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As a central theme of Consistency is the existence of time — ensuring that you are writing on a timely and daily basis — the theme of this month’s prompts will also be about time.
Today's prompt: [Eternity]
Definition: infinite or unending time. a state to which time has no application; timelessness.
╰┈➤ Write a piece inspired by this concept.
Word Count: Minimum 200 words, no maximum.
Warning: Implied suicide
An entire epoch transcribed in her eyes, the land under her inspection, still as immutable as ever. Through her journey, she has saved countless lives, but lost just as many. Unsure whether she should continue wandering the barrenlands or stay in this valley, she knows that such a choice inches closer and closer. Through the river of time, she is a stone standing steadfast at the edge of a waterfall. Narrowly succumbing to her trauma was one experience she benefitted most from, whether she likes it or not. Calamities unfolded before her, the rise and fall of infinite civilisations etched into her memory unyieldingly. To her, all of this is nothing but stickers on a grand portrait. Yet, they portray a sort of innocence and cluelessness. She set off on this torturous journey alone, she will always return to the same place and see the same smiling faces.
Oh, how she wished they didn't turn into screams of terror instead...
She couldn't save them. A wanderers journey needs a destination.
She's heading off to a faraway land she will never get to see.
"All good things must come to an end." Of course, how could she had forgotten the lesson so easily. Lives slip through her fingertips, loved ones now nothing but a memory.
She places the knife closer to her throat, just barely tracing it along her skin. "Maybe, it wouldn't be so bad."
Humans could have been eternal beings, but with life came no death, hence no fear, or no care.
Once we lived like reckless fools, chasing after short highs and thrills that those who had something to lose would never dare to try. Ambrosia was in our blood; we were merely gods in a sphere-shaped habitat.
Until one boy showed up, he defied the heavens themselves, and thinking without consequence dove down into the earth's core. He brought back pieces from the in between of the outer and inner core.
No one had given one year of their time to ponder over something so blasphemous as that. He threatened to destroy the world if it did not give him the powers of a real god.
And so the gods took the years from him, draining the youth from his features until he was nothing but an elder that no one trusted nor liked in the slightest.
Though he was respected, put on a pedestal for his bravery, leading others to gamble their lives as they dared to reach the lifeforce of earth, and take it away. Soon, 99% of humanity had lost it's key to eternity, but never lost their hunger for adventure, danger, and challenge.
The last remaining percent that did choose peace, well, we stay here in the mountains, watching their manmade society rise and fall as we tend to the forests. But the impending doom is realized when one brave girl decided to venture into our territory, and point an arrow right at my pupil. It was clear from that; our eternity was about to end.
[WC: 268]
Phoduen wanders into the broken reality, coming from a small rift, looking around at the timeless world he found himself in. *'It's real funny how I, a god of time, basically here for eternity, decides to get himself stuck in this...place. A place stuck in time. A place with no time.'* He narrowed his eyes, finding nothing interesting as he soon just, left, having been bored. *'Well, being stuck with my thoughts at least fend off boredom, although I'd much rather not have a crisis, it's better than nothing.'* He floated in front of a bright yellow tree, with it's branches ever growing into existence, creating new realities each...second? *'Is a second really a second? Bah, scratch that thought. I don't have to worry about it anyways.'* He stared at the tree, seeing each branch grow two, and again, and again, and again. "Hm." He hummed. "Ever since I became a god, I never really thought of what I should do to keep me from spiraling into insanity. I'm pretty sure when you're immortal you'd have gone insane, or something." He spoke to himself. "Since I'm here for eternity anyways, what's something to do? Something I can be consistent with, something to make me feel alive, to feel human!" He spread his arms and legs, floating endlessly in the monochrome yellow of the realm of time. "Hmm...something I can keep doing. Maybe something that feels great but sometimes feels painful. Something that's always different every time!" He found himself thinking endlessly, floating along. Then it came to him. "Of course, love! I can love people, or maybe robots, whatever, but I can pretty much love, can I?" He went silent for a moment. "Hmm, probably. Plus, there's a lot of different realities and worlds I can find love in!" He exclaimed to himself, very proud of having figured out something. "And like, who knows? I could fall in love with a mortal, maybe an immortal, that'd be a surprise?" He smiled cheekily to himself, floating over to one of the trees. "I can love for eternity." A small smile formed in his face as he backed away, and opened a small rift, floating into it.
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“What’s eternity to you?” Gal asked, eyes fixated on the myriad of stars adorning the night sky.
Tae looked at her in confusion, taken aback by the sudden question. It wasn’t like her to start a conversation, much less such a philosophical one. Her usual was just relevant mission-related things and little to nothing else.
He hummed quietly in thought. “I suppose being remembered would be eternity. To make a mark on history and have your name come up in conversation hundreds or even thousands of years later” he shrugged, giggling softly. “I don’t really know, haven’t thought about it before, you?”
Galena didn’t reply right away, taking her time with her brief response as a mysterious, dramatic immortal should. “Love is eternity,” she said, her voice hushed in the silence that surrounded them.
“Love? Didn’t really take you for the romantic type…” he said, tilting his head to the side in thought before he abruptly turned back to her. “So… eternity to an immortal… is love? Rather ironic since you are already eternal”
“Am I?”
Her eyes looked away from the scene dancing above them, turning to her companion beside her, watching the flames of the campfire flicker shadows across his features.
Tae blinked in surprise at her reply, thinking it through for just a moment before replying, suddenly unsure of himself. “Yes?”
“Once the world ends, I do too. That’s not eternity.” She shook her head, returning her attention to the sky.
“Well– But how would love last, then?”
“Love is beyond our mortal, or immortal forms. Just like time, it exists outside of what we could ever hope to truly understand. Love knows no bounds, no limits, no end” she shifted her gaze to him for just a moment before looking away again, just in time to avoid being caught. “Love lasts forever, even when that which you love is long gone… even when you are long gone. Love lingers; haunting existence.”
Tae listened intently, fascinated by what she said, but maybe more specifically by the sheer amount of words she actually said. “Poet Galena… I think you missed your calling” he giggled.
“What?” she huffed, snapping out of her trance to send him a glare which only seemed to make him laugh more. “God, you’re unbearable” she grunted, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away from him.
“I know” His voice softened, much closer to her as he gently rested his head on her shoulder. Galena froze in place, eyes wide as her breath hitched in her throat. She looked at the young man learning against her; his eyes fluttered shut, peacefully drifting into slumber.
It’s in times like these that she wished moments lasted forever too. Though maybe they could, if there was an unspoken something that would give them such value. Something… such as love.
WC: 473
Word Count: 230
"...For all eternity!"
The gavel pounded in the black ominous wood, sounding like one of the thunders roaring outside. Great.
Not only was I going to prison for all eternity, I was going to get drenched on my way there and smell like a wet dog for the rest of the day. Ugh.
I look at the windows lining up the walls as I am dragged away from the courtroom and into the back of a black van. Two of the tallest people I've ever seen in my life hop inside with me and squeeze me between their huge bodies. Everything about the police was black, and their clothing was made with a pigment that didn't reflect any light, called Vantablack. The pigment makes them seem like just two shadows of black holes, able to blend in absolute darkness and hide their identities from the public eye.
Not gonna lie, I am quite excited about the prison I'm going to be placed in. Full of the most advanced technologies and the most skilled guards of all Nova.
After one hour of suffocating, the van finally stops and I am once again dragged outside to come face to face to the black stone prison and lightning flashing in the background.
I'm walking towards the greatest nightmare of all criminals, and I'm going to break out of it.
Let the games begin.
They all sought eternity. Even with their longevity, it seemed vital to them to find a way to exist forever. Forever in peace, contentment, a happy ending…
Living was tortuous. Every day, some fought while others cried. What was the meaning of life, except to toil and breathe? They didn’t know what was going on, where they were going, what they could do. They disagreed and shed blood, because that was all there was to shed besides tears. Perhaps it would be better to die, some thought, and shed this skin of a life, to discover what lay beyond death; perhaps the eternity that they so desired.
“I don’t even want anything anymore,” he murmured, lying on the sunlit grass, staring hazily at the shade above him. “I just want to sleep…” He twirled a pink flower between his fingers, then blew the petals away in the warm wind. “To sleep, and dream not, for perhaps I’d have to live forever until I awake…”
“There’s still so much good food left out in the world,” she whispered, resting her head on her arms. “So much to taste and try and eat our fill… We don’t even have to be hungry! Please, come with me, meals are always better with two…”
“Maybe after another nap.” He yawned and closed his eyes. “Wake me up before tomorrow comes, won’t you?”
“I’ll be gone by then,” she said, too soft to hear, but still she sat by his side, watching the sun set in the distance.
That autumn day, we were standing under an orange-leaved tree. The sun was setting behind the country hills, and it smelled like fresh rain, and then she got down on one knee.
“I don’t know if you do this on Earth, but on my planet, we have this…thing where we give the person we love a ring” — she pulled out a black box — “and ask…’Will you marry me?’”
The best four words, the happiest moment of my life. “Of course! Oh, yes, of course.”
She slid the ring onto my finger and kissed me. “Good,” she whispered, laughing. “I was going to love you for eternity even if you didn’t love me back.”
I felt the wings of butterflies flutter around in my stomach. “Love me for eternity?”
She nodded, hands cupping my face, shy smile on her face.
“I’ll love you for eternity, too.”
The moment was one that seemed so normal, so human. Until a UFO landed ten feet away and Jamie, her alien brother, ran out of it.
“KATIE!” he called her.
“What, what is it?”
Jamie grabbed her by the shoulders, and I could tell whatever it was was serious. “Our planet. It’s…not stable. There are earthquakes.”
And my heart sank, because I knew the one good thing in my life was about to disappear.
“Oh. I have to come back to stabilise it.”
“You’re the only person who can appease the goddess,” he confirmed.
My throat told me tears were coming and I couldn’t say anything or move an inch until Katie threw her arms around me.
“I’ll love you for eternity,” she reminded me, her voice soft on the verge of tears too.
But I couldn’t say anything back, couldn’t even say goodbye as she followed her brother onto the UFO. It zipped into the air and vanished in a flash of light, and it never came back.
How long was an eternity? If she ever returned to Earth, would she still love me, or would an eternity have gone by already?
I never found out when I was alive. But when she showed up to my grave and felt her tears fall on the soil above me, when she talked about everything that’d happened, when she came to visit again and again, I realised eternity meant forever.
And I silently apologised for ever making the immortal alien fall in love with me.
Not a Canon Representation of Azzy and Moddy. Resting in the sparse field of wilted flowers, Azrael tilted his head up to see if Asmodeus was anywhere near. They’d chanced upon it by accident but upon Azrael mentioning how it reminded him of home… Well, Asmodeus decided maybe they did have time to stop. The pair had eternity together after all.
“Moddy? Come sit with me. Please.” Azrael smiled up at his partner who sighed and knelt to sit beside him. “Why do you look so grumpy about this?”
“It’s a field of dead flowers, Azzy. Dead. Flowers. What’s there to enjoy about this?” The demon squinted at his fallen angel counterpart.
“Here, look, I’ll show you.” Azrael plucked one particularly damaged flower and spun it in his hands. The tarnished red petals shifted and brightened as he spun it until they were their original vibrant red. The restoration moved down the stem and made it shine with a new sense of life with each passing second. “See. Pretty.” Leaning forward, Azrael pushed the flower into Asmodeus’ hair.
“Can you do that again? With different color ones? I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Neither did I; it just kind of happened. Do you want a purple one?”
“Of course, darling. We can spend the rest of eternity restoring this field if it makes you happy.” Asmodeus curled his hand around the back of Azrael’s neck to pull him into a kiss before he could protest. “Come on, do another.”
“We can really restore the whole thing?”
“Yeah, Azzy, we’ll stay until it’s full of life again. Maybe you can make me a crown, huh?” Moddy chuckled and leaned against Azzy as he spun more flowers back into life and set to making the aforementioned crown. Yeah, this was a perfect way to spend eternity.
a lonely eternity
Word Count: 673
Summary:
To be loved and then abandoned is a terrible thing.
Akira didn’t stick with death.
He felt the pain. He could die countless times. But he wouldn’t remain so. He would find himself back on the train at the start of the year. Or in a safe room within the cognitive world emerging from a deep slumber. Or waking up in his bedroom, the attic of Cafe Leblanc. It was always different, yet a place he was familiar with. All within a few minutes.
Sometimes it would be hours, but that meant staring into the abyss until he woke up.
And when he eventually returned to the waking world, he would carry on with whatever he was doing at the moment. Then return home and wonder how long he could keep up with the demands of the gods above. Of course he did, it's been like that for a while now. There wasn’t a time where the signs of deteriorating didn’t present themselves. There was a small time after when he would stay awake, as death left him pondering if he would even survive the next day.
And each time he was given time alone, he would look at himself in the mirror. Counting the scars that remained from his previous life. Thinking if he was older than an hour ago.
‘It’s a lonely way to live out eternity.’
The rare thought crossed his mind with a heavy, exhausted sigh.
He glanced at his clock at his bedside. It read four in the morning. His body gently left the bed, making sure he didn't disturb Morgana who continued to sleep at the foot of his bed. Akira made his way downstairs, and towards the front door. His fingers wrapped around the doorknob, cold am
At one point, Akira chose to accept the deal of various gods. Well, false gods, but gods nonetheless. It was a decision fueled by desperation for an escape from the status quo. He didn't quite remember why, or how he would let himself sacrifice everything in one, reckless, choice. But what he did know was he was offered three times, but he only accepted it twice.
He hated to admit it there was a swift, yet brief, bliss when he woke up in a “better” world crafted by those gods. It was all he could hope for, and more. Though it wasn't long until he abandoned those outcomes, becoming another tally of deaths, performed by his own hand.
Akira kept those deaths to himself, locked tight and hidden in the darkness.
It had been a few months now since the last time he abandoned another life. And frankly, he didn't expect to live this long.
He was told only in brief statements about the eternity before him. How he could toy with time all he wanted until what played before him was what he desired. But until he found himself living in the comfort of his rural home, a few plants as well as Morgana as company, he never understood how long he had been alive.
Those thoughts made him wake up at the early hours, when the world still slumbered.
Always so vain, he walked around town for the rest of the early morning, letting the silent judgment clear what sins he had. And before the sun rose, he returned home and sulked in the shadows of his room.
Akira was seated at his dining table, staring down at a simple meal of curry and rice. When he closed his eyes in a prolonged blink, it was as close to heaven—to home back in Tokyo—as he was likely to get.
He grasped his utensils, and began to make small dents in his meal. The sun seeped into his house through the windows around him. It felt like there was promise of something nice to come, a slight joyful glow coating his quiet home, even as it robbed the darkness around him.
A small smile weaved itself on his features.
There was no such thing as eternity now, and he was filled with a little more hope than yesterday.
WC: 306 The other day, I was watching an anime where two characters vowed to love each other for all eternity, and it left me thinking about how "eternity" and the idea of timelessness as a whole was a very silly notion. It's common knowledge (outside of people who take every word of religious texts literally) that time began with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. What a lot of people don't know is that the universe has a time limit. The "heat death" of the universe is one of the more accepted theories behind the ultimate fate of the universe, and at this point, the universe will have reached thermodynamic equilibrium. There'd be no point in measuring time after this point because nothing can and nothing will happen in any scale following this event. It's kind of grim to think about the idea of there not being an "eternity" to measure. Sometimes I wonder if humanity (or some other advanced civilization that could replace us if we ever evolve past homo sapiens) will have found a way to either avoid such a fate or escape from this universe before its heat death. Considering how the documentation of human history is only a couple thousand years old, I think it's safe to say that in the grand scale of the universe, we're only just getting started. Just imagine where humanity was in the middle ages, 1000 years in the past, and use that time frame to imagine how science will change 1000 years in the future. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. I hope you've enjoyed this little TED talk about how "eternity" will never be a thing. Don't @ me if you have any questions, as I'm not an astrophysicist and will never claim to be one. Thank you all, and good night.
Word Count: 374 words It was done. She did it.
Shiho had eternity in her hands, and she finally gave the chance to live its breadth to someone else—someone she believed deserved it much more.
Even as the crevice in her chest rang hollow, within its confines grew the seed of bitter, selfish relief. She wouldn't be haunted anymore by sapphire eyes that never lit up at the sight of her. She could be free now from the torment of always being the observer.
She could finally be free from a millennia where each breath, each second, coated her heart in slow-burning agony.
Standing by the side of the collapsing building, Shiho watched as the crowds began to thin. The remaining medics carried and ushered the last of the injured into ambulances.
Shinichi, dusty and winded with worry and aching relief, stood by a stretcher surrounded by experienced hands. Ran lay motionless, sleeping. And Shiho stood by, far behind dwindling crowds.
She'd had enough experience watching the two to fill a couple hundred lifetimes, but this would be one of the last. And so, for just a while more, she would be the silent shadow.
Ringing sirens, crying children. Through it all, Shiho listened for the pulse of her blood slowly, surely, mixing into Ran's veins.
Shinichi would never notice, Shiho thought as a harsh wind blew through the streets, blowing newspapers, leaves, and paper cups. But he would be grateful.
And perhaps that was all she ever had with him, really—gratitude in companionship, camaraderie formed through a shared burden, a partnership forged by conditions.
The skies dimmed as slate gray clouds hovered. Shiho looked down at her clothes, cringing at the dust and grease smudges of her designer coat. With the adrenaline wearing off, she felt the ache in her knees and the possible sprain on one ankle. A gash was also likely bleeding on her arm.
Smiling, she stepped forward, welcoming the pain even as her steps slowed and her knees almost gave. The pain, after all, signified the beginning of her end, proved her freedom from however long eternity was supposed to be.
She could think of her goodbye later. For now, perhaps she could accompany her best friend for the last time.
How many lives have we spent doing this? We play this game, or so I like to call it, with the same animosity towards each other being carried across eons. The energy never decreases, only stagnating; if anything, it only heightened as the years went on. It was like a force we couldn't understand. We each loathed the other, yet had no real reason to or idea why. Of course, that's the nature of reincarnation. You forget things. Upon death, the recollection of everything else just floods back, and it's exhilarating if not an overwhelming experience. And so you move on from there, eventually reemerging into the world as something greater than yourself. But here we are now, with all our memories returned to us, in that world, that reality between lives. Though a better word for between would be *after* now, I suppose. Oh, haven't you noticed? How long we've been here, how much longer it's all taking than normal to be gifted new life? We're not going back. Next time, you say? Next time, things will be different? There won't be a next time at all, darling. This is it. We have all of eternity to go at each other's throats. The universe is our backdrop, the stage set for this performance like no other. Predictable as always, you lunge at me. You swing. You miss. How many times have I said now that you can't go in predictably and expect to get your way? It doesn't matter. We have all the time in the world now to work through that. It's a dance that you still haven't learned, and we will be here forever to master it.
I've only recently ascended to be an Immortal. I still remember how angry I was at Immortals for not even extending a twig to people who desperately needed it. Not because I believed them to have an inherent duty to do so, but because we helped them become Immortals to begin with, only to be answered by an uncaring gaze when the Mirose hunted us down.
Now I became one of them, and I slowly understood.
You did not make it past a thousand years without some form of scarring.
Immortals gain a lot of their power from the sheer millenias of experience they could draw on. Thus, a clueless immortal had no power.
As the decades stacked onto themselves I met people who were good to me, and people who were bad to me. Obviously I had bad experiences with people who were my enemies, and the people I call my friends eventually turn old and die (or died of other causes). Just remembering the sheer amount of people I've met and forgotten makes me sad.
A fun moment under time's gaze turns into the cold past.
And the best way to tackle problems was to bide time until the problems died.
The moment I came to terms with that statement, my gaze turned apatheic like so many immortals before. No matter what action I take, death is the end that meets all. And I've become one.
Word count: 218 😵💫
Ildor had never created an “eternity” before. From the limited (factual) records of chronomancy wizards before him, he knew it was possible, but all accounts said to be extremely careful. Eternities could be dangerous; tales told of wizards stuck in eternities, unable to break out of them because it was impossible for everyone outside it to notice. Throughout his teenage years, Ildor had feared accidentally creating an eternity – being isolated, being permanently alone – and his brother (with tears in his eyes) had insisted that he never make any attempts to create one intentionally.
But there was curiosity… and curiosity was a powerful force. Eternities: spaces between time. There was no greater punishment for those who found themselves stuck there. And yet…
And yet… as Ildor got older, the drive to find out how they worked became more and more intense. Chronomancy required energy, and the pauses could only last as long as there was magical energy, meaning that eternities would need an infinite amount of energy to sustain. It was a mechanical impossibility, and yet…
And yet…
…Would he spend an eternity wondering? Would he spend all his energy trying to find a solution? Was the search for an eternity more eternal than the prison the solution would create?
…or did he just need to go to bed…?
I don't know what to write here. What do you want to see? I feel so tired today, and consistency is the last thing I want to do. Why did I make me do this? Just why? I mean, yeah, I remember my initial reason, and the ones that kept me going but. Why? I wanna slap my past self. I need 140 more words for this entry. I did have some ideas for this prompt, like a God inspected from the side that they are there for an eternity, or a lover waiting to see their lover and it feels like an eternity, or just people who don't act and are waiting eternally. In the end I don't feel like writing any of them. But I'm running out of time, despite every moment I'm spending on this to churn out more words feels like an eternity. All this, just to be consistent. I'm beginning to think people who are consistent are really just masochists. We were supposed to go out with my dad to check out a new store, selling delicious food, which opened 20 minutes ago. Instead I stalled a bit to write this thing on the toilet which doesn't even make sense. What am I even doing with my life? I ask myself, for all time and forever.
I tiptoed across the ship, the soft pattering of my feet echoing through the corridors. The crew was sleeping. Everything was silent. Although it wasn’t night, we had to track our waking and sleeping hours. Day and night seemed such a foreign thing now that I was out in the universe. Everything was always dark, silent and endless, almost eternal. Eternity… What did it mean? Could anything really last forever? Did not everything come to an end? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe what is eternal is the legacy that continues on from generation to generation.
I reached the flight deck and flopped down onto one of the pilot seats, staring into space through the large window that spanned the front of the ship. Space seemed to pour out in front of me, stars burning far away; galaxies swirling endlessly. The idea that space never ended both frightened and amazed me as I stared into the endless abyss. I’d always wanted to leave my home planet and go out and see the stars; be a part of something bigger. I had felt so trapped. But now that I was finally here, I felt smaller than ever. What significance did my life hold in something as infinite and eternal as the universe? Maybe that was the beauty of it. Every little thing I didn’t really matter, my mistakes were miniscule, but then how tiny were my successes. Did anything I do really matter?
I took a sharp breath, and the floor beneath my feet shook, vibrations echoing through the walls.
It was time.
I smiled. This was the best part of the millennia, or so I’d heard. The ship shook and bounced, a slow mournful sound resounding through all of space. Or so it seemed. Then I saw the first whale as it passed the ship, slowly but so sure of where it was going and soon after, the rest of the pod appeared, following close behind their leader.
It is known that the graceful creatures travel through the cosmos, and have been since the start of time, each generation carrying on the journey from where it left off. Legend says that they are looking for the end of the universe. That they always have been, their song reaching into the far corners of eternity; their call a cry of great mourning, but to anyone who listened, a song of hope that followed the ancient beings throughout time and space.
I watched mesmerized, until the last whale passed and till everything was still, the song only a distant memory. I sighed and wondered, but not for the last time, how anything could be so sure of where they were going.
WC: 748
My mistress was a total mystery. Although I didn't know her age, her appearance was 45 at the most, she lived in a large house with an antique finish in the middle of the city, and as her only servant, I knew every corner of it.
She had ten rooms, seven of which were kept locked, except for when it was my turn to clean them. Six of them were always dusty, as if it had been years since I last cleaned them, not a week. One exception was her almost ideal personal bedroom, magazine style, with a queen bed filled with gold-colored pillows on a purple comforter, like almost everything else in the room.
She likes purple, I thought at the time, until the next month came and all the decor changed to earth tones: brown and green. And so on until the next month, which changed everything immediately to pastel pinks and blues. And the next month, and the next month, once again.
The kitchen had food to overflowing in all its cupboards, refrigerator and freezer. Asian, Arabic, Chinese, Western food... I had everything I could or could not name to cook any dish created and yet to exist, but the only times I could use the kitchen were on weekends when the lady was at home and the rest remained untouched. It couldn't be consumed, but it didn't spoil either.
At first, when she first hired me, she wouldn't let me touch or do much of anything in the house, but as we got to know each other, I gained her trust and the opportunity to explore the home and life of an exceptional person. She even asked me to live with her, in one of the available rooms, albeit the smallest one, with no windows. I gladly accepted.
The lights in the house turned off by themselves at midnight, all at the same time, even in my bedroom, but I never found a general switch. Once I went so far as to ask the lady, but the only thing she answered was:
"It's natural, that's the way all houses are."
I was surprised, but I had learned to live surrounded by so many unknowns over the years. With all the differences and peculiarities of the house, each new room and corner of the house I came to discover felt like a new chapter in a book, and it created in me an addiction to know more.
After a while of serving her, I came to entertain myself by imagining and developing theories that would explain the intriguing actions of my mistress, who, for example, almost always dressed similarly: diamond choker, wine-colored lips and black dress.
My mistress was quite quiet and super methodical in her routine, leaving at eight in the morning, returning for an hour at two in the afternoon and returning by eight in the evening. On even-numbered days she would arrive alone, and on odd-numbered days with company, not counting weekends.
The first time I encountered one of her nightly companions, he looked like a small deer that had been captured. Expectant, nervous and amazed. Always dressed in different ways, I was impressed by the number of foreigners living nearby. Some I saw leaving, others I did not. I supposed that the house gave them shelter in some of its corners or shelves. Sometimes I heard mysterious murmurs in the corridors, but I didn't know if it was them, or the house playing with me. As you get to know the house, you realize that it loves to play. Although I don't like it when it breaks my cups, I always scold it for that.
Our routine was constant, entertaining, warm. The years passed, and with them my love for the lady and the house grew inside me. One of my lady’s companions brought with him a mirror from the outside world, and I realized that we had no mirrors in the house. Curious, I looked in the mirror, expecting to see the gray hair and wrinkles that after so many years would surely adorn my face, however, a youthful face looked back at me. Wow, I was prettier than I remembered. I commented to the house and it agreed. It must have been the lady, I thought. Always so kind, yesterday, today, and for all eternity. I smiled at my reflection one more time before tucking it into my apron pocket. Today it was time to clean room number five.