The Immortal

We are a small army, traveling by space shuttle to another planet. An orange and grey planet, the grey in ribbons around its body.1

We discover the location of an old shuttle, trapped below the surface of the planet. The legend says that four astronauts landed and were drawn below the surface by some unknown force. There, three men and one woman were given immortality and wisdom beyond their human natures.2

That is the legend. Yet we, who are human and mortal, march bravely down the white, winding tunnels to find this buried craft. I follow along, uncertain, even as they are confident.3

We reach the ship below the surface. It is massive, rising high above as, yet identical to our own shuttle.4

Suddenly, all changes. We are once more on our ship, racing the other shuttle back to earth. The commanders decide it is a threat and use two missiles to blast it out of the sky.5

I watch as the explosion destroys the old ship, somehow knowing that the four immortals are not lost to the boiling gas and flames.6

The scene shifts yet again, and I am in a large city, on foot. I am following an immortal. He is young, and yet has no age. He looks barely thirty, yet he feels older than the earth itself to me. He is wise and he is quiet.7

I follow him and beg him to teach me. He barely responds to me as we walk through the city, but he does not chase me away. I can feel him listening, silently.8

We arrive at a large park within the city. He asks me about a small ledge overhanging a dark crevice of concrete. I tell him the homeless sleep there, and he replies “Then here is where I shall sleep, for I am homeless.”9

I cannot convince him to return with me to my home, so I walk the city streets alone. I sleep in a small bed in a house that belongs to me, yet never feels like a home. 10

I awake with the dawn and he is sitting there, watching me. “You interest me,” he says. I am accepted as a mortal pupil.11

He takes me back to the park and I meet the other three. A man and a woman who are husband and wife, and a man with a bit of a belly, whom the younger man tells me has never had his arms around a woman his whole, very long life.12

We leave the others and he asks me what I think about the woman. I tell him that she seems rather ditsy and naïve and silly, yet something in her eyes tells me that there is far more below the surface. He congratulates me on being able to see what is beneath the mask. I do not tell him, but he seems to me to be the wisest of them all.13

There seem to be no automobiles anywhere in this city, though it looks modern enough. The immortal and I stand in a street and look both ways. To our left is a street very busy, full of shops and people.14

To our right, an empty street with a huge black iron gate and a corpse-like feeling. There is death and darkness there. He looks at me.15

“We shall go there,” he says. “Through that gate and down that street.”16

I look at the gated street. It is summer to our left, but autumn to our right. I feel the emptiness, the corpse. I feel my own fear. But I look up at him. “I will go with you.”17

“You will lead me,” he commands.18

I look once more, feel my fear, but step forward and reach the gate.19

I put out my hand to open the iron gate, but he grabs my hand and stops me. I look into his dark eyes and he holds my hand as he speaks.20

“You understand fear. You allow it to flow freely, yet you face it. You do not try to stop it or stifle it, yet you use it to drive you. You understand that courage is not the absence of fear, but the expression and facing of that fear. This is good.”21

He opens the gate himself, finally allowing my hand to fall. I turn toward the empty, leaf-covered street and I realize I am no longer afraid.22

As we walk past the empty, Victorian-style houses with their intricate, forlorn, bare windows and deathly auras, he tells me the story of the place.23

A beautiful young woman lived there. She was sweet and kind and fair, but cursed. All who loved her were struck by deadly diseases and died in only a few days. Those who hated her, moved, and the street was soon deserted, but for the corpses of those who loved and lived alone. No one dared enter that street, even to bury the dead, and so the iron gate was placed as a warning to all. Death lived here now.24

We stop before the last house on the dead-end street. This house is different than the others. It looks similar, but for the curtained windows, yet feels very different. It has more presence, more power. 25

A woman opens the door and stands in the doorway, looking at us.26

She is ghostly pale, with dark rings around her bloodshot eyes. Her porcelain, geisha cheeks show signs of tears. She does not warn us to flee – she can see that we already know the danger.27

“Do not love her,” the Immortal tells me. “Feel no pity. Your emotions are too strong. To be immortal, it is far too painful to love or pity.”28

A battle begins within me. I know it is in my nature to feel emotion. But I feel I must fight it.29

“Cast her a cold look and walk away. Care not about her tears.”30

I do cast her a cold, hateful look. I walk away.31

But my heart breaks for her.32

Suddenly I drop to my knees, barely supporting myself by a tree. I have become diseased, though I am not sure with what disease I am stricken.33

In the most passionate act I have ever seen from him, the Immortal flies to my side, bracing me with his arms, a painful look in his dark face.34

“No!” he cries. “Why did you not heed me?”35

“She did as you instructed,” the woman says. “But it is in her nature to love; her heart broke even as she slighted me with her eyes.”36

I know I am dying, but I do not feel afraid. Rather I feel touched and stunned and honoured that the Immortal seems so distraught by my imminent death. He has grown attached to me and I feel the strength of his feelings in this moment.37

“She has the worst disease I have seen yet,” the woman says calmly. “She will die very soon.”38

“No,” he whispers. Then in a stronger voice he says “give me your hands.”39

“No,” she says suddenly. “She is using the energy from the tree to heal herself.” She is now standing in her yard, though still a ways away. “The tree is giving her the healing freely.”40

I was awakened and unable to finish the dream. But the look in the Immortal's eyes still follows me.41