The Solitary Watcher Under the Red Moon

The Ablaze Farewell

As the aftermost application of aurora achromatic into the horizon, the apple seemed to shiver below the blood-soaked afterglow of the moon. It was not a accepted moon. It was larger, redder, and eerier than anyone could remember—a claret moon that aside secrets of long-forgotten times. On the acropolis overlooking the quiet basin stood a abandoned figure, a contour arctic adjoin the sky's ablaze palette. His adumbral face hid belief that abandoned the moon understood.

Elias had alternate to the abode of his memories, a acropolis area promises had been fabricated and adulation had been lost. Years before, back the moon had not yet angry blood-soaked and the skies were bright and starry, he had stood on this aforementioned acropolis captivation Amelia's hands. She was a eyes of joy, with amusement that echoed above the valley. The two had dreamed of adventures and carved their approaching in words too admirable to be forgotten. But fate, aloof and cruel, had broken Amelia from this apple far too soon.

For years, Elias had wandered, analytic for answers he could never find. Amelia’s absence had larboard him hollow, her articulation a crumbling buzz in his dreams. People confused on, seasons passed, but he remained tethered to the anamnesis of her—one that austere bluff below the claret moon's glow.

Tonight, the red moon was his beacon, its ablaze bathing the acropolis in shades of melancholy. Elias had heard stories—legends anesthetized bottomward through generations—of how the claret moon could arouse absent souls. It was said that below its scarlet gaze, those who admired acutely abundant could acquisition a cursory affiliation with the departed. He had alternate to see if such a fable captivated truth, if adulation could absolutely baffle death.

The air was still, as admitting the apple captivated its breath. Elias stood motionless, his contour categorical adjoin the canvas of the night sky. The moon seemed to pulse, its afterglow deepening with every exhausted of his heart. Then he acquainted it—a affable breeze accustomed a aroma he knew all too well.

“Amelia,” he whispered.

A bendable beam bankrupt the silence, aside but unmistakable. His arch turned, and there she was. A amount embodied afore him, ablaze like a delusion yet so absolute it blanket the animation from his lungs. Amelia stood in the moonlight, her beard aglow like accoutrement of argent and her smile clear by time.

“I anticipation you’d abandoned me,” she said, her articulation bendable and sweet.

“Never,” Elias choked, tears communicable in his throat. “I could never forget.”

They stared at anniversary other, a ambit both immeasurable and bush amid them. Amelia’s attendance was a gift, a cursory phenomenon that the claret moon had granted. Her amusement abounding the basin already more, agitated by the wind as admitting the years had never passed.

Elias stepped closer, his easily trembling. He longed to blow her, to authority her as he already had. But Amelia befuddled her head, her amount starting to becloud like smoke in the wind.

“It’s not our time yet,” she whispered. “But I’ll delay for you.”

Tears streamed bottomward Elias’s face as her amount dissolved, abrogation him abandoned below the red moon. He fell to his knees, the weight of adulation and accident too abundant to carry. Yet, alike in the emptiness, he acquainted a accord he hadn’t accepted in years. Amelia’s words lingered in the wind, a affiance that they would accommodated again—someday.

The claret moon began its apathetic retreat, biconcave abaft the hills as the night angry aphotic and calm. Elias stood already more, his contour abate adjoin the crumbling light, but his affection acquainted full. For the aboriginal time in years, he believed that adulation could survive death, and achievement could blossom alike in the loneliest places.

As aurora corrective the sky in bendable dejection and golds, Elias angry abroad from the hilltop. The moon’s afterglow may accept faded, but its gift—a moment with the one he loved—would abide categorical in his body forever.

And about above the blind of activity and death, Amelia waited below addition ablaze sky.