I remember still.
The figure sighed as it stood alone atop a high cliff overlooking a sparkling bay. In a hand was clutched a letter written on plain white paper. The edges fuzzy and the creases evident from being taken out and put away many, many times. But the writing on the page still looked crisp and fresh, the good penmanship of a practiced hand. The figure gazed down at the words, eyes drifting from sentence to sentence as inner thoughts paraphrased what was scribed thereon.
So much has changed since we began.
So many unknown places and unnamed faces flash across my tattered memory.
Much from my early days are now faded to me, like photos too long left in the sunlight.
I recall events, pivotal points of time, but the details within them are blurred to me and I find I have become just a simple summary of a long, long life.
As I struggle to recall details that used to seem all important to me, I wonder:
Perhaps the consequences are all that ever mattered.
I do remember the 'why' of it all, the reasons that the details told.
Why I did what I had to. Why you did what you must. My heart aches at the pain you'll endure and while I know you will come to understand I cry for your trials all the same.
But what is most clear to me still, is you.
I remember you.
As I gaze out across these clear, pure waters I remember your innocence. It veiled powers fantastic and terrible. Powers to liberate.
Or destroy…
But it was your eyes that first caught me and held me enspelled. Your beautiful eyes that would never have to know old age.
Behind them lay an incredible ability, the most powerful of your gifts, rare but innate to you. The simple ability to see through to what is best. To look at things and find the truth buried beneath. It was that quiet strength and surety that filled me with so much joy and hope.
So much love
As I stand here watching the waters slowly ebb and swell, I feel the slow beating of my heart, a gift from you.
One of many.
The breeze plays through my hair and caresses my face, softly wrapping around me like a favorite old scarf. Although clothed I feel naked before the universe now, as though seeing everything again for the first time.
The day it all ended and began again.
With everything I've lost to the distant reaches of my mind, the one thing that all people forget, I can recall clearly as the waters before me.
A time of safety and warmth when I was content with my existence. A perfect world of harmony, simple and pure.
Then one day chaos arrived, screaming into my ears while my world was torn asunder.
Ripped from me with no warning.
No remorse.
Harsh screams of pain rang in my ears, reverberating through my body. The voiced anguish had no source; the screams came from everywhere.
Screams from the once-peaceful blackness.
Agonized cries became a chorus as my own voice joined when sudden, piercing cold enveloped my body and the universe shattered around me into a million shards of brilliant, blinding light.
What had I done? What could I have done? I only wanted to remain happy and content in my existence.
Searing pain and harsh white light assailed me, colliding against my growing rage to ignite a blazing fire in my soul.
I screamed and raged into that cold white void, my confusion and fear surpassed only by my own anger.
Then, nothing.
I was floating, drifting.
Shortly comfort and warmth began to surround me again, these pleasant sensations seemed foreign in this new place of light and pain. I paused as the warmth spread to envelop me and this terrible place began to feel familiar.
With warmth came stillness and calm to quiet my troubled spirit; the screams had grown distant now, like echoes of a bad memory. As I paused to listen I found that the only screams I'd yet heard were my own.
A world began to form around me. Blurred shapes coalesced from the whiteness as painful light dimmed to be replaced with subtler hues. As my new existence sharpened into focus I saw whom I screamed so intensely with.
I saw your beautiful face, weary but smiling as you looked at me.
Stripped of reason or desire for rage my voice now stilled as I gazed at you, your power and your beauty.
You are my life, you are my goddess, you are my everything.
I saw you and the worlds behind your eyes.
And I remembered, again.
