“Hey,” she said, “eyes on me, okay?”
I struggled to focus amidst the chaos all around us. I could barely make out her fiery eyes through my reflection in her visor, but I tried all the same.
“I’m here,” I said.
She nodded, lacing her fingers into mine. The synthetic material of our spacesuits slid effortlessly across one another.
We were living in the final days of our universe. When the black holes started outnumbering stars, throwing ourselves into one suddenly made a twisted kind of sense.
So, we did.
“No matter what happens, we’ll get through this. It's going to work. You believe me?” she asked.
I didn’t, but I knew she believed what she was saying, and that was enough.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too,” she replied, her voice crackling through the speaker in my helmet.
A bright light flashed on our wrist computers. I broke my gaze long enough to look around. We were approaching the singularity.
What happened next is anyone’s guess.
The laws of physics started to break down. She flew away from me, her arms spreading out like wings. They kept getting longer and longer, extending into the void of color around us like flesh-colored ribbons.
Her entire silhouette warped, turning in on itself like water circling a drain. I looked down at my hands and watched my atoms pull apart, spiraling into infinite fractals.
My eyes didn’t know how to interpret it. My mind reeled from the mere attempt to understand what I was seeing. The space between my synapses grew, collapsing into themselves and exploding outward like dying stars.
I waited for some kind of pain, but it never came. It was more like a mounting pressure in the back of my skull.
A growing sense of dread.
A feeling like I would never see her again.
And then, I hit the ground.
I stood up on lush grass and looked down onto a pair of makeshift tents. It was beautiful, a miracle, but it didn’t make sense.
I checked my wrist computer. The last signal it received was over fifty years ago. For me, it had been mere seconds.
I thought it would be the distance that separated us beyond that veil, but the universe had a cruel sense of humor. Instead, it was time, dilated and twisted by the black hole.
I ran down the hill, feeling the crisp wind on my face and the warmth of sunlight in my hair. Neither registered in my mind. It was still trying to catch up with everything.
I reached one of the tents and pushed my way through the opening. A simple bed made from branches and tufts of feathers held an elderly woman. A blanket made from animal skins covered her body.
I fell to my knees as I recognized those fiery eyes.
“Eve, is that you?” I asked.
Tears glistened in her eyes. She took a ragged breath and nodded.
“Adam. I never thought I would see you again.”
I wrapped my arms around her and buried my head in her shoulder. My body was numb, my heart racing, my mind utterly spent. All I could do was cry.
“I knew the theories by heart. I read the data. How could we have been so wrong?” I asked.
“It’s okay, my love; what matters is that we found it. We found Earth.”
I lifted my head and saw a smile growing amongst the wrinkles on her face.
“You’re serious? This is it?”
She nodded. “There are some people I want you to meet.”
I turned around as two adult men dressed in simple clothes and animal furs entered the tent. They carried makeshift spears.
“Cain, Abel, this is your father,” Eve said.
I stood up slowly. I could see myself reflected in their eyes and facial features. There was no doubt that they were my sons.
“How is this possible?” I asked.
“I was pregnant with twins when we went through. I didn’t find out until after I arrived.”
The two men approached with tears in their eyes. They embraced me, and we stood in mutual silence.
“We have long awaited your arrival, Father,” one of the men said.
They both stepped back and knelt down, bowing their heads.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"We are paying our respects. This world, this bounty of food and drink. They are all blessings from you, Father, and we are eternally grateful for your mercy."
"What? No, no, stand up."
They stood, but their heads remained bowed. It was clear they had some preconceived notions of who I was.
"Listen, I need a moment alone with your mother," I said.
“Of course, Father. We have just returned from a hunt. Tonight, we shall feast in celebration. You must tell us about your journey!” Cain said.
He and Able left the tent in a hurry. I turned back to my wife, my head still spinning.
“What did you tell them?” I asked.
“I told them the truth,” Eve replied.
“That we came here from a dying universe to start again?”
Eve shrugged, “Something like that.”
"Something like that? Eve, they bowed to me like I was some kind of god!"
"They believe you created this world and all the things within it. I told them about Eden," Eve said.
I shook my head. “This isn’t right, Eve. We’re not gods.”
“Aren’t we? We stepped through a black hole and lived to tell the tale!”
“We got lucky.”
“We were chosen for this new beginning!”
“We were exiled, Eve!” I shouted.
Eve went silent.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to yell.”
Eve rolled away from me in her bed. “Tell them whatever you want.”
I reached out to touch her, but she pulled away.
“Eve, don't shut me out. Try to see it from my perspective. We don’t get to write the story and make ourselves out to be the heroes,” I said.
“We’re the only ones left, Adam. If we don’t get to write the story, who does?”
A part of me knew she was right, but I didn’t know how to respond.
“Just leave me be,” Eve said.
Later that night, everyone sat around a blazing fire. A fresh kill sat on a haphazard spit above the flames. Cain rotated it slowly while Abel added logs to the fire below.
“So, father, tell us where you came from. Mother said it was a beautiful paradise. A garden.”
I stared into the flames, watching them dance. My eyes wandered over to Eve.
I could feel her gaze burrowing into me, burning hotter than the flames between us.
“Yes, Eden was beautiful. I guess I should start from the beginning, then.”
Cain and Abel took their seats and eagerly waited for me to start.
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“It all started with an apple.”
Loved this and loved the twist. Also I know that it's implied that they're not from Earth (or is it implied? it doesn't say anything about their origin directly), so I would love to think that it's a time loop. They had a chance to change the story, create a new one, but instead they opted out for the old narrative.
I’m obsessed with this concept of Eden being a completely different world and Adam and Eve ending up on Earth the way they did through mishaps. Very creative!