Dark in its beauty it pulsed with a life of its own. Silent cunning rested in marless
marble. Quiet in its contemplation, it looked inward. There in its center there rested a tiny
spark of movement; deeper and deeper it looked probing to find something though it knew not what.
There deep inside it saw another, a life struggling to discover its nature. There had been so
many over the past eternity none had come so close to discovering meaning as this one.
 Whirl click, whirl click, whirl click. The empty chambers whirled past the firing pin
teasing it with their lack of potential. No matter how much effort the firing pin struck with
nothing would happen there were no bullets. Alek contemplated this truth as he spun the chambers
again. Holding the sweaty handled revolver to his temple once more he squeezed without hesitation
or regret again nothing. It seemed to Alek that this was an excellent parable for his life.
So many times he had heard from so many different voices that he had potential he simply lacked
motivation. If only he could find the bullet to fit his life then there would be a reckoning
then the world would know that he had been here if only for an instant. That's probably why Alek
never tried to find someone or something to fill his emptiness there was comfort in nothingness
there was knowledge in knowing you would fail. Yet tonight as once more he enacted his now
unthinking ritual he thought perhaps there was something else. Perhaps life had a purpose in its
briefness perhaps if it were longer more people would end up like him. Whirl click, whirl click, whirl click.
 A knock sounded on the door not five feet from him but the sound seemed to travel  across
immeasurable space to meet his ear. Slipping the revolver calmly beneath his pillow he answered
the knock in a smooth tenor voice. "Come in." The handle turned slowly as if whoever was turning
it feared what they would find inside. "Alek?" The voice sounded fatigued as if the owner of the
voice was too tired to rest. A woman entered the room, better to say a shell of a woman, for where
once was beauty there was now worry, where once a smile now a frown. "Honey I made you some
dinner do you want to eat tonight?" Alek looked upon the body that had given him birth.
Somewhere deep down he knew he was causing this being pain but he didn't understand why.
"No thank you, mother, I'm not interested" Alek said reaching for the revolver involuntarily.
He stopped himself and propped himself up on the offending hand. "All right Alek, Im going to
bed, make sure the doors locked before you do the same okay?" The woman left and Alek wondered
why she wanted the door locked.  Not all the intricate machinery in the world would keep someone
from breaking through the illusory protection of a glass window but he complied anyway.  It was
the least he could do after she had gone through the effort of preparing another uneaten meal.
 The orb pulsed in its vast emptiness beating faster and more rhythmically.  It hadn't seen
a being so beautiful and so accepting in many millennia. It pondered in its methodical way why
this being hadn't surrendered to the apathy it had accepted. It was almost amused that this
being realized that there was no purpose yet tried to create one simply to prolong its fruitless
existence.
 Alek returned to his room the door safely locked and the dog made content by a halfhearted
scratch behind the ear. He closed his bedroom door but didn't lock it as his mother often
cautioned him to. Alek pondered for a brief moment on how he had entered this world. Once his
mother had not been so paranoid once as a young woman she had left her balcony window open to
allow the cool summer breeze to caress her warm body. Once she had trusted a young man with her
love and her address. Once she knew that none could be trusted as Alek's sire had stolen her
innocence and fled into the night. Now she put up barriers so the breeze couldn't enter and the
night could no longer sing to her. Not Alek, Alek opened his window and peered out at the night
the moon brilliantly reflected off the snow covered field for as far as the eye could see.
Alek watched entranced by the swaying of the skeletal branches as they attempted even now to
touch the unreachable sky.
 The orb breathed, It hadn't bothered to in so long it felt good to move more than was
necessary it felt good to see hope even if it was buried beneath a mountain of defeats.
 Something moved into Aleck's line of sight. Alek had the gun in his hand in an instant.
No longer was it a thing of ritual but a tool meant to kill. Alek studied the entity studying
him across the field. The being approached with lithe beauty long legs moved effortlessly
through the snow as flowing black hair fluttered in the breeze. Alek was entranced, he somehow
knew that this being, this woman was here for him. To hurt or to heal Alek did not care she was
here finally. She had answered his call. The woman reached the window and smiled. Somewhere deep
inside Alek it  registered that this woman was beautiful. Velvety black hair caressed a face of
angelic beauty. The woman silently held out a closed fist to Alek knuckles up and slowly ever so
slowly uncurled her long fingers. There in her palm rested a bullet. Alek's shaking hand retrieved
it and loaded it into the chamber. Whirl BOOM! The revolver fell to the floor along with fragments
of Alek's skull and brain. He knew as he died that his mother would not discover him till
morning as she was dancing with prince valium. His spirit rose from his useless shell and walked
across the field with the woman of infinite beauty. They paused underneath an old oak and
embraced. Snow melted underneath them and the oak's strong heart beat once more, vibrant green
leaves greeted the winter air with defiance secure in the knowledge that they  would grow and
never die again.
 The orb heaved a sigh of contentment. Another being had found its purpose another life well
lived. It settled back to wait again for yet another warrior of hope.