Psyche & Eresto Part 1: Second Life
Chapter 2: Second Life
"Is this real?" Kim asked, her mouth agape.
"It's as real as can be," Eresto claimed. "And there's more to see. There are people to meet, too."
"But how is this possible?"
Kim was standing at the bathroom window, water dripping off her to the floor. As she stood at the window, she gaped at the details of the landscape outside. Her mind raced trying to come up with possibilities of what had happened and where she was. "Wake up, Kim!" She thought. "I'm not dreaming. And I'm sober. What is this?"
Kim leaned back against Eresto, her head against his chest as she looked out the window in disbelief. "This is incredible," was all she could say.
Below the window there was a series of paths leading to a forest, which stretched off into the distance. But it didn't look like any forest she had ever seen before. The canopies were of varied colors: red, blue, green, yellow and others. They stood in stark contrast to the sky, which was colored as a pastel yellow sky that didn't look natural or at all possible. She had never seen anything like it.
"I know you have questions," Eresto said softly in her ear, "but if you trust me, there are explanations coming."
Kim felt a pin prick in the back of her mind when he said the word "trust," and she needed answers. She couldn't wait. She turned around to face him, arms around his neck as she looked up into his blue eyes. She sensed something she hadn't before: he had a power and a presence to him. He seemed to glow, and suddenly it appeared to her that he looked like more than a man.
"Who are you, really?" She asked.
"I'm a watcher," Eresto smiled. "I and angels like me watch over the Earth, mostly over humanity. This is where we live, or at least those of my order. It's called the First Step."
Kim turned to look up at him, her hand on his hip. "You told me that you work in a museum," she smirked. "And you told me you were a bad liar."
Eresto shifted uncomfortably. "Well," he sighed, "if I had told you that I was an muse who inspires art and desire, would you have agreed to come with me to my heavenly home?"
Kim laughed. "Definitely not."
"There are things that you can't be told about," he said, glancing out the window. "You have to see them for yourself."
"Fine," she admitted. "But then, where are we? And what happened to my apartment?"
"If we're going to talk about these things, we should probably get dressed." Eresto said.
Kim sighed and pressed her cheek against his hard chest for a moment. "I suppose."
Kim had hardly ever gotten dressed so fast before in her life, wanting to get answers to her questions. Eresto requested that she wear a red dress for her first time out on "the grounds," as he referred to them. She decided to agree to avoid argument because she wanted to have answers quickly before walking anywhere with Eresto. When she had put the dress on and tied the sash, she realized she looked beautiful.
Eresto had put on an outfit of red and white, with white shirt and pants and a red vest. Kim noticed he looked great with it on, and that it looked something like a uniform. He put his hand through his hair, moving it out of his face. His long wavy locks had fallen into his face. Kim suppressed a chuckle at how cute he looked trying to straighten out his hair, almost like an awkward teenager.
"Okay, hot stuff," she said with hands on her hips. "Where's my apartment?"
"Easy," he looked up and smiled as he buttoned the top buttons of his shirt. "It's right back through the door we came in earlier." He pointed behind her, and there it was. It looked exactly like the front door of her apartment, and she was confused.
"Just through there?" She asked.
"That's all it takes to go back," Eresto answered. "But before you test it out, would you go for a walk outside with me?"
"Yeah," she wanted to get a closer look at what she had seen from the window. "Let's go outside." She took his hand.
Eresto led her out of the suite. They were in a hallway that eerily resembled a hotel, but very functional and without decoration or much character. The white walls almost shined, similarly to the suite they were in. It was amazing how bright everything was here with no noticable light source.
"This is crazy," she thought as they walked toward a staircase leading down towards the ground level. "Not an hour ago we were walking outside, on a street and in a completley different building."
They walked down the stairs that led to a large open area. Eresto was explaining that there were a number of palaces like this one, where angels like him lived and could travel to earth and elsewhere. He spoke very enthusiastically, like he might tell her everything about the angel way of life in an hour. She listened but couldn't really understand or care about some of the specifics of what he was explaining. Mostly she wanted to go outside and see if the landscape she saw from the window was real.
As he was enthusiastically giving a history of the palace, Angelhome, Kim decided she had to do something. "It's like an angel barracks, isn't it?" She interrupted.
"Barracks?" Eresto asked.
"It's what army soldiers live in on earth. This palace is like that." She said. "Very functional, not very well decorated, a place to live while serving duty."
Eresto laughed. "Exactly," he said.
"That chandelier is absolutely beautiful," Kim was looking to the ceiling of what appeared to be a large entryway to the palace. Anchored by a gilt bronze corona, the single tiered chandelier had beautifully carved arms and a rich interplay of metal and crystal that shone. She craned her neck and swooned for a moment before noticing that it had no candles and seemed to be for decoration only. Like everything here, it seemed to give off its own light.
"What do you think so far?" He asked as they approached the bottom of the stair.
