My Forbidden Fruit

I guess this is love. It’s warm, soft and comforting. Her name is Teia, a beautiful name on its own. The way it just rolls off of my tongue and echoes through my mind, sends chills down my spine. But these are good chills, I think. Welcome to my life.

I suppose I ought to introduce myself. My name is Chris Jovel. I’m sixteen and in my second last year of high school. I’m sure you’ll find me as much of a freak as everyone else does. I’m an albino. Red eyes instead of green or blue, snow white hair and skin so pale it could blind someone in broad daylight. See? I’m a freak.

But that’s not really important right now is it? No, what’s important right now is the beautiful brunette standing in front of me, Teia. The sunlight is upon her, while I hide in the shadows. Her eyes watch me, speak to me. Light brown eyes, golden specks hidden and only revealed when the light would shine in, like now.

“Are you just going to stand there like a ghost?” She smiles and starts waving her arms around imitating a ghost.

“Cool it Casper, you know what you do to me.” I laugh a little. She continues and I think her smile actually grew from my comment. She really is Casper the friendly ghost, everyone likes her. I’m the regular sort of ghost, like one from Ghostbusters. She’s a joker though, and I’m the royal family it seems. She entertains me well, so there’s no need to chop off her head just yet.

“Come on! Let’s go! Take a step,” She steps forward and grabs my hand. “Into the light of the dark!” Not only was she funny, she was poetic too. If I get the chance to, I’ll show you one of her fine pieces of literature.

We spin around joyfully as she brings me into the blinding light. I really do think I’m more of a night creature, made to live in the safety of the dark. My eyes adjust and the green summer park refreshes itself. No path, no benches, nobody but us. Okay maybe it’s not a park, but it sure looks like one. Green leaves of deciduous trees growing in small isolated areas, normally alone too.

The grass is always greener on the other side, which explains why there is no ‘other side’ of this place. This place is the epitome of beauty, no wonder Teia knew where it was. She is the human equivalent of this place, almost like they’re connected somehow. She does her writing here, all her poems are born here. She was born here. Every beginning has an end.

“Come on!” She tugs at me, leading me in a new direction. “Let’s go to the stream!” I knew I forgot to mention something!

There happens to be a quaint little stream that flows through and along this ‘park’ of ours. The water is always crystal clear, pure like Teia is. You can hear it from any point inside of the ‘park’, Teia finds it soothing. I don’t blame her either, it soothes the animal inside of me as well; it brings peace to my war torn mind.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” She always has so much energy when she’s here, it’s unbelievable! With the amount of energy she has here, she could power Las Vegas forever. Ironically, when she’s anywhere else she’s almost dead, like an old battery. Still, here she is the energizer bunny.

The grass is soft on the soles of our feet. We took off our socks and shoes when we got here, when we got to the Garden of Eden. There is one rule however, never eat the forbidden fruit. The only thing is that there are no fruit bearing trees in this garden, so what is the forbidden fruit?

We stick our feet into the water and let the current massage our problems away. It’s so cool and refreshing, like actually falling into a pool on a hot summer day like on the Nestea commercials except you actually do. Teia reaches out and dips her hand in the crustal water and lets it rest there for a bit. We don’t talk much when we’re here, we don’t really need to. Our connection is funny like that; it almost renders speech useless, almost.

“And so it seems, that in this endless stream, lies a secret long lost to the times, and told only through the bountiful rhymes!” Her poems can’t be carried over our connection, the only use for speech here.

“God I love your rhymes, your endless poems!” I’m not exactly a poet myself, but I do write poems of my own. I am the author of the two of us, the story teller. I write short stories for the most part. At first they were short and quick, no longer than two pages, but with time and practice they grew like my mind did. They started to span out over several pages and my hand writing started to shrink as well, but the pages kept coming.

“And I’m addicted to your writing.” She turns her head to me, hair gracefully following her direction. “So I guess we’re even!” She sticks out her tongue at me playfully and sprays me with the water from her dripping hand. I wipe the water of my face and try then fail at sending it back at her.

“What was that for?” The look on her face says it all, she just wants to play. I dip my hand in the water and flick the water at her. The war starts and our weapons are our hands and the water. We’re laughing through every second of this and she never loses her grace.

The ground rumbles. We stop, something’s wrong. “Maybe it’s just an earthquake?” I say to her, hope in my heart but even I know it isn’t one.

“No. This is different. It almost feels unnatural….” Something unnatural is causing this? God I hope it doesn’t come here. I have a feeling that if it does, we’re both dead, one way or another. I pray that it isn’t some sort of demon though; I’m absolutely terrified of demons. The thought that they exist keeps me up at night, if one were to come here, we would die.

The rumbling comes to a stop, allowing us to relax again. “Hey Teia, what do you think that even was?” She looks terrified still, frozen in time. It’s haunting her. It’s transforming her. She’s as pale as I am, as pale as a ghost.

“I… I don’t know…” I inch over to her and throw my arms around her, telling her that it’s all going to be okay. I keep telling myself that too, trying to make myself believe it. But no matter how many times I tell myself and how hard I try to believe it, there’s still something inside of me that almost seems to be trying to warn me of something. It’s trying to warn me of something dark, impending doom.

“Teia, I know that this might seem like a bad time, but I want to tell you something before it’s too late.” I say. She looks up at me attentively and nods at me. It’s time. Her smile is gone, but I say it anyways. “I… I love you.”

That’s the first time I’ve ever dared to say something like that to anyone. Why, I’m not sure. I think it’s because I’m a freak. I feel like everything I touch, or love, ends up dying. I am Death’s hand. The pain that comes with it, well, let’s just say that wasn’t in the job description.

The smile slowly comes back and color starts to return to her face. She places one soft hand on my face. “And I love you.” She says. Now I understand why color returned to her face, hell, I think color is coming to mine for once. When someone tells you that they love you, for an instant, you forget about your fears and embrace the idea with every aspect of your being. It’s like being set free.

We lean in closer to each other slowly, swaying in the breeze. I feel my hand slide over her smooth face and wish for this moment, right here, to never end. I look deep into her eyes and feel hers deep inside of mine, for a moment we’re stuck there; lost within the endless boundaries that make up our souls. There’s no fear in her eyes anymore, why would she need to fear? What would she fear besides the red of my eyes? My eyes are a scar that even my own parents cannot gaze upon. But she’s different, she’s not afraid. I see trust, honesty and purity in her eyes. She’s accepted me for who I am, like no one else has.

With two fingers holding her chin up, I pull her in. My world goes black as I close my eyes simultaneously with hers. We lock lips finally, after an eternity of waiting. Her lips are so soft they’re literally driving me insane. This is love. I’m sure of it. They’re smooth and warm, warm like the feeling in my chest. The kiss is like nothing I’ve ever felt before; I’m in paradise.

We pull away smiling. Her eyes lock on me and commence to warm my soul again. The smile on her face grows and grows until it can’t grow any more. Giggles snake their way out of her mouth. She’s so incredibly happy. It’s somewhat hard to believe that one little kiss could make someone so happy, but I believe it because, well, I’m experiencing it too.

Suddenly, I get the urge to check the time. We have a nasty habit of losing track of time. “Shit we’re late! Teia! It’s noon already!” I exclaim, worrying over how much trouble we’ll be in later. We arrived here at six in the morning. A whole quarter of the day just flew by us.

She just gives me a dreamer’s look. “Chris,” she says. “Relax, it’s Sunday. Tomorrow’s Monday. We’re fine.” I have the nasty tendency to think it is Monday when we’re here on Sunday. I do it every time we come here. I let myself relax like she told me to do. But that can’t last long, now can it?

The ground starts to rumble again, sending chills down my spine. It’s much more violent than before, almost as if it’s coming closer. Out of fear I drag her to her feet (her smile and color left her in seconds) and start bringing her back to our shoes. “Come on,” I tell her, knowing that she isn’t really all there. “I don’t want to wait and find out what that is.”

In an almost hypnotized state, she nods and follows me like a zombie would if it was trying to eat my brain. “Hey, you there!” I hear someone scream, a man by the sound of it. The voice sounds rough and aggressive, coming up from behind us.

“Yes sir…” I say, trailing off by the end of the second word. He wasn’t alone when he called out to us. He’s got an army backing him up. They all must be a full head taller than me, but with much bigger builds. They’re standing in three rows. The first two are carrying guns, assault rifles by the look of them. The last row can only be seen by the fires that stretch above them. Torches.

“It’s him! The demon child!” A man from the back row yells. Demon child? Is that really what I look like? What I’ve become? That can’t be true. “He’s probably gotten one of his demon buddies to possess her!”

A snake slithers away from them. Did I bite the forbidden fruit in this Garden of Eden? Am I to pay for my sin? They say yes, but I did nothing wrong! I love her! They’re the demonic ones! They’re the possessed ones! They came here looking to murder me, an innocent, an albino, a freak.

They all start yelling simultaneously, but yelling very different things making it impossible to make out a single word. The back row disperses and begins to light fire to the Garden of Eden. They’re destroying her, not me!

“Stop it!” I yell hopelessly. They won’t listen. “This is her home! Not mine!” They continue to ignore me; do they even care about what happens to her? The yelling stops, but I still run at them without thinking. Teia is dead silent. The guns point towards me, but it seems that they aren’t pointing at me. I can smell the smoke now, the burning death.

I tackle one of the torch holders to the ground and fight with him for the torch. In my blind rage, I over power him and seize control of the torch. I shove it down his pants; he won’t have kids ever again. I brace myself for a scream, but nothing comes. Not even an expression of pain crosses his face. The world is as silent as Death, only the fires of hell can be heard.

Then, almost as if to wake me up, the guns go off. My eyes shoot closed, expecting bullets to pierce me at any moment. They never do. Confused, I open my eyes and stand up slowly. I turn around to see a sight I wish I never had. I turned around just in time to see Teia collapse to the ground. Blood seeps from her wounds and the soldiers form a straight line. They march away and the ground rumbles with their footsteps.

-Zero