Knowledge

Was it right? In hindsight, it was still hard to tell. What was right? What was wrong? The feeling in her stomach was overwhelming, the sense of something telling her maybe she shouldn’t do it. She felt a little of it then, but that stemmed from a place of fear, more than anything else. Fear of him. It was a voice that whispered to her, telling her what she should and shouldn’t do. But the voice that would later come to be misinterpreted by her progeny, was telling her what he would or would not like. What would incur his wrath.

So was it right? She didn’t know. His reaction was definitely scary. Could he tell what she was thinking? Should she stop? She could not really help it.

She hated the smell here. It reminded her of then, a shadow of that place.

It smelled of roses and bark and gum from trees. The leaves were green, bright green, sunlight filtering through them, invigorating them. The ground felt soft and bouncy, light, a spring in her step. As far as the eye could see, there was lush green, and yellow from the sun, and blue in the sky, and the air tasted fresh and was cool to the touch. But this place paled in comparison to where she had left. Everything was magnified there. Many many times over. This place was a mere shadow.

It had begun when the other voice started whispering to her. It wasn’t a voice native to her head, but since he had kicked her out, it had become a part of her. Even now, she felt it slither around the corridors of her mind.

The voice came to her every day, in different forms, in different words, in different sounds. Yet it was the same voice. Encouraging the same thing. It was the one thing he had asked her not to touch. But the voice, it was not hers, and yet it was solely hers, asked her the same question in many different ways.

Why not?

What is it?

What will it do?

Is it the source of his strength?

Is it the source of his knowledge?

Is it eternity?

Eventually she took it, and as she bit into it, something passed over her which she would have forgotten when he found out, and when he would kick her out. It was as if a shadow was passing over her eyes, striking into her very core, into her heart and soul. It was as if she had seen all the tragedy and destruction and harm that would be caused by her bloodline in the many years to follow, until he would forgive her, would forgive them, and take them back. All of them. She saw every tiny death, every transgression, she felt every hurt that one of hers would cause to another, a thousand times over. It was only for a fraction of a second, any longer, and she would have died from the shock of it all. The knowledge would have consumed her, beautiful, dark, terrifying. Divine.

She had immediately forgotten what passed through her. Was it right? She didn’t know. His reaction was probably overdone. It was just an apple after all.