Seriously though...

SERIOUSLY THOUGH...



        David stood at the edge of a chasm. The shaggy dark hair flew back from his face as the howling wind dried tears into stiff, sticky trails on his cheeks. The sky above was black, but not the black of night. It was instead the color of nothing, an all pervasive tarry emptiness, utterly devoid of light. There were no stars in that expansive vacuum, no moon, no satellites. The endless abyss below and all around David was the same. His bare toes clung to the earth as if they could anchor him, keep his body in this one spot as the world around him vanished. He closed eyes that were underlined with the blue green bruises of fear and change and took a deep, shuddering breath that wracked his whole body. Suddenly, he felt a gentle touch on his elbow and tiredly opened red-rimmed blue eyes that had surely seen better days, turning them to his companion, the only one left, the only one that had ever mattered.  She smiled easily, no sign of fear on her smooth, blank face. Her weird silver eyes glittered with their own internal light, the only light in the universe, it seemed. She cast her ethereal golden glow over him, and gently wiped a tear from his cheek.
         “Are you frightened?” She asked, still smiling. David nodded, shakily, and she cupped his face in her palm. The skin was cool, but comforting, and he leaned into it, listening to the howl of wind that had no right to be there in the first place.
         “Sweet mortal, there is nothing to fear. This is only the beginning.” Her smile widened. “You are afraid to fall, and afraid to die, but neither of these things will happen. Nothing ever dies, nothing ever falls. We only float, and move on.” She turned her beautiful eyes to the darkness that lay in wait below, and the feeling of serenity that she exuded slowly began to penetrate his terrified mind. He felt strangely at ease, almost detached, and once again he looked down to the chasm beneath his feet. His companion took his hand, her cool, smooth fingers intertwining with his rough, work calloused ones. Together they watched as the last remaining earth began to fall away from their feet. His grip on her hand tightened; she wasn’t able to take away all the fear after all.
         “You are afraid.” She nodded to herself, long silvery hair and dress billowing back, and turned to him again. “I can make you not afraid.’
         “How?” David’s voice was strained, tremulous. He had never imagined that things would someday come to this. She turned her luminous eyes on him, and they seemed to grow until he was lost in the light of them, the light of a long forgotten moon, where he had lain in the grass, counting fireflies and eating ice cream.
         “You have loved me from the beginning. I know this. I have felt your love every day. You are a fragile creature, and you denied yourself that love because you thought I was far too special to return it, but I have. I have brought you alone to this, the end of all things, to be spared the fear that all others had to face on their own. Kiss these lips that you have longed to kiss, and you will know no fear.” Those eyes, pulling him in…he wanted nothing more than to do as she told him. He leaned forward, forgetting everything else, the howling abyss that would soon consume all he had ever known and loved, the howling wind ripping at his hair and clothes, and the lives of billions of people that were gone like a dream. All that remained was her. Her smooth pink lips gently parted, and she threw her strong arms around him. David felt all the love she had to give flowing into his soul as he gripped her.
         “Surrender to gravity” she whispered, “and the unknown.” Their lips met. Suddenly all the pain and fear was gone, and there was only light and love as he kissed her the way he had wanted to a hundred thousand times before. He felt the ground beneath his feet give way, and they were falling, but it didn’t bother him now. They weren’t really falling anyway, only floating, as she said. David heard and felt the wind rushing around him, but it was a detached sort of feeling, like being in a cave behind a waterfall. He surrendered to gravity and the unknown, and in the arms of his beloved, he finally understood.