Eternal Lessons

It was a cold night, with darkness lurking in every corner.

In that darkness, a child covered himself in his blanket. He swirled inside it to protect himself from the cold.

And from the monsters that lurked within the abyss.

The door of his room slowly creaked open.

“Elias!” The familiar voice cracked.

Elias didn’t want to answer. ‘Not again...’ he murmured, his breath hitching as he buried himself under his thin blanket. But it offered no protection against the cold or the monsters.

“Don’t ignore your grandpa!” said the old man Elias was scared of. “Come on... I need to teach you. Otherwise, you will die all alone!”

His words choked Elias.

“I-I don’t want to learn!” Elias muttered, his hands trembling. But his grandpa walked slowly towards him.

“You need to learn, kiddo! You have to...” He tapped his feet on the floor.

Elias tried to cover himself with his blanket, but he was too weak.

The old man shrugged the blanket out of Elias’s hands.

“Come on, Elias... We need to go,” the grandfather spoke. His face became hollow for a second, strangely pale, and his beard changed color, turning ghostly white.

Elias struggled. ‘G-grandpa, not today, p-please…’ he murmured.

But his grandpa was insistent.

‘We need to go. You need to learn!’ He said, grabbing the air in the room and tearing it open like paper.

“Let’s go! Tonight, you will learn about...” His grandpa said with an eerie hint of enthusiasm.

He stood before the portal. He turned his head slowly towards Elias.

“Death!” His voice changed in frequency, his hair and beard blackened, then fell away. His face swelled and burst, his flesh decomposed rapidly, leaving his empty eye sockets staring lifelessly at Elias. Pieces of his face dripped onto the floor with a horrible tap. Soon only a skull remained, held together by torn muscles. The air smelled like burning meat, crisping until it became coal.

Elias shut his eyes. But he could still see his grandfather’s face as if his eyelids had become transparent. He helplessly watched as his grandfather’s face slowly returned to normal as if time was reversing.

Elias gasped and slapped his hands over his face, desperately trying to block his view.

He always closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again, his grandfather had already turned back to normal.

“Alright?” His grandfather spoke, eerily cheerful.

Elias held his shirt and clenched his fist. He was sick of his grandpa’s endless lectures, but he knew deep down it was futile to escape.

“A-alright... Grandpa,” Elias whispered, his voice raw and broken.

Together, they stepped into the tear in reality.

Elias shut his eyes. The air inside the abyss smelled of dried stones. It felt familiar, like the whispers of gravestones.

Once he opened his eyes, there was total darkness; inside the dark space, a glowing, pale, ever-changing form moved closer.

“Do you see that?” His grandfather pointed at the entity that was slowly coming towards them.

“That’s death!”

Elias couldn’t breathe. “Death? Did it come for us?” he thought. He could hear his heartbeat.

He stared at the entity; his fear melted by the sheer warmth it gave with its glow. His shoulders relaxed, his breath calmed, and his gaze softened. He stared at the entity in awe, slowly wanting to get closer.

But his grandpa closed Elias’s eyes with his hands, “Don’t let it deceive you,” he spoke, his beard growing darker and darker.

“No matter how you feel about it,” his grandpa added, his voice colder than the space they were in.

“It will kill you.”

Elias staggered, his body shook uncontrollably.

“T-then what are we doing here?” His voice shook.

His grandpa looked at Elias, his beard changing color for a second to completely white.

“Death is unforgiving. He is coming for us all, slowly,” he said, his voice sharp.

“And the more you live, the faster it comes,” his grandpa said, his face flickered nonchalantly towards the entity.

Elias trembled, his voice shaking. “T-then... Shouldn’t we run from it?”

The old man held Elias’s head with both hands.

“You can’t run from it,” he said, looking directly into Elias’s eyes.

Elias couldn’t breathe. He felt his blood draining from his face.

“Ha! Don’t worry, kiddo. You still have a lot of time before that thing catches you.” He pointed his finger toward the floating entity.

“How far does it seem?” His grandpa asked.

Elias glanced at the entity.

“I-I can hardly see him,” he responded.

“That’s great! To me, he seems just a few steps ahead,” his grandpa replied. His clothes briefly decayed.

Elias’s eyes flickered. A realization struck him like a cold wind. His grandpa would die before him. But strangely, he was relaxed by that thought and immediately felt ashamed of it.

His grandpa stretched out his hand, gripping the very air itself, and with a swift motion, he swapped the scene in an instant.

“Today, we will see how death takes what belongs to him,” Grandpa added, with no expression.

It was a regular neighborhood where birds sang and flowers bloomed.

In front of them was a birthday party with dozens of people. The smell of the cake lingered in the air, people singing, children playing with each other.

His grandpa turned his head toward the center of the party: a child, his father, and his mother slicing the cake.

“You see those three people there, Elias?” His tone was devoid of any warmth.

“Y-yeah...” Elias answered reluctantly.

His grandpa’s beard changed its color to black and suddenly fell off.

“They will die in a couple of minutes,” he said with a stone-cold expression, his voice cold as a grave.

Elias was frozen by what he heard. His breath quickened. He felt like he was drowning.

“W-we should warn them,” he said, his legs almost already in motion.

“Warn them from what?” His grandpa answered, looking strictly into Elias’s eyes.

“Lesson 1,” he said, raising his finger. “Death is inevitable, and no matter what you do, it will claim you.” “B-but we can... warn them at least...” Elias said, holding his hands together. His grandpa raised his second finger.

“Lesson two, ignorance of death is a blessing. If you warn them about their impending end...” His hair became thinner and slowly fell off on its own with each word he said.

“They will die knowing what’s coming for them,” he added, his form slowly turning back to normal.

Elias trembled at his grandpa’s words. He grabbed his T-shirt and clenched it, feeling his stomach twist.

“Now just wait and see,” his grandpa told him.

But with each passing second, Elias’s worry grew.

Before he could realize it, he was running to save the people from their deaths.

The old man stayed silent.

He just watched.

Elias ran towards the family of three.

But when he was about to reach the family, he stumbled and fell, and once he got up, he realized that the family had already moved.

Despite that, he still chased them.

He rushed to warn them, but strangely, adults blocked his path, completely oblivious. The family moved again.

He tried and tried.

Yet, always, something was blocking his path.

“What did I tell you, kiddo?” He turned around and found his grandpa, standing like he had been there all along.

“G-grandpa...” he said, breathless. “Why... Why can’t I reach them?”

Grandpa raised his third finger, slowly and steadily.

“Lesson three,” he said, his voice cracking like old wood.

“Death is unavoidable.”

He locked eyes with Elias.

“No matter how hard you fight it, no matter how fast you run...”

He exhaled. “It will happen.”

Elias sat down, breathing heavily.

“I... I get it,” he muttered. “I can’t... stop it,” he said, breathing like he was drowning.

“Good job!” His grandpa chuckled. “Some people figure that out in decades.” He sat down beside Elias.

Elias watched the blue sky, decorated with white, puffy clouds. The sun occasionally shines through them.

He waited. Minute after minute. But nothing seemed to happen.

“G-grandpa?” His voice shook. “Where is... Death?”

His grandfather looked at him, his face grew hollow, and his gaze darkened. He raised his fourth finger. “Lesson four: don’t trust anyone, even your grandpa!”

Elias stared at the family of three, “S-so this... Was it a test?”

“No,” his grandpa said, “A lesson.” He petted Elias’s head.

“Now let’s walk home,” his grandfather spoke. His voice was oddly calm.

Elias reluctantly agreed, “Okay...” He was happy that this lesson was over.

They walked through the crowd, their footsteps drowned out by the laughter and chatter of people around them. But just as they neared the entrance of the neighborhood, Grandpa raised his fifth finger.

“Lesson five,” he spoke, his beard changing color constantly and slowly falling off, regrowing unnaturally just to fall off again, twitching as if having a mind of its own.

Elias froze; he held his head and closed his eyes. “N-no... Not again...” he murmured.

“Death is unpredictable,” his grandpa said, his voice changing constantly between volume, tones, and frequencies.

And once he said that, one of the gas pipes hissed, and the whole house exploded before his eyes, killing everyone.

The wave of the explosion knocked him off his feet; his ears were ringing painfully.

When he lifted his head, the sky was no longer blue, it was raining blood, warm against his skin.

He wanted to scream, but his voice was muffled by his shock. All he could mutter was,

“I hate you... Grandpa.”

And once he muttered that, he dropped to his knees, his stomach twisted, and he puked.

His grandpa slowly reverted to his original form.

“I know...” he answered and grabbed the air around them and flipped to Elias’s room.

“Now, see you tomorrow!” His grandpa said and left him in the cold darkness inside his room.

Elias grabbed his blanket to cover himself from the cold and the monsters.

He watched the corner of the ceiling and waited for impossible sleep to come.