Whispers
Title: Whispers
Pairing: none
Rating: G
Warnings: purgatory, other POV
Word Count: 600
Summary: There has never been such a monster in a place where monsters dwell.
The whispers come first. There’s something creeping through the dark.
At first I think it’s a joke. I don’t speak, I don’t ask, I have no mouth here, none that matters anyway. This is not a place of language and I have been here for so long, that I don’t remember how. But we are the things that creep through the dark. I am what nightmares are made of. This is a place hell fears. So I shrug it off.
Still, I listen to the whispers. There’s something creeping through the dark. I hear awe and fear, thick, oozing. Fear in a place where fear was created. Awe from those who respect neither death nor God. It pulses under the dead sky.
I don’t find it. It finds me. Burrowed deep in my hiding place I see it pass and I think, it’s a man. Just a man. I would chuckle if I could remember how.
I think, I will destroy him. I will string him up on the highest point; I will spill his blood on the unholy ground, I will bathe in its warmth.
Except he’s not just a man. He’s a vessel for those of the highest order. A perfectly formed structure of flesh and bone and muscle. Fast, sleek, a predator among predators. So I watch, I slither through the darkness, I wait. And I see.
Bleeding wounds on skin like cream. Long limbs radiating life. Simple grace in every step, every move, a beautiful dance of death. When his body curves into the fight, I breathe. I breathe in a place where breathing doesn’t matter. I feel in a place where nothing feels. I’m alive in a valley of death.
At night, I watch his face illuminated by fire. I see eyelashes sweeping over hollow cheeks. I hear his voice, deep and gritty, a voice of a king. I hear the sounds of nations falling to their knees, Heaven splitting open and angels falling to the earth. I watch his mouth move, his lips curve, and I shiver in a place that has seen no cold, no warmth. My mouth forms the words he says just so I can taste them. And in the flames I see the color of his eyes and I remember the world above. The scent of earth, the sweet summer rains on my face. The deep, deep blue of the heavens, and fields of green, and the monochrome yellows of sunflowers turning their faces to the sky. I remember that once I had a beating heart. I remember that once my throat formed words. I remember that once I hated, and long before that, I loved.
I shiver in the dark, on my knees, and I watch. And I realize I love again.
When he smiles I am lost. Then he laughs and I remember what it is to cry. And I step out of the darkness, just so I can see him. I want look into his eyes, I want to meet them under the dead sky. So I can see his body turn towards mine, I can see all that grace focused just on me, so I can hear his heart beat faster. I pretend we’re lovers meeting in hell, bonded together through eternity. I pretend his hand will touch my shoulder and I will feel its heat warming my bones.
I have not felt warmth in so long.
And as the cold blade of his steel slides into my chest, I have no regrets. Except for maybe one.
I wish he had smiled as he killed me.
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