Erika's Secret Forest

As the sun set, the party gained momentum. There was no better place to be than Villa Erika.

The young maid and her employer had settled their differences months ago; she now served as a waitress, bartender, hostess, and confidante. She was well paid for her services, and they gave her a decent amount of freedom otherwise; that's why she called it "Villa Erika", with a wink and a lecherous grin. She didn't give a shit what anyone thought...they'd all be dead soon anyway.

The guests were getting rowdy, so Erika went to check on the liquor supplies. They were running low on gin, so she headed for the kitchen to break open another bottle. The kitchen was always locked at night, since the chef didn't want any of the little fuckers stealing his larder before he got there in the morning. That meant Erika had to break into it. She reached into her pocket and unlocked the door with one of her many skeleton keys.

She stepped inside and scanned the room for the booze cabinet. There it was - just as she'd remembered it - next to the freezer. The freezer hummed at her as she approached, but she ignored it and grabbed a bottle of Bombay Sapphire from inside. *I'll have to remember to mention this when I see the new girl tomorrow*, she thought as she closed the cabinet door, turned around...and froze in place herself.

There was someone in there with her. A man in white robes stood in front of one of the kitchen windows, staring out at the party attendees dancing by torchlight on the lawn below them. He must have heard her enter, because he turned toward her slowly and looked at her without saying anything. His face was handsome but expressionless; almost bored looking. His eyes were deep blue and piercing; like two holes cut through space-time that you could fall into forever if you were careless enough to let them catch your gaze for too long. They were beautiful eyes that would haunt your dreams forever after you saw them once...but not tonight...because Erika couldn't look away from them anymore. She reached out for support as a wave of vertigo washed over her from being mesmerized by him...and he took both of her hands in his own to steady them both against whatever invisible force was pulling them together until they were face-to-face...at which point he leaned forward an inch or two and kissed her deeply on the mouth with his full lips...which tasted like blood oranges...which tasted like time...which tasted like eternity...which tasted like nothingness...which tasted like love...as their bodies passed through each other leaving no trace behind except for a pair of bloody shoeprints on opposite sides of reality's fabric where they met before everything returned to normal except for Erika who suddenly felt very tired...very tired indeed...and who has never been seen again since that day at Villa Erika in early 2nd century BCE Europe which is really just another way of saying Black Forest which is really just another way of saying Germany which is really just another way of saying Europe which is really just another way of saying Earth which is really just another way of saying our Universe which is really just another way of saying Reality which is really just another way of saying God who birthed himself within Himself during The Big Bang and died screaming upon completion as we all do every single moment we live through our lives existing in this place called Earth which is really just another way of saying Hell where all life finds its end eventually being torn apart by invisible forces working within and beyond our dimensions which are really just another way of saying Eternity where nothing ever dies and everything exists simultaneously forever outside time or space or reality or infinity's limitations or even existence itself because Infinity doesn't exist except in our heads because Infinity exists everywhere at once within and beyond Reality because Infinity has no beginning or end or origin or destination because Infinity births itself within itself every moment we think about it because Infinity isn't real except when we're thinking about it so Infinity isn't real but we think about it anyway so Infinity exists but only when we aren't thinking about it so we can't say anything about Infinity except that you're thinking about it right now so you might as well stop thinking about it because if you don't then I wouldn't have written this paragraph so I wouldn't have thought about Infinity while writing this paragraph so I could've said something else instead but I decided not to think about anything else while I wrote this paragraph so maybe I should write something else instead right now but I'm not going to because I'm thinking about Infinity right now while writing this paragraph so maybe I shouldn't write anything else right now but maybe I will anyway whatever who cares *END*