Burning Heart

Burning Heart

Hala had told me that they had been there so long that we had forgotten the danger. That was just before they burned away the atmosphere and killed her along with everything else. I am a physicist, so I can assure you that a temperature of one hundred million degrees will ignite the atmosphere in a fusion reaction. These fusion reactions would release more energy leading to more fusion until all the nitrogen atmosphere has burned away. That is what happened, and now you are wondering how I survived and where I am.

The walls, floors and ceilings surrounding me are red for love, or anger, or blood. They do not taste of candy; rather, they are like nail varnish. The corridors are endless, indistinct and empty. I’m in a labyrinth, turning, twisting, door to the left and to the right. There are dead ends and endless loops. I have no choice but to walk, day after day, thinking and dreaming of the time before it all ended.

I smash the red flashing beacon and mute the alarm. The only light in the room is from the countdown clock showing the time until critical mass. I know that because I can see it in the corner of my eye. It is the only light source. I don’t want to look at it. I only want to look at Hala. Her profile leaves half her face in the darkness and the other pale white.

Hala stands fiddling with the heart-shaped locket I had given her. She has a perfect neck for it; long, sleek and kissable. Her body is thin, tall and elegant. She is wearing a loose summer dress because she knows I like it.

My watch reads three PM, but it is a second to midnight and would be for a few minutes longer.

Her eyes turned black. She says, “It turns out your power is not so great after all.”

I say, “To us, it was just a set of experiments, and we needed sustainable power for the economy.”

She says, “It’s not too late to buy shares in your power company.”

I say, “They won’t be paying too many dividends in the future.”

We laugh and then kiss, but not passionately; there is no time left for passion.

I say, “I think I would have still fallen in love with you even if you had told me who you were.”

She says, “People are always afraid of the wrong things.”

I say, “Such as?”

She says, “Different races, ideas, preferences but never the thing they should be afraid of.”

I say, “Science?”

She wags her head, “Taking too much. Knowing too much. Forgetting empathy. Having no love. If people had feared these things, my power would never have diminished. But, more importantly, your power would not have grown to become obscene.”

She blinks to try and remove the devilishness that is growing in her eyes. I hold her hand, so she knows she does not have to hide her nature. I know it is hard for her to keep her beauty.

There must be seconds left on the clock. Then critical mass. Igniting atmosphere. Global destruction.

She says, “Did you bring the picture?”

I hold a small picture of me, no bigger than my thumbprint. She unclasps her locket.

“I didn’t know we’d fall in love,” she says. “After you blew the whistle on the dangers your fellow scientists were playing with, I just thought you’d be able to help me stop them.”

“So did I. I thought our plan was sound.”

“Six months and six days we planned.” She sighs. “I treasure every second we spent together.”

I sigh too. “I am glad you told me your secret. Even if it was after we found out there was no way to shut the stupid power down.”

“Did you really think I was an ordinary human?” She is looking at me so intently that I don’t think she will believe me if I tell her she is more human than most humans.

I say, “You were wearing Prada. I should have known. You are kinder than I was led to believe and, I guess that’s why you didn’t tell me about your origins.”

“It was.” She says, and a tear forms in her eye.

I say, “How evil you must think people like me are. We think such short term.”

She holds her locket open, takes my picture and places it in one side. “Have you got your picture?” I say. She doesn’t move. Her eyes have become completely black, yet kind. I don’t mean to, but I glimpse at the countdown clock. There are one hundred and nineteen seconds left.

I see the edge of a black wing over her shoulder. She looks down, and I lift her chin which has become longer and cleft. “How is it you can bear to look at me?” She asks as if it was the only thing she had ever wanted.

“How is it you can look at me?” I ask because it is my species that are monsters.

“I love you,” she says.

“I love you,” I say, and I am sad that the second ‘I love you’ can never have the power of the first. “We will be together. Where is your picture for the locket?”

She gives me a picture of us. We are swimming together in the river where we first fell in love. We were trying to enjoy the world in case we failed. I realise that the picture is too big for the locket, and I tell her this, and she says, “I cannot close it with that picture inside.”

I stand there stupidly trying to work out what she means. I am wasting my seconds. I hold her, and her skin is now cherry blossom red. She smells sweet like sulphur. “If I were inside with you, who would close it?” she is saying it softly, although her voice is in some way animalistic. I get it now, so I say, “Take my picture out then.”

She wags her head, “No. I lie, there is one who could close it, but he would not, not for me, not for a creature of hell.”

It is four minutes past three, and midnight, and the countdown clock has reached zero. She closes the locket with only my picture inside.

There is a scream so loud that the red walls shake like veins under pressure. I fall onto my knees. Something is roaring, breathing as if its breath is fire. Two hooves are clopping.

I turn and run through the maze of red corridors. My feet can’t carry me fast enough. I decide I must live because everything else is dead. The creature’s screams are getting closer. I am running faster. I think the maze is taking me farther away from the creature. I am wrong. The creature has me. “He closed the locket,” she says.

“I know your voice, Hala,” I say. “That is why I ran to you.”