Breathless
"Erik, I am getting dizzy," she said.
"It's all right. I am holding you."
"I don't know… I don't know how much longer I can stand."
"I will not let you fall. I promise you."
"Is it supposed to be this way? Is it supposed to take this long?"
"Usually it comes more quickly. Usually it is instantaneous."
"Then why now does it last so long? Why now does time fly like tears?"
"Because it is you, Christine, it is you."
"…"
"…"
"Erik, I see stars."
"Are they red or white?"
"White and bright and blue."
"Waxing? Waning?"
"Growing, growing, and growing."
"It happens this way."
"Tell me why again, Erik, tell me again why."
"Because it is you, Christine, because it is."
"But my heart is open, yours."
"I cannot repay you. I never can. This is more than any man could ever dream. This is divinity, this is bliss."
"This is bliss?"
"You do not feel it yet. For you it will take some time."
"It usually comes more quickly…"
"But you have never known it before."
"Never."
"You have never felt that power."
"No, never."
"You have never been made immortal."
"No, Erik, please, must it never come?"
"Don't you feel it coming? Don't you breathe it in the air? Doesn't the pain fill you with its anticipation?"
"I feel it. I feel. It is coming. I am dizzy. I cannot breathe. Do not ask me to speak again."
"But I have asked nothing of you… Not even this. This was what you have given me. This was yours to give. This was everything you ever had to give."
"…"
"I knew that this was how it would end."
"…I…"
"Hush, this is how love ends. This is how even you die. By the Punjab lasso."