His eyes...
When I told him to imagine the caterpillar as a butterfly, I didn't expect it to work out, not this well anyways.
I was holding my doom in my arms.
The one who controls death, the one who controls time.
He was so...vulnerable, he was trembling in my arms, his breaths shallow and tears dripping down to his cheeks to my shoulders to my chest.
It wasn't just a butterfly, it was a life.
So now I've confirmed it.
I held him tighter in my arms, he was still trembling, I embraced him, my eyes filled with anger...
Anger towards time.
Anger towards that cursed entity who caused Echo this pain.
I heard steps coming up the stairs, slow confident steps along with a tapping sound of a cane.
Time was supposed to be frozen, then how?
My answer stared at me with big wrinkled eyes, dressed in a traditional kimono with green fabric wearing wooden sandels. She looked like she was supposed to die ages ago. She stood there at the door, somewhat relived.
"Echo..." her voice cracking and high pitched
Echo's eyes glowed—but his hands tightened around my sleeve, as if unsure whether to reach out or recoil.
"Grandma..." his voice slightly trembling
I held Echo tight and blocked him from seeing that person.
"how are you able to move?" I said in a firm, assertive tone
The old wrinkles on her face curled up.
"I'm Roosvelt's wife, I suppose you know him by now?" her voice cracking from her old age and with the help of her cane she walked over to the sliders and sat on the veranda.
I quietly observed her as I organised my thoughts.
"Riven, do you know my grandpa?" Echo asked with surprise.
Grandma didn't let me answer.
"Back in the days when I was younger, I had an illness, immortality, your grandpa...he was my time"
She paused, her eyes wandering away from reality.
"It didn't let me age, Roosvelt took a human form to reach me, we couldn't figure anything and Roosvelt almost became a human because he was staying in earth too long."
"Then he told me that we could visit god and ask him. We wandered through a plane of existance for months, where an organism and it's time didn't have any special meaning. When two mostly-human beings are starved of distraction, they become each other's only distraction... and solace."
The old woman smiled.
What a way to put it.
Is she remembering how they did the deed or something? I shook my head.
"When we finally reached god's chamber, we could only ask one thing, he asked me to give up my daughter as a sacrifice for a normal life for both of us"
Her eyes became a little more back to reality and firmer.
"we couldn't do that, so I begged god to let me have a normal life. He said life is indeed unfair in a large scale but he said what mattered the most was how we reacted to the unfairness. Maybe because of pity, he let us off on the condition that we'd never let our family's blood grow. Your mother fell in love, she couldn't handle the unfairness, she had Leah, who was very much a normal child, which gave your mother hope,"
The woman sighed and looked at her daughter who was frozen still.
"your birth caused another hole in time, which made Riven take a human form. I don't know what caused the illness of immortality had effected me but it was all a game to god"
Her eyes seened weaker and vulnerable now, her hands clenched together