Sunset

I’m not sure this is what they were thinking about when they managed to stop aging. The final barrier, human mortality, was shattered, although its broken shards remained in our lives, and they certainly proved fatal.

Of course, you can stop cell degeneration, but that doesn’t stop bullets, flames, or even stupid accidents from destroying your body beyond repair. Death, thus, still lingered above us, even more dreadful, as it could destroy not only a few decades, but literally, all eternity.

People started avoiding any unnecessary risk, and most of them, even the necessary ones. Technology also played its part, allowing the most privileged to stay indefinitely at home, keeping them safe from the feared outside world, full of crashing cars and armed robbers.

As one would expect, religion took one of the hardest hits, but also romanticism was mortally wounded. Eternity was a long time to be spent with a single person, and even if that was your desire, why not wait a couple centuries before tying yourself to someone you may end up despising?

Anyway, maybe being safe and alone may not be such a bad option, who am I to judge. At least they are not bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere, chasing someone who probably didn’t even give a fuck to start with. Or maybe she did, maybe the memories whe forged did add up to something more than some romantic delusion.

Who knows. I guess that even with all the time in the world, the questions are still the same.

…

Dark Tower

In the dream, I knew I was dead. My body kept moving, my lungs breathing, but I had the absolut certainty that I wasn’t alive anymore. Instead, my body wandered aimlessly trhough that dark tower, some kind of purgatory shaped like an scorpion tail.

For some reason, I knew that I was supposed to reach the top of the stairs that crawled around the tower. There, I would find redemption, the purifying light, all that bullshit. However, to get to the last step, I had to face all my sins. Every single thing that I had done wrong in my entire life. From the candies I had stolen as a kid, to that time I was so drunk I punched that guy you were dating. Hundreds of small mistakes piled up until they made it almost imposible to walk.

I saw myself saying those horrible things I screamed at you during that one huge fight in the park, and I saw Sophie crying when I went back to you for the fiftieth time. Our whole story was there, full of deamons, pain, and ill intentions.

Step by step, I managed to overcome the shadows and climb up the stairs, until the air got cleaner and I could almost see the clear sky that awaited me. However, now that I was so close to redemption, my legs stopped moving. At first I thought that it was a final punishment, the torture of leaving the key to your chains a few centimeters away from your reach, but then I understood that it was something else.

I simply didn’t repent. I knew I had sinned, but those sins had been my life. Maybe I wasn’t a good person, but a good person could have never been with you. Never fucked you, never looked at you while you were sleeping and saw a glimpse of order inside all the chaos.

With a dumb smile on my face, I turned away from the light and started climbing down the stairs.

…