Uriel vanished without warning.
Only feathers remained—white, immaculate—falling slowly through blood-stained air.
Adam lay beneath the defiled tree, his body soaked in drying blood. The pain in his flesh had dulled, but the silence pressed harder with every breath. Heaven did not feel holy. It felt empty. Watchful.
Hunger twisted inside him.
It clawed at his stomach, sharp and impatient, as if punishing him for wishing to feel again. The warmth of sensation returned too quickly, too violently. It reminded him he was alive—and that knowledge hurt.
Adam forced himself to stand.
Blood dripped from his body and stained the white roses beneath his feet as he walked. The garden stretched endlessly in every direction, unchanged no matter how far he went. Light poured down from above, bright enough to sting his eyes but offering no comfort.
Every step felt like judgment.
He passed rows of identical trees, identical flowers, identical silence. The garden did not reject him openly. It simply ignored him.
Then he saw the river.
Its water flowed without sound—clear, pale, almost colorless. Adam knelt and leaned forward. His reflection stared back unchanged. His body had not aged. His wounds were already closing.
He stepped into the water.
The sensation burned.
Not on his skin—but deeper. Something inside him screamed as the water washed away the blood. His hands trembled as he scrubbed himself clean, teeth clenched, breath shallow.
When he stepped out, he noticed the river behind him had changed.
Red spread through the current, slow and steady, poisoning the white water.
Adam stared at it and laughed weakly.
"what a messed being that let me enter heaven," he muttered.
He collapsed beside the riverbank and lay on his back, watching the red stain travel downstream. The garden remained silent. No angels. No voices.
Then footsteps.
Adam ignored them at first. Illusions had followed him before.
"Adam."
His body reacted before his mind did.
His heart tightened. His breath caught. He turned his head—and froze.
She stood a short distance away, barefoot on the grass.
Eve.
Her hair shone gold beneath the heavenly light. Her eyes were green and alive. She looked exactly as she had when he last held her.
Adam staggered to his feet.
His legs carried him forward without thought. Tears blurred his vision as he ran toward her, calling her name like a prayer.
"Eve—It's me."
She did not move.
When he reached her, he grabbed her shoulders as if afraid she would vanish. She was warm. Real. She looked at him with tears already falling.
Adam pulled her into his arms.
They kissed without hesitation.
The garden changed.
Color bloomed across the land. Roses opened in shades Adam had never seen. Butterflies filled the air. The light softened, no longer burning.
For the first time since arriving, heaven felt alive.
They collapsed together beneath a tree, holding each other tightly as if separation itself was a living threat. Adam pressed his forehead to hers, breathing her in.
"I thought I'd never see you again," Eve whispered. "I thought I lost you forever."
"You won't," Adam said. "Not again."
They lay in silence for a while. Darkness finally replaced the harsh light above, gentle and quiet.
Adam spoke again.
"What happened to us?" he asked. "Why were we exiled?"
Eve stiffened.
She turned her head slowly to face him.
"It was your fault," she said.
Adam's chest tightened.
"You abandoned our children," Eve continued, her voice shaking. "You led humanity into corruption. You let Lucifer twist everything."
Her grip tightened around his arm.
Adam's vision blurred. Blood welled from his eyes. His body refused to move.
Eve tried to shake him awake.
"Adam?"
Darkness swallowed him whole.