Eclipse (e-mail at cp96au@badger.ac.brocku.ca) Fervent Juxtaposition - Part 2 The infernal ringing. Stop the bells chiming or else... or else... For whom doth the bells toll? Machines. Dark and rusting. Rusty killing knives. Fallen. She's fallen. All have fallen. Sinking into the ground. I open my eyes to the noon hour light bright through the semi-closed blinds. A second to adjust. Perspiration on my forehead still shaking from the dream. Yet here is a strong arm around me refusing to let me flee. "Hey Haley, it's okay. It was just a dream." Darien said soothingly. The phone was ringing behind him but he didn't seem to care. He let his answering machine get it. "Hi. I can't get to the phone right now. But please your name and a brief message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. beep!" "Hi Darien! It's me. I guess your sleeping, or uh, in the shower or something. The girls want me to go on a picnic with them this afternoon. A girls day out, you know. So, um, phone me tonight. I'll be home about seven, `kay? I'll miss you. Love you. Bye." I remember now. Darien and I had stayed up to see the sunrise. We talked about everything. Then we fell asleep curled up on the couch like we use to when we were children. I hadn't had such a comfortable sleep in a long time. Except the dream came. More urgent than the last time. What could it mean? Was what I saw really what is going to happen or is it a symbol for something else? "Why didn't you answer the call? Serena sounded disappointed that you didn't pick up." "I'll talk to her later. You were causing such a commotion in your sleep. It must have been one helluva nightmare." He ran a hand over his face and through his hair. My, he is such a gorgeous man. "I never did get around to telling you about the dream I've been having lately." I stretch out my legs and arms. They are a bit cramped from sleeping curled up on the couch. My bladder also felt in need of some easing. "In a minute I'll tell you all about it. I need your help in deciphering it and stopping it." The apartment is not very big and I could just turn a corner to reach the bathroom. I really have no modesty when it comes to things like this especially around people I feel comfortable with. I undo the buttons to my jeans and urinate with the door open. Meanwhile, Darien had gotten up and poured us each a glass of orange juice. He was leaning on the kitchen counter drinking his as I came out from the bathroom. "So you're dreams are kind of precognitive. And I take it this one is of particular urgency." "I don't really know how to explain it to you. There's something to do with bells. Something awful is going to happen when the bells go off. And there are these machines, robots I suppose. They're just all around horrible. And I know it's going to happen here. Going to happen very soon too." I take a big gulp of my orange juice as Darien ponders what my dream could mean. "Bells could be anything. There's hundreds of churches in Tokyo, and telephones, and well, there's lots of things that ring. Then the machines. Could they be of the Negaverse?" "I don't know, but they're dangerous. Innocent lives are in danger." Darien pressed his lips tight together in deep thought. "Perhaps we can ask Raye to consult the fire. We need to know more than what you're just seeing in your dream." That would be delightful to see! I knew from the second I had set my eyes on Raye that she was connected to the spirit world. It would be wonderful to see such an ancient ritual used again. It would be wonderful to see Raye. To meet her. To touch her. "Yes, I think that would be the best thing to do. I can't suggest anything else but wandering around and waiting for it to begin. Better to be proactive and stay ahead of the game." Darien polished off his juice and headed to the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower. I don't want my body odor getting too proactive! Do you think you could fix us up something to eat? I have eggs and bacon.... oh right. You're a vegetarian. Well, we can have toast and jam." I have to smile at him. He's so very considerate. He has such a good heart. "That's fine, Darien. I may not be a great cook, but I certainly can toast some bread and spread jam on it." I search out the bread. I notice he has not closed the bathroom door either. I put the bread into the toaster and press down the lever. He must feel as comfortable around me as I do around him. I do not dare to turn around to face the bathroom until I hear him get into the tub and turn the shower on. I could feel his hard body as I had slept against him. Darien must be an ideal nude. I knew painters that would pay a lot of gold for a model like him. Just picturing him there makes my temperature rise. I have an incorrigible libido. I want to slip out of my clothes and into the shower with him. Have his wet, glistening body against mine. I moan quietly at the mere thought. The toasts pops. My rationale regains hold. He loves Serena. I wouldn't dare break up a love that was meant to be and would lead to a grand future for Tokyo. Besides, he probably only thinks of me like a sister. I have the toast ready for Darien when he comes out of the bathroom clean but fully dressed. I had quickly eaten mine. "Do you mind if I take a shower?" A cold one. * * * The wind on my face is exhilarating. It is too bad that people have to wear these helmets for then I could get the full force of the wind whipping through my hair. I realize the law is for safety's sake, but each person should be able to choose what they want to do with their own lives. If they want to risk, let them. As long as they know the consequences, they are truly the masters of their own souls. Darien is bringing me to Raye's temple. He had said that Serena and her friends would picnic near there and would come back through Cherry Hill. I would get to meet all of them. I would get to meet Raye. I wonder how they'll react when Darien tells them he told me everything about the Sailor Scouts. I do hope they won't be angry with him because I don't plan on spreading their secret. I do need their help. That's why Darien told me. He also trusts me immensely and I him. We use to tell each other everything and nothing has changed there. The motorcycle turned right through a lilac-clad gate and up a hill to the temple. It is a serenely beautiful place with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. I could understand why someone would choose this place to built a temple. The colours of nature are the divinity. No one should need anything else. Darien slowed and came to a stop. I see that the girls are already back from their day out and are staring curiously at me. I ease off the bike and remove my helmet. Serena's eyes light up in recognition. She remembers me from the park yesterday. No one moves to approach us. They all smile tentatively. Darien darts over to Serena and plants a quick kiss on her cheek. "Hi guys. Did you have a fun day out?" "Yeah, Darien. It was fine." Serena replied slipping an arm around his waist. Her gaze alternates slowly from me to him. "Who's your friend?" The tall, leggy one asks demandingly. Her name is Lita, if I remember correctly. I do know that she's Sailor Jupiter. Totally befitting the largest and most powerful of the planet gods. I stand closest to Raye. I want to find out what she smells like. Oh, she has a amazing natural odor. Like the forest after a rainfall. I wait for Darien to make the introductions. "Everyone, this is Haley Aurielle. She's a good friend from my early childhood. Her mother was like a mother to me." "Was this before you were orphaned?" Amy asks. She is obviously curious if Darien actually remembered something before his accident when he got amnesia. It certainly would be a psychological breakthrough if that were true. Darien hesitates for a moment. He is a little nervous about telling them. "Uh, no. This is when I was a boy in the Silvermoon Millennium." A round of gasps and utterances. The cats were there again. I know now that they are the Scouts' guardians. They, too, have shocked looks on their feline faces. So odd for me to see that. I am quite interested in hearing them speak. I couldn't think of what a cat's voice would sound like. "I feel a power within her." Raye's voice was quiet, womanly and even. "Is she one of us?" How it would be grand to be one of them! I would be part of a team that battles evil. I would not be alone patrolling the back streets helping innocents against the evil of the human soul. Yet I am so unlike them. They have each other and they are loved. "I feel it too." The black cat, Luna, concurs with Raye. She has a sort of purry voice. Very motherly sounding too. It suits a cat like her. Darien and I exchange puzzled glances. I let him speak though. "I really don't think so. You're probably feeling a different kind of power from her." "What do you mean? If Haley is here with us and came from the Silvermoon Millennium, Queen Serenity must have sent her forward with us for a reason." The china doll speaks! Her voice is as sweet and delicate as she looks. Mina is most befitting the femininity of the Goddess Venus. "Queen Serenity did not send me forward. I have survived all these years after the Negaverse attacked that dreadful day. I am an immortal." I say the statement and I know how unbelievable it sounds when I do. I don't want to hide anything from the Scouts. If I need their help, I have to be totally honest with them. I await their reaction. "You're an immortal?! How... how can that be?" Serena is full of that age old fear of immortals as vampires. I see it in her eyes. She cringes against Darien who looks around uneasily. He knew who I was and it was easier for him to believe the story I told. Yet the others did not know me and had no reason to believe the crazy thing I just told them. I lean back on my heels as I explain. "My mother cast a gypsy spell on me just before the Negaverse attacked. I don't know if she knew it worked, and I certainly didn't know what it was about until years later when I realized that I wasn't aging. I can die because I know I can be injured, but I do not age." "That is simply fascinating." Amy comments in awe. "Could that be the power you were feeling?" Darien adds. "I... I don't know. I've never known anyone who was immortal before." Raye looks at me with her huge, dark eyes. She is also in awe. Amy may be enthralled by the science of it all, but Raye is enchanted by the pure magic. I hope Darien asks her soon to do a fire reading. "This is entirely captivating, but why would your mother make you immortal?" Artemis, the white male cat, pipes up. Luna glares sideways at him. "Every mother wants their child to live forever. It is a matter of maternal instinct." "No, I don't think that's why she did it. She had no fear of death and praised humans for their mortality. There is another reason. A much more important reason that I do not know." "Mae-lynn, her mother, was a scryer. I think she knew that someday Haley would be needed for some grand purpose." Darien clarified my point. He has still yet to tell them he told me everything. "What's a scryer?" Serena questions guilelessly. "It's a fortune teller." Raye immediately replies. She still keeps looking at me. Is she wondering about me as I wonder about her? Darien decides to take the plunge. "And Haley has inherited a bit of that too. She has dreams that predict the future. They're mostly disjointed pictures, but she can tell some things particularly the general area and time. She came here to ask our help. To ask the Scouts' help." "To what?!" Lita and Mina exclaim in unison. They are great friends, those two. I bet they think very much alike. "There is a great danger here in Tokyo. Innocent lives are in jeopardy. I cannot do this on my own. I need you Scouts to help me." "You knew we are the Sailor Scouts from your dreams?" Mina says a bit taken aback. Before I could answer, Darien is ready to take the blame. "I told her. I had to. This needs our immediate attention. And I trust her, and so must you all, please." "You told her without our permission?!" Lita spits out and Raye adds, "How could you, Darien." Though she doesn't sound as vehement as Lita. "Don't be angry with him." I attempt to calm down the situation. "He thought I might be a Sailor Scout as well. When I told him my dream and that I was searching for you, he agreed to help. He is thinking of innocent lives here. I will do you no harm. You can trust me. You have my word of honour." "Obviously that is going to have to be enough. If there is danger awaiting, then we should help. Is it the Negaverse?" Luna ends that line of the discussion much to Darien's relief. It went over better than either of us thought. I should have guessed that the Scouts would be more ready to trust for their souls are pure. With Darien visibly relaxed, I feel more palliated myself. "I do not know if it is the Negaverse. We were hoping that Raye could do a fire reading to see if she could sense some things that I cannot." "That would be the best course of action right now." Luna says before Raye can even answer herself. The black feline begins to head for the left side of the temple. "Come along everyone." I follow the other Scouts. I notice that Serena holds Darien back. She obviously wants to talk to him. I'll let them have their privacy. I understand that young lovers like to spend all their time together. I really wanted to see Raye's fire reading anyway. * * * I can't see the images that Raye is describing that she sees in the raging fire before her. I am seated directly behind her so I can see her muscles tense as she concentrates. Her hair is blown back and tickles my left arm. I wanted to feel its softness, but I didn't dare with the others around us. If I'm going to be working closely with the Scouts, perhaps I could manage to find some time alone with the dark-haired beauty. I want to share myself with her. I want her to share herself with me. Raye is talking about robots that are terrorizing people. She says it's not the Negaverse and the others breathe a sigh of relief. I am a bit disappointed for I would have gladly done battle with those monsters of the other dimension. I do not like to be filled with such hate. I find revenge only temporarily satisfying and does not cure anything in the long run. But the Negaverse... why does my need to avenge the people they've harmed consume me so? Serena and Darien slip in quietly behind us as not to disturb Raye's mental focusing. Serena is upset though she is trying to hide it. She doesn't look at anyone and is clasping her hands together tightly. Darien is stone-faced. He is good at not letting others know how he really feels. Could I have done something to upset Serena? Or was Darien's telling me everything what upset her? Raye continues to see many robots throughout Tokyo. She gasps and the fire billows upwards for a second. That is the end of her reading. I am thrilled that she could see the same things that I had seen in my dream. Two different interpretations could draw more light onto a situation. "There's going to be a big explosion. A bomb, I think." Raye explains urgently. "Haley was right about the robots. I wish I could see who is causing all of this." "At least Haley's dream is confirmed and we know what we're dealing with." Lita states with a determined look in her green eyes. "Perhaps I can configure my computer to try to locate sophisticated robots within the city. And I definitely can find a bomb that would cause as much damage as Raye said it would." Amy says as she removes a tiny computer from the pocket of her jumper. She swiftly begins punching commands in as if she had already known how to program it in her head. The girl is amazingly intelligent. Silently as she had come in, Serena stands up and hurries outside. We all see this and look towards Darien. He stands up but does not chase after his love. Mina makes the decision to go after her friend. We are all curious as to what is going on. Darien clears his throat and motions to the door with his head. "I think we'd better go, Haley, and leave them to figure out things. We'll come back tomorrow and decide what to do after a good night's sleep." "Okay." I get up still puzzled about what had transpired between Darien and Serena. I turn to the remaining girls. "It was nice meeting you all. I guess I will see you tomorrow morning." Darien grabs my wrist and pulls me out the door as the others are saying good-bye to me. He certainly seems anxious to be out of here. Mina and Serena are no where in sight. I yank my wrist out of his grasp. "What's the matter, Darien? Why the sudden exit?" He hops onto this motorcycle and hands me my helmet. "I'll explain everything to you when we get home." * * * "I can't believe she's playing the jealous little schoolgirl with me!" Darien is pacing around his apartment. Venting about what had happened at Cherry Hill Temple. He is quite passionate about the things he does feel. I see his frustration with Serena here and I have seen the extreme love he as for her too. It is a fix I do not envy. "She is seventeen years old and she's behaving like she did when she was fourteen! Can you believe she was jealous of my fondness of a little girl once?! A child! She is a child. Her possessiveness is smothering. I don't need this shit." Darien using foul words... this is new. It's refreshing though. A word is a word and nothing more. I don't understand why people have a hang-up about a few words. I sit calmly on the couch as he paces. Let him get it all out. It can be dangerous to keep such emotion inside. "She is young, Darien, you know that. Why is she jealous?" He laughs loudly. "You have to ask why!?! Of you, Haley. She's jealous of you. She thinks you're like an old girlfriend returned or something. I tried to explain we were like brother and sister almost, but no-o-o-o, would she listen! Serena gets an idea into her head and there's no room to reason with her. It's infuriating! When is she going to grow up? I can have friends that are female. She has friends that are male. What about that rock star guy with the funny coloured hair? You don't see me acting all protective and jealous." Love is a rose with many thorns. A perfect metaphor for the relationship between the Prince of Earth and the Moon Princess. I know she is too young for such a heavy relationship. She must mature within their bonded love while he had the chance to mature before it began. If he loves her, he will bear with her. These things come and go. "I'm hardly a threat to a love so grand. Perhaps I should talk to her." "She wouldn't listen." Darien huffs as he flops down beside me on the couch. "Serena is ruled by her emotions and reason usually doesn't work with her. Maybe I should give her some time to grow a little and then we might be on a level closer to each other. It's not like me, or you. We're logical, and we don't end up jumping to ridiculous, irrational conclusions as she does." "Obviously you must see something in her that makes you love her so much." It is my turn to rationalize with him. "Not right now. I may be blinded by my anger, but that's just the way I feel." My point proven. Emotion can even block out the most reasonable person's rationality. I am not going to say that to him though. He would not see it right now. He's more like Serena than he thinks he is. He'll sleep on it and they'll apologize to each other tomorrow. Trials like these brings two people closer to together. I have a better idea! "Darien, I think the best thing you can do right now is get your mind off of Serena. How about I take you out for a night on the town?" "What?" Darien breaks out of a reverie and looks at me like I have two heads. I almost forgot that he has a young girlfriend and perhaps he hasn't been out on the town for a long time. "We'll go to some dark bar where no one knows anyone and sit. Maybe dance. Just away from anything familiar." "Yeah." He nods his head. Then with more enthusiasm, "Yeah! That's exactly what I need." "Alright!" I spring up and yank him off with couch. "Dark dihngy places are my specialty. It's your turn to see where I live my life." * * * I had found an underground club that was open to all hours of the night. Even the flashing strobe lights were so dim that a penlight would be brighter. A small but impressive crowd of Goths and punks littered the bar. I suspected that some of them were underage. It didn't matter though. We were not going to be concerned about anything. I put the danger that my dream predicted out of my mind and I was determined to put all of Darien's worry away for the moment too. This was my habitat. Darien was a bit uncomfortable at first, but it didn't matter who you were or what you looked like here. It was a place to escape your life. It was a place to escape the world and exist in a tiny cosmos of black lights and continuous music. I am now lost in the music. Dancing to a beat that I have never heard before nor will hear again. It doesn't matter. I am the music, the sound that filled the room. I move with each beat. No particular moves, any body part any way I choose. Any way the music makes me feel. Music has no mind. It is energy. I am energy - random and eternal. Darien had danced with me for a while. I think though he just preferred to watch me move. The look on his face tells me that my dance is alien to him, yet it fascinates him so. He had danced a bit awkwardly at first and loosened up to just sway to the music. Now he rests in a booth facing the dance floor with a bottled of purified water before. Like me, he has no interest in alcohol. I was dancing by myself for a while after he had sat down, but now a group of girls groove next to me. They have on minimal clothing which, in their punk style, is ragged and very sexual. I move closer to them and they to me. I am enveloped in their group. We all move together like some new form of abstract art. The strobe light blinks and captures us in a different position to frame for all time. Such closeness to attractive people has set my libido into forward drive. A girl with spiked green hair rubs up against my back. Her breasts are large and her nipples poke through the flimsy material she wears. I lean back encouraging her. My hands brush down her thighs. She smells like vanilla. It is a delicious odor and I turn to be face-to-face with her. Though drugs cloud her eyes - ecstasy, I presume - there is still primal lust shining in them. Suddenly I am pulled out of the group of dancers. Darien is now face-to-face with me. If he were to say something, I would not be able to hear it over the music, but he says nothing. His dark blue eyes lock with mine. We are so close our noses almost touch. Seconds seem like an eternity. My heart is beating quickly from the erotic dance I had just been engaged in, but is that my heart that is pounding so loudly? Darien makes a slight motion with his head towards the door. He wants to leave. How late is it? There is no concept of time here. With our hands clasping one another's , we sprint out and off into the night. We flee from everything. Shadows flying through the darkness into the void. A nothingness that is pure. Agile as we are, we find ourselves back at his apartment. I did not even notice that we had taken the stairs up instead of the elevator. Neither of us could be contained in a small enclosed box at that moment. We are breathing heavily. The blood is racing through our veins. Just as Darien wraps me in his embrace, I notice that the blood in his body is stopping at one particular place. His lips touch mine gently as his erection pushes hard against me. I respond with passionate desire that may frighten him, but he equals it with as much fervent lust as I lavish upon him. We fall half on the couch oblivious to the position or anything else. Coloured lights before my eyes, reminiscent of the strobe lights, flash as he touches me. I need this now. Darien needs this now. The night has lead us to the only possible end. * * *