The Eclipse

Photo by Brandan Harvey

Stars shine brightly in the eyes of the being who had created the heavens and who had created me. Twinkling constellations, still unnamed, are wrapped in a thin circle of rich brown. Staring down at me under a pinched brow. A grim line to soft plump lips spreads while midnight skin radiates with life. Skinny but tall, and wrapped in a white robe pooling at their feet, I could almost think my creator, my beloved, to be frail.

And I would be right.

Compared to my muscular physique, all hard lines and toned ridges, my creator was the opposite.

Duality didn't stop at our bodies; my skin the colour of fresh snow, my eyes lighter than a clear blue sky. Hair short, straight and blond, compared to her raven curls. Even the robe I had wrapped around my waist and tied to one shoulder was jet black.

I'm sorry. Soft words whisper through my psyche, vibrating into every corner of my being, as I step up to the edge of Heaven. My creator's inability to speak yet another difference.

"It is not your fault,” I find my words, “If I do not do this everything you have done will be lost."

The seventh day is upon us. Remember my love, you don't need to do this. She said the very words that could bind me to her side for eternity.

"You created me for this, what other purpose do I have?" I ask. My head tilting up to her light, into the silent wind between us. While I wait for her answer, I bask in her glory. A glory I was the opposite of.

I don't know! I never wanted this! I didn't think this would happen! Wrath explodes like the sudden super nova in her eyes. Lightening sizzling the evening sky below our feet, before thunder booms.

Many would cower at her anger. But not me. For I knew where she placed it. Who she aimed it at.

“You shouldn’t be angry at yourself.” I turn and grasp her slender fingers, pulling the crown of her hand up for my kiss.

If it wasn't for her, nothing would still be. Yet she had changed that. All within six days… Her power mighty and unrivalled.

She had created life, first herself. From nothing but darkness. A small speck of light exploding out, a desperate grasping. To feel. To know. To think. To be.

But if light could be something, so could darkness. And so, I stepped out from her.

The end to her beginning. The night to her day. The cold to her heat.

She could have recoiled. Could have dismissed me. Denigrated me to the shadows of her creations.

Instead, she had loved me. From my very first breath.

Her palm stroking my cheek, thawing the ice within until I memorised her starry eyes. Strong arms wrapping around me, reminding me that while our very essences contrasted the world into beautiful patterns, we only existed because of each other.

I would be nothing without Light. She would be nothing without Dark.

"My love. If I stay, every day before this will be wasted. The dark from which I was born from will consume all of us if we do not separate. Life and death, moon and sun, female and male, adult and child. All that duel will combine and become one. And where does that leave you?” I pause, letting the growing silence weigh on my question.

“Let me go.” I finally add, begrudgingly letting her hand loose.

She knows I’m right. But she ignores our reality. Stepping into my body before I can stop her. Circling my shoulders to pull me into her embrace.

Time itself stops. All that moves freezes.

This would be the final time we touch. I want to linger. Let her melt into my being until we were nothing again.

"No!" I cry out. Quickly stepping away, my balance almost lost to the edge we balanced on.

Time resumed.

It will not end like this! She hisses. Her jaw and fists clenched. Let it be known... When the sun is out, but the day is dark, we will meet again.

“Until then my Love.” I blow her a kiss, letting myself fall back with peace filling my heart. This wouldn’t be the last time I see her. This wouldn’t be our last embrace.

Plummeting into empty space, I keep my eyes focused on her. Watching her step up to the edge, starry eyes still sad as they track my descent.

The eclipse. Her voice whispers once more. Her soul grasping for hope. For reassurance.

“The eclipse.” I say before becoming one with the night.