A Place Beyond The Horizon Ch. 03

Hardy fixes his gaze suddenly on Aidan.

"None of it matters. There's fuck all that anyone can do to me. I'm fucking untouchable. I can't be punished, like Ned Kelly. Such is fucking life."

He raises his hands in the air, fists balled, and begins to grin.

"What's the point of the virtuous life, Aido? Living by all the fucking rules? Being a good boy and waiting to get your reward in Heaven in the great forever after."

He slams his palms down hard on his board with a ferocity that takes Aidan by surprise.

"I wanna believe in all that, I really do. We're given these lives and we have no idea where they come from, or where they go after we're done with them. How fucked is that? I wanna know that there's something beyond this life and not just a great big fucking black hole at the end."

His voice softens and now he looks utterly lost. He turns to look over his shoulder, out to sea.

"Maybe we come back, what do you think about that idea? Like maybe as a swallow, high above the earth. I wouldn't mind that. A swallow, always on the move, seeing everything from my high vantage point. I could just swoop down, like the start of summer."

Waves begin to build, way out. His eyes are fixed on them now, waiting. Just when Aidan thinks he's done, his attention flicks back. He gives Aidan a shrug.

"But, y'know, maybe not. I reckon that all there is, is what we have now, that there's no great reward, no rebirth, that this is it. I'd like to believe there's a place, somewhere fucking way out there," Hardy says, and he gestures out to the far distant line where the roiling sea meets the sky, "A place we go to when all this is done."

He begins to turn his board as a wave comes in. Aidan's motionless, eyes fixed on the younger man.

"I can imagine it sometimes in my head," Hardy continues, "Some mystical land existing out there beyond what we can see... a place beyond the horizon. But I'm not convinced it's there."

His body slams down onto the board and suddenly his arms are digging into the water, powering himself forward. The wave rears up, and then he's gone.

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[Next chapter: Aidan discovers that Rosa is moving on with her life.

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