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I lived on a small island within a small community. I had dwelled with my parents and five other siblings. I was 16 years old and my name was Ivy. I had three sisters and two brothers. I had a younger sister named Lily who was 12 years old. Lily had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. I had another younger sister named Lucy and she was 8 years old. Lucy had dark brown hair and blue eyes. I also had a twin named Maya who was the same age as me. Maya had red auburn hair and green eyes like me. I had a younger brother who was 3 months old named James. James did not have enough hair to tell what color it was yet. James had brown eyes. I had an older brother who was 18 years old named Lucas. Lucas had dark brown hair and green eyes.
Even though Maya and I were twins, we had very different styles. I liked to exercise and liked to dress up. I also loved mysteries and liked to read. Maya would wear whatever was comfortable and did not like to do any physical activity. Maya was talented in music and played the harp. My whole family liked to listen to her play. For the most part we got along. We fought over little things now and then.
We had a small government that was a democracy similar to the government in the United States. We did not have a military. But at that time we never had to go to war. We did have a few police officers and firefighters. We rarely had any crime.
One day a tourist came to our small island. We usually did not have tourists. Everyone was friendly and greeted the man. He was very handsome. He had jet black hair and hazel eyes. He said his name was Damon. Damon looked like he was 17 years old. Damon came from America. Damon heard about our island and wanted to see it. He planned on staying for a year. I offered to give a tour of the island to Damon and he accepted. Damon told me that he rented a small cabin for his stay. Over the first couple of months Damon and I had become close friends. We did things together every day. Maya also joined us sometimes. I was starting to have a crush on him. Everyone in my family agreed that Damon was a nice young man. Luckily for me Maya had no interest in Damon than just being friends.
A few days later, we were at a nice place for lunch and Damon asked me to be his girlfriend. I was excited and said yes. Soon a year went by and Damon had to go. He promised he would come back as soon as possible. So a couple months had passed and I missed him. I could not stop thinking about him.
A huge group of tourists soon came to the island. They said they were from America and they called themselves the Red Crew. They had weapons and announced that they were going to be taking over our island. They captured all our government leaders. We were defenseless against them. We were under strict watch of the Red Crew. They came up with a list of rules we had to follow. We had a curfew at 10:00 every night. We also had a limited food supply. We were only allowed in certain areas and were to stay away from the rest of the areas. We also were not allowed to say anything bad about their group. They controlled the media and all the major newspapers. Anyone who broke their rules would be shot. The whole community was scared and listened to what they said.
The Red Crew was searching for treasures on the island. They found several valuable diamonds on the islands. Soon a lot of people on the island started getting sick and dying. The Red Crew had passed on a virus that we had no idea how to control. I was wishing Damon was here with me. Soon the deadly virus came to my family. We all soon had the virus. Then before I knew it all my family was gone. All of them were gone. I was the only one who survived the virus.
Then one afternoon Damon came. I jumped for joy when I saw him. I said ?I have so much to tell you!?. I told him about everything that happened while he was gone. I then asked how he had been and what took him so long to come back. Damon said that he came into big financial problems and could not afford to come back. Damon said he started saving money so he could eventually come back here permanently. After a few years he finally was able to buy a house on the island and find transportation to the island.
When Damon got settled in, he found a job. I then became a detective. Damon was really good at art and everyone admired his work. Damon was very successful in his business. A couple years later I fell in love with Damon. We went to a really fancy restaurant that was quite expensive. Damon painted an amazing picture of a black horse and gave it to me after we ate dinner. It was a lovely picture. Then Damon got down on one knee and proposed to me with a green emerald ring. I said yes! I was so happy. We both had fallen in love with each other.
I moved into his house with him. We often ran together Damon also taught me several things about art. Damon also frequently gave me roses and wrote me poems. I missed my family dearly but was lucky to have such a loving husband. He comforted me when I was grieving. We were a happy couple.
Then one day Damon started going somewhere for long periods of time. When I asked where he had been, he would always say ?I was at the library?. I was wondering what he was doing for so long at the library. I let it go for a while, but it kept happening more and more often. Damon was spending less time with me. I finally decided to follow him one day. I followed him as he went to a house. I could not see what he was doing so I went to the back of the house and the window was open. Damon was kissing another girl. He was cheating on me! I was so upset. I cried the whole day.
He eventually came home. He asked me why I was crying. I just told him that we would be getting divorced. He acted upset and asked why. I told him I caught him kissing another girl and I discovered where he actually spent all his time when he was supposely at the ?library?. He was surprised and said he was sorry. Damon had betrayed me. We finalized the divorce. From then on I did not trust anyone. I spent more time on my career and soon my business was popular among the island.
Never has there been a more bitter or scathing winter. The ice is sharp and freezing, and snow constantly drifts down from a blinding white sky in monstrous torrents; the snowflakes are less flakes than heavy pricks I can feel as they hit me, sinking into my skin from whichever direction I'm facing.
The wind blows against me, heavy, fierce, and it pushes the snow towards me in waves: the whiteness fills my eyes, my ears, my mouth. I cannot blink for fear of blindness, I cannot breathe for fear of choking, and the only sound I am still capable of discerning is the steady, slow screaming of the air pulsing around me.
It is constant.
It is harrowing.
But it is also, as fate would have it, the only way home; it is the final journey before I reach my long-awaited resting place, with him. In the biting white snow I can feel it: the flow of my life forces becoming a slow trickle, the denouement of my life creeping closer. I don't mind, for my time has come and I know this.
My only hope is that I will make it home in time.
-
She is coming to me, slowly going the distance across the hundreds of icy miles, and I can feel her coming closer But at the same time, I can feel her draining?this is the final battle for the both of us, and the ending is as difficult as it is deserved.
My Galadriel: my Addie. It has been a thousand years since I've heard her voice, a thousand more since I've seen her face, haloed by her shining, golden curls. All this time has passed, and yet I still remember everything. Her smile, her laugh. Her kindness. I miss her more than I knew could be possible.
The lives of mortals in accordance with immortals have always been risky. We've all lost something: Cupid, Lamia, Aphrodite, Eos, even Zeus?likewise, I lost my immortality and my superhuman prowess on the battlefield. However, if loving Galadriel has made me a lover, not a fighter, as well as a mortal, I can still die in her arms knowing that the powers I lost will forever be reflected in the soft gaze of her eyes.
I know what I have given up. But it is returned to me, every day, in knowing what I've gained.
-
I am growing nearer.
The journey, longer than time, but the reward: longer even than that. I am reminded of the days we trekked together to Olympus; it seemed brief in comparison to this. But I know that is only because, back then, he was with me. And although it's been countless moons since I have last seen him, I don't know how much longer I can wait. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm not sure I can.
When I was a child, I would play a game with myself: Is it worth it? It was a sort of curious challenge in which I'd do wild, painstaking things for hefty rewards. Although at first the bounty, and the risk, would be small?I would pretend to be sick for a day off of school, or spend days researching to keep a wild, wounded pet?they soon grew larger. I trained relentlessly to be able to win local athletic competitions, and ended up breaking whatever limbs were involved; I spent the summers outside, with my humanity slowly deteriorating, as I hoped to get closer to the coyotes living in our woods.
I find it amusing how my life has gone full circle, and proud to know that I finally figured out the answer to the childhood game I'm somehow still playing today.
-
With each new sunrise, the tension grows tighter, my body strains, and my resolve strengthens. I have reached the decision that I don't care what it takes?we will be together one last time, or I'll spend the entirety of my death haunting the three Fates.
There is something to be said for this type of connection, which births togetherness in absence and trust in uncertainty.
I want to scream at the sky for the existence of this absence at all. I guess I'm lucky?at least my lover is alive. But my feet are bruised, my soul is tired, and my heart is achingly lonely; across the million miles of distance, I yearn, and hope that when the feeling travels all the way to her, it will be perceived as nothing more than solemn love.
-
The snow has diminished to relentless, pouring rain. There is nothing to see but the gray and the fog and the wet, the endless soak of every surface and the drip, drip, drip of the rain when the storms finally cease. The cold has seeped into my bones; I know nothing else. I can sense that I'm traveling for a reason, but that reason is beyond me now.
A white flag may be waving soon.
The magnetic pull is weakening, but I find it hard to care because I am as well. My strength escapes me: I spend whole minutes on the ground, unable to rise. I feel the strain in my muscles like a cheap knife, and dream of cutting away my skin so I can pull it out.
I have begun to hallucinate. It is only ever Addie, and while the visions are torturous, they force me to keep going. They demand the trek continue, and I have no strength left to argue.
-
Distantly, in the back of my mind, past the pounding and the pain and the thoughts?now nearly gone?I can sense it What? I don't know?something. Something.
I force my brain to work, and in a few more steps I know:
At last, at last, at long, long, last.
She's here.
-
I'm not sure exactly who we are, or what we're doing here, clutched together like children, but I can feel that a wrong has been made right. I know I am right where I should be.
I am tired, so tired. I know that he is too.
Our breathing slows. Finally together, we are happy.
In the glowing light of the breaking dawn, we rise to a better place.
We go holding hands in the light.
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