Inamorata

Upon the evening of a blighted summer

My feet paced along the streets of the city.

Of wondering not, only finding the way to my lover.

Of elegance, she was,

And she had borne beauty that stretched a lifetime.

Often, I should gaze into her eyes,

Telling her tales of men who desired the love of those alike,

Only to find mad w****s of sweet temptation.

 

The distance between myself and my desideraturm had grown thin

And only moments in time held her absence from me.

A certain excitement had veiled my mind and seized my sight,

And before my eyes the streets I walked upon split with fury.

And from the bowels of the underworld, a monster of evil was born.

His eyes shone of a darkness I pity myself for seeing.

Though I was sure the demon could smell my fear,

I questioned his being with the superiority I could muster,

And with a deep rumble of his chest, he proclaimed:

          "When time has come to lay her down

          You will not be seen-

          Nor heard-

          Nor sought-

          And she will swing from the gallows

          Her last thoughts of your absence.

          Discover your gallantry and retrieve your inamorata

          Before light grows low

          And wolves howl the moon."

The world around me spun with a particular strangeness.

My heart was numb with the simulated feeling of a drowning loss.

My mind was racing with an ever growing fear,

Paralyzing my tongue, preventing me from questioning this monsters motives.

My eyes pulled to the West, finding the sun hung low in the sky already,

Coloring the horizon with shades of fiery oranges, yellows, and hints of violet.

On any normal day, it would have inspired my imagination with small, childish fairy

   tales.

But today was a day like no other.

The shadows surrounding me, hiding in the corners, twisted and writhed

As the monster before me succumbed back into the darkness below the streets.

His presence now an absence, I was left in a haunting silence.

How could her soul be stolen by such a creature? Did he feel no regret, no

   affliction?

The answers to my questions would never find me.

 

I found myself, within moments, inside the small house of hers and mine,

It was there I found a letter of only a few sentences,

All of which written in the most beautiful hand writing anyone could fathom;

The hand writing of my wife.

          Should you be reading this letter, the chances of my survival have grown

             thin.

          But do not worry, for I wholly trust you shall come for me.

          I have been taken, my love. By a demon.

          At the entrance to the underworld I wait

          Before the night draws close, I await your arrival.

The sound of the blood pumping through my body was concentrated within my ears,

Torturing me with every malicious thrust of the dark liquid within my anxious veins.

"The entrance to the underworld..." The line drifted in and out of my thoughts.

I searched within my mind, wondering where I could find my lover,

Where I could find this terrible, darkness-stricken beast.

 

Every minute felt like an hour, the one hour I would need to locate my wife,

But before I knew it, I found myself hot on foot,

Traveling to the only place my heart would lead me:

Mount Dante.

There was a single cave entrance, besides the blazing hellfire itself,

And it was located at the base of the Mountain, directly outside of the town.

That is where my feet were taking me,

It was where I would rescue my lover.

 

The sun looked moments away from disappearing in the sky.

The fear pulsed through my body, the small thought of seeing my wife die

Creating an unimaginable agony that only grew with the seconds that passed by.

I pushed through trees and underbrush, eager to end this torment.

Eager to rescue Her.

Finally, I reached the edge of the brush, and to the entrance to the cave.

Desperately, I searched for my wife, and mere moments later I spotted her.

I couldn't believe my eyes, for there she was.

No, there she hung.

My sight traveled to the dark sky above where not a ray of sunlight would be seen.

I was frozen where I stood, frozen with the fear that had entrapped me.

When I brought my eyes back to my wife, there stood the beast,

His black, beady eyes emotionless.

He spoke not, for his next action required no words.

With one swipe of his clawed hand, he snatched Her, her body swinging like a

   rag doll.

Then, a burst of hungry flames, and her body was charred.

I stood, appalled. Did this beast have no mercy?

Within seconds, she was reduced to nothing, and the savage opened his hand,

Letting the final ashes fly in the mourning wind.

And with that, the shadows around him writhed and squirmed,

And the land, once again, split with anger and rage, and slowly the brute sank back

   Into the ground,

Always keeping a fierce stare directed towards myself.

I dropped to my knees, my heart in shattered pieces.

She floated in the wind, as though she was part of it,

And forever I sought her pieces-

And forever I heard her crying voice-

My wife, my love,

My inamorata.