Darkness' Light

Darkness endured. Calm. Patient. They could wait, they’ve done it before. They’ll do it again.

And again.

And again.

Because such is Life. Sweet Life. Dearest Life. Life who always strived even in the toughest and darkest of circumstances.

Darkness sighed, both in relief and weariness. A sliver of warmth took root in them. Darkness stilled and reached out to the source, drawing back at the sight of the minuscule Light that slowly flicked. It was weak. Darkness held their breath, watching as the Light seemingly faded in and out of existence. Darkness cradled it, eternally vigilant. As time passed, the light grew and prospered. It warmed them as they embraced it. It wasn’t long before Life was born from that light and Darkness, now Death, followed.

Their person was Lucien. Life adored him. Death stood in the far corners of the nursery as Lucien’s family twittered about, snapping pictures, displaying toys that Lucien was too young, too small, to truly play with. A faint smile touched their lips as the child’s father laughed as Lucien held his finger with his entire hand. What they did not see was Life also reaching out and holding on to him. But Death saw, and they thought it was sweet.

Then came the flipside.

Both Lucien and Life wailing at night for both food and a diaper change. Life didn’t really need these things, technically speaking, he couldn’t interact with it, but he and Lucien were intertwined. What happened to one happened to the other. Lucien’s discomfort was his discomfort. Midcry, Life turned and saw them. It was the first time Life had truly noticed their presence. Life was silent. Lucien’s cries were hushed by his mother who had finally risen to suckle him.

Life was still a baby, unlike Death who appeared to be a toddler. He had a faint silvery aura around him, which complemented his golden hair and eyes. He was the opposite of Death who possessed dark features and a grey aura to match. They were like night and day. The two locked eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Death was still, eyes examining every inch of his face, searching for something they couldn’t put a word to. But Life simply smiled. Pure and genuine. Death swallowed and averted their gaze.

It wasn’t long until Lucien’s terrible twos came. Naturally, it was made worse by Life’s penchant for mischief. He was too curious for his own good. Life wanted to see and touch and hear and smell everything, and after he did that, he tasted it. Lucien took all the blame. The poor child didn’t stand a chance. Many near-death experiences led Death to also give Life a scolding. Although it never seemed as if the stern tone had any effect on Life, he did stop attempting to stick the fork into the electrical plug and eating bees which he was highly allergic to.

It was safe to say that when they started school, Life and Lucien had a decent understanding of what was considered ‘dangerous. Death knew deep in their being that Life still itched to touch fire, and lick frogs but feared the parental backlash. He didn’t like seeing Lucien cry, it made him cry and Death couldn’t help but tease him when he did.

They were a little older now. It was on their first day of primary school that they had begun to see the Lives and Deaths of others. Life gripped Death’s hand and dragged them behind him as he skipped over to another child. On the material plane, Lucien was happily going over to attempt to make a new friend. Life gave the stranger’s Life one of his best smiles, immediately naming them in his head, Life-S. Lucien smiled at the boy and introduced himself.

“Hello!” Life raised on his tippy toes for a second as he waved. “Do you wanna play? I saw there were black beetles by the fence maybe we could—”

“Leave me alone!” The child pushed Lucien over.

Life stared dumbfounded at Life-S who gave him a strange look. Death-S approached causing Death to pull Life behind him. This interaction had caught the attention of the other children and their entities. Life peeped around, clinging to Death’s robe. Seeing the other entities look on and hearing some of them whisper made him feel embarrassed. Lucien was also embarrassed but desperately wanted to make amends, invoking that feeling in Life.

As Lucien picked himself up, Life said, “I’m sorry. Do you still wanna be friends?” He gripped Death’s robe tighter. “I can be better.”

The entities were still and silent as Lucien apologised and offered to share the fruits his mother had packed him.

“I have my own,” the boy said. After a moment, he quietly added, “Beetles are scary.”

“Then let’s play something else.”

They later came to know that the boy’s name was Sol. To Life, Sol was an interesting creature. He didn’t like to climb mango trees or pelt them down with stones. He didn’t like playing in the rain, or in the mud and puddles it left behind. He didn’t like to race along the beach or swim from one end to the other. He didn’t like to play cricket, neither did he like to watch it. He most certainly didn’t like bugs and other critters.

But he did like to read. That was it.

At first, a lot of their interaction was Sol going into great detail about some book he had read, which Lucien hadn’t because he couldn’t read such complicated books yet. Not that he had the interest to. Sol would talk, and talk, drink something because his throat started to get a little dry, then talk some more. He could describe the story so vividly that Lucien and Life often forgot that it was something made up. But Lucien and Life couldn’t sit still forever. Somehow their friendship worked and lasted.

Secondary school brought a lot of changes, the most impactful being puberty. Life didn’t quite let it get to him, although Life-S had been a bit down about it, this reflected in their persons. Sol didn’t shoot up like the other boys as Lucien had. The moment his insecurities made an appearance, Lucien would chance them away. The other side of the coin showed Life barking at Death-S who had been whispering discouraging words to Life-S.

This sort of thing always maddened Life. He saw such instances where it happened with other people’s entities. Where their Deaths spewed unfriendly words at their Lives, or where someone else’s Death interacted with their Life. His Death was always by his side in comparison to everyone else’s who stood a bit of ways off. He wasn’t so naïve to not know what and who Death was; he had never experienced death either, but he didn’t quite see it as a negative thing. His Death was always kind to him. Everyone else’s Death seemed to have it out for them.

The time came when the entities started taking a different sort of interest in each other. Most of the male Life entities around Life started to follow the female Life entities. Sometimes either side took interest in each other, not to mention there were the ones who seemed to have no particular biases. Of course, there were the ones who took a little longer to figure out what they liked but eventually got it in the end.

This came with a little problem.

A problem that Life himself didn’t notice, but Death had.

There were the Lives that approached, of any and all genders, only to get indirectly turned down because Life showed no interest in them. Then there were the ones that looked on from afar, and Life being too caught up in the moment, never noticed. Lucien and Life unknowingly became everyone’s love dilemma.

Both Lucien and Life only desired to have fun, to live life to the fullest. They were athletic and outgoing, their hearts only raced with excitement and adrenaline from biking, marathons, and basketball. It never quite raced because they looked upon someone they thought was attractive. Well, to be exact, Lucien never did, and it was only because Life had discretely turned his eyes upon Death.

The real problem came when they were in university.

As expected, Sol was studying Literature and English. What surprised most people was that Lucien was studying Mechanical Engineering. It wasn’t by choice, his parents thought that he could do his sports on the side, that real money came from being an engineer, not an athlete. He wasn’t discouraged and took to filling every moment he wasn’t studying with what he genuinely loved. It was his dedication effort that allowed him to compete nationally, if only for a short while. It was this that inspired Sol to take his writing and storytelling more seriously, in fear of being left behind. It was this fear that put a strain on their friendship.

Sol and Life-S started clinging to them, but Lucien and Life were too good-natured to be bothered by it. To be frank, they were quite oblivious as to what was happening in the first place. It was only after a while that they began to notice that it was external attention on them that made Sol and Life-S feel insecure. Then one night as Lucien invited Sol for a drink, which he rarely agreed to, did the human-entity pair truly understand their friend’s emotions.

 On two different planes, two different existences stood frozen as their first kisses were stolen from them. Lucien was the first to react. He gently untangled Sol’s hold on him and took a step back. However, on the other side, Death had shoved Life-S away, drawing Life behind them after wiping his mouth with their sleeve.

The damage was done.

Subconsciously feeling Life-S’s pain, Sol drunkenly lashed out. Just like how they had met as kids, Sol kept on pushing him. They weren’t kids anymore, Lucien was bigger, stronger, and not so easily moved as he once had been. To humour him, Lucien retreated a step as Sol continued with his antics, making the matter worse as Sol perceived it as pity.

Both human and entity stared into their counterpart’s eyes and asked, “Why?”

This caused the opposing pair to pause. “Do you really not get it?” they asked in sync.

“I don’t.”

“I’ve known you for seventeen years and loved you for ten of them.”

They didn’t get it. “But I love you too?”

Sol started laughing. Only after two minutes did the laugh turn into tears. Lucien reached out but paused just as his hand was about to touch Sol to wipe his tears. Life’s hand was stopped by Death, who held him with a grip so tight it almost hurt.

“You’re hopeless,” Sol whispered. “Ten years…”

“I’m sorry,” Lucien said delicately, afraid he’d get angry again. “I can be better.”

Hearing this Life-S was enraged and utterly embarrassed. Putting distance between himself and Life, he bumped into Death-S and noticeably dimmed.

“Is there someone else?”

“You know I’ve never cared for these things.”

These things. Life-S pushed Death-S away, once again influenced by the contact.

“But I—I can if you want me to,” Lucien earnestly looked at Sol.

Sol was important to him; he didn’t want to lose him. Lucien didn’t know what he would do if Sol wasn’t beside him, looking out for him and cheering him on. As Sol himself had said, he knew him for seventeen years, he was too entangled and emotionally invested to allow him to walk out of his life. It wasn’t the sort of investment that Sol desired, but he could if that was what Sol wanted.

Life shook free of Death and made a move to grab Life-S. He tried to dodge, but how could he escape Life who was more active than him. Lucien finally got over himself and pulled Sol into his chest. The human-entity as one repeated their words.

“I can be better.”

“Listen, Luci, I will always be here if you need me.” That human-entity pair pushed them away. “There is no need to force yourself. I—I already had a feeling about what you are.” It was Lucien’s confused look that made Sol smile as he sniffed and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “You’ll figure it out, I don’t want to influence your self-discovery.”

His eyes were clear now as if he had never taken a single sip of alcohol. “By the way, the next time someone tells you that they romantically love you, don’t confuse it for platonic feelings and offer to fake reciprocate it.”

“I never understood the difference, or why people do what they do…at night,” Lucien blushed as he finished his sentence, averting his eyes.

Sol gave a sigh of longsuffering. “When will you grow up and say—”

“No!” Lucien bounced away covering his ears.

“Sex! S-E-X!” Sol chased after him laughing as if their spat had already been forgotten.

“Stop it, it’s weird. I don’t wanna hear it.” Lucien took off. There was no way Sol could keep up with him; he didn’t even try.

And like that, the problem resolved itself although it didn’t stop Sol from pining for him or three more years until he met someone else. Five years later Lucien was his best man at the little ceremony that Sol and his partner had put together. They couldn’t be legally married unless they flew abroad, but this was enough. As promised, Sol still supported him despite having new priorities and his own life to live.

Unlike his peers who found life partners, Lucien found himself with a dog. A dog was a life partner in its own right despite having a shorter lifespan. Life, on the other hand, found himself being subjected to Death’s heated gaze. After the incident with Life-S did he finally manage to piece together the puzzle that was Death’s feelings—and his own.

Luckily, humans weren’t connected to their entities in all aspects, else Life wouldn’t know how the interaction between Death and him would affect poor Lucien. Their affection was met with disapproval from other entities because life was supposed to be apart from death. Death did not care; they would not adhere to the look-but-don’t-touch rule. Life only had a problem when he was being teased mercilessly, otherwise, he enjoyed Death’s attentiveness.

But Death’s worries only grew as time progressed.

Life wasn’t as bright as he once was. His aura didn’t shine with the same luster it had. His smile and nature were the only things that seemed frozen in time. Time. It was supposed to be Life’s greatest enemy, Life could live forever if it weren’t for the passage of time, and yet, it seemed as though time was Death’s enemy. Life enjoyed his days even though some were harder than others, even though he couldn’t do as he once did. But Death had to watch him grow older, slower, weaker, as they remained the same.

 Of course, there were still a couple more decades to go. They weren’t at the end of the line just yet. It would have been had Death not told Life to take a day off from work. The human-entity pair would have met their end in transit that morning. Death looked at the pure innocence on Life’s face as he and Lucien watched the news. They knew that Life only thought that they had stopped him because they wanted to laze around for once. Meanwhile, Lucien simply had a gut feeling to remain home. Yes, their Life would stay beside them a bit longer. And so it went, Lucien’s ‘intuition’ kept him out of deadly situations.

He was lucky until he wasn’t.

Death was seething, the gentle touch of Life did nothing to soothe them. Nothing could calm them down after what they had just heard, not when they thought it was their fault. Not when they were in this endless sea of self-loathing. They should have known better. Life wasn’t dim because he was aging. Lucien was sick. He had been sick for a while, only he didn’t know it. Death buried their face in their hands. If they hadn’t misread the situation, they could have gotten help sooner, but now there was little to be done.

Soft hands wrapped themselves around Death, Life laid his head on their chest. “It will be okay, my love.”

Lucien was also comforting Sol who had taken the news much harder than he. “This is nothing to get so worked up about.”

“Why are you so calm?” Sol raised his voice and shoved him. Still, Sol was unable to move him; Lucien took a courteous step back.

“I’m not,” came Lucien’s awkward reply. “While he was talking, all I could think about was what would happen to Travel.” Travel was the three-legged dog he and Life had chosen.

“Why are you like this?” Sol gave his signature sigh of longsuffering.

The human-entity pair were more afraid than they let on, but not for themselves. They both had things they would leave undone. They both had people they would leave alone. Two years had barely passed before they found themselves on their death beds, Lucien with Sol beside him, and Death beside Life. They held his hand tight; it wasn’t warm like before. Life smiled weakly, raising his hand to stroke Death’s cold cheek.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t hold on longer,” Life whispered.

“I don’t want you in pain,” Death’s voice trembled.

Life laughed, a tear slipping out his eye.  For a brief moment, he glowed again, before fading away.

Death was still; Sol was bawling.

Death was shaking as silent tears slipped down their face. It was time for them to leave as well.

When they returned to the void, as Darkness once more, Light was already there waiting.