We are all ambulatory packages of stardust and energy. Little sentient packets of matter, data within the Universe. You can neither create nor destroy energy, but what you can do, is leave behind faint traces of what we once were. Faint signals, carefully preserved in the amber of time.
It is a known secret that great architecture is a form of trapping time. Just as prehistoric tree sap preserve the unwary, so do certain buildings and structures, transforming what was once alive into a a bejeweled echo of their former selves. Most living beings pick up on the emotions left behind, their senses pricked and prickled by something more felt than seen. The more sensitive among us, or perhaps events that have left such deep scars in Time, that all but the densest can see the endless time-loop repeating, haunting in every sense of the word.
What perhaps is less known, is that most of these time traps were created by one man. Immortality, and the invulnerability that comes with such a curse, was bestowed upon his foolish self eons and millenia ago. A favour from a grateful Goddess and mother, to the hubris-filled human who had saved her celestial offspring. The Goddess, in her infinite wisdom, had asked him thrice if the reward was truly what he desired. Brash youthfulness and a distinct lack of forward thinking had made him answer in the affirmative each time.
He had consumed the Golden Apple, and had enjoyed the benefits. Except, what had seemingly been a wonderful idea had turned into a nightmare as lifetime after lifetime, he had stood by, watching as his loved ones grew old and frail, or dying from diseases and war. His name cursed with their last breaths as envy-filled eyes beheld him, in his eternal prime, their sire and progenitor. He had tried to protect his own, through generation after generation, only to be rebuffed, reviled and rejected.
Love soon lost its appeal, when he realised that all his beloved, no matter how young they started, will always wither away in the blink of an eye. He had sired legions of children, in the hope that just one of them may inherit his unnatural lifespan, for it is not within the human psyche to be alone forever. Alas, they were born all too human, like their mothers.
Finally, the Goddess, moved to pity at his wretchedness, whispered to him the secret of trapping Time. Little loops of it, enough that he could replay happy moments of their lives long after the ones who he loved are gone. With nothing but time, he had spent the years following refining her secret teachings. Experimenting with materials, shapes, structure, he had slowly perfected his craft. With each monument built, he learned to live out the span of his beloveds’ lives, maximising their time together. Happy, sad, wondrous, terrible, even the mundane moments, all captured within the folds of marble and concrete, laughter ringing out from sculpted limestone long after the throats of the those who laughed had become dust.
He is still building these monuments to love, still slowly filling them with memories to keep him company, long after his companions have ceased to be. The next time you enter a building that inexplicably rouses your emotions, take a moment to pay your respects to the lives trapped within. If you are lucky, that little bit of energy was all the building took as a toll for entry.