Don't Hold Your Breath

The waves crashed onto the moonlit beach, the foam soaking aimlessly into the barren sand. It was all silent upon the coast, not a gull cackled or shrieked as the two figures traipsed across the wastes.

The woman stumbled after the man as he headed towards the wide, deep ocean and the vicious rip tides. Their footsteps entwined in the sand, a temporary display of their love, callously wiped away by the ocean as it maintained its rhythmic pattern.

Tears fell down her cheeks as she helplessly followed her life partner, her childhood sweetheart; as he was seemingly on autopilot towards the swirling depths. His face was blank and emotionless, apparently unaware of the woman as she desperately clambered over the soft, cold sand after him, her feet long bare.

"Please, baby! You can not do this! Not after all we've been through!" the woman wailed in desperation.
The man paused, allowing his sobbing wife to catch up. She slumped into his back and clung to his broad, yet sunken shoulders, weeping into the soft material of his shirt.
"Babe... Please..." she mumbled, "I can't do this alone..." her small voice wavered, barely audible over the crashing waves.
"I have to. I have to forfeit my place on this land." the man replied blankly, looking towards the horizon, just ahead. The end of the dry lives they had.

The woman screeched in agony and pulled her husband round to face her. She looked into his once psychotic wild eyes that she had once loved so much, and was met by an abyss. Tears flowed from her almond eyes as she stroked his stubbly cheeks. "What about your new life...? With our friends... with me... with our child...?" she whispered.
The man gazed at his beautiful, beautiful wife, tears forming in his eyes. She had been there for him and sutured his wounds when they bled. He cast his eyes back to the horizon, wondering what was to become of him and his darling wife.
Gently he held her face and kissed her softly, embracing the warmth.
As they separated, he took her hands in his and looked into her sad blue eyes with his own. "There's no reason for you to come along, but do not hold your breath for long."
The woman nodded slowly and grasped his hands tightly.

Together, they headed out towards the horizon, the cold salt water licking viciously at their legs and torsos as they made their way into the ocean.
Who knew what was to become of them, the life they could have had.