Welcome, ESDRAS HAYLEN

[HOME]

________________________________________________________________

LETTER TO ELDRICH

[ENTRY DATE]

2.20.2070, 9:50:56

[LAST EDIT]

12.4.2057, 24:4:34

________________________________________________________________

To my beloved friend, Eldrich.

Due to personal reasons, I will be disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The end of the world is coming. In exactly thirteen years, at 10:04:45, February second, the world will be destroyed in holy fire.

And it’s all my fault.

Before you get angry, allow me to soothe you. Humanity has had a good run, hasn’t it? I don’t mean to be biased, but I quite enjoyed the beautiful rolling fields of Greece and Rome. Don’t you remember the day Julius was murdered? Standing in the audience for the eulogies was something else. Do you still have those books from the Library of Alexandria? Weren't you thankful when we got that vision just in time? And that nasty bug from the 1300’s? We immortals aren’t exempt from everything, you know. Thank goodness we chose a pleasant journey through the Polish countryside for those few centuries. Oh, and the first two World Wars. Terrible, isn’t it?

You know, I had a vision of you, just before we met. I was in Egypt,under the rule of Visor Imhotep. Production of the first pyramid (Djoser’s, wasn’t it?). I had a vision of a companion. Another immortal. We were birds of a feather. One in a million. My alter-ego. (I’d add on soulmate, but you simply hate that word). Doesn’t that account for something? Are we not friends?

Now, onto the elephant in the room. We wouldn’t be friends if I didn’t disclose to you exactly why Humanity is dying. As of late, I have been receiving the strangest letters, each arriving one at a time. The only thing written upon them was either a one or a zero. Nothing else. I had no idea what it could possibly be, at first. I ignored them, but then they got persistent. I finally decided to decode them with that little program. Don’t you remember it? It turned out to be binary code, translated into coordinates. Do you perhaps remember the Pentagon? It was destroyed in 2041, but there were still the remains. 38.8719 N, 77.0563 W.

Out of curiosity, I visited the remains late one night. There was a woman there. She was dressed in a completely black suit, bald. She told me she was A-42, and she represented a company called the TCU. Time Correction Unit. She had been waiting for me. She was disappointed you couldn’t have come along too, but one was easier to manage. A-42 then walked over towards the rubble. She raised her foot and pushed into one of the rocks. And… The ground collapsed, opening up into this thick blackness. I could feel it envelop my body, like I was being dosed in a lake of honey. It was terrible. I kept sinking further, until I dropped out onto the floor of a lab. A-42 called it the Correction Lab. The hole we came out of, levitated just feet above me. It swirled, emanating a low hum.

“What is that?” I had asked.

“Is it interesting?” A-42 asked, ignoring my question. “We found him in 456-A in the Casamana Quadrant.”

This thing was alive. She explained it could stretch over impossibly long distance, making teleportation a reality. I was more disturbed that it was alive.

“This was meant to exist, you see,” She explained. “That’s why we use it.” Her eyes darkened. “You were not supposed to.”

I was, of course, taken aback by this. Who was this woman to claim my existence was unnecessary?

“Excuse me?” I snapped.

A-42 loved ignoring me.“Humans were not meant to live a god’s lifetime. Humans were made to be disposable. You, and your friend, were Company Errors. And as a result, we must destroy a perfectly fine Humanity to be rid of this Error.”

“Why didn’t you destroy us earlier then?”

She let out a low sigh. “Because you fell into HIS plan.”

“Who’s that?”

“HE the Creator. HE was here before Life and Death. Before Being and Nonbeing. HE represents the minute intricacies of Life and Death, and the fragility that is, Humanity.”

“So… Is HE god, then?”

“No, HE is not god. But rather, HE is HE. There is no god besides HE, and HE is beside god.”

I wouldn’t think too hard on HE. HE is unexplainable. Something even us immortals cannot even begin to comprehend.

“So… What’s HIS plan?”

A-42 smiled. A real, genuine smile. It startled me, because it didn’t really fit her face. It was too large. Too forced.

“HIS plan is Perfect Recreation. HE shall create a world of perfect, right here.” A-42 motioned about. “This is the beginning of the Perfect Recreation. A world without Being and Nonbeing, Life and Death, and Humanity. A world where we are HE and is HE is us. A world where we are beside HE and HE is beside god.”

Her face darkened. So suddenly it made me flinch. “And you oppose HE. Only HE is meant to live forever.” She paused. “But HE is sympathetic. HE wants to extend an offer to you.”

“What’s HIS offer?” I asked. I really hoped it wouldn’t be a human sacrifice. We had a nasty time with that in Carthage.

“Join us,” A-42 responded blankly. “Join us, or perish with them.”

Now Eldrich,ask yourself: what would you do in my shoes?

Die with a Humanity I have no place in, or do

Something...New...Something other than wander, stay, wander and wander listlessly some more. After five thousand years, the Earth becomes so dull. Humans savor the limit of their days. When there is no end tomorrow, life loses this savor. When Death is meaningless, what purpose do you have? What is there to look forward to each day? Isn’t that what Life is? Living fully until there is nothing left to live for? I had lost everything worth living for a long time ago. Until, I found HIM. Now there’s something new. I have a purpose.

For once in a thousand years...I feel human, Eldrich.

Do I really have to tell you my response now? I think you understand.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what will happen now. Well, by the time you’ve reached this point, you’ve got fifteen minutes before the end. I specifically asked you’d find my letter with enough time to spend time with your wife and daughter. I’m lucky HE is so sympathetic with the Remaining. You won’t tell them the whole truth. You won’t tell them how the Earth will erupt in a brilliant light of pure white, taking up everything in its path. It’ll all be in an instant. A flash, then nothing. It won’t hurt. Quite the contrary; it’ll be a relief to finally be free of the burden of Life. You’ll be surrounded by the people you love, excluding myself. Isn’t that the death any immortal wishes for?

Now please make note: I did not do this out of spite. I hated Humanity no more than you did. I am simply bringing a close to a riveting novelette. It must be this way. Everything comes to a close. Every dancer their dance, every musician their composition, every artist their masterpiece. And every god their creation. It’s how it must be.

To say I won’t miss you, would be a lie. 5,OOO years of friendship is invaluable. Priceless.I cherish every moment we had, and will continue to. But I do not regret my decision to join HIM. I simply wish you could have been with me. But, let’s be honest with each other. You love your wife and daughter. You cherish this impermanence of mortality. I love the security of eternity. That’s what makes us different. That’s what forms our individuality. I do not spite you for it. Yes, it aggravates me so, but two friends are never the same. True friendship is finding familiarity in the idiosyncratic (funny word, isn’t it?). Even then, do we call it friendship? I think at that point it's more pragma, or storge. “Friendship” carries no weight. It is disposable, here and there, burning vibrant then less than a wisp of smoke. But this, what we have, is beyond any word I could possibly formulate. What we have is eternity. Can we agree on that? Humor me. Let’s call this eternity.

Nunc et usque in aeternum,

Esdras Haylen

01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110111 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101111 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110010 01110011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01000110 01100001 01101001 01110100 01101000 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01010100 01110010 01110101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01100101 01101111 01110101 01110011 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101010 01110101 01100100 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100101 01111001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100110 01101100 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01001000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100001 01100100 01100101 01101101 01110011 00111011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01001000 01101001 01101101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 01110011 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100011 01100101 01110000 01110100 00100000 01001000 01101001 01101101 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101100 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110010 01101111 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101100 01101111 01101111 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01000111 01101111 01100100

________________________________________________________________

[RETURN]