“A dying man does not care,” I murmured instinctually.

I felt compelled to reply even if every word just chipped away at my lifespan. Strange how I feared death so much, but right now I didn’t feel anything except my love for Camilla.

I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how, but I could tell that something was watching me with interest. I felt a gaze similar to how starved men in the Apocalypse would stare at food.

Then I heard a soft childish voice enter my ears.

“Beings wed under The Tree of Beginnings is an Ancient Tradition. Those who usually walk these halls are those who love eternally, endlessly, without remorse, without darkness, and without self-hate.

However, the love from you and that woman is different. It’s strange and interesting. I have seen many forms of love but yours is all-encompassing.

She has loved others before you, and you have loved three others before her. You are not soulmates, nor can you be considered mentally sound. You are both psychotic people, holding onto each other for dear life.

Yet… Yet…”

“Yet, we love more intensely than anyone else?” I replied laughingly.

Obviously, we didn’t have any other choice. It was in our instincts, it’s what made us survive to today. I doubt what Camilla and I had was even love at all, it was much more potent stuff.

Love could happen at first sight, just before you die, developed slowly, developed rapidly, unconditional, toxic… but the thing is … the love of Camilla and me were all those things at once.

Our love could be brutal, serene, obsessive, toxic, kind, and many other variations. Every day we would wake up to a different feeling of love, and every day we would make the relationship work regardless.

The voice seemed stunned, I could tell from the slightly wild winds that brushed on my skin. The Being talking to me seemed both desperate and careful.

I know those characteristics all too well because they were the characteristics of people I hated the most in the Apocalypse – Indecisive People.

“I see the pain and the longing for death, but I am as much your salvation as you are my own. Traditions must be respected. You may ask one thing of The Tree of Beginnings within your right as a warrior,”

I did not care, my vision had already failed and soon my hearing would fade into the eternal silence of death. Wishing was the last thing on my mind, I had wished countless times before, wishing had lost its meaning at this point.

“What do you covet most?” The voice asked, forcing me to answer once more.

The strange force compelled me, poked at my brain, and dragged out my deepest candor to the surface.

“Camilla,” I responded in a daze. I felt if I didn’t answer, it would be blight onto The Tree of Beginnings.

“Unfortunately, I cannot intervene in matters of life and death for someone as filthy as yourself or her,” the voice replied with the painful truth.

I remained silent, I really did not care about anything while lingering at death’s gates.

“Why not ask for eternal happiness? Why not ask for eternal life, or even for me to save you from death’s doors?”

“I died a long time ago, today was just the final struggle,” I replied.

“Yes, I can recognize a broken man when I see one. Your pain is enormous, but I cannot sympathize as I perceive pain and death differently. I am young, but the Abominations will soon claim my life also. Yet, I feel comforted that you made it here before they did,”

“Then you have company on your way into the reincarnation cycle,” I replied with slow breaths, feeling the blood filling up my lungs.

Ironically, I thought I had bled too much in battle, but I still had just enough blood to spare to suffocate my own lungs.

The voice grew slightly anxious “Consider your next candor carefully. Before death, I need you to make a wish of me, or I will not be able to move on,”

“I wish I had another chance to be with those I love,” I whispered breaking into silent tears. I don’t remember who I loved, but I know I loved three people before Camilla.

At first, I was thankful for the fragmented memories, but now, at death’s door, I wanted to remember those I had forgotten.

The voice replied with even more anxiousness “You do not have the merit to demand such a wish, nor do I have the remaining strength to grant it,”

‘Then I need nothing,’ I thought as the final remnants of my consciousness threatened to fade away.

The Voice suddenly grew agitated and became several octaves higher “Therefore, to grant my obligation to a warrior wed under my branches. I brand you a slave to The Trees and Time. You will pay for eternity what you cannot pay in ephemerality.

Your descendants, decedents will be slaves of Time and The Tree.

I will be yours when you come to claim me as the eternal recompense for a deal made without your permission.

With this, the requirements are met to send your fragmented memories and emotions into the past. State your name!”

At this point, the voice went from desperation to directly pleading for me to respond.

‘I don’t know,’ I thought exhaustedly.

“I cannot grant a wish without a name. Please, search deep and tell me your name!”

‘I don’t know my name. I forgot it long ago,’ I pleaded subconsciously with desperation tinging my thoughts.

“I need your name quickly. The barrier has already failed!” The voice yelled.

I could hear the struggling outside, the breaking, the sounds of slaughter I was already too familiar with. It seems The Tree of Beginnings has also fallen. I tried hard to think of my name but I forgot it many years ago.

‘My name…

My name…

My name is…

What is it?

What is my name?

My name is …’

“Hurry!” The voice pleaded as I felt intense heat entering my body. My mind suddenly grew clearer, but still very cloudy.

I felt like the spot on the car’s windshield that try you might, you could never really get it off. It was a disgusting feeling but it still made me giggle internally.

At the end of my adventurous, Apocalyptic life, I had compared myself to a stain on the car’s windshield.

‘My name is ...

My name is…’

The final remnants of my consciousness finally gave in, and as I was drifting to death, someone held my hand and pulled me back.

‘Your name is *********,’ the voice, Camilla’s voice, whispered the answer into my ears.

My eyes snapped open, witnessing a beautiful girl dressed in green staring intensely at my face with desperation apparent on her face. I lost myself in her beauty for a mere instant before recovering.

“My name is …. Omari…. Omari Crawford,”

*Dum*

*Dum*

*Dum*

The loud rings rang out, and time seemed to freeze for a moment before recovering.

Then everything in my surroundings shattered, The Tree of Beginnings fell, the world turned to dust and I drifted along with the dust into oblivion.

“Contract fulfilled Omari Crawford,” The voice replied weakly.

That was the last thing I heard before I drifted into oblivion.