Adam ran with the frantic, singular focus of a doomed man. The horrific flashes of Eve's death played in his mind, fueling the nightmare he couldn't wake from. He was a blur of motion, with solid dark smoke and the crackles of fire trailing every stride. The Watcher's essence was transforming him, but Adam was oblivious, too consumed by the need to reach his beloved.
He tore through a fallen tree that erupted into ash behind him, unnoticed. Fear, curdled with anger and hatred, was the new fuel in his veins. Every breath he drew was hot as brimstone, feeding a terrifying new energy. He leapt forward, and the sound of his force was a sonic boom ripping the air. Unfazed, he maintained the momentum, pushing his newly gifted strength to the limit. His mind screamed one command: "Move faster. Get there fast."
Eve's tale
I always felt a Voice in my head. It was the residue of my creation, a cold, subtle echo reminding me to fulfill my purpose. I didn't know what that purpose was, but I followed its vague direction—until Adam. With him, the Voice receded. I felt safe, willing to face any consequence for neglecting my mission, wanting only to savor the warmth of our borrowed time.
But since Adam left, the pain of the growing life inside me had intensified. Now, the Voice was resurfacing, no longer a subtle echo. It was a clearer, colder, and direct command. The words weren't fully audible yet, but the feeling of the instruction had changed. The benign direction was fading, replaced by a crystalline clarity that filled me with a terrible, growing anxiety.
*******
It's been four circles of light since Adam left had passed. The fifth was at its brightest when Eve, heavy with life and struggling to manage the pain in the garden, heard a rumbling ahead. A figure, covered in bruises with a trail of smoke was recklessly slamming into trees and boulders, was racing toward her.
Bruised and feral, Adam rushed into Eve's waiting hands. They clung to each other in a desperate, clinging embrace, trying to cure the days of longing and the pain of their foretold doom.
He pulled back, gripping her shoulders, frantically checking her for injuries. "Eve! Are you hurt? Are you ill? Talk to me!"
"I'm fine, my love, just heavy," she whispered, tears of relief streaming down her face.
"Oh, thank the cosmos," Adam burst out, his relief making his limbs slack.
It was in that moment of respite that her legs shook frantically, and with a painful gush, water exploded from her body.
She screamed. Adam lost his composure.
"What is it?! What's wrong?!" he yelled, grabbing her, spinning in a circle, his heart hammering in terror.
"The life! The seed is pushing itself out!" she cried, her body convulsing.
Adam, a creature of pure terror, had only one focus. "Push! Push it out, my love!"
Eve collapsed to the ground, the agonizing, bloody process of birth beginning. She screamed through the waves of pain, the clay vessel splitting to release the life within. Adam, his hands slick with blood and fluid, guided the life out.
Then, silence....
Blood-coloured flowers surrounded the couple as they held the baby, their creation. Peace settled, deep and absolute. Eve was exhausted, soaked in blood and the sweet sweat of labor, but her smile was pure, transcendent joy.
"Family," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "We're family."
Adam could only nod, terrified that speaking would shatter this fragile, impossible dream.
"The death of your woman."
The statement, ringing with Anthrea's prophetic certainty, suddenly slammed into Adam's mind. Instantly, the air grew heavy, filled with suffocating pressure, as if the very atmosphere was being sucked away.
Two figures materialized, two God Guards, clad in thick, seamless golden armor. Their helmets concealed their faces entirely, leaving only terrifying voids where their eyes should be. They were manifestations of celestial malice.
The first Guard rang a small golden bell. Ripples of heavy, deafening sound waves tore through the air. Adam clapped his hands over his ears, blood immediately gushing from his ears and eyes. The baby cried, its tiny face contorted in pain. Adam, ignoring his own trauma, ripped his hands from his ears, covered the ears of his baby and used his body as a barrier, shielding the child.
As he looked up, he saw the horror. Eve was unaffected. The sound of the bell had not hurt her; it had amplified the Voice in her head, the command now vivid as the glass sea: "Neverstray from the path of your purpose. Kill the First Man. Kill Adam."
Before Adam could react—before the terror could fully register—a sharp, horrifying pain went through his body and into his very soul. A sharp, hunting wood spear was thrust through his heart.
He looked down. Eve was the one holding the spear.
Adam's will evaporated. He couldn't scream or fight. As tears streamed from his eyes, his lover wailed and wept, the gravest sorrow in her voice, as she repeatedly stabbed the man who adored her. His heart was sinking, his spirit clinging desperately to life as he shielded the ears of his child. She was controlled, a pawn of her own creation. He was dying for loving and trusting.
He had just found family, and in the same impossible moment, he was losing it.
Until...
"Your condemnation. Your rage."
The voice was a blast furnace in his mind. Amidst the torrent of pain, Adam felt the new energy—the Watcher's essence—swelling inside him, stronger than before, fueled by the bottomless well of his hatred and betrayal.
In an instant, a stronger, darker cloud erupted from his body, seizing the wooden spear and holding it in place. Blood, dark and thick, streamed from the holes in Adam's chest—the horrific tally of his lover's betrayal.
Somewhere in the cosmos, the Watcher grinned. "I guess I made it in time for a good part of the show. Let's get the show going."
The rage broke Adam. "I'll kill them all! All the Gods! I'll kill them all!!!" he screamed, his voice a ripping sound of utter madness. Dark smoke enveloped him, consuming his features. He felt an anger beyond control—a mourning for his soul, his lost essence, the betrayal of the Gods, and the devastating, final betrayal of Eve. He regretted his very existence.
With a final, desperate act of protection, he enveloped his newborn child in the dark smoke.
"MY RAGE!"
Adam moved with a speed that matched the Gods themselves. Shaping the dark smoke into a wicked, shimmering scythe, he lunged. The blade cut through one of the golden guards like butter, splitting it in two. A fountain of silver-gold fluid, the celestial Ichor[1], flowed across the garden. Before the second guard could even raise his bell, its head was severed, decapitated by the returning scythe-smoke.
Blind to everything but the red haze of vengeance, Adam turned. He grabbed Eve by the neck, wailing and crying as he strangled the life out of the only person who had ever brought him peace.
Eve's expression was a strange mix of apology and satisfaction. Tears ran down her eyes, not for her own death, but because she had fulfilled her ultimate purpose: she was the vessel that broke the kindest man. She killed the heart of the man who would have died for her, and his killing her was the only right ending.
"I love you," she choked out.
She died.
A loud, soul-ripping cry tore through the barriers of the world. Adam wailed, holding the corpse of his lover. The garden, once a haven, now looked desolate, void of emotion, the site of the world's first true act of destruction.
*****
The Watcher, shaking his legs in excitement, laughed and laughed, drunk on happiness. "Anthrea, it turned out to be way better than I imagined!"
A strange, familiar voice spoke from behind the Watcher.
"You're truly the embodiment of chaos."
[1] The blood of the gods