A little one shot; my attempt at an 'angst/anguish.' Enjoy my lovelies.
Forever
By Junaberry Pop
She smiled, sadly at me as I stood by her side, her hand clutching mine tighter.
"Jesse…" she murmured while sitting on the bench, feeding the ducks.
No matter how old she grew, she was always the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. The sparkle in her eyes never left and her smile never lost its slyness.
A lone tear trailed down her cheek, I reached to wipe it off gently. She smiled in response and I cupped her face.
"Querida, I love you, I always did and I always will," I soothed her. She was trembling; terrified clearly.
She had awoken that morning, screaming into her pillow, thrashing her legs wildly. And I could not do anything to comfort, say anything to make the anguish leave.
"I know, Jesse… But… I don't want to leave you… but it's coming!" her voice became hysterical towards the end.
I felt my eyes fill in tears in return. Father Dominic had warned me before he had left us. Even he had warned me.
Susannah would die one day. And I would remain a ghost, gazing at her as she struggled through death; praying it was not so.
"Querida, I… This is how it should be. We cannot change it."
"But I don't want to go…" she mumbled, her cracked lips shaking with pain. A pain no one could understand but her and me.
I had stood by as she had grown; finished high school, gone through college, bought a house, applied for jobs and received them… all the while, watching her as she struggled with the fact that we could never be together, truly.
And to this day, I remembered her face as she took in my form, sitting as the moonlight cast through the window. My dead form. I had almost seen what she was thinking.
It had killed me to realize that I had practically ruined her life.
"Please, Susannah, I would never want you to leave either," my voice broke in emotion.
"Don't forget me, please, Jesse. Don't forget us." She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
"My Susannah, no matter how many decades, centuries, and millennia I will continue to live here, I could never forget you. No matter who I meet, I will never forget you. I couldn't," I could hear my voice straining.
"I knew you'd say that. I knew you'd promise… I knew I could trust you…" her voice grew weaker and her hand slackened around mine.
'Querida, please, hold on! For me!" I cried in despair and helplessness.
"Jesse… I'll always love you… Don't forget me!" she repeated, her voice picked up at the end and for a second a new hope rekindled in my heart.
But then her eye lids fluttered.
"I love you Querida," I pulled her closer and mumbled into her hair, and even for the last moment of her life, people would be staring at her strangely as she leaned on a man no one but herself could see.
"I love you too…" I thought I heard her reply but I could not be sure.
And as the people in the park rushed to help her, call an ambulance, alert someone, all I could do was watch as my true love slipped from this world, leaving me here, alone to revel in that aloneness forever.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Love JP