting far too long)
My voice joins yours, softly, and the piano echoes in the night.
(It's wrong) (It's wrong)
(I've been waiting far too long) (I've been waiting far too long)
(For you to be mine) (For you to be mine)
(For you to be mine)
You placed your head on my shoulder, then, and wove your fingers around mine. I missed you. I missed you, you said. What a strange place for us to meet again, after so long. But we always said we'd wait. We just didn't know how long. What is time, you ask. Time, what is time? Time is like a dream. Time is a river. Time is a raging and roiling sea in an ebullient ocean, on whose crashing black waves we crest only to dash ourselves in the rocks. The rocks of time. The rock of time. Time. There is no time. Where we are there is no time. When we are there is no time. Everything without a time. But a clock is ticking. We know this moment will be far too brief.
Can we not stay here way forever? We can not stay here forever. Why can't we? We can't. There is no forever here. There is only a closed loop of time that is winding down. But.
But.
But we can have a different forever. One towards where we stride together, as one. Though it requires pain and sacrifice. It demands we look past that day for good. It demands we let it rest, so that we can rest. I don't want to forget, I say. I don't either. But it's a choice we can make now. It'll probably be the only chance we have. All we have to do is join hands and walk together. Will it hurt, I ask. Not anymore, my love. Not after we go. I'm afraid. So am I. Stay here with me. Stay here with I. I-I-I-I is starting to lose cohesion. Stays. Pleases. My love, we can't. I am so sorry. But we can go together. If you give me your hand. But it's a choice you have to make.
I-I-I-I is afraid. I sees the well and the pool ungluing. Things going unstuck and back and I is I don't I can't I isn't, I-I-I-I reaches out my handses. I is I is I is I is I is your voice. Your beautiful voice, as you hold my hands and fill me with light. I see your smile. Oh God, your smile, the same I saw that first day. It is everything to me. Our time approaches. Our time approaches, so near that I sigh. I look behind me, I look beyond me. Hand in hand, we became everything, and for a moment in that eternal night, there were two suns. The flickering light of the burning suns meant that all would be extinguished and left behind.
It also meant a second chance... It signaled a new day -- a future... regained. For if we live there is hope. And if there is hope, then there is tomorrow. And if tomorrow... then, forever.
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