The characters belong to Eoin Colfer. With thanks to Lli, Julienne and Academician for their invaluable help.


A Valediction

And the clock's ticking numbered the seconds passing too fleetingly for him, for her: a counterpoint to each laboured breath struggling into existence, more quickly escaping, more slowly returning. His chest rising too imperceptibly for either's ease, his failing heartbeat finding echo in her falling tears. Handlocked together as the seam slowly frayed, the strands parting one by one; her life unravelling as his was ending. Her whole existence was centred here, with no awareness beyond the thread of air that only she could catch and the pulse that ebbed under her fingers; leaving her adrift among the empty years.