First Thorn - Amaranth
Once upon a time an angel died for love.
Eighteen years ago, one simple mission was given to him: go down to Earth, find your soulmate and teach them, through the tender feeling of love, the eternity of being together. Full of enthusiasm, the angel gave up both his wings and eternity to accomplish his mission.
From the first moment, the heavy job seemed impossible. In order for him to learn about the strength of positive feelings, his first challenge was being born to a drug addict mother and a sick father. First, he suffered from the death of his progenitor and then, the woman who was supposed to protect him abandoned him, and so Thaddeus was left alone at the age of four.
With his head injured, starving and dying, he was found at the door of a city full of land, artisans, and kind people that soon adopted him as one of their own. A son of none, a son of all.
The love that surrounded him made him more beautiful as he grew older. His big eyes shone just like the sun, and his small lips, rosy and appetizing, smiled nonstop at those who passed by. His melodious voice could always be heard with some kind word, a sound advice or a tender laugh, just happy and alive.
However, Thaddeus was incapable of forgetting his mission. He looked and he explored. He searched under the stones and on the roads he travelled. From the store to the square, from the institute to the park. He went from here to there, waiting for his true love to appear. New springs came as well as new friends and new experiences, but that promised and expected love only arrived when he turned seventeen.
Their eyes, as bright as his own, soon noticed him. Their hands, strong and firm, held him during their first kiss. Their conversations under the shadow of trees, the meals they shared and even that moment during their first night together were proof of that real and eternal love he had heard of in Heaven.
That feeling was unique between two human beings.
In spite of the illusion, Thaddeus soon realized that this kind of love also had enemies. The skin of the person who had given him warmth was also attracted to other skins. Young or old, virgin… Their treasure began to lose its glow until Thaddeus’s own soul became resentful and he wanted to end it all.
Pills, a letter full of explanations and a picture of them both were prepared for the goodbye. The world was painful enough already, the fights had become eternal and the other’s ears were ignorant of his agony. He settled on the bed, took the first handful of pills, and suddenly stopped. He glanced at the letter left on the nightstand.
Remembering the words written there, the love he used to have for whom they were addressed and, especially, how happy he used to be when he was alone, made him realize that he had already known true love. It wasn’t the one towards other people, not even romantic love. It was, merely, loving yourself; a romance even more lasting than mundane unions, capable of moving mountains and overcoming the worst sorrows.
Thaddeus sighed, let the pills fall and put the portrait next to the bed. Encouraged, ready to fulfill his mission and show his discovery, he took to the streets as fast as he was able to. He didn’t stop until he reached the train station and, ticket in hand, he went to the vehicle that would take him to the nearest cathedral.
Unaware of the crowd behind him, he whistled as he waited for the train to appear. A soon as the train’s face loomed over the horizon, he smiled with the unflappable tenderness of someone who had been reborn, and leaned in slightly, just enough for the, perhaps, accidental push, to propel him forward.
Right into the train’s tracks.
That afternoon, his soulmate announced the terrible news of his suicide to the people. Most of them shed bitter tears, processions and vigils were held as they were devastated by the loss of whom they had sincerely loved and who had loved them back without looking at their flaws.
It was with him and in his death, that they had understood the meaning of loss and, as Thaddeus watched them from Heaven, the blessing of knowing true love.
