72)
Alex pondered Onyx’s words. The only way he could find the Unicorns was through patience, but there were so many unanswered questions in his head; he was no longer centred and felt far from the patient state of mind he needed. He knew that the only thing he could do was to connect with the Heart of Bellkipeg one last time.
Walking out into the glorious sunlight; he felt such warmth now and the birds sang their loves to the world once again and he could no longer feel The Presence pervading the village. But it wasn’t enough, he needed to know more and the Unicorns were the only ones that could give him that information.
Sitting cross-legged with his back to the Stone he closed his eyes. He knew that Onyx was watching him from the church but Alex blocked it out; he needed to go deep within himself and find the still point where there were no distractions.
Thoughts buzzed around his head like angry insects. One by one he visualised turning the volume down on them until he was alone in silence: pure, white silence; he was boundless. He was one with everything and the whole of creation was one within him.
He could have stayed among the peaceful nothingness, surely after all he had been through it was his reward. Mentally shaking himself free of the limiting beliefs, Alex concentrated on the silence that surrounded him only to realise that it wasn’t silence at all. He was bathed in the most heavenly sounds imaginable, melodies of such beauty that his conscious mind hadn’t registered them at first; sumptuous harmonies and glorious melodies. He felt himself draw closer to the source without thinking about it. The closer he came the purer the melody became until it became a single wondrous tune that soaked into his every pore, his very soul vibrating in sympathetic resonance.
Alex closed his eyes, just wanting to drink as much of the sound in as he could for he knew that in his heart he would never hear the like of it again.
“You can open your eyes now, Creator.” Onyx stood before him, smiling. “You have found it, Creator; the Garden of Eve.” Alex looked around him, everywhere was lush vegetation, plants and flowers of the brightest colours that defied categorisation; so vibrant and pulsating with vivid life. Trees that stood so tall, confident and proud that Alex had never seen their like.
“This is the Garden of Eve?” He asked, almost speechless from the sheer beauty that assailed him. “Are you sure you don’t mean the Garden of Eden?”
“Every story must have its template, Creator.” Onyx explained. “This is where all Creation began; all the beauty that exists in your world and beyond started here.”
“And this is where I draw my strength and power from.” Alex said.
“That is correct.” Onyx replied. “Whilst you are here you will be in complete empathy with all around you; you will be one with Bellkipeg itself; and you will know what Bellkipeg knows. Your conscious mind will take some time to adjust to this, but we may not have enough time.”
Onyx motioned for Alex to look up. The site that met his eyes was something altogether magical. It was a unicorn. The unicorn trotted towards him, light dancing off its skin and mane, the one spiraled horn standing proud from its forehead. Alex felt humbled by its presence and bowed his head in reverence.
“Creator.” Alex felt its voice in his head. “It should be us that should pay homage to you. Please, look upon us. Converse with us for we do not have much time, and you must learn the truth behind the Deluge.” Alex nodded and looked into the Unicorns penetrating azure eyes.
“Tell me, please.” He said. “I need to know… If I’m to defeat the Deluge then I need to know who is controlling it.”
“You already know, Creator.” The unicorn replied in his mind. “And the Deluge can not be defeated and in time you will know this.”
Alex found this hard to comprehend and could feel himself tense up at the prospect of yet more unanswerable questions. The unicorn continued,
“You must open yourself up to the truth, Creator.” The unicorn said. “You know this; you know the truth already but have hidden it from yourself for too long.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, how could he know the truth already? If that were the case then he would never have put himself through this nightmare.
“Before the beginning of this story we were visited by The Presence.” The unicorn explained.
“Why didn’t you try to stop him? Kill him, even if you knew what he would do.” Alex asked, incredulously. Onyx interrupted.
“You know better than to ask such a question.” He reprimanded. “Step outside of yourself , Creator – do not indulge in pettiness now of all times. Unicorns are creatures of peace and truth. They know only of the light and to even suggest of them killing anything is sacrilege.” Alex understood and felt humbled by his outburst.
“I’m sorry.” He said, “I reacted without thinking.” Deep inside he kept wondering how much of the horror could have been avoided had the unicorns seen the creature for what it was and stopped The Presence then and there. He found that so hard to believe that it was starting to cloud his judgement; after all that had happened to him, after all the pain that he had been put through.
“Yes, we feel that your reactions still cause you great pain and will continue to do so unless you learn to curb that part of you.” The unicorn replied. “We can feel your pain and empathise, as we could feel the pain of The Presence.”
“What… why did The Presence come to the Garden?”
“For one of the apples from the Tree of Know.”
“And you gave it to him?”
“We had no choice.” The Unicorn replied and shook its head.
“You should let the Unicorn tell its tale,” Onyx interrupted, “You might understand what the Unicorn is trying to tell you.” Alex nodded and the Unicorn continued.
73)
“When the stranger first appeared we could not sense anything untoward with him, he seemed at peace with all around him. We welcomed him to the Garden, as we do all visitors that find their way here, and told him that he could partake of anything that grew.” The Unicorn bowed its head remembering what happened next. “The Stranger asked for an Apple from the Tree of Know, something that no one else had ever asked for. Nobody else even knew of its existence, but he knew and it was the one thing that we were unable to give to him. He smiled and simply asked to stay in the garden for a few days. We saw no reason to refuse him and so he stayed.”
“What did he do whilst he stayed with you?” Alex asked.
“Very little.” The Unicorn replied. “He walked with us, and sat amongst the trees and the flowers, never straying too far from the Tree.
“A few days later we noticed the first signs of sickness creep into our beautiful garden. The flowers started to lose their vibrancy and began to wilt and die. We had never seen this kind of decay in our perfect world and did not know what to do. We know of no evil and could not begin to understand what was causing this to happen.”
“How do you mean, know of no evil?” Alex interrupted.
“The Unicorns are one with the heart of Bellkipeg.” Onyx explained. “They are pure beings and know of only light, love and harmony. To them evil does not exist because there is no evil in their hearts.”
“So we could not see the stranger for what he may have been.” The Unicorn explained.
“May have been?” Alex exclaimed. “How do you mean, may have been?!”
“Be not so hasty as to judge without knowing the full circumstances, Creator.” Alex was about to argue when Onyx motioned for him to be silent. Everything now seemed unreal, after everything he had been through; to be finally at the end of his quest only to find out that it could all have been avoided… Alex felt drained by this discovery; he was close to weeping bitter tears.
“The Stranger offered us an answer to our predicament.” Continued the Unicorn.
“Let me guess, one of the apples.” Alex replied in a dead pan voice. Something was definitely wrong; he could no longer stand against the tide. There was such a resurgence of feelings repressed. He felt helpless against things beyond his control.
“Yes.” The Unicorn agreed. “Of course, we could not agree to his solution at first.”
“But you did, eventually.” Alex interrupted.
“When the pain became too much for us to bear; watching the Garden wither and die, we implored the Stranger to help us if he could. He calmly repeated his offer of an apple which we gladly gave him this time – anything to restore the heart of our land.”
“What happened then?” Alex asked.
“Once the Stranger had what he wanted, he simply walked out of our Garden.” The Unicorn replied, its head bowed low.
74)
“The Stranger left…” Alex repeated the words, almost in a monotone and then looked at the Unicorn in the eyes again. “… and the Garden miraculously came back to life; it started to flower and fruit again?”
“Yes, that is so.” There was palpable shame in the Unicorns voice, if it was indeed possible for such an emotion to be recognised in the creature. Alex didn’t know, but he felt such an anger, a righteous anger – he couldn’t understand how the Unicorns had been so naive.
“You find it easy to judge, Creator.” Onyx said, breaking Alex’s concentration. “What would you have done in such a situation, I wonder?” He asked.
“I’m sure that I would’ve behaved differently!” Alex reprimanded. Onyx looked sad at his reply, and the Unicorn turned to Onyx and said:“He does not know yet, Old One?”
Onyx shook his head. “He has not been ready enough to be told.” Alex turned to Onyx in disbelief. “As you can see now…”
“He has to be told, Old One…” The Unicorn replied.
“What?” Alex interrupted. “What do I have to be told?”
“You were in a similar situation to ourselves.” The Unicorn said. “You were in a position to stop The Presence but did not.”
Alex was shocked by this, he couldn’t understand what the Unicorn was saying.
“When?!” He demanded. “When was I in a position to do anything of the sort?”
“When you dragged the boy out of the cave.” Onyx replied solemnly.
“But that boy was me, you said.” Alex replied. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, it seemed too unbelievable.
“Yes, Creator, and I told you to destroy the boy before it was too late, but you couldn’t.” Onyx’s eyes bored deep into Alex.
Alex took a step back in horror as he realised what Onyx was saying. He turned to look at the Unicorn, but the Unicorn turned away.
“The boy… was taken by the Deluge.” Alex spoke in a monotone, he found it so hard to utter the words, even the idea was too fantastic, too frightening for him to bear. “I thought he had been killed…”
“No.” Onyx spoke in low, calming tones. He knew how hard this was for Alex, but he needed to know. “Just as the Priest in Slauwood had been taken over by the Deluge, so the boy became corrupted by his own pain and suffering that the Deluge nurtured until he became The Presence.”
Alex reeled from this influx of information. “How did all this happen so quickly?” He asked.
“Time has no meaning here, Creator.” Onyx gently explained. “Causality follows its own path regardless of the ticking by of minutes and days. This land has existed long before you came here and will continue to exist long past your leaving; but you have created it nonetheless.”
Alex was speechless, and yet inside he knew. He had known this all along, intrinsically, deep within but hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself –hence the amnesia? This was his creation, but how?
“Feel the truth, Creator, you need to feel it not run away from it. Everything you see here; all of Bellkipeg itself is here because you created it. You are the Creator.”
“No..” Alex pushed himself from the ground and backed away, reeling from the words as if he had been struck. “There is no way I could create something as beautiful as this….” He stated.
“And it is that mindset that brought you here in the first place.” Onyx said.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked, shaking with disbelief. “I don’t understand… I don’t understand!”
“It is too late to hide from yourself now, Creator.” The Unicorn spoke, in sympathy. “You must face this. You must fight through this. You were brought here because you negated your life for too long.” Alex buried his face in his hands willing with all this might that this wasn’t true. “You were gifted with such powers, such imagination but your deep seated loathing of yourself prevented you from harnessing those powers and changing your life for the better.”
Onyx continued, “You used to dream of Bellkipeg, and in your mind lived it during those long lonely hours. When the dreams became too much for you to handle you started taking tablets and turned to alcohol to take them away and for a while you were given a reprieve to drown your life away in your own little room.”
“But it wasn’t long before the dreams started to invade your waking life.” The Unicorn interrupted. “We are a force of creation, of change… Where we have visited others the change has always been one of utmost joy and beauty.” The Unicorn said with his head bowed low. “But never before had we ever encountered such resistance. You fought against us; against your own creative self, and in doing so repressed that portion of yourself.”
“And it was through that repression that the Deluge was born.” Onyx continued. “The Deluge encompasses all your negativity; all of your dashed dreams and hopes; your anger and bitterness made whole.” Alex was shaking with grief, fear and anger… with every direction he turned he was faced with the reality of his actions. What the Unicorn was saying was the truth: it was because of him that the Deluge had been created and all the hurt, all the pain and suffering that had happened was because of Alex.
“And where did the Deluge strike?” The Unicorn asked, solemnly.
“At the same place you used to hit out at; your child-self.” Onyx answered. “That small boy that you tried so desperately to save when you first entered Bellkipeg was the same one that you heaped all your derision on, all your scorn.”
“No!” Alex shouted. “I never did that… I never hurt myself that way.”
“Look at your wrists, Creator.” Onyx spoke silently.
Alex did as he was asked. Running down his wrists were scars, one on each wrist; a calligraphic stroke to symbolise his pain. Alex could no longer hold back the tears. All this time he had fooled himself thinking that he was the hero; the one that could save Bellkipeg. But now he knew he was only saving the land from himself. Whichever way he turned now there was only pain; misery and anger. He couldn’t handle it any more.
He ran, looking neither to Onyx nor the Unicorns for he had failed them. He could no longer bear the responsibility and fled the garden. He felt nothing now. He had no idea where he was going or what would become of him, and nor did he care.
So pre-occupied was he with his own pain, he wasn’t aware that the ground underneath had become spongy as he was ran; nor that the sky had darkened and the woodland around him become deathly silent. And when the Deluge engulfed him it was far too late...
