Like War

The story follows someone in a dream-like surreal state witnessing their lover transform before their eyes, as it reflects the nature of their relationship.

He looked over at me, kind eyes hidden behind the haze of the sunlight sifting through the dust in the air.  His lips were moving slowly, but no words could be heard.  He was so beautiful.  He hadn’t always been this beautiful; not to me, anyway.  He was never a specimen of desire until I came to know him the way I knew myself.  Suddenly, then, he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  And right now, he was glistening like a diamond beneath that soft blanket of light; it coated him like honey.  His lips were still moving slowly still, and his chest was moving steadily, up and down like a machine.  I could feel his warm breath reach me, it let me know he was alive.

            As his lips continued to move, and no sound followed, I became worried.  A wave of anxiety ripped through me, adjusting each part of me into the mode of distraught.  Everything was silent.  I could feel his body shift and move, I knew he was alive, but I could not hear his words.  His face transformed from bliss to distress.  His eyebrows synched together, his lower lip quivered, his nostrils flared.  It looked now like he was yelling.  He gripped my shoulders and shook me so hard I could feel my bones vibrate from his touch.  Suddenly, tears came streaming out of his eyes like a flood.  They were falling to the sheets of the bed by the handful. 

            “What is it?  What’s wrong?” I asked.

            I couldn’t hear myself, though, either.  I couldn’t hear a thing.  I screamed.  Nothing.

            I looked up at him after blinking for only a second and his face had changed.  His eyelids were drooping, there were shadows under her eyes, his cheeks were hollow, his skin matched the white linen sheets he rested on.  Tears continued to flow out of his eyes, but soon they turned red like blood. 

            He curled up into himself, his arms shielding his face.  I reached out and touched him, but as soon as my fingers brushed his skin, he turned to ash.  I looked down at the space that he once rested, and cried.  I heard myself that time.  That cry rang through my ears like war, like something inevitable and unstoppable �" and truly horrible.       

Author's Note

Would love any form of feedback, PLEASE.