Almost newly wed

I held up my hand high and watched the shadow climb up his face as I created a little porch above his eyebrows to help him see the sun under low exposure. "Your Neanthertal brow bones" he had said when I asked what was my most striking feature. His soft features and round face looked like a perfectly cooked pancake but his eyes. Oh yes. His deep brown eyes, now more relaxed under the shade, took all the color in as the sun of our first summer together lingered over the horizon, proving herself to be the best nature scene painter. We had been acting cold and distant towards each other. Normally, I would be glancing at him as he was going about his day to catch those eyes again also searching for me. Each time we locked eyes, something on the sides of my face would activate and I would find myself smiling without knowing. He would usually smile back at me. And briefly, he would be the only thing that I was aware of for a moment and he would kiss me if we were close by or his eyes would tease me and I would hope he’d kiss me later. Here, we could not display such delicate transactions as they were not familiar with the love of this kind. Finding a chance to exchange marinated looks between us every now and then, having to hold our desire for each other's body, and talking to each other in an HR speak had been adding another level of fun to this vacation. We should probably do it more often.

He ceased enjoying the moment looked around anxiously and pushed my hand from his face.

"Sorry. Just worried about if people find it weird" Although, I had made sure not a single unwarranted soul would be around here, to make him feel safe, I symbolically scanned our surroundings.

"Don't see anyone." I smiled.

He laughed which I think was a response to what I said. But I couldn't tell surely as his eyes told me there were many thoughts in his head.

"You know I am jealous of the Sun."

He looked at the sun intensively as it hid over the horizon with color twice as vivid but less strenuous on the eyes.

"Are you going to say something cheesy like you want to be hot or something?"

I laughed happily as I had known by then that he would find my answers romantic, and a bit sad. But romantic.

"No. Because, anywhere you go in the world, people just marvel at its beauty without it having to consider whether it would be too much or whether people find it weird. It is a fact that the sun would display the most romantic and beautiful exhibition before it takes a break for the night and does that again the day after. I am jealous because we can't do that. We have to wait a bit longer than a knight in some places."

I stared at the sun as it almost dipped below the horizon, barely holding the excitement for what I hoped would entail after it did.

I would look at him. He would probably have been looking at me too. As the sun would leave just the two of us alone on this hill, her excitement would still shine through her rays, painting the sky with vivid red, pink, and orange colour spilled on the clouds. She knew my plan. I would kneel down after I swiftly grabbed the ring box inside my pocket. I can only imagine how he would react. And I hope he would say "Yes". My friends, people whom I have made sure were allies and paid, would capture this moment. Sun would rise the next morning and secretly shine on an engaged couple. She and only a few others would know who they were.

The storm of excitement inside me made each second drag longer. The tip of the sun still peaked although it looked as though it would submerge under the earth in any second. I could not wait. I looked at him with excitement on my face, but was caught off guard when I saw how confused he looked.

"The sun…"

"What?" I took a quick look at the sun.

"What is it?"

"It... stopped?"

The puzzled expression of his face gave into the one of shock when he saw me on my knee with the ring box pried open like a treasure chest buried under the sea waiting for a pirate to snatch and claim it. His sunburn cheeks glowed with a golden yellow hue and I could see his eyes glistening at the brim.

“Roger, will you marry me?”

“Oh my god.” he exclaimed.

“Yes, I will.”

“Yes!” I clutched my hand into a fist like a person who’s team scored a winning point and I hoped people were taking pictures at this moment. I was relieved to see the ring slided into his finger without friction. He hugged me and as we were sharing our first intimate kiss during this trip and opened my eye and found my friends taking photos. They walked up to us, with joy and shout, jumping like kids playing in a farm.

“Congratulations!” said everyone as they took photos. We had a hard time deciding whose phone to look at. We hugged everyone who shared this intimate and romantic moment of our lives and thanked for keeping this secret when it needed to be.

“You want to see “The picture” of your lives?”

“Oh yes, let us see.”

Her camera screen were stamped with finger prints, and sweaty trails crossed across the dusty display.

“There, there!” I said when I saw our silhouettes sharply contrasting the colorful back ground. I could see that we were happy at that moment even I couldn’t see our faces. I knew I could trust her to take beautiful photos. She had found the just right angle so that us, sunset and all its display beautifully coordinated. He took a look his ring and turned around to hug me.

“I hope I will get my ring too.” I said jokingly.

“I am saving, so just give me a little more time.”

The photographer girl stood like a statue among the people so excited and animated. Each and every wrinkled on her face traced on her face as she looked down on her camera. She swiped right, left, right and left, and left.

“Uumm…”

“What’s wrong? Please, tell me you have the photos.” I worried if there was any issues with the memory card. She looked up at the sun behind me then the camera.

“What is it?” I looked at the sun as I said this.

People ceased their excitement and chatter as the photographer, Roger and I stared intently at the sun.

The deep red, pink tones had lightened up as the sun shone with a bright yellow ray emanating sharply. If someone saw us from afar, he could see easily us all puzzled and confused at what we had our eyes on.

“It’s… rising again.” said the photographer.

“What are you talking about? It is 8:57 now. It will be gone in a minute.” said Roger but he wasn’t convinced as he saw the sun rising higher than the last time he looked at it.

“Look! 8:45. The sun dipped below. It is just you guys.” she swiped for more times. We mustered around her, squeezing and looking over her shoulder. “8:47. You two hugging. And the sun! It is peaking again. 8:50, 8:50, 8:50, 8:51, 8:51, see?!” With each slide of the picture documenting the past few minutes, it became apparent that the sun was rising the against passage of time. We had a proof the impossible crime against the law of physics on our hands. 

The horrible shriek of pain and agony startled us and broke our collective confusion. It was coming from one of us. He had walked away from us when we were intrigued what we had found out. He was standing near the cliff of the hill, staring at the early “morning” sun. He twitched and jerked as if the nerves running down his back had tightened up, pulling his brain and skull back. One of Mongolians shouted something of which only the sentiment I understood. He ran up to his fellow, whose head now has shrunk to a size of a big man’s fist. He turned his body towards us making us take steps back in fear and in coordination. “What the fuck!!” Roger exclaimed spreading his arms at its extent and pushed us even backward. Bataa's face concaved inward, his nose pulled back deeply and other feature on his dragged “down” to it. The photographer screamed and run away. “Let’s go. Let’s go!!” Most of us followed suit, jolting back into the downward slopping forest behind us one by one. Roger and I taken aback by what we were seeing, but we still walked backwards, relying on balancing skill etched onto the human DNA through million of years. Bataa’s face got pulled inwards. It was as if a little man inside of him decided to pull his head down. We could see he tried to scream but the shriek was cut short into burble as his head was tugged downward to his chest in instant. Soon enough his whole body was dragged inwards in as many other concave started to form on him. His body kept erect and hovering even when his legs were pulling upwards. The fear and trauma of seeing human shrink inwards in agonizing pain had stifled our reaction time. We could only stare in fear and in panic and had not grasped the correlation between this and the rising sun. “We got to go!!” said Roger as he dragged me out of the hypnosis and we ran back to the forest screaming the other guy’s name in our terrible accents. “Damdeen, Damdeen, yawii. Ywtsguyy…” we exclaimed at the top of our lungs, but our scream fall on a deaf ears for it was his turn to shrink. As for Bataa, he shrunk in front our eyes. To nothing. Not a single flesh matter was left behind. In my scrambled mind, I could only imagine tiny black holes forming inside Bataa’s body and eating and swallowing him into the void. When we realize whatever happened to Bataa was also happening to Damdeen, we knew there was nothing we could do. How much do you think about contingency plan for the occasions where your friend might get sucked into invisible tiny hole in the air? Damdeen’s muffled scream begging for us to help will follow us for the rest of our lives. I tried to recall the mental notes I took of the loose rocks we encountered during the climb up. I saw Roger mindlessly hopping from rock to rock in the mixed train of the mountain and managed to run quicker. He slipped on a rock but I managed to catch up with him at just the right time. We descended the mountain, mixing running, stumbling, with our hands held together. Those who ran before us came in our view.

“Guys, guys!!” Roger screamed and took off in front of me. He released his hand from my grip with a single tug making me off balance. And I managed to jump on a loose rock that skipped from under me, leaving me to fall back on my head on rocky terrain. I remember this because I have a sharp pain at the back of my head now. Sadly I can not see how bad it is. Not because I have no one to check it for me. I have my Roger. But because it is pitch black in this… room? “A cave” answered Roger when I slowly exhaled “where”.

“What?”

“I am sorry. I should have not tugged you.” I could hear his shaky voice and runny nose.

“What happened?”

“I dragged us in this cave, before the sun shined on us. It killed everyone that was under it’s ray. Everyone… died? I don’t know what the fuck they become. Whatever it is, it does not happen when you are shielded from it by something. Harder the better”

“My god…” The words Roger uttered seemed to have doubled the pain pumping at the back of my head.

“I saw them shrinking and shrieking in horrible pain. The guys who were running before us. They reached foothill when I shouted them to come back  and help us. Either they did not hear or want to. But when they stepped into the sunlight running towards the van, none of them made it there.”

“They get sucked inwards?”

“Yes.” Roger fell into sad silence then leaned his head onto my shoulder.

“How long have been here?”

“7 hours… Hopefully this one sets too”

I grope for his hand and finally found one. The one that has my ring on it. It sat deeply into his swollen fingers as if to secure its position tightly during tumultuous run. In the deep of the cave, with dirt and dampness in the air, we rested. I thought of our vacation days where the Mongolian steppe sun was scorching hot and how we were sharing a cold beers under the shade of the van, staring at the mirage. It really felt like we were eggs and bacon on wide pan. I wondered if it’s still that hot outside. I couldn’t care less. For now, I just want to sit here with my Fiancé. I know for  better or for worse, we’ll stick together.