Stay - Oct 11 2017

“I should go now..” she pulled her eyes from his gaze and untwined their fingers.

“Okay.” He shrugged and gave a half-grin.

She choked at that word. “NO! You’re supposed to fight for me! Fight for me to stay.” Her mind screeched, lips pressed tightly together. “Love me back damn you!” She wouldn’t dare utter those words aloud, the thought of driving him away was unfathomable, her body craved him like heroin. Always jonesing for another fix.

Oh how she longed for him. All of him. His soul, his mind, his body, his secrets.

His love. Tears pricked her eyes…

 

He was so calm, cool, collected, even cold some days. Being with him was intoxicating, like seeing a river with a surface as smooth as glass, no ripples, sun glinting off of the surface like a million faceted diamonds. Dipping her feet in was like frozen silk, a bite, then calm, silky, welcoming, refreshing. The sand between her toes felt so fresh, yet familiar. She wants more, one step deeper, still no ripples… All of a sudden her eye catches something under the river’s surface, a treasure, just out of arms reach. Possibly at the bottom of that fast coursing river. Even the most skilled free diver couldn’t reach it, although each woman of his past has tried. 

“but you’re different than them.” Her mind convinces herself. She can see the glimmer just beyond her fingers reach. One more step, she’s waist deep. Just one more step and she’ll have him. Just reach a little farther, try a little harder and he will be hers. 

“You know that you are just going to end up another monster, a secret, a skeleton dredging through the bottom of the river of his past..” Her mind reminded her. The hair on the nape of her neck stood up at that thought, it was more truthful than she’d care to admit, so she dismissed that thought altogether. Just one more step, she’s up to her neck. The water is icy, but it numbs her skull and swallows her emptiness, if only for a moment.

Sharply she inhales her last breath, continuing the search with her head submerged. Below, the water is so murky, dark with skeletons of his past. Just a wave of bone laden hands reaching out to touch her. Each reaches out to push her back to the surface. 

"Go back." their haunted, empty eye sockets plead. 

But the treasure is right there! She can see it so clearly! So beautiful, everything she imagined right in front of her. The skeletons arms become so many that it makes it hard to see where to swim. Her foot is swallowed by a mouth of glue. Pulling her foot as hard as she can it gives a sickly belch as its mouth lets go of the right, swallowing the left foot. Now, each step causes her pain, causing her to sink a little deeper and try a little harder. Her lungs burn for oxygen, she pauses only for a moment. Now her feet won’t move through the rivers bottom, they’re stuck, cemented up to her waist in the pitch black sludge of his soul. The sludge burps and swirls with the undercurrent.

The other skeleton hands are no longer trying to push her to the surface, instead they caress her cheeks, trying to console her.

The end is near. The water is coursing so fast, wickedly lashing everything she held onto, ripping her small treasures from her arms, making it impossible to see. The ultimate treasure-his heart- bobs and tumbles just beyond her grasp before being swept away forever, further into the river. The light in her eye and her last breath leave her. She is unable to escape her watery tomb, doomed to become another skeleton drowned and dredged to the bottom of the black tar pits of his soul.

“We tried to tell you… There is no treasure, only darkness.” They chanted around her.

“Too late.” she mouths back toothlessly, eyes sockets already as menacing and void as her captors soul.

Reviews

[j.d. savanyu]

Good prose piece here. I like the poetic tone of it, and keeping the characters anonymous to enhance the sense of romantic mystique. Perhaps it needs a bit more description of the voices she's hearing, to know where they're coming from in this fantasy state.

[This Goode Life]

Thank you so much for the constructive review, I really appreciate it.

[J.P. Paradise]

Quite disturbing, but in a good. Is this a stand-alone piece? It could work well as part of larger story if you took it past death and into the realms beyond.

[This Goode Life]

Thank you,
So far it's a stand alone. I've sort of rolled it around and played with the thought of taking it further. For now the this story sits in the corner of my mind.

[Ballpark Frank]

You have definitel skill. I'm impressed.

[This Goode Life]

Awe shucks, thank you :D