The birds were warbling a new melody as Éloa ran towards the cathedral like a pilgrim and Yoel followed her. She stood in the middle of the nave, and like a bewitching siren she represented a peril to the beauty of everything that surrounded her. She was his sweetbrier, the demise of his self-control. He heeded her calls to get closer and so he approached her. Her chest was like a hearth on which he laid his head for warmth. He swore by the hot coals between her bosom to never leave her and dined on her delicious lips until he was full. But when he broke the kiss and looked up to gaze upon her eyes, there was blood coming out of them and that scared him so.
"Your absence has killed me." Her words made his heart scarred and split into two. Every scar has a tale to tell, his was her sadness.
He woke up from the nightmare screaming. His scream frightened Pascale, who had to put the helicopter on self-flying mode to check up on him.
"Are you alright?" Her strong French accent made him think of his mother which made him sadder.
"Of course he is, our Yoel is a strong lion." Cloyd smiled, handing him a black stainless steel water bottle.
"Yes, I am fine." He took the bottle and pushed the button at the bottom to open the lid before drinking. The screen on the bottle indicated that he drank 300 ml. "It was just a stupid nightmare." He smacked his lips together, savoring the taste of the crispy filtered water. He was making a valiant effort not to show Cloyd his worry.
Pascale nodded and returned to her pilot seat.
"While you were asleep, our team member who works for the President sent me this video from the hotel's security cameras where President Sanguinaria was staying." Cloyd played the video on the holographic display of his translucent phone. The video showed two Automatons killing five soldiers who were protecting the President while one was holding what seemed to be another Automaton who was recently shot.
The video got more interesting once a familiar fair angel entered the hallway, her dazzling halo covering the brutal scene and making the corpses look like red hawthorn flowers on the floor. The very angel whom he failed to show his prowess as a loyal lover. But something has changed in her... For her dolorous love for him has been placed on an old library shelf by fate, next to the other uncontinued lost love stories of past, collecting dust, begging for any potential reader to grab it. There was a moment when she noticed the camera in the hallway and stared back at it and he smiled. One thing has not changed, though, is that every time he looks at her, her eyes take him on an exhilarating adventure.
"That's Éloa," he said with a sad voice. He almost did not recognize her when she cut the head of the soldier that the two male and female Automatons were holding. When they have managed to kill all of the umpteen soldiers that were accompanying the President, they violently grabbed Mr Sanguinaria who surprisingly did not struggle while they handcuffed and lead him downstairs. The footage switched to the street camera facing the hotel where you could clearly see Éloa and her friends reunite with Mega who opened the backseat door for Éloa to push him inside. She quickly got in the car and drove away fast out of the hotel's parking lot.
"That's the Automaton you told me about?" Cloyd raised his eyebrow.
"Yes, and the other Automaton who was in the car is Mega, my- or was my Robutler." Yoel confessed.
"Jesus, so you know two of the original conscious Automatons!"
"Cloyd, you need to promise me something. I agreed to help you find Éloa because she might lead you to the other original conscious Automatons, and you are free to do to them whatever your heart desires except for Éloa. She's mine." His voice sounded excited, like a crow who just found a fresh carrion.
"You are asking too much, Yoel. Not only has it disrespected our President, but it helped the other bastards kidnap him!"
"I will keep her in an attic, hidden from the world and will not allow her to go out. She will not be a danger to your plans." Yoel adjured.
After much contemplation, Cloyd finally nodded. "Fine, we have a deal. You help me find Éloa and her friends and in return I promise you to not shut her system off."
They shook hands on the deal.
Éloa sat on a big stone by the river bank while her siblings were shooting the scientists inside the lab that Demetrius wished to make their new hideout. She rested her chin on her hand while she stared at the river with dull eyes. Guilt rested on her bones as she listened to their innocent cries. Dew embellished her black locks that were crashing on her shoulders like raving waves on the shore. She took out Yoel's tablet from her coat pocket and opened a new entry.
August 25th, 2056
Today I've realized that your absence has created a shadow that follows me everywhere, pointing out things around me that remind me of you. I feel your presence every time I turn the pages of the few books I found in your house. But the illusion of your presence is not satisfying enough. I miss you. I've had many half finished endings of our love story in my head, but none of them ended with you being gone... So please excuse me while I try to face a reality without you.
You only half loved me yet you have filled my inner core with passion. Now I spend my nights wondering what else you could've created inside of me if you so generously decided to love me fully?
Please remember that you will always have a home here, for you live in two places; your new house wherever it is now and my heart.
She turned off the tablet and looked at the clouds that were cuddling above her. She closed her eyes and felt something strange. Her body felt his presence even before he leaned from behind and whispered hello in her ear. But it was until she turned around and her eyes saw him that her limbs started gossiping about his arrival, but by the time the news has reached her heart, it was already drawing its last breath whispering his name.
"What are you doing here?" The hatred in her voice was more audible than a distant thunderstorm.
"You were my personal Automaton, I guess you've forgotten that I can track you with my phone's GPS." Yoel's lips curved up in a teasing smile.
"I didn't forget." She lowered her gaze and stared at her hands that were uncontrollably shaking.
"You are conscious that means you can deactivate it by yourself. Did you keep it, hoping that I can find you if I came back?" He stroked her face, tracing the cheek where he used to write his kisses on.
"I should've deactivated it because it could lead you to your death. You need to leave, if my siblings see you they will surely kill you." She removed his hand and moved further away.
"Do you want me to leave?" He smiled when he heard the quick intake of her breath as he got closer.
"Yes." Her voice trembled.
"Are you certain?" His hot breath, like the morning September breeze sent a chill over her body as he brushed her hair over her shoulder, and his fingers trailed down the side of her neck.
"Very." She was intoxicated by his cinnamon scent.
"Then why do your lips part ever so slightly, as if they are inviting mine to waltz with them?"
"Maybe they are yearning for a goodbye kiss that you never gave." She stared at his lips that were redder than Eden's forbidden apple. His skin was no longer tanned, it has become as white as the sea foam. His once bright hazel eyes became the shade of a lonely tree on fall. But to her, he was still beautiful.
The river listened to Éloa's echoing moans when Yoel pulled her for a kiss. Her sanity formed a nation and announced a revolution against her mind as their lips embraced. Like lemans, they confessed their sinful desires in each other's ears when he eased her backward onto the stone and fell on top of her.
As an Automaton, she always felt less than him. She felt like a character stuck inside an alla prima painting, who wore a wimple and sat below the salt on his table like a vagabond. But he never felt that way. What he saw of her was more than just a strumpet for the night. To him, she was an omen of affection- so garish that she makes his winter days balmy. His hungry mouth traveled down her body as he unbuttoned her shirt, revealing more body for him to plant his kisses. He obtruded his limerence upon her and before she knew it this psychedelic debauchery gave birth to a clandestine love affair.
She lifted her hips when he started pulling her pants and she helped him remove her underwear. He joined his body with hers and felt her body melt with lust under him. The sun was descending behind them while her chest was rising as he slowly drove inside of her like madness. Her long, slender legs wrap around his waist like two swords crossed forming an X. She bit her lips in ecstasy because finally she was as close to him as the blush was to the cheeks, as Khôl was to the eyes, in intimate terms with each other just like the music is to a dancer's body. The newly born stars witnessed their bodies sharing the most intimate secrets under them. His slow pace increased its speed and her fingers dug easily on his back like a garden trowel on wet soil. The dulcet tones of her moans made his heart race with passion and he let it all out on her flawed heavenly body as he felt a pleasure as strong as cataclysm shatter his sensibility.