(Lost) Til death do us part.

[akonken.livejournal.com]

A breath.

The shape was wrapped in stained cloth. There was hope. It might not be him. It might be a trick. It might be a mistake.

Another breath. Two.

She carefully unwrapped the face. Such pain there, wounds and anguish. It look liked him. Her breath caught. Everything stopped.

A touch.

It burned. She recoiled from it. She wanted to be alone. For that tick of the clock she wanted to sink her feet into the earth and reach toward the sky and ask why. But the moment passed. She exhaled.

Another breath.

She touched the only thing she could bear to. The body was cold, empty, unyielding. It still smelled like him a little. She took three more breaths, closing her eyes and filling her lungs with the smell of love and death. With the smell of death of love.

Another breath, and another, and another.

Time, perversely, continued. Eventually she sat up. She had a promise to keep now.

She would be okay.