there are 6,750,000,000 people in the world...

... the question is: when all your dreams come true, who do you want standing right at your side?

lisbon strolls (I)

what do you do, when chance takes away your dreams?

I played fair, I fought for it, but chance took the best.
Tomorrow, I'll dream again and life will be good,
but today is not such a great day...

l'incontro (Part III and final)

“She lures men to fall in love with her, and they all come to me for help. I asked her to seduce you Gabriel, she doesn’t love you at all…”- said the Devil
“No! You don’t understand!, he’s lying!” – Mary was sobbing; thick tears fell from her eyes clearing the dirt and the blood. Gabriel was devastated; he kept on looking at Mary trying to understand what was real.
“Now, Gabriel, join me, and I’ll give you Mary as a gift. She’ll be your own slave and will do whatever you want. A woman like this doesn’t deserve more than this. Hell, I’ll even throw in a sweetener, you’ll be as rich as you can imagine! What do you say?”
Gabriel kept on looking at Mary. His eyes were fixed in her. He was in pain; his face mirrored the disappointment he was feeling.
“Take me. Leave her alone, and never come back.”- Gabriel said
“Hum… and lose a good recruiter…”
“Take it or leave it!”
“Don’t do that, please don’t!” – shouted Mary, getting up
“I’ll take it!” – the Devil replied, and beaming turned to Mary “- you’re free to go, this contract is good and I’ll leave you alone, for all I care. I no longer had any use for you anyway” – he then turned to Gabriel. – “But you’re coming with me. Now!”
The Devil summoned a knife and headed towards Gabriel, his eyes fixed on his pray, silently laughing.
Mary start sprinting, jumped in front of Devil trying to stop the knife. “Leave him alone! You can’t take him! He has done nothing, I love him! I love him! I love him!” – screamed Mary. In an instant blow, the Devil threw Mary to the ground and dropped the knife, and fiercely looked at her.
A strange glow started shining on Gabriel. A bright blue flame, almost invisible, seemed to cover his entire body. He grew stronger, his face determined, confident. He appeared to grow in size. His eyes were bright green. “I said: leave her alone!”- commanded Gabriel. The Devil turned. Doubt flashed through his eyes. Gabriel swiftly headed towards the Devil grabbed him by his arms, lifting him up. As his hands touched the Devil, smoke started to come out of him. The Devil's face was in pain as he helplessly tried to fight back. “It can’t be! You can’t… I’m the dark one!” – cried the Devil
“Go. And don’t come back.” – directed Gabriel to the Devil. And in a big explosion the Devil disappeared.

Silence.

The world seemed to be oblivious to what happened. Everything around came back to normal. The sounds of the night came back, and the trees seemed to stop holding their breath.
Gabriel was still with his hands in air, but he wasn’t glowing anymore.
He looked exhausted. Beaten.
He slowly turned to Mary, who was sitting on the floor looking at him, still terrorized with what had happened, not knowing who this man was anymore.
“What happened?” - she asked uneasy
“There is only one thing that beats the Devil” – Gabriel calmly said looking into her eyes. She immediately recognized the man she loved, and started smiling.
“When you jumped to the Devil, you were willing to sacrifice yourself for me, just out of love. And my deal with him, was also out of love. You see, we were both willing to die for the other no matter what. That’s true love. That’s the blue flame. The only pure selfless love that is willing to self sacrifice to save us, to make us better, and it is the only thing that beats the Devil in this world.”
He started walking towards her, and taking her on his arms, lifted her up. “Is he gone for good?” – Mary asked
“No, he’ll be around. He’ll be tempting people, luring them to him with poisoned offers, to do his dirty work. But something tells me that we won’t be seeing him again.”- he smiled, his eyes were bright green again. “Let me take you home”
Mary hugged him, kissed his face, and rested her head on his shoulder
“We can go anywhere, I’m already home.”

l'incontro (Part II)

“Leave her alone!” – shouted a voice from behind. The hooded figure turned to find a man standing defiantly looking at him. “I said leave her alone!” – repeated the man.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t a knight in shining armour…” – spitted the hooded figure “- I guess I will have some fun after all, little Mary”, he said. And with a blow on the face, he threw Mary to the ground. Dirt and blood covered Mary’s eyes; she knew whose voice was this. He came. She passed out.
A tall man was standing a couple of meters away, below a streetlight, right in front of the church. He had dark green eyes, and his expression was mixed between determination and defiance. The hooded figure turned and started looking at him in silence, curious, as if watching a new pet eager to show some tricks. He sighed –“What are you doing here, Gabriel?” – uttered the hood in a theatrical tone – “Shouldn’t you be at home sleeping or feeling helpless and sorry for yourself?”
“Go away and leave her alone, this is my last warning…” – replied Gabriel
“Oooh, I’m so scared” – joked the figure “What are you going to do? I’ve been around for thousands of years, no one defeated me. Do you really think you can just come here and scare me away? Do you even know who I am?”
Gabriel took out a small bottle of water and tried to spray him. The hooded figure started laughing and in a second he jumped to Gabriel, punched his hand, and shattered the bottle on the floor.
The figure, removed his hood. It seemed to grow in size, and to darken the entire world into background. Its face wasn’t a face you could have ever seen without invoking your greatest nightmares. It seemed human, but it didn’t have any skin in it. It had strange shapes, and symbols, and its eyes… its eyes were glowing red, as if they were windows to a burning furnace. A look at it caused fear and awakened the most primitive forms of horror and despair.
“I am the prince of darkness, a master of the universe; you have no power over me, the devil to some a dark angel to others. No holy water can harm me: your faith is weak, and so are you. I can crush you like a bug, and darken you to the world so much, that no one you ever held dear will even want to remember you.”
“You shouldn’t be here! This is not your world, it is the world of Man and free choice” – cried Gabriel
“I am! And I’ve always been here, luring Man and its choices to my own will! You’re so easily shepherded…I just need to whisper what you wish, or what you think you do, and you all come crawling…”
“But I know! You can’t interfere… you can’t harm me, you can’t harm Mary!”
“I can harm you, if I so please, I only need a corrupted soul to do my will … and Mary?, she is mine, I own her soul, I can do whatever I please with her…”
The Devil awaited these words to sink in, starring at Gabriel, as he desperately sought a way through. Gabriel looked at Mary, she was still lying on the floor half unconscious. His heart and soul, were gaining strength. “-I need to end this” – thought Gabriel
“But let’s not fight Gabriel, I can be your friend” – the Devil said, as he face gained a frightful but scary look, and his eyes turned into light grey. “- I can sense your anger, your frustration, your fear… don’t fight it, let it go. Turn to me, and I can give you whatever you want” – he said in a warm seductive voice. Mary sighted, she was awaking and looking at the both of them. Gabriel looked at her, and then to the Devil.
“Let Mary go. Release her, and never come back for her again, and I am yours”- he said defiantly
“Oh this is so much fun!”- the Devil’s eyes turned red again, and his expression more frightening than ever – “Do you even know why I own her?”
“No!!! Shut up!” – cried Mary desperately…
“She came to me to seduce a man, someone she had set her heart into. She asked for abilities and skills that would make her fascinating to his eyes. And it worked; she lived a passion for a couple of years. But it turned out, that the man wasn’t who she though he was, he started mistreating her and finally left her for another woman. Little she knew, that that man, is mine as well, she fell right into the trap… She does exactly the same for me now, she lures men to fall in love with her, and they all come to me for help. I asked her to seduce you Gabriel, she doesn’t love you at all…”

in search for the lost time

we constantly seek for those places where [and people with who] we have been happy, but these do not belong to the space nor to anyone anymore. They belong to the past: to time and to the person we once were

water, chocolate and lots of drugs...

... [plus all the One Tree Hill you can watch,] can drive any fever away.
Tomorrow, the city of the thousand lights awaits me [,your city, your dream].

ps. the rest of the tale is to be polished between planes, and posted tomorrow....

l’incontro (part I)

Mary looked back but didn’t see anyone. She knew he was after her. He had come for her. Her heart was speeding up and she increased her pace. The streets were desert and a cool wind was pushing her, as if helping her to run away.
She started hearing footsteps. Determined and slowly paced footsteps that managed to be louder than the wind and the distant cars. Mary was terrified, she didn’t need to look back to see that a black hooded figure, with glowing red eyes was heading towards her. She could feel the scorn of his smile and the scent of his cigar filling the world around her, and her heart warned her that this will be their last encounter.

Terror hit her back. She had nowhere to run, he would always catch her. Her heart was pounding hard, as if trying to run away. She was short of breath, and her legs were failing her. She took her phone, and dialled a number that she had been trying to forget about.
“– Please Gabriel, you got help me. I’m heading towards my house. He’s after me; you got to help me before it’s too late!” – She panicked
“- I thought you didn’t want to see me. Who’s he? What are you talking about?” – an indifferent voice replied - “please, please come, I can’t hold it much longer”- tears were already rolling down her face – “I am sorry, but the number you have dialled can not be reached at the moment, please try again later” – an electronic woman replied: he’d hang up.
Feeling completely alone, and despaired, she tried to run. She would have to try to run away. She knew there was a church close by. There, she would be safe and could ask for help, or wait until the morning to go back home. She had to reach it before he reached her.
Gathering all the energy she could and setting her mind and heart, she sped up. No one was on the streets, and apart from the buzz from a failing streetlamp and the highway cars at a large distance, everything was silent. Her feet echoed in the night, in a fast thumping rhythm.
She had been running for almost 10 min, when she saw the church a couple of blocks down the road. She didn’t hear anyone besides her, and hope start filling her. She was almost there…
“- Stop. You’re not going anywhere.” – voiced a pitch-black playground. His voice was calm, deep and disturbingly seductive. She froze. She couldn’t tell if it was out of fear or if he managed to command her own legs to do his willing.
A tall, black hooded figure, with o red eyes and a cigar glowing from a darkened face came slowly behind the children toys, as if enjoying the feeling that his presence was corrupting such an innocent place.

Mary couldn’t move. “This can’t be happening” All her plans to run away, to be free had just collapsed. She had lost. Her heart sunk and she knew the worse was yet to come.
He came closer to her. “- I missed you Mary, why did you run away?” – there was no anger in his voice, he spoke almost gently, looking at her bottom up, while circling her. He got closer, and whispered into her left ear: “- did you really think I’d let you run away?” – he passed his hand over her back and continued to circle her and got closer to her right ear “- didn’t you missed me at all?” he scorned.
He started to smell her hair. His breath was burning, and she sensed that the trees around revolved around his breathing. She couldn’t stop shivering in fear, and couldn’t say anything. He bit her ear, his teeth burning deeply into her flesh. He then grabbed her strongly by the hair and neck. His grip seemed to be draining all her energy as he forced her to look at him. There were only raging eyes, a blooded mouth and pure hatred.
Mary couldn’t stop shivering; she was in pain, freezing cold and couldn’t stop sobbing. She knew her time had come. “- You are mine! I own you! And now I’m taking you with me” – shouted the insane voice while manning a knife, ripping her dress. “- please don’t…” Mary meekly defended herself, as she was being dragged into the darkness. All hope, joy and dreams were gone: he had won.
“- Leave her alone!” – shouted a voice from behind.

de volta a casa

depois de 7 dias de avioes [quase] sem parar, cheguei a casa, pelo menos durante dois dias. E apesar da febre e do cansaço, consegui escrever. O domingo devolveu-me a inspiração...

bluest flame

Devils can be driven out of the heart by the touch of a hand on a hand, or a mouth on a mouth

Tenesee Williams