Life Eternal

Chapter VIII - The Day Death Gave You Life...

This one embrace… Like the highest peak of a perfect dream in an eternal slumber.

And once soul-deep grief disguised as reason dragged a mantle of silence across the scene you felt how your lips slowly but surely drifted apart, allowing a stream of cold air to enter your lungs first before - bereft of doubt & remorse - you finally allowed your heart to speak up one last time:

     “ I love you, Pelle. ”

Another shift in his posture, this time much slower & even more gentle as though you were made of glass; the soft fabric of his shirt grazed the surface of your tear-stained face as Pelle stepped back a single inch if at all, giving you the chance to lift your head the same moment he lowered his own to carefully place his forehead against yours. As blurry as your vision was at this point, the sympathy in his young eyes gleamed crystal clear while he looked ever so deeply into yours without blinking once, his features vacant yet strangely reassuring.

I know.

I have always known.

It was as if someone or something you could neither see nor name had pierced your quivering chest with the most delicate yet sharpest of blades & was now digging its way through all the layers of skin, flesh & tissue that protected your feeble heart from the world's venom, ready to grab & rip it right from your body like the claws of a hungry beast. This pain, however sweetly reminding you of your own existence & the vulnerability that defined it had undoubtedly reached its peak, the picture of Pelle's face before your eyes distorted beyond recognition as more tears flooded your eyes & when you brought up a hand to immediately wipe them away you froze in sheer terror, unable to breathe for what felt like an eternity once you saw what awful price you had to pay at last…

Your hand had gone monochrome, was completely drained of all its colours much like a photograph, & it was not just your hand:
Upon glancing down at the rest of your body you quickly realized that your entire self had turned black & white, a pale shade of grey almost, similar to a pencil drawing that hadn't seen a single piece of crayon in its existence.

“ Why…. why… — ”

Caught in utter disbelief you used your colourless digits to wipe away your tears, a both horrified & confused expression on your features when - like so many times before - dilated pupils drifted heavenwards in search for answers, but Pelle had already closed his eyes in spite of his body still being tightly intertwined with yours, now smiling the softest & most peaceful smile you had ever laid your eyes upon…

Just how could he be this happy mere moments before Death's arrival..?

All you need to do now is let me go…

Only very slowly did his eyes fling open, merely to glance down at you with a semi weary look on his face; the deeper you dove into them, the more of his own bittersweet longing you were able to see.

“ What is happening to me…? ”, you breathed out, your voice on the verge of cracking like already fractured glass.

You are waking up.

As he spoke his arms around your frame began to loosen, his cold hands blessing you with a shudder upon grazing your bare shoulders.

His hand landed on your tear-stained cheek gently as a feather & notwithstanding the roughness of his fingertips his touch was as soothing as the sound of his voice, taming your raging heart for the duration of a single deep breath.

Save your colours for the world of the living.

Save your tears for a beating heart, not one that has gone silent.