Love and Hate: Part 3 - Time

Death’s grin was teeth beneath a black hood’s shadow. Steve regarded death as an enigma, as did Death of Steve. “Do you know where God is,” asked Steve before Death could make any sudden movements? Death replied, “I know where they all are. We are all connected.” They…we…, questioned Steve in his mind? “What is this place,” asked Steve as a first to get to the bottom of things? “This is everywhere. This is the aether, the spirit realm, the pool of consciousness. It is the counterpart to the material world. Like two parts of a whole. This is no place.” “Is Heaven here,” fires Steve? “Heaven is a construct of consciousness to help it cope with it’s constraints in the material world. The spirits conjure many imaginations when trapped in their perishable bodies,” stated death plainly.

That fucking Gypsy, cursed Steve to himself. No God but Gods. This was going to be harder than Steve thought. What was he to do now? He had to delve deeper to find the cause of the abomination that was his life. “Who is in charge here,” spilled out of Steve’s mouth? Death explained, “As I stated, We are all connected. Together We control the existence of the cosmos. I manage the flow of spirits from the material world to here. We all have a function to maintain the balance.” “Do you have a leader,” Steve asked as he began to formulate an approach? “There is no leader, only facets of the forces of existence,” elaborated Death. “What is the most important facet,” Steve asked getting closer to understanding? “All Gods serve their purpose but without the machinations of Time the cosmos would come to a halt,” answered Death. “Can you take me to Time,” asked Steve of Death? “I can,” Death replied, “I’m on my way to see him now.”

Steve rode with Death on the back of his equine beast, clinging to a cloak of black that seemed so dark it would swallow him to be lost forever in its eclipse. They proceeded through the vacant plane with nothing but gray streaks streaming around them. Onward they rode towards the darkness above in the gradient sky.

Eventually, a gleaming asterisk appeared in the distance. It grew into a golden arch that rose and expanded out of the firmament before them. As they approached, Steve could make out an enormous and complicated structure with spinning disks and rings that split and multiplied into interlocking sections with constantly moving mechanisms of pistons and gears. The travelers reached the base of the surreal mechanical monstrosity and waited as a large and heavy metal ramp steamed down on thick hydraulics to reveal the silhouette of a man bathed in fire light coming from inside the fortress.

Steve found himself leaping from Deaths horse to stand before a tall brooding man with long gray hair tied back in braids and wearing a grease covered mechanics jacket and worn work-boots. “I felt your presence approaching, Death, but I did not sense this one you’ve arrived with.” said the mechanic in a deep resonating voice. Death rasped, “Time, this is the one who is Steve.” Steve stammered, “Um, I thought you may be able to answer some questions for me.” Time replied, “I’m hoping you can answer some questions for me as well, traveler Steve.”