AFTER THE TILT

  Chapter 38: When the Time Comes   4 months later “That day… the day Fiori landed on the shore of Antarticum, why did you save him?” “I didn’t save him. He saved himself.” “You put your career, your life on the line for a stranger. Why did you do that?” “His fighting instinct was that of an animal. What he had was something I had never encountered, never seen before. It was freedom. Freedom of choice, breaking away from destiny. And you can’t cage that kind of freedom. You can’t. That freedom either lives or dies. I wanted to believe in him, to believe in the possibility of that freedom. So, I did what I could to protect that idea. You could say I saved him, but in reality, I saved myself. I saved him so I could be with him, so I could be like him. Besides, for an Aethereusian, I had already reached the top. There was nowhere else for me to go from there, but back down.    He has probably told you that he is not a good man. And he’s right. But good men don`t survive i

  Chapter 37: Father                 A sharp pain jolted through my body, turning my stomach inside out. I felt a rush of heat spreading like wildfire. Eli lay there, motionless on the ground. I could see blood rushing out of her chest. With my left arm flopping to my side, I rushed to her. She was alive, but her heartbeat was fading quickly. I placed my right hand on her wrist. I knew I could do it. I had done it just the day before. But how? There was no time to figure it out. It was now or never.             There was nothing I could think of doing.             Thinking wasn’t working.             Yet, I had it in me somewhere.             I have it in me.             Still holding on to her wrist, I allowed my heart to bleed. There was no explaining it. I let go of my own life for a second and let my heart beat for her…. My heart became hers. It was an unsettling feeling. Yet, there was something beautifully tragic about it. I was dying. With every passing se