White, white brighter than snow, that was what she first saw, white. She had no memory, no clue where she was, no clue where he was and no idea on what to do.
Rising from the soft cotton ground she laid upon, she started to move. Her eyes stung from the white brightness like black acid, causing most of what she saw to be a giant blur. But there was a certain shade, a long strip of grey in the distance. Or maybe it was close by, she couldn't distinguish. It seemed like the only thing that existed in the blinding abyss around her, so she drew nearer to the strip in search of anything, more importantly, finding him.
Lo and behold, an enormous and glorious gate that shot out from the cotton and touched beyond the sky's reach. It stretched as far as she could see, seeming to have no end. The narrow bars were laced in chains, golden chains against golden posts, holding back nothing as she perceived.
Her feet started to feel heavy standing there, like lead shackles attached to her ankles. When she looked down, she noticed her feet were indeed sinking into the powdery white nothingness. What would she fall into if the shackles pulled her all the way through? Of course, her initial thought was more nothingness, or something else. Would she be dragged to hell, for her un-repented sin? Was the place she was in even heaven, purgatory maybe? Where was she meant to be? All of her unanswered questions stopped when she noticed a shadow approaching her on the other side of the bars.
Finally! A source of life in the white wasteland, and more to her relief, the shadow appeared to be him on the other side. She could tell even if he was hard to see in the bright. His tall, slender frame and strut style was as familiar as her own name.
He reached the gate and stood just before the bars, gazing blankly at her. She was overjoyed that he was there, but the tugging sensation never went away. Matter of fact, by the time she clutched the bars, she was knee deep in the powder. They spoke no words and exchanged them for stares. Their eyes told stories to one another, words were futile. Time was being lost, answers remained hidden, but neither of them cared since they were together.
He got closer to her and the golden barrier between them and cradled her face in his palm. It was angel soft against her skin. She swooned and reached out to him, but she was interrupted by a violent tug of the invisible shackles. Reflexes forced her to grab the bars to save herself. She struggled to pull herself closer to him, but she was cemented there. It was he who had to make the attempt to come up to her face. Intertwining his hands through the bars and grasping her shaking palms, he drew near, a chain caught in the middle of their hands. In his mind he waged a war against himself on whether to pull her inside or let her go, but he knew her fate was not up to him. It wasn't like he could go beyond the bars to the infinite below. Looking behind him, he saw the paradise waiting for his arrival. He, and only he, was allowed inside, for Earth had failed him and the paradise was ready for him.
Her shackles proved too much and she started to slip. Yet she still fought against them by climbing up his arm for one last kiss. His face was pressed in between the posts, reaching for the petal like lips he fell in love with. But at inches away, the shackles gave a final tug and she lost grip.
She was falling,
falling,
falling,
falling down.
He watched her plummet to the below, but he decided to give her a small token, a final gift. Extending his arm in the space between the bars and past the chains, he released a tiny glittering object on the same trail down as she took. He hoped she would get it and he hoped that she would know what to do with it.
Impact: she awoke in a hospital bed in numbness and excruciating pain. Nurses and doctors were rushing around her in a frantic fury, having groups screaming at each other. One was near her ear telling her about the car accident she nearly escaped from, another reminding her how lucky she was, and others just yelling out gibberish. But her attention was elsewhere, specifically to the person beside her because it was he who was in the bed next to her, dead and trying to be revived.
Shouting her denial, shouting at him to wake up, being held down by nurses as she almost rolled out of the bed to get to him. She finally realized then that she was in heaven before and he was a permanent resident. Instant tears streamed down from the lakes of her eyes, down her raw, glass embedded cheeks. Rubbing away the fog, she discovered a small gold key and fine chain tangled around her swollen fingers. It looked like a key that would unlock a gateway and she knew exactly which gateway it went to. She also knew who gave her the key.
Guarding the key with her heart, she looked back over at his corpse. A blanket was draped over his head and the flat heart monitor was turned off.