(no subject)

The darkness fades, and my physical senses return lethargically, bringing with them pains of battles fought before, but how long before I cannot know. Reaching back in my memory, the scraps of what is left of my shattered vision into what has been. I try to see what happened before the darkness, but it seems as if there is nothing…as if my very self has been stripped of me...

I open my eyes for the first time in what seems an eternity, the light blinding me, forcing me to close them again. I can feel tight bonds around my wrists and shins now, harsh rope burning my skin as I try to break free, but vain attempts they seem to be, no strength left in my mortal muscles, no energy left to summon up, nothing.

There is nothing here, the only light coming from above, shining directly on me, a large spot in the darkness over this chair I'm forced to sit in, tied down in. No memories come of what happened, nothing comes but the sound of something dripping from the ceiling I cannot see and hitting the ground. This sound that never ends, it echoes all around, dripping for an eternity, entering my mind and dripping more.

I wonder if this is how I am to die. Alone in a place I do not know, without memories to conjure up to know what has been. Why is my life so lost, why am I the one to have this fate. Where has everything gone, the memories, the happiness, the love, my existence. Why am I here?

The answer comes shrouded not in divine light or favor. Not in some spark of truth, or of hope. It comes in footsteps, echoing on a floor of a material I do not know. Echoing in my mind, like that of the dripping of whatever was dripping from the ceiling to the floor.

Stepping, always stepping. Then stepping into the light.

The face is shrouded by a hooded cloak, with a long dress of black and blood red flowing out unto the floor. "So you are awake." Speaks the voice. More feminine than any voice I have ever known. The very sound of it striking something deep inside, a chord that brings back something. What is this...I cannot find the words for it.

I know the face before I see it. Her. The memories flood back as if the door leading to eternity has been flung open, never to be shut again. So this is who I am.

"It's hard to believe you are still alive." She speaks again.

"Your spirit still thrives in a body battered and broken by time. You are more worthy than any mortal I have ever known for the gift I will give you."

I realize now what all of this is. I remember my faith, I remember everything.
"I don't want your gift." I speak with a voice I didn't know I had, a voice of a man I do not know, a man who sounds as if everything is lost and there is nothing left to hold on to.
She smiles, I know she does somehow, and throws back the hood of the cloak. Black hair that shines like the midnight sky falls out, flowing over her shoulders like the way a river flows down over the ancient mountains of places never touched by the hand of man.

I move my head up, but her hand keeps me where I am, as she moves down, kneeling now, level with me. Her eyes beckon, the blue orbs of perfection, something beyond human understanding. Long has it been since I have seen her face, how it curves so gently, how it defines the perfect feminine self. She still smiles, red lips upon a pale face, but the paleness is so beautiful to me. I remember it all.

She rests her forehead against mine, grasping my left hand with her right, and it feels as if I am complete once more, even for such a small time in this infinite realm of existence. I look to her eyes again, seeing everything that I had in those eyes. She speaks once more.

"We can be together forever. I know you still want this. I know you do."

Instead of feeling more real, I feel I am drifting again.

"I did want to be with you...back in the days of a past I know not of when...But I cannot live as you do, I cannot live at all. It is time for my end."

"You will not have it. Whether you like it or not, you will have this gift of mine."

I sigh deeply, closing my eyes and feeling the world drift away again. Drift away forever I think to myself, I wish to live no more.

I can feel her lips upon my neck now, gently kissing and trying to bring a feeling of well being to me, but her poison is just that to me, it is not the same as it has been for the others before.

The kissing stops, I know it is the end of my existence as I know it. "Gods save me." I whisper so low even she cannot hear me. But the call is not heard.

The fangs of longevity sink into my skin, the skin surrounding this broken and scarred body of mine, this worthless human shell. I've had enough.

There is no more pain, no anything. Escape comes in this end of mine. I feel no more pain. She never realized that it was not meant to be. She couldn't know that my end is only one of choice.