Eclipse rose from his seat and came over to me. “I have somewhere I want to take you. I’ve been patient, waiting for you to finish up your schoolwork. Now that you’re done, let’s get out of here.”
“But my presentation—”
He gave me an assuring look. “You’re more than prepared for it. You don’t want to overdo it, do you? Give yourself some time to breathe. If you overdo it, you might really choke when the time comes to present it.”
“Don’t jinx me,” I chided. The thought of screwing up in front of a hundred classmates terrified me.
“Come on. Just a short break, Teacup,” he continued. He bestowed another coaxing smile before adding the icing on the cake. “I’ll give you your true grade for this presentation if you take a break with me.”
My eyes lit up at this unexpected offer. I couldn’t believe my ears. “Really?”
He blinked in confirmation.
I inwardly gasped, looking at Eclipse like he had offered me water in the sweltering hot desert. I hadn’t seen an “A” in so long that I was beginning to forget what it looked like. Oh, how I yearned to see that “A” again . . . They say that beggars can’t be choosers. Since Eclipse had decided to throw me a bone, I accepted it without shame.
“Where are we going?” I asked breathlessly, still shocked that I had a chance of earning the perfect grade I deserved.
“To breathe.”
He extended his hand out, just like he did in the past when he was about to teleport me somewhere. Without a second thought, I took his hand. When our skin made contact, the warmth of the library dissipated and in its place was the cool wind. Instead of standing on solid ground, I was now seated in a confined space that was suspended in the air. With the ocean of stars swimming above us and the sea of carnival lights twinkling below us, I held my breath when I registered where we were sitting.
“A Ferris wheel?” I spluttered out, taken aback by the gesture. Out of all the places for Eclipse to take me, I didn’t think it’d be a Ferris wheel.
“We don’t have this in Hell,” Eclipse shared softly, closing his eyes. He inhaled the fresh air before a cigarette appeared in his hand. He brought the cigarette to his lips and blew out a cloud of smoke that raked over the breathtaking scene ahead of me. “I’ve always wanted to see what the fuss was all about with this contraption.”
The view of the entire city hung brilliantly before us while the fresh air continued to glide gracefully around us. Eclipse was relaxed; I, on the other hand, was my usual paranoid self. I peered down at the brilliantly lit lot, fretfully checking to see if there was anyone down there who could see us.
“What if someone catches us up here?” I asked uneasily.
“You will not get caught,” Eclipse told me with his eyes still closed. The stars kissed the brown hue of his eyes when he opened them. “At the moment, everything is at my mercy and no one will step in here until we’re gone.”
There was something in the way he looked at me that made me feel safe. Nodding quietly, I sat comfortably in my seat. The Ferris wheel began to move, sending shivers of fear and excitement through my body. The sensation of amazement was further heightened when a square bottle appeared in my hand.
I looked down to find the familiar “Jack Daniel’s” black label staring up at me. My favorite drink. The cap was already off. The rim of the bottle gleamed under the moonlight, coaxing me to drink from it. I turned to Eclipse to find that in his hand was another full-sized Jack Daniel’s bottle.
“You trying to get me drunk?” I asked suspiciously, clutching the bottle tightly with one hand while holding my notecard with the other.
Eclipse shook his head, taking his first swig of the powerful whiskey. Lazy satisfaction cascaded onto his face. “I can’t get you drunk, Gracie. You have a high tolerance for alcohol. You’re immune to its charm.”
“That’s not true. You know that Jack Daniel’s is a good alcoholic beverage to get even the best heavy drinkers drunk.”
He smiled sneakily, taking another gulp of the drink. “Do I?”
I frowned. “You’re trying to sabotage me before my presentation tomorrow, aren’t you? You’re trying to get me drunk so I’ll actually get an F.”
“No, Gracie,” he replied with mild humor in his voice. He took a quick puff of his cigarette. “I know this is your favorite drink. I figured you’d be afraid of heights so I needed something to help ease your nerves.” He lifted the bottle up. “Jack Daniel is merely my partner in crime to help me quell your fears.” He chuckled, clinking his bottle with mine. “You deserve a drink after all the things you’ve been through lately, don’t you think?”
It wasn’t until he drank the whiskey for the third time that I lost my willpower. I had been incredibly stressed these past couple of days. As distracting as schoolwork had been, I needed something else to help ease my nerves. I couldn’t say no to Jack Daniel’s.
No longer able to resist, I slowly brought the bottle to my lips. The contents of the bottle traveled down my throat and rested comfortably in my stomach, already helping to alleviate my fear of heights. I expelled a blissful sigh. Though I wasn’t drunk, I was pleased to feel my once tense nerves loosen. Drinking before a big presentation wasn’t something I did often, but in an extenuating circumstance like the one I was facing—being a Source of Evil and all—I figured I deserved a drink or two.
“Why do you keep bringing me to really high places?” I inquired after ingesting another gulp of my drink. My body warmed up substantially as I observed the world below me. Tremors were still overtaking my body, but I also felt amazed. I couldn’t deny the beauty of being up on this Ferris wheel, gazing down at the rest of the world from another vantage point.
“I like knowing that no matter how afraid you are, as long as you’re with me, you’d feel safe.” Eclipse’s lips curved into a witty smile. “Plus, I like having you to myself. Standing on the ground would mean that I would have to share your attention with the rest of the world. If we’re on top of the world, staring down at the rest of creation, then I can have you all to myself.”
I scoffed, shaking my head. His answer, sweet as it was, wasn’t his real reason. “Why are we really up here, Eclipse?”
He took a second to assess me with a thoughtful expression. “I want to make you feel better.”
“Who says I’m feeling down?”
His pleasant smile persevered. “A lot of crazy shit is taking place in your life, Gracie. You drown yourself in your studies because you want to be distracted from it. It is an effective distraction, but it isn’t always healthy. Since I’m around you constantly, I feel it is my duty to help relieve your stress in a more fun way—even if it’s only momentarily.”
I turned to him, taking note of the tone in his voice and how stressed he sounded. Judging by how much he was drinking, I didn’t believe his sole reason for coming here was just for me.
“You didn’t bring me here to just make me feel better, did you?”
Eclipse released a quiet laugh and closed his eyes again to breathe in the fresh air. After taking another swig of his drink, he said, “I know I may not show it all the time, but I’m very stressed too.”
I raised a brow, amused with the poignant side that Eclipse was showing. “What could the normally collected and playful Demon be stressed out about?”
“You’re my soul mate now, Gracie,” he reminded me offhandedly, lifting his eyelids. His eyes were glowing a lighter shade of brown, seemingly becoming more luminous every time he opened them. “What goes on in your life affects me more than you’ll ever know. The more complicated your life gets, the more complicated mine gets. There is something out there with the missing part of your soul, there are Demons out there looking to devour you, and there are Angels out there looking to kill you.” He laughed self-mockingly, allowing another swig of whiskey to travel down his throat. “Since my existence is attached to yours, it makes sense that I would be stressed along with you, right?”
I gr
inned playfully at him. “What happened to being my big, bad Guardian Demon and being the only one capable of protecting me?”
Eclipse chuckled, leaning back as the Ferris wheel continued its rotation. “Just because I’m stressed out and need some air doesn’t mean that I’m incapable of protecting you. If anything, being stressed only means that I will do a better job of watching over you.” He flashed me another big smile. “Chin up, Teacup. You have every right to be stressed, but you shouldn’t let it consume you. We’re being given a small break from everything right now. We should enjoy it while it lasts.”
I smiled lightly at his suggestion before something interesting came floating to my mind.
“What did you mean when you said you wanted to see what the fuss was all about with this contraption?”
“Humans seem to really enjoy this ride,” he noted in a nonchalant tone, his eyes running along the view. Nothing but appreciation inhabited his gaze. “For whatever reason, being suspended in the sky and moving in a circular motion seems to give you humans a stress-reliever of sorts. I wanted to see if it would work for the two of us since we’re both royally screwed by life.” He eyed me lightheartedly. “So you have to tell me, Teacup. Is this stress-reliever working? Are you enjoying this ride?”
I shrugged, taking in another drink. I feigned indifference. “I guess.”
Secretly, I loved it. How many people could say that they had an entire Ferris wheel to themselves—with a Demon, no less—while drinking Jack Daniel’s? Despite my fear of heights, I loved everything about it. I just didn’t want to admit to Eclipse that he finally did something right.
With a knowing smile that secretly said, “I know you’re having a blast” he said nothing more. He merely sat closer and allowed his warmth to embrace me.
Together we sat in the silence, smoking (on Eclipse’s part), drinking, and reveling in the scenery around us.
“What’s the meaning of life?” I asked unthinkingly, breaking our pensive silence. I realized that it was lame. It was such a childish, mundane, and unimportant question in the scheme of everything I could have asked a Demon who had seen the lifetimes. Silly or not, the end result would be irrefutable. I would be the luckiest human alive if I found out the true answer to this eternal question.
Jerked out of his reverie, Eclipse faced me, his expression quizzical. It looked like he was about to drop his cigarette because he was so staggered by the query I posed. “I’m sorry?”
“It just occurred to me that I might as well make use of you and ask you questions about the world,” I explained to him when I saw the curiosity spread across his face.
Eclipse laughed warmly at my answer. He took a tiny pause to assess the childishness that emanated from me. No longer able to hide his affections, the Demon wrapped an endearing arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him, tucking me close to his body.
“I’m not telling you anything, Gracie,” he whispered into my ear, his voice sounding absolutely melodic.
I gathered all the wits I had and frowned at him, fighting to get out from his hold. I wasn’t successful; he only held on tighter with care.
“Why not?” I breathed out, my voice bitter not only because he wouldn’t tell me what I wanted to know, but also because I was enjoying being in his embrace all too much.
“The gift God gave all of you is a life filled with questions,” he replied in a wistful tone, carelessly stroking the curls of my ponytail. He exhaled the smoke with a relaxed sigh, staring thoughtfully at the starry skies. “It’s what helps wield your imaginations and it’s what keeps you living—it’s what gives you meaning in life. If I give away the answers to the most important mysteries of life, then you have no more reason to live for it. And what a bore that will be for you, Gracie.” He glanced down at me briefly, his eyes smiling sagely. “As a human being, you are blessed with ignorance. You should accept it as your bliss as opposed to discarding it as your burden.”
And there he inspired the most important question—a question that I couldn’t believe I had never asked. With bated breath, I voiced a question that sent goose bumps throughout my entire body.
“Have you ever met God?”
The hard muscles of his body tightened.
For a transitory breath, his face was cool of emotions.
The only sounds that could be heard were the howling of the wind, the light creaking of the Ferris wheel, and the soft swishing noises coming from our alcohol bottles. Even his cigarette seemed to have burned out at the verbalization of this question.
Face stoic, Eclipse took an unusually long swig from his drink.
“I am a full-blooded Demon,” he finally answered, his attention more on stroking my hair and flirting with me rather than the conversation. He flicked his cigarette away, allowing it to fall to the mercy of gravity before it descended into oblivion. “I do not have the honor of meeting God.”
“Honor?” I was surprised by his choice of terminology. “That’s an interesting choice of word.”
“Not all Demons have a negative perception of God,” he enlightened mildly. Even though he appeared apathetic with his answers, I could tell from the subtle inflection in his voice that he was more than invested—he just didn’t want to show me how invested he actually was. “I happen to respect God very much. I mean, I happen to respect power and God is an indisputably powerful entity. It only makes sense that I would admire and envy his station in life.”
“Why don’t you have the honor of meeting God?”
This time the stoic expression on his face lasted for several discernible seconds.
With a controlled, even tone that throbbed with pent-up resentment, he finally showed some emotions when he answered, “Because of who I am. Because I am a pureblooded Demon . . . because I am the son of the first Fallen Angel . . . and because my father has performed the unforgivable sin and renounced God as the creator, God will never accept me. Because of things I cannot control, he will never deign to look upon me.”
His gaze on me turned scrutinizing, almost envious. The strange thing was that he didn’t appear envious of me exactly, but of everything—and everyone—I represented: humans.
“For someone as powerful as me, I am made to feel insignificant. My existence is overshadowed by the likes of your . . . kind.”
I shouldn’t have provoked him, but I kept pushing him to continue anyway. “Why is my kind so special?”
“You’re not special,” he corrected, his eyes turning critical. “None of you are.” He went on, and no matter how offensive the content of his words, I knew that he wasn’t trying to personally offend me. Eclipse was simply expressing his resentment for my race. “There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about any of you. You are insignificant in a world so powerful. The only thing that makes you the envy of the rest of creation is that you are blessed. Though he created you to be weak and insignificant, he also gifted you with his unwavering love. You can disrespect him, renounce him, and hurt him all you want, but if you truly ask him for his forgiveness, then he will grant it to you because he knows that you do not know better. He accepts you for your imperfections. He accepts you for your weakness because, in truth, he created you to be that way.”
He smiled self-deprecatingly, looking out into the distance once more. His face was pale and filled with emotions I couldn’t decipher.
“I do not have that honor or that type of absolution. Instead, I am punished—damned the second I took my first breath. In a world filled with people who have renounced him as the Creator and defiled his name, he continues to love them from afar. But me, I’ve always known of his existence and respected his name. Yet he will never deign to look upon me.” He turned to me briefly. “This is the primary reason why God does not deal with hunting or killing Demons. This is why his Angels are his messengers and his weapons. There is an honor to being in his presence and he will never give that honor to a Demon.”
Eclipse shook his head, laughing disbelievingly. A lackadaisical sm
irk contoured his lips while he emanated indifference. He closed his eyes for a second, as if making peace with God’s snobbery.
“To be honest, it’s a shame that I can’t meet him because aside from the bitterness I hear from the Angels who fell with my father, I could surmise that he’s really nice and cool when you’re on his good side.” He grinned like a little boy would when talking about his favorite sports celebrity. “I imagine it would be fun to meet him, hang out with him, talk to him about the birds and the bees, and even play checkers with him.”
I raised a brow at his last words.
Was it ironic that I found it endearing that a Demon would want to do such silly things with God?
“Checkers?” I prompted, hiding a smile. “The very spawn of Satan wants to play checkers with God?”
Eclipse nodded unabashedly before carefully adding, “Don’t misunderstand though, Gracie. I may want to meet him, but this doesn’t change anything. He doesn’t believe in me because he has good reason not to. It is not in my blood to be loyal to him, to fear him, or to bow down to him. It will always be in my blood to want to dethrone him—to punish him for choosing humans over my race. It will always be in my blood to look at him as my enemy.”
I smiled coolly, nodding at his words. “The unending war between good and evil, right?”
He shook his head. “In my eyes, there is no war between good and evil. To me, anyone who goes against me is at war with me. If you piss me off and if you threaten my existence, then you will pay. It’s as simple as that.” As a huge gust of wind crashed like a wave upon us, Eclipse was brought out of his reverie. Sighing and relinquishing the spotlight on himself, he focused his attention on me instead. “What about you, Teacup? Do you believe in the almighty Heavenly Father above?”
Now it was my turn to place a cool expression on my face.
I turned to the distance for a split second, looking up at the star-canvassed sky and then the world ahead of me. “I believe in the existence of God, but I do not believe that God exists for me.”