Babylon sat upon a tall building somewhere in Chicago. She looked down at the people moving beneath her.
No one noticed her.
She couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be noticed, to have someone pay the least bit of attention to her.
She was attractive enough. She had eyes of a pale grey and waist length hair as white as the snow in the middle of the winter. She wasn't short but she wasn't tall either. Usually, she only wore a knee-length white gown, but the small dress had worn down centuries ago. She now wore a billowing black cloak, befitting of her and her duties. She made a languid movement and pulled the hood back from her face, revealing cascading hair which gleamed faintly in the sunlight and flawless pale features; a straight nose, slightly long but suiting her countenance, lips that were a tad too thin, and high, well shaped cheekbones. Her eyes were large and watchful. Yet still, she could not stop but wonder what it would be like to have an existent conversation with someone rather than herself.
She sat there thoughtless for a few moments before another questionable thought appeared in her mind.
Could there be... was it possible that...
What if there was another person out there, just like her?
She quickly shook her head at the ridiculous thought. She was well and out of her mind, but centuries of loneliness and having no one to converse with but yourself did things to a person.
She leaned forward just enough that she fell from the ledge that she had posted herself, and plummeted towards the ground. She laughed aloud as the breeze caressed her body. It made her hair flow outward. She reared upward as her wings caught the force of the wind, slowing her speed as she enjoyed her fall towards earth. She landed lithely on her feet, knees slightly bent.
Nothing could harm her.
She stood, searching for something to do, bored. What hadn't she seen in this small world? She had been there when people had gone from living in caves and huts, to houses and buildings. When technology had been but a wire key tied to the string of a kite, to the wires and rods that now lined the roads and streets of today.
She'd also seen many different and ridiculous scenes. She had been there, bearing witness when merciless bombs had been dropped on house and home killing many innocents. She had been there when people had hijacked planes, crashing them into landmark buildings killing millions, without even blinking twice. She had borne witness when the unscrupulous traders had mixed excessive chemicals into their food products to gain larger profits while thousands of people died because of this food with cancers and many other incurable diseases.
With pain.
Children were abused by their own parents. People murdered by their trusted friends and partners.
What had they done to deserve all of those unfair treatments? She had thought that the mundanes had learned their lessons what with the World Wars, external aggressions and internal chaos.
Through her eyes, she witnessed hatred, discontent, and resentment.
A beggar in his sixtees walked by her. She decided to follow. She looked closer, paying close attention to the air that surrounded him. It was a mottled amber.
He was ill. He would die soon. And there was nothing that she could do to stop it. Death, a close and personal friend of hers, was coming for yet another victim.
The beggar stopped only to rummage through an old garbage bin. His white mustache followed his lips as he consumed what little remained of whatever was left in the bin. His face was pale and white as a sheet.
Anorexia.
His hands were wobbling with what was left of what little strength he had conserved.
She sighed.
When thousands of people were wasting large amounts of food each day, there were millions more around this desperate planet who could make use of it. This man here was an example. He had to endure every second of his hunger. What had these people done to deserve this? They could do nothing but blame their unlucky fates.
It was very sad actually, seeing people suffer.
Just then, a little blonde haired girl with large brown eyes walked up in her little yellow sundress holding her cookie out to the man.
"Sir, please, please take this." She asked of him, handing out the cookie to the man with a large and very innocent smile. Her big watery eyes were shining like glowing orbs of light, beconing to him.
"Th-thank you," He stuttered. He was shocked by her act of good will. He ever so carefully tugged it out of her hand, careful to avoid contact in fear of dirtying her hands.
"Mommy! He took the cookie!" The little girl squeeled in delight as she ran back in the direction of her mothers waiting arms.
"Good girl," Her mother said, showering her in many praises. Babylon glanced at the beggar to find him in tears as he nibbled on the cookie.
It was nice to know that the people in this world were not all bad. That there were still those who were devoted still to helping others rather than others who much preffered the greedy ways of life, the ones who thought of no one but themselves.
Babylon flew as a gust of wind swept her off of her feet.
When she landed she was sure that she was somewhere in the states, maybe. Although she was in the forests she so loved she still wasn't all possitive.
She knew that she was forever condemed to live a life of solitude. And if she was going to do it, she found in the beginning that it was much easier to survive it alone rather than surrounded by people. People who would never have the power to notice her.
Forever alone.
She was used to the idea. She was used to watching while others enjoyed their sometimes happy and delectable lives.
What was it like to live? To feel emotion? Babylon didn't know why all of a sudden she had all of these questions, but they flooded her mind without pause.
As Babylon wandered her domain that was the forest she came upon a clearing with a small pond filled with water lillies. She stared in awe, never before in all of her very long life, surprisingly, had she seen water lillies in full bloom.
She waded throught the water until she was knee deep. The tadpoles and other small fish scattered, sensing a predator.
She supposed she was.
Lost in the wonderment she felt when she glimpsed the beautiful water lilies she flinched when she felt an unknown presence behind her. Her senses flooded her mind all at once in a rush, causing her to feel the smallest bit dizzy. A twig snapped and she turned quickly, not missing the faint movement in the corner of her eye. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
What was there for her to fear?
She was destruction, fear, annihilation, anything a person could think of all wrapped in one.
She turned back to the lilies, but again, she heard the involuntary movement just as she caught it to the left of her. She could not have mistaken that very familiar outline.
As the humans often had said, curiosity killed the cat.
But answers brought him back, she thought to herself.
Ignorant of the bottom of her cloak that was now drenched, she turned in the direction of the 'creature' and beat off after it.
She slowly stopped running, and her running turned into a walk. She came to a stop between two trees, almost as if they were a doorway, into a small clearing.
She involuntarily gasped.
In the middle of the clearing was one of the most beautiful and significant men she had ever witnessed. Beneath the dimly lit moon, he looked magnificent. The shadow the moon reflected and enhanced the effect of his beauty among his face and body. She ran her eyes over his well defined jaw and bone structure along with his shortly cropped hair. It was as black as midnight. He also was very tall and broad. If she were to stand right beside him she knew that he would tower over her small frame.
A shame she could not interact with him.
Babylon sat there starring at him, never moving, just sitting where she was starring at this magnificent creature. First glance, he was a creature of every female's fantasy.
It caught her attention when the man ever so slightly cocked his head to the side and looked up at the darkened sky. He whispered into the night,
"Are you going to come nearer?" She looked around the clearing, envying whoever it was that the man had spoken to. She leaned against the nearest oak tree and listened. Watched.
The man turned and looked directly at her. Taken aback, she felt her eyes grow ever wider.
The man stepped closer into her direction as he held out his hand.
"Are you going to come nearer?" He asked smoothly, carefully. Testing her.
How could this man see her? Babylon, the menace of humanity, seen by this man. After so many centuries of not being heard, seen. Witnessed. After so long she had been ignored.
Why now?
After so many years of knowing that her loved ones would never so much as look her way. She could never erase that small something that had continued to hope in vain. And then, after so many worries and considerations, in the end, she had wanted to be able to believe in herself, to do like them. To interact with the humans.
So many times, she had wondered when the day that she would be able to walk her own path would ever come.
But as long as they were happy, she had decided that she would be happy. If they believed in the person that they had loved, then she supposed that she would have to believe in that person too.
"I have heard your voice in the wind. I have heard your soul, calling out my name. Be not afraid. Come with me." He whispered to Babylon his hand still extended toward her.
She didn't know what compelled her to do this such thing, but she voluntarily reached out and took his hand in hers. She did not trust him... and yet she did. His eyes, a green so bright and yet so deep, shone in the darkness. They paralyzed her senses. He cut her down to size.
She felt defenseless.
"Who are you?" She asked, hypnotized by the way his eyes crinkled when he grinned in her direction. It was so hard to believe that he was here; she was interacting with a person.
This was reality.
She just could not process the thought correctly.
"You may call me Rayne," He whispered into her ear. She shivered.
"How," She whispered aloud. Sensing her insecurities he grasped her hand ever tighter.
"You are mine. We are destined for one another. I am here for you. Please stay... I will never let you fall. I will stand by your side. I will never leave you. I'll be with you through everything from now and on." His voice pleaded. His eyes bore into hers, pleading along with the rest of him.
"Let me set you free..." He whispered to her.
She had not a clue who this person was or how he could interact with her. Was he like her? A destroyer? A taker of lives? Then how could he stay with her?
She wanted so badly to say yes, but knew deep within her heart, a heart filled with past aggressions and tender loneliness that it could not be true.
His hand loosened. This time it was her who grasped his hand as if he was a lifeline. She could not command herself to let go. Then she knew her answer, deep inside of her heart. A heart so numb that she could not be surprised at the lone spark of emotion. What was that emotion?
She nodded her head in agreement.
She would be his prisoner.
~*~
"Why were you sent here?" Babylon asked the strange man. Rayne, he called himself.
"To help you reconsider. I am here to show you life." He said to her. She snorted.
"Why do you not believe in yourself? Why do you hate humanity so?" He asked bewildered.
"Why should I not? Humanity is cruel. They could never change for the better. I have witnessed this. They are the voice of the past that will always be filled with sorrows, and blood in their fields."
"But you are their future."
"I know this." She said, because she did indeed know this.
"You could heal their past wounds. You could help them into a better world." He said to her.
"Have you not witnessed life? Humans have destroyed it. They are sorrow, anger, and hate. They know nothing of the niceness that used to be. I grow tired of watching the tragedy of everyday life.
"I have witnessed too many a tragedy. A boy committed suicide just because his mother forbade him to play video games. He succeeded. A girl ended her life because she didn't like her new step father. She had felt powerless to change anything. A husband killed his wife because he thought that she was trying to control his fiscal anatomy. But instead, she was really just trying to keep him from gambling. A girl murdered her partner because she thought that he was seeing another woman, when really, it was a wedding planner.
These things should not be happening. Where were all the opportunities to let the men and women explain their selves? They seem to have lost the right to defend them, to simply explain themselves, because they are all too stubborn to give them a chance. In their eyes, there are no second chances. Nor to them selves." She said throwing her arms out wide and around her. This man was so focused on the good of things. Could he not see the bad? She could not believe that this man who was supposedly meant to save her for she knew that she could not be saved. She was beyond saving.
"Life is but a dream," He explained still calm and speaking quietly. "Still, some think that life is the total some of their own concepts. Concept upon concept upon concept. Then now is the time for new concepts. To diffuse the old ones.
Life, for many people, has become a struggle because their minds have been trained through upbringing and education. This training has no real significance, for they identify with things that have no importance in life. Their minds play games with them, being continuously active the way they are."
Maybe he will begin to understand me, She thought. Hoped. Hope was forever a demon inside of her. Leading her to believe what could never be. What never would be. She despised the feeling.
"Their mind can cause confusion, but an awakened mind can unravel life's puzzle. A new concept is that life in unfolding all on its own. Their very breathe, just unfolds. Their blood, just streams through their vessels. Their thoughts just keep coming and going."
"They are not doing any of this. Yet they continue to make the mistake of thinking that they are responsible for this... unfolding. This false sense of responsibility is where their suffering comes from." Babylon argued.
"Life is a dance, but the music is silent. It is in the silence that we find our peace of mind. Yes, they are in a body. Yes, they hear themselves talking and whispering. Yes, they feel themselves moving... but who you are is a question with no verbal answer. For the answer to this question cannot be found in a dream. All that we do all that we say, all that we think and experience is being perceived. Many try to perceive this perceiver, but by trying too hard, they miss the essence. The purpose in the dream.
"By doing nothing, by just being, by observing that which is being observed, they are able to feel the presence of their life force, the presence of the perceiver. This perceiver is beyond all consciousness that is beyond all concepts. Everything is included in this consciousness. Life is taking place, in a bubble of consciousness. Their dream of life is unfolding within this cosmic womb. When they awaken to the awareness of this cosmic dream, life becomes a whole new experience." He explained to her with outstretched hands. She was beginning to understand, but still, her decision would not be wavered.
She sighed.
He continued, walking towards Babylon with his outstretched arms. She knew that they had just met, and though it was so hard to believe, she couldn't shake him.
"Our dreams are a vivid as our daytime life is." He continued.
"But if our physical eyes are closed, with which eyes are we watching our dreams?" She countered. After what looked like much thought and consideration he answered her with a concept she seemed to understand.
"Life is like watching a film. When we watch that film, we cannot see the camera, the crew, or the director. We are peaceful when we are sleeping, for there is no pain or suffering."
"What is the difference between sleeping at night or in our daytime lives? Which is another form of sleeping?"
"The mind, the thinking mind, is awake. The thinking mind sets into motion, projecting a world of new pictures-"
"And then the pain begins again." She interrupted, slightly agitated. Could he not see? Was he just as ignorant as the humans?
"Awakening can sometimes be difficult to endure so they pour themselves into the earthly activity. Their dreams are concepts of what they believe to be held true. When they awaken, they are able to release all concepts. Attachment to whatever it is they think they know determines their state of awareness.
Their inner eyesight is from a source, a source that is not from this physical world. A source that neither sleeps nor wakes. These are their concepts. Life speaks to us in the softest of tones. In the silence between the words, through the wind and the clouds, through the ripples in the water, form becomes formless and the formless becomes form. The human race is eternally awakening." He finished on a whisper.
"Why now? After all of these years, after all that I have endured and seen, why now?" She asked.
"That is something that I myself cannot seem to answer."
"Who...what are you?" What was he? She could not shake the question that plagued her mind over and over, demanding an answer.
"I am everything, yet I am nothing. As are you. We are children of the divine. The vibrational energy of the divinity flows through us. All that we think or say or do increases or decreases our incandescence. Our souls are on a journey."
"I am the silence, and listen to what is."
"But in the silence, your soul receives loving nourishment. We are the breathe we inhale; we are the earth that we walk on. We are apart of the cosmic shadow experienced here on earth. We are living meditation. We are the reflection of oneness, of each other. I am an observer. A witness to life."
"Then what am I?" Babylon was afraid of the answer.
"You are the taker. When life is no more, you are its path to its destined place. We are salvation. We are light switches that are constantly flickering off and on in the polarity. We are spirit in human form, yet surely not human." He finished for her.
Babylon was starting to understand all of his concepts. Concepts of the humans and their dreams.
Concepts of life itself.
Babylon's wings twitched warning her that yet another life was slipping away nearer and nearer towards its end.
"Where are you going?" Rayne asked her.
"What you may call salvation, I call depriving the life of an innocent. That is exactly what I am about to do." Babylon answered as she flew away, halfway across the world.
A small and desolate world.
While she, with her silky wings shrouded in the darkness that they were, was engulfed in the forceful wind shrouding them he flew, glided across the night sky as his angels wings spread out behind him like the most beautiful of silhouettes.
They had landed somewhere in Denver. It was snowing. Winter had taken over creating a white darkness.
In the apartments in front of them a woman's screams could be heard. They walked through the brick and plaster; transparent as they were.
A man sat on a mat kneeling on a mattress by a woman. His wife. She was giving labor to what Babylon assumed was their first child. She held her husbands hand as if it was a lifeline. Her lifeline.
Little did she know it was.
"Hold on Lisabeth, please. Hold on..." The man ended in helpless whispers. She was moaning and writhing on the floor. The snow was too thick outside. No cars could function.
Where is the doctor? The man thought.
Every scream, every moan, every whimper she endured, he was there right along with her. He was by her side. She was bleeding immensely and he had no experience with home births.
This wasn't supposed to happen, The man repeated to himself over and over. As luck would have it a midwife came through the door demanding her necessities. Clearly the time was nigh. But she was just a little too late.
"You're doing so good, sweetheart, so good. Just a little longer. So good, so good..." The man assured not only her, but himself also. Every moan, every curse, he was there. Moments later you heard the mewling of the newborn piercing the pregnant silence. The man took the baby in his arms.
"Lisabeth, Lisabeth look. Open your eyes Lisabeth. It's our daughter. Look, look at our daughter. Lisabeth, look! Look!" The man pleaded with his wife. The woman opened her eyes just enough that they were slits. She looked at the baby.
"She's so darling. We made it. We did. Now the three of us... we can live in our home... the three of us..." Her insistent calm turned into an almost inaudible whisper.
"Sweetheart, I'm so tired. Can I close my eyes? Can I rest for a moment? Just a few seconds?" The man's wife asked as her eyes fluttered closed.
"No, No Lisabeth. Talk. Look at our baby! Look at Raleigh. Look at our daughter. Talk to me Lisabeth... I'll talk. Please, just listen. Please. Remember the promise you made me? We're going to stay in this house. Me, you and our daughter. You promised you wouldn't leave. Don't leave me!" The man asked with tears streaming out of his eyes and down his face. He called her name. He called his daughters name.
But nobody would listen.
He was alone. His wife's hand fell from his weak grasp and thudded limply onto the floor, their child asleep in the crook of his wife's limp arms. Those arms that had held him and caressed him. Those hands he had held through everything. His wife.
She was forever silenced.
If only he had never met her, the man thought. If those three years ago, he had never fell in love with this sweet and innocent girl. If only he had never said hello to her on the way to the university that they had both attended those many years ago.
She would have been saved from this horrible fate. She would have lived!
Everything was a mistake. Meeting her and falling in love with her. Marrying her. All of these things had been a mistake.
Why was life so cruel?
Babylon walked over towards where the woman's carcass lies silent and peaked at her immovable halo. The damage was done. She took the halo into her hands and wrapped her small and yet so powerful hands around the dimmed light that it was. When she opened her clenched fists, the halo was the star that it was supposed to be. She lifted her arms to the skies and without words; the deceased soul flew upward and spiraled out of sight.
Babylon turned towards where the man lay sobbing on his diseased wife's chest. The baby was now asleep. She wordlessly walked out of the apartment and out and into the snow. The bitter winds whipped at her hair and snaked across her skin.
She paid not an ounce of attention, also ignorant of the now frozen tear droplets that had silently slipped from her control.
Babylon never cried.
What were these emotions that had taken control of her life so suddenly? Babylon was clueless beyond imagination. There was no point in wallowing in the feeling, or trying to decipher it much less. She was not a human. The more the humans had tried to understand themselves; they had just drowned in their own confusion.
That should not have happened. The man was right. Everything was a mistake...
"In the end... she left him. He was right."
"He would not have had the child." Rayne said aloud to her.
"She left him! He asked her to stay." She argued. There was no point whatsoever to the conversation she knew.
Somehow, she was experiencing what she knew was the mans emotions. Raw and uncensored.
Pain.
Something that she knew all too well.
Rayne took hold of her shoulders and pulled her forward. She let him. Was this comfort? Was this what it felt like to be comforted so? She could not understand. The idea was still so foreign to her.
Rayne, with the pad of his thumb, caressed the side of her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Those tears that betrayed her body, revealing the inner collection of new feelings that were beginning to stir. Feelings that she did not understand.
Noticing her sudden weakness Babylon tore herself from Rayne's touch. She turned and walked ahead a few steps unsure of where she was headed. She had not wanted him to see her in her bout of emotion.
The pain rarely did that to her, made her cry. It was unusual of her to not be able to handle to bursts of pain and other emotions radiating from the persons who were experiencing the excruciatingly vivid spurts of emotion.
A hand was placed unto her shoulder gently turning her around. She complied while she hurried to collect herself.
"You don't have to hide form me. Don't ever think that you have to hide from me." Rayne asked of her. His words were not demanding, but sincere. His eyes radiated kindness and another feeling that she could not place.
"I was weak." She whispered caring not who heard, not that there was anyone else around who could.
"No, Babylon, you were amazing. I would have had a hard time handling myself in a situation like that. You were so calm and collected." He praised. She thought back to a few moments ago to when she had grasped that woman's soul, that fragile and irreplaceable soul, in her destructive hands. It had been beautiful. She could see why the man had loved her so. The woman, whoever she might've been, her soul, had been untarnished by the cruelties of life and untouched by sin.
Her soul had been complete.
In all her time, Babylon had only witnessed a soul so bright once before, and this star had outshone even that one.
She looked upward and sought out the North Star. It was brighter than ever this night.
"I've done this for as long as I can remember." Babylon could tell that Rayne still felt the unspoken I'm used to it hanging in the air between them when he stiffened ever so slightly beside her.
"Come on, let us go home." Rayne said to her reaching for her hand. Babylon slowly tilted her head to the side and peered at him from wide blue eyes, a strangely worried look playing upon her features.
"Where is 'home'?"