Of Love and Gods-Prologue

Prologue

I could see him in the distance atop a mountain.  There he stood, tall, slim and holding in his hand the world.  His face was too far from me, but I could imagine his sneer as he thought of the people going about their business, the mothers rushing their children, the husbands laying out their flat pack furniture wilfully ignoring the instructions offered and the children playing in the park, on the xbox or in the garden.  I could see so clearly in my head the glint in his eyes as he saw it all and laughed, laughed at his power, at his fate and at the fate of the people who stood, sat and lay, unknowingly in his hand.  I had to stop him.  

I ran, feet pounding upon the webbed ground, yet no matter how fast I ran the snow covered mountain seemed to get no closer. I stopped and bowed my head. I focused, eyes staring down upon the ground seeing nothing, I thought of the mountain.  I imagined stepping beneath it, burrowing down to its base and lifting the mountain towards where I now stood.  It worked, I could feel the mountain move, the ground around me shook, each web straining to stay together. There I was stood both miles away from the mountain, and at the same time, beneath it, surrounded by a sensation that was both dark and light at one time. 

At that moment I felt a pressure upon my chest, a force throw me back and the mountain dropped into place a mile or so away from me.  Clearly Daniel had felt the mountain move, and had decided to stop me.  “Damm”, I thought, I had hoped he would be so engrossed in his own success he would have been oblivious to his surroundings.  Daniel was more powerful than me, if it became a fight between me and him then everything was over.

“I thought I might see you sometime Alex, but remember if the mountain wont come to Alex then Alex must go to the mountain.”  His voiced echoed around the webbed valley. Mocking and arrogant. “I know Alex why don’t you swim?”  A river appeared at the foot of the mountain and slowly wound its way to my feet.  I saw tiny red fish throwing themselves just inches out of the water and then falling back down.  He was showing off, telling me that he would win. I ground my teeth and felt my anger rise. 

“Why don’t you come down to me Daniel? “  I said, quietly, trying to sound calm, trying not to sound scared, though my heart pounded against my ribcage as if trying to escape.

“Good idea.”  Surprised I looked toward the mountain, but he stood there still.  I heard a tiny splashing in the water and saw one of the red fish seemingly staying out of the water.  It seemed to be at one straining towards the water and away, shaking all over as if two forces were pushing it one way and then the other.  It constantly moved up towards my eye level and grew as it did, I saw its gills, and scales and then, without warning, it despaired and was replaced by an eerie, ethereal, ghostly Daniel.  I glanced and saw he continued to stand atop the mountain. 

I looked more intently at the ghost Daniel; he seemed even paler as a ghost, his blue eyes shone more intently.  It was odd everything was a perfect replica of the Daniel I knew, but somehow his sneer, what I use to call his smile, and the glint in his eye, seemed to be more transparent than in the Daniel I knew, both seemed to hold more of his callousness, his cruelty and his ambition and arrogance than the Daniel I had met.  I thought to myself that if I had met this Daniel first I would never have trusted him.  I would never had fallen in love. 

“My dear Alex.”  Said the Ghost Daniel, “why didn’t you join me here?  If you’d stayed with me this might have been a fair fight, at least…” he paused, “a fairer one.”  He smiled, and yet his smile seemed less dashing somehow, more of an affectation than a smile of love. 

I had so much I should say, so much to say and so much I could say, but he was right I couldn’t win and only one thing came to mind. 

“I loved you Daniel.”  I said, even to me it sounded pathetic and needy. 

“I know you did.”  He smiled and seemed to become more solid, more human, more like the Daniel I knew.  More like the one I loved. 

He moved towards me and I realised he no longer stood atop the mountain.  He kissed me.  The world around us seemed to move; I felt his warm lips press against mine. .  He moved one hand and placed in on my hip and the other he pressed against my back.  With one eye I saw that he had dropped the world, it fell towards the ground. I had to choose, Daniel or the world.  I had to choose now, Daniel or the world, Daniel or the world, Daniel or, no Daniel.  I closed my eyes, wrapped my hands around him and tried to forget about the world.